What Does "White Girl" Say About Youth, Identity, Modernist And Post-Modernist Concepts Of Identity?

What Does "White Girl" Say About Youth, Identity, Modernist And Post-Modernist Concepts Of Identity?

In 'White Girl'  it tells the story of a girl who moves to Bradford and takes on the identity of the Muslim culture surrounding her. Anthony Giddens’ theory suggests that the identity is self made, rather than inherited by family or natural surroundings. In White Girl, Leah has created her own identity by using post-modernist concepts of identity by trying on an identity to see if it works for her. She originated from a catholic background with a fragmented family, and when she moved, she shifted her identity to fit in with the Muslim culture, as she believes this lifestyle choice safer for her, and can help her to separate herself form her complex family. Her change of identity relates to Michel Maffesoli's theory that identity is constantly changing and our identity is formed through consumption and our surroundings.

In the TV drama, Leah's family are modernist and believe that her identity should be inherited from the rest of her family, so when Leah ties the scarf around her head, her parents do not agree with her choice to change identity. Leah's reflexive identity is changing, however according to Mikhail Baklin's theory, he would suggest that someone's identity is never finalised, therefore it is forever changing as she is constructing a post modernist lifestyle.

Analysis of 3 album covers

Ellie Goulding's Album is called 'Bright Lights' and the CD cover reflects upon this title by adding brightness around Ellie's face and little sparks of light included around the cover. The brightness kind of creates a fairytale atmosphere, which starts to portray Ellie as an innocent, angel type figure. Also, her white clothing helps to add to this heavenly affect. The title and her name are also using a lighted golden affect to relate to the title of the album and one of her songs on the album called 'Lights'. The cover look very vibrant and slightly magical, and the sparkles almost remind me of Christmas. This could be due to the fact that the release date was end of November in 2010. Therefore, this may have been an advertisement idea to improve sales just before Christmas. The background behind Ellie Goulding is slightly blurred which helps to put all the focus onto the artist herself and nothing else. The photograph is taken at a fairly low angle, which puts her into a superior position, so the audience are forced to look up to her as an idol. She is also clearly the centre of attention because her face and her name are positioned in the middle of the album cover. Ellie Goulding's genre of music is indie-pop. The CD covers helps to relate to the pop genre because of the bright lights which adds excitement and dance to the atmosphere. Also, the way Ellie dresses relates to the indie style and this is partly shown through the use of this cover as we can see her hairstyle and fashionable top.

This Album cover is from a band named Blood Red Shoes. The CD is called 'Box of Secrets'. The picture in the centre of the cover is of a black box wrapped up as a present. This box represents the 'Box of Secrets' and the fact that it is wrapped up adds to the secrecy and mystery. The blood that is seeping out of the bottom and floating upwards from the bow on the top relates to the band name 'Blood Red Shoes'. The blood and the colour red also help create the genre of rock. It adds a wild and dangerous affect and helps to appeal to the audience of people who like to listen to rock. The yellow/gold background behind the box contrasts the the dark, bold colours which therefore helps the present box to stand out and look more menacing and exciting.

This album cover by Futures includes the landscape of a field surrounded by a forest and band name is presented in big bold white writing in the top centre of the cover right where the forest begins. The girl who is running towards the trees, also looks as if she is running towards the word 'Futures' which could suggest that she is escaping from something and is about to become free and start a new fresh future ahead of her. This could also relate to the name of the album 'The holiday' which is position in small writing at the bottom of the cover, it may suggest a journey that she is going on. This will relate to the target audience who are creating a journey through the music they are listening to because the Futures are a slightly new and different genre of music with a mix between rock and indie. In comparison to the other album covers, this is an actual photograph from a purely natural setting, which adds to the realism of their music and the sort of people who listen to it will be those who are dedicated to their music and enjoy going to festivals and camping.

When I Was A Youngster - Rizzle Kicks

Rizzle Kicks create a pop/hip-hop type genre. Although the genre isn't the same as the genre of music I am using in my own project, the music video 'When I Was A Youngster' uses many methods and techniques that will be useful to me when shooting and editing my video. The genre of the music is portrayed through the movement of the camera. The genre of the music is portrayed through the movement of the camera. The movement is kept constant and quite bouncy, which reflects upon the beat of the music.

