Fluorescent Adolescent – Arctic Monkeys

Music Video Analysis

Andrew Goodwin

Within the music video, Goodwin’s theories about music videos are adhered to in different ways. For example. I feel that Arctic Monkeys are kind of like an embodiment of indie and alternative music more than other bands that I have studied, such as The 1975 because they go against a lot of typical stereotypes and in my opinion are very dedicated to the music, hence why a lot of their videos are not performance based. Some of Goodwin’s music video theories are justified in the music video but most are not.

• The relationship between lyrics and visuals is rather contradicting, as the music video and the lyