Music Video Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEOHh0mTGXs

The clip just watched was ‘Can’t Stop’ by The Red Hot Chilli Peppers. The video was directed by Mark Romanek who won a Grammy for his video for ‘Scream’ by Michael and Janet Jackson in 1996. The video cost $7 million to make and is one of the most expensive videos of all time. The music of this video would come under the genre of Funk/Rock to which the use of guitars and the mixture of rap and sing demonstrate what is included in this genre.

The lyrics and visuals contradict each other making the video concept. The main reason for the video being concept is from where Romanek simply wanted to pay tribute to an Austrian artist Erwin Wurm. The visuals in the video are completely random and are based on the work of Wurm titled ‘One minute sculptures’. Examples of these in the video are singing through a kids play tunnel, putting buckets on your heat, arms and feet also dressing in a tent. The intentions of this video was to give a randomness image to the Red Hot Chilli Pepper hence the contradiction the to lyrics and visuals, making them come across as a unique band and leave people wanting to hear more of them. Also to create awareness of Wurm’s work. The only lyric in the video that may be linked to the idea of the video is ‘far more shocking than anything I ever knew’ probably by coincidence but it could explain a reason to why a contributing to Wurm’s work has been partnered with this particular song.

The beginning of the video demonstrates where the music fits in with the visuals. The camera follows through the kids play tunnel gradually getting faster as the rolling of the drums and the strumming of the guitar gets faster. Also when the music and lyrics become slower in the middle of the video, the actions of randomness also become slower. These may have been done to give the music a little more meaning than just being a concept video. Also to allow the viewers to appreciate the art of Wurm.

The main close-ups are of the lead singer Anthony Kiedis. This may be because he is the main vocalist to which his image is the main selling point of the band and set aside the work of Wurm, the main point of the track is his vocals. In this particular video the main image of the band being sold is the image of ‘randomness’ with the band members interacting and demonstrating the work Wurm. This video relates to other Red Hot Chilli Peppers videos because they are very well known for being random and sticking there heads out beyond other typical performance videos that are normal of the genre funk/rock. Although this video was the start of The Red Hot Chilli Peppers standing out as a band, it keeps to having the main focus on Kiedis also in many of their videos he is topless to which he is also in this video.

There is reference to the notion of looking in a sexual way, but it is not a main visual to the video. Kiedis, already said, is topless which could appeal to a female audience also part of Wurm’s work, one particular piece consists of putting as many plastic bottles under your arms and in between your legs to which the shot of this focuses on the first bottle being positioned up against the crotch which could be seen as a notion to looking. These may have been used in this way to stay in line with how The Red Hot Chilli Peppers perform (Mise En Scene of costume) also to allow a larger range of viewers.

The work of Wurm in the video can be classed as intertextual reference as for this is not original work from the director.

The video itself is mainly concept based focusing on the work of Wurm, but when the track comes to it’s chorus’ it allows that time to focus on the band’s performance to which the dancing and performance fits in this the connotation of randomness.

Overall, the concept video for ‘Can’t Stop’ by The Red Hot Chilli Peppers is a unique concept video because it is a tribute to an artist who had nothing to do with the music industry before this video.

Music Video Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGUG1aCUY2o

The video just watched is ‘Stacey’s Mom’ by Fountains of Wayne directed by Chris Applebaum, the director behind other music videos such as Mariah Carey’s ‘I’ll Be Lovin’ U Long Time’, The Pussycat Dolls ‘I Don’t Need A Man’ and Rihanna ‘Umbrella’. The genre of the song belongs in Pop as ‘Power Pop’. The characteristics of the video that show power pop are visuals such as cartoon like performance of Fountains of Wayne to give a retro look of their band also having a narrative in the video is quite typical of pop videos.

Through out the video the lyrics to the song match the visuals. The overall summary of the video is that it is about a young boy (played by Shane Haboucha) who makes many attempts to get closer to the women of his fantasies (played by Rachel Hunter) making a fool of himself many a times such as crashing a lawnmower into a bird table. Whilst in the mean time Hunter’s daughter (played by Gianna Distenca) keep’s trying to get the attention of Haboucha who clearly is mesmerized by Hunter. Examples of how the lyrics match the narrative is “Stacey can’t you see? You’re just not the girl for me” “I im love with Stacey’s mom”.

There is one particular example where the video cuts to the beat on the first chorus which is a straight cut to the performance of Fountains of Wayne singing the first chorus. The video starts with an electrical guitar solo with a simple beat to which this matches the visuals of a line of people who are waiting for a bus matches the music. One person’s feet in particular are tapping in time to the music. This demonstrates the introduction of the narrative also it just shows the impatience of waiting for a bus which matches the narrative.

From watching the video, you can see the ways in which the record company is looking to sell the track. The main idea being through the narrative making it comical. Also Rachel Hunter is a very well known model married to music legend Rod Stewart which can therefore create awareness for the video, allowing the number of viewers to become high, promoting to sell the track. The narrative visuals over rule the screen time of the actual band. When the band is on screen, is has used special effects to look simplistic with a hot pink back ground, and to make the band look cartoon like giving the image of the band being retro. The song ‘Stacey’s Mom’ was one very successful hit song for Fountain’s of Wayne and therefore the bands image is basically retro.

