This document analyzes the music video for "Not So Sad" by the indie rock band Faux Pas based on six conventions of music videos identified by Andrew Goodwin. The video takes place entirely in one location, appearing to be a band member's living room, with no storyline, due to the band's lack of budget and being unsigned. While fitting the convention of a live performance, it lacks professional elements and other conventions like reference to voyeurism, due to the band's inexperience. Rotations of the band members changing clothes are unexplained. The video concludes with thanks and a "blooper" scene. Overall, though amateurish, it is a valid attempt at a music video for an unsigned band.

1. Music Video Analysis – Not So Sad by Faux Pas
For my analysis of this video, I’m mainly basing it around the music video conventions
given by Andrew Goodwin in his book ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’. He names
the following six as conventions of music videos:
 Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in rock
video, dance routine.)
 There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals
 There is a relationship between music and visuals
 The demands of the record label will include the needs for lots of close ups of the
artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual
style).
 There is frequently reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens,
telescopes, etc.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
 There is often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music
videos etc.)
As Faux Pas are an individual band that have no record label, it is a lot harder for them
to produce high quality music videos, therefore explaining why the whole video takes
places in the same location. It is all a live performance music video with no storyline
because they probably didn’t have a budget to film, hence why the location looks just
like a band member’s front room and they appear to just be wearing casual clothing.
Right from the beginning, we can see that it’s quite an unprofessional video, because the
very first shot is rather shaky, suggesting that the camera is just being held by hand and
not by a tripod or other type of camera stand. This instantly looks rather
unprofessional, however it is to be expected with an unsigned band. As the camera then
pans down to reveal the guitarist playing, we get our first real look at the scene.
However, the lighting doesn’t appear to be great as the background seems rather dark
and shadowy suggesting there may have been a lack of fill lighting.
The next shot is then the shot that is used most commonly throughout the video. This is
the shot of all four members of the band playing the song. This is then used throughout
the video as the recurring shot. This
links into Andrew Goodwin’s
conventions, because this style of rock
music is often associated with live
performance in music videos and that is
what they have constantly throughout
here. This also provides a link between
the music and the visuals, as we can
clearly see the sources of the music
being played by the band.
There is also a couple of pieces of intertextual reference in this shot through the
costumes. One of the members is wearing a t-shirt with ‘Catfish and the Bottlemen’
written on it, who are another band of a similar genre to Faux Pas. Another is wearing a

2. t-shirt with discreet reference to film franchise, Star Wars and one could argue that
these t-shirts represent the fact these people are just ordinary males that like
everything regular people do. Hey are with the rest of society essentially.
After a while another two of Goodwin’s conventions comes to fruition when we see an
extreme close up of the singer’s mouth, which is in sync with the lyrics. Therefore, this is
a clear link between the lyrics and the visuals, but it is also a close up which one could
argue gives a personal feel to the band and helps the audience get to know them. There
also seems to be a lot of close ups of instruments throughout the video. This could be so
that the audience can see clearly the link between the music and visuals or it could be
because there is no storyline, so it makes the video a bit more exciting rather than just
having one shot of the four constantly throughout.
About a minute into the video we get the first real feature that makes you wonder why
they have done what they have done. The members of the band all rotate and change
clothes in an anti-clockwise direction. So the clothes stay in the same place but the
people are the ones that
move. It is quite difficult to
work out the reasoning
behind this as there doesn’t
seem to be any link to the
visuals, because at this point
the words being sung are
‘Just keep your head it’s not
so sad. You know that I don’t
mind’. This doesn’t seem to
suggest anything about why
the members have all
rotated. In the actual song,
the lead singer doesn’t
change either so this is not
the reasoning for it.
Throughout the rest of the
video there are constant changes like this and it’s hard to work out the reasoning for it.
As a group we contacted the band to ask if they had a reasoning, however as of yet we
do not have a response.
One of Goodwin’s conventions of a music video that doesn’t seem to be apparent
throughout the whole video though is reference to the notion of looking. There are no
screens, glasses or anything else that references looking in the whole video, which one
could argue is down to the fact they are inexperienced in the art of music video making.
There is also no voyeuristic treatment of the female body. They are not part of a record
label, therefore they probably are unaware of all the conventions usually used in music
videos, as Andrew Goodwin’s study was done based on professional music videos with
record labels.

3. Later on there is a lengthy instrumental where the band take the opportunity to do a lot
of jumping up and down and loud movements, which is stereotypical of rock music
videos. They are here
following the convention of
genre. They are clearly
really ‘going for it’ at this
stage, which some may
argue just looks a bit weird
and bizarre, because the
setting does just look like a
front room rather than a
studio or a concert stage.
Therefore, one could argue
the impression is given of
the band going mad rather
than the passion for the
music which they were no
doubt trying to convey to
their audience.
At the end of the video, the music calms down and there is a much slower settling down
part. This is the first time since a few seconds in hat the video location changes and we
see a shot of just one of the members sat on the floor playing his guitar, which is a link
between music and visuals. This makes a lot of sense because having the band continue
to ‘rock out’ to such a slow part of the song would have looked even stranger.
To conclude the video they have a another intertextual reference; this time to children’s
TV show, ‘Looney Tunes’ by having the ‘That’s All Folks’ screen come up that appears at
the end of Looney Tunes episodes. It’s hard to work out the reason for this but it could
just be the same as he reasoning for the t-shirts; they like the show and want to show
that they’re part of society just like everyone else and have the same interests and find
the same things entertaining.
Following this, there is a small post-
video. It plays the song and has one of
the members whipping another with a
tie while getting changed. This doesn’t
appear to have any reference to the rest
of the song, but was probably just put in
as a bit of a blooper to end the video on a
funny note. They also take this
opportunity to thank two people that
have helped with the video, while
playing a snippet of the track again over
the top of the clip.
In conclusion, though this video fits a very popular characteristic of the indie-rock genre
in that there is a lot of live performance, the video is clearly made by an unsigned band.

4. The lack of conventions such as reference to the notion of looking and voyeurism clearly
show that there is a lack of knowledge of the genre or conventions, because they are not
under the guidance of a professional. There is also a lack of a storyline as the whole
video is live performance, which is very uncommon in music videos. However, although
there is a clear lack of professional characteristics, it is still very much a valid attempt at
a music video for a young, unsigned band.