Music Video Textual Analysis: Foals -Olympic Airways

Olympic Airways is a song from Foal’s debut studio album “Antidotes” and falls into the Indie/Alternative genre. The video for this song is a mix between a performance and a narrative video with elements of both working well together to create a video, which, in my opinion, works well and has given me inspiration for my own final piece.

This song is generally about the theme of escapism. The song name suggests this, as Olympic Airways is a reference to a Greek Air Company, which is Yannis’ (the lead singer) home country. There are also further elements, which illustrate this theme visually throughout the video.

This video follows many conventions found in videos of the same/similar genre such as a natural environment as a background, a performance from the band and elements of mise en scene to reinforce the genre to the audience (clothing, hairstyles, props etc.).

However, the video also defies conventions found in music videos from its genre with the use of some unusual and quirky props that would not be commonly found in other videos such as the child’s tricycle, hula-hoop and mattress. Although these props may have been used for a greater purpose (maybe to symbolise and illustrate certain things to the audience) they go against conventions of Indie/Alternative music videos, as they would not be commonly used within them. Also, the shots of the band smashing up the props defies conventions of Indie/Alternative music videos and is something that would be found more commonly in more heavy Rock videos oppose to Indie Rock genre that Foals fall into.

 Throughout the video there are many simple relationships created between the lyrics and the visuals. For instance, the first line of the song “Suns up, we wait” the sun is out whilst a band member is sat is field and appears to waiting. This immediately shows to the audience that the video is not disjunctive and is relevant to the song and lyrics. Furthermore, throughout the lyric “disappear, disappear, disappear” a band member is falling onto a mattress which could be a metaphorical way of showing to the audience that he is trying to “disappear” which then fits into the lyrics playing over the visual.

 

The camerawork in the video consists of many different shots. There are close ups of the band playing the instruments and of the singer lip syncing which is very typical of this genre and is expected from a performance video. Also incorporated are long shots of the band, which add a new dimension to the video and give the audience a wider angle of perspective. There is a mixture of static and panning shots throughout the video, which is again a convention, found in videos of the Indie/Alternative genre. The shot length in Olympic Airways is generally longer than heavier rock music videos due to the pace of the song and this works well and fits the music.

The video on a whole is an amplification video as the band are metaphorically trying to escape by causing carnage and disarray within a forested area which fits in with the meaning behind the lyrics through a creative interpretation by the director. Therefore, the audience will have to look slightly further into the video to grasp the meaning behind it making it an amplification video oppose to an illustrative video. 

Music Video Textual Analysis: Metronomy- Heatbreaker

This song falls into the ‘Indietronica’ genre and is from Mentronomy’s second album “Nights Out”. The song was also released as a single and is one of Mentronomy’s most well known songs.

Lyrically, the song is about the a male who has previously suffered in a love triangle and the situation is repeating itself (shown by the lyrics “back to the start again”) as the girl, who is already in a relationship with his friend, is trying to flirt with him. The lyrics could be referring the woman involved as a prostitute with the lyrics “friends in the business” and with this knowledge he then warns the other male of this and attempts to console him for his loss.

Typical of its genre, the video follows the convention of a narrative based music video with performance elements such as lip-syncing. As seen throughout many music videos in the ‘Indietronica’ genre, the band do not appear in the video in full and do not perform. The video is illustrative as it illustrates the meaning of the lyrics so the viewer can easily interpret the meaning of the song. Another convention of the ‘Indietronica’ genre is conformed to with the clothing (thin ties) and hairstyles of the actors in the video, as it is quirky and what would be considered ‘cool’ and ‘modern’ which is seen in many other videos of the same genre.  Also, what can both be considered as an old and vintage/retro, the car and tape machine used in the video. These elements conform to the conventions found in music videos of the genre as it fits in with the lifestyle, which would be considered fashionable by followers and fans of the genre.

The story of the video is that a man has had his ‘heat broken’ by a break up with a woman and his friends are trying to console him by taking him on a road-trip to the seaside, zoo and countryside.

The use of mise en scene in the car is clever as it gives the car a quirky feel and gives the video a bit of an interesting indie edge that fits in with the genre of the song and this benefits the video as if it was just a normal car, it would not have the same effect. This mise en scene is created through various colourful props throughout the car.

They travel to what appears to be a deprived old English seaside town, which has past its prime time. The mise en scene in the town presents the town as run down and old fashioned which matches the car used and also the ‘indie’ theme of vintage and retro items and locations, which reoccurs throughout. The men look out of place in this town, as they are young, dressed in full suits and well presented. The town is the complete opposite of this and the two are juxtaposed which could be a hint to the depressed member that he is still young and he has a lot more time to find someone else.  The shot used here is an establishing shot as it establishing the location to the viewing but could also be classed as a long shot. The man who is grieving is stood slightly further apart from the other two, which could connote his sense of loneliness.

This is my favourite shot from the video as they are walking from the car towards the beach.  The camera remains still with the car in a medium shot whilst the men walk away into the distance. The shot works so well because even though the shot is so simple, there is a lot to look at and take in. The blue sky and the clouds, the sea, beach, grass, men and car all combine into the one shot, which is very effective. I think this shot works really well given the scenario of the video and is something I would like to replicate in my final product.

This long shot is so simple yet effective as the other two men walk off, the saddened man remains starting at the sea for a couple of seconds which implies to the viewer that he is deep in thoughts as he takes a few seconds to realise the others have started to walk off. This shows his has a lot on his mind and is an effective way of illustrating the lyrics.