Analyse one of your products in relation to genre [800-1000 words]
In this essay I am going to analyse my advanced portfolio music video in relation to genre and find the extent to which it fits into the genre we have claimed it to be in.
The video that our group chose to create used the song ‘One Night In October’ by Little Comets. Little Comets are a ‘Kitchen Sink’ indie band, which is a smaller sub-genre of indie. They fit perfectly into this genre as they have a fairly original sound and use abstract instruments such as frying pans, saucepans etc. all tied to a piece of rope in front of them at their concerts so they can create the sound they make in the studio. Although this is quite an original idea (although not wholly original), it fits into the alternative/indie genre as other bands have similar tempos, ideas, fashions and audiences.
The music video that we decided to create used many elements of the indie genre; the first one was the use of disjuncture. The idea of disjuncture completely rejects Andrew Goodwin’s theory that the lyrics of the song link to the visuals of the music video. However, we knew this would not make our video wholly successful so we decided to incorporate some performance elements where the band are all together playing their instruments and the frontman is singing. We then also used a hint of amplification when the sign “Carlisle” is held up as it amplifies the lyrics “Just like Carlisle, she lies in the border”. The majority of our video was disjuncture as this is a common convention in the indie genre. For example, Foals use disjuncture in their video ‘Cassius’, and Vampire weekend do in their video ‘Holiday’. There are many more examples of indie/alternative bands using disjuncture so we thought it was appropriate to use this convention and fit the video into the indie genre.
During the research and planning process, we thought it would be a good idea to plan what the band members were going to wear whilst on set, as this would reflect the genre too. In order to make this successful, we tried to design the characters outfits to mirror those of other indie bands such as Little Comets, Vampire Weekend, Friendly Fires, The Joy Formidable etc. However, we came across a small glitch in our planning as our band was called ‘The Skeleton Boys’ and we had one female member. In order to keep our band conventional and not undo all of the research and planning work we had gone through, we decided to design Georgia’s outfit so that she avoided Laura Mulvey’s theory of ‘The Male Gaze’ and looked more like a boy than a girl usually would. This was not a problem as we use Alice Glass from Crystal Castles as the model for Georgia.
In the video we embraced Levi-Strauss’ idea of ‘Binary Opposites’ as we thought it would add a greater depth to our video and help us to fit it more easily into the indie genre. Firstly, we opposed day with night, not just for the use of amplification but because it allowed us to show the band having fun like they do in other music videos such as ‘A-Punk’ by vampire weekend and ‘One Night In October’ by Little Comets itself. The main opposition we used was wet and dry. We did this because it allowed us to use abstract settings and give our video, what Little Comets called, an “Uber Quirky” edge to our video. We opposed the band fully clothed in a swimming pool, with them outside on dry land in a rowing boat. We thought that this was cleverly contradictory and helped us fit our video more directly into the indie genre, especially if Little Comets themselves commented on how they liked it (as they fit into the genre we are aiming our video at).
Our video also uses the idea from Roland Barthes of ‘Cultural Codes’ as the disjuncture gives the video no definite narrative. But this is not something to be worried about as it is part of the indie genre conventions; the music video does not have to have anything to do with the lyrics. The video can be purely a representation of the culture, such as MIA’s video ‘Bad Girls’. I think that the use of home filmed footage; the idea of having fun with friends; jumping in the pool fully clothed; dancing in Hawaiian outfits; running in a woods blindfolded and drinking cocoa in a boat are all completely different ideas and by combining them together it is quite postmodern. Being postmodern is another key aspect of the indie genre and it is reflective of the cultural codes.
In conclusion, I think that our music video fits into the alternative/indie genre very well, not just because it was researched and planned to look that way but because of the feedback we received. Little Comets told us that “The bit with the iPhone lighting was class!” and that our video was “Uber quirky” and as they are products of the indie genre with indie/alternative fans, I think it’s safe to say our video fits well into the indie genre too.
Word Count: 865
Joe. This a 0/25, a U. You have answered the question completely incorrectly. You must never answer a question 1b in the first person, your job is to analyse the video just as you would analyse an extract at AS. All you have done is describe what you did and why. No one cares what you did and why, that is not what the question has asked you so why do it?
ReplyDeleteThe genre of your text is a music video, what you must identify and analyse are the generic conventions of a music video which are present in your video and how you decode these conventions. That would secure you an E.
Never state what you are going to do in your answer, just get on and do it. Use some genre theory, you have used none in this response. Pick just one debate surrounding genre which Mrs Abrahamson has taught you and use that to focus you analysis.
Always write in the third person and always provide clear specific examples.
Write this response again.