This document analyzes the music video for the song "Giving Up the Gun" by Vampire Weekend. [1] It finds that the music video has both redundant and entropic features. [2] Many shots use common indie music video techniques like close-ups of band members and instruments, but others are more random like subtitles in different languages. [3] Overall the visuals do not clearly relate to the song lyrics, making the story confusing, and it does not follow Goodwin's Theory of relating visuals directly to lyrics.

1. Redundancy and Entropy
Vampire Weekend – Giving Up
The Gun
Redundancy : Predictable
Entropic: Unexpected

2. Introduction:
When researching, I chose the same genre in which we are going to chose for our main
music video. I felt that this would help me for ideas for our potential music video. It
will also make me more knowledgeable on which key feature to focus on whether it is
mostly Entropic or Redundant.
Overall, I would say that this is music video is more towards entropic because some of
the scenes are quite random and unexpected and don't relate to the song or convey
the lyrics well. I am going to show here shots which convey entropic and redundant
features within this particular music video.

3. This shot is overall entropic. This is the opening scene to an indie genre band music video. The
black and white background stands out which is the only redundant feature about this shot as this
type of genre are known for standing out and having their own identity and overall being noticed.
An entropic feature about this shot is the Japanese subtitles. As this is an American band, we would
expect everything to be in English as not many Japanese people would understand this kind of
music video being as the lyrics are all English.
There is also a random person which opens up the scene which allows the audience to be slightly
confused. Usually, a band member or the whole of the band will open up the scene to introduce the
music video to let the audience know who they are and to let them see their visual style. The use of
the props are quite interesting also. The boom box indicates a Pop/Hip Hop genre because of how
powerful they can be. It is also a style in which that genre is all about.
At this point the audience do not know what is going to happen because of how the music video is
being introduced. It leaves them slightly confused but intrigued because of how random the shot is
at this point.

4. Here, you see the band entering almost as if they are
late for their own music video. This is both an entropic
feature and redundant. It is entropic because you would
expect to see them already here and set up to introduce
the music video. However, the redundant part is how
the Indie genre is known to be quite independent and to
do their own thing. Another feature of their
characteristics is to be late but to not care about it
either. So this is a purposely thought out by the band to
show their visual style overall.
Long shots are used regularly in this indie genre music
video. These help to establish what is going on and to
understand the full effect of what they are trying to
show. In this particular shot it is allowing the audience
to know where she is walking to and as we recognise this
is a tennis net at the start of the shot, this may be from
the other players point of view which is also another
popular and commonly used shot.

5. This type of mid shot is also commonly used to show more detail and to show the expression of the
characters face. Thirty seconds in to the music video, they have edited the footage to be in slow
motion so far. This creates suspension and tension for the audience as they don't know what is
going to happen. The editing is crucial to any type of music video as this represents how the
audience are going to feel in throughout and gives them an indication of what is going to happen.
Overall I would say that this is a redundant feature as many music videos have this feature to show
the audience how to feel whether is suspense or excitement.
“I see it in your eyes” – these are the lyrics which are sung when showing this visual. When relating back
to Goodwin‟s theory, the visuals are in some ways relating towards the lyrics. This is redundant as you
would expect to see this to know what the story is about. In some ways you can see this as the girl in
looking into his eyes, however, the boy is looking away in the opposite direction, which is an entropic
feature. Throughout the video, the lyrics aren‟t striking out to be matching with the visuals. So this would
be an entropic feature overall based on he music video as a whole.

6. This is a redundant feature in this clip as with this
genre, they promote the lead singer the most as he will
be the one person which is going to be the face of the
record label. This close up helps to show and for us as
the audience to recognise the face and lead singer as the
main performer of the band. It also helps the audience
to recognise the whole of the band with just one of the
faces, as they cannot always a remember four to just
one band, which is what his Indie Genre tend to do.
Another redundant feature to this shot is that they tend
to show the instruments as no other genre do this,
which makes the band to be individual as they are
In this shot it shows a lot of editing has been put already known for doing.
into this music video. This may convey that they
have fallen back on their editing to make the
whole of the music video look fresh and fun.
Here, the editing stands out, however, this is
quite unique for this type of genre as they
usually don't edit much of their video as they
make I out o seem like real life. In this particular
shot, you can see the girl twice, which gives a
sense of movement and excitement to the song.
However, this does not relate to the rhythm of
the song as it is at quite a steady pace
throughout the whole of the video.

7. The clothing demonstrated in this clip is overall redundant and entropic. The reason
why it is redundant it because of how the audience view the Indie genre, they are
hedonists, which seek individualism, and they can wear what they want and to create
their own style. They also don't match in their clothing styles which is also another
redundant feature. As they are not all wearing the same, this shows how overall casual
the music video is. It isn't formal and wanting to impress the audience.
It is an entropic feature also because of how they are individually dressed. The typical
indie person will be wearing clothes which look as if hey don't care, such as
baggy/wripped jeans and shirts. However, none of these band members are wearing
these type of clothes which shows that they all want to be different to each other and
want to be there separate person.

8. Towards the end of the video, you see the subtitles come up again in a different language,
this is overall quite confusing as they had previously come up in Japanese and suddenly
changed to French. You would normally see subtitles for foreign films. Whereas with this
music video, you don't know what they are saying due to how the lyrics are singing above
this. The two people in this shot seem quite opposite as she is in sports wear and looks
quite nerdy compared with the man who is in the suit and glasses which conveys that this
may be the type of person to be cool and collective. They seem to be talking together in a
foreign language which may show how secretive heir conversation may be. This shot is
overall entropic for this type of music video due to what they are wearing and how they are
presented.

9. Overall this music video has both entropic
and redundant features, which are
strongly proven throughout the whole of
the video. When looking at the actual
story of the video, it is quite hard to
understand what is going on as the visuals
do not mach with the lyrics, making it
confusing at points to the audience when
trying to focus simply on the lyrics and
what the whole music video is about. This
clearly does not relate to Goodwin's
Theory due to the entropic features shown
throughout. The audience recognise that
it is based around a tennis court and a
small girl who is winning with each
player. However, „Giving up the Gun‟
makes it hard to put this lyric with a game
of tennis. It is also a redundant feature as
many music videos in this type of genre
do not match with the lyrics all of the time
due to researching previous videos.