1.1 Video Analysis

To generate ideas and deepen my understanding of music videos i had to analysis three music videos of my own choice.

Artist: Queens of the Stone Age
Song: Go with the flow
Genre: Rock/ Heavy Rock

Narrative Structure: Art

The video is heavily stylised, with a black and red colour style and some white outlines to give it a very striking visual style, which is why the video is considered an art one. We are welcomed in the opening scene with this deserted desert road, and the sound of crickets to empathise this bleakness. This is then interrupted by the start of the music and a pick-up truck crashing through the fence from the left hand side, which introduces us to the band the audience in an exciting way. There are then a few quick camera cuts to keep up with the sudden change in pace, the camera then focuses in on the side of the pick-up truck and we see the drummer playing in the driver seat and the rest of the band playing stud up in the back of the truck. We then get a long shot of the band to empathise the speed of the pick-up truck and it also mirrors the tempo of the song. We then get a shot of the driver change gear and, then the camera goes to a close up of the speed gage to again remind us again of the speed. We then get an action that goes with a lyric as the front man throws a can out of the truck “She said I throw myself, away”.
When the songs tempo slows down for a short period all we can hear are the drums and base, this change in tempo is reflected in the video, with the use of a slow motion down effect. There are a lot of innuendos used throughout the video, which hints towards sexual urges. They first start out subtle but towards the end of the video they become a lot more blatant. When we first see the other car we are zoomed into to see the reaction of the driver, we then have a series of quick camera shots at different angles to show the car burning out then launching in the direction of the pick-up truck. The camera tracks the new car from the front view, then we get a camera shot of the pickup truck form the other direction from the front to show that both cars are racing towards each other. This is done to put the audience on the edge, wondering what is going to happen. Both cars crash into each other at the climax of the song, and instead of an explosion. We get an explosion of passion. This is shown by the flamboyant flourishes that appear after the crash, and the sperm like creatures that speed away form the crash and flurry around. So the actual climax of the song is used as a symbol of a sexual climax. Overall this video works really well as being a completely original video and very visually striking.


Artist: Linkin Park
Song: Numb
Genre: Rock/ Heavy Rock

Narrative Structure: Narrative/ Performance

The first thing we see is a mid shot of the main character stood against a wall and a landscape of a city behind her. She then looks around and as she does this the camera shot changes to a long shot of the entire city, it then quickly zooms into a church which has relevance to the song at the end. The camera then changes back to the original mid shot of the main character, but this time she is looking down and depressed. After this we switch to the performers, we first get a bird’s eye view of the turn tables and when the guitars kick in the camera zooms and gives a longshot of the room so we can see all the performers. We then get several quick shots of individual performers playing, this is until the tempo slows down again and then we get a close up of the front man. Straight after this we are thrown into a classroom and are looking forwards towards the teacher. We then get a close up of the main character drawing, we then get a quick shot of the frontman singing, before going back to the the classroom and the teacher telling off the main character for drawing. Throughout the song there are constant switches between the main character and performers used to create a bond between the character and performers. A key effect that is used throughout the song is the one that makes it look like everyone around the main character are just blurs and that the main character is just stood or sat still, this effect relates directly to the meaning behind the song, which is being unable to feel any empathy or emotions, or anyone feeling any sympathy or care for them. This effect does work really well in putting this across because it makes u fell exactly how the main character fells, which is alone and unloved “I’ve become so numb, I can’t feel you there”. But we see throughout the video that the only thing keeping them going is there love for art, even though there parents disagree they still do it so that they can have something worth living for “Tired of being what you want me to be” . The narrative follows a set path unlike most narrative music videos that use a broken plot. At the climax of the song we see the main character violently flicking paint over the camera to try and release all off there anger out. The video finishes with the main character running into the church where the performers where playing, and there equipment is still there but they are not there anymore, the reason the director has probably done this is to show that there was sort of a bond between the main character and the band. The reason behind her running into the church could be that she was looking for salvation.


Artist: Green Day
Song: American Idiot
Genre: Rock/ Alternative Rock

Narrative Structure: Performance

The first thing we see is a long shot of the front man playing in front of an American flag which colours have been changed to green, in the foreground there are what looks like old fashioned TV cameras. We then cut to a close up of one of the screens on the old cameras which has the albums graphic shown and animated on it, this then changes to live footage of the frontman playing, the camera then zooms out from the screen and changes to a few quick close ups of the front man’s face. Before giving us a low angle shot of him playing guitar. After this we get a longshot of the entire band standing in front of the green American flag the camera then slowly moves towards them. The entire opening of this song is very highly charged because of the tempo of the song form the beginning. This energy begins to level out when the song gets going. To make the performance more interesting and the illusion of motion the camera Is high crane angled to look down towards the performers and pans around them the create this sense of movement. There are also effects used on the bassist and drummer to make the video more dynamic, the drummer has a slow motion effect while at the same time the bassist has been drastically sped up, this is within the same piece of footage and would take a lot of editing but the overall effect does work to a high level of degree. The green American flag does play more in the video than just being a backdrop, in the middle of the video waster is ran down it to release the paint that was on it onto the performers. The two sets of amplifiers shortly after when the guitar solo is initiated pours out a tremendous amount of green paint that then floods the performance area and covers the performers in green paint. The reason why the paint is green relates to the name of the band, and for this being one of there first big music videos it works well. Towards the end of the song there is a series of camera shots that are in the dark but a strobe light shows the performers covered in green paint, and doing things like saluting for there country which adds a lot of irony because of the meaning behind the song. The meaning is basically, down with the government. The end shot is of the performers abandoning there equipment and leaving in separate directions, which is almost like they have done something wrong against the law.