Textual Analysis of a Music Video

I found a band called Alice in Videoland who are electro/punk/rock and have a female lead singer, similar to our music video genre and style, so I chose to look at one of their music videos using Goodwin's textual analysis theory. The video is nearly all performance based, with the part concept of falling buildings and floating clouds in the background making it more interesting, asides from the obvious stylistic feature of being animated.

Alice in Videoland - She's a Machine





Genre Characteristics
Although the video is quite unconventional in that it is entirely animated, there are still rock-genre signifiers. There are several close-ups of the band's instruments and amps, showing off their musical skills (although it is not actually them, the conventions remain the same as that of a normal video).

We also see a wider shot of the (animated) band themselves performing with their instruments in quite a conventionally set-up way, like we would find in many rock videos. As well as the guitarist and drummer, we also see a keyboard player with synths, pointing to the more electro-element the band have.

The clothing and styling of the cartoon band also heavily suggests rock, with their wristbands, converse-style shoes, leather jacket, and long, messy hair.


I also noticed the retro-style microphone shown in the video, very similar to the one we have in mind for our music video.


Relationship between lyrics & visuals
The video fits the feel of the song which is about a doomed relationship and the sense of disaster waiting for happen. There are lots of references to the song's lyrics throughout the video as lyrics are shown on-screen and the song name is shown on the keyboard.

There are also lyrics like 'She's not yours to keep, she don't belong with you' which suggests the subject of a strong, independent woman, working with the band image of being female-fronted. This is reflected in the video as the tough-looking frontwoman dominates the footage over the other male band members. This could be seen as quite empowering for woman, as the woman they are singing about obviously doesn't need a man to 'keep' her, a theme we are trying to display in our own music video.


Relationship between music &visuals
The cuts in the video often correspond with drum beats or changes in the music. At the more electro parts of the chorus, there is a cut on every synth sound so there are lots of flashing images reminiscent of being at a party or club dancing to this song. There is also a shaking effect put on the whole video so the screen seems to vibrate in time to the low bass guitar sounds, fitting the trembling and falling buildings in the background. The cartoon band and singer obviously play their instruments in time to the music so it is a fairly accurate representation of an actual performance the band might give. As the song continuously gains momentum, the cuts in the video get more frantic and there are more flashing images as the song seems to get louder and more urgent.

By the end the video is simply a series of flashing images, much like strobe lights or even some kind of hypnotic subliminal message, keeping the viewer transfixed to the screen before the climax of the song where it all calms down again for one slow shot of the band at the end so we are left with their image.


Are there close-ups of the artist and star image motifs?
Even though the video is an animation, there are still lots of CUs of the animated lead singer and other band members, and even beauty shots of her as we would expect in a normal video.

As this is not the band's debut video, they are able to use this cartoon version of themselves to carry on their branding, as their fans will already know what they look like from previous videos and will recognise these cartoons as representative of the actual members.

If we compare the cartoon version to the real band, they look very similar and it is clear that the animations were styled based on the actual clothing of the band, so fans will definitely recognise them and the video adds to their image and identity as it keeps with their style. They are also dressed mainly in black and white and photographed in front of a red and white background, suggesting that the colouring of the video is intentional and perhaps a running theme for the band, especially as the lead singer sometimes has red streaks in her hair.

Are there references to the notion of looking?

The lead singer is drawn wearing quite casual, not particularly feminine clothing, but her shorts are very short and there are still close-ups of her body. for example a tilt up her legs to her waist, showing how music videos can manage to have a sexualised, voyeuristic feel even when animated. One youtube comment says, 'she even looks hot as a cartoon', so the idea obviously works.

Are there intertextual references?

The anime-cartoon style of the video is obviously a huge intertextual reference as the band themselves probably like anime, or their fans do, or both, otherwise they would not have gone for such a video. Anime has a huge fanbase worldwide and not many music videos are made in this way, making it quite unique.

The background of falling and exploding buildings may be referencing popular disaster movies like The Day After Tomorrow, giving it an end-of-the-world feel.

Reflections on our music video shoot

Last week we spent 2 days shooting our music video. It was very tiring, especially having to wear super-high heels for two whole days and carry a heavy bass throughout the performance, but I think we got all the footage we needed and I am confident that it will look at good as we hoped it would.

On the first day it took longer than we expected to set up the garage in preparation to make sure it looked exactly right, but once we were ready to shoot we moved through everything quite quickly and didn't run too far over the original projected wrap time. Our actor, Josh, ended up completely covered in pink and black paint but it was visually very effective and we managed to do it in one take, avoiding the difficult task of having to wait for him to wash all the paint off and change into the spare white t-shirt.

I was particularly pleased with the band logo we painted on the back wall at the end of the narrative ready to perform in front of for the next day's shoot. The candy pink, liquorice black and pure white contrasted perfectly and we managed to create the exact look we were going for.

The second shooting day was so much fun as we were finally able to let loose and unleash our inner rockstars! Learning to effectively look as if we were playing instruments was a challenge at first but having Michael from another group, who was there to help film, there was a bonus as he can play guitar so was able to give us tips.

