The document analyzes the music videos for "We are Young" by Fun and "Foundation" by Kate Nash using Andrew Goodwin's framework. It finds that both videos demonstrate characteristics of the indie-pop genre through their narratives, camerawork, lighting, and lip syncing. The videos also have illustrative relationships between the lyrics and visuals, and edit the visuals to the beat of the music. Close-ups of the artists are included to promote identification with the audience. Gender is not portrayed through a male gaze. No intertextual references are present.

1. Anita Bharath
Music Video Analysis
To construct the analysis into the music video’s ‘We are young’ sung by Fun featuring Janelle Monáe and ‘Foundation’
sung by Kate Nash, both in the Indie-Pop genre, I have used Andrew Goodwin’s framework for analysis.
Point 1- Music Videos demonstrate genre characteristics.
The Indie-Pop genre tends to contain the following conventions:
A narrative which normally involves a theme that gets explained to the audience.
Many close ups and mid close upsof the artist or band performing the song
The use of camerawork to give the video uniqueness, typical of Indie videos.
Naturalistic lighting is used for the specific context and location of the video.
Lip Syncing of the artist as part of the narrative.
Fun- We are young
One of Goodwin’s theories is that music videos are used as
promotional devices to not only sell the song but to also
sell the artist by identifying their ‘brand’ image. In this
video there are many wide shots of the band (Fun)
performing thus portraying their ‘brand image’ that they
are real musicians (as they are playing their own instruments), typical of the indie-pop
genre. However, at the same time, they present a lively and vibrant performance a typical convention of the pop genre.
The establishing shots of the band member’s identify the narrative of the video which is that the
band (Fun) is performing on a stage at a bar where a
riot breaks out. The master shot of a man walking
across to the bar also helps the audience to identify the
narrative as this shot establishes the Mise en scene
that reinforces the narrative that the band are
performing in a bar. Majority of Fun’s music video is
shot in slow motion; whilst parts of it are shot in real time.
Kate Nash- Foundations
Similar to Fun’s music video the narrative in this
video is identified through the use ofestablishing
shots of everyday home items such as
toothbrushes, watches and the separation of shoes
by a bowling bowl. These items become significant
throughout the video as they symbolise the
breakdown of the relationship.
The master shot of a couple which involves the singer
Kate Nash, playing a card game with her partner,
connotes this is a subtle symbol that the couple
areplaying mind games with one another.

2. Anita Bharath
Kate Nash’s video incorporates the effect of stop motion animation. The use of this
effect on the everyday items such as socks, watches andtoothbrushes clearly
identifies the narrative as they could symbolise what the song is about (twopeople,
in this case Kate Nash, growing apart from one
another which leads to a break up no matter
how hard it can be). This concept of
symbolisation links closely to Barthes theory
(1968) as he believed the narrative was made up of
signifiers which were objects that brought meaning to the
narrative. In his essay “The Death of the Author" he states ‘the author is merely a
"scripter" (a word Barthes uses expressly to disrupt the traditional continuity of
power between the terms "author" and "authority"). The scripter exists to produce
but not to explain the work.’ Therefore each individual audience member will
interpret these signifiers differently as each
signifier adds a new layer of meaning to the song.
Point 2- The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.
In the genre of Indie-Pop the relationship between the lyrics and visuals tends to be commonly illustrative although
some music videos may incorporate elements of amplifying meanings.
Both Fun and Kate Nash’s music video contain elements of illustrative and amplifying meanings. In both of these videos
some of the lyrics are physically represented on the screen. Below are a few examples from each music video:
Fun- We are young:
“My lover she’s waiting for me just across the bar”
As these lyrics are sung there is a shot of a guy walking over to the bar
where a female is waiting making this scene highly redundant.
“And you feel like falling down”
The lyrics ‘falling down’ are edited together with a scene where by a
mobile phone is being thrown in mid-air so it results in falling to give the
lyrics a physical representation for the audience.

