This document analyzes and summarizes four music videos: 1) Weezer's "Buddy Holly" video uses intertextuality by recreating the style of the 1950s TV show Happy Days to associate themselves with Buddy Holly and promote recognition. 2) Foo Fighters' "Long Road to Ruin" video uses humor and parody of telenovelas to entertain viewers and gain recognition through its narrative and involvement of actor Rashida Jones. 3) Pearl Jam's "Do the Evolution" video coherently illustrates the song's lyrics through animation, an unexplored style that captures complex concepts, and rhythmic matching of clips to the audio. 4) Common themes across the videos include gaining

1. Analysis

2. Buddy Holly - Weezer
This is an example of a video which recruits intertextuality as a method of gaining
recognition. There is a set style of ‘Happy Days’ the T.V show from the 70s, which
advocates a very bright, jolly mood and is set in the 50s. This is reflected in the band
and indeed entire casts clothing and behaviour. The video has also been edited in
such a way as to produce a vintage feel, which again agrees with the overall style.
On the topic of editing they have also spliced in footage from Happy Days which
features the Fonz and other characters. Their reasoning for having a 50s vintage
feel is because their song is titled ‘Buddy Holly’ who was big in the 50s as an early
rock and roll producer. By putting themselves in the same court as Buddy Holly,
what Weezer have essentially done is made an association. All this kind of thing is
good for publicity and sales, which is what music videos are all about. Another thing
they have done to increase exposure is put this video on the Windows 95 install
disk. This may seem serendipitous but it would have been inexpensive to do, it
would help draw a larger audience, and on top of all that push a quirky style for the
band. When looking at the lighting it has a washed out feel, which also gives a
vintage feel.
This video complies with Andrew Goodwin’s book from the 90s in that there are
frequent close ups of Weezer, and has an audience that looks at the band as they
are playing, on top of that the band look at the girls in the audience, and the root
theme of a TV show also re-enforces notions of looking at something. The video
also reflects the genre of the music in that it is rather churlish and playful. In terms
of the mise en scene they are all wearing cloths from the 50s. The lighting is
standard. The camera work references Happy Days in that the whole video is shot
from only a few angles, much like the multi-cam sitcoms of the 70s. Another
example would be Seinfeld.
Additionally this video was directed by famous music video director Spike Jonze,
who has directed many famous music videos throughout the 20th century. Having
this name attached to the video draws in a crowd which also aids in exposure. Link to video

3. Foo Fighters – Long road to ruin
This is a video which uses humour to keep its viewers entertained.
The video is a parody of ‘Telenovelas’ which are low budget TV
dramas from countries like Mexico and other Latin American
countries. They are characterised by overly dramatic actors,
constant love affairs and overzealous colour correction, and these
are exasperated throughout this feature with a specific lighting
and acting style. The main essence of the video is that it is fun, and
this is reflected by the fact that the band members play roles
within the narrative. This is a common sight when it comes to the
Foo Fighters as their video for the song ‘Learn to Fly’ also employs
humour as it’s recognition gaining tactic. Other famous actors are
also involved such as Rashida Jones which helps the video gain
extra recognition.
The video has sections where Dave Grohl, who is the lead singer of
the band is singing to the camera. This is something which is
typical in music videos and also gives the viewer a break from the
narrative and caters to the portion of the audience who aren’t as
interested in the narrative. During one sequence in the video
(1:17) Rashida and Dave are being spied on by Little Jimmy. This
complies with Andrew Goodwin’s theory of voyeurism in music
videos, and much like the first video I analysed this is supposed to
be a TV drama which is also something to be viewed. There is also
footage of the band playing live which supports Andrew Goodwin’s
theory further. The narrative of the video alternates between a
soft washed out colour filter and a natural uncorrected colour
filter. This is to show the difference between the fiction of the TV
show, and the harsher nature of reality. The switch is motivated by
something violent happening in the narrative. Link to video

4. Pearl Jam – Do the Evolution
This is an example of a video in which the narrative coherently follows the
message of the lyrics. This alone co-insides with Andrew Goodwinsmusic
video staples in that music videos have a direct connection to the music.
There are various queues throughout the song with relate directly to the
shot you see. Examples would be the images on this slide with the lyrics
being sung in the audio track.
This music video is an animation, which is a relatively unexplored style. The
benefit of using animation is you can capture far more complex concepts
which would otherwise cause great difficulty if captured using live action, for
example at the start of the video ‘life’ is supposed to set in motion with the
splitting of microorganisms.
This video is in some areas rhythmically matched with the audio, certain
clips such as the blacksmiths hammer and the judges gavel have each
wielder hit a surface in time with the song. This helps tie the song with the
video and also complies with the fluid editing style of all the clips put
together.
“Im at piece, I’m the man”
“All the rolling hills, I'll flatten 'em out, yeah”
“Admire my son, he's my clone”
Link to video