1. Alicia Keys and Jack White
‘Another Way to Die’
Music Video Analysis http://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=suXkdsftsVU

2. Background
● The song was written by Jack
White and performed by him
featuring Alicia Keys. It’s
purpose is to advertise the 22nd
James Bond film ‘Quantum of
Solace’ as the song is the theme
music to that film.
● It was recorded in 2007 and
released in October 2008, with
the music video released on
YouTube in September 2008.
● It is an alternate rock song.

3. Type of Music Video
● It is very much a performance video set in two
locations. A desert and a CGI wavey-line type
of place that is difficult to describe. There
seems to be no narrative to the video, it is just
the two singers performing the song in both
locations.

4. Genre Characteristics
● It doesn’t really behave like a rock
video. The costumes are a dinner,
posh dress and tuxedo which
instantly suggest a pop song because
they have that happy exciting feel
which is common of a pop song. The
lighting is also really dark and
mysterious, too dark for alternate
rock, which makes it look more like
an “emo” heavy rock song than an
alternate rock song. Also the gold
waving lines look posh which again
isn’t common of an alternate rock

5. Relationship between the visuals and
the lyrics.
● The visuals have absolutely nothing in common with the
lyrics. The line that shows this best is ‘It’s just another
way to die’ and the video doesn’t show any methods of
death or anyone dying or any other connotation of that
line. The video may contain a gun barrel and Daniel
Craig holding a gun, but these aren’t pointed at anyone
or at anything that could do any damage thus meaning
there is nothing in common between the visuals and the
lyrics.
The Gun barrel sequence

6. Relationship between the visuals and
music
● The video is slower paced than the
fast paced music, creating a calm
and relaxing effect, however at
some points where there is a
guitar beat (like at 03:25) the
video jumps a bit and does a quick
zoom in and a quick zoom out to
try and artificially create a fast
paced effect without having to be
edited quickly.

7. Shot Types
● There are a range of shot types,
most of them are two-shot so that
both artists can be seen performing
on screen, like when she is at the
piano and he is at the guitar.
However, there are some mid-shots
and individual close ups to help
suggest important lines for each
performer or maybe show what line
is their favourite or just to make the
line seem stronger to the audience.
This happens a lot during the

8. Voyeurism
● There is no voyeurism in the video. This makes
the performers look respectable and more
trust worthy as they are not using sex to sell
their images. This helps make them appear
more talented as they do not require sex to
sell their music.

9. Intertextuality
● There is a lot of Intertextuality with
the Bond films in the music video.
He is wearing a James Bond style
outfit from the DVD cover of
‘Casino Royale’ and she is wearing a
stereotypical Bond Girl dress. The
location is the same desert from the
film ‘Quantum of Solace’ and at the
end, Daniel Craig as Bond is in the
video holding the machine gun, the
same shot from the ‘Quantum of
Solace’ trailer. There is also a gun
barrel sequence which is the
famous opening to the Bond films.