Textual analysis of two contemprary music videos

Chelsea Dagger By The Fratellis



Directed by Ben Crook , and released in August 2006, 'Chelsea Dagger' was part of The Frattelis debut album 'Costello Music'. It is supposed be named after Jon Fratteli's wife Heather, who is a burlesque dancer, and her stage name is Chelsea Dagger. This song is well know around most football grounds and is mostly played to celebrate a team scoring a goal, it also appears in eight different Tv Commercials/Film Trailers so is a widely know/used song.

The video comprises of both 'as' live footage of the band playing and of different pieces of action which links to the lyrics of the song. It works well together, and it keeps you thinking of when the next piece of footage could be, although at times it doesn't link as well with the lyrics such as at 1:06 where I dont think that the lyrics and the footage link too well, if I was to do it I would have had a man and a women in shot playing as 'Steven and Joanna', However one thing that I think works really well is the start where when they first start playing they have, some as live footage, I think it works where they have each person get lit up as they start to play, and how they keep cutting to shots of the different girls this builds up a bit of tension, and gives a bit of an insight into would could happen when the video gets into full swing, and the song starts properly.

The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is usually very good and they relate quite well, however at 1:06 they dont relate as well as they possibly could, the music and the visuals is again around about the same, most of the cuts are to the beat and the video is to the same pace and tempo of the music. Other than just cutting from as live action to video recordings that go with the lyrics there isnt really any interesting editing or visual effects.

In this video most of filmed shots which are supposed to link to lyrics are mostly of long shots, also so are all of the shots of the girls dancing around which are often cut to during the chorus. However when cut to live action there are a few close ups of the different band members singing or playing there respective instrument. Other than this most of the other shots of the band members singing are of long shots where we can see them all in the shot, playing there instruments and singing the lyrics.

When it cuts to a long shot we can see the lighting where it is more of a spotlight on each band member so its only them and a tiny bit of the background that is lit up when in shot most of the rest of the background is dark, which shows that it could be a deep and mysterious song/video, this works well as it puts all of the focus onto the band members and of them singing the lyrics and playing the music, it also creates some nice shadows which work well.

There isnt really any interesting ise of mise-en-scene, as most of the shots are of the band playing as live or of the different girls in the video acting along relating to the lyrics, or when they are in the background dancing, so not many things that could be used as mise-en-scene are able to be seen in the video.

Once again there arent too many interesting uses of cinematography, as nearly all shots in the video are of long shots, so they arent to interesting, although they have some nice close ups of the band singing, although there are quite a few nice low angle shots, which create some interesting angles.

Be Somebody By The Enemy



This song was originally released by The Enemy in 2009, to start of with it was only released for download and the video was put onto youtube, as it became so popular it was then put into the charts, this meant that it had a lot of views on youtube. This is another song that is really well known, as it features in fifa 10 and it is also part of the opening, stings, and credits to the itv's f.a cup shows. Its not as well know as most people only know the lyrics rather than what the song is called or who it is by.

This song is mainly made up of footage from there tour which was at coventrys ricoh arena ground, as part of there tour. Once again there is live footage of the band singing, this is combined with the fans dancing along with the music, this is once again live footage, nearly all of the footage in this video is live.

There are some very interesting cinematography, there are so many different varietys of shots, there are long shots, close ups, pov's, and even some fish eye. The fish eye shots are especially interesting as they are not used very often, this also gives the illusion of us seeing through there eyes or as if we are looking through our own eyes. The Close-up's give us a good chance to see the band up close, as if we are there, and the long shots, of the crowd show how many people there were there and how well supported the enemy are. There are also some shots of the road, going upto the stadium, this shows traffic jams and lots of confusion and many people waiting to get there. This again shows us how well supported they are and how many people actually went to the concert.

Again there isnt much mise-en-scene in this video as its nearly all of live footage of the band and there fans. Although there are a few shots of the coventry city fc badge and a few of the advertising hordings get into shot, so this could have been on purpose to give them advertisment, although I think that this was more of it got into the shot, so they just got the advertisment for free, and I dont think that too many people would notice it if they were watching, I think if it was meant then it would have been more obvious such as close-ups of the different signs. As I dont think too many people would notice them from afar in a long shot.

There arent too many interesting editing or visual effects, although you can notice that some of the sequences have been slowed down or sped up to fit with the beat of the song, this is a theme all the way through the video where it keeps up with the speed and tempo of the video, this works well. There isnt really a relationship between the lyrics and the video as all the video is live footage of the concert and a few parts of them kicking a ball about, its the same with the music and the video, although with this the video does keep up with the pace and tempo of the music so they are related in one way.

For this video I think that the intended audience would be the late teens to early adults as I think it would be too 'heavy'/'rocky' for older people and younger ones wouldnt really understand it. Also we can see from the people that are at the concert that appear in the video, mostly range from late teens, to early adults, thus why I think that this video and song would be aimed at this age group.