My 3 Favourite Music videos – Closer Analysis

A2 Media Studies

Blink 182 – I miss you

• The music video was directed by Jonas Akerlund and was shot in a haunted mansion, and the band members wore make up and 1920’s outfits to give a ghostly feel to the song and the music video. The song itself signals a change of pace from Blink 182’s usual upbeat pace, to a slower pace and a darker theme.

• Blink 182’s music video for “I miss you,” is successful for a variety of reasons. The main point to consider with this video is that the song in question is in general sync with the images in the video. The song is dark, with a quirky nature, as are the scenes in the video for example, dark creatures, the castle setting at night time and the genuine dark costumes and characters in the video.

• Another interesting point to add to the video is that contains scenes that feature in the lyrics of the song. An example of this is a scene featuring tarantula spiders as the lyrics of the song match – “the webs from all the spiders, catching things and eating their insides.”

• It is also interesting to note that the video appears to be a constant stream of dissolve transitions between scenes. It appears to be used mostly when the scene changes from the women featured in the video’s story, to focusing on the band singing the song and playing their instruments.

• An add-on to this point is that the video is effective as it actually features the band themselves, although it is unclear whether the band are part of the story or whether they are only singing about the people featured in the video.

Linkin Park – Breaking the Habit

• The music video for the song was directed by Joe Hahn and the anime used in the video was supervised by Kazuto Nakazawa, who had previously worked on the anime used in Kill Bill volume 1. The establishing shot setting appears to be in a city mostly likely in America. The anime was perhaps used because real life action shots of a video this complex could perhaps be viewed disturbing.

• The song appears to be melancholy and upbeat throughout. Although the video focuses on a variety of different characters, the general view of them all is the same – they are all down or depressed about their lives. Linkin Park are also known for their quirky use of special effects in their music videos.

• The videos main effective point is that the video plays out the story of how a particular character ended up dead on a police car (which is later revealed to be the lead singer of Linkin Park,) and the animation rewinds halfway through the song, so the viewer can see how the events occurred before and after the death of the character.

• Many of the shots used in the video are either long shots of a particular situation e.g the singer’s dead body (Chester) on top of the police car, or close up shots of the character’s in the video themselves. It is also interesting that the entire band feature as themselves at the end of the video in anime form.

• The transitions between scenes in the video are mostly dissolves, created to install a flow between the character’s emotions and the character’s actions within the video.

• The close up shot of Chester falling from the top building is used to create a sense of the immense height and impact to the viewer that he will have upon falling.

Yellowcard – Only One

• The music video for “Only One” focuses on the lead singer of yellowcard, with a girlfriend or lover as they walk through an ongoing peace riot.

• The close up shots focus mainly on the two of them together, with him singing the lyrics as he speaks to her and about her. Since the song focuses on relationships and love, the video appears to focus mainly on how she makes him feel and how he needs her in his life. She of course, is a beautiful woman that would attract attention – a common convention used in music videos.

• The irony that is present in the video is the sudden appearance of a huge crowd which the couple wander into. It is eventually revealed that the crowd are protesters being held back by riot police. The protesters put flowers into the guns of the police, as the singer takes them out. This represents the ongoing battle for happiness within their relationship and against authority.

• The shots also focus on the band playing live in front of a crowd of people surrounding them. The ongoing transitions used between the couple and the band are to convey his feelings about her in exuberance when playing with the band, and with the gentle parts of the song he sings directly to her.

• The final shot of the video depicts the couple stopping tanks in the road before the crowd. This is particularly effective as it displays the singer’s feelings for his partner, in that perhaps it conveys his sense of immense confidence and that he can do anything with her.

• The video uses mostly slow motion effects as the couple walk through the crowd and normal pace for the band scenes. This signifies the more romantic parts of the song compared with the upbeat, somewhat melancholy aspects of the song also.