Textual Analysis of a Music Video

The music video that I will be analysing is called Dry your eyes by The Streets. This is a low budget music video as there are no special effects used, and the locations that the video is shot in are everyday places such as a pub, a swimming pool, a cinema and a supermarket. The clothes worn by the individual singer are everyday clothes, therefore there would have been no expense used by wearing expensive outfits and costumes. The character in the video appears to be an average man, someone that you might walk past in the street, which helps the viewer to connect with him as he isn't wearing his celebrity status.  His story is realistic and relative, meaning audiences would find it easy to relate to his problems, which is probably why this was such a popular song when it was released.

The lyrics in this song are depressing and sad, as the song tells the story of a relationship that has come to an end;

'Dry your eyes mate
I know you want to make her see how much this pain hurts
But you've got to walk away now
It's over'

These lyrics have a strong connection with the visuals in the video, and because there is only one character the whole way through and no girl is shown, it suggests that he is replaying thoughts in his mind of what has previously happened, and expressing them through this song.  The fact the the sole character has a dog as a companion also emphasises his loneliness, suggesting that no one else has time to listen to his problems, or that perhaps he just wants to be on his own. 

Dark colours and dullness is also used a lot in the video, for example in the cinema, and in the pub at the beginning the lights are switched off, which reflects the singers mood and emotions. The locations used could also have been places that the couple regularly used to go together, and the fact that he is revisiting these places on his own shows his sorrow, and suggests he is trying to grieve his loss.

The singer lip syncs on beat with the music throughout most of the song in the video, which emphasises to the viewer that the lyrics in the song are what he is feeling inside.  The whole of the video is narrative based, and there is no band shots used because it would not fit in to the theme of the song as it is a slow and meaningful song, written to capture people's hearts.

Message we sent

Here is a print screen of the email we sent to Asher Roth, asking permission to use his song for our music video.

Music video genres

Name of song: Super massive black hole
Genre: Indie Rock
Convention of the genre:  Guitars, drums, vocals, emphesis on performance
Other points of interest: concept based, use of technology, expensive video, 'cock rock' - men domionate genre - Angela Mcrobbie.



Name of song: Something kinda oooh
Genre: Pop
Convention of the genre: Dancing, performance of song, flesh, close up to naughty bits.
Other points of interest: Women as sex objects, fulfils male and female fantasy




Name of song: When you wasn't famous
Genre: RnB, Hip Hop, PoP
Convention of the Genre: Narrative performance, Important locations with constant change, Mise-en-scene takes an important role
Other points of Interest: Genre hybrid, low budget videos, often low budget videos.

The History Of The Music Video

Moving Images and sound had been around separately since the early 1900s but only started to merge together in the year of 1922 when sound was dubbed over the top of a video, these video clips were known as 'talkies'.

This then developed in the 1950s when the use of musical films became increasingly popular.  These were often large dance performances with various music placed over the top.  Around the same time Elvis began to release films to his own music.  These films were often aimed at rebelling teenagers

In the year of 1967, The television programme 'Top of the Pops' first started to air videos when artists were unable to attend the studio.  An example of this was the promo video for 'Strawberry Fields' by 'The Beatles'.  This video featured the band supposedly 'larking around' in a field.

'Bohemian Rapsody' is considered as the first real music video, produced in 1975 it only cost £3000 which is a mere shadow of the majority of videos made today.  The reason why they decided to produce a music video was because the song was so hard to perform live.

In 1977 the first television programme was created which only featured music videos, the station was named 'Popclips' and was a huge success, especially with the younger generation.

In 1981 MTV made its first appearence on the television and it's first song to show was 'Video Killed the Radio Star'.  They were critiscised heavily with people saying that the music video would never last, and they only had 200 videos to circulate over the channel.  The music video gres in strength though with more and more artists creating them and soon MTV started to take off.

The music video kept increasing in popularity and by 1985 it had started to take the transformation from an artistic way to tell the song, to an industrial way to sell records and promote the music.

1987 was when MTV-europe was launched. It was broadcasted to 1.6 millions homes, and by 1988 it had achieved over 3.5 million subscribers. The helped promote music videos to a worldwide audience.

From 1989 to 1991, Madonna's music videos; Express yourself, Vouge and Justify My Love, win the best director award three years in a row.

MTV moves to more television based programs and series, denouncing themseves as just a music channel. The Real World, a fly-on-the-wall documentry based in New York was MTV's first TV series.

1994 VH1 was launched in the UK. As more televison producers realised there is money to be made from Music Video Channels.

MTV has gone on to make more specifed channels, such as MTV Dance.

Action Plan

This is the schedule that we hope to follow to the completion of our project:


Week 1
22/11/2010
Research - History of the music video, Textual analysis, What is a music video/ art vs industry
Planning - Discussion about possible songs, E-mails to the band


Week 2
27/11/2010
Research - Information on genre, narrative and audience, Audience Questionnaire, Where are music videos shown?
Planning - Decisions about your chosen song


Week 3
6/12/2010
Research - Information about influential directors, Information about your chosen band, Research into ancillary texts


Week 4
13/12/2010
Planning

Week 5
20/12/2010
Christmas Holidays

Week 6
27/12/2010
Christmas Holidays

Week 7
3/1/2011
Research and Planning

Week 8
10/1/2011
Filming

Week 9
17/1/2011
Filming

Week 10
24/1/2011
Editing

Week 11
31/1/2011
Editing

Week12
7/2/2011
Editing

Week13
14/2/2011
Finish Editing and Start Ancillary Tasks

Week 14
21/2/2011
Half Term Holiday

Week 15
28/2/2011
Ancillary Task

Week 16
7/3/2011
Ancillary Task

Week 17
14/3/2011
Ancillary Task

Week 18
21/3/2011
Evaluation

DEADLINE 25.3.2011

Introduction

Welcome to our Media blog, throughout our coursework we will be recording our progress and development of the production of a music video.  We will be providing you with regular posts to keep you updated on the different stages of our work.  As well as creating a music video we will also be designing and making a Digipack, which will include DVD packaging and an advert for the release of the music video.
Thanks for following us, we hope that you enjoy our quest.