3. Anita Bharath
An example of Fun’s music video containing an amplifying meaning is when
there is a point of view shot of themobile phone displaying a text message
reading "NOW!" giving the implication that the message was possibly a signal
to begin a flash mob. However this could just be one meaning of the text
message as theorist Barthes (1968) argued that the reader produces new
meanings when reading a text, making use of previous experiences. He states
in his essay “Death of the Author” that the essential meaning of a work
depends on the impressions of the reader, rather than the "passions" or
"tastes" of the writer; "a text's unity lies not in its origins," or its creator, "but
in its destination," or its audience.
Kate Nash- Foundation
“yeah, intelligent input, darlin', why don't you just have another beer then?”
The mid shot used here illustrates the above lyrics in a redundant manner and the
high angle shot of the empty beer bottles
reinforces the lyrics and could signify that the
relationship may be ending soon.
“You said I must eat so many lemons 'cause I
am so bitter.”
The mid shot here portrays a redundant message as the visuals match the lyrics in
an illustrative way.
Kate Nash’s music video also contains elements of amplfying messages for example the
stop motion animation of the everyday objects and
shots of the plastic toys which could be interpreted
as just simply representing the lyrics and reinforcing
the narrative or they can be interpretedas having a
new layer of meaning linking to Barthes theory.
Overall, both music videos commonly contain an illustrative meaning as Fun’s ‘We are young’ song is all about having
fun with friends and just about being ‘young’ and their video reflects that concept. Similarly Kate Nash’s song
‘Foundation’ is about the breakdown of relationships and her video imitates that with a physical and symbolic
representations.

4. Anita Bharath
Point 3- The relationship between the music and the visuals.
In the Indie-Pop genre as the meanings of the music vidoes have a high redunancy and contain illustrative meaning the
music in their music videos tend to be edited to the beat making the sound visual. Pete Fraser states “This idea is
absoutely cental to understand music videos as they build on the soundtrack’s visual asscoiations in order to connect
with the audience and provide additional pleasure.”
Andrew Goodwin uses the concept of ‘Synaesthesia’ when analysing the relationship between the music and the visuals.
He states Synaesthesia is the process by which sensory impressions are carried over from one sense to another i.e.:
what images we envisage when listening to music.
This concept of Synaesthesia can be seen in Fun’s ‘We are young’ music video. The video implies Fun’s performance
mirrors the intensity of the bar’s atmosphere; as Fun’s performance becomes increasingly intense and energetic so does
music and video reflecting the bar riot or flash mob that breaks out.
Beginning of the video
Roughly in the middle
Towards the end

5. Anita Bharath
Kate Nash’s videomakes use of editing on the beat, at the start of her music video there are some individual piano key
strokes, when each note is played the image changes to an everyday item
thus making the sound visual.
For example:
The first piano note is edited so that it cuts to a medium close up of
toothbrushes.
Towards the end of her video, editing on the beat is apparent as as the music is slowly coming to an end so is the
couple’s relationship; the stop motion animation clips are used to symbolise this. The gutair strum is again edited so that
as it is played the image or animation changes.
For example:
The first guitar strum is edited so that it
shows the stop motion animation shots of
the watches parting from another
symbolising the end of their relationship.
Point 4- The need for close ups as demanded by the recorded label.
As Fun are a band there are only a fewclose ups and mid close ups of the lead singer.
This is so the audience can identify with him and the fact the singer is looking directly
into the camera in this example allows the audience to feel a part of the song and
experience the artist’s emotions thus attracting them to purchase the song. This links
to Goodwin’s theory that the music videos are promotional devices.
Majority of the shots that are used to film Kate Nash’s lip syncing are shot in close
ups where she looking directly into the camera. Again, this is so the audience can
identify with her and experience the emotions she is experiencing to entice the
auidence into purchasing her song (Goodwin’s theory).

6. Anita Bharath
Point 5- The notion of looking particulary Mulvey’s theory (1975) of voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
Indie-Pop music videos don’t tend to focus on the notion of looking. Due to the Mulvey’s theory being outdated neither
of the videos tend to focus on her theory of the male gaze. In fact,in both of these videos they challenge Mulvey’s
theory as both the males and females are dressed appropriately and are not represented as being sexual objects.
Both the males and females
are fully clothed in a smart
attire.
The clothing here again
challeneges Mulvey’s theory as
the artist is dressed in vintage
attire.
Point 6- Music Videos often contain traces of intertextual references.
Neither of the videos ‘We are young’ by Fun featuring Janelle Monáe and ‘Foundation’ by Kate Nash contain any
elements of interetextual references as they are both in the genre of Indie-Pop; meaning their videos are predominantly
narrative based portrayingillustrative and amplifying meanings between the lyrics, music and visuals.