Institution and audience
‘What else is there?’ by Royksopp, has a music video directed by auteur Martin De Thurah. The track itself has been number one on the UK
view the video
share and compare feedback with other audience members
The artist of this track are Norwegian, so it is less likely to be viewed on TV music channels such as MTV, as these tend to show mainly American or British artists.
The video would mainly be used for focused viewing, because it was made by an auteur, audience members who appreciate this would want to watch the video and pass judgement on it, especially on websites such as YouTube, where they are able to comment.
In this track the character who appears to be lip syncing is in fact not one of the members of Royksopp, but a Swedish model Marianne Schröder. Dreijer is later featured in the video as a woman wearing a Victorian ruff, dining alone at a feast. This choice in using another woman to lip sync the words may be an attempt by the record label to make the music video more familiar to the audience, as Schröder is a very well-known model and brings star quality to the music video.
Genre and Narrative
'The Middle' by Jimmy Eat World has an interesting music video where all the characters at a party appear to be wearing only their underwear. This to start is an odd concept, and as an audience we feel quite alienated. However the protagonist of the video turns up fully clothed and becomes an outsider along with the audience.
The video follows him, trying to fit in with the people at the party, but not able to as he is still clothed and recognised as “different” by the other teens at the party. The video ends with him finding another girl, like himself fully clothed and they leave the party together. The video is a mixture of narrative with this story going on, but also performance as Jimmy Eat World are seen performing several times at this house party. The performance is needed to get close up shots of the band, which would have been encouraged by the record label in order to promote the band image. 
Andrew Goodwin's theory, Dancing in the distraction factory claimed that music videos contain six specific features. - link between lyrics and visuals
- link between music and visuals
- notion of looking
- intertextual references
- demonstrate genre characteristics
- demands of the record label
The video is an amplification of the track as it links up with the lyrics, the whole idea of “just be yourself” and “it's only in your head you feel left out or looked down on.” Are the reasons that he doesn’t change costume despite being the only one, but the other characters do appear to be judging him. The lyrics “you know they’re all the same” also fits in with the video, as all of the other characters are doing similar activities at the party and of course are all in very similar costumes.
The track itself and the visuals are also linked. The general mood of the track is upbeat and the heavy emphasis on drums and guitar show that it is the type of music that would be playing at an American house party as it is rebellious and has a fun feel to it.
This video could be considered art because it is making a statement about being yourself and not just following the crowd. The video is not particularly commercial, although it does show the band performing several times, but the main aim of the video seems to be sending the message of individuality to young listeners. The band is rebelling against American pop videos, where the protagonist is the “cool” guy and fits in. This video shows a more realistic view of the average teen just trying to fit in. It could be considered postmodern in the way it makes the other characters seem so ridiculously dressed and this could be a way of mocking other popular music videos which glorify this popularity.
Media Language
Blink 182’s music video to “All the small things”shows definite postmodernism and is very mocking of music videos for a lot of other popular genres. This is pastiche rather than a parody because they have used their own song, but are still mimicing other genres. The purpose of the video is to mock those of other bands or artists. The band construct an image through Barthe's semiotic codes, using codes such as costumes to show the band as:
- normal, not extraordinary
- playful
- fun
- down to earth
- don’t need to perform in any outrageous music videos to be a successful band.
- normal, not extraordinary
- playful
- fun
- down to earth
- don’t need to perform in any outrageous music videos to be a successful band.
The way in which the band mock these other genres is changes in costumes, for example they mimic
Girl band :
Wear tight black tops and seem to be rehearsing a set routine in a studio. All wearing the same outfit and trying to look seductive.
Classic boy band :
Romantic movie :
The band also make use of location to copy these other genres, such as using a beach to do slow motion runs on, as well as using this as an opportunity for one of the male band members to dress up as a “beach babe”. These references to other media texts are humorous because the audience are familiar with them and they are being represented as embarrassing performances.
Girl band :
Wear tight black tops and seem to be rehearsing a set routine in a studio. All wearing the same outfit and trying to look seductive.
Classic boy band :
wear loose, brightly coloured shirts, but also are shown to have teeth missing and perform with a wind machine blowing on them. They also show one of the band members dancing under what appears to be a waterfall, but it is later revealed to be another one of the band member up a ladder holding a hose pipe over him.
Romantic movie :
The band also make use of location to copy these other genres, such as using a beach to do slow motion runs on, as well as using this as an opportunity for one of the male band members to dress up as a “beach babe”. These references to other media texts are humorous because the audience are familiar with them and they are being represented as embarrassing performances.
Representation
Panic at the disco’s “Ballad of Mona Lisa” has a music video which is set in the Victorian era at a wake of a young man. The band use several influences from their previous videos in this, such as;
 |
| Same Church pews (panning shot) used in I write sin not tragedies and Ballad of Mona Lisa |
Steam-punk costumes
Same camera angles
References to Church and religion
Wearing the same black top hat as Urie did in the bands video for “I write sins not tragedies.”
The clocks in the video were all set to Nine, as a tribute to another previous hit, “Nine in the afternoon”.
In the video, Brendon Urie features as the lead singer of the band as well as the dead body of the boy. This means that he maintains a ghost like image when he is walking around the wake, making him seem magical or extraordinary, this supports Dyer's idea of a "Star Image". ( Dyer's Stars 1979 ) Brendon is definitley present in the video in the way that he is seen performing, but also fits the paradox of being absent as he is also seen to be dead.
Brendon Urie appears to be the victim in this video, and the woman “Mary” is the villain that murdered him. She goes through the video abiding by the “rules” that Victorians followed when at a wake. However we discover at the end that Mary is devious and was the murderer, and has been trying to cover it up the whole time. This switches challenges dominant ideologies that women are weak and are the damsels in distress, but rather the male is the real victim. At the end of the video however she is discovered, because of the cleverness of Brendon. This supports dominant ideologies such as males being more cunning and the idea that good will prevail over evil.
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