The Marxist Approach

Marxism and the Media

Karl Marx, the founder of Marxist theory believed that the media and its messages could be used for good in right hands. However, in the hands of what he called the Dominant Ideology the message could have a dangerously influential and controlling effect on the masses.

The Dominant Ideology

The ideological forces that determine how society functions. Marxists believe that all-powerful institutions subtly control how we, the masses, conduct our lives within society.

What are these dominant institutions?

These dominant and governing institutions range from organisations/ industries such as the Press, the Media, Television, Internet, Music industries etc. The Press being a vilification of some of those mentioned groups.

The Media’s Message

Marxists believe that the media plays a significant part in controlling the masses and some would say as an institution it is a greater influence on society than religion, politics and the family (nature over nurture). The supposed subtle dominance with which the media control the masses is also known as hegemonic control.

Hegemony

This was an ideological concept first introduced by Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci. He believed that the media message could perform a subtle indoctrination, influencing the manner in which society viewed the world until the message becomes ‘common sense’, unchallenged by the masses. Hegemonic control is an acceptance of the ‘status quo’.

Lady Gaga - Paparazzi

Lady Gaga - Paparazzi

‘Paparazzi’ is a music video directed by Jonas Akerlund and was released in 2008. It is mostly a narrative based music video but also has slight themes of concepts and minor scenes where performance takes place as well.

The video has a long opening that all takes place without music, which is a very unconventional feat to a music video. Already the audience know to ‘expect the unexpected’ as the music video has already shifted and strayed past what you would consider to be a ‘traditional’ music video. This among many techniques also allows the video to appear much more cinematic and make the video appear almost more like a short movie than anything else. Another technique that does this would be the typography and the style of the font within the opening titles and subtitles, and the writing within the entire video in general.

It pays a homage to the typical 50’s styles of font that were existent in various movies within that era and it replicates the classic Hollywood movie title sequences of that decade too. Therefore this type of intertextuality makes it an example of pastiche as it is somewhat paying a tribute to the font styles. The opening introduction to the video also pays tribute to the classic 50’s movie ‘Sunset Boulevard’, as the setting also takes place in Beverly Hills, and just as with the movie it has an opening presented through the beautiful scenery of palm trees and is therefore a pastiche to this too.

There is even also another scene that has Lady Gaga spinning in a swirling, whirling, vertigo capsule which also has intertextuality to the famous movie released in 1958 called ‘Vertigo’, which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Further intertextuality is brought forth with the loosely based mini-mouse costume that Lady Gaga is wearing, and this is used to enforce the irony in the situation, as Lady Gaga is just about to poison her spouse and commit a sinful deed, which totally contradicts the sweet and cute innocence of the Disney character. It emphasizes on the twisted and perverse nature that the video takes on.

The music video is about a highly successful celebrity (presumably a singer or actress) who is almost murdered by her spouse by being pushed from the balcony. She survives yet just barely and the rest of the story is almost non-existent, until we learn her motives of taking revenge on her boyfriend. Due to the dark narrative, strong themes and imagery are created and brought forth in the video that shows the tone of it. An intentionally bizarre method used to illustrate the sinister atmosphere the video has are the use of multiple shots of dead bodies present in the video.

Another method is the effect of the colour purple that is often used throughout the video in order to represent the tainted and cursed vibe that is existent within the video, and it is also a colour often used to portray poison. There are mise-en-scene factors in the video such as costume attires that reveal strong tones of purple, and shots where purple has been purposely made be the most viviv colour in the scene.

There is a purple carpet instead of a red carpet, and the rose petals falling are purple instead of red as well, so although they both illustrate royalty, the colour purple makes it seem impure. It could relate to the tainted lives celebrities at times need to lead in order to get what they want from fame, and this is apparent by the fact that after Lady Gaga avenges herself and kills her boyfriend, the public seem to love her again and her reputation is restored, opposed from when she dies in the beginning and she loses all respect and status.

The reasons for this may have also been endorsed due to not only the narrative aspects of the video, but also for personal aspects of her life. This possibly being because she is implying to us the audience that being sweet and innocent has brought her no triumphs and rewards and has only lead to downfall, however when she resorts to becoming a darker, twisted and crazier character that’s when the publicity comes in and her popularity begins to excel, just as it happened in the video.