It took us several takes until we were happy with the mastershot performance, then we were able to play around with handheld camera, close-ups, focus pulls and low-angles to make our video more exciting to watch. After more long hours of preparation (for the performance it was all about the look and the brand image so it took us a while to perfect our appearances) we ran over schedule once again but still made time to take some promotional on-set shots thanks to our photographer friend, Ming.

Shoot preparation

Ahead of our shoots on Thursday and Friday this week, I have made a list of everything I individually need to bring to the shoots:

• All clothes + accessories for each shoot
• Makeup bag
• Pink blusher for Charley's hair
• Colourful socks for Josh
• Stool
• Paint trays x2
• Paint rollers x2
• Paint brushes
• Glitter (silver + gold)

Potential Outfits

As one of the band members it is important I get my costumes right. Here are some potential outfits I found for the performance part:

This outfit is quite glamorous, but I'm not sure if it's a bit too sequinny  - is it rocky enough? 

This outfit it more casual but with jewellery, the high heels and the short length with only tights, it is more dressed up. The black and white lips with fangs and blood are slightly gothic and quite rock-chic, and it could mean that I was the slightly more casual one who prefers retro-looking t-shirts to glitzy dresses.

These are the heels I am going to wear - suitably high, velvet, and grey which goes with everything.

Here is what I will wear for the painting scene - a baggy white t-shirt with a Marilyn Monroe print, navy dungarees, fishnet tights and the same grey heels

I will wear a black and white headband to complete the look.

Target Audience

By viewing the YouTube statistics for our song 'Stripper' on YouTube, I found that teenage girls were the most frequent viewers of this video. 

Because the song was used on Gossip Girl, this further proves this fact as the show's viewers are primarily teenage girls and young women.

Here is an average target audience member:

She is 17 years old and loves going to concerts and parties.
She listens to a mixture of pop and rock music, and listens to different radio stations depending on her mood, but mostly Radio 1.
She also loves fashion, and reading music and fashion magazines before ripping out pages and putting them on her walls to make collages; she is creative and easily inspired by music artists and fashion icons.
She is looking for a positive female role model in some of the music she listens to, but not necessarily someone as clean-cut as Taylor Swift, which is why she loves The XYZz- they are edgy but also relatable to girls her age, as she wishes she were in a band like they are.

Musical Influences

Now that we have decided that we are doing a female rock group, I have started to look into similar artists for comparison and inspiration.

The Veronicas

The Veronicas are an Australian duo made up of twin sisters Jessica and Lisa Origliasso. They are mostly classed as pop-rock, as well as electronic and pop-punk. This makes them a great band to compare with our potential band, as fellow female rockers.

Their website is quite girly, suggesting their core listener market, and is very interactive.

They also have an edgy, quite glam-rock look, similar to what we are going for.

Their album covers are,  in contrast, girly like their website, making them both edgy and feminine. They feature lots of pink and purple, plus lipstick marks. However, on 2 of the covers the girls themselves are shown dressing quite sexily, appealing to male listeners too, whereas their debut album (centre) is quite clearly aimed at girls, suggesting that they have matured throughout their career and possibly changed their image.

VersaEmerge

Although VersaEmerge are not a girl band, they do have a female lead singer so their sound is comparable. They are an American rock band currently consisting of vocalist Sierra Kusterbeck and guitarist Blake Harnage. It is hard to find entirely female rock groups, which is why I have chosen to look at VersaEmerge too, as most female-fronted bands, like them, tend to have male musicians. This is why we want to break the trend and create a band of girls who can play instruments.

Their live acoustic EP shows both members looking very cool and laid-back. Sierra looks attractive but isn't sexualised, and it is clear she has her own style.

Their debut album cover is very different and features artwork instead of the band themselves. This is a brave move for their debut, but shows that they are more focused on the music than their image, and the vulture is a reference to one of their song's lyrics. Although I like the way that the lack of photo means they seem to be all about the music, for our band I think image is very important as we are going for quite a strong look, and I think we should put ourselves on our debut album cover.

Here is the video for one of their singles, Fixed At Zero:

The video is entirely performance-based, but their is enough going on and the cinematography and mise-en-scene is exciting enough to make up for the lack of narrative. There are lots of close-ups of the musicians playing their instruments, a technique we will also use to show our hands playing guitar and bass. However, it is clear that the lead singer is the focus of the video, a common feature for bands, as we see lots of beauty shots of her and she gets most of the screen time. Her style and makeup is slightly gothic with heavy dark eye makeup, but she also looks pretty and quite glamorous, so girls will aspire to her yet she still looks attractive to males, especially those that prefer slightly less girly-looking girls with a more edgy style like Sierra Kusterbeck has. That is also an effect we intend to create with our girl band members.

Group Proposal

Ahead of pitching to the teachers with our treatment next week, we had a group meeting to develop our music video idea.

We are going ahead with our initial song choice - Stripper by Soho Dolls.


Listening to the song again, we decided the genre was more glam-rock with a hint of gothic-rock, so we started looking at styling for the group, as our video will feature a studio performance as well as a narrative.

We are going for the "glam-goth" look, so here are some inspirational pictures I like in particular that I think we should base our image on:

As you can see, I am taking inspiration from gothic styles but making it more grown-up, elegant and fashionable; this is what I think our band should look like.