Notes for Analysis of Concept Based Music Video 2

Music Video Title: She’s got you high

Artist: Mumm-ra

Duration of Music Video: 3:02

Shot Count: 105

N.O of shots per minute: 34 (average)

Beats per minute: 64

Lyrics and Visuals –

Examples of the visuals complimenting the lyrics:

- The museum exhibitions coming to life in the beginning of the music video reflect the lyrics in the song as it implicates that being high due to love and passion has caused the visitors to hallucinate and turn crazy.

- 0:16 – the lyrics ‘she’s got you high’ match the onscreen visual of the guy with the guitar being larger than the other people in the room. This implying that he is feeling so ‘high’ or happy that he feels as the saying goes ‘on top of the world’ which is why he is giant size.

- 0:51 – the lyrics ‘it’s turned so see through’ match the onscreen visual of the two people looking through the glass box of the guy with the drums. This implying that nothing is hidden or covert, that the lead vocalist’s feelings or ‘romance’ is apparent and visible to everyone.

- 1:08 – the lyrics of the chorus ‘she’s got you high’ match the onscreen visuals of the guitarists (band members) standing up and being larger than life in terms of size.

- 1:55 – 2:58 - the lyrics ‘she’s got you high’ match the onscreen visuals of the band members big and small wrecking the museum and chasing people out. This is implying that they are so ‘high’ on love it has drove them crazy and are now frustrated and causing chaos.

Examples of the visuals contradicting the lyrics:

- 2:59 – 3:02 – The final lyric ‘she’s got you high’ contradicts with the onscreen visual of the boy falling downwards off the stage. This implying that being ‘high’ is negative and that it isn’t necessarily good to be in love.

Examples of the visuals amplifying the lyrics:

- 0:16 – the lyrics ‘she’s got you high’ match the onscreen visual of the guy with the guitar being larger than the other people in the room. This implying that he is feeling so ‘high’ or happy that he feels as the saying goes ‘on top of the world’ which is why he is giant size.The fact the director uses a low angle at this point amplifies the fact that he is higher than everyone else.

Music and Visuals –

Examples of the visuals complimenting the music:

- 0:30 – when the guitar comes in in the music soundtrack the visuals show the guitar starting to be played by the guitarist. This automatically connects the soundtrack with the visuals and creates the illusion that the music is being played live in the visuals rather than pre-recorded. Therefore the audience feel privileged as if they are watching a private performance.

- 0:51 – similar to the guitar, when the drums are introduced in the soundtrack the drummer in onscreen begin to play.

- 1:05 – The lip-synching of the artist begins and then continues for the rest of the video, similar with the guitar and drums, the lip-synching of the lyrics in time with the visuals create the feel of a private performance to the viewer.

- 2:00 – the pace of the music changes so the beat is faster, simultaneously the number of shots increase to almost sync with the beat. The chaos in the music is reflected onscreen in the visuals as the museum becomes wrecked and the visitors run off.

- Examples of the visuals amplifying the music:- 1:00 – the large silver shoe is tapping to the beat of the music which amplifies the bass of

the song and makes the audience feel like they want to tap their feet or fingers along too.

Genres Exist –

The genre is:

- Concept Based

Concept Based videos are normally unusual or unique and are based around one idea. The majority of the time they concentrate on a particular technique e.g. editing.

The main concept in this music video is the unusual museum exhibitions coming to life and playing music, editing techniques used include:

- Overlaying visuals on top of each other – each individual museum exhibition has been filmed separately then altered in terms of size and overlaid to look as if it is happening at the same time. This is then overlaid with the main visual of the visitors looking round the museum.

- Use of Green Screen – when the band are playing and the visitors are rushing past in the background.

Artist Close Ups –

There are a total of 10 close ups of the artist/band throughout the music video.

This isn’t many compared to the majority of music videos such as Rihanna where nearly every other shot is a close or extreme close up of the artist.

This concludes that although the purpose of the video is for promotional purposes the focus on artist branding in terms of the artists ‘face’ is not that strong. Instead the record company focus on branding through building on the strength and remember ability of the concept in the music video.

Star Iconography –

Examples of branding or unique selling points highlighted:

- The whole band incorporate through their physical appearances and their fashion style the genre of music we associate them with, which is Indie. Examples include the long hair and all wearing shirts and jeans.

Voyeurism –

Examples of voyeurism (location):

- The main location of the music video is the museum which being generally a public place would not be thought of to be voyeuristic. However the plot leads us to believe that us as the viewers of the museum are invading privacy or ‘snooping around’, this is due to the fact the museum pieces come to life and then scare ‘us’ out of the museum by the end of the music video.

Intertextuality –

Examples of intertextuality:

The only intertextuality that can be extracted from this music video is the context, the museum coming to life, this reflects the film ‘The Night at the Museum’ in which also the museum artefacts come to life. However the connection is quite loose and could be more of the film being an inspiration rather than a deliberate intertextual feature the director wanted to include.