Crystal Fighters- I Love London

About the Band:
Crystal Fighters are a British/Spanish folktronica band who formed in London in 2007. 

"Folktronica or electrofolk is a genre of music comprising various elements of folk music and electronica, often featuring samplings of acoustic instruments—especially stringed instruments—and incorporating hip hop or dance rhythms."- Wikipedia

The music video begins with a coloured VCR static look, giving it a retro and vintage feel. As if you had just pressed play on an old video tape recorder. 

As the music begins we can see that the effect of it looking like a VCR is played constantly throughout the video, making it look frantic. The shot is point-of-view, making it feel as if it is through the eyes of pedestrians giving it the effect of a home movie. The blue-ish tint on the video shows that the natural light from the sun has not been filtered out or edited.

The first lyrics that we hear appear as visuals on the video: "Hola mi llamo mimi", which translate from Spanish to English as, "Hello my name is Mimi", this links in with the genre of the music, Spanish folktronica, as well as Goodwin's theory of linking visuals with lyrics. 







The use of visuals and lyrics together is used repeatedly throughout this video. 

As we can see, the title of the song reflects itself in the song by using iconic London locations, Trafalgar Square, Underground Tube Stations and even tourist shops which sell ironic London Merchandise.


The video simply puts about London's abundant opportunities to experience new music, meet interesting new people and experience good, fun parties. The repeated phrase, "I wanna go to a friend's party" reflects that of youth and wanting to party.

The video fits with the genre of the music because of its fast cut, up-beat quirky look. 

Analysing Madonna's 'Vogue' Music Video- Using Goodwin's Theory

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics

- Madonna's genre of music is pop. The name of the song, Vogue, is a highly stylized, modern house dance. Evolving from the Harlem Ballroom Scene in the 1980s. Madonna was very clever at catching onto popular underground crazes of the time, popular in the gay community, which could be why Madonna used an all men dancing cast. Critics noted the way Madonna used her postmodern influence to identify the new underground subculture movement to the masses. Typically in a pop music video it has a choreographed dance routine with the main artist taking centre stage with backing dancers.


2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals

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- Goodwin noticed a similarity and direct contrast with what is shown in the video and the lyrics of the song. In this video we can see the choreographed dancing, named Vogueing, and the lyrics matching, (1st image: Beauty's where you find it, Not just where you bump and grind it) & (2nd image: Come on Vogue, Let your body move to the music, Come on Vogue, Let your body go with the flow, you know you can do it.) The use of this connects the audience to the video and does not need to much thinking power.

3. There is a relationship between music and visuals

- This is where beats or rhythm of the song are edited in time to the visuals of the video. At the beginning of the video we have a smooth beat with a little drum of a bongo and then a click of the fingers: drum drum, click, drum drum, click... as the beat of the song carries on the visuals change to a different clip of someone slowly moving on every click of the beat.

4. The demand of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artists.

- One way in which record labels like to sell their artists, particularly females, is to show them regularly throughout the video (often in a provocative manner). The use of close-up provocative shots is a way of enticing a male audience. In this video we see the iconic fashion item which is Madonna's, cone bra, expressing her femininity.

5. Voyeurism- Frequent notion of looking

Throughout the video Madonna has extreme close up shots looking into the camera, which gives a direct approach, as if she is singing to the audience.

6. Intertextual reference

The whole video is shot in black and white taking stylistic inspiration from the Art Deco movement in the 1920s and 30s, it has the look of films and photographs from the Art Deco movement, making it look unique stylised. It also plays homage to the numerous Golden Era Hollywood actresses and actors. Later on in the video Madonna goes on to, almost rap, about famous actresses and actors from the 1920s and 30s.

Not only is the look of the video inspired by the Golden Era in Hollywood in the 1920s and 30s but a lot of the scenes in the video are recreations of photographs, taken by photographer Horst P. Horst.

Afrika Shox Analysis

The band, Leftfield are a British duo and their music is an integrated genre of music, meaning you cannot put a certified label on it, although, it could be defined as Electronic, Dance and Progressive house music. Leftfield included the use of guest vocals throughout their music, like other contemporary artists such as The Chemical Brothers and Underworld, whom also are an integrated genre of music. This genre of music came about in the 1990s, originating from America in underground venues it came about by using synthesisers and other electronic musical instruments.

‘Afrika Shox’ was the 1st single released from the album, ‘Rhythm and Stealth’, featuring vocals from Africa Bambaataa. In the video, the ‘main character’ is black and moves to the beat of the music, this could reinforce that the music video is giving you an almost history to black slavery in America. The man is in contemporary New York, dressed like a slave, looking bewildered, if you’ve never experienced urban scenery it would come as a huge culture shock, which is obvious by the way in which the man moves. This could be because the director wanted the two aspects of dance and slavery together which accentuates the culture shock to this man, as white people continually ignore him and pretend to be oblivious to his pain. This links to the poem, ‘Limbo’, written by Edward Braithwaite because the different styles of dance like Limbo dancing originated from slavery, “the dark deck is slavery… the drummer is calling me… the music is saving me”. The quote, “the music is saving me” could mean that the only thing keeping the slaves going is the rhythm of their rowing and how music is needed to keep this on-going torture ever so slightly bearable.

The location in which the music video is shot is New York, with its straight edges, urban scenery and underground venues, which link to the underground genre; all add elements to making it a more daunting place for the lost man to be in. The first shot is of a high-rise building, the shot pans down from the building and then levels with the ground, this could represent the intimidating views and buildings in which the character is experiencing. It could also represent the hierarchy of the capitalist society of modern day, which implies that he is lowest of the low and of least priority meaning he is insignificant.

