1) The document analyzes the music video for the Radiohead song "Lotus Flower" in terms of genre, media language, representation, and narrative. 2) The genre is described as alternative rock, shown through the abnormal setting and Thom Yorke's unusual dancing. 3) Elements of media language used include camera movements matching the music, editing matching changes in the music, and juxtaposition of dark and light tones. 4) Representation in the video relates to the song's lyrics about escapism and disappearing, shown through Yorke's dancing entering another world.

1. Radiohead – Lotus Flower Music Video
Analysis
Artist - Radiohead
Track – Lotus Flower
Genre – Rock/Alternative
Album – King of Limbs
Released – 2011
To further grasp the concepts of narrative shown through camera,
editing and mise-en-scene, as well as understanding genre and media
language I have decided to analyse the music video of Lotus Flower.
This song is by a band called Radiohead who are an English rock
band.
Genre
The genre of this music video is alternative rock. Barry Keith Grant
states that audiences recognise media texts by recognisable
characteristics. For alternative rock this may include abnormal
locations and alternative clothing/costume worn by people in the
video. Different styles of lighting are also used to reflect mood,
for example in this video the opening sequence of shots are gloomy
with small parts of side lighting to reflect the narrative and
overall mood of the video. The video to Lotus Flower is a series of
the same thing shot with different camera angles and shots. It shows
a man dancing quite strangely in the video making his body move in
weird ways. This all contributes towards the genre of the song as it
gives the audience questions as to why he is doing that in an
abandoned location.
Goodwin’s theory of star image comes into practice here as when the
camera is closer in the video the audience can instantly see that
the man dancing is in fact lead singer of Radiohead, Thom York. This
is important to the genre as it meets the audience’s expectations of
seeing the band or members playing in the video, which is typical in
rock music. However, Radiohead are known for being quite different
and breaking conventional laws in terms of this so it would not be
unusual for them to create a video with none of the band in. This
links in with Jason Mittell’s theory that industries use genre to
sell their products to the audience.
In relation to camera and editing there are some recognisable
‘alternative/rock’ characteristics in this music video. For example,
the camera shots have a lot of high angle shots as well as varied
shot types that show the lead singer up close as well as from a
distance. Low key lighting is a typical feature of this genre of
music videos and this video does have a lot of low key lighting that

2. creates a gloomy atmosphere at first in the video. However during
the video brighter lighting is also used to contrast the darker
points in the video. It is interesting because all the time the shot
is showing Thom York dancing continuously. The editing in this video
does not follow typical generic conventions of cutting between band
and narrative or have close ups of instruments. The editing in this
video features a lot of multitakes played for a long time in the
video, changing the camera angles and shots when the music changes.
I believe Thom York’s facial expressions in the video are vitally
important when researching into the genre. Whilst the video is
fairly strange and abnormal, which is expected, the audience starts
to grasp the idea behind the video as it goes on. His performance
builds up to more adventurous movement and concentrating facial
expressions that give the idea he is dancing for expressionism or
escapism. When reviewing this the video was dubbed as art in
relation to Thom Yorks spastic dancing.
Media Language
This music video backs up Godwin’s theory that performers and
objects in a video move in time with the music. Thom York moves
perfectly in time with the music so the video is choreographed
really well. Juxtaposition is used really well in this video, for
example having dark shadowy tones in an outside environment. The
fact that the video is in black and white enhances this and
maximises it to effect. Vernallis’ theory of camera moving in time
with the music is important in this video as it not only reflects
the genre but it helps build the narrative in this video. The camera
follows Thom York as he dances around, cutting in when the music
changes.
Goodwin’s theory of thought beats is also evident in this video as
the camera will change to a different shot or cut zoom in or out
when a distinguishable beat is heard in the song, this makes the
video more dramatic which fits in with the song. The pace of editing
is also really effective in this music video. For example the song
starts of slow with Thom York slowly dancing strangely flailing his
arms around. As the song climaxes and the speed of the music
increases the editing is quick and jumpy and shows multitakes of him
dancing exceptionally quick throwing his arms around at top speed.
This is important in the video as it varies the scenes in the video
and stops it from getting boring. I think it is done really well as
the video is very basic i.e. the full video is Thom York dancing in
the same place, but the way the video is directed maximises its
potential to be outstanding, which it resulted in being so.
Representation
In terms of representation in this video the audience has to relate
to the lyrics. For example ‘I will shrink and I will disappear’, I
believe that these lyrics relate to Thom York’s dancing in the video

3. of him trying to escape and disappear. ‘Slowly we unfurl, as Lotus
flowers’ is a lyrics in the song where Thom Yorks dancing becomes
more prominent and energetic. This represents the idea of him
believe in himself that the dancing is a way of feeling human whilst
behaving bizarrely.
‘Just to feed your fast ballooning head, listen to your heart’ is a
significant lyric in the song which can represent both love and
loss. I believe that it represents loss and the Lotus flower is a
memory of it still being real, which relates to his dancing –
comparing himself to the flower and wanting to be like one.
The video itself also represents the album. The album it titled King
of Limbs and the video shows Thom York being a mass of tangling
limbs in the grip of attack and, hence, the king of his limbs.
For representation, media is an insight into society. In this music
video Thom York shows the audience that society and real life can be
forgotten about by expressing yourself through art, in this case
dancing. It is all about escapism for him in the video which is also
shown through his performance and facial expressions as he appears
to enter another world when dancing.
Narrative
Despite most alternative rock music videos containing narrative I
believe that thing video lacks narrative. There is one overall
narrative in the video which is the lyrics relating to the idea of
the dancing. Thom York’s curiously spellbinding limbs give the
audience a strange realistic feeling. It tells the story of how he
is escaping from his real life and dancing his problems away. There
is also something really captivating about the music video. People
may think one man dancing in a room would become boring but it is
quite the opposite. When the audience starts to watch the video
there is something mind blowing and magical about it and you have to
watch the video all of the way through. This is because of the way
media theories have been used in the video in relation to genre,
narrative and media language.