Another theme present in this video is a blurring of fiction and reality. There is a dance scene that has Lady Gaga dressed, as somewhat of a robot, while the rest of the dancers are all humans. This creates a vague sense of boundaries from the humans and this robot, which adds to the overall and total distortion throughout the video.

Additionally the whole narrative of the video is not based upon much literal truth at all to her life, however the presence of the paparazzi is indeed very true to her life; yet the directors of the video created a blur and link of the two factors. It formed narrative scenes being caused due to the paparazzi (Lady Gaga initially was brought discomfort to her alert of the paparazzi taking photos of her and her lover, which ultimately almost lead to her death)

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and paparazzi being brought forth because of the narrative scenes (due to Lady Gaga murdering her boyfriend and getting arrested, the paparazzi showed up)

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The video also happens to show themes of post-feminist readings as Lady Gaga has all the wealth, recognition and prominence in her relationship, which is reason for her spouse being jealous of her and possibly requesting paparazzi should take pictures of them whilst they are about to have sex to end up shaming her career. However in the end Lady Gaga still ends up prevailing over the man (regardless of how negative of a way she did it in).

This music video is very unconventional and irregular to music videos in general, as not many start with cinematic openings, take on old-fashioned styles and themes, and happen to last for such a long time where only half of the video is the actual song. However there are also actually some conventional feats to the pop genre that the song inhabit in as there are many performance scenes featuring a number of dancers at a time, which is a popular element in music videos of this genre.

In many pop videos there are also desires in artists, in countless of music videos, to have such eccentric and flamboyant outfits which allows them to appear very unique, standalone and distinctive and in this video we see no difference and she arguably has even more unusual attires in this video compared to many other artists of the same genre.

Overall I believe this music video has had an immense amount of thought put into planning and producing it as there is a massive variety of devices and techniques residing in it that all support the quality of the video in one way or another. Although I am personally not very fond of the video on a whole, I can still appreciate the amount of work and skill it would have taken to produce the video to such a high quality, which is needed in such a mainstream industry.

Feedback

Enyinna, your textual analysis is detailed and intelligent. You show a real insight into how these texts convey thier meanings and messages. You must now ensure that you upload the following:

• notes on the key theoretical perspectives studied e.g. Marxism, post feminism
• upload evidence of planning work i.e. details of the track, genre, initial ideas and storyboard sections

Kanye West - Flashing Lights ft. Dwele

Kanye West - Flashing Lights

Unlike many other artists, Kanye West himself co-directed the video, along with Spike Jonze; and it was produced by Jonathan Becker and Joshua Greenberg. This music video was one of three that Kanye West had made for the song, however he favoured this one the most and decided to only release this one to the public and music channels (although the remaining two made prior to this were also leaked regardless).

It first starts off with a long shot of the desert and is used as an establishing shot of the area to keep the audience guessing as to what is actually going on and in suspense of what is to come. The video leaves little to the viewer to be strongly aware of the story at hand however such factors such as the setting being at night and taking place in a desert where the character(s) would be isolated, the slow motion to the video and the actual ambiguity and vagueness to the video already sub-consciously makes us feel uneasy and we become slightly aware of the sinister tone that the video possesses.

Due to the video being very ambiguous we as the audience can never truly know what’s happening and the plot behind the story since we are directly thrown into the action and are not directly informed as to what’s going on, so the director of the video has intentions of leaving the viewer completely in suspense and uncertainty and leaves us guessing.

Although it is not directly told to us what is happening, the director does form enough of a structured plot to the video that we the viewer can be able to make certain guesses and interpretations to what they think is happening, therefore we can take a very open-minded view to it and form an opinion based from our own analysis. An approach such as this is ever so rarely seen in music videos in general, yet alone a hip hop music video and therefore I do believe the director attempted for a very unique direction for the video.

I believe the director intended the video to be both aimed at satisfying the male and female audience as we have the male gaze at hand here where we see a very attractive woman who is dressed in very little, being of an existent character in the video. On the other hand this character also satisfies the female audience as she can represent a more post-feminist portrayal of a ‘sexy woman’ who can yet still call the shots. This is because throughout the entirety of the video the audience is always aware of who is in power here, which is her and nobody else. She is pretty much the only visible character throughout most of the video and therefore she dictates the camera and the audience into seeing her and only her. To exemplify upon this we also see the camera make many panning motions towards her, and there are tracking shots used on her to illustrate just how mighty and powerful she really is and how much attention is needed on her. It again shows how she gains authority over the camera, as a shot in particular shows her walking to a certain area and while there is so much space placed in front of her she still manages to be the only figure visible on screen.

The song in general has a very dark tone to it, and everything ranging from the beat of the song to the lyrics help portray it in a more pessimistic and darker light. Therefore she is also presented in great darkness within many of the shots in the video, which reveals her in a silhouette form and brings a very sinister and mysterious feel to her.

There is a shot where she throws a lighter in the air for it to land on her clothes that she just rid of to burn them, and we see her walking towards us (the camera) while the flames are burning behind her, and this already creates a vicious and monstrous persona to the character and presents her as being very menacing.

When we see her walking towards us however she never looks at the camera and that also tells us that she is in demand and very authoritative as the camera needs to be on focus to her, yet she hasn’t got a care in the world for the camera or us. This shot happens to be in a medium close up form and therefore we acknowledge the detail needed on her as we can see the motions she is making and notice she is walking to a certain direction, and this accompanied with the point of view shots her head is facing in allows us to understand that she has some sort of goal and needs to go back to the car as it has more significance than we may have initially thought.

By her walking towards the camera it means the camera also has to back away from her, pointing out how threatened we are supposed to feel by her presence. The video being in slow motion not only creates a very dramatic feel for it, but also makes her appear almighty and grand because her movements are slow yet still inevitable and sure, and so she almost seems like an unstoppable force who has an aim that we the audience know nothing about, yet can only watch unfold and do nothing in our power to stop.

It is not only the many camera and editing techniques that make this character be presented as so powerful and in demand, but also her actions as we see that she has the man, Kanye West, tied up in the boot and therefore helpless. It shows that she does indeed hold the authority in the video and even a man whom would be typically be portrayed as the more dominant force, especially in a hip hop video, is weak, feeble and powerless to protect himself of her wrath and unable to stop her motives and prevent herself from achieving her goals.

When we see her forcefully ram a prop, being a shovel, into Kanye West repeatedly we develop the view of fear we have upon her and recognise how much of a villainous character she really is. As the camera pans away from the boot and the car, we don’t actually literally see the shovel being thrust into Kanye West’s body and this makes her appear even more evil and cruel as the camera seems to not want to show us the gruesome details of our actions, making us fear the woman more and being more frightened and terrified of her.

When closely analysing the music video myself, I have come to a rough and opinionated conclusion that perhaps Kanye West and the woman in the video were once lovers. However he wronged her by most likely committing adultery/ having an affair and committing infidelity and therefore she found out about it and is punishing him (murdering him) because of it. If that is the case then it creates for a very intriguing plot as it portrays such a villainous character whom is doing the wrong things however is not all entirely to blame as the person she had once loved wronged her first. It portrays the woman as being somewhat twisted and psychotic however as she is going through such drastic lengths just to hurt him back, as she is even willing to take his life because of it.

We know that there must have been some sort of affection between the two as just before she starts stabbing Kanye West with a shovel, she kisses him in the cheek. That not only displays a possibly existent love-life between the couple, it also emphasizes on just how disturbing of a character and twisted she is, because she is placidly able to make a transition of making a gesture of love to him to instantly making more than just a gesture of sheer hate and detest.

In conclusion I found that I had mixed thoughts over the video. I believe it is an incredibly unique type of video especially when considering what genre it is for, however the extent of the ambiguity and obscurity to the video acts almost like a double-edged sword for it. It allows the audience to make their own interpretations to the video to a certain degree, however it leaves too much for the audience to guess and arguably lacks enough depth for a narrative in order for a viewer to thoroughly understand what is happening. Overall the pros may indeed still outweigh the cons and the dark nature to the video can leave a sense of macabre to it where we the audience still have a certain interest into the gruesome events in the video, and our interest is still pertained due to this.

