MC: Deconstructing Music Videos (3)

• The video for 'The Keepers' by Santigold was directed by Santi White herself in 2012, and all images are highly symbolic, yet commercially accessible. It is highly quirky and surreal, especially in the dinner scenes.
• The robotic, synced choreographed family (with similar preened 60s style bleached blonde hair), who eat glowing, and green foods provide comedic value. This factor as well footage that can be widely interpreted, help the media product to achieve repeatability.
• Commercial institutions that create music videos aim to achieve ultimate repeatability, and in this electronic singer/songwriter genre, a record label might aim to achieve a stylish, artistic image of their artist.

• This video will be distributed and purchased as a downloadable video on the iTunes store, as well as being predominantly viewed on streaming site YouTube. It currently has over 407,000 views and will also be displayed on TV music chanels such as NME TV, MTV and possibly Kerrang!
• Videos of this type are being produced daily, and so music tv channels only display the newest videos. YouTube is a widely used distribution channel, mostly due to the fact it is free. Music blogs reviewing tracks and albums are a form of promotion for an artist, and they easily (and often) embed these forms of media on their websites.

• The video is a critique on American culture, presented in a dystopic view of the country while highlighting challenging ideas such as gluttony (in terms of food). The family wait for their made while they chant and demand their food by slamming on the table with their silverware.
• Finally, they have a stomach-churning meal of unconventional dishes of jelly and tuna; an over-developed chicken from excessive hormone treatment; as well as a radioactive fish. This could approach a scornful view on genetic alteration of food, criticising and displaying the unnaturalness of it.
• During this particularly, is in an interpretation of the chorus lyrics of the track, being ‘We’re the keepers, while we sleep in America’. The loose interpretation proves the video artistic, as the song meaning is amplified through this particular scene.  

• There is also an ironic criticism of the artificial look in the video, playing on Laura Mulvey and Goffman et al. theories. The mother is instructed to display her body by standing and doing a swivel and posing for her family – while the husband applauds her.
•  The camera lingers on her lower body as she twists, and displays an exaggerated asset of hers. Goffman believes that the female body is promoted as an asset, and different cultures have alternating desired ideologies.
• In many minds, the woman in the Santigold video is the desired shape, which many possibly be many American views, as this is the target nation (White's home country). The significance of this woman performing as herself criticises the media portrayal of the female body, and ridicules the whole dismemberment of bodies.
• White expresses her opposition to this commodification, and it is supported by the strong link to the lyrics of this small clip, being ‘Ask me why, dream that you by, want is a dangerous thing’. This meaning translates that desire (‘want’) of the people has become dangerous as it directly affects the phycology of females that suffer ridiculous/incorrect portrayals of ‘ideal’ women.