Matthew Dalby Uprising Music Video Analysis

Analysing Professional Music Video Texts:

Track Title:

Uprising

Song Genre: Band/Artist Name: Single Release Date:

Alternative Rock, Post-Progressive

Muse

7th September 2009

FEATURES

OBSERVATIONS/EXAMPLES
The first shot of the band is a long shot and shows the audience the instruments that are used for this song (electric guitar, bass guitar and drums). In order to create tension and narrative before any lyrics are actually sung, there are establishing shots of a model village with a lit fuse running through it. The lead vocalist (Matthew Bellamy) is not actually singing into a microphone, but is singing into a walkie-talkie when the band is around a fire. There are also shots of a bulldozer clearing the dirt which could suggest that the antagonists of the narrative are trying to clear away any disturbances. At the beginning, the editing and pace of the editing seems to follow the drums (as it seems to be the dominant instrument at the start). There are also birds eye view shots of the drums maybe showing that someone/something believes that it is overruling them (hence the uprising). There are many close ups of the lead vocalist in order to show emotion into what he is singing and also to amplify the lip-syncing.

OVERALL EFFECT
This supports the genre of alternative rock because those are three of the main instruments typically found in an alternative rock song (apart from keyboard). This could portray that an uprising is about to begin and so the audience are already drawn into the narrative. Walkie-talkies can be used for amateur radio and so this could suggest that the song is in order to encourage people to join their uprising not literally, but it adds to the narrative of the video as if it was a film.

GENRE CHARACTERISTICS

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE LYRICS AND VISUALS

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE MUSIC AND VISUALS

Drums have been used throughout history in order to determine the pace of marching for troops when used for military uses. This implies that a rebellion is about to/has started to occur in the narrative.

ARE THERE CLOSE-UPS OF THE ARTIST AND STAR IMAGE MOTIFS?

It also establishes the narrative because Matthew Bellamy has his head tilted upwards slightly when he is singing in order to show

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Matthew Dalby Uprising Music Video Analysis

authority and makes it clear that they are the centre of the music video (as the band). This creates direct address to the audience and makes them feel more involved in the narrative.

IS THERE REFERENCE TO THE NOTION OF LOOKING? INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES CATEGORY (ILLUSTRATION/ AMPLIFICATION/ DISJUNCTURE)

The male gaze is used in this music video because the vocalist has the practical look because he looks like he is really concentrating/engaged in the task to bring an uprising.

(See Table Below) This music video in conclusion would come into the amplification category because the director has really been creative with the narrative and the shots are really varied in terms of interesting and unusual shots (such as the birds eye view shot and the panning shots of the model village).

SCREENSHOT OF MUSIC VIDEO ASPECT

EXPLANATION/ANALYSIS
EDITING/TRANSITION Band Wipe is the name for this transition because bands of the next shot slide across the current one. In this music video, the transition is used so quickly that it appears to the audience as a slight flash of colour between the shots (this is probably due to the movement of light to dark shots and the way that they cut across each other in the transition. The main use of this transition is when shots of the model village cut to the shots of the band members in order to emphasis on the difference between the two shots.

STAR IMAGE MOTIFS The birds eye camera angle of the drummer (Dominic Howard) occurs in one of their later music videos for Undisclosed Desires; where the similar shot is shown (opposite). This creates a link between Muses music videos that the audience can relate to when watching them. (Shot from Uprising Music Video)

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Matthew Dalby Uprising Music Video Analysis

(Shot from Undisclosed Desires Music Video) INTERTEXTUALITY One of the main links to another text is the shots that lead up to the teddy bear causing destruction in the street. These shots are similar to the ones that are used when the marshmallow man walks through New York city in the film Ghostbusters (shown opposite). The audience can therefore recognise this connection and makes the music video more enjoyable because the narrative is enhanced. SPECIAL EFFECTS The use of the model village, fire and the bears makes the narrative more dramatic and increases the repeatability because it is like a short film. It also won Best Special Effects in the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards.

(Shot from Uprising Music Video)

(Shot from Ghostbusters Film)

Overall, I have chosen to analyse this music video because I think that it is really artistic because of the range of cinematography, mise en scene and special effects that have been used. I have liked this song for a while but have never seen the music video for it and so thought that I should see if my own visualisation of the lyrics were what the band and director had thought of. Obviously, I had not imagined teddy bears roaming through a model village and this is one of the reasons why I chose to do it because the music video as a whole has a creative narrative. I think that it has stretched the conventions of alternative rock because it is like a short film and as far as I know, they do not contain ideas like the bears in them even if they are a visual metaphor for the song. I would assume that it is aimed at a range of ages because of this model village concept and that it is interesting because of the special effects. I would say though that the targeted audience could be at an age range of 14-25 and male because of the alternative rock genre of music. From this music video, I will take the Page 3 of 4

Matthew Dalby Uprising Music Video Analysis knowledge that I could create an idea that really extends my creativity; but I think that this probably will not be possible because of budgeting and time.

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