LB: Music Video Analysis: Bloc Party: Octopus (Dando, 2012): Genre & Representation

Genre:

• Looking at Goodwin’s model, it is clear that the music video for Octopus is conventional towards the indie genre. To begin with, commonly, the video will be set in a simplistic location, in this case, what looks to be a derelict 1950’s house in need of refurbishment. In this set, there is a band performance, as well as a dance performance. Additionally, there is frequent ‘meat shots’ of either the lead singer, as well as the other band members, for example, the very first shot is of the drummer, followed by the lead guitarist.
• However, in my view, the link between lyrics and visuals are very contradicting, for example, the line “I don’t know why I feel like crying” has no visual link to the song where at the same point in the video, it is paralleled with a meat shot, of the lead singer with a smile on his face. Another example of this is that the dancers in the video have no significance to the song, other than by spinning around with a ribbon attached to a stick.
• Nonetheless, there is a link between the music and visuals. For instance, the rapid strumming of the guitar is inter-twined beside a set of rapidly on screen changing colours.Two points that Goodwin suggested were key features of a music video that are not present in Bloc Party’s Octopus are the notion of looking, nor is there any intertextual reference to any film, TV or music.

Representation:

• Prevalence, in the music video to Octopus, is given to the band members and more often, the lead singer, all of whom are male, however, since early releases of the songs, their videos have often be consistent with the inclusion of all members rather than focusing on just the lead singer.





'Banquet'

• In my opinion, the song does not add to their meta-narrative significantly as I compare their song Banquet released in 2005, not much has change other than small additions such as better quality cameras, and the inclusion of dancers, due to their growth in popularity over the years most likely leading to a larger funding. In further detail, one feature that is also included in both videos is the use of a colour to either separate shots and/or the beat as highlighted earlier in Octopus. The only real main difference between the two main videos being updated hair styles.

'Banquet'

• The way in which is helps sell their product, is that they are sticking to their core values which would be appreciated by their fans, and thus retaining all those valued followers, whilst still gaining recognition from both new fans as well as other professionals within the music industry.

• The only main difference in social group representation in the video is gender. The main factor in gender is that, the band are all male, and they are performing the song and are given prevalence, where as the dancers are all female, who are playing the supportive role, suggested by Goffman et al through the theory of Functional ranking, where the man performs the action, and the woman either reinforces or supports the actions.
•  In my view, this video is highly conventional to current music videos of this genre, therefore it is my view that it conforms to many dominant values currently present in our society, however, it doesn’t attempt to challenge any of these. The video for Octopus does not throw the rule book out the window; it sticks to it by the word in that it is similar to every other indie rock song video and makes no effort to push the boundaries.