External Group Music Video Analysis

Tyler: We The Wild - You Lost My MindElliot:

Megan:

The starting scene to this video is a shot of a record, which is placed on to a record player by the male singer of the band. This presents an indie type theme to the video, but also views it in an old-fashioned and original sense. This then contrasts against the first signs of editing on the video, which is small lines of white, which links with the beat of the song, but also starts when the record starts to play. This shows that the video is more modern, although the look of the video is actually old fashioned. The same illustration is shown throughout the whole of this video, and this small piece of animation has links with the music which is played. These illustrations come up on the record as if this is what is playing the beat or scratching along the disk to make the music, bringing the convention that this is a music video. Although this is the only type of evidence that bring the music elements to the video, and is only shown a few times, therefore this means that they have no live videoing, as there is no one playing any other instruments. At the beginning there are smaller illustrations across the videos, then there gradually becomes more as the song creates more beat, but also as the word are sung, few of these words become displayed on the screen. Throughout the whole of this video, the illustrations almost tell the story to the song, as the singer will sing something, which then links to cut of the man beside him, who most of the time has illustration around him or is acting out the words. Fast cutting shots are done of the male singer, which means that his movements are fast and obscene, then linking in with the lyrics of the song ‘You Lost My Mind’. Therefore the shots show that he is losing his mind, as they are movements which a usual person would not make. The video produces more of a female gaze on to the two males, as there are no females used within the video and they are the most illustrated in the room, as the rest of the room is plain. Although the video has some small interesting factors, there are also some parts of the video which make it boring, due to the fact that there is small amount of movement and colour, which makes the video less interesting to look at. There is also the missing essence of communication or involving people that aren't just the band, to create more of an image, as there is only little female gaze. Giving the band live shooting would also create interesting shots and ways of looking at the band instead of them being slightly plain.

We The Wild - You Lost My Mind

This music video by the kooks was released in August 2014 and was produced by Able&Baker. The video was directed by Ivana Bobic. The music video highlights the tongue-in-cheek nature of the songs lyrics. In the music video voyeurism, looking and the male gaze plays a big part as all of the backing members are females that are all dressed identically this plays on the forgetting element of the song, the dancers also directly look into the camera. all the band members are dressed the same and are playing a live rendition of the song in the music video. when speaking about the dancers in the music video and their routine Ivana Bobic stated that: "I wanted the dancers to multiply into the band performance as the track progresses, they’re like space-babes with an Alexander Wang twist, appearing from the dark.

The dance builds and builds to the big middle eight drums where the whole spinning circus accelerates to a giant zoetrope and the dancers turn into one. It's a bit of a visual pun on the 'forgetting’”.

This links into the techniques of Andrew Goodwin with the notion of matching the lyrics with the visuals and using voyeurism in music videos as well as the notion of looking. This video is filmed in long takes as the camera is on a track spinning around the band who are placed in the center of the frame. By positioning the band in the center of the frame the band have been made the most important aspect of the video. This music video revolves around a live performance from the band and it features lots of close ups of the band playing their instruments. this makes the female dancers in the music video seem less important than the members of the band.

The Kooks - Forgive & Forget

Released on the 31st of August 2014, Sam Smiths music video was produced by Jimmy Napes and Steve Fitzmaurice. Smith co-wrote the track with James Napier. Its genre is classed as a mixture of three: Pop, R&B and Soul. The full length of the music video is 3:59. It stars ex Glee star Dianna Agron and actor Chris Messina who stars in the comedy TV series ‘The Mindy Project’. The two actors play a married couple who live in a suburban house with the ‘perfect’ lifestyle. However the video shows the husbands indiscretions and how his wife (Argon) finds out and how she deals with it. In the music video it shows her having a break down and getting drunk and burning his clothes, in the end of the video she welcomes him back and acts like she knows nothing. The purpose of this music video is to entertain the audience and be enjoyable so that they want to watch it more than once. It is also used to advertise the artist’s music. It is used as a tool of promotion and is used to sell the artists in more than one format. A music video can go viral instantly therefore is the best format to promote a band or artist. A lyric video would have been released before the actual music video would have been, as well as the actual single being released and promoted via radio channels. This would have peaked the interest of his fans as they would have had their own interpretation of the song and its meaning and then had their own ideas of what the music video would look like. Sam Smith’s video has a timeless quality to it but in a modern setting. He filmed it in LA, but kept the costumes and filming techniques to a simplistic level which resulted in it having a classic feel to it. The costumes he has his actors in have a very simplistic feel to them helping create the setting of the music video. In the music video the lighting changes depending on the ‘setting’ in the video. Whilst in the house and streets (with the ‘wife’) it uses light coloring but is quite harsh at times, it also has shadowing. This could indicate the trouble that is under the surface. In contrast the bar scenes use dark lighting which shows the bar as ‘dark and dingy’ this is done to show the contrast of wrong and right. This music video uses both ‘as live’ playing but also is interpretive of the lyrics. The artist Sam Smith uses his lyrics to tell the story of cheating; in the video he uses well-known actors to play the couple. It is interpretive as it links to the lyrics. However the listeners/watchers can relate to the music track behind the video as it is very relatable. Sam Smiths music is very soulful. The speed in which the music video is filmed was a slow speed; however on certain points of the video it gains speed to show an important moment. The video takes a very literal approach instead of having just live playing it uses a mixture of images to create a story but still stars Sam Smith. He is ‘as live’ playing in the bar. Smith may not be the main focus as he is in his other videos this sis because he usually writes about his own experience but this time he wrote about something a friend went through. This video links to Andrew Goodwin's idea of visuals linking to lyrics. This video does this by taking the lyrics literally. The song is about finding out someone has cheated. In Sam Smith’s video he shows the reaction that might have taken place but also links the story of the video to the lyrics. This music video uses Goodwin’s idea of illustration to create meaning for the audience by using a series of images. Illustration is the most common way to create meaning and is used the most. Repeatability/amplifying is also used to manipulate the audience to remember the music video. In the video the performance aspect consists of the artist Sam Smith playing in the bar. It is ‘as-live’ as he appears to be singing live in a bar. It uses close ups of the artists, but also of the actors playing the characters in the story. This links to Goodwin’s idea of looking. This follows the conventions of music videos as in most the artist is seen most of the time or is always the main focus of the video.

Sam Smith – I’m Not The Only One