Lucy A2: Music Video Analysis

Foster the People are an American indie band that fall under more than one type of music genre due to there quirky rock/pop style. The genres include: indie pop, alternative rock, indie rock, and alternative dance.
The band are characterised as an indie pop band. This is because they identify with a more alternative, rock based style of music but their approach and outcome of songs is softer and more melodic.
This video is characteristic of the genre because the whole video is revolved around a live performance which is typical of the indie genre in general, especially bands.

There aren't any literal relationships between lyrics and visuals in this music video because it is more of a tour diary than an artistic meaningful music video. I conducted some research on the meaning behind the lyrics and the song is supposedly about troubled and delusional youths with homicidal thoughts, with the lyrics 'out run my gun' and 'faster than my bullet'. However the video doesn't, in my opinion display the strong meaning that the writer intended because the video is performance based. I think if the video revolved more around the troubled youth in America as the song described, the lyrics and overall message would have been understood more. Even the lead singer of Foster the People, found that many people have misinterpreted the true inspiration behind the song.

This music videos demonstrates a strong relationship between music and visuals more than any others that I have analysed. The most obvious moment in the video where the beats of the music match the visuals, is when there is a close up of a foot tapping on the floor in perfect time to the beat. This draws attention to the visuals on screen and also emphasises the beat of the music making people want to dance or tap along.

In the music video, the live performances also matches up with the beat and tempo of the music, again emphasising and elevating not only the live performance on screen but also the song itself, making audiences want to go and see the band live.

There are quite a lot of close ups in this video that all show the lead singer, either singing or in the narrative sections of the video. It is important to note that the lead singer gets the majority of close up shots because he is perhaps seen as the image of the band, and for people who aren't huge fans, is the person that they associated with the band. Therefore the video needs to include close ups of the lead singer to make sure that there star image is reproduced. The close ups not only make the audience connect more with the band members but they also show the band playing instruments, which concretes then in the indie pop/indie rock genre. This is important because audiences can take from the video what type of artists they are and if they want to listen to any other songs.

There isn't any obvious or clear voyeurism in this video as the concept is purely the band on tour with just a glance into the audience.

I wouldn't say that there are any intertextuality references in this song or music video.

I would definitely say that this music video is a performance based video as most of shots are of the band performing at concerts in front of their fans. However its could also be a type of narrative video because the cuts in between are shots of their journey on tour and as being indie pop artists. This allows the audience to gain an insight into the bands life and journey making them more interesting and engaging.

Lucy A2