Textual Analysis 11 - Varien 'The Ancient and Arcane' CD Cover

Texual Analysis 10 - Mashd N Kutcher Website

Textual Analysis: Mashd N Kutcher Website from Max Biddlecombe

Textual Analysis 9 - Madeon 'Finale' CD Cover

Textual Analysis 8 - Madeon 'Finale' Music Video

We decided to analyse the song we are creating a music video for; Madeon's 'Finale'.



We have presented this using the easel below.

Textual Analysis 7 - Katy Perry 'California Girls'.

Katy Perry – California Gurls from 09robebr

Textual Analysis 6 - Darude 'Sandstorm'

The music video for the song 'Sandstorm' uses a lot of the genre conventions for a dance song. One of which is the uses of movement; with the cast of the music video running through the streets of a large city. The camera shots reflect this as it follows the cast running, with a combination of high angle and low angle shots, tracking shots as well as shot moving away from the characters in the music video.


These different shots, along with the fast cuts, keeps the video with the fast pace of the song; conveying towards Goodwin's 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' theory (1992), where the music reflects visuals.




The editing used in the music video, as mentioned before, matches the visuals. The cuts are usually in time with the song and its beat, along with the pulsating of the screen in time with the beat allows this music video to maintain its pace throughout. There are even shots with the dog used to bark in time with the song.




The music video uses a mini movie for the video, which involves a woman that appears to have stolen a briefcase and is chased by a man and a double agent who turns on the man near the end of the video. There is also a man, (presumably Darude), who is seen throughout the video and allows the women to escape into the sunset via a boat. The only problem I have with the video is the lack of sense it makes. Due to the lack of lyrics, the video tries to have a storyline but doesn't seem to work. However, other dance music videos have mini movies as well, which is likely where the video takes inspiration from.

Textual Analysis 5 - Televisor 'Find That Someone'

As a way to understand the genre that our group is doing, I have analysed Televisors' 'Find That Someone', as our song choice does not have an official music video. The song is of a similar genre to our own, as well as having some mention to romance.

The video introduces the artist in a literal way by using a zoom shot of an old T.V. with the artists name on in before zooming in. Despite the voice artist being male, most of the lip syncing is done by the females that appear throughout the music video; perhaps showing that relationship issues occur for both genders and not being biased.

The music video focuses on a number of things; one of which is colour. Pink, blue and green backgrounds are mostly used for each female to show the difference between them; constantly cutting to each shot quickly to match the pace of the song itself. The shot changes at least every line, if not quicker to keep with the pace of the song.

The video is also very literal shown in places such as where it says, 'You can tell me secrets' and has someone whispering into anothers' ear, and it saying, 'But I could never love' with a broken heart on the ground. There is also a look of shots of the women looking, particularly where it says, 'Find thae someone'. The majority of the lip syncing done is in the lines 'Just like you', where it cuts between each female to show their differences.
There is also relation to Vernallis' 'The Kindest Cut' Theory. This is due to the editing matching the beat of the song and lip syncing of the song between different characters, as well as cuts to different shots in time with the beat.

There is also a large use of eggs during the video that didn't seem to be relevant to the video at first, but made more sense as it went on. The eggs were used as metaphor for how people feel after unsuccessful relationships shown as there was use of the egg being crushed and a fried egg being place on the eyes and the yolk being broken to show crying.

Stop motion was used in the video to make not only inanimate objects such as string move, but also was used to make the females move in a jumpy way at the end of the song. The inanimate objects often spelled out 'You' when it was sung; continuing in the literal theme.

The video overall was interesting as it used lots of shot types and shots in general that helped support the lyrics. It was fast paced to fit the song and was unique that it was one that was memorable through the use of colour and interesting metaphors.

Original Music Video below:

Textual Analysis 4 - S Club 7 '7'

As one of our tasks is to make a CD cover, I have chosen to analyse a CD cover to help gain an insight on what a CD cover needs. The example I chose was S Club 7's '7'. It has very simple ideas behind it and is quite an easy cover to create, simply being mainly a photo of the band members.

Textual Analysis 3 - 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams

I have created a Glog about Pharrell Williams' 'Happy' and its link to Web 2.0.
Glogster

Textual Analysis 2 - Recommended Music Videos

In this lesson, we all recommended music videos to watch and analyze briefly. Below is a link to of Glogster post I made about the music videos I thought were the most interesting and creative.

Recommended Music Videos

Textual Analysis 1- Close to Me

The video for the song ‘Close to Me’ by The Cure involved the band going to the bottom of the ocean by falling off of a cliff in a wardrobe. The setting matched the music as it appeared a very relaxed scene underwater as the group were exploring the deep, (somehow without any breathing equipment).

There was a small amount of relevance between the visuals and the lyrics, the only exceptions being the ‘close to me’ whiles the group were in the wardrobe together and the close to me when the octopus is holding the lead singer. This also led to many close-ups of the lead singer both in and out of the wardrobe as he struggled to get away from the octopus. The rest of the song had little relevance to vocals; however the song itself did only consist of a six verses.

Despite the lack of lyrics, it made up for it in using the music and linking it with the visuals well, timing sways to the beat of the song as well as cuts to new shots consistently when the bar moves on. This can also be seen with the octopus as when the brass instruments play, the shots shift focus to it with a set of brass instruments playing.

There were no intertextual references found in the piece itself, but critics describe the scene as a ‘Goth pop version of The Little Mermaid’, despite the film being released after this. There were little aspects seen of looking. Very few shots had the cast looking at the camera itself, and were more interested in their surroundings.