The music video for "Fire" by Kasabian tells the narrative of the band members attempting to rob a bank in a western-style town, but failing. It is filmed to appear as though it takes place in the past, with old western costumes and settings. Throughout the video, the band members are shown singing, miming, and using their guitars as props to portray the narrative of the failed bank robbery.

1. Sarah Cunningham
Music Video Analysis
“Fire” – Kasabian
The second music video I have chosen to analyse is “Fire” by Kasabian, released on October 3rd 2009.
The song is of the indie rock genre and is mainly a narrative style combined with some performance.
This video tells the story of four men, the members of Kasabian, attempting robbing a bank, but
failing, in what appears to be set as a wild-western like town. To analyse the video, I used Lacey’s
Repertoire of Elements; Character, Narrative, Iconography, Setting and Technical and Audio Codes.
The music video appears to be set in a quiet town, a couple decades back, as everything appears
older and not so modern as today for example; the old appearance of the bank, and the use of a
Volkswagen camper van. The town seems similar to a desert – with the warm, yellow-tinted/washed
out colours running throughout the video and the desertedness of the town. One of the characters is
also shown wearing a hat similar to that of a cowboy – this suggest that the direct has purposefully
tried to convey a wild western theme/setting.
A clip within the video shows the character in the hat walking towards the camera, enabling the
viewer to get a deeper sense of the setting – iconography is used here within the mise en scene
when showing the desert in the background and gradient sky, as well as the characters costume,
giving the sense of a wild western shoot out.
The main characters of the video consist of four men, the members of the band Kasabian, all dressed
in different styles: most which portray the old western style in some way. The first character to make
an appearance is shown to be wearing a denim jacket with denim jeans, boots and a red neckerchief.
He also has long, untamed hair. This use of denim and a red neckerchief makes the view relate the
character to a stereotypical cowboy as they appear wearing similar clothing. This character is also
shown with a toothpick in his mouth – iconic of a cowboy as they as sometimes portrayed chewing
on a toothpick in old western films.

2. The other characters within the video are shown of similar style; one is shown wearing denim jeans
and a plaid top which can be conveyed as quite old fashioned, however, this character is also
wearing a baseball cap which reminds the audience that it is modern day. Another character is
shown in a long trench coat and cowboy hat – this character is portrayed mysteriously yet still
related to the old western style of the video.
The narrative of the video is mainly narrative as the band members show the story of robbing a bank
to steal the bag of music note, and being unsuccessful. This narrative style is filmed chronologically
as each event happens in the order it is supposed to - however, a clip within the first 30 seconds of
the music video shows the bag of music notes which the band members are aiming to steal, which
also features on later in the video. This could have been done by the director to foreshadow the
upcoming events.
The video also shows clips of one band member singing/miming along to the lyrics, as well as guitars
featuring in various clips making the style a combination of both narrative and performance.

3. The video conveys a sense of a past era, as the video quality appears as it would have a couple
decades back in comparison to the first video I analysed which was published only a few months
before Kasabians “Fire”. The difference in quality suggests it was done purposefully to make it seem
like it was made a few decades ago.
CCTV footage is used within the video to give an authentic feel to the robbery, showing the
characters through their attempt to rob the bank. This also allows the director to get many different
angles of the characters during the robbing scene and shows the audience what was happening in
each section. The CCTV footage also shows the audience the time of the event happening, keeping
with the chronological narrative style. An over the shoulder shot is used at the beginning of the
video, showing one of the characters reflection in the window of the bank miming along to the lyrics
of the song – this signifies the performance style of the video.
Also within the video, the characters, the band as well as the police, are shown using their guitars as
fire arms – this could be a parody of a past music video by Judas Priest, in which they also use guitars
as a form of firearm. The incorporation of the guitars also adds to the performance genre, as it
highlights the fact that they make music and reminds the audience of this.

4. The video conveys a sense of a past era, as the video quality appears as it would have a couple
decades back in comparison to the first video I analysed which was published only a few months
before Kasabians “Fire”. The difference in quality suggests it was done purposefully to make it seem
like it was made before camera quality became clearer and sharper.
The video is very similar to Judas Priests “Breaking the Law” video which was created in 1980
showing an example of intertextuality. The video shows a band breaking into a bank and using their
guitars as a form of firearm as in Kasabian’s “Fire”. This is also an example of pastiche, which
suggests that Kasabian used the ideas from Judas Priest’s video and incorporated it into their own.
This may also be the reason behind the video lacking in quality to make it look more genuine and to
make it appear more similar to Priests’ video.