MS - Video Analysis 1

'A-Punk' by Vampire Weekend

Genre and Narrative

Within the music video for ‘A-Punk’ by ‘Vampire Weekend’ there are several key feature of a music video as identified by Goodwin. The Video is a hybrid of concept based and performance based. It is performance based it features the band performing the song to us the audience. Another reason for it being performance based is that the audience is positioned; via the first person mode of address, as if they are in the crowd at a concert being played to. First person mode of address in this case is produce by the band especially the lead singer coming further forward then the rest of the bad and looking straight into the camera. The video could also be seen as concept based as there is only a loose relation between the video and the lyrics. The video is a loosely illustrative video. This means that there is some relation between the video and the lyrics, but the video does not explain what is being said in the lyrics it just illustrates the main parts. This video could be considered art as it is not a main stream video, it is quite lo-fi and simplistic. For the majority of the video the band are just standing in front of a white background, wearing bright clothing and exaggerating how they are playing there instruments. The genre of this music video would be alternative/indie rock. We know this as this is the typical genre of the band and they conform to the typical styles of the genre in the instrument that they use; such as drums and guitars.

Media Language

The video is very lo-fi and so are the visual techniques. There is only one camera shot used during the whole video and that is a long shot. The camera does not move throughout the whole video. The editing techniques are very simplistic to maintain the lo-fi feeling about the video. The editor uses a fade when the background changes from white to black and then it fades back to white. As there is only a long shot in the video there is no voyeurism or dismemberment. I believe that they would have shot the video all at once but at a slower pace and then sped it up in the editing process. The mise-en scene in the video is the style of clothing the band members are wearing; these clothes are representative of the genre the band belongs to. The band is playing instruments in the video to connote that they are the band. When it comes the with cold winter shot the band are all wearing hats and scarves which connotes the cold along with the snow on the black background which connotes night time which is colder then daytime. When it comes to the shot of them underwater which illustrates the lyrics which say ‘at the bottom of the sea’ a blue filter is used over the camera lens to connote the blue of the water and fish are used to connote the bottom of the sea. The set where the video is being shot is very brightly lit to make the bright colours look as bright as possible. There are not any special effects used in the video, everything is done at the time and in front of the camera which gives the video a very lo-fi feel, for example when they do the underwater shot the fish are just finger puppets that they are holding in front of the camera. This gives the video a very childish feel. There is a reference to popular culture in the clothes that the band wear, within in the genre that the band are aiming for the clothing that they wear is considered to be stylish.

Representation

The band are represented as quite childish from the video. They use finger puppets and the way the exaggerate hitting the drums as hard as they can all makes the video feel quite childish. Therefore, the video adds to their meta-narrative in a big way as it shows a side to the band that is not seen in any other videos and you would not be able to see this from just listening to the song. They are represented as a band making music. The social group that is represented in the music video are white middle class males. This is due to the fact that everyone shown in the video are white middle class males. White middle class males would typically be the target audience for this genre, which would be alternative/indie rock. The dominant ideological discourse in the video is rebellion. The band are breaking many conventions within the video and if you break conventions in society you are seen as rebellious. They break conventions in the way they move around as the video is quite jerky and fast as it has been sped up, and they break conventions in the way the play the instruments.
Using Dyer’s critical framework on ‘star’s, it is evident that Vampire Weekend construct an ordinary image for themselves in the clothes that they wear, to make themselves more accessible to the audience. However, they try to make themselves look extraordinary in the speed of the video and the way they use finger puppets.

Institution and Audience

I think that this video would be for a more ambient viewing as it is simple so you do not have to concentrate and think hard about it to understand it. It could be the type of video that you can just put on in the background and watch as you do something else. I think that as this video is not a mainstream video, and the band isn’t really famous then they would have quite a lot of say in the video and the record company will just give them a budget and let them get on with it, the record company may just give them a list of things they want to do within the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XC2mqcMMGQ