Textual Analysis - Arctic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down

Genre - The genre of the piece of music and the artist who has created the piece of music is alternative indie rock. However the genre of the video the music is played with is a drama, the storyline featured in the video is one which the viewer would expect to see in a soap or in a drama film. The video features mature themes of abuse and violence which you would expect to see in a drama show which is on late at night. Considering the genre the things that happen in this video are expected.
 

Narrative - the main storyline of the video is the fact that there is a woman, how seems to be homeless and a prostitute who has no control over her life and is just being pushed around by various men in the video.   The main themes of the video are Love, Relationships and Sex. TODOROV's 5 stages is seen in this video, 3 stages are seen in this video, the stages being equilibrium, disruption, recognition. There are only two main characters in this video who you can establish a role for, one of which is the woman who is the prostitute and the other is the man who seems to be following her everywhere she goes and who at one point picked her up and put her in a car.

Representation  - Men are shown very stereotypically in this video, for example, the fact that the main male in this video is using the woman as a possession. Also the males in the video are shown to have a lot of power as throughout the video they are doing things like coming out of bars and socialising and not doing anything constructive with their lives, indirectly implying that woman have to do the important things in life and men can just go off and have fun. The artists in the band aren't featured in the video and the song they are singing isn't about their lives, it sounds like they are singing about peoples lives they have seen or things in everyday life they have observed.

 

Visual Codes - The video is set mainly in what seems to be a council estate which can have connotations of a lack of money or a well established secure life, the setting is mainly naturalistic, rather than having the video set in a studio, this gives the audience an idea of what the band are like.  The other place the video is set is in a bedroom, this links to the fact the girl sleeps around and because for a lot of people a bedroom means security, he fact she is in one could mean she is searching for security. The lighting is used effectively, throughout the video everything has very dull and naturalistic lighting, however the shots in the bedroom are all light with a very warm, glowing light which helps back up the fact the woman finds security in the bedroom.

Technical Codes - The camera angles used on the males in the video show how they have a lot of power and don't have many issues in their lives. The woman has many close ups of her throughout the video, this helps give the audience a better idea and chance to see how she is feeling by being able to see her facial expressions closer. The cuts in this video at some points, especially during the chorus are made to fit the beat and tempo of the song, this shows how the song flows but also the video uses the beat of the song to show the different pace that the woman's life takes.

Audience - The audience of this video could be either males or females as the video doesn't contain anything that swings toward any particular gender, however the video is probably best suited to be watched by people over the age of 18, maybe even 21 as there are many mature themes throughout. The obvious mature theme is the fact the woman is a prostitute and is handled violently throughout the video, but also what seems to be a drug deal happens at one point.  

 

This analysis will help me when it comes to making and constructing my music video as it has given me an in-depth insight into  the conventions of a music video and how it is individually structured and also targeted at the audience. This analysis breaks down every aspect of the music video and allows me to see how the genre of the music video effects what is done in each area.