Using Andrew Goodwin’s music video theory I will analyse Where’s Your Head At? – Basement Jaxx. I have chose this video because of the genre of the song relates to Spitfire – The Prodigy (out song we are making a video for), It is Electronic Dance. It is a good idea to analyse this video because it will give me experience in seeing what genre characteristics are shown in the video. So I can take this research and hopefully improve my final piece of coursework. The song was released 11th December 2001 on the record label XL.
Institutional information
The music video was directed by Traktor, a group Swedish production team, consisting of five directors and two producers, they are very underground with not much information about them. They have worked with the likes of The Prodigy. The video is seen as quite infamous as it was voted 60th in Channel 4’s ‘100 Greatest Scary Moments.’ This music video won the 11th Annual Music Video Production Awards for Best Electronic Video and Best Directorial Debut. The video It is about a musician (played by Damiean Samuals) looking for ‘The latest thing in pop music,’ which leads him to a hospital institution which is described as ‘the armpit of nowhere’ where a scientist claims he has the latest thing. However the meeting goes out of control.
The genre of the music is Electronic Dance, which is music created by DJ’s digitally and is produced to be played in nightclubs. The video does not conform to the genre characteristics of a typical Electronic Dance music video, as there is not dance routine, fast editing or use of lights. However over the years Electronic Dance music videos have adopted the characteristic of a weird concept and this was one of the first to apply the idea.
Relationship between lyrics and visuals
In this genre of music lyrics is not the most vital feature which makes it, however there are a few lyrics in this song and there is a relationship.
The first is the chorus “Where’s your head at?” this is link to the visuals as the video is about swapping heads of animals and humans. This lyric could be coming from the scientist demanding the brain or head the human and asking where it is.
The next lyric I analysed is “Don’t let the walls cave in on you.” To me this sounds like a reply to the lyric above and fighting against the scientists works.
Relationship between music and visuals
The first section which shows this relationship is when the music begins, a guitarist is being wheeled into the hospital and when he lifts his head a creepy way the music begins with a big first beat. It shows intersexuality of a Horror movie.
There’s a relationship between these two when the monkeys break out and we can see it is out of control, when this happens the music drops and begins a slow, nausea effect type of music, when know it is leading to havoc.
Close-ups of the artists
The video stars both artists of Basement Jaxx, they are Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe, however the way they feature is not seen as the 'the norm.' The face of these two are superimposed on to monkeys performing a DJ set.
Their record label is XL, an independent label who are very free with their artist's and allow them independence. From the way the band is represented we can see that the record company are looking at a niche market as we are not shown the duo as a full person and selling them as a 'product.' This is a part of Richard Dyer's Start Theory as it shows the relationship between star, industry and audience. From this strategy they will not sell to a mass market, this is relevant as the music is not aimed at the mass market.
Their record label is XL, an independent label who are very free with their artist's and allow them independence. From the way the band is represented we can see that the record company are looking at a niche market as we are not shown the duo as a full person and selling them as a 'product.' This is a part of Richard Dyer's Start Theory as it shows the relationship between star, industry and audience. From this strategy they will not sell to a mass market, this is relevant as the music is not aimed at the mass market.
Type of video
This music video is a mixture of all Andrew Goodwin’s theory of types of music video, performance-based, narrative based and concept based. The performance is a small part but is shown when the Basement Jaxx monkeys are performing a DJ set, it is very serial. We see a narrative as Damian Samuels is searching for something new in Pop music but ends up in a mad scientist’s experiment and has to escape. The concept of this video is that Pop music is dying out and that the world is going crazy.
Editing
The editing of Traktor at the beginning is very simple as we need to understand the narrative, if the editing is simple with straight cuts we focus on the narrative. However when the chaos begins, the pace of the editing enhances. An example is when the scientist is goes crazy and destroys his laboratory.
Camera shots/movement
The camera shots and movements are again simple but effective as Traktor wants to give the feel of a short film. At the beginning there is a tracking shot on Damian Samuals, so that we can get an insight of the main character and understand his role.
There was another movement I thought was clever, when the main character is entering a booth. It is a Point of View shot and it gives us the idea of the use entering something not right as it is a tight space.
Representation
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