AS Deconstruction - Music Videos

Institutions and Audience

'Pendulum' – Witchcraft – (Mike Sharpe and Barnaby Steel, 2010)

• The audience targeted for this video will be the 16 - 21 year olds. I believe this because of the trend of songs and videos at the moment.

• The genre of this video is "Drum and Bass" and "Electronic Rock"

• This age range are more into dance songs with a "drop" and so this song is very attractive to them.

• The special effects are very futuristic and i think the technology in this does capture the imagination of this audience range.

• This video is most likely to be be view in a ambient way while on a music channels (Viva, 4Music ECT...). This is the kind of song that the audience range will listen to while doing someting else.

• It can also be viewed within the social networking community. This means that the advertising they need is done by people sharing a link someone will post on "Fackbook" this is a way a video can be shared by millions of people within the world.

• The song also made an apperance on "WRC:World Rally Championship 2010" which was some extra advertising that played a big role in its success.

• The video is a very performance based video with a bit of a narrative about a girl being saved by the special effects the band (Pendulum) are creating.

• This song was released by "Warner Music Group" in 2010 and was a very successful track.

Genre and Narrative

'Young Guns' - Lewi White Feat Devlin, Ed Sheeran, Griminal, and Yazmin. (2010, Cussen)

Analysing this video using Goodwin's framework "Dancing in the distraction factory" (Goodwin 1992)

• This video is totally performance based with all the artists. This is conventional of the genre Rap. This relates to the genre characteristics and the characteristics of this genre is to have the artists performing for most of the music video.

• The link from the lyrics to the visual comes in the chorus with 'Yasmin' saying 'And the feeling of thunder'. This goes with her looking like she is in a storm. This also goes with what happens when it is each performers part. There are three protagonists have different types of climatic conditions. For Example; Wind; rain; and earthquakes.

• The link between music and visuals is shown in Yasmin's lyric “The feeling of thunder”. This is illustration because she is shown to be in a windy room. Wind is a vital component of thunder. I think this is illustration as the lyrics are related to the music video. “Burning within the evergreen” This line is one of Ed Sheeran’s and this is illustration as the video shows him in a room on fire and he has fire in his hand.

• Another part of the Goodwin framework is the visual motif's and these are satisfied with the artists taking all of the camera time and this is true of the genre.

• This music video is very performance-based and relies heavily on the visual motifs and people wanting to see the artists in action although this may not be the case as this song would most probably be viewed ambiently.

• The protagonists are shown to look superhuman as when the scientists (Lewi White is shown as a scientist) have them locked up they can make these climatic conditions happen. This is showing them in a superhuman light.

• The protagonists all look into the camera and break the fourth wall apart from 'Lewi White' who is not shown as super human.

• I think this video could not be considered as art is it has a very simple and easily deconstuctable meaning. This is trying to promote the artists in the best way it can and not trying to be very entertaining.

Media Language

'Young Guns' - Lewi White Feat Devlin, Ed Sheeran, Griminal, and Yazmin. (2010, Cussen)

• There is a message to this video and this is that these artists are the best around and to be better than them they will have to work very hard. Some lyrics Devlin uses 'To be a part of the Arsenal present you'll have to be better that Devlin, Yasmin, Griminal and Edderz.' This is saying that to be as good as we are presently you will have to surpass us and that is not going to be easy.

• With this video "Modules on Barthes: On the Five Codes" (Felluga, Dino) Roland Barthes's "Enigma code" can be applied to it as the audience will not know what the artists will do with their powers. This build a tension but is broken when the audience realise the artists are going to do nothing with their powers.

• There is also a reference to the "Symbolic code" the diving glass between the artists with powers and the one without could be a sign to show that the person behind the glass has more authority but they are not as powerful and the artists have not yet shown their full potential.

• Whereas for Lewi White he is not represented as superhuman and is shown to be just a normal scientist and he does not know what is going on.

• There are four climatic for the four artists and these are done with a variety of effects. Firstly Ed Sheeran is shown as fire and this is put in post-production by putting fire in his hand.

• Yasmin is shown to be the windy climatic condition. This is done using mise-en-scene by using a fan as a prop behind her.

• Griminal is shown to be able to emulate an earthquake this is done by using handy cam and making the camera shake.

• Devlin is shown to be water and this is shown using a prop like a hose and using to emulate rain.

Representation

'Ghosts and Stuff' - Deadmau5 Feat Rob Swire (2009, Colin O'Toole)

• The artist is represented as a ghost that cannot pass through walls and is not scary as he gets scared when someone faces up to him, this challenges the conventions of music videos of this genre.

• In this video males are seen as not being scared of ghosts where as women are. When the ghost goes up to a female she is scared but when he goes up to a male he stands up for himself.

• Dyer's (Stars, 1999)  theory has two key paradoxes one is:

The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer

• This helps Deadmau5 to sell his product because it is showing him in the extraordinary as a ghost but the ordinary as he cannot pass through walls and cannot scare people like normal ghosts. I think this helps people to relate and see the funny side of his music.

The other key paradox is:

The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer

• The star in this video is the artist Deadmau5. He is present in the way that he being rushed into hospital at the start of the video but as it progresses he turns into a ghost and him as a person is then absent to the audience until the ghost goes into a club and see's Deadmau5's visual motif of a over sized mouse head costume.

• In this video males are seen as not being scared of ghosts where as women are. When the ghost goes up to a female she is scared but when he goes up to a male he stands up for himself.