Analysis of rock music videos for coursework

1. Music Video Analysis
Matthew McMinn

2. Notes-Foo Fighters, Walk
• Intro sequence adding to the story, no music
• Guy stuck in traffic, miserable
• Gets a bit frustrated
• Gets out the car and walks like the name of the song suggests, then the music starts
• Walks down a street alone
• Beats shop keeper with a sweet
• Pushes a telephone box over
• During every chorus he shoves food into peoples face (after 2 choruses)
• Guy pushed into dog poo
• Steals a golf kart
• Running from the police
• First sight of the WHOLE band playing in the last 1minute and a half of the video, police surround the building the
band were playing.
• Little added clip at the end adding to the story of the video.
• The story behind the song (IMO) is a guy living his ordinary boring life and he has enough of being “pushed
around” he goes on a rampage.
• The lyrics “learning to walk again” is not necessarily about learning to walk but a guy trying to find his place in the
world.
• As he walks he lip sinks to the song so we instantly know he is the lead vocalist for the band
• Not got a lot of money, as he gets angry at $29.99 a month for a phone contract
• Conventions of a rock band with the tattoos and long messy hair but this is contradicted with the shirt, tie and
trousers-this shows confusion in who he is till the last minute and a half where he unbuttons the shirt and loosens
the tie-shows he has found who he is.
• At the end the band are holding guns, these are usually used in magazines with rock bands as a phallic symbol
• Intertextuality f the film Falling Down- FIND DIRECTOR!!!

3. Notes-Foo Fighters, The one
• Intertextuality of the film orange county starring Jack Black
• Standing on top of the school dining tables, conventions
• The song is the soundtrack for the film
• Begins with a re-enactment of the scene from the film, cutting between
the real scene and the re-enactment, this is continuous throughout the
video
• Rock guy breaks a girls heart at the end, conventions
• Singer begins to tear up and cry at the end which contradicts usual
conventions.
• Punk rock looking guy made to play violin, against usual conventions
• Mimes, flutes, saxophones, dancers, ballet, dinner people all random but
shows the different cultures within a school, so shows conventions of a
high school within the film the sound was written for but goes against rock
conventions
• The film and type of music contradict each other

4. Notes-Black Keys, Gold On The Ceiling
• Live, and in recording studio
• A lot of shots of the crowd enjoying themselves, shows care for the fans
enjoyment not their own personal gain
• Everything shown is shot as if shooting some sort of documentary of their
experiences
• Including, live performance, recording studio, wardrobe fitting, photo shoot.
• Everything centred around the band, mainly shots of them playing instruments,
not a lot of close ups to the instruments though to be honest.
• Against rock conventions of the long hair. The drummer looks slightly nerdy. Lead
singer looks similar to Ronan Keaton who was part of a pop band
• Shows stuff such as a SOLD OUT sign suggesting great popularity
• Sign up like an old movie theatre saying ALBUM RELEASE SHOW. Suggests the
purpose of this music video is to promote the album. The video does this by
showing people who view this video what the band are like, this allows people to
feel closer to the band as it gets more personal showing the lives of the two
members.
• Shows various destinations of where they are performing to promote concert
ticket sales

5. Analysis of the Video, ‘Walk’
The video has an added clip before the music starts. This adds to the
story and the message that the song is trying to push across too its audience. During
this there is a Coldplay bumper sticker on a persons car, there is a then a cut to the
singers face which suggests that people don’t understand what good music is and that
there is something wrong with the world. This is also emphasised with the “Bieber is
my co-pilot” bumper sticker. These bumper stickers are examples of intertextuality.
As foo fighters have used this intertextuality in their video Once the singer sees “Punk
is dead” graffiti on the wall he becomes enraged. This suggests that he believes
otherwise and that he wants to prove this.
The whole video is in homage to the film ‘falling down’ where a similar
sequence is followed in the film. This shows intertextuality within the video and so
maybe intertextuality is something we should consider putting into our music video of
he Foo Fighters song we have chosen. If this is a recurrence in other videos then I feel
it would be the right decision in order to be able to reach a similar audience. If this is
not a recurrence when we come to compare all of our analysis's of music videos we
shall not go along this path.
There are plenty of rock conventions used within this video such as the
long messed up hair and breaking of the rules and not caring. Andrew Goodwin
introduced and found conventions that were repeated in every genre of music and
their videos. This video is a narrative which is an aspect Goodwin identified In this
video the central character breaks a lot of rules/laws in this video and not caring
about what people think. This has been linked with the rock genre for years now and
it is still continued today showing the band as a rock band. Examples of this rule
breaking includes assaulting a shop keeper and fast food worker, this shows his
uncaring of breaking the rules. A lot of this happens within the chorus of the song
when the pace picks up linking this to the aggression the character shows.

6. Analysis of the Video, ‘The One’
The video begins with clear intertextuality of scenes directly
from the film alongside the same scenes rein acted by the star vocalist of
the band.
This video is to go along side a film ‘Orange County’ conventions
of the rock genre are used throughout the video such as the breaking of
the rules and not caring what other people think. An example of this is
when the main character of the video jumps up on top of a table playing
his electric guitar. This shows rebellious behaviour towards the rules and
this suggests that this is what the audience respects them for.
However there is a contrast in the rock convention within this
video. A young lad walks into a music lesson in school and is given a violin
even though his clothing suggests that he should be playing in a rock band
with an electric guitar. These images try and explain the song which is an
aspect of music videos Goodwin found.
As this song is used as the soundtrack for the film it is important
to also add conventions associated with the film into the music video. This
is done whilst the guitarist is on the table in the dining hall playing his
guitar on a table. Many different high school cultures are shown such as:
Mimes, flute players, saxophone players, dancers, ballet dancers, etc. As
the film is set in a high school this seems suitable to have in the video. Saxophonist and
Dancer

7. Analysis of the Video, ‘Gold On The
Ceiling’ This music video seems to have been shot in a documentary
follow around type of style. There are certain instances where the bend
are playing in a live environment and in a studio. This shows the band
getting slightly intimate with their fans as the video just shows us their
daily lives and basically takes the fans on a journey through a simple music
video. The music video is almost shot as a promotional video. I think this
because there are a lot of clues purposefully placed into the video to show
popularity of the band. An example of this is some sold out signs posted up
for the duo’s concerts and that sort of thing.
The theories from Andrew Goodwin used in this video will be
the camera work used. A lot of long shots of the fans are shown enjoying
themselves during the video. This shows the bands care for their fans
enjoyment more than there own personal gain. Also we rarely see any
close ups of the two guys, most of the shots are long shots or medium
shots of the band playing their instruments. We see from these shots that
the band go against the usual rock conventions. We usually think of long
hair with lots of tattoos. However these two guys have neither of those.
One guy looks rather like the usual computer geek whilst the other guy
looks like pop star Ronan Keaton.
Also, to reinforce the looks of the possible purpose of this video is the fact a lot of
concert destinations are shown throughout the video. This further backs up my earlier point that
this music video has been made for promotional purposes to promote the album! This ties in with
the tour they seem to be doing for the album release also.