Enyinna, I am most impressed by your range and depth of textual analysis so far - excellent work. You must now upload your work on postmodernism and Paparazzi.

Ciara - Like A Boy

Ciara - Like A Boy

This video from Ciara (R&B artist) is performance and concept based and was directed by Diane Martel. It is also a post-feminist related video as it has the women who take in charge and have control and dominance throughout the video.

At the start of the video we see an extreme close up of Ciara’s arms and hands and see various tattoos on them plus rings on her fingers too. The video is already drawing us in and pointing out to us the twist and subversion to the typical woman we may find in videos. It zooms out and we see a mid-shot of Ciara saying “2007, ladies I think its time to switch roles”. By the mid-shot allowing us to recognise her appearance more thoroughly and by what she says, we as the audience can understand she has attained not only a dominant persona, but also rather masculine one too as this is exemplified through her mise-en-scene features such as the attire and tattoos, which we would stereotypically associate with only the male artists.

‘Switching roles’ happens to be the main theme in this video as already we see a close up of Ciara leaning above her partner, shouting at him, putting her arms around him and none of this visa-versa, therefore we acknowledge the fact that Ciara governs the relationship which is something not very typical from a music video, especially in the genres of R&B and rap where it is more distinctive and representative for the man to be in charge instead.

However the post-feminist view over the video allows it to become more unique and let the genders “switch roles”, where the women don’t have to wear short, tight or revealing clothing in order to be more than noticeable.
Ciara portraying a male however by dressing up somewhat like on, and her posture and appearance allows her to mimic a typical black male/rapper and also portrays her as being more powerful as her character does not seem to display passiveness that illustrates a damsel in distress, but more so a person with a sturdy presence and can handle herself.

The man, who we presume to be her boyfriend/partner, is always stationed sitting on a chair. I believe the director did this purposely to subvert the sense of a chair being a symbol of power that it normally is. The man sitting on a chair could normally connote power, as it is symbolic to a king sitting on a throne, however because Ciara is always standing above him we see mid-shot and close-up clips of her shouting, verbally and physically abusing him, talking into his ear etc. It makes him appear as if he is actually sitting in an interrogation chair and she is the one in the driver’s seat pushing him around. This immediately takes away all of his power and creates a sense of vulnerability and helplessness, and makes it easier to acknowledge that it is Ciara who is the one with all the power. When Ciara herself sits on the chair, connotations to a king sitting on a throne are made to much more vivid detail, as she is able to sit on it without being disturbed, and her posture shows that she is relaxed, laid back and suggests her superiority.

There are many close ups of her tattoos, which are provided to exhibit them and used to illuminate her authority as tattoos usually relate to gang culture and pride, furthermore representing her power. The close-ups themselves also allow Ciara to appear very powerful and important as they show immense importance to the artist since we see her and only her in the screen, which make her appear very large and therefore representing her significance. The mise-en-scene aspects from Ciara’s appearance with the attire and tattoos suggest a much more masculine side to her (wears a vest, baggy jeans and a hat/ baseball cap and possesses various tattoos on her arms), and therefore creates a dominant persona on her which is something normally seen only on men in various music videos, particularly in the genres of rap and rock.

Her appearance is not the only methods used to promote this idea of power amongst her and exclaiming her masculinity and therefore dominance, but her actions are just as equally important to doing this as well. She grabs her crotch, and does various hand/arm gestures when singing which are resemblant to various male rappers.

The grab of the crotch allows Ciara to imply how powerful she is as it is a gesture very often used by rappers to show their masculinity and also to conform and live up to their ‘gangsta’ status. This is because it shows a rebellious, rude side to them that’s not trying to please the mass public by being polite and civil, instead it is a sign that basically tells them to ‘go away’. The dancers in the video also act accordingly to Ciara as they too are dressed up very masculine, and follow dance moves that would be normally associated and performed by male dancers.