Also, the mise en scene plays quite an important part to the type of music in the video. The shots are all very colourful which adds to the genre of pop, and creates a happy and wild atmosphere. One of the scenes is shot in a playground which represents “youngsters”. The video also often cuts to shots of the band playing on a play station, or one of them holding up a teddy in front of their face which also adds to the theme of the video.

The camera is almost constantly moving. It uses tracking and panning shots to follow the two members of the band. This is one of the methods that I will include in my own video. I would like to film the band members using many tracking shots to keep the pace of the camera moving with the music. At the time 2:16 onwards, the camera is hand-held, which creates a shaky effect while tracking the characters in the shot. The filming is also at a low angle at this point. This represents childhood because it is as if the viewer is watching through the eyes of an infant. Also, the shaking of the camera could suggest a sense of play, which adds to the theme of youth in the video.

One aspect of Goodwin's music video theory was how the lyrics of the track relate to the visuals in the music video. This method has been used throughout Rizzle Kick's videos by the use of camera angles, and also costumes. Towards the beginning one of the video, the singer is dressed in an astronaut's outfit which represents something that a child might like to be when they are older. Then immediatley after there is a shot of the other singer dressed as a fireman, which is also a typical idol that boys could look up to as youngsters.

These shots and costuming relates directly to the title of the song "When I Was A Younster" which is also repeated in the lyrics throughout the music track. In addition to this, at the beginning of the vide the lyrics are "I never thought today, I'd be what I am". This suggests that the song itself relates to The Rizzle Kicks who have recently become successful, and the close up shots of their faces help the viewers to put theirselves into the band's position. It is as if they are telling us a story of their life through the music. The panning and tracking of the camera also helps to do this as it is constantly following theire every movement. It represents them as the main characters and focuses on them and only them.

The storyline of this music video is of the band reminiscing over their childhood, and throughout the video they are almost re-living the these moments. It gives the viewers an insight to their lifestyle through the use of shots including things they like to do in their everyday life.

The target audience for this music video would be from the ages of 14-25. This age group can relate to the lyrics of the song because they may be at the point in their livesas students when they are realising that they are not going to achieve the aspirations they once had when they were children. The video includes performing, therefore lives up to the audience's expectations of a typical music video. The audience are at a similar age to the Rizzle Kicks, which means they may find it easier to connect to the video itself due to similar likes and dislikes, because the audience are likely to be of the same style/tribe to the Rizzle Kicks. This would include people who listen to pop/hip-hop music, and who wear colourful  T-shirts, caps and tight trousers or jeans.

Musical Profile

What Music festivals would are target audience go to?

On the homepage of the Latitude festival, the three main colours are green, blue and yellow. These colours create a fresh feeling and represent the colours of the environment, which shows that the festival is a nature-loving festival. The page includes a border of drawn plants, which creates a very arty and creative effect and relates back to the hippy era of 1960s. This style has become a modern theme, as festivals have bought it back by creating a sense of peace and innocence. The creativity on the homepage reflects the art, literature, poetry etc. of what the festival includes other than music.

It also represents a fairground; the writing in a wavy font relates to a rollercoaster and the pictures of stripy colourful tents lower down the page could also be a connotations of a fairground or circus. In addition the word "Latitude" is presented in a font with flicks and squiggles which is an ideology of a fairytale. The flowers and butterflies also add to this fairytale theme.

The target audience of this festival is aimed at families with young children aswell as music lovers. They offer entertainment for children, and bright, cartoon, fairytale effect of the homepage could represent the "fun" side of the festival that the younger children will appreciate. The statement saying "it's more than just a music festival" suggests that there are all types of fun activities for all ages. I think the festival is mostly aimed at young adults between the age of 16-28. This is because the logos of Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites are shown at the top right of the page and the majority of people who use these websites are young adults. The main group of young adults in which the festival is aimed at is "indie scenesters". The type of people who general listen to the indie/rock genre of music. I think it is aimed at the creative teenagers and those who dress in skinny jeans and lots of jewellary. The homepage gives out the impression that it is a big festival, but perhaps a little less mainstream than others such as Reading, or Glastonbury. Therefore, it would appeal to a fewer mainstreamers and a more altnernative audience.

What other artists would our target audience listen to?

