General Music Video Research:

1. Babyshambles- F*ck Forever

After studying this certain type of music video, I feel that this nu-punk/indie genre of sound is aimed at a specific audience, and has quite an illistrative and traditional feel to it. As the video is largely focused on a 'classical' British element, such as a huge, hand sewn British draper/flag and the band's dress code, this connotes a redundant atmosphere to its audience. One of the ways how I feel it is redundant, is because in today's modern society, the people of Britain are now familiarised to other bands showing their pride for our country. I also feel that the importance of the flag being the main focus in almost every camera shot, could suggest the message that the band are giving is that after all of Britain's efforts- 2 World Wars, 1 World cup and many others, our country will not back down to anyone else and will (as the title says) F*ck Forever. This could also link in to the fact that in this current climate with immigrants arriving into our country every five minutes, the music video could connote a message telling them 'This is Britain and it will never be changed'
This is the case in many other British band videos (particularly indie/rock) in the modern world. Examples of other redundant British music videos are like 'Dirty Pretty Things-Wondering' where it shows a day in the life of a group of lads that have just woken up in London after a party the night before. It then goes on to show its audience what they get upto in the day's events e.g. getting on the tube. This is redundant to the British audience, as many indie music videos are filmed in a city or countryside location. It may also suggest to me that other audience's such as the USA may find these individualistic videos quite entropic. This is because in America, indie music hasn't really broke through to the mainstream sector, and many video's over there are filmed on a beach destination or an area that is 'well known' to its audience. The mise en scene layout of this video also comes to the conclusion of a very 'British' location. For example there are animals such as goats and chickens running around freely on set. This could connote quite an illustrative (Goodwin's Theory) motion, because I feel this process is unique and not very mainstream as far as video's are filmed. I feel the video is also quite amplifying. For example the dance movements that the lead singer is giving out is quite abnormal and strange, particularly as he isn't under any drink/drug influence. This may connote quite a home grown British attitude, as abnormal dance moves/actions are quite unique and uncommon in this day and age. I also feel that the lighting structure of the video affects the general view to its audience, for example- the lighting on the band members appear to be dark and gloomy when comparing the lighting to the British flag. I feel that this video's narrative structue, lighting effects and camera angles are all very useful in the guidence and help for our own music video. As we don't want to copy this video, we are going to use other various lighting effects such as natural, infa red and sepia imagery, along with various camera angles showing our character's facial expression's, body language, and nartratives they portray to the song choice and video structure.

The Libertines- Don't look back into the sun

I feel that this modern day music video has a variety of elements ranging from mainly a redundant peice, but with parts of high entropy levels. The setting/ mise en scene of the video is highly redundant, due to the fact that it is shot around the streets of London, But the garments of the band is entropic to its audience as each band member appear to be wearing brightly coloured 'vintage' military jackets in public. Although this may seem quite an entropic dress code for today's music video's, I feel that as other bands in the past such as The Beatles have been trademarked for their dresscode, I feel that fans of this type of illistrative form of music, may find elements of redundancy in their clothing. I also feel that the way the video is presented is quite entropic due to the camera appearing to be handheld and unsteady through most of the video. Music Video theorists such as Spike Jonez may have put his opinion and skill into this type of music video, due to the fact that it is quite unusual/unique but also as it is low budget


Oasis- Shakermaker

With Oasis's lashing British 1994 sound, Many people thought the new generation of britpop would rise once again. I feel that this particular video (Directed and filmed by Mark Szaszy) is very redundant due to the mise en scene setting and general outlook of the bands attitude and upbringing. From a working class background, raised on the deprived streets of Manchester, the four young men have crafted a piece of music which arrtacts a diverse mainstream of music connected to the britpop genre of the early 90's. The video is a redundant, traditional English video, for example the natural 'cloudy' and gloomy natural light that is exposed throughout the song also suggest quite an amateur and uncostly video. Mise en scene props include thrown out armchairs, overgrown grass and weeds in the garden, old, tatty terraced houses and graffiti ridden alleyways, which could also suggest that the video itself is based on previous memories from the band.

Oasis- Falling Down

In this recent music video, I feel that Levis-Strauss's binary opposed theory comes into action, due to the fact that the main characters (the royal family)are poccessed to be well behaved and loyal to their country. Here we see that the princess of the royal family is opposing this reputation and ends up waking up in a crack den. This is created through lighting effects, mise en scene props and atmosphere, and also a wide range of close up imagery, expressing the body language of the princesse's face as she realises that (Liam & Noel) know her secret and treat her as if she is just a regular 'drug addict'. This is also shown through their body language and entropic facial expressions.

I feel that this unique video shows the real inside of the royal family and how they are seen across the world as 'perfect'. The fact that this video is very entropic on some levels (the beautiful princess waking up in a crack den) but also very redundant- many of the British public see the royal family as not that special and have something to hide.I believe this video supports the dominant idea that if you do something extremely wrong or make mistakes in life, it will eventually return to haunt you. I also believe that the music video compared to its lyrics are very disjunctive in the way they do not relate under any circumstances.