MD Music Video Analysis

Rooftops - Lost Prophets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI1dDIpB6k0

Genre and Narrative

The song ‘Rooftops’ is written and performed by the Welsh band Lost Prophets. The video was nominated for ‘Best Video Clip’ at the Kerrang Awards in 2006 along with winning ‘Best Album’ at The Pop Factory Awards. The band was also nominated ‘Best British Band’ in 2007.

The music video is mainly performance based with an occasional background narrative. The video keeps in line with the genre characteristics well, holding to an energetic performance along with a serious theatrical presence. The well known rock band proves itself with clothing also. Staying with the rock theme the whole group apart from the lead singer who is wearing a white jacket appear to the audience in all black outfits. Such small fashion statements as long hair also play a big part in the video. Throughout, the band members are shown to be close friends performing together on the ‘rooftops’. The confined location supports genre characteristics once again along with the time of day at which the video is shot. As the video is mainly performance based there is no element of the notion of looking, which adds to the impact and intensity of the song.

One of the main relationships between the lyrics and visuals is obvious to the audience. During the chorus the lyrics read ‘standing on the rooftops everybody scream your heart out’. At this point in the video, the band is dramatically performing to the cameras with lip synching whilst physically being on the ‘rooftops’. Another relationship between lyrics and visuals is within the pre-chorus which first appears near the end of the song. The teenagers shown in the background narrative scream to the sound of the lead singer’s voice. It is not just the lyrics that are in association with the visuals, the actual music plays a strong part. Within the quieter parts of the song just before the chorus, shots of the drummer are shown as he ends a lively verse. This correlates very well with the audio and shows good continuity editing in time with the music.

It is also relevant to draw a conclusion on whether or not the music video for ‘Rooftops’ can be considered an advert or art. There is a lot of performance which would imply an advertising feel, but the way in which the performance is shot would entail otherwise. The music video is low budget but also keeps to a professional feel and a glossy look giving the video that auteur feel. The intense lighting and variety of camera angle also play a strong part in the high fi feel of the video along with the colour and mise-en-scene that also help to achieve this.

Throughout the video a variety of long, mid and close up shots are used, each giving the audience a different reaction. The long and mid shots help the audience to understand the meaning of the video as well as setting the scene and developing the story. The close ups on the other hand contain shots of the ‘meat’ which are important to promotion of the band and the song as well as showing emotion and energy. This is what gives the element of star image motif to the video. The video shows a fast cutting rate keeping in time with the tempo and rhythm of the song. Although when the background narrative is bought in, the cutting rate decreases as it would cause to much narrative fuzz, this is a technique that works well within this video and gives the feature of a classic realist narrative. Throughout the video a lot of variety is shown which is very important for keeping audience attention, consistent lip synching and continuity editing enable a comfortable viewing.

The video itself reflects a problem in society of teenagers having to deal with parents arguing and also the feeling of never being able to achieve as well as their family or in the video’s case employee would wish. This shows an element of social realism, something in life that happens, but it is almost as if no one really wants to admit that it does or even acknowledge it. It is an illustrative video that paints a picture of society that opens people’s eyes even though the production is around eighty percent performance based.

Media Language

Within music videos visual techniques play an important role. Conventional fast paced cuts for a rock performance are expected along with different shots including canted angles, birds eye view and pans that add once again to the element of a rock video. Within the narrative of the video slow motion effects are used to emphasise the screaming of the teenagers and represents the end of a journey through early life. This effect works well and as the main audience is of a younger age group a relationship is developed enabling an even stronger more passionate performance for the band.

At the beginning of the music video mid shots of each band member are shown as introductory shots. This builds a relationship between the band and the audience, giving more insight into characters and appearances.

Intertextual references also play an important part within music video. If the audience recognises a shot from another music video or film they are able to relate to it easier, which from a producer or director’s point of view is exactly what is intended. In this music video, that I know of I can not recognise a single Intertextual reference apart from conventional rock performance based shots. Because there are no Intertextual references within ‘Rooftops’ it is possible to believe that the band wanted an individual music video, a video for other bands to gain Intertextual reference. In my opinion music videos that take it upon themselves to create original exciting ideas are set apart in their own league.

Representation

The music video could be part of a meta-narrative which would imply that the band have written the song about themselves when they were teenagers and struggling through life. When this point of view is taken, the song does seem to become inspirational. The idea of a meta-narrative would also help to sell the record, knowing that someone has been through pain and hurt and is expressing there feelings is interesting to people. It can also be seen as advice and reassurance to the younger audience.

There are obvious social groups represented within the video, the main one is teenagers that are having a hard time in life, many viewers will be able to relate with this. Another social group represented are of an older age group that are unable to understand how hard it can be to group up in the modern day social lifestyle.

Ideological discourse issues raise important questions including that of gender which is represented throughout the video, although the band is of a male dominance the background narrative divides equally between male and female. The younger age group is undoubtedly the target audience for the video and are represented throughout, not only within the performance shots of the younger band members but also within the narrative of the teenagers that are having a hard time. The dominant stereotype of teenagers being miserable is challenged within the video, it flips the blame onto adults and gives the children hope and belief that someone understands what they are going through.

Institution and Audience

This music video would be consumed through music channels as well as YouTube and MySpace. Rock channels for example Kerrang and Scuzz would show this video more as the focused or ambient viewers watching the channel are loyal to the genre of videos that are shown. Even though the video can be appreciated for the message it is trying to send in a focused viewing style, the video works well for ambient viewing as there is a lot of performance based shots.

The record label would play an important part within the promotional aspect of the video, they would send copies to the rock genre music channels for example Kerrang. In this case the video reaches out to a wider audience in comparison to just the rock fans, simply because of the lyrics, so copies would also be picked up by MTV and other big channels.