What artists would our target audience listen to

Overview Profile

Ellie Goulding - 'Your Song'

The genre of Ellie Goulding’s music video ‘Your Song’ is indie/pop. The clothing of Ellie Goulding and her friends shown in the video represent this genre by their use of style. Her boots, jeans and hairstyle are connotations of the indie genre as this is what people who listen to this music would typically like to wear. The shots of the kitten and the birds help to portray a sense of life, and add joy to the music by creating the genre itself.

The mise en scene in the video helps to add to the genre, in particular the piano. This ensures that the musical aspect is kept important in the video. The locations contain mostly ambient, bright and sunny shots, which creates a realistic, peaceful setting. I think this lighting also adds a bit of innocence to the video, which could represent joy and freedom. The majority of the music video only includes Ellie Goulding herself as the main character. This helps to tell a sort of life story. There are other characters involved, however we do not get close up focused shots of their faces. This could suggest that they are not the main focus of attention but they are important people to Ellie herself, as we are brought into her own little journey of her life.

The camera shots in this music video include a lot of close ups/extreme close ups of Ellie’s face. This helps the audience to connect with her and see everything from her point of view. We also our put into her shoes as the there is a use of a tracking shot when she is running across the field. This shot could suggest a sense of freedom and peace, and therefore the video starts to become personal to Ellie Goulding herself. In some parts the camera looks as if it is being handheld which creates a shaky effect. This creates a sense of realism, because the camera follows Ellie which could put us in the position of one of her friends/relatives. It makes the audience feel as if they are in the video with her. The quick shots at the beginning and throughout the majority of the video create a fast moving pace which helps to keep the audience engaged at all times. The fast editing between these shots also fits to the music, therefore keeps the sound and visuals connected throughout the whole music video.

The narrative of this music video could be seen as ‘Ellie Goulding: behind the scenes’. It lets the audience in to part of her life that has simple been captured on camera and been added into a music video. There is a slight storyline in the video, as we see Ellie travelling on a train, then we see her in locations such as fields, woods and streets and buildings suggesting that she is visiting her friends, or perhaps places from her childhood. There are shots of her shoes towards the beginning and the end which creates a circular storyline, as it repeats a similar shot at the end. The video also includes some of Goodwin's theory. For example, the amount of close ups, and the performance aspect. It doesn't contain many shots of Ellie Goulding performance but we do see a few shots of the recording of her singing, which is a typical music video convention.

The target audience is aimed at youths between the ages 16-28. The fact that it is an Elton John cover suggests that the video is aimed at a younger audience compared to Elton John fans who are mostly a much older audience. The target audience would listen to other indie/pop music and are probably the type of people who are always up to date with new music. The clothes they wear will include similar clothing that is shown in the video such as skinny jeans, lots of accessories and colourful jumpers/t-shirts. This will help them to relate to the video. They will also be able to connect well to the music and the video because they will may have similar lifestyles.

Storyboards

UK Tribes

UK Tribes started in 2005 and when Channel 4 ran a project called TV Glue. A small part of this project focused on youth culture and different social tribes which are based on fashion, the music they listen to, sport, technology, their aspirations etc. This became a big hit, and so UK Tribes was born to explore the honesty of youths by being described by youths themselves.

UK Tribes gathered their information through qualitative techniques which included: desk research, online forums, depth Interviews, expert interviews with marketers, media, event promoters, DJs, fanzine editors etc. video and picture diaries, SMS-derived insight, a UK network of young people providing regular trend reports. They also used quantitative techniques by creating an online survey called Find Your Tribes. It allowed the young people to have their identity defined, and this allowed Channel 4 to gather data on youths preferences across over 250 types of media and brands. Also on their lifestyles and attitudes.

Indie scensters[1]

The information produced on UK Tribe's website, has become very useful to many marketers. When promoting for example a band, aiming the advertisements at the correct target audience is very important. Marketers may find this website helpful because it helps to explain exactly what ype of things would appeal to a certain style or group. Things such as dress codes, colours, music, hairstyles, media consumption, idols can be used in advertisements to attract the right audience. Also, TV shows or websites could even find UK Tribes' information useful. Social networks such as Facebook is where the majority of youths will view advertisements and UK Tribes is specifically a description of young people's tribes and groups. Therefore, it is important that Facebook knows exactly how to target each individual tribe in the correct way, usuing many different advertisements at once. Marketers of festivals are mainly introducing music to young people, and because UK Tribes largely includes the idea of music in its website then it will be very useful.

Shot list

Performance Shoot

- Medium shot of the band walking up the stairs
- Extreme close up of faces
- Long/group shot of the whole band playing
- Extreme close up of instruments
- Pan of band
- Tracking shot of main singer walking
- Pan from guitar to face
- Low angle of balcony
- Low angle of band walking up stairs
- High angle shot of the band walking down the stairs
- Low medium shot of drummer's foot on the base drum
- Close up of hands on instruments (drums and guitars)
- High-ish angle shot of drummer
- Tracking shot of feet walking across the floor
- Low angle shot of band standing on balcony
- Wide shot of band member walking infront of the house
- Behind tracking shot of band carrying equipment walking towards the house
- Wide shot of the band setting up the drums
- Still medium shot of singer and bass player sitting on floor by the window
- Medium shot of band members sitting on the window sill by the drums
- High angle close up shot of singer 
- Low-ish extreme close up of hand on guitar
- Eye level shot of singer, singing against blank wall
- High angle shot of the band sitting on the stairs talking
- Low angle shot of singer

Dance Shoot

- Close up of dancer's face sitting down
- Tracking shot of dancer's feet across the stage
- High angle shot of dancer's feet standing in a ballet position
- High angle of her doing up her ballet shoes
- Extreme close up of ballet shoe as she ties it up
- Panning shot of dancer leaping
- Pan down of dancer as she goes to the floor
- Pan left of dancer on floor
- Close up of ballet shoes on the stage
- Medium on the floor shot of dancer sitting against the red curtain
- 360 degree pan of dancer spinning around the camera
- Close up of face turning to a medium shot as she dances away from the camera
- Tracking shot of dancer walking towards the camera, as the camera moves backwards
- On the floor shot of dancers feet jumping

Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks

The genre of this music video is indie/rock, which comes under the same genre as the music video I am producing.  The shots in the video determine the type of genre, by showing footage of the band performing and including the instruments such as, guitars, drum and keyboards. The mise-en-scene in this video also includes costumes of the band itself and other people in the video. They are all dressed in a similar indie style which also represents the genre of the music and helps to target the audience and appeal to them by identification. The costuming includes clothing such as skinny jeans, t-shirts/polo shirts, which not only represents the genre but also creates a trend for people who enjoy the whole indie genre. And the video itself suggests the genre as a lifestyle, because it is in fact a way of living for the actual band. The lighting and flashing lights during the performance shots is non-ambient and fairly colourful which creates a sense of excitement and adds to the theme of rock.

This music video doesn’t particularly have a storyline; it just briefly outlines the story of the band’s tour by including footage of their selves, fans and crowds. This uses the idea of the tour to construct a narrative. Therefore, this doesn’t relate to the Todorovian theory, as there is no established difference between parts of the video, meaning the structure is not split into the equilibrium, the disequilibrium and the new equilibrium.

Part of Goodwin’s music video theory relates to Foster the people’s video. The aspect where it states that there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is present in this video. In the screen shot on the left, the lyrics are: “All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you'd better run, better run, outrun my gun”. The band member who is on the far left in the shot, is creating running movements with his legs, therefore the lyrics are emphasized by the visuals. Also the word “kids” suggests the act of play and this also is portrayed throughout the video, by the shots of the band members laughing and shots of people diving into water.

The close up shots of the instruments and extreme close ups of the band’s faces help the audience to interact with the band and put themselves into their position. Also their facial expressions show emotion and excitement, which represents how passionate they are for the music they create. It helps to keep the audience engaged with the music and the video if the people on the screen are enjoying themselves. At times the camera also is quite shaky as if it is being handheld. This affect makes the video look like it has been made as an independent music video. In some ways this portrays a sense of realism because it seems more natural. Also if the footage has a homemade affect it feels more personal and helps us to connect with the band and their music.

In the video they use this shot of the band standing on a rooftop during a sunset. This creates a silhouette effect and strongly outlines the shape of their bodies. This shot could be an intertexual reference to You Me At Six’s music video ‘Jealous Minds Think Alike’ as it is very similar as it includes the pylons in the background and the trees and buildings. Both videos are also quite similar in the way they both include quick cuts between the performance shots. This helps to keep up the pace of the video and to interact with the music.

