Underrated music videos

Underrated Music Videos

• Kill V. Maim - Grimes

From the 21st century, the video that I have chosen to analysis is the ‘Kill V. Maim’ by Grimes. The song was released in 2015 and features in the album Art Angels, winning the Juno Award for Video of the Year.  Even from initial inspection, this music video fits into the concept category, as the style is unique and shows off many scenes revolving around a simple rebellious and futuristic theme, not following a specific narrative as details are more for the aesthetics than for a storytelling purpose although, the music fits into the Dance/Electronic genre which is rather well known for being well choreographed with expressive movements and outfits which are two of the main strengths of the video.

The music video goes expertly with the lyrics, contrasting them whenever possible. As an example of this, during the lines of, 'B-E-H-A-V-E' which is performed as a school ground chant, it shows the group of people in a fast-moving, futuristic vehicle all dressed in abstract and outstanding outfits which is anything but B-E-H-A-V-E-ing, going with the rebellious theme that I mentioned earlier. Mac Boucher and Grimes worked alongside for a striking and memorable range of visual techniques and locations ranging from a Subway station to a CGI neon tunnel finally with a dance club where people are smothered with blood.

Throughout, there are many striking images that stay with you, like the men covered in blood in the dance club as the lyrics, 'declare a state of war' are screamed loudly. In my opinion, the song is about non-conformity and rebellion for self-expression because there are constant reminders of getting arrested, 'arrest us!' with images of the band wearing scandalous and provoking outfits with unnatural gestures.

One thing that I did find interesting was the short, cartoonish animation overlays that were placed over the video at varying parts of it, showing the main singer with a halo which I thought were a really nice touch as they act along with the animated, alternative style.



This video being weird and abstract surprisingly does play along with Andrew Goodwin's 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' where it says there are seven key conventions. Kill V Maim does play ball here and fits in nicely with most of them; there are references to voyeurism an overlay of video game 'hearts remaining' screen, iconography with unusual clothing choices with neon colours which contrast against the latter of the video where the location is a darkened club room. There are plenty of close ups and links from the lyrics to the visuals. This may have or may not have been intentional but the fast car with the CG background mirrors that of Toxic by Britney Spears which may show a sort of intertextuality.

• Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

From the 90's, I have chosen Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' to analyse. The music video was published in 1991 on September 10th and was apart of the album 'Nevermind', directed by Samuel Bayer. The music falls into the Indie, Alternative and Rock genres because the Indie/alternative is shown largely in the lyrics and the Rock is how those lyrics are delivered, along with the heavy use of guitars and drums so Nirvana is suited to the genre perfectly.

 As for the video, it fits nicely into the performance category with the majority of the video being the band doing their performance and nearly features them in every part of the video. However, the are times where it cuts to different things not featuring the band, usually presenting them in slow motion which is a reoccurring theme and visual technique used throughout which helps the video have its own unique style. The slow-motion parts feature a caretaker with a broom, teenagers dancing manically in slow motion and the band themselves. The main location for the entire video looks to be within the gym/basement area of a school because there are clear stands like you might see at a typical American sports field. 

I would be lying if I said the visual techniques weren't striking. The video is called. 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and one of the most important, first images you see other than the band are cheerleaders, cheering and moving their pom moms along with the band's beat so they are seen to move as one. Cheerleaders on their own are meant to embody the spirit of a team and to hype everybody up for the upcoming sport, most usually American Football. The theme of cheerleaders, used to bring everyone together for one cause (to support a team), works so well with the title of the video since it could suggest that 'Teen Spirit' is what they are cheering for.

Another visual technique that I noticed, before moving onto anything else, is that most of the video visuals are masked by sheets of fog, keeping what is behind them a lot like a mystery or something to be feared or in contrast, a dreamlike state which goes with the message of Nirvana of 'Teenagers are too comfortable and they're slacking off' and the song is used to point out this behaviour and ridicule them for it as said in an article about the purpose of the band, 'The abstract lyrics originally captured the imagination of the increasingly disaffected Generation X Youth.'

As for the lyrics matching, there aren't any major sections of where images go directly with what the lyrics are, but there is one which I thought made a big difference was when 'Entertain us!' is screamed, they are looking directly into the camera, as if it is an order or command.

