Firstly he stated that music videos demonstrate genre characters. This video could be categorised as being in the indie rock genre. It is conventional in that its iconography consists of costume and props that simulate a retrospective feel. The whole concept of slicked back hair and the use of the comb suggests 50s conformity, confirmed by the band members wearing suits.
The cutting rate increases in co-ordination with the climaxes of the song. This is typical of the genre, as the excitement and energy of the soundtrack is visually represented on-screen with the fast-paced cuts. There are occasional burst of images in succession, incredibly fast, where the audience may only notice a few or one image. On closer inspection they can all be summarised with a judgement that they conform to the genre, dwelling particularly on the retro feel, with embedded psychedelic imagery.
The artists are all wearing particularly individual costumes, such as Hawaiian shirts and suits, which matches the independent association with ‘indie’ bands, who have obtained a reputation of being ‘arty’. Indie rock as a genre has developed to have association of ‘nerdy’ and smart connotations; and this ideal is confirmed with the singer wearing small rounded spectacles. Another prevalent characteristic can be defined in the post-production editing. At the final climax of the video, cutting rate increases along with additional featuring prominent images, such as speeding trucks. Most importantly, in this montage, the sky of the desert is colour corrected and inverted heavily to produce drastic abstract colours, such as pink and green, confirming the psychedelic nature once again.
The video employs an artistic approach to conventions in that shots of the band are displayed, and the illusion of live playing is upheld. However, it is unconventional in that abstract images are displayed parallel to this, such as a dog and other psychedelic images. He made reference to the notion of looking, and ‘Celestine’ practically demonstrates this with the assistance of mirrors. Band members play and sing their instruments towards a mirror; this is an amplifying experience for the audience to see the band in countless new angles.
Goodwin discussed the relationship between lyrics and visuals. In relation to the lyrics, it is clear that the video is unrelated to the lyrics. The link is so tenuous, perhaps only the song-writer is only aware of the link to the video, as the concept of the desert, with multiple random images, is unrelated to the contained lyrics. There are no literal meanings demonstrated in video. He also considered the relationship between, music and visuals to be an important convention. In the indie rock style, featuring the floor to the floor drum beat and fast paced guitars. The on-screen action matches this genre, as the cuts are fast-paced and act in co-ordination with music.
Music videos are a postmodern form which implies that they often borrow and rework ideas from other texts and forms. 1950s pastiche is recreated with the retrospective styling of the members. Props such as a comb and old-style coca-cola glasses are used to connote this past fashioned era. Furthermore, 1960s psychedelica is implied in the space theme images that are displayed subliminally, through flashing and successive reappearances.
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