The music video is aimed at teenagers or young adults, maybe between the ages of 16-28. This age group is similar to the age of the band, which helps the audience to relate to the video and the music, as the visuals in the footage may relate to their everyday life. This also makes it easier for them to connect to the lyrics because they are able to put themselves into the band’s shoes, or even other people who appear in the video. Many young people who have similar aspirations of making music, going on your and also who enjoy indie/rock music will have expectations to see the people in the video dressed as they are, as it relates the style and theme of the genre. Also another typical music video convention would be to have a performance, which this video does include, whilst relating some of the visuals with the music and lyrics. Therefore, I think Foster the People’s video ‘Pumped up Kicks’ will live up to the target audience’s standards and expectations.

Location Shots

How are music festivals changing? What does this reveal about the music industry, identity and target audiences?

Music festivals are changing in the sense that attracting a wider range of audiences and the amount of festivals is increasing. They also offer a diversification by creating new things such as poetry, literature and different size stages.  This is affecting the music industry because the artists are making more money by performing at festivals and they are losing sales due to the proliferation of illegally downloading music. Therefore, music festivals are having to pay more for artists. Recently, music festivals are becoming more mainstream because music is becoming second nature, and the experience and lifestyle is becoming the main feature. But still, certain audience attend different types of festivals to reaffirm their lifestyle choices and identities. People use music festivals to express their own identity and this is a reason for why some of them keep their wristbands on for weeks.  Music festivals are also changing in the sense that they are improving market segmentation, by each different festival appealing to a certain genre which helps them to appeal to a niche audience.

Moodboard

Moodboard

View more presentations from hattierose.

What are the connotations and ideologies, meanings and target audience of Latitude festival?

On the homepage of the Latitude festival, the three main colours are green, blue and yellow. These colours create a fresh feeling and represent the colours of the environment, which shows that the festival is a nature-loving festival. The page includes a border of drawn plants, which creates a very arty and creative effect and relates back to the hippy era of 1960s. This style has become a modern theme, as festivals have bought it back by creating a sense of peace and innocence. The creativity on the homepage reflects the art, literature, poetry etc. of what the festival includes other than music.

It also represents a fairground; the writing in a wavy font relates to a rollercoaster and the pictures of stripy colourful tents lower down the page could also be a connotations of a fairground or circus. In addition the word "Latitude" is presented in a font with flicks and squiggles which is an ideology of a fairytale. The flowers and butterflies also add to this fairytale theme.

The target audience of this festival is aimed at families with young children aswell as music lovers. They offer entertainment for children, and bright, cartoon, fairytale effect of the homepage could represent the "fun" side of the festival that the younger children will appreciate. The statement saying "it's more than just a music festival" suggests that there are all types of fun activities for all ages. I think the festival is mostly aimed at young adults between the age of 16-28. This is because the logos of Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites are shown at the top right of the page and the majority of people who use these websites are young adults. The main group of young adults in which the festival is aimed at is "indie scenesters". The type of people who general listen to the indie/rock genre of music. I think it is aimed at the creative teenagers and those who dress in skinny jeans and lots of jewellary. The homepage gives out the impression that it is a big festival, but perhaps a little less mainstream than others such as Reading, or Glastonbury. Therefore, it would appeal to a fewer mainstreamers and a more altnernative audience.

Music Video Treatment

Our music video will consist of video footage of a performance, which will be key to the concept. This performance will be of people we know who will act and mime the instruments and singing because the track we are using isn’t of a band that are easy to get hold of to appear in our video. We will film the performance in a completely plain, empty room. This will give us the ability to dress the room as we wish. I believe that if the room is almost empty it will draw all the focus and attention to the band itself, however we would like to add decorations including fairy lights to create the effect of a real live performance. As part of our video we are also going to include a female dancer who will be performing modern and ballet dance moves. Throughout the video we will continuously cut to a shot of just the dancer. We will also contain footage of aspects that represent the ideology of summer, music and young teenagers, which is what our concept is based around. For example, teenagers on the beach, festivals, popular locations and just people having fun in general. We also had ideas such as fires or candlelight to emphasise a sense of life and happiness within our video. We are not aiming to create any particular storyline, but instead just an outline of summer and the lives of youths. We would like to connote a spontaneious effect to keep up the pace and be part of our overall concept.

