CF: Music video deconstruction

How to deconstruct a music video

 ‘Praise you’ Performed by ‘Fatboy Slim’; Video directed by Jonze (1998)

Institution and audience

How might this video be consumed?

The music video for Fatboy slim’s ‘Praise you’ (Jonze, 1998) is clearly a video with little narrative, and so this video’s purpose is generally for more ambient viewing rather than focused, and instead of using narrative to grasp the audience’s attention, it uses comical elements to accompany the music. The way in which the video is shot though is very unique, and so it may ‘catch the attention’ of many viewers who due to its unique nature, may watch it in a focused manner, the music video consists of a ‘flash mob’ event whereby a large group of people assemble suddenly in a public place, to perform an unusual or pointless act, here, a group of people gather to perform a rehearsed dance to the track (‘Praise you’).

        The music video was produced on a budget of only $800, which was used to simply purchase a new ‘boombox’ for the ‘flash mob’ event, and to provide food to the volunteer dancers. The video was distributed in primarily one way, which was with MTV.  This music video was released in 1999 which was when Music television began to become more popular, and MTV specifically prided itself by playing new smaller, independent artists, this song received massive attention when MTV invited Spike Jonze and the rest of the dancers in the video to perform live on the MTV video music awards . Even though this song was released before newer digital technologies like iTunes and Youtube, the songs distribution has remained contemporary, and as these newer technologies have become available, the song has been made available through these channels.

Think about the institutional context of this video?

The genre of ‘big-beat music’ generally consists of artists who are often not as ‘high-profile’ as artists in other genres such as R&B where the sales of the artists music relies a lot on the brand image of the artist. With ‘big-beat’ music, artists rarely even make appearances in their own music videos, because of the fact that that there is little brand image of the artist, the record label must ensure that there are means of promoting the artist’s songs in order to make money. The most obvious and effective of these means are the use of music videos, especially ones which are iconic and unique such as Fatboy slim’s ‘Praise you’. Record labels also use other methods of promotion such as websites and online marketing campaigns, however, as previously mentioned, due to the rather anonymous persona of artists in this genre, more traditional methods like appearances on television may often not be utilised.

Genre and narrative

Could this video be considered art?

Fatboy slim’s ‘Praise you’ (Jonze, 1998) has become iconic due to its guerrilla nature, where the video was shot in a public place without obtaining permission from the owners of the location which was used to film the video, this is typical of lower-budget music videos. At the time of release of this music video and song, ‘Fatboy Slim’ had a much lower-profile life and was less famous than what he became in later years, and music videos from more obscure artists tend to have two purposes, whereas much larger profile artists may been criticised for being more commercial, and many may argue that such artist’s music videos are advertisements rather than art. The two purposes I am referring to are to try to build a brand for the artist and for the director to create a form of art, this music video is evidence of the latter of these two purposes, as ‘Fatboy Slim’ is known for his lack of a high-profile life, and also, it is harder to build an artist’s image without a performance based video, so instead, the music video is produced from the artistic integrity of the director (Jonze).

‘No church in the wild’ performed by Jay-Z, Kanye West and Frank Ocean; Video directed by Roman Gavras (2011)

Media Language

What is the ‘message or purpose of this video?

The music video for the track “No Church in the wild” (Roman Gavras, 2012) performed by Jay-Z, Kanye West and Frank Ocean clearly contains a number of inner meanings and social messages, mainly relating to the number of riots that took place through the USA, Britain and other parts of Europe in 2011. The Establishing shot of the video shows the audience a man lighting a Molotov cocktail to be used as a weapon, this immediately labels the rioters as the aggressors, rather than the victims, however later on in the music video, we see what appears to be police officers, using excessive force. After the audience sees this excessive force, there is then a medium-close up on the statue of Theseus clubbing the Minotaur which is a famous story in Greek mythology, this story represents the slaying of man’s “lower animal” in order to become illuminated (becoming spiritually or intellectually enlightened). Thus the audienc may infer that the audience are being portrayed as society’s “lower animal” and need to be slayed by the illuminated police officers. Alternatively, many believe that the riot being portrayed in the music video is simply a reference to the numbers of uprisings, revolutions and riots taking place throughout the world, predominantly the Middle East.

What visual techniques are used to do this and why? (camera, editing, mise-en-scene, sfx)

Firstly, mise-en-scene is used to establish a clear divide between the two groups portrayed in the music video for ‘No church in the wild’, these two groups being the rioters and the authorities. The authorities who appear to be policemen all have matching uniforms and equipment, which makes them to appear more united and have coherence, while the rioters appear to have incongruity and be made up of a number of people, who do not all belong to one group, unlike the policemen, although the rioters do seem to be united by the cause which they are ‘fighting’ for.

                         Secondly, editing and post-production techniques are used to convey the messages and values which the two different social groups (the youths and the authorities) stand for.  An animated elephant on its hind legs makes an appearance towards the end of the music video, which reminds the audience of the ‘wild’ within our society itself, where many act like animals, and the ‘alpha-male’ dominates.

                 Then, camera techniques display a possible third social class being presented; these camera techniques are slow zooms into a number of theologically-themed statues. The class which these statues represent are the on-lookers of the riots, if the riots displayed are a representation of the riots which took place in reality as I have previously mentioned, then these statues (and their eyes which receive a lot of prevalence) may be a symbol of the media’s wide coverage of the riots which took place.

Representation

How are the different social groups represented?

It is clear that in the music video for ‘No church in the wild’, two classes are being conveyed. The first is clearly composed of mainly young immoral rioters, the audience may infer that the director is attempting to convey the stereotype that many adults have today about young people in society, while the second social group is almost an oxymoron, in that the second group is the police, and this is not a social group, but more of an authority, this is further expressed by the lack of emotion that the policemen express, which make them appear to be less human than the rioters, this is expressed at the start of the video, when what appears to be a possible leader of the rioters, throws a molotov cocktail towards the policemen, and although this is an extremely dangerous and could possibly be lethal, the policemen remain calm, settled and unphased.

