Research: Music Video and Key concepts

THE ADICTS - JOKER IN THE PACK

All music can all successfully in one way or another be analyzed in a way that breaks down all the features into parts. I shall be talking about Genre, Narrative, Representation and Media Language relating to this video clip of The Adicts. It isn't a very traditional video clip, maybe because of its genre, or date setting, but i shall do my best to extract the right information into categories.

Genre: To figure out a genre from watching a video clip, close attention would have to be payed to the mise- en-scene such as costume, lighting, setting, etc. At first glance at costume i would say punk, the ripped clothes, leather jackets and tight jeans fit into such classification of England's 80's. What could be misleading is the make up, the painted faces depicting clowns or mime characters bring an edge of any other involvement in the genre of the music except from Punk. The setting in the performance is inside a dark club or room, this again would be a classification of the punk genre, as well as the crowd dancing the famous punk rock 'Pogo Dance'. In the first part of the video, which is a short speech about the characterization of being a Punk, the setting is on a playground, where they are playing cricket. This relates to the young teens they try to be at heart and the ease of their lives, which was what Punks wanted, life easy and their way.

Narrative: The video, however nontraditional it is, does have a structure of verse-chorus-verse. The chorus is obviously more predominant, as in most songs a repetitive part that people can pick up on quicker is the main feature. In this particular video i would say that the singer both narrates and performs in it, which is true because he is on stage performing the song, but at the beginning it is him talking about his views. So he is narrating possibly the meaning of the song, or why the particular lyrics.

Representation: Again, in this particular video we are both voyeurs and participants. Only because of the narration section at the beginning. Otherwise we would've been simply narrators watching his show. But because he voices his opinion, he is in a way inviting us to think about the topic and our own thoughts and views, or even why he has chosen to express his.

Media Language: The video is completely basic, judging on the fact it feels like a home made video, especially having the main scene at a concert they performed at. It is definitely not timed to the beat of the music. This doesn't however change the effect the song has, it just steals away from the core of a good video, which should be about the music and not secondary elements. Lighting isn't used purposefully, except in the gig room, where unoriginal spotlights are used on the band. Outside, natural lighting is used. Definitely, no special effects, of course this was to do with money, and lack of technology, but even if these were funded i doubt such a band would have chosen to use these. For the fact that they were Punk, and really wouldn't have been interested in such elements.