The sort of locations that I picture our video taking place in, are places such as festivals, beaches, gigs. We are planning to film when we go to the Latitude festival, and on holiday as it will match the theme and idea of our whole concept. I would like to include a few close-up camera shots of random objects or landscapes and use them as a sort of transition between settings or scenes. During filming our performance, I would like to also use close-ups of the instruments and the performers faces. I think this will make it seem realistic and believable. I think tilted camera angles would also be quite effective during the performance scenes, to create a sense of play. We would like to have a fairly quick editing style between each shots and add affects such as sepia or old-style to create a vintage, summery feeling. We are inspired to use such affects by Foster The People's video 'Pumped Up Kicks' and many others such as 'She Moves In Her Own Way' by the Kooks - which uses lots of different shots and scenery like we plan to use. The people we choose to appear in our video will be dressed casually as typical teenagers. For example, t-shirts, skinny jeans, hoodies. I can picture our video being full of colour, so I think this will be something we would like to portray as a representation of teenagers. Lots of different colours in our shots will create a sense of wildness and emotions, which occur in the everyday life of teenagers. 

Our target audience will be people between the age of16-22, and we will appeal to this target by relating aspects of our video to real life situations and using actors of the same age to appear in the footage, in order for our audience to relate to it and be drawn into the video. This will also make the film seem more believable and the audience can perhaps put themselves into the actor’s shoes and be inspired by the concepts of our video.

Intertextuality in Afrika Shox

Media Language: Goodwin's Theory of Music Videos

The 'Afrika Shox' music video could be an intertextual reference to Blade Runner, as the replicants in the film are portrayed as slaves, and are non-human characters. The black man in the video is seen as a stranger or an 'alien' and therefore this relates to the the replicants in Blade Runner.

At the end of Blade Runner there are flashing lights on the cars, which are also used around New York city in 'Afrika Shox' through the use of traffic lights and police cars. This also adds the to the electro genre of the music.



Claude Levis Strauss's narrative theory of binary opposites

Within 'Afrika Shox' the black man is portray as a binary opposite to the white people. The high angle shot of the white man suggests that he has high class and the black man has low class. This is also portrayed by the way that the black man staggers and stumbles through the streets unlike anybody else in the video.

The Rumble Strips - Not The Only Person

This video is set in London, and this is shown through the use of an underground train at the beginning. The people in hoodies and the gritty buildings portray London as quite a rough area, and adds to the genre characteristics. The lead singer's outfit also adds to the genre and helps to create a sense of the type of audience in which the video is aimed at. 

The lyrics "not the only person to get it wrong" could relate to the narrative in the video. It could be suggested that as the followers build up behind the singer, the more are confessing to be wrong in some way and could be fans of the music. Also when 'bank notes' is sung the singer drops money on the floor. The main singer knows he is more powerful than the gang and he his portrayed this way, by the way they all follow him. 

Metronomy

'Thing For Me' by Metronomy is a postmodern video because the dancing in the video is very ironic and the speech bubbles are an intertexual reference to comic books as it 'borrows' the meaning, which also adds to its low culture. Also the structure is played with by the playing with the karoke words on the screen and are replaced by meaningless words with no depth. The video is superficial because of the strange outfits and the way that the karoke comes to life.

Song Choice

Me and Holly chose the song;Tell It To The Marines - 'Flare Guns' because we thought it was an exciting track and would give us many opportunities to explore our own ideas,shots and the ability to use varied editing. The song is in the indie genre and we particularly like the opening to the song as it builds up to the start of the lyrics. The lyrics are fairly forceful and contain meanings and emotion. I think this will encourage us to use the meanings and express them into our shots by filming quick, sharp shots during the performance to emphasize the strong emotion.

Lyrics: 

It feels like the hope I found in madness
was encouraged by the news I heard that day
And my friends hold me together
And push me back to where reality is.
'Cause we don't need a reason to be sorry 
'Cause we don't need to try.

