Manic Street Preachers- Motorcycle Emptiness

1. Shot count
Manic Street Preachers- Motorcycle Emptiness
Manic Street Preachers are an Indie Rock band; they released Motorcycle
Emptiness in 1992 on their first album Generation Terrorists. The single was
their main hit from the album and has lasted through the years as a memorable
song. The video was filmed illegally in Japan, as they were not given permission
to film therefore they created a “guerrilla” style video for the song. The duration
of the video is 5 minutes and 13 seconds long, and contains 88 shots.
For the majority of the song the edits are at a steady pace, however at --- there
are 13 shots which are shown at a faster pace to match the increase in tempo of
the music. Most of the edits are done through overlaying images and fading out
one shot into another, this does show the amateur factor of the creation of the
video but this matches the individual style of the band as they, at the time, were
looked down on and seen as something of a joke, whereas they were just
something different at the time.
There are many close ups and pan shots used through the video to show off the
band and the setting they are in.

2. Most of the close ups are of the lead singer James Dean Bradfield, which creates
star recognition, the audience recognising the lead singer the most. Although the
lyricist and backing guitarist Richey was a popular member so there are a lot of
close ups of him too, which feeds any “fan-service” desired by the audience.
When the entire band are seen, they are mostly seen standing around looking
nonchalant or bored while wearing sunglasses at night, this fits with the indie
rock genre as it portrays all the members as moody and unmoved. Some familiar
motifs of the band are seen through two of the members, Richey and Nicky,
wearing heavy eyeliner, which they are usually seen wearing.
There’s no storyline or clear narrative to the video, however some of the shots
match the lyrics, for example; the shots of them stood still within a busy crowd
while the crowd are mostly blurred out could possibly relate to the theme of
being an outcast which is shown through the lyrics “under neon loneliness,
motorcycle emptiness”. A common feature seen in this song and video is the
lyrics have a very pessimistic tone as the message behind the song is supposed to
be about how “society expects young people to conform”, however the visuals
are very bright and positive.

3. During the time this album and song was released the band had a huge fan
following in Japan, therefore the video being filmed in Japan could have appealed
to the Japanese fans, as there are many popular Japanese landmarks and some
aspects of Japanese culture in the area the video was filmed.
The lyrics of the video are about the expectations on young people there for the
song and video was aimed at younger people and sympathised with them, the
band possibly represent the younger generation, as they don’t fit in to the areas
they’re seen in and don’t blend into the crowd like everyone else.