Music Video Analysis

Concept:








The name of the song 'midnight' goes with the video as the video is seen all in inverted colour. This makes the whole video very dark and mysterious which goes with the title making it parallel. Although the rest of the video is very concept.  A concept video is when the video doesn't follow a particular narrative and flicks between different shots throughout. This is very much like the midnight video, it features the band just wandering through the forest. There is no sign of where they are going and the shot flick from band member to band member and the occasional shot of a fox which has no apparent relevance to the video apart from it being set in a forest at midnight. There is no apparent direct link between the lyrics and the visual, although it could be argued that the occasional flash of colour seen in the video could be a representation of the lyrics "leave a light on." At the end of the video you see the whole band standing above a skyline the shot here appears to be stop motion, where several photos of the band were taken and played fast together as you can see the band appear to almost be 'flicking.' The background behind them is coloured this could link in with the lyrics "in the darkness before dawn" which could be explaining that the rest of the video is them in the darkness before dawn hits. Coldplay typically have concept video's that don't generally make a lot of sense e.g. 'Paradise.' This is their own style of music videos and they are all typically artsy with a lot of special effects. The genre of this song is electronic and ambient which goes with the music video. Ambient music creates an atmosphere which is what the video does, the video creates a mysterious atmosphere. There is several close ups of Chris Martin, the lead vocalist of Coldplay which makes him the main focus of the video. It is clear that a lot of editing was involved in the making of this video. The whole video is inverted colour and there is flicking throughout the video which could represent someone trying to turn a light on which is what the band are asking for in the lyrics.There is also slow motion which adds to the atmosphere making it even more mysterious than it already is. The band's performance throughout this video is key, they are meant to look confused and be doing strange things that the audience does not understand as it leaves people wondering and talking about the video. Having a video like this helps to promote the song as it gets people talking about it and suddenly everyone wants to see the video and hear the song.


Narrative:



In A Team the video is very story based making it a Narrative video. The video starts with a girl looking over another girl, the girl laying appears to be dead and we are unsure as the audience who she is, the video then goes on to tell the story of her, making the video start of backwards. The relationship between the video and the lyrics is very parallel. "Angels to fly" is sung and at the same time the girl is standing in front of 'angel station' and we see a sign saying 'improving the angels.'  "Sells love to another man" as we are hearing these lyrics we see the girl putting on lipstick and soon after her standing outside and getting into what appears to be a mans car representing to the audience that it is most likely that she is a prostitute. "Go mad for a couple grammes" we see the girl handing over money and then receiving a bag of drugs we then see the girl smoking the drugs. Narrative video's are a good source of promotion for the audience as they get people talking about the video and therefore the song but are also a good way of getting across a hard hitting message. Ed Sheeran used the song and the video to help raise awareness that things like this do still go on and that prostitution and drug use is still a huge problem in the UK. Most of Ed's videos are narrative and tell a story keeping a pattern within all of his videos. There is only one shot of Ed throughout the whole video and it is not a close up, this is when he buys the magazine off the girl. If you was not paying attention to the video you may not even notice him at all. This keeps the focus of the video all around the girl. The whole video is in black and white which makes the video very dark and sad. This represents to the audience the girls feelings of depression and loneliness. There is no other editing involved in the video apart from quick cuts from shot to shot, this is to not distract the audience's attention so that there attention is focused on the girl throughout.


Performance:



First thing we see is a radio DJ who is announcing the song, whilst he is announcing the camera cuts to what appears to be a car, the camera is very shaky which makes the audience think that the car is moving and the video may even be filmed on a phone. We then see Matt Helders and Alex Turner in the car. They are miming playing the drums and the lyrics which makes the video Performance. This has reference to the 90's cult film 'Waynes World' where the stars can be seen miming Queen's hit Bohemian Rhapsody. Several of Arctic Monkeys videos are in black and white so this video stays within this theme. This may have something to do with the 50's image of the band. When Arctic Monkeys first started there videos were mainly narrative and didn't include the band but as they have become more successful the video is mainly just of them. The lyrics are not parallel with the video as it is just them in a car, although some could be applied. "Misbehaving for days" and the two can be seen messing around in the car and not really concentrating. Matt Helders and Alex Turner are the main stars of the video and Nick O' Malley can be seen for a few seconds in the back of the car with two women. The sound is parallel with the visual when Alex gets out of the car and air guitars. Their is a shot of a screen which adds an extra dimension to the video making it more interesting for the audience.The genre of music is rock and generally 'rock stars' are quite self centred so this goes with the theme of the whole video being focused on the main stair Alex Turner with several close ups of him.