Alive, alive, alive!
We're alive and well.
"Get out this town, get out this town, get out"
"Get out this town, get out this town, get out"

As my life falls right away from me
And this time I want to fall with it.
I guess I'm scared of dying cold and lonely
My heart and lungs tire at my needs.
'Cause we don't need a reason to be sorry.
'Cause we don't need to try.

 Alive, alive, alive!
We're alive and well.
"Get out this town, get out this town, get out"
"Get out this town, get out this town, get out"

 Alive, alive, alive!
We're alive and well.
"Get out this town, get out this town, get out"
"Get out this town, get out this town, get out"

 Alive, alive, alive!
We're alive and well.

REM - 'Everybody Hurts'

The video uses interweaving narratives as it shows many different people that are thematically linked and share the same feelings and emotions. The lead singer in the video is the protagonist. He is the one who holds everybody and all the aspects together, and even the audience can relate to him. The antagonist in the video is probably the traffic jam, or could be the same negative emotion that is brought out through the characters. To show the people's thoughts, captions appear at the bottom of the screen to add to the impressionist narrative. The video could apply to the Todoravian narrative, because it does build up to a climax towards the end as all the different narratives become one when they escape the traffic jam, therefore this is the 'new equilibrium' part of the three part narrative. And the traffic jam itself would be the 'disequilibrium'.

Micah P Hinson - 'Beneath The Rose'      




Throughout this music video, an enigma code is being created by building up a mystery as to why there are snails and where they are going. The fact that it is sped up adds to the linear affect, and also helps to drive the audience towards the unanswered question. The video also follows the Todoravian narrative in some ways because, at the end when the characters appear it gives more of an impression of the narrative, and what messages are being given out. 

Arctic Monkeys - 'A view from the Afternoon'



In 'A view from the Afternoon' video, the visuals are very repetative as they include the same musician drumming throughout the whole video. It is also circular because the effect used at the beginning of water splashing over him, is repeated towards the end of the video. An enigma code is created because the audience are led to wonder why he is drumming through all the night and day, however isn't doesn't particularly follow the Todoravian narrative because there is not really a resolution at the end of the video.

Three chosen music videos from musicvideojam.com

This video stood out to me because the idea was very unique and included many orginal costumes and action techniques, such as skate boarding and surfing. The shots at the beginning are extremely fast which gets the pace going really well. The video is quite postmodern as it includes many 'silly' and artificical aspects, and I think this is really effective.

Leftfield - Afrika Shox

The genre of music in represented in this video continuously using many different techniques. For example, when the band start vocalising it is over a tannoy which is distorted which gives the effect of electro/techno music. Another feature which shows the genre of this music is the flashing lights on the taxi and the 'WALK' sign which suggests technology, it is also ironic as he cannot walk well. 

Through the entire video the scenery is gritty and grey which reflects on the genre of the music and the modern technology  such as CDs, Phones, Computers. This adds to the electric genre and it also gives the whole video a noir feel as the lighting is quite dark.

This music video is set in New York which indicates the urban nature of the genre. New York is being represented as a dystopic city which is intertextual to Sin City, as it uses dark, hopeless noir lighting and Sin city is a typical example of film noir. In the opening of Sin City there is a sense of threat and menace as a woman is killed within the first few minutes and the same atmosphere is portrayed in the Africa Shox music video.

The music video could also be an intertextual reference to Blade Runner, as the replicants in the film are portrayed as slaves to the humans. This relates to the black man in Afrika Shox who is viewed as inferior by the white inhabitants of New York as he staggers around the city. At the end of Blade Runner there are flashing lights on the cars, which are also used around New York city in the music video.

The car park is underground which indicates the underground nature of the dubstep genre.

Throughout the music video the protagonist is an outcast and a alien in a strange land. This is a metaphor of the slave trade which portrays him as an underdog to society. For example, a low angle shot is used of a middle aged white man looking down on him. This contrasts to the fact that the Africans brought popular music into the world therefore it is ironic that he is being belittled and discriminated against, connoting that the desperate black man is not human, and that his culture had been hijacked by the white artists. For example, the break dancers in the music video are white.  

The lyrics are matched with the visuals, for example, when he has his hands on the fence the lyrics are 'let's get electrified' this gives the impression of him being kept as a prisoner and trapped by the electric fence. Also the shot of him being behind fence separates us from him which could suggest he is representing Africa.