Sunday 20 July 2014

Textual analysis of Ain't No Money-Daniel James

This is my second textual analysis of a music video. From it I gained mostly further knowledge in the use of effective shot compositions in order to aid the video and its narrative further.
Visual codes
Despite the typical East London looking neighbourhood there is no clear iconography or typography which states that this is where it is set and its only link to the artist is that it is where he lives currently. This does however highlight the fact that it isn't an important factor of the video as it is meant to be just a generic city which connotes wealth and power, allowing for the corporate company protagonist featured in the video to fit in appropriately with the setting. It also contrasts with the animals shown in the video, emphasising their creepy nature in the video. Due to the night time setting it is clear the dominant low key lighting is necessary to portray the time of day, however it has also been used to mirror the dark nightmarish setting of the video's narrative. There are various small iconographic elements included in the video such as the golden desk lamp, large corporate buildings and fountain pen, all of which denote the character's wealthy upper class position in society.
There is a very interesting shot composition which shows a zebra and the businessman stood in front a white fence. The zebra is camouflaged with it whereas the businessman, who wearing only black contrasts intensely with the white fence so he can be seen more clearly. This highlights him to give the impression that he is being put under a spotlight and spotlighted as an insignificant form of mockery for the audience. This and the man's fearful expression and body language  contradict the power generally associated with business workers as they show his lack of power against something as minuscule as a stuffed animal.
Technical codes
An effective shot is that of the high angle, over the shoulder shot of the lion looking down on the man. Again, this is unconventional because he is being seen as having a lack of power. This contrasts what is shown at the start of the video which shows a low angle on the businessman highlighting his powerful high status. Throughout the video the camera tracks the businessman and follows his gaze so the audience are kept constantly in curiosity of what he is looking at and what is to come next. A lot of the editing and camera work have also been made to coincide well with the music to emphasise what is happening to the audience. For example when the man stops at seeing the zebra in front of him the camera tracks him and stops just after the zebra appears and he stops and the drums in the music continue playing after a short pause at the same time. Also at the end when the man drops his folder the music suddenly takes a slower pace which highlights this action to point out his shock. Overall the editing begins quite slowly then speeds up a little towards the middle of the video reflecting the build up in tension of the scene and pace of the music.
Genre
The artist's music is defined mostly as soul however the video has a much more indie look to it by the non featured artist, focus on narrative and artistic style. This may be because he is more of an indie artist himself, with only two official music videos published on his Vevo channel on Youtube. The audience expects to see the corporate city setting due to the nature of the main character in the video as well as the song's reference to money as being a bad thing.
They don't expect however to see the animals and their involvement in the video as they make the scene more surreal and nightmarish.
Narrative
The video tells the story of a villainous corporate company worker who leaves work after working late at night to find everywhere he goes he is confronted by stuffed animals which eventually develop demonic red glowing eyes and corner him off then leave him frozen from either shock or what could be as another stuffed creature,  playing on the words from the phrase "being stuffed", as in being in trouble, and also signifying how he has lost his soul (linking with the lyrics) and power due to his corruption with money. It isn't completely clear by itself, however the lyrics emphasise that the video revolves around the theme of being obsessed with money and getting into trouble for it by saying 'Ain't no money gonna bring your soul back'. This is how the lyrics link to the video symbolically as they no doubt talk about a person who has lost their humanity over money, as most big business workers are stereotypically depicted. Todorov's narrative structure is seen by the equilibrium being when a corporate worker is leaving work as he normally would but then is interrupted by the appearance of animals, which states the disruption. The realisation is seen as more animals appear and the man begins to run. The animals corner him off and order is restored as they freeze him. Finally there is equilibrium again when the animals disappear and the it is just a normal world again. The most recognisable character is the villain being the corporate worker, but the animals could be recognised as the heroes by their conduction of justice.
Organisations
The record label Island Records and Production company Rogue London have produced music and videos for a large variety of well known artist's including Jay Z, Chase & Status and Adele. The director, Mark Jenkinson, has also directed TV commercials for many large companies and groups such as Audi, Rapha Team and BBC2. Therefore there is no doubt the quality of skill behind the film's production reflects its own quality as the creators are clearly very professional film makers. The artist themselves however is not yet a big star and not a lot of promotion has been put into them or the video as it is more for entertainment purposes than commercial. The only way he is distributed is through his Youtube Vevo channel and a few small music websites.
Audience
The video is partly targeted at a fairly niche type of audience by its focus on creativity as a pose to promotion and following conventions. There would also be an audience with a demographic in which they'd be aged between 20-40 years old and any class under high and mostly middle due to the song's anti-wealth theme. The video targets this audience with its theme because it allows them to be able to relate to the video and feel like they would be safe in the video's situation because of their social class. Fandom may be used with this video by its effective appeal to this wide audience which would entice them to use two step flow to promote the video through word of mouth.
Representation
With the main theme revolving around money, there is a clear representation of class seen throughout this video. Mainly this is seen through the high class corporate worker, who wears formal clothing to present this, which stereotypically is seen as a negative character by his black suit and red tie (connoting darkness and evil) and the link between the character and the lyrics, which say 'Ain't no money gonna bring your soul back' implying the man has no soul. The artist themselves hasn't been included in the video as his presentation could take away from the narrative aspect and the focus the audience place on it.



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