Holly Taylor

First Date- blink-182 Analysis

The music video I have chosen to analyse is “First Date” by Pop/Punk band: blink-182. The video was directed by The Malloys who also directed videos of a similar genre such as “Breakout” by Foo Fighters. This music video contains a humorous narrative and also performance by the band in their characters. Throughout the video, there are typical conventions of the hybrid Pop/punk genre such as: drinking, skateboarding, humorous incidents and there is also an overall rebellious attitude from the characters within the narrative. There is an illictical narrative throughout the music video, as the characters in the narrative don’t have a particular coherent narrative; instead the music video’s narrative is just the characters doing different things, such as going to a waterpark, which creates a fun atmosphere which is typically associated with the pop aspect of the genre.

At the beginning of the music video, through digetic sound the theme of a humorous narrative is created, as the band are in the character of the lead singer and main guitarist; Tom Delonge as the character named: Boomer, bass guitarist Mark Hoppus as the character: Spaulding and drummer Travis Barker as his character: Travis. In the digetic sound of the opening long shot of the band, the character of Boomer says to Spaulding: “I end up kissing my own brother, you know?”, then later Spaulding comments “You know what they say man, like Father, like son.” This use of dialogue before the song begins is typical of the band blink-182 who are known for their “toilet humour” and so therefore creates a feeling of comedy within the rest of the narrative.

The first shot of the music video is a low angle long shot of the band, a long shot enables the audience to observe the band as a whole which engages the audience and therefore makes the video more memorable. Through the use of a long shot in the performance aspect of this scene, there is iconography typical of the pop/punk genre such as electric guitars and microphones.

Within the mise en scene, the characters are established and there is a use of bricolage, as the characters are dressed in costumes that are typical of the 90’s Pop/Punk genre, such as the skater

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slip on shoes, however, their hairstyles are typical of the 70’s/80’s, with the mullet and big hairstyles.

There are close ups of the band in their characters, such as the lead singer: Boomer.

The use of a close up shot of the main character in quite a humorous nature is typical of the genre and also typical of the main theme within the band’s music. A rebellious theme is shown within the music video when Travis has his middle fingers up to a female character this also is typical of the pop punk genre, where rebellion is often shown within music videos.

There are fast cuts throughout the video which links in with the pace of the track, and also creates a teenage anthem type feel towards the song. There are multiple cuts to other band members which is in sync with each time Travis plays the drums and there’s a rift with the guitar, which amplifies the song and again creates an anthem feel towards the track.

The first lyrics of the song are “In the car I just can’t wait, to pick you up on our very first date, is it cool if I hold your hand, is it wrong if I think it’s lame to dance.” The lyrics are contrapuntal to the music video as throughout the narrative there is no date depicted, only jealously when the characters watch a female and male character kissing openly and then later in the narrative, the band members embarrass themselves in front of female characters. However, some of the lyrics are linked with the music video, such as the line “Do you like my stupid hair?” as within the mise en scene, the character’s hairstyles are designed to appear quite comical.