The Radiohead video follows Todorov’s theory of simple
version of narrative with it starting with equilibrium then at the start this
equilibrium is disturbed and creates a disequilibrium where the town visitor is
shown strange things and then attempted to be burned, and the at the end of the
video the story comes to equilibrium again with the man leaving the town alive.
This contrasts with massive attacks unfinished sympathy where there is no true
narrative in place and is making more of a comment on society and how people
choose to look away from real issues like poverty and crime without telling a
story, Lyotard suggest that narratives are more complex and there are things
called meta narrative or micro narratives and that viewing media text using
ideas like Todorov’s theory are out of date and flawed. Both tracks have a very
unconventional sound for the time of their release, burn the witch coming out
when the mainstream is vastly populated with alternative hip hop and pop
sticking with an alternative rock / orchestral sound, massive attack coming out
with the birth of the Bristol dance sound being one of the first groups to
incorporate a trip hop or down tempo like style to their music. Not only this
but they both feature a lot of strings and orchestral sounds in each of the
songs. Although musically they both take influences from the same places in
their music videos both have a very different style to them. Burn the witch is
a parody of the cult classic horror film the wicker man which feature playdough
like animation telling a story about the fear of out siders with some big
political undertones. Unfinished sympathy tells a story of a woman who feels
love for another person, but these feelings are yet not reciprocated by the
other person, the video has the singer in the song Shara nelson walking down a
street in Los Angeles in one long take with various things happening in the
video. Both videos tell a story making them narrative videos. Massive attacks
video seems to overall have nothing to do with the lyrics of the song but
instead talk about how most people seem to avoid problems in the world as they
are too small for us to care, this is shown by her lake of remorse or care for
any of the events that happen around her as she walks through a bad part of town.
The video is all about focusing less on yourself and more on the bad and
poverty around you, this is illustrated though its focus on the woman but all
the interesting things that are interesting in the video happen in the
background, although she sees the violence and gangs and poverty around her she
just keeps on walking and unaffected, turning a blind eye.
How do the representations promote the artists?
Both music videos are supposed to represent the artists as
caring about the world and the state of society. They both make artists seem
quite intelligent of deep to some people. Burn the witch is a lot subtler in
its representation and is appealing to an audience that will consider the
lyrics and understand the references made in the video. The video uses
intertextuality from the film the wicker man and the tv show trumpton this is
going to make the viewer feel good that they understood the reference the video
made making the viewer feel like they are closer to the artists. Burn the witch
is supposed to show Radiohead as intelligent and lyrically deep as the video
and lyrics are left up for interpretation. Over the years Radiohead’s audience
has become more and more niche and less mainstream so deep lyrics and videos
that seem like they have no message the first watch is what most fans of the
band are going to expect an intelligent music video, so Radiohead provide what
the audience wants to make them seem more intelligent than other artists.
Massive attack represents it self in a very similar way both preaching things
wrong with society. Massive attack is also trying to be intelligent but in a
more open way, most people would understand on first watch what the music video
is about but where as the references made and complicated lyrics in Radiohead makes
it less obvious and less popular than massive attacks release. This is
supported by the huge success of massive attacks break out single cementing
their place in music history coming out on there first album, however
Radiohead’s burn the witch was on their ninth studio album. Radiohead are not
as much trying to make a change as massive attack was. Both groups, Radiohead
with strong political songs and albums in the past and massive attack go on to
make other political statements with one of the members even theorised to be
bansky and has sprayed political graffiti.
How might the two
audiences read the videos?
Both audiences may be similar or completely different due to
a big time differential. Both songs share a similar musical style and preach similar
political ideas but the release of the two albums are about 26 years apart.
Radiohead may have more younger fans than massive attack and have kept there
relevancy far longer and has reached higher points than massive attack. Even
though their audiences in age may be different the audiences will feel similar
feelings and have the same reactions to the video. Their will be people who
don’t understand both videos as they are not the easiest thing in the world to
understand, another group would understand what is being said but may disagree
with the politics of the videos or they would understand it and agree with the
views shared. This stands for both videos as both videos preach a left wing
kind of view, so more liberal audiences may connect with the video more than
others. Also, women will connect more with massive attacks video than burn the
witch. Even if a person doesn’t get what the person is talking about they may
relate with the woman. massive attacks
demographic will be more of an underground or lower to middle class audiences,
the neighbourhood is a worse part of town and relates to the people who live in
those conditions and deal with the poverty and violence in the streets. As burn
the witch is much vaguer it’s not appealing to those same audiences.
Apart from the artist who and what else is being
represented?
Both videos have very strong political undertones, in burn
the witch the man who is being sacrificed or hunted is a referring to the
Muslim fear that is happening in the media and in society. The lyrics of the
song talk about witch hunts and mob mentality that are referencing the current
climate of people’s views on Muslims and the middle east, the video also
represents outsiders in general. Although Radiohead have been quoted on saying
its about the media and Muslims the lyrics on there own can be quite ambiguous,
so some may connect with there own meaning of the video. Massive attacks video
supports Angela McRobbie’s theory of post-feminist icon theory suggesting that
the character nelson plays throughout the video is seen from the point of view
as a strong independent woman as she is shown to be wearing nice clothes and a
lot of the camera angles are at her height, this represents a respect for women
in the video. In massive attacks video a big part of the video focuses on the
less fortunate than others featuring a child with a gun foreshadowing his
future being apart of gang violence because of where he has grown up this
represents how as a society we view people one theory known as reception theory
from hall suggests that will take a media text and either except its preferred
meaning and ideological assumptions and agree with them ,except the preferred
meaning and disagree with it or we reject it and shape it around our
ideological views. This is why making a video talking about race and
representations about the discriminated can cause people who have the opposite
stand point too use the video for their benefit, for example someone might say
that the shot of the kid with the toy gun shows that their race is inherently
more violent, this is of course false but it is noted that massive attack still
tried to address this issue showing they have respect for their audience and
view audience more as theorist gauntlet would.
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