General textual analysis of music videos

1. I am going to analyse the origional music video Part 1 Pink Floyd- Another brick in the wall, directed by Gerald Scarfe.
The genre this music belongs to is mainly rock. As many sub genres come under rock it is also a progressive and psychedelic rock; meaning it is a style of capturing the audience in an artistic way. This music video creates meaning through its images.
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/218997/894339


2. The relationship between lyrics and visuals is that the song is telling a straight narrative. The story in the lyrics is reflected into the video. At the begining a short sequence is shown of a school boy watching his fellow class mates inprisoned on a train asking him for help. The light gets darker and then you see them all masked aswell as the young boy. This is to show he is one of them, 'a prisoner of the school teacher'. He wakes up to see it was a dream and then the music starts to play.

A group of teachers walk out of a staff room and the singer is talking about them, and pin pointing who they are. The Lyrics are telling how the teachers were once children and now putting there misery from their past onto the children. The visuals illistrate how this teacher picks on one individual pupil which may reflect on the teachers past.

The visuals show the private life of the teacher. It is contridicting his life. It shows him eating dinner with his wife, and flash backs of him thinking about punishing his pupils. It shows how he lives for his work, thriveing on thinking about it constantly.

The lyrics 'we dont need no education' has a strong link between the visuals of the children walking in a line like slaves. It shows the childrens point of view of how daily school life treats them. The children are walking in formed lines wearing masks, 'Another brick in the wall' this is showing how the teacher makes them work, describing how every pupil is just a product they can use, then throw it away.

The children singing in the school hall has a major impact on the lyrics and visuals combined together. It creates a powerful meaning and vision on the audience. It shows that them all standing together they are strong.

The children are walking into a factory where they are being used as meat for the school. 'teacher leave those kids alone' shows how the teachers are just using them to satisfy their own needs.

The children remove their masks and run riot setting their school alite. The visuals and lyrics combine a message that says the kids are fighting back. They are banishing all existence of school and setting their own rules.


3. The video goes with the beat. For example when the children are walking slowly the music matches there footsteps. There are lots of instumental bits in this video. It illistrates alot of the story without words from the singer. The video always stays at the same pace as the music because it is telling a straight narrative, keeping the visuals simple.


4. The artist does not appear in the video.
The record company is trying to sell this track by creating a song and music video that the viewer can relate to. This would make there target audience want to buy it. This track and video have a part 2 of 'another brick on the wall'. It links together to add another chapter to the story. Part 1 ends as a cliff hanger so the audience will want to buy the next rack to find out what happens next.


7.The video is mainly narrative based but has a concept behind it. It shows alot of the story as visuals with a strong meaning.


I am also going to analyse Shakira- La tortura directed by Michael Haussman. The music this genre belongs to is Latin Pop. It is popular genre where pop tracks can be sung in any language and still be recognised under this style of music. This music video is sung in spanish.
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/173462/735659


5. This video has a strong notion of looking. As well as singing in spanish the artist is using her latin culture to use belly dancing as a way of sexual display.
Her past lover is watching her from across the street. Lots of close up shots of him looking at her is a way of him watching her every move. It is like a security camera spying. This could be used to imply sexual display as some may see it as being deviant. She is wearing limited clothing, coverd in oil which makes her stand out. Her dancing at the same time shows a sexual display. This creates the notion to look. A shot of the windows open in her house creates unexpected tension as you know the man wants jump in her apartment and see her. He then spys through some shelves and pushes the objects aside. She is laying on the floor using belly dancing as a way of luring him into her trap. This again is use of sexual display.


6.This video relates to the artists image as she represents her self as a role model to her fans. She shows her image through so called 'women power'. Shakira is using her cultural background as her image and displays this in her music videos.

7. This video is a mixture of all. It is performance based because she is dancing throughout the video and using her image to attract the viewer. It is narrative based because the lyrics and visuals have a story behind it. It is also concept based because it is showing the idea of using sexual disply. A way of showing her story.