We have decided to analysis songs and their videos that fall into the genre that we have chosen. The genre we have chosen in 'synthpop' and the song I will be analysisng is 'New Order - Blue Monday'.
There are three versions of the music video that were released every time the song was re-released; 1983, 1988 and 1995. I will be analysising the 1988 version.This is one of the most influential songs in a genre that was already a major force in British popular music - Synthpop/Electronica.
This video doesn't seem to have a clear storyline, it is a strange order of totally random events. This song is believed to be about either drug addiction, child abuse or a failed relationship; an idea that would easily coincide in the video with the halluicinations experienced with certain drug's use. The main theme throughout this video is a number of pieces of random artwork on a constant stream creating a video effect. The artwork stream is regulary interrupted by clips of people and random objects, but one that is constant is a story of a Weimaraner dog and a tennis ball. Although, the dog and the tennis ball appear in the video with other objects.
The video begins with a shot showing a dog's leg resting on a yellow tennis ball. It then goes into the stream of artwork, the stream is first interrupted by the dog on it's own, and then by the tennis ball on it's own. The interuptions from then on are a regular pattern of random events such as a toy frog, a baby doll and a carrot.
The stream then flows into a similar artwork series showing the song's lyrics for a section of the song, as they're being sung. The lyrics begin to be shown when a ship is mentioned in them. When this section ends, the video begins to follow the same pattern as in the first half, but this time images of ships are regulary shown as well as the dog and the tennis ball. The familiar pattern is followed until the video's end, ending with the same shot as begun with; a shot showing the dog's leg resting on the yellow tennis ball.
The camera shot throughout the video are mainly static as the shot is filled with the constant flow of artwork, however, the interrupting clips in various shot types. The start and end of the video are tilting shots going down the dog's leg to show the tennis ball. Apart from this, the shots are mainly static, with the execption of a few pans and tilts.
The only effects evident in the music video (Apart from the constant stream of artwork - if you'd count that as a special effent) is the tennis ball and the way it floats around the dog and people.
There are no outdoor shots in the video, all the shots apart from the artwork are shot in what seems like a warehouse, or a blank room. For this reason, there is no natural light, so the shots are all lit by artifical light.
No comments:
Post a Comment