The mise-en-scene is an urban and busy area, which may not be the sort of place in which this character has come from, which would most probably be a rural landscape. The lighting is noir and the shot has been de-saturated to create an urban feel, leaving the police cars red flashing lights to be the bold stand out colour, maybe signifying danger.

The second shot is of a police car patrolling the streets. The red flashing lights could represent the police stamping their authority on the public and how they must not ‘step out of line’, other cars move out of the way for the police car which shows that the public know who’s in charge as well as showing a sign of respect by moving out of their way.

As the shot pans from an underground car park with dim lighting, it abruptly pans into a dark alleyway, the shot is voyeuristic as it approaches the character, it could be classed as a point of view shot as it gets closer and closer to the man. The claustrophobic alleyway is surrounded by damp brick walls which act as a cage around the man. The shot changes to a POV (point of view) shot from the man as he looks into the sky. The lighting is chiaroscuro, as he looks up into the sky there is very little daylight, this could represent the only way out so he must hurry. 

As the character leaves the alleyway and crosses the road, we can see that his physique is very tall and thin and that he is not dressed well, compared to the white men in suites that he is passing. The way in which the character carries himself is unsteady and shaky, as if he is unbalanced and has not been walking for very long.

The man becomes unsteady and falls to the ground, he looks around, giving the impression that he is looking for some help. The shot then cuts to a flashing sign saying, ‘walk’, this acts as a command to the man, telling him to get up and go. The idea that a sign could give human instructions makes it frustrating and almost patronising for the man. This again reflects slavery and the dictating manors that the slaves would have had to go through, it is as if the man cannot get away from being ordered around.

The next shot is of a white man looking up from his newspaper and watching the struggling man trying to get off of the floor, however he does nothing to help and his facial expressions give the impression that he is disgusted and possibly a shame to society and white middle class men. The colour of someone’s skin should never make an impact on your impression on them.

The mise-en-scene in this scene is very simple. The non-ambient lighting makes the place look dingy and gloomy. Whilst the man watches the white men dancing in the underground car park, he looks confused and worried. This could be because some dances originated from the slave trade. The fact that there are white men dancing could make the man feel as if his culture and identity is being taken away from him.

The last shot is the most significant shot in the whole video. The shot is of another black man in ‘tribe’ uniform and other various accessories. He is the only man in the whole video who realises the man needs help and actually offers him help. The low angle point of view shot gives the impression that the man recognises this strange ‘tribal’ uniform and almost see’s him as a saviour. However it can appear intimidating as the man leers over him and with strange stick. 

In reference to Goodwin’s music video analysis there is not necessarily other music videos to link this too but like I previously said  you can link it to the poem, ‘Limbo’. Another link is the lyrics and their link to visuals of the video, for example, “Lets get electrified” could symbolise that everything around him and his culture is getting disturbed, like the electric fences around  him are caging him in and trapping him within the danger of New York, which links back to the idea of him being a slave upon arrival.

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin, a director of music, identified a number of key features that we as an audience look out for in music videos, these are:

• A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.
  - Lyrics can be amplified throughout a music video, either through a sheer sudden or shocking visual such as a death or crash, which is an important part to the song, either the chorus or the bridge, e.g: a sudden death to end the song. You can translate the lyrics into visuals, e.g: running away, then the lyrics say, "running through the woods". Another way in which the relationship between lyrics and visuals can work is through contradicting lyrics and visuals, this adds a clever element to the video, e.g: the lyrics being: "I will always love you" and the visuals being a montage of different clips of the person destroying items of that certain loved one.
• A relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music.- There will always be a link between visuals and lyrics, no matter how little or big. A way in showing this could be through a storyline narrative, this is by visually displaying the story that the lyrics are telling. Another way could be via instruments and the way the rhythm links in the with cuts of the video, e.g: fast cuts, montages or slow motion shots to go with a slow beat of a drum.
• Genre-related style and iconography present.
• Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist.
  - In many music videos the importance of making the artist or band the main focal point of the music video makes them easily recognisable to their fans. Close-ups create a connection between the artist and the audience.
• Voyeurism often plays a major part, especially in relation to females.
  - Many modern artists and bands use female sexuality to seduce the male audience for publicity reasons. The trick of this has been used throughout history and is an effective technique.
  
  
• Intertextual references to other media texts may be present.
  - In Kanye West's video, Gold Digger there are intertextual references to pin-up girls throughout his video. The use of this widens the audience and attracts the audience whom are into pin-ups.
  
  

3 of my favourite music videos

1. Vogue- Madonna

This song alone is a classic, but the video in general looks artistically appealing with it being in Black and White. The low lighting and panning shots accompany the song hand in hand, as well as the choreographed dance routine.

2. Praise You- Fatboy Slim

The music video is directed by Spike Jonze, a well known director in the film industry, who also stars in the video. The video was filmed 'guerilla' style, meaning that you film on  location without permission from the owner. The cheap appearance/reality of the music video makes it very unique and is not like other music videos, although it has a choreographed dance routine, it does not look like the average music video. The ambient lighting coming from within the location (the cinema) gives it an edgy feel with it being filmed by a handheld camera.

3. Animal- Miike Snow

This video is quite recent so uses more modern editing techniques. The stop motion used is an idea that I would like to consider for my music video. I like in this music video how the narrative fits with the music and range of media techniques used in this add a dream-like feel, from slow-motion to strobe lighting they all layer up to accompany a good song.

New blog, oh yeaaaah

Welcome to my year 13 blog...

Enjoy!