Music Video Analysis Zara Yaffe

The Knife – Pass This On https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKhjaGRhIYU Target Audience & Needs

I feel that the target audience of this video is the LGBT+ community. The reason I feel like this is because the main vocalist seems to look like a drag queen, which the LGBT+ community, in general, seem to love. The target audience may also be for the more mature of those in the LGBT+ community as the general topic in this music video is about love and why can’t their love be accepted and so less mature people may not feel the video as in depth as the writers intended the audience to. This music can also be classed as alternative as the genres it falls into are Electronica and techno pop. The audience of electronic and techno pop will be expecting something more upbeat and out of the norms of what music videos tend to be. Some may even say the video and the lyrics of this song are weird as they’re less popular around less mature people nowadays. The sexual or provocative dance moves that go alone with some of the lyrics show me that this is mainly aimed at males, or those attracted to women. I feel this way as the place this transvestite is singing in is heavily populated by men who seem to be enjoying this and so I feel like she is purposely doing this in order to attract the attention of those attracted to her, including this man she is in love with. Another idea of who the target audience are is lower class or working class people. I think this due to the clothes they are wearing which don’t exactly look expensive and the location it is filmed in, also the lack of equipment in the room to sing with.

Lyrics (Meaning Implied?)

The lyrics to this song convey to me the idea and theme of unacceptance. This is shown by the transvestite (or possibly drag queen) singing how he’s “in love” with someone’s “brother”. This lyric is repeated and is clearly aimed at one two people, the man she’s in love with and also his brother. I feel that as this person identifies as a female but was born a male and loves a man, his love is unaccepted. I almost feel like she has sexual feelings towards this man as when the instrumental is taking place she dances provocatively with the microphone to portray the sexual feelings she may have. There are other sexual movements that go with the lyrics too. There is a mimic in the background of her singing which could symbolise the way people don’t understand what she is thinking and they just mimic her behind her back due to this but she is singing over them and so the love she feels overpowers the misunderstanding people in the background.

Music Video Analysis Zara Yaffe

Tempo The tempo of this song is slow but upbeat. The electronic sounds of the backing track have a slow pace but a fast melody. The instruments beat of the backing track is slow. The mixture of both the instruments and/or percussion beat and the electronic sounds together make a slow but upbeat song. It begins much slower and louder at the start of the song compared to the middle or end, where it speeds up and decreases in volume. There is an echo noise before this transvestite begins to sing too which draws the listeners in.

Genre The genre of this music video is electronic. The typical electronic genre conventions in a music video are bright, vivid colours, abstract videos which are hard to understand, a very upbeat fast pace with lots of non-diegetic sounds and also quick cuts between camera shots and angles. Although quite a lot of these are not seen in this music video, there is an upbeat pace to the song and music video where the scenes cut quickly in and out of each other. You could possibly say that the dress and colours that the vocalist is wearing are bright compared to the other dull colours that are going on around the room. This music video is a performance video in comparison to a typical electronic video which could be completely animated and a concept video.

Camera Technique The camera is used in a way in which there are quick, snappy shots that flow from one to another speedily. This keeps the music video flowing quickly to correlate with the tempo and upbeat pace of the song itself. Shots used include midshots. These are used to show the vocalist’s body when singing. These shots are used frequently to show the viewers of this video what the viewers in the venue can actually see from the seats they are sat at, almost like a point of view shot too. The establishing shot is the vocalist turning the CD player on. This shows the audience that this is a performance video and we will be watching this woman sing along to this backing track played on the CD player. Two-

Music Video Analysis Zara Yaffe

shots are used fairly frequently in this video to show the relationship between two people and their responses to the topic actually being sung about. Reaction shots are used in this video too. These shots are used in order to portray to the viewers of this video what the actors and actresses in this are thinking as you can see the emotion of their faces. You can see from reaction shots what is happening in the person’s mind in response to what is happening in front of them. Long shots are used but not so often. The long shots show the vocalist singing and also the entire room. From this shot, we can see the atmosphere in the room she is singing in and how they react to what she is singing about. At the beginning, they don’t seem to be enjoying it but at the very end they all get up and join in dancing with the vocalist herself. Close up shots are used too. There are close ups of the back of the vocalist’s dress, hands on the microphone with her painted nails and also her shoes in heels. I think this is used to highlight the meaning on this video, which is misunderstanding and unacceptance. These shots are portraying that the vocalist does feel like a female and dress like one, it’s just that the way she was born doesn’t quite match up and so she is atomically a male. These close ups emphasise the fact she actually is a female just trapped inside a male’s body and the fact she can’t love this man due to this, evoking sympathy from those watching.

Music Video Analysis Zara Yaffe

Editing The editing technique used is just cutting between shots at the same pace as the song. They are quick shots as is the beat of the song and so these two things like together in that way. Reaction shots towards the end are one after another very quickly which is synchronised with the beat of the song as they’re both quick.

Use of Digital Effects There are no digital effects used other than colour correction. This is used in order to display the cheap looking room as lit, but dull. This shows the location of the music video is dim lit and almost shows how lower class the people in this place are as it doesn’t look modern and has been there a long time without being renovated, although this was filmed in 2003 so this may have been modern at the time.