MGMT- Kids

The final music video I’m analyzing is Kids by MGMT which involves a child being followed by monsters while his ‘glamorous’ mum

doesn’t notice or seem to care.

Relationship between the lyrics and video

Firstly ‘there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals’ this is expressed in many ways, one for example would be where they sing “making mama so proud, but your voice is too loud” and at the same time the mother puts the child down when he’s crying because she's too busy looking at her phone, the child then goes off and experiences more threatening monsters and see’s the band playing. Also the use of the word “haunted” adds to the constant nightmare this child is part of.

Another way this is shown is through the lyrics “no time to think of consequences” which applies to both the child and mother as he runs off the see the monsters and she lets him, unknowingly.

Relationship between music and the visualsand style iconography

Secondly, there is a relationship between the music and the visuals, for example as the mother is walking down the street the base matches her footsteps which amplifies the beat and the song altogether.

There’s also a link between MGMT’s style and videos. This would come under ‘the artist may develop their own start iconography, in and out of their videos, which overtime becomes part of their star image’ this is present throughout the whole video and others. MGMT by now are known as weird and this is because fans watch their videos and listen to their music. They usually incorporate completely irrelevant objects and events into their videos which, although odd, makes it more interesting and amusing. For example, in the Kids video after the child is being chased by monsters in the car, he is transformed into a cartoon where other images flow from him and onto completely different things. Animations are also used to create a contrast between reality and fantasy.

Intertextual References

Although its not official, another one of Goodwin's characteristics which takes place in Kids is ‘there are likely to be intertextual references, wither to other music groups or to films and TV texts’ this is shown by the big similarities between this music video and the 1986 Jim Henson film, Labyrinth. This is shown in a variety ways which are shown below: