Warm Smiles Do Not Make You Welcome Here - Enter Shikari
The genre characteristics within this video show conventions that would normally be associated with the rock genre (or more specifically, a hybrid between post-hardcore and electronics). This video shows the band's capabilities with their instruments in a performance. Also the vocalist addresses the audience by looking into the camera. This is one convention from the rock genre, which is of the band sending a message, which in this case is on a political issue, to their audience and it makes the vocalist seem like they are telling you their own beliefs.
The lyrics in this video match the visuals in terms of its message and they both come across to the audience as angry and loud to show the band's own feelings on the topic presented. To show these feelings, one of the ways they do it is with the performance of the band, presenting the clips with shaky hand-held movements of the camera along with distorting transitions to show confusion and discordance. The lighting throughout the video is also dark and mostly grey-scale to show the negativity of the problems the band were facing. Another way to send the message is through a short narrative that shows what the audience may or may not agree with and what the lyrics were illustrating, maybe amplifying.
The music also matches the visuals but only within a certain sequence. For example, the narrative is shown as an illustration when the vocalist sings the verses, when the music is toned down. And when he sings the chorus, the music becomes amplified and only the performance is showing with violent shaky motions of the hand-held camera shots. This might have been to share their own views with the audience and then amplify the music to show their anger on the topics presented with reinforcement from their performance.
Because this band works with their own independent record label, they sell themselves with the freedom they have, which is something they promote in this video and other promotional works they have done. From time to time the video includes quick-shots, mid-shots and canted angles of all members of the band, and hand-held shots of their instruments are sometimes used to show their unique capabilities with them. Many of their promotional videos are sold on their visual styles of dynamic and distorted use of editing transitions to reflect on their own feelings and meanings behind their songs. Also, during this video, their have also used an unconventional way of selling the video by editing it so that there were two of each members of the band; one of them being the real members, and the others being the 'clones' shown. They called these 'clones' based on their band name, using play-on words to call them 'Exit Shikari'.
There are a couple of points in the narrative that makes it seem like the viewer is learning the process of cloning each band member through a computer screen, using editing to put text into the video, and this helps to bring the message across. Because the video revolves around an issue, no voyeuristic shots of female bodies were used.
The cloning aspect of this video could be an intertextual reference to many other films or other forms of media that have this aspect. But there is one intertextual reference that the band uses, unconventionally, to create meaning for what topics they were presenting. They edited the words 'Dupe Records Inc' into the video, which is a fictional incorporation that the band made up to represent other music companies with. The name of this incorporation was to show how music companies, mostly working with bands of the pop genre, are not creating songs to build meaning into it, but to only make money off of artists and other bands that repeat the same messages over and over again. This is covered throughout the duration of the video.
The Scientist - Coldplay
In this video, the genre characteristics carry the conventions of the alternative-rock genre, but this band challenges some of these conventions. The narrative that is presented throughout the video relates to the topic of relationships, which in this case includes problems and the issues surrounding it. But this convention was challenged because the duration of the video consisted of every clip being edited so that the whole thing would be played in rewind; that it was being presented in reverse chronology. The video also uses one convention that would usually be associated with the pop genre, which was of the lead singer from the band performing as a main character, singing along with the song.
The lyrics in the song strongly correlate with the visuals of the clips shown. The vocalist in the video mentions wanting to go 'back to the start' and as said before, the footage was shown in reverse, showing how he yearns to turn back time to return to the start of the relationship. The visuals of seeing normal events in rewind, such as a basketball game or a passing-by cyclist performing tricks that was shown in the clips illustrate the fact that he was going back in time.
The music only consisted of a piano and the slow beat of a drum-kit giving a sombre and melancholic feel to the video, especially when the clips mainly showed the vocalist by his own and sometimes addressing the audience with an eye-level shot within the events that were happening around him. This was maybe to show that he's trying to communicate with the viewers out of loneliness, and the establishing shots that showed empty spaces around him along with the slow-motion transition were also used to show this feeling the artist was having.
This band had been contracted to many major record labels, and comparing this video to other promotional works they have done, they are all very similar in terms of selling their products on, mainly, the vocalist's image (sometimes the whole band). For example, at the beginning of the video, a close-up was used on the lead singer that zoomed out to view his whole body laying on a thrown-out mattress. The band's motif, compared with other music videos, seems to be their tendency to create different meanings and illustrations that could possibly be attached to one song. For instance, this video shows the lead singer returning to the time before a car accident happened that caused the death of his loved one. But the song itself can have other interpretations.
