Postmodern music video analysis - Red Hot Chili Peppers 'Dani California'

Red Hot Chili Peppers’ song ‘Dani California’ is a good example of a postmodern music video that shows intertextual references to other popular music artists and genres through time. The music video is montage-esque as it shows all of the band members playing along to the song, impersonating different music acts and genres consecutively after each other. The different music acts and genres impersonated only stay on the screen long enough for the audience to recognise and appreciate who/what it is.

At the beginning of the song, the band can be seen impersonating Elvis Presley and the general style of popular music in the 50s and 60s. The lead singer can be seen dancing and behaving like Elvis Presley, he is also dressed similarly to how Elvis dressed in a white 50s styled suit. Furthermore, the other band members are dressed in a 50s style fashion too. This has been done to pay homage to Elvis Presley and similar artists of the 50s and 60s as they are regarded very highly.

Directly after the Red Hot Chili Peppers reference Elvis, they link the Beatles in to their video. The backdrop to this section of the music video is a very similar setting to somewhere where the Beatles would have played. Moreover, the instruments used in this section are very reminiscent to the style of instrument that would have been played at the time. A black and white filter is also used here to pay homage to the Beatles. 

 As well as that, the ‘Dani California’ music video also pays homage to one of the biggest bands of the 90s – Nirvana. Anthony Kiedis – the lead singer – is dressed as the Nirvana lead singer – Kurt Cobain. His clothes are similar and he has a wig that closely resembles the hair of Cobain. The slower editing used here could be seen to mirror the editing used in many Nirvana music videos. Furthermore, the darker mise-en-scene used in this section of the video also closely resembles the grunge-style mise-en-scene used in Nirvana’s videos. Once again, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are paying homage to Nirvana as they are very popular and it would please many of the Nirvana fans if they viewed this video.

Genre and conventions

Definition: The style seen throughout a music video.

"Genre is no longer a fixed set of elements".
Buckingham (1990) argues that genre is a constant process of negotiation and change.

Genre - codes and conventions that enable audiences to sort texts into groups
Hybrid - a crossover of genres. Genres changing.

Genres contain a repertoire of elements - what the audience expects to see.

Is it important to know the genre of a song before watching the promo?

• It is helpful for the audience to know the genre of a song before watching a music video so they know what kind of conventions to expect
• They will know what to expect when it comes to the mise-en-scene of a promo
• It is important to know the differences between genres - you can appreciate the more subtle conventions
• Fulfils audience expectations
• Predictable
• Creates a 'shorthand' means of communicating to the audience
• Allows a quick set up of a character/plot
• Yet needs a twist/innovation to avoid cliché/boredom

Verisimilitude - how realistic a text is

Pop promo genre conventions:
Camera:

• Close ups
• Movement - dynamic, not static
• Zooms of performers

Editing:

• Cut to the beat
• Heavy use of filters and effects
• Exposure, saturated colours
• Very fast paced
• Lots of computer generated imagery

Mise-en-scene:

• Setting - grand, luxurious, elaborate
• Costume - elaborate, over the top, expensive costumes
• Lighting - high key
• Props - phallic imagery, sexualised
• Props - grand, glamorous
• Actors - attractive, young adults, portraying an image of perfection

Performance/narrative:

• Abstract
• Singing/dance
• integration between narrative
• Lavish, cabaret
• Disjuncture - without artistic meaning

Analysis of promos

Oasis – The Importance of Being Idle

· Shows no band performance – concentrates on narrative

· Revolves around a main character throughout the video

· Contains Intertextuality

· Uses mise-en-scene to create an effective story

· Wide range of cinematography

· Sometimes use a hired actor – not a member of the band

· Almost like a short film

· Dull lighting, the video is dark throughout

Katy Perry – This Is How We Do

· Abstract style of video

· Representing different styles of people

· Concentrates on everyday life occurrences

· Pastiche/parody

· Unrealistic

· Dancing

· High budget – Costume, props

· Many people in the video

· Colourful

· Representations of happiness.

· Selling the consumerist lifestyle

· Product placement – telling young people that the more money you have, the more successful you are.

Our chosen artist

The Silent Sunday's Finding the band After looking around on unsigned.com for a substantial amount of time, we decided as a group upon an artist and a song that we were happy to use for our music promo. Before looking at this website, we knew as a group that we wanted to have a song from the rock genre. The main reason for this is that we used a rock song for our preliminary task and thought it would be easier to use the same conventions and shot types. This made it easier to narrow our search for a good song to use.

We then found a song that we thought was perfect to use for our style of video. We looked at a band called the 'Silent Sundays' and listened to several of their song that are available on unsigned.com. Our favourite of the several songs was called 'midnight wanderer'. We liked this song as it followed the generic structure of a rock song and had lyrics that could be easily translated into a narrative. About the band To gain a much research as we could before creating our music promo, we looked into the band and found out as much research as we could. We read the information that was available on unsigned.com and looked at the bands 'MySpace' page. We found several things out about the band: •The band was formed in 2006 in Sheffield. •The band consists of 4 members. A singer/ guitarist, guitarist, bass and drums. This is a typical layout for a rock band. •The band originate from Sheffield and got together whilst studying at school. •They perform a mixture of covers and original music. They write their songs themselves. •They have released an EP album with several original songs. •They have been working for the past year on a full album of songs that will be released in the next few months. Their style of music The main reason we chose this band to use in our promo was for their bands genre and their style of music. This band has a strong link to the Rock genre and follows the typical conventions of Rock and Roll music. This will make it easy for us to create a music promo that will fit with our chosen genre.

Post modernism and the music video

- Post modernism - taking the traditional and changing elements within it - Changing forms - eg: turning art in to cartoons - Playful/funny/humorous - References the past - Plays with realities Definitions: - Sceptical or playful interpretations of cultural works from the past - Intertextuality - borrowing from other sources - Reinventing what has gone before - Mixing of styles and influences - Distrust/rejection of past ideas If the EXPERIMENTAL stage of genre attempts to establish trends... and the CANNON stage works with those trends to fix them into our cultural understanding... then POST MODERNISM looks at those trends, laughs at them, pokes at them and adds something new in. Intertextuality Homage - Imitation is the highest form of flattery Pastiche - Using the imagery of one text to make a comment about another Parody - Taking the mickey

Conventions of our music video style

Conventions After choosing a genre for our music video and finding a song to use, we have researched the different conventions that are used in music videos within the rock genre. After looking at different videos such as Nirvana's ‘Smells like teen spirit’ and Foo Fighters ‘Ever-long’. We looked at each of these videos as they are good examples of a narrative and a performance. They show the typical conventions of each music video style. The main convention we spotted was the typical shots that were used throughout each music video. In ‘smells like teen spirit’ there is a large number of close ups used to show the instruments in the video. These are used to clearly represent the rock genre and the equipment it includes. We will use this in a similar way. During the shots of performance in our video, we will have a number of close ups and mid-shots showing the actors with the instruments. This will represent clearly that it is a band performance during our music video. The image on the right is an example of the kind of shot we will use during the performance in our music video. This image was taken from Nirvana’s music video of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. This shot is an effective shot as it makes it clear to the audience that it is the band performing the song.

Most of the music videos we watched included some kind of narrative within them as well as performance. However, the story of the narrative was not performed by the band themselves; instead they had one or several actors. We will challenge this idea when filming our music video. Throughout our music video, we will use the same actors in the narrative and the performance side of the video. However this can still be common in existing band videos. For example. In Red Hot chilli Peppers ‘By the way’ the main singer of the band is acting in the narrative. We have used the same idea for our music video. This is the kind of narrative we will be using throughout our music video. This is the lead singer from Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ acting in the narrative for their song ‘By the Way’. We will have each member of our performance band performing in our narrative.

Mise-en-scene Another common convention used in music videos is the use of lighting throughout. The bands/performers use the lighting to highlight certain aspects of the music video and can makes certain stand out to the audience. We will be using this idea in the same way. During the performance in our music video, we will use lighting to highlight each member of the band and their instruments. This will help to raise awareness towards the fact that it is a band performance. To create this kind of effect, we will need to film in a environment that has access to lights and can be used in a way that benefits us, The ideal location will be some kind of music or drama studio with a large lighting rig. If so, we will be able to manipulate the lights into highlighting whatever we want. Some existing bands have previously challenged this idea with the lighting. The band Arctic Monkey’s’ have used their lighting in a different way in the music video for their song ‘Brainstorm'. In this particular video, each member of the band is in darkness with their surrounding in light. The audience are unable to see or recognise the faces of any band members. This may be the bands way of distancing themselves from the audience and allows the viewers to concentrate on just the music that is performed. We will not use this idea in our music video. We will make sure that throughout the video, the audience will see the faces of the people in the narrative and the performance. We have chosen to do this as it makes it clear that once again it is a band performance as well as the narrative of the music video.

Music promo ideas

Prelim - Nirvana

CD cover

This is our CD cover for our prelim, it is a direct copy of the real Nirvana ablum cover buyt we edited it with James head on the baby in the water. This edit was done to make it look funnier and put our own spin on the cover. It also lets the audience know that this is a less serious version on the song.