In certain scenes there happen to be two Ciaras shown in long shots. A female Ciara that is wearing a dress and sticks to much more typical and conventional dance moves that would be seen on women, however there is also a male Ciara that is wearing a suit, has their hair tied back into cornrows and uses dance moves that are affiliated much more to male dancers.

The female Ciara is wearing white and that could suggest the pure yet somewhat passiveness to the typical woman in music videos as white is a colour easily stained, and easy to be coloured over. The male Ciara is wearing black, and that perhaps represent the typical male dominance in videos, particularly over women, as black absorbs white and is near impossible to colour over. The colour scheme of their attires also make it correlate well to the black and white theme to the video and this theme is used to represent contrast as white and black are known as opposite colours indicative of the genders male and female. Although the male Ciara would seemingly be the dominant character, this is not actually the case and ironically we see female Ciara actually show more demanding traits and characteristics compared to the other. There is a part to the scene where female Ciara demands male Ciara’s hat and male Ciara is obliged to give it to her. This further implies to us as how now the women are becoming much more controlling and domineering, as she is pretty much bossing male Ciara around. Not only this but shortly after the female Ciara rests her foot on top of male Ciara’s shoulder, increasingly suggesting the shift in power as not only is female Ciara standing on top of the male one and appearing higher, taller and therefore mightier; she is also instigating to us that the men have to bow down and accept women having all the control and authority.

The female Ciara also does a shifting gesture to the male Ciara, which leads to the male Ciara dancing off the screen, also suggesting dominance.

Another idea that provokes thoughts of Ciara trying to appear in control instead of very passive and seductive, would be a part in the video where the bridge of the song cuts in and we see a subtle, vertically intertextual reference to the glamour model/ actress of Marilyn Monroe being made where we see Ciara (also in her white dress) having her dress being blown up just as was the case with the incredibly famous picture of the actress as well. However in this shot we see Ciara hold down her dress and not being fazed by any wind as we only see her hair blow, and this could convey her own controlling and concrete presence that she maintains as she is not trying to appear sexy yet somewhat passive at the same time.

In the end of the video we see Ciara wrap her arms around her boyfriend and kiss her him on the cheek, and this is very ironic and further extends the idea of ‘switching roles’ as a kiss on this gesture represents protection, safety and security and therefore implies that it is not the boyfriend that will protect Ciara but it is Ciara who will protect him.

Irony draws from this because it is stereotypically seen in a man’s character as being the protector and sheltering partner in the relationship, however due to the theme of switching roles we see this aspect become totally inverted. A feminist and post-feminist reading to this would show how the woman is the stronger, dominant force and shows how Ciara can be capable of being a strong protector and also sexy yet always in control (as seen in the shot and slightly paradic reference to Marilyn Monroe).

I believe this music video is very successful at the portrayal of men and women switching roles and swapping personas as it depicted the man (Ciara’s boyfriend) as being under the will of Ciara and sticking under her authority. It depicted women as being much more dominating and strong than they may usually be portrayed to be in most music videos. The aim of this video was not to bring men down out of spite and bitterness, however in stead it seemed to focus on a target and aspirations of bring women up and representing them in a different light that grants them with more power, when compared to certain typical hip hop and R&B videos to the similar/same genre as this song, and their own rendering of women. It is also to show that men aren’t just free to dominate and dictate any relationship as they choose, and shows us that if things were to switch over that men would feel abused, hurt and mistreated (just like the boyfriend in the video) therefore showing an intolerance to double standards.

Feminist & Post Feminist Readings

Both the videos here can be viewed in either Feminist and Post Feminist ways



Britney Spears - Toxic (Feminist Reading only)

• Stereotypical - Woman presented very sexual and provocative, regardless of her being the main protagonist
• Very promiscuous & provocative- Coffee poured on man's crotch area/ She rubs her bottom on man's crotch
• Sexual object - Her range of revealing outfits
• Typical feminine occupations (Air Hostess/ domestic work)
• She is not riding the motorcycle but riding behind the man - Not taking charge/ Women need protection by men
• Diamond dress barely covers her body - Exploiting women's bodies
• Representation of male on plane is more realistic of that to women
• Chameleon effect of Britney Spears - Has to use her image rather than talent. Demeans herself/ could possibly reveal artist's low self esteem
• Shows sex sells
  
