Razorlight
- 1. Music Video Analysis of Razorlight’s I Can’t Stop This Feeling I’ve Got<br />Goodwin’s Music Video Theory <br />The demands of the record label:<br />As the music video for Razorlight’s song I Can’t Stop This Feeling I’ve Got is a performance music video it mainly consists of lots of different close ups of the band members; therefore, it complies with the part of Goodwin’s theory that states that record labels demand lots of close ups of the artist/band. As with many of the other music videos that I have analysed this music video also incorporates a lot of close ups of the individual band members playing their instruments rather than just solely including close ups of their faces. This is important because it highlights the significance of the band being able to make their own music, which is a fundamental principle of Indie music. <br />CU of lead singerCU of the guitarist playing the guitar<br />The constant use of close ups also helps to establish the band’s image/brand as an easy going authentic Indie Rock band. The lead singer’s haircut, as well as all of the other members of the band’s hairstyle s, reinforces this image because it is quite a conventional and popular Indie hairstyle that epitomises the Indie music principles of not being manufactured and fake and instead being laid back and casual. Their target audience would be able to relate to the lead singer because they would either have or know people with similar hairstyles. Therefore, the record label’s demand for close ups of the artist is quite important because it allows them to establish the band’s image in a way that would be appealing for their potential target audience. <br />Genre characteristics: <br />After analysing a number of music videos I have found that the conventionally Indie Rock and Indie Pop band music videos include: <br />a performance element
- 2. close ups of the individual band members playing their instruments
- 3. close ups of the band members that establish the band’s image
- 4. cameosWithin Razorlight’s music video I found the majority of these genre characteristics. As it is a performance based music video it includes a performance element and it also contains numerous close ups of the band members singing and playing their instruments as well as including close ups that establish the band’s image. Like in The Kook’s music video for ‘Shine On’, Razorlight’s music video does not include any cameos. This could perhaps have been done so that the audience are able to pay close attention to the song. <br />Relationship between lyrics and visuals:<br />-32321514960600There is no obvious relationship between the lyrics and visuals of this music video that are either amplifying, contradictory or illustrative as it a performance based music video. The only correlation between the lyrics and the visuals is that the band are depicted performing the lyrics of the song throughout the video.<br />Medium/long shot of the band performing the song<br />Relationship between music and visuals:<br />Within this music video for Razorlight’s song I Can’t Stop This Feeling I’ve Got there is a strong illustrative relationship between the music and the visuals. For the majority of the song the tempo is quite mellow and slow and the editing pace reflects this slow tempo beat by using a relatively slow cutting rhythm. Furthermore, towards the middle of the song when the tempo increases the editing rhythm gets faster in order to illustrate the change in the beat of the music and to make the music video seem more exciting and upbeat. As the editing pace carefully follows the tempo of the song it is easy for the audience to watch this music video as their attention is not being constantly drawn to new things, which allows them to be able to focus on the song and the performance. <br />-2832104059555Evidence that the music video is in black and whiteMoreover, there is also a subtle amplifying relationship between the music and visuals within this music video. The video is in black and white, which ultimately creates a subdued and simple tone that both the lyrics and the tempo of the song echo and amplify. Therefore, by making the video black and white rather than colour the mellow feeling that the song creates is amplified by the subdued colouring of the shots. <br />Intertextual references and the notion of looking/voyeurism: <br />Razorlight’s music video for their song I Can’t Stop This Feeling I’ve Got goes against these two conventions of Goodwin’s theory, as there are no intertextual references and it does not contain any elements of voyeurism or the notion of looking. However, this is mainly down to the fact that it is a pure performance music video rather than performance/narrative like One Night Only’s Say You Don’t Want It, which does include intertextual references. By not conforming to the typical codes and conventions that Goodwin identified Razorlight reinforce the fact that they are an Indie band that does not need to conform to the mainstream because their whole ethos is based upon being anti-mainstream and nonconformist. <br />Furthermore, Razorlight’s music video is very simple in order to convey the message that the song is of the utmost importance to them rather than mainstream gimmicks; if they were to have included intertextual references and the notion of looking/voyeurism it may have distracted their potential target audience from focusing completely on the song and would therefore, have potentially ruined the image that is created in this music video of them being an authentic Indie Rock band. <br />