There are no voyeuristic shots of the female body, but showing the whole video in rewind might be the thing that draws in our attention, maybe because it was a good means of communicating with the audience who might think or feel the same way as the artist. The idea of turning back time is within most people's interest and is, therefore, appealing to those individuals.
It could be subtle, but there is some intertextual reference to a film that this video uses. In Christopher Nolan's 'Memento', the film isn't shown in rewind, but the plot is shown in reverse chronology so this element could be said to be very similar in this music video. Also, the song and music video was heavily influenced by George Harrison's 'All Things Must Pass'.
Past-Student Music Videos
13T1 - 31 Music Video 2010
In this video the genre being represented resembles that of an alternative rock. Although the song conforms to the stereotypical characteristics of a rock song the video subverts the song and is that of a alternative rock. Within the video we are introduced to a school boy who within seconds has turned into a typical rock kid. He goes around upsetting the police and stealing things but in the end he goes back from his secret life to being a student. The meaning in these conventions may actually show the behavior of the typical rock life, showing the lead singer as the centrepiece to convey it. For example, when he changes from uniform to casual everyday clothes, it could show the kid's duo personality; he is nicely dressed and formal when he has his uniform on, but when he wears the alternative set of clothes, he is seen as scruffy and rebellious.
The lyrics within the song despite being of a slightly different genre to the video fit very well with the sequences they have been overlaid upon. At the beginning of the song when the boy is being a well-behaved student the lyrics do not fit whatsoever with the video but as the song and video progress it begins to fit much more when he is being pursued by the policeman. Also, when the lead singer is dressed as the well-behaved student, he doesn't sing any lyrics until he changes into his casual clothes. This could've been to emphasize that he was showing his true colours compared to his secret life as a student.
Within the video the music was very much based around the guitar and vocals within the song. The music was very upbeat and fast paced which fitted very well with the video as the boy within the video was running around a lot and in a rush.
No voyeuristic shots are seen in the video, but there are still some aspects that it uses to draw our attention to. Throughout the whole music video, the footage and clips are all shown in 'sepia' colour. This gave the video a very retro look, especially when some of the mise-en-scene, such as the leather jacket, pilot shades and fake mustache, were use to reinforce this look.
Intertextual references within the video are: School of Rock and potentially Hannah Montana. This is because of the use of a hidden identity of the school boy and the rock boy. This theme occurs strongly within these two examples. There could be some intertextual reference in films from the 1970s-80s that carry the same aspects the video has. For example, the music video's 'chase' scene could have been influenced by films such as 'The Blues Brothers'. Both the film and video do involve the 'chase' scene and they both show it in a way that makes it seem comical and humorous.
13P1 - 01 Music Video 2010
In this video the genre being represented resembles that of an alternative rock. Although the song conforms to the stereotypical characteristics of a rock song the video subverts the song and is that of an alternative rock. Within the video we are introduced to a boy who, unlike the last video, is represented as a typical rock kid. The lead singer is presented as carefree and somewhat rebellious; a couple of things that would normally be associated with the typical rock kid behavior.
The lyrics fits with the video well because they are both in the alternative rock genre. At the beginning of the video he just seems like any other boy who has had a party, but it turns out he is in a rock band. The lead singer mentions someone's hair being 'a mess' and that they were wearing a 'ski-hat and sweater vest', which are actually a few things that would be stereotypical of a rock-loving individual.
The music is very upbeat which fits with the video as they moved along with the song in a comical and appealing way. Again, the lead singer looks and feels comfortable and carefree about himself no matter where he is, be it the centre of town or the quad of the college grounds. The music was set at a steady tempo, and the video seemed to use transitions and shots in a way that made it flow with the song.
There wasn't a lot of alternative means to make the video seem more attention-grabbing but there was one brief moment after the song which almost made it seem like a twist to the video to make it more extraordinary. After the song had finished, the lead singer dressed in the red hoodie rushed back to the college's refectory to sit down at a table, only to make casual conversation with his own split personality who was dressed in a black leather jacket. This may have been to show his two identities as both a student and as a rock-lover, as was also seen in the last student video.
There isn't a lot of intertexual reference to pick out in this video, but there is one that stood out. The music video 'Undone - The Sweater Song' by Weezer, uses the same carefree attitude the lead singer uses in this video. Also, Weezer's music video has all of the band members doing ridiculous things of their instruments like this video did with the two guitarist.
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