Because of Andrew Goodwin's 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' where it says there are 7 key conventions, this video gets a variety of them with references to voyeurism with the cheerleaders and teeangers watching them in a crowd, iconography the classic rock 'dark' lighting with mist and grimey shots where the artist's face is shown too close to the camera and finally intertextual references with the whole video being based around a high school setting in America, having a go at teenagers in the society at the time.

• Hot N Cold - Katy Perry

Katy Perry's 'Hot N Cold' was released on the 14th of October 2008. It was directed by Alan Ferguson and now has over 922,962,433 views on YouTube. 

The video fits into the narrative genre as it telling a story throughout, made clear by the use of the video starting with no music and pure dialogue that is clearly a wedding day as the characters even say, 'Katy, do you take Alexander as your lawfully husband?' to which she replies, 'I do.' This is a narrative. The video was made regarding the lyrics to the song as they work in perfect harmony together, creating an easy to understand the storyline.

The name of the song works equally as well as being 'hot and cold', especially regarding a wedding day which is exactly what the music video is! This music video is iconic in its own right, on the same scale as 'Roar', another one of the most iconic videos that Katy Perry has ever made; it's full of artistic style, both establishing it as a unique and memorable video whilst slotting nicely into the Pop music genre with its bright, vibrant colours and frequent outfit changes. 

Another thing that keeps it firmly into the Pop genre is that there are many close-ups of the main singer, (Katy Perry) singing to the camera. As it was based in the 2000s, there are many features that you might not get in our generation of music videos such as a separate dance section in a street and neon decorations, not forgetting about the outfit choices.

Also, in the video, there are a group of women hunting down a man by chasing him down in a street which I find hard to believe would exist in our current 2019 videos due to the 'between the lines' content.

Weirdly, despite this music video being in the narrative category, it is also in the performance category using lip-syncing which again, makes it fit into the Pop genre as that is a really common trait.

 There are obvious matches from what is on screen to the lyrics that are being sung but they're mostly through hand gestures, when the line, 'Just like twins, so in sync', she holds up two intertwined fingers, when she says 'fight we break up', she puts both her fists together in a fighting gesture. These are current throughout but the main focus is the dancing and storyline.

In relation to Andrew Goodwin's 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' where it says there are 7 key conventions, this video scores nearly all of them; Reference to voyeurism using the mobile phone, iconography with the bright pop star colours and choreographed dance routines. There are plenty of close-ups and links from the lyrics to the visuals but no intertextual references.

Editing techniques -

In this video, lots of different transitions were added to keep the video flow and to look more polished and interesting. In order of when they appear, I'll explain them and why they are used with the effects they're trying to create.

L-cut: This is audio-based and is where the audio from the previous clip carries on to the next, so you hear it even after the clip has finished.

Cutaway: Where the video cuts away from the main focus to see what they're seeing or thinking, or even a different section of the same location completely, only to cut back to the main focus straight afterwards.

Cutting on Action: This is where one shot goes to the next shot whilst an object or a character is still in motion, so the movement follows through to the next scene to make it look seamless. Another reason why this is used is to make the movement seem aesthetically pleasing and makes it look dynamic.

Jump Cut: These cuts are to show the passing of time during the same shot and location. They are usually used in montages and to add urgency and sometimes comedy to a specific scene, used in this video in a dance sequence and a running section.

Crosscut: This is to show a back and forth between locations or back and forth between different areas within the same location, sometimes to show things happening simultaneously and depending on the music, can also add an element of tension as well. These can be used for flashbacks or a simple artistic choice.

Smash Cut: Simply put, these are abrupt transitions, normally from quieter scenes to a loud sound all of a sudden to make you jump or to startle you.

Invisible cut: Unlike the others, you aren't meant to see these transitions as they are hidden in black to give the impression that the shot was taken all in one. If done well, they are invisible to see, hence the name. They are to keep contuity throughout so there are hardly any tricks to the eye. In the video, there is an invisible cut in the dance club scene, though it is hard to locate.

In the video, there are duplicates of the above transitions throughout but I didn't wish to over-explain how they are used in the video more than once.