There is a reference to the notion of looking although it is not the Artist. This is because the video is a narrative video and therefore the focus is on the actors in the narrative, where Hunter is used to show sexual display. This adds comedy to the fantasies of Haboucha. Hunter’s costume implies sexual display as for the majority of the time her costumes insist of minimal clothing, also bikinis and in one scene in particular just a towel to which this scene watched the lyrics “your mom came out with a towel on” This emphasizes how mesmerized Haboucha is by Stacey’s mom. Another reference to ‘looking’ is when Distenca is wearing sunglasses and the reflection in them showing Haboucha. This implies her crush in him.

The song was written by Chris Collingwood and his reason for writing the song was to pay tribute to a band called ‘The Cars’ who had a hit single with ‘My Best Friend’s Girl’. To add to this, there are intertextual references from films from the 60’s and 80’s. The first one being the scene where Distenca is wearing red, heart shaped sunglasses, reflecting Haboucha. This is similar to the promotional picture of the film ‘Lolita’ from 1962. Another intertextual reference is the very last scene from the video where Haboucha is masturbating and Distenca walks in. This is a scene from the 1982 movie ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High. These intertextual references have been added to add comic effect and to also to keep within the connotations of creating the ‘retro’ look of Fountains of Wayne. It can also be appealing to an older audience who were aware of the films ‘Lolita’ and ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’.

Overall, the music video for ‘Stacey’s Mom’ by Fountain’s of Wayne is mainly narrative based so therefore, this one hit for Fountain’s of Wayne is a successful comical video but hadn’t really promoted the band well for further success.

Music Video Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ8UVhRpZVA

The following piece of writing is a textual analysis of the music video ‘Kiss the Girl’ by Ashley Tisdale. The video comes under the genre pop with visual aspects of performance in the video indicating this. It can also come under the genre soundtrack due to its references of movie clips from the film ‘The Little Mermaid’.

There are clear aspects of a clear relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. The song itself expresses how a boy has strong feelings for a girl but doesn’t have the guts to kiss her and it is in the narrative of someone (being the boy’s) conscience telling them to do it, or you will lose the girl. So, how the lyrics fit the visuals is how they have put in two different narrative stories. One including Tisdale’s narrative performance, being a girl at her prom where there are a group of boys wanting to talk to her and the other reference being a scene cross cutting between from Tisdale’s story to clip’s from ‘The Little Mermaid’ where the boy who finds Ariel the little mermaid and they realize they like each other but neither want to make the first move. The shot is set when they realise this whilst in a row boat to which the original Disney ‘kiss the girl’ little mermaid soundtrack song was played in the film.

There is no clear cuttings in the video that fit in with the beat of the video but at the bridge of the song the music becomes slightly slower and the lyrics become slower and the visuals fit in with this part by becoming slow motion building up to the final chorus where Tisdale’s performance goes back to normal timing but her narrative story stays in slow motion to highlight the connotations of the song.

The majority of the song is about showing Tisdale’s star motif. The record company behind the song have many ways in how they can sell this song and also the time of when it was released helps largely. The song was released after the success of High School Musical to which Tisdale’s status and awareness was at its highest allowing grabbing attention to viewers. Also with her connection with Disney (Starring in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody on the Disney Channel) already allows a guaranteed audience and awareness. The video was first released during the ad breaks on the Disney Channel. The image of Tisdale in her first song/video release is very important because the viewers of this type of video ranges from very young people aged 7/8 upwards and young teenagers around 13/14. So the footage cannot be too explicit but not too young for the older viewer. So the image of Tisdale portrayed in this video is ‘American Sweetheart’ The character of Tisdale in her narrative being dominant and does nothing wrong and her performance being happy/smiley and kept basic. The Mise En Scene of her clothing can indicate the perfect idol for young people. Body well covered and nice for the eyes to look at.

The entire video has intertextual references to the film ‘The Little Mermaid’ showing clips of the two main character Eric and Ariel’s relationship. Also there


can be a intertextual link with Disney itself. With Tisdale being an actress in the Disney Sitcom ‘The Suite Life of Zack and Cody’ also acting in ‘High School Muscial’. And the song itself being a cover of ‘Kiss the Girl’ from the film. They are used to help create a narrative side to the video, also to remind of where the song has originally came from which overal, promotes the classic Disney film ‘The Little Mermaid’.

The video is equally performance/narrative spaced. The narrative part as explained before, is to keep the target audience’s attention and the performance aspect to promote Tisdale as a singer as for she up untill now, has been purely known from her acting and the success of High School Musical has helped her singing talents to be recognised which now has lead her into a music career.

Overall the video is quite unique compared to other typical pop videos as for it is specifically aimed at a niche market whereas the common pop video is universal and usually has sex references. Also the intertexual references to the little mermaid is a unique quality because it is not promoting a new film, which soundtrack videos are orginally made for. This video allows the audience to be reminded of a very successful family video.