Tuesday, 22 June 2010

Music Video Analysis; The Courteeners - Not Nineteen Forever

The Courteeners - Not Nineteen Forever





The first scene in the video is contradicting the usual conventional iconography that we would expect to see within this genre of music video. We see 4 lads, that if we were fans of the band, we would know the lands are the band members. They are sitting around sipping tea, this is contradicting the usual rebellious acts that occur in the music videos. The characters are stereotypically indie looking, for example the clothing is designer e.g. fred perry and the band members all have long hair that covers parts of their faces. The woman character is also portraying the stereotypically indie look, for example the leather jacket and laced heels. As the female character walks into the room all of the male characters eyes shift towards her, this makes the lady seem attractive as well as an item to be looked upon, a somewhat negative concept for those who believe this is shallow.

She also appears in a silohette before we get to actually see her face, this adds a slight enigma to the video and means that we, as an audience, are more interested in the way she looks, this is portrayed through a low angle shot reinforcing the womans importance to the video.

The men are positioned centrally in the frame, making them the most important thing within the scene, they are also near the front of the image making them, again, of higher importance.

The editing throughout the video is fairly simple, it is made up of jump cuts that connect the running of the hooded youth to the words that are being spoken by the band member in the cafe. There are several zoom ins that mean the main band member who mimes throughout the video, stands out and this makes the audience aware of his role within the band.

The secondary level of communication throughout this video could be the idea that the band 'The Courteeners' are not like every other indie band, the different iconography such as the cups of tea and the salt show that the band are not completely stereotypical.

The target audience for this video is fairly clear due to the people that are represented in the video. The demographic target audience is of a young adult age, 18-24, they are predominately white and male. However the attractiveness of the band members could appeal to females, as well as the quality of their music.

The mood throughout the video seems to be fairly relaxed, however the scene we see on screen would not be particularly pleasant to be in. We see an arguement between a male character and female character in which the woman is shouting and the male appears to be relaxed and 'unfazed'.


Representation

Throughout the video the main representation is the difference between the male and female gender. We are shown a woman having an argument in which she is the one who seems to be provoking this trouble, this a stereotype often associated with women 'being moody', this idea is reinforced throughout this video, as we can tell by the cocky looks from the males on the table.

However one micro element that does seem to contradict binary opposites is the positioning of the woman in the frame, she is looking down on the male characters, making her to appear to have a great authority and dominance over the males. When we look at the male characters movement and gesture this reinforces the concept that the female is not being taken seriously.

Another social group that is represented in this video is the youth, we see a young hooded teenager running down the streets. We do not know why, yet it is easy to assume that the teenager is running from trouble. This reinforces the stereotype given to hooded youths, that they are just trouble makers.


Genre & Audience

The genre is portrayed differently in this video to as i have seen in numerous others. The 'rebellion' attitude is not as important throughout this video, excluding the youth running down the street. However like many other indie videos, the males carry a 'lack of interest' attitude and seem to come across to the audience as cool. This could be a bad reputation to send out to a young and easily influenced audience, as the attitude of 'i dont care' could come with negative consequences.


Narrative

This particular video seems to follow a fairly simple narrative. Using todorovs theory we can compare the way this video is structured to how a film/drama is structured. An equilibrium is set, the male characters are sitting in the cafe. The distruption follows with the girl walking in with great drama and starting her arguement with the male. The male realises this, and attempts to solve the disruption. However we do not really come to a conclusion, as the male character finishes tiping out the salt (creating a mess that could be used to represent the relationship between the two characters) the video ends, giving us a strange cliffhanging conclusion.


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