  
  
  

Pussycat Dolls - Buttons (Post Feminist Reading only)

• Offer messages of sexual empowerment - Assertive, provocative and in control of 'the gaze (male)'
• Confident, sassy, sexy icons challenging traditional assumptions about passive female sexuality "I'm a sexy marma"
• Uses a provocative male address challenging Snoop to "loosen up" her "buttons" - However, the dolls prove 'too hot to handle' for Snoop

However there are also counter examples to this, of a Post-Feminist type of video.

Missy Elliot's 'She's a Bitch', is an example of this.

• It rejects conventional representations of women- free from objectification
• Does not conform to stereotypical gender representations
• Missy is not passive; she 'narrates' the action - lyrics are not self exploiting
• Androgyny: Masculine codes of movement, stance and dress
• Mise en scene- She wears man tailored suits/ shirt and tie/ dungarees/ army wear
• Subverts gender codes - Use of male dancers; Missy displays a 'male' persona - drives fast car, wears the 'bling' etc
• Body image refuses to conform to idealised female stereotypes - Missy is literally inflated in her video of 'The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)'

Gender Stereotypes/ Feminism and Post Feminism

Gender Stereotypes in Music

*Men are engaged significantly more aggressive and dominant behaviour
*Men are represented as independent, adventurous, unemotional and competent.
*Stereotypical gendered occupations are apparent i.e. Men as fire-fighters/Mechanics, and females as waitresses/cheerleaders
*Women are engaged with significantly more unimportant roles and are usually involved in more explicit, sexual and passive behaviour.
*Women are represented as objects of sexual advances or as sexual objects

-Women are more likely to wear revealing and provocative clothing.

-Women are portrayed as decorative objects that may dance, pose yet may have less overall input like not playing instrumentsThese research findings were not restricted to the hip hop genre only


Feminism (1960s/1970s)

*A movement in which women questioned their position within patriarchal society & the 'private sphere' of home/children/domestic bliss.
*Serves to uncover, challenge and eliminate oppression and dominant gender imagery
*Women began to debate the narrow range of stereotypes across all media
*Women were seen as either virgins, mothers or promiscuous
*Women were seen as sexual objects
*Women are depicted as being inferior to men
*Women are viewed as domestic/based in the home

Sexual Objectification and the Male Gaze (Laura Mulvey)

*Definition of Voyeurism: Erotic pleasures gained from looking at a sexual object (who is unaware of being watched)
*Presence of women solely for the purpose of display (rather than narrative function)
*Female on display is passive and objectified for a male gaze regardless of viewers gender
*Voyeuristic treatment of female body in 'male' videos- use of dancers as adornments to the male ego
*The inclusion of women for women for display is a staple element in music video's- across all genres
*Women connote to-be-looked-at-ness and are the object of the male gaze


Post Feminism (& Introduction of the Female Gaze)
(1980s)

*A re-appraisal of Feminist values
*Does not strive for 'equality' as this assumes men are 'the best'- they wish to surpass male achievements
*Objected to theories which position them as objects of the 'male gaze'
*Identifies a 'female gaze'- women actively desiring men Women began to assert their right to dress and be sexually attractive as long as they maintain control and solid composure.

where's your head at

Basement Jaxx - Where's your head at

Directed by Traktor, this music video is a very unique one as it focuses strongly on creating an immerse, vivid yet incredibly funny and humorous concept with very slight narrative to it too. Basement Jaxx are involved in the genres of House, Electronic and Dance and although this type of video isn’t typical at all from many genres, it does happen to suit the conventions of these genres well as it aims to provide a somewhat mesmeric, unreal and different approach to music videos when it seems things cant actually be real and therefore appear ‘out of this world’. They tend to lack strong narrative and consequently don’t entirely seem to make much sense as to what is happening or to why exactly it is happening, however this is actually the desired effect that the musicians have for the video as it makes it appear mysterious and inexplicable. It allows the audience to really have to try hard in order to figure out what is happening or just simply enjoy the music video for what it is and what it does. (Strong concept based videos are often apparent with similar genres as to the ones that this group reside with.) Similar artists/groups such as Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim also use the same types of music videos to attract audiences to their work.

