Music Video Analyse

I am going to be analysing the music video Won’t Go Quietly by Example using Andrew Goodwin’s six point analyse. The music video is directed by Elliot Gleave and Alex Smith.

The reason that I have chosen this music video to analyse is mainly because it fits to the same genre as the music video I am going to be producing. Won’t Go quietly is Dance-pop track, and the track I am using ‘Close To You’ by Calvin Harris also has a genre of dance-pop. You can immediately tell that ‘Won’t Go Quietly’ has this genre because as soon as the song starts were hear very upbeat music and flashing images of the singer ‘Example’ performing.

There are many characteristics that this music video has but one main one that stands out to me is dancing in a club or bar. This is very popular in most Dance-pop tracks as this is what you expect from the style of music. Also other characteristics like very heavy beat, people having a good time and flashing lights all having a very similar affect and this is what I will include into my music video.

There is a clear relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. The Male Gaze by is included in this music video. We see a women walking into the club and then we follow her throughout the music video through the club. It is a point of view shot of how the other people in the club will look at her. For example the male gaze is about how men look at women and how women look at their self.  So men are most likely to look a good looking woman up and down in an attraction type of way.

In the lyrics we understand clearly that Example is singing about the woman that we are shown. “She's electric, she's the current running through my veins” This lyric relates to the visuals as we are shown the woman when this lyric is being sung. Also this lyric “Danced with the she devil in the pale moonlight” has a strong relationship with the visuals as we then see everyone dancing in a club when this lyric is being sung. This makes the music video very predictable because the lyrics of the song basically tell you what you are going to see.

The relationship between the music and the visuals are distinct. For example at the start of the video there is instrumental part and we are shown the singer in a number of different screens. This illustrates to the audience that he is the main singer of the video as this is how he is introduced. Also at this point of the song the lights are flashing from one screen to the next and this is in time with the beat of the music.

This is not the case throughout the song though because the cuts aren’t to the beat. Because the video is packed with different things to look at we are still attracted to what’s going on. Usually I think having the cuts to the beat makes the video more interesting but in this case it doesn’t as we are already interested in what’s going on.

The quicker the music gets the quicker the video gets for example more people are jumping and dancing and the cuts get a lot quicker than they are when the music is at a slower pace.

There are many close-ups of the artist because he is the main star of the music video. This is how the record company is looking to sell this track because if you like Example then you are most likely going to watch the video and buy the track. The image of the artist that is being offered is a wacky pop star that looks like he loves a good time. We also get the impression that he loves to gaze a women and see himself as a ladies man. This is because the name of the song ‘Won’t Go Quietly’ states that this woman that has eyes on him will not leave without a thrill.

The previous video by this artist are very similar. This is also because the music that he produces all have the same tempo and beat and there are only a couple of ways to make a music video with these sorts of songs. For example in his video ‘Changed The Way You Kissed Me’ we are also shown a club seen we people dancing an bouncing around. The videos are very similar in this way.

‘Changed The Way You Kissed Me’

‘Won’t Go Quietly’

This video you could say implies a sexual display as the camera angle is mostly low angle looking up to the woman’s faces. Also because their outfits are so minimal and their boobs or bums are on display this could also show a sexual display to the audience. The beginning of the video we see a screen showing the artist this is reference to the notion of looking because this is where we would usually see the artist on our television screen. So this emphasise this even more.

This music video is mostly performance based but also has a narrative. The narrative is the idea of this women walking in the club and example can’t take his eyes of her but he knows it’s going to end badly. But in between these quick shots we see example on a stage like he is at a gig with his band performing to the song.