LB: Music Video Analysis: Arctic Monkeys: Brainstorm (Monfaradi, 2007) : Audience & Narrative

 

Audience:

• Music videos are becoming much more widely available to a growing market through the use and accessibility of NMTs as well as older methods. 

• The first method in which this music video can be consumed is through TV. Channels such as MTV among other exhibit both new and old music videos repeatedly, which in effect, draws attention towards the video, furthermore the song.

• NMTs are another way in which music videos can be consumed. Website’s including YouTube, and a band or solo artist’s own site among others also exhibit music videos often before a single has been released for purchase or download. In doing so, the videos are once again building interest in the artist as well as band, but are available to much wider audience.

• Recently, a video has attracted nearly 230 million views on YouTube, PSY - Gangnam Style, due to one main factor that is common today through the use of We Media and that is sharing. Web 2.0 since its original launch has made it much easier to connect with one another on a regular basis and remain in contact with no physical link. This video generated so much attention due to the somewhat ridiculous dancing of the artist; nonetheless, the song now sits in second place in the iTunes weekly chart, this is in comparison to Snow Patrol’s Chasing Car’s and though it remained in the UK Top 100 Charts for over a year, it currently has just over 57 million views in the past three years, though the song was released three years prior to this.

• Social media and sharing has since become a major platform to allow anything globally to build a reputation. Sites such as Spotify, Soundcloud, as well as Facebook and Twitter also allows music videos to build interest due to the fact that it has a huge target audience. Additionally, site like Facebook and Twitter allow artists to stay connect and keep their fans and more up to date on things including Single or EP releases on top of music videos. All of which can be linked to the main idea of the purpose of the music video, to generate a profit through other links to download sites such as iTunes.
  
• In the case of Arctic Monkeys, the video portrays two main characteristics. Firstly is that the video has been produced for focused viewing; this is illustrated by a number of factors within the video, such as the large display screen which sits in the background of the set, displaying repetitive, brightly colour patterns drawing an audiences ‘focus’ towards the screen. Additionally, if we take into account a theory created by Laura Mulvey and her ideas of the Male Gaze written in her essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, she suggest that the audience is ‘forced to regard the actions and characters of text through the perspective of a heterosexual man; the camera lingers towards the curves of the female body, and events which occur to women are presented largely in context of a man’s reaction to these events.’. Brianstorm is no exception to this; to maintain focus, in front of the display, there is a large group of girls dancing where camera work plays key in drawing the eyes focus, as suggested in Mulvey’s essay for instance, to the ‘curves of the female body’.
• The second characteristic in this video that is presented is the idea of repeatability. This is suggests for a few reasons. Firstly, the title of the track is a twist on ‘Brainstorm’ commonly which can connote either a wave of ideas or confusion or delirium. Thus, the video begins to create enigma as the audience try to resolve this as they watch remaining focused while they do so.
• In my opinion, I would view this clip as artistic. The main reason being is that, throughout the clip, both there band is performing the music, while there is a group of dancers dancing in front of a display where images are set to aid confusion, and create enigma whilst developing a narrative.

Narrative:

• In my view, the music video for Brianstorm should be seen as amplification of the song. This is due to a number of reasons. To begin with, from listening to the lyrics, it is obvious to me that there is a link between the representation of the song, and the lyrics themselves.However, none of these visual representations directly link to the lyrics of the song.
• Second of all, for a song to be seen as illustrative, it must begin to create a story through the medium of visuals, much in the same way a film would do. However, throughout the video, there are many various shots, of both the band performing the song, as well as a large group of girls dancing to the song, neither of which, are recreating settings for the lyrics.

Nevertheless, to further reinforce my opinion of the song being regarded as amplified, the perceived meaning is about a man called Brian and his attitudes towards women, however, they cannot understand how he manages to attract women, even though he doesn’t try. The visuals such as the ever changing patterns in the background amplify and aid to convey their confusion. Additionally, the song is very loud as well as brash which further conveys amplification through such use of the display screen.

In my opinion, I think that this video could be considered as art for a few reasons, due to the nature of the video, as well as the belief, that this video is amplifies the lyrics. As a result, the director, has developed a number of ideas in which, the tune of the song, can present an alternative way of visualising the lyrics.

In doing so, I also believe that this video, is inherently commercial, because of the way in which the director has include certain visuals, but also, looking back at Mulvey, actors, such as the dancers, are positioned mainly for the ‘male gaze’.