The concept of this video generates a weird and bizarre reality where it seems as if the main character has been somehow thrown into an illusionary world that doesn’t actually exist (the “armpit of nowhere” as he calls it – ironically he refers it to as an armpit allowing it to convey filthier, polluted connotations than anything else). Experiments have been produced by scientists and are enabling monkeys to be slowly, but surely, transforming into human beings, as we start to see the monkeys develop human faces/ traits. This concept corresponds to the title of the song as it relates to the questionable events that are taking place and exposes the unordinary monkeys that exist in the video. The scientists are supposedly trying to make the monkeys develop musical traits that are only shared through humans as in the beginning of the video the main character says the scientist claims to have the “latest thing in pop music”. There is a man with a guitar in a stretcher, and this is foreboding of what is to come in the video. To that we are immediately introduced to the song. After a short while we see the monkeys arrive to the scene and start playing various instruments such as a guitar and DJ decks etc. Close up shots of the monkeys are shown in order to capture the hilarity and strangeness of them having human faces and playing the instruments.

The close-ups also show off the technical brilliance that the video possesses as the faces are very accurate in appearance, behaviour and proportions when applied to the monkeys’ and they also move accordingly to how the monkeys’ bodies move, this creating a very realistic touch to the effects. The faces are of the band mates and this could also possibly convey how eccentric and strange of a group they are as it suggests their music is wild and untamed just like monkeys. It expresses a comedic, absurd yet oddly fascinating approach that they bring to their work and displays their uniqueness. It gives off a tone of dark humour and shows that they do not take their work too seriously and prefer to have fun with things as well.

Later we see the monkeys begin to lose control and instead of playing the instruments, they begin to start eating on them instead. They first start lashing out in a wild outbreak and violently sing along with the chorus. It correlates well with the monkeys as it is a very up-beat, rough and loud, which makes it have a strong synchronisation between the audio and video since the monkeys also begin acting very rough, brash and angry. There is a foretelling of what is shortly to come when we see one monkey put it’s hands on its head in anxiety and the scientist does the same. As the monkeys start to tear the room/ equipment up out of their own frustration and instinct, so does the scientist.

This could symbolise mind control and leadership and furthermore suggest that the monkeys are now in charge and have the authority. As the monkeys then proceed to attack the main character, we are presented to low-angled, eye-lined matched shots to show the superiority of the monkeys and how they are now looking down on the human beings to show how the tides have now turned.

There is a shakey camera used within this scene to emphasize the fright and terror in the scene, in which our protagonist is going through. When the main character realises what exactly is going on and discovers of the scheme of the scientists trying to get him to turn into a monkey he attempts to flee. Throughout this scene there are many editing and camera techniques present, such as quick cuts that take place and help to build panic and distress which illustrate the protagonist's emotions and feelings at the time. The many extreme close-ups and close up shots throughout the scene also build a sense of claustrophobia, which in addition builds further tension and discomfort through the characters and scenes. While fleeing he falls through a hole in the wall and stumbles the human beings' (assumingly the group's bodies) who now have the monkey faces to replace their own. The main scientist then returns back to the scene with a dog that has his own face on as well. He talks and smirks at the main character whilst he is still on the ground immobile, and this suggests his inability to do anything to save himself and his degree of helplessness.

I believe there could possibly be subtle intertextuality throughout the music video as there are faint relations to the story of ‘Planet of the Apes’. Many references to the movie apply here through the obvious ideas of primates taking over and becoming the new, dominant race but also we have the main character seem to find himself in somewhat of another world as do to his arrival he spoke of the place as the “armpit of nowhere”.

I consider this to be a very successful video as although the plot of it may not make total sense it still remains with strong amusement, technically impressive and leaving the audience to marvel in awe at what they are watching and above all else it is also incredibly unique and takes a different approach rarely seen in various music videos allowing itself to become special and memorable among many.