Today I am going to analyse the Video for Slipknot's song Psychosocial using Steve Archer's theories on how to study music videos. The video is all performance and features the band in a field in the dark.
There are five things I am looking for in this video the first being...
'Though Beats'.
Roland Barthes theory, 'grain and voice' can apply to the video, this views the voice as more of an expressive instrument, and is unique to the singer. The grain of voice used in this video is very hard hitting and is a mix between screamo and shouting, this is matching to the video which shows the performers head banging and the lead singer shouting. This works hand in hand with star image as the lead singer trademark is the shouting type voice which is associated to the band and is shown in their video's. The structure and tempo of the song matches the music video, and also the instruments used match the visuals the hard hitting drums and guitar riffs match the visuals of fire and head banging.
'Narrative and Performance'.
This video consists of the band just performing which matches their image accordingly, as they are well know for live gigs. The reason for this is to show the band can rock out so they will come and watch them live. Lip syncing close ups and the band miming playing instruments is at the heart of their videos as this is their image and it also matches the music.
'The Star Image'.
Star image is a key aspect in Slipknot videos, I can be seen as one of the reasons why they are so popular, this is in relation to their performance and unique style and sound of their music. They are known for their crazy masks, strange behaviour, awesome live shows and music style. Their meta-narrative has developed over time and has established them as one of the biggest names in their genre. This is down to their costumes and themes of their videos. Their star image is evident in this video, for example it shows the band going crazy and the costume and theme eg dark lighting are always the same in their videos.
'Relating the music to the Visuals'.
There are three ways music videos work to support the song, this music video illustrates the meaning of the lyrics and the genre. This is the most straight forward technique to visualisation, everything in this music video is based on the song which is hard-core. The visuals match the music and unlike other music videos of their doesn't go against the music.
'Technical aspects of the music video'.
Speed- the camera movement in this music video is a mix of slow, to show the band clearly performing and fast to match the pace and tone of the singers voice as it gets louder and really aggressive.
- Fast cutting and montage editing is plays a big part in some of slipknot's songs however in this video it doesn't apply, in fact slow motion is actually used more which matches the tempo of the song which is fairly slow at points.
- Digital effects in this video include, colour grading, blurring and fast and slow motion.
- Meat- the meat of this music video as in most is to cut to the close up of the singers face however is also to show the band performing.
- Beats, the drums and guitar riffs match the cuts in this music video.
- Lighting and colour in this video is dark and grey like most in the genre.
-Lastly the Mise en scene is one of the most important part of music videos, in this video the Mise en scene is very cool with the band performing in pitch black with fire all around them and of course weird props and their trademark masks.
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