Goodwin's music video analysis

Applying Goodwin's Theory to "Africa Shox" by Leftfield

The music video for ‘Leftfield – Afrika Shox’ demonstrates many characteristics for the techno electronic genre. The mise en scene of the tall buildings and urban landscape represents the roots of the genre. Also, there are many shots of something incredible; however the camera is generally shooting the building through barbed wire. This suggests the roots of the man in the music video and connotes what his ancestors have been through. It represents imprisonment and the slavery. Along with this there is a drained pallet which connotes the grey technology. The flashing lights and police sirens in the video also demonstrate the techno electronic genre.

Throughout the video there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. The words in the song ‘Africa’ suggests that the man in the video is a slave and has travelled forward in time and people still don’t care for him. Also the lyrics ‘let’s get electrified’ are said when the black man has his hand on the barbed wire. This suggests that there is an electric fence which is either keeping someone out, or someone in. They would have had this electric wiring to stop slaves from running away which relates back to the video.

In the music video the editing is in time with the beat of the music. We see that the underground is separate from the real world and the video shows the world that the music originally came from. The break dancing shows that the whites colonised dances which originally came from people of the black origin. The mise en scene and noir lighting gives an image of where the music comes from originally and the zombie like image shows that it is still alive within the people who brought it to America.

The music video has many intertextual references with the poem ‘Limbo’. It signifies how the slaves arrived in America, bare foot and in rags. He is classed as the dispossessed so he is invisible to the people surrounding him. There are mant low angle shots of the white middle class who turns away from the black man as he stumbles before him.

Narrative structure within music videos

The video ‘Rabbit in your headlights’ by Unkle follows Tzetvan Todorov equilibrium theory on narrative structure and accepts the narrative expectations. The start of the equilibrium is the man walking down the road in the night. There is no clear reason why he is walking down the road which creates an enigma which the audience are keen to see answered. The disequilibrium is the when the man starts to get hit by cars. This is when the narrative changes. It disorientates the audience because even though the man has been hit by several cars he is still all in tact and alive. The new equilibrium is when the man takes his jacket off and smashes a car that hits him rather than it smashing him. This creates an action because once the jacket is taken off it drives the events along and everything changes.

                                                                                             

The video ‘Grapevine fires’ by Death cab for cutie also follows this theory on narrative structure. There is the narrative expectation of equilibrium – disequilibrium – new equilibrium. The narrative is told in a non linear way from the protagonist’s point of view. Throughout the video there are flashbacks which tell the story of the family that are in the fire and trying to escape. The use of pictures to tell the story allows the audience to make a connection with the people in the music video and to create a sense of sympathy towards them for losing everything they have.

The video ‘Stan’ by Eminem is told from two character’s point of view, the man and the woman. Along with the narrative structure there is also use of flashbacks which help tell the story and link with the lyrics of the song. This makes the audience sympathise with the man in the video. The music video has the narrative structure of Tzetvan Todorov’s theory. There is a clear structure of equilibrium – disequilibrium – new equilibrium which helps tell the story of the video. The car accident at the end of the video creates a sense of sympathy for the pregnant woman because she is now on her own and it alienates the man in the video from everyone else because of his obsession with ‘Eminem’.

Music Videos

This music video is the song 'Telephone' by Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce. It is an unconvential music video as it has a predominant story which doesn't fit to the lyrics. However, it does use some typical conventions of music videos such as the singer is miming the words of the song during the video. There is a narrative structure of equilibrium - disequilibrium - new equilibrium and is in a linear structure from the protagonist's point of view.



I like this video because it is quite comedic. There are pictures which help the tell the narrative. It has many conventions of a music video such as the shots of the singer.



I like this video because the narrative encourages us to watch it through to the end. It has an ambiguous story as it increases throughout the video. There are also some conventional shots of the singers, and the fact that it doesn't have a predominant story makes it a conventional music video.

New bloggggg!

This is my new blog!