R&P Post 6: Analysing different music videos

Hey there! In this post I will be analysing a range of different music videos by studying their key features and how they are constructed. Enjoy!

1) Looking at the general narratives of music videos:

'The Scientist' by Coldplay:



This is a very interesting music video because the entirety of it the footage is reversed so all of the movements go backwards in time. However, as well as this, the lead singer of Coldplay, Chris Martin, who stars in the video is filmed mouthing the lyrics of the song and in order for this to work he had to learn all of the lyrics to the song backwards so he would be mouthing them correctly in time with the song. The video starts with Martin's character travelling backwards through different locations and it is not revealed to the reader how he has come to be in these various different settings until the end of the video. This is what keeps the audience's attention fixed on the video as it seems to be telling a story but they do not know what the story is until the end. Then at the end of the video we see that he was involved in a car accident with what we assume is his lover and she is found dead on the ground, revealing the entirety of Martin's character's story.

Another music video that travels back in time is 'Breezeblocks' by Alt-J:



This is another unusual music video due to the fact that, like 'The Scientist' video, it also travels back in time. However, this is a much more dramatic video and it tells the story of a man who murdered a woman and at the end, it also seems that the woman who is killed kidnapped another lady who the man finds gagged. The relationship between the three characters is not entirely clear, but the video's use of the thriller genre grips the audience and keeps them on edge throughout the video, making them watch it all because they want to find out how the girl, who appears dead right at the beginning of the video, ended up so.

2) Analysing music videos in depth:

'You Belong With Me' by Taylor Swift:



This is the music video that my group chose for our preliminary task and I have chosen to analyse it in more depth here because it is a very generic pop video which tells the story of a stereotypical teenage romance. It follows nearly every rule of Goodwin's theory including:

• Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics:

Both of these photographs demonstrate to the audience that Swift's character in this music video is a geeky, seemingly lonely girl who is clever and enjoys school. 

This picture also shows that the boy plays sport which is a stereotype for males. Also the fact that he has a girlfriend and when he wins the match (see GIF below) proves his popularity, showing that the girl is a reserved geeky character and the boy is an outgoing popular character. Their feelings towards each other are also conveyed through the shots showing them in their bedrooms as well as the prom scene, establishing the genre of romance. 

The clip below proves the boy's popularity and represents one of the traits that the girl finds attractive, adding to the romance genre.

• There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals:

In the above clip the boy can be seen walking back and forth in his bedroom, talking angrily on the phone. Then during this scene the first song lyric is "You're on the phone to your girlfriend, she's upset." which shows a strong correlation between lyrics and visuals by taking the lyrics as a literal meaning.

• The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist:

Throughout this music video there are many close-ups of the artist which shows how the video follows Goodwin's rule of music videos containing many of these shots. This is a rule which the vast majority of music videos follow. 

'There For You' by Troye Sivan and Martin Garrix:

Here we have an interesting and exciting music video which does not actually apply to many of the rules from Goodwin's theory. This video captures more the mood and tone of the song rather than the meaning of the lyrics, unlike the music video for 'You Belong With Me'. 'There For You' can be categorized as being part of the electropop genre and sounds as though it should be played in a club. It  is a song with a strong beat and good rhythm which makes it an exciting song in itself, but its music video takes advantage of this to make it even more exciting for the audience. The main way it which it does this is by having shots of an arena concert in which the artists perform the song with flashing lights. fireworks, smoke machines and confetti cannons, making it a thrilling experience for the audience, for example:



Furthermore, although there is not a strong narrative in this music video there does seem to be some relationship between the two boys (the characters that Sivan and Garrix both play). The connection between the two is not entirely clear but it seems as though there is a certain degree of love between them but they might have fallen out because at times they are quite distant from each other. It is pictures like the ones below that suggest this relationship:

These images show moments during the music video when there seems to be some sort of narrative happening, hinting at the connection between the two boys. For example, the picture in the top left-hand corner shows them facing away from each other but in close proximity to each other at the same time, suggesting a closeness in their relationship but also implying that they have recently fallen out. 


'Islands' by The XX


The music video for 'Islands' is another interesting and quite unusual music video. It uses a continuous but gradually decaying dance sequence to tell a story which could also be symbolic of the meaning of the lyrics. The beginning of the video starts off with a consistent dance routine but as the song continues, it gradually changes, starting with the two dancers in the forefront changing their routine first and then the other dancers begin to change their routine as well. 

However, this dance sequence is symbolic of the lyrics because as the song continues, it goes onto speak about desire and after the lyrics "That's a risk I'd take/ I'm froze by desire", the two dancers at the front stop dancing completely and sit staring at each other, essentially suggesting that they have been 'frozen' by desire. Then after this part, the next section shows only one of the front dancers as the other has now left, potentially implying the consequences of desire. Then after the dancers at the front have left, the other dancers start to change their routine, for instance at the beginning of the video the camera shows a medium close-up shot of two dancers kissing but later on this changes and they no longer kiss. Thus this demonstrates how the producers of this music video have used this dance sequence to represent the dark nature of the song's lyrics, making it an interesting video to watch. 

'Saint Claude' by Christine and The Queens:


This is another music video that incorporates the use of a dance routine but in a different way. The music video for 'Islands' uses a dance sequence to represent the lyrics, applying to Goodwin's rule that there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals, whereas the video for 'Saint Claude' uses dancing to capture the mood and tone of the song and has nothing to do with lyrics. Therefore, this music video applies to Goodwin's rule that there is a relationship between music and visuals. 

The dance sequence performed by Héloïse Letissier here, known by her stage name Christine and The Queens, is very abstract and although it is a regular routine with repeated steps, it is very abstract and unique. Instead of capturing the meaning of the lyrics, it succeeds in capturing the mood and tone of the song through dancing which makes it an interesting music video to watch.