SC Music Video Analysis 2

Muse - Feeling good

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inW91qRDGwI


Genre and Narrative.
Throughout this music video, there is no strong defined narrative shown, and it is predominantly performance based. However there are shots of people with morphed faces that look confused and upset and as if they want to get out of their surroundings. The band are playing in a red room that is clearly enclosed and towards the end of the music video the morphed people come into the room and start climbing up the walls in order to escape. This links in with the lyrics ‘it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life’ as it is as if they are trying to escape to start something new. This is also reinforced with the fact that there is blossom falling down constantly throughout the video, in every shot, this evokes the idea of spring and new beginning. The video is strongly dominated with the colour red, all of the walls are red and so is the blossom that is falling. This makes the video seem euphoric, strong and powerful, which is also a connotation of their genre of music, Indie-rock. Close ups of the instruments is also a connotation of the genre indie-rock as it shows the passion the artist has in their music, and these are often used in music videos of this genre. Post modern ideas are apparent throughout the video; the people with morphed faces is a challenging idea, and also links with many horror films that have been released, for example ‘I Am Legend’ in which all of the people turn into evil creatures with similar morphed faces, that are trapped in America.

Media Language.
At the beginning of the music video, there is an initial establishing shot of the red room with the lead singer and instruments in, it is a few seconds long and slowly pans around to the right. There is then a shot of the broken window on the ceiling with blossom falling through it which instantly explains where that is coming from to the audience. Throughout the music video there are many mid-shots and close ups of all of the band members playing their instruments, focusing mainly on the lead singer. This shows the passion that they all feel when playing, and the concentration that they have. The 3 band members are all dressed in casual day to day clothes. At one point in the video the lead singer is shown in darkness singing into a megaphone, this implies that the band are shouting out and trying to be heard.

Representation.
The band members are represented as very passionate about their music. This is shown through their appearance and emotion on their faces. The fact that they are simply dressed in casual t-shirt and jeans implies that they are literally only there for the music and don’t care about their appearance or making themselves look ‘cool’, they just want their music to be heard. The people with morphed faces are representing people wanting to escape and break free of their surroundings. This could relate to many of the bands target audience (which is typically 14-25 in the indie rock genre) who are teenagers and who are dealing with pressures of growing up.

Institution and Audience.
I think that this music video would be shown on rock channels such as MTV and VH1, and would mostly be viewed absently as there is no real narrative running through it. However i think it would be used for focussed viewing if the video was being watched by a dedicated fan of Muse.