Representation
· The band The Verve is mainly represented as “normal” people in their music video for Bitter Sweet Symphony. This is because of the many visual techniques used such as the location of a suburbial, generic town high street and through the mise-en-scene of the protagonist/lead singer, as his scruffy appearance and casual clothing connotes to the audience that he is a typical young male. This adds to meta-narrative of a relatable down-to-earth band that young adults can aspire to, consequently engaging in their target audience and selling more records. However while he is portrait through visuals as a typical person, the lead singer of the verve is given complete prevalence in the video and through his non –verbal language is seen as special to others. This attitude helps build on their star persona; one of the classic “rock and roll” image of rebellion and an anti-conformeristic approach to life.
· There are many different social groups represented in The Verve’s Bitter Sweet Symphony music video. The most clear social groups are that of the band and the general public. In the video the lead singer is seen as disconnected and different than everyone else, through his non-verbal dialogue of pushing his way through them and ignoring everyone around him. The band is seen as quite confrontational and apathetic to the feelings of others. Normally this would have a very negative connotation of an egotistical persona, but because of its genre status of a classic rock band this only strengthens the rock star image. Although there are many different social groups show within it, the public are represented as one entity and all seem to have the same response to the main character’s hostility despite age, gender or race. The general public are represented in both negatively and positively in the music video. As we feel almost empathetic towards them through the almost taunting behaviour of the verve, we as a viewer are placed in the shoes of the lead singer, and feel as if they cannot possibly know the feelings of the individual with their judging behaviour. Consequently the band is represented as outsiders to normal society.
Media Language
· The overriding themes of “We Are All Made Of Stars” by Moby are the creation of man, its culture and its future. Through these themes, visual motifs and the lyrics of the song there a several social messages conveyed. One message is the promotion of individuality that we are all “special” as Moby gives the audience a philosophical and approach to life that we are created through the matter of stars. This representation is formed by seeing people contemplating about life and through amplification of lyrics such as “no one can stop us now”. Another social message is that mankind must unite to make a better future than the society we live in now, through juxtaposing lyrics of “people must come together” and scenes of materialism and greed, such as the strip club being show in a negative and unnatural viewpoint.
· The music video to “We Are All Made of Stars” is loaded we references to popular culture and social groups, all of which are meant to give references to the materialistic, capitalist culture the target audience experience every day. The video forms this representation with a humoristic slant, investing in the stereotypes of each social scenes and the exaggeration of their traits. For example the “rock star” image is shown repeatedly as a character with tattoo’s, sun glasses and either in a pool or party location; as this is an exaggeration on this stereotype. The music video could also be seen as a parody, this is because of the play on words and double barrelled meaning to the song. While Moby sings about being “made of stars”, as in matter from galaxies, his video focuses on the other mean of the word stars, as in a famous pop culture individual; as a connotation to the anti- materialistic message portrayed. This is shown through the juxtaposition of the artist’s space suit and the people around him who fit the stereotypical celebrity image.
Narrative
· Because of its relation between the visuals and lyrics, with sometimes a literal representation between them being shown, Moby’s music video mainly takes the form of a Illustrative piece.
· “We Are All Made of Stars” is a music video that could be considered as art. This is because of its anti-conformity messages of rejecting a capitalist life style and that there is more to life than material objects. Consequently this reinforces alternative postmodern philosophies through the use of expression; and therefore can be seen as art. However it could be argued that this rebellious attitude is playing up to the genre expectations of the psychedelic rock category, as artists are expected to be against the grain or have abstract views of life. In some ways the fact that the music video for Moby’s “We Are Made of Stars” is of an artistic nature is a commercial selling point to the target audience of the genre; and therefore can be seen as both.
Audience
· Massive Attack’s music video for their song “Angel” is one which would normally be consumed with focus viewing. This is because it is not in the form performance or montage piece which the viewer drifts in out of but instead a in the format of an engaging narrative with no narrative fuzz. As well as this it has a strong enigmatic undercurrent that ensures a repeatability value and its un-formulaic structure makes it stand out from other videos. However despite “Angel” being engaging to the viewer, because of its psychedelic genre of the music, it would have a limited target audience as it would not feature on mainstream music channels or radio stations. Instead a more independent method would be taken to market “Angel”. One method we be using free web 2.0 applications such as YouTube and My Space, as well as accessing their existent fan base through social networking sites such as Facebook.
Institution
· Psychedelic bands often collect a certain fan base by having a certain visual and artistic style; the work they produce is often very personal and unmanufactured. Therefore there would be less of an institutional role from the record label to decided what the music video is going to be about, as this would make the themes generic and unfamiliar to the meta-narrative for the band. Instead the band would put forward an idea and this would be checked and verified by the label as a commercial viable idea. On top this a certain director maybe employed that has worked on the artists previous work to provide continuity between the pieces.
The video made for 'Bitter Sweet symphony' by The Verve has repeatability due to the mystery of why the prevalent character is walking down the street without a care in the world. It is important in my opinion that when making our video, we create a sense of mystery as a unique selling point of our video, as it will attract many people into watching the video a multitude of times.
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