Music Video AnalysisRazorlight: America

Razorlight are a British indierock band formed in 2002. The band was started by lead singer and former solo accoustic singer Johnny Borrell. The music video for ‘America’ was released in 2006, and had reached number 1 in the charts when released in 2006.Razorlight are signed by Mercury Records/Vertigo Record which are part of Universal Music group. Mercury Records operates as a standalone company in the UK and as a pat of the 'The Island Def Jam Music Group' in the US.

● Razorlight are classified under the'indierock' genre. Their song 'America' was part of their self-titled album 'Razorlight'. It was released as their second single from that album in October 2006. It became the band first number 1 single in the UK. It was the UK's seventeenth best selling single of the year, and had reached the top 20 in 8 other countries, including Australia and New Zealand.

● The song is directed at American Culture, which links in to the music video as it is recorded whilst the band are on tour in America.

Genre Characteristics● There are many general characteristic which fall into this genre

of music. The indie genre tend to have a high performance based element within their music videos.

- Indierock derived from 'independent', which represented the small and relatively low-budget labels where there is a big emphasis on the do-it-yourself mentality by the bands. The influences and styles of the artists and bands have been extremely diverse, including punk, rock and country.

Relationship Between Lyrics and Visuals. (Either illustrative, amplifying and contradicting)

● The music video for 'America' has connotations to America itself, as the video is shot in America while the band are on tour.

- Within the music video there is not a lot of correlation between the lyrics and the visuals. Therefore the lyrics and visuals are mostly contradicting.

- The music video has many connotations to the 'indierock' genre. As the video is highly performance based with shots of the band, the individual members, the setting and instruments.

- Although there is not a lot of correlation between the lyrics and the music, there are some cuts in between the shots of the band to some illustrative shots. - The lyrics 'I got the movie scriptBut I don't know what it meant' have connotations to the shot which appears on screen of a movie script which seems to be left/misunderstood.

- Another amplified shot within the music video, is when the lyrics 'there's trouble in America' are heard and images which are reflected onto a screen from a projector appear. The images are of snapshots of America, which connotes the struggle in America, and the mundane colours of the image also represent the ‘trouble’ which is going on.

The last image on screen at the end of the video is of a damaged car, parked in the middle of the studio which the band are performing, in front of a projector screen where the images of ‘America’ are being shown. This is amplified, due to the fact the lyrics have now stopped and it is only the music playing at the end of the song. However this image of the destruction of the car, could represent the damaged to ‘America’ in which the band are singing about.

Demands of the Record LabelGoodwin’s theory highlights the fact that in order to ‘meet the demands of the record label close up shots are needed to introduce the band to the audience’. In Razorlight’s ‘America’ the first shot of the lead singer is a close up. This establishes who he is to the audience and what role he plays within the band. Then the drummer of the band is introduced by a medium close up. However this is strategically done as the image of him is shown as the drums start within the music, so the audience know clearly that he is the drummer.Also the due to the individuality of the band they must meet the demands for them to take the generic ‘indie’ style, with casual clothing, and long ‘messy’ hair.

There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc.) and particularly voyeuristic (sexual) treatment of the female body.

There is no reference to voyeuristic treatment of the female body within this music video. Firstly it does not fit in with the narrative of the video and also the indie boybands have a big percentage of girls within their fanbase, so by using voyeuristic images this could discourage the girls within their fanbase from watching the video. However there is a reference to notion of looking. This is seen within the image of the shot of the band being shown on a screen within the screen.