Textual analysis of music videos

Mumford and Sons – Little Lion Man

The Lumineers – Ho Hey

Passenger – Let Her Go

Nizlopi – JCB Song

Tracy Chapman – Fast Cars

·         Introduction- We have analysed five different music videos from Mumford and Sons, The Lumineers, Passenger, Nizlopi and Tracy Chapman; who are all considered as part of the genre ‘Folk’. Throughout all of these videos we were able to identify many similar characteristics that are also associated with the rest of the Folk genre. These similarities include the instruments such as banjos and acoustic guitars; as well as some of the props used, especially light bulbs in the background.

·         What is the relationship between lyrics and visuals? – On the whole, there is no true relationship between the visuals and the lyrics of our chosen songs as they are mainly performance based and do not clearly illustrate any of the lyrics; however there are some exceptions within the genre such as the JCB Song which is animated and illustrates the story of which the child is singing about. Another characteristic is the fact that none of our chosen songs (apart from the JCB song) truly follow the concept of Propp’s theory, as there are no proper heroes or other characters due to the fact that they do not tell a story or set out on a quest which is the general idea of the hero, which consequently means they do not portray Todorov’s theory of narrative. However as they are still the main focus of the videos and are the main characters they still have a hero image about them as they have a sense of power within the song and without them there would be no music video.    

·         What is the relationship between music and visuals? – Unlike the lyrics, the visuals of our chosen songs actually correlate with the music itself, for example with Mumford and Sons as they speed up and become more intense, the camera shots are more close up and have much faster cuts.  Another piece that supports this is the JCB Song, which matches both music and visuals as the speed of the JCB and background all get faster as the tempo of the music becomes more rapid. The cuts used are all effective as they do not appear out of place and work well with the music that’s played alongside. During some sections of music where solo instruments are played, dependant on the mood transmitted, the visuals may differ, for example if only the banjo is played during Little Lion Man then the camera shots and speed of cuts all change until other instruments are introduced.

·         Are there close-ups of the artist and star image motifs – The record company is trying to sell these five artists and bands by using specific images of them from their album covers. This represents them as the ‘Hero’ in Dyer’s star theory to some of the audience as they are considered to be desirable as people want to know them and want to be them. The image of our chosen bands and artists are once again displayed to make our five demonstrators desirable and make the audience want to be them.  The previous videos, in particular Mumford and Sons, represent the band in the same way throughout all of the videos although some of the videos stray away from their particular outlay of videos.

·          Is there reference to the notion of looking?- With in the five music videos that we examined, none of them display the musicians as if they are on sexual display. This is shown in the videos of all five artists/bands because they are all wearing conventional clothing that doesn’t give off any specific sexual essence. As well as they artists and bands not being displayed sexually, the other people in their videos, most notably The Lumineers video, aren’t also displayed in a sexually desirable way either. Some of the camera angles and movements within the specific music videos may imply a sexualised display because a close up camera shot is used so this could be displaying their facial features that could appeal sexually to some members of their target. Another camera movement that may show a sexualised display maybe a tilt which shows off all of the band members bodily features which may show all of the person’s sexual features off. Some of the costumes that the artists wear could portray them as a sexually desirable male or female because if we look closely at the Mumford and Sons video, the main band member has a shirt on which is opened at the neck with two or three buttons being undone so it shows off his chest which some members of the audience may find desirable. However, another example which could be used from the Mumford and Sons video is that one of the band members has a suit on which could also seem sexually desirable to some members of the audience because some women for example find men in suits extremely attractive.

·         Are there intertextual references?- With the JCB Song that we analysed there is only one intertextual reference which is around half way through the song. When the page turns in the story of the text book, a song lyric comes on and it represents what is being sung behind the kid in the JCB. The intertextual reference that is in this video is the cartoon version of Optimus Prime who is from the hit trilogy film series Transformers and also from the well-established cartoon. However, in our other music videos which we analysed, there are no clear intertextual references which are made clear to us.

·         Is the music video performance based, narrative based or concept based?- The music videos which we analysed have a different variety of what base they are. Mumford and Sons, The Lumineers and Passenger are all music videos which are performance based as they are all performed either on a stage (Mumford and Sons and the Passenger videos) or in front of a larger group of people (The Lumineers music video). On the other hand the JCB song is narrative based because when the lyrics of the song are being sung, there are illustrations behind the JCB which portray the things which are being said. For example, when he sings “And the engine rattles my bum like bezurke” the animated child starts to bump up and down in the digger.

·         In conclusion to the music videos that were displayed and analysed, we believe that there are some key features that are followed throughout the folk video scheme. Three of the music videos that we looked at all followed the stereotypical conventions of a folk music video in that it was a performance based video, which means the band is on stage. However,  the other two music videos which we watched followed Todorov's narrative theory which is when the lyrics are usually telling the story that is being displayed on screen.