DS: Music video deconstruction

1. Flourescent Adolescent - Arctic Monkeys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma9I9VBKPiw

Genre - The Arctic monkeys are widely known as an indie rock band. The forms and conventions which makes this apparent in the music video for Flourescent Adolesecent is the concept of rebellion in the form of violence as they fight with clowns. The location is a generic characterstic of such a genre, with gloomy urban areas with large concrete buildings, typically council estates. Slow motion shots are also common as indie rock tracks tend to convey meanings and have a storyline, and this feature allows the audience to fully capture and take in the meanings.
Narrative - The music video according to Goodwin can be seen as amplified as the concept of old friends becoming enemies, is portrayed bizarrely but the concept can still be seen. The idea is not precisely outlined in the music video, but instead is adapted through a slightly changed visual, to not only offer a illustration of the circumstance but then to offer a more entertaining alternative, which conforms to The Arctic Monkey's indie genre. This video is particulary postmodern as it challenges certain stereotypes and norms, such as the clowns being portrayed as agressive. They take certain ideas, challenge them, and put them all into one.



2. Naive - The Kooks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkaMiaRLgvY

Media Language - The band are portrayed as a relatively youthful and almost appear as univeristy students, due to their young appearance and their presence in a nightclub. The purpose of the video is to illustrate the narrative in the song, which can possbily be unclear with just the lyrics, however the music video allows us to see that the lead singer is suggesting the girl that he likes, mistreats him and doesn't realise what he does for her, and also has flings with other boys. This can be represented through the editing, where the footage of the girl watching over the lead singer while he sleeps looking uncertain is juxtaposed to the footage of her mistreating him and spiralling out of control. The CU tracking shots that are used to follow the lead singer also allow us to see the uncertainty and anxiety in his facial expression, as at this time we're aware the girl is away with another man as he looks for her. Mise-en-scene is also used to help portray this message, as we see a MS of the lead singer holding the girls hair for her as she vomits, only for her then to abandon him once more and try it on with another person.

Representation - This band's stars representation is easy to see as he is given prevelance in the music video. His shaggy long hair conforms to his genre of music. He is represented as being sensitive and caring, as the song is about his love and heartbreak from the girl who has betrayed him. His overall star image is a young sensitive indie man. The ideological discourse in this music video is one that challenges generic stereotypes. In most case, it is the man who is unfaithful towards the woman; who then becomes upset over. However it is the opposite in this video as one can clearly see. The male gender is represented as being being wounded and immasculated, whereas the female is represented as being dominant and ruthless. This is a progressive ideology, as it is away from the norm, and a new emerging trend in society. Although appearing in their early twenties or late teens, the video represents them as being older through the issues discussed, however certain mise-en-scene such as location e.g. the messy bedroom portrays them as being young, giving the balance to represent them as young adults.



3. The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lyu1KKwC74

Institution - The Verve had signed with a number of different record labels such as EMI, Hut, Virgin, Parlophone, Vernon Yard. Much of the production value of this band is in the quality of the music and more specifically the nationally recognisable voice of Richard Ashcroft, which can be seen as the band's USP as without the star, the band's sales would drastically decline. Therefore, little emphasis would be placed on the music video in terms of the band's perspective so it's most likely the video was for the most part composed by the record label as artists such as this place much more emphasis on the actual sound of music and rely on that to promote and sell their music.

Audience - Over the years this song has been widely recognised as a British classic, and to some is past it's days of people actually selecting to listen to it. This is due to the song's popularity on the release, it was frequently used in other media films such as films and TV programmes, leading to possible overplaying and people starting to relate the song to a certain film or programme, instead of linking it directly to the artist. Therefore, I feel these days it has more of an ambient viewing, whereas in that past shortly after it's release I certainly see it as having focused viewing.