What is the ideological discourse?

In the music video for ‘No Church in the wild’ (Romain Gavras, 2012), performed by Jay-Z, Kanye West and Frank Ocean, two clearly different groups are portrayed, one being youth, and the other appears to be some sort of policing unit. Firstly, this music video supports both dominating and residual ideas referring to these two groups. The dominant ideology concerning young people and youth in general, in modern society, is that ‘youths’ are generally trouble-makers and are often ‘up to know good’, this ideal logy is fully supported and confirmed in this music video. The dominant ideology concerning people’s views towards policemen in modern society is that policemen are heroic, brave and noble, in this music video, an alternative residual ideology is portrayed by the director, that policemen are violent and more similar to the young rioters. This aggressiveness of the police is conveyed through the many slow-motion medium close-up shots of the policemen hitting the rioters, who appear to be defenceless and hurt. The effect that the challenging of the ideological discourse of police officers has on the video, is that it portrays two emerging concepts, firstly that the police use too much force against those who may break the law, and secondly that the youth of society are victims rather than aggressors. The artists or director may have done this in reference to the events that are believed to be the inspiration for this music video, which is the riots which took place in London 2011, where the rioters believed they were being victimised by the government’s new policies.

‘Otis’ performed by Kanye West and Jay-Z; video directed by Jonze (2011)

Is there intertextuality/ references to popular culture?

There are many references to popular culture through within the lyrics of "Otis", and again, they are all references with the same purpose, which is that the artists are referring to having wealth and being able to afford exorbitant things. One of the first of these reference's is "flee in the G450" which is an excessively expensive aeroplane, other similar references are made throughout the song with other extravagant items, such as Rolex watches, Mercedes-Benz cars and Couture clothing, all these brands are known for their dominant status of the more expensive end of the spectrum of their seperate markets. However, as the song progresses, the references to the artist's own fame and wealth become less subtle, and the lyrics convey this with lines like "photo-shoot fresh, looking like wealth" and "I'm about to call the paparazzi on myself". The general message being conveyed to the audience is that the artist's take for granted their personal life-styles, and do clearly enjoy gloating about it.

Genre and Narrative

What are the forms and conventions evident in the video?

When considering the key features of a music video, Andrew Goodwin, Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992) identified a number of conventions which can be applied to the music video "Otis" by Kanye West and Jay-Z directed by Spike Jonze (2011). 

Firstly he stated that music videos demonstrate genre characters. This video could be categorised as being in the hip-hop genre. It is conventional in a number of ways. Firstly, iconography is used within this music video. It is very iconic of hip/hop and rap videos for the artist to express their wealth through the video, similarly, it is also typical for members of the opposite sex to being incorporated into the music video in a provocative and possibly sexual manner. In the video for ‘Otis’, we immediately see what is clearly an expensive car being modified in a brutal manner, this expresses the wealth of the artists as the audience infer that they can afford to ‘ruin’ cars like this as often as they would like. The next scene sees the car being driven at high speeds (shown in slow-motion) with females wearing provocative clothing and sitting in the back of the car.

         Secondly, the use of camera techniques also show aspects of this music video which are conventional of music videos in the genre of hip-hop/rap, and these camera techniques simply reinforce the idea of expressing wealth, the first of these techniques is the use of slow-motion during the shots in which the expensive car passes the camera, the shot goes into slow motion to allow the audience to see the luxury car and process in their minds that it is clearly sumptuous. The use of extreme close-ups on both of the artists also implies that their of their presence is clearly significant.

                  The use of a slow-cutting rate also contributes to making this music video a conventional music video of the rap/hip-hop, as the slow-cutting rate results in the artists receiving a lot of prevalence; this is iconic of music videos in this genre as a major aspect of the rap/hip-hop culture is reputation; here we can see that the artists are clearly important as they are in almost every shot in the entire video.

        Finally, the actual performance from the artists make this music video a conventional rap music video. Kanye West and Jay-Z are well established rap artists, and in recent decades, rap culture has become known for it’s violent persona. In this video, the artists are clearly seen throughout the entire duration of the video to be moving their arms in a violent way at different times, as well as occasionally pointing at the camera; in doing this, the artists are conveying themselves as very dominant characters, and this further relates to the idea of rap culture and reputation, where rappers try to establish themselves as the ‘alpha-male’.

Is this an example of illustration or amplification? Or disjuncture? Why?

In this music video, the audience are generally shown aspects of a very luxurious lifestyle, such as the use of the expensive car being devalued, and the prevalence and framing which put emphasis on the expensive watches which the artists are shown to be wearing. This is a form of amplification, as this is generally reinforcing the concept of affluence and wealth which are expressed through the lyrics like I have previously mentioned, such as “last week I was in my other other Benz” and “looking like wealth”.

Representation

How are the band/artist represented?

The two artists in this music video are Kanye West and Jay-Z, these two artists are very well established and are extremely famous, this music video captivates their ‘A-list celebrity’ lifestyle and conveys it to the audience in a possibly glorified manner. The theme of the song itself is about living an extremely high standard of living, and the lyrics reveal this by referring to things that only a small amount of people who are acclaimed or wealthy enough to do, such as “flee in the G450” which is a private jet and is clearly extremely expensive, and “Smoking cubanos with Castro in cabanas”, the concept behind this video is that Jay-Z and Kanye West are two of the limited number of people who live this lifestyle, the entire song does come across as a method for the artists to gloat about this lifestyle.