The music video for ‘Cruel’ by St Vincent uses
performance and narrative, which helps create a balance to achieve the genre of
Indie/Synth Pop.
Genre Characteristics
Within this video it is
heavily narrative with the artist being kidnapped in order to be a perfect
housewife. It follows the conventions of an indie music video with lack of
emotion and retro features. The woman is the main feature of the video and
shows her slowly being buried alive. Many close ups and bright lighting has
been used on her to easily identify the main singer to the other characters
within the music video. Although the video is narrative the female lip syncs
throughout the storyline, which follows the usual conventions for an indie
music video.
Relationship between lyrics and visuals
’So they took you, and they
left you’- the visuals show the kidnapping of a young women, ‘Cruel’ relates to imagery shown in the
video, the woman is attempting to be a perfect housewife but the other
characters are not appreciative, they do not like the way she does things and
does not live up to their expectations. Which results in them slowly killing
her.
Relationship between music and visuals
In terms of the music the tone and the melody juxtapose with the visuals, as we are seeing a young woman slowly being killed and tortured in a ‘cruel’ way. The way the woman sings is rather high and upbeat, which can easily make whoever is listening and watching to feel uncomfortable and maybe slightly confused. However we could look into it deeper to the fact that the woman’s voice is high as it could be associated with pain. She is trying to get away from the pain that the family are causing her.
In terms of the music the tone and the melody juxtapose with the visuals, as we are seeing a young woman slowly being killed and tortured in a ‘cruel’ way. The way the woman sings is rather high and upbeat, which can easily make whoever is listening and watching to feel uncomfortable and maybe slightly confused. However we could look into it deeper to the fact that the woman’s voice is high as it could be associated with pain. She is trying to get away from the pain that the family are causing her.
Are there close-ups of the artist and star image
motifs?
The woman is the main feature of the video and shows her slowly being buried alive. Many close ups and bright lighting has been used on her to easily identify the main singer to the other characters within the music video. The shots have been set out in a simple way; they are static shots, often with a slight slow zoom (zooming in on the main artist). The characters remain still throughout, showing no emotion. There are no examples of fast paced editing, as the characters actions are extremely slow whilst the song is reasonably fast.
The woman is the main feature of the video and shows her slowly being buried alive. Many close ups and bright lighting has been used on her to easily identify the main singer to the other characters within the music video. The shots have been set out in a simple way; they are static shots, often with a slight slow zoom (zooming in on the main artist). The characters remain still throughout, showing no emotion. There are no examples of fast paced editing, as the characters actions are extremely slow whilst the song is reasonably fast.
Are there any intertextual references?
There are no intertextual references as far as I have analysed, as I have previously said, the visuals seem out of place in comparison to the tone of the song. However it is expected to appear like this as it follows the conventions of a indie/alternative music video.
There are no intertextual references as far as I have analysed, as I have previously said, the visuals seem out of place in comparison to the tone of the song. However it is expected to appear like this as it follows the conventions of a indie/alternative music video.
Is the video performance, narrative or concept
based? How much of each?
‘Cruel’ is heavily narrative with some lip syncing from the female artist. This is the case in most music videos of this type of genre as it creates a storyline and audiences can associate a certain song to the music video, as it is memorable.
‘Cruel’ is heavily narrative with some lip syncing from the female artist. This is the case in most music videos of this type of genre as it creates a storyline and audiences can associate a certain song to the music video, as it is memorable.
What have I learnt?
Originally I wanted to do I narrative video to follow the usual conventions of a typical Indie/Synth Pop music video, however after analysing many music videos, the amount of equipment and planning that had gone into it was incredible, and we could never live up to the expectations of such professional work.
Originally I wanted to do I narrative video to follow the usual conventions of a typical Indie/Synth Pop music video, however after analysing many music videos, the amount of equipment and planning that had gone into it was incredible, and we could never live up to the expectations of such professional work.
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