Music Video Analysis

What codes and conventions are evident

within the text and what meanings are being
created by the use of codes and
conventions?

I have chosen the Paradise music video by

Coldplay.
The video is a narrative video with some
performance at the end. In narrative videos
they all have characters, as shown in this video with the elephant with a beginning, a middle
and an end to a story. There are multiple locations, starting from the zoo at the beginning,
going through London and ending up in what appears to be Africa. The performance aspect
almost always typically includes a stage, a dark room with spotlights and brighter lights to set
a concert atmosphere and fans/an audience.
Within the video we follow a person dressed as an elephant who is searching for paradise,
after escaping from a zoo, as shown when he starts in London. To start, technical codes
throughout show the shots being stereotypically mid shots, to show some of the background
to how the progression of the elephants travels. Throughout the video we realise the
elephant is a lot taller than the rest of the people, which makes the elephant stand out. From
this we notice that he doesnt fit in with the rest of society and hence he is searching for his
paradise where he fits in and other people understand him. However, in the london scenes
the saying the elephant in the room could be brought in. He is physically the elephant in the
room, and everyone is ignoring him. This could connote how society is completely unaware
of everything around them, and clearly the elephant is looking for a better life away from the
average London Tube as shown above. This is a narrative video as seen, telling the story of
the elephant throughout. At the start, the lighting is artificial and doesnt seem like he is in his
natural habitat, yet once he has travelled towards the end of the video he is surrounded by
natural lighting which gives connotations of happiness. At the start of the video the
surroundings are covered in graffiti, appearing dirty and run down showing the place the
elephant wants to escape from. Going onto the travelling and the end result here is clear
skies and sunsets which is natural and just insinuates that the elephant is now in his natural
and happy place. The concert scene at the end could be a connotation for the elephant, or
maybe the lead singer of coldplay that he was caged away but has now broken free and is
now released where they belong.

Who/what is being represented?

Throughout the music video, the main focus of the video is the elephant. This is clearly a
person dressed as an elephant. From this, I feel many things could be taken and interpreted.
Firstly, the elephant is different from the rest of the people as he is the tallest, largest person
and cannot talk. This shows how he is misunderstood and could show how instead of people
questioning the elephant or trying to help him and understand him, they simply leave him be.
This can be seen in the image at the top, which shows the elephant stood up on the tube
with the rest of the people on the tube sat down around him, ignoring him. This could
represent disabilities or a stigma in society that we choose to ignore rather than discuss. We
also do not praise individuality, we choose to back away from it instead which could connote
how we are brainwashed into society's norms and therefore we do not provide all that we
could to the world, as shown in the picture. The elephant looks bright, whereas the clothes of
the bystanders are all dark and dull, insinuating how they are stuck in a trap of everyday life.
The biggest connotation pulled from the video is that there is an elephant in the room. This
is a well known phrase, used to describe when everyone is thinking something, such as a
problem or a situation that should be discussed, yet it is left unsaid. This could be
representing again something that we as a society do not discuss. This could be the
boredom of everyday life, the mental health of those who sit around them as they wait for
another working day to be over, or as mentioned the lack of individuality and simply
happiness. It could be showing how we could be, living the life as the elephant and standing
out, as opposed to how we we act.

Tessa Perkins representations theory links to these thoughts. Tessa Perkins says that
stereotyping has elements of truth and it is not a simple process as it has many assumptions
that can be challenged. She identifies 5 assumptions from stereotypes. Firstly, stereotypes
are not always negative. This could be true as the stereotype could be beneficial for society
as a functionalist would state, due to the awareness raised around the stereotypes in order
to break the stigma of them. Secondly, they are not always about the minority groups or the
lss powerful. In Fact, in the music video the stereotype is more about the average people at
the sides using the tube in London. This is a representation of the majority of London, people
going about their everyday business. She also says that they can be held about one's own
group, they are not rigid or unchanging, and they are not always false. In this instance, it
could be seen that the stereotype isn't necessarily false. We now live in a media saturated
society, and as they sit on their phones they are ignoring the bigger picture in society which
could show how we are unaware of our surroundings and what is going on.