Music Video Analysis

Brooke Patrick

Andrew Goodwin talks about the fact that music genres old certain music video characteristics. ‘Afterglow’ holds a number of Indie characteristics. One that can be seen straight away is the live performance in the music video, this is a typical indie genre characteristic as it shows the real talents of the band and is a way to portray their love for what they do.

Another convention of Indie music videos are that they tend to be low budget, most indie videos are filmed in parks, studios and out in the city. This is seen in this music video as the whole thing is filmed in a studio.

AFTERGLOW

Majorie Ferguson looked at how males were represented within the media, with research he concluded that men are portrayed as being something e.g. comical or doing something, in this music videos case playing instruments.

Goodwin also talks about the fact that it’s a common feature for record labels to use close-ups of the artist/vocalist in order to promote sales of the single, this convention means that the artist is shown throughout the video and is known as creating a star image

AFTERGLOW

a large amount of close ups can be found throughout this music video. This technique is used so that the celebrity status of the band members are heightened.

The whole video is shot in black and white, this gives off a very vintage feel to it, a common theme seen in a lot of indie videos. Vintage is a style that a lot of indie bands go for, not only in the editing of the video but also the clothes worn by the band. In this video we see the band members wearing quite vintage and unique clothing.

AFTERGLOW

As well as the vintage feel, the video also involved a key convention Goodwin talks about which is known as thought beats, this is when the video has a link to the beat of the song, for example in this video when the song starts to slow down half way through, the editing slows down too, this emphasizes the atmosphere and mood of the song.

Goodwin says another convention of music videos is that there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. This can be seen in The Crookes video. "faded memories, they’re all we have, they’re all we need” - This line correlates to the music video as there are old videos of the band playing from a projector in the back ground- literally faded memories. Goodwin says that this convention helps to amplify the lyrics and also make them connect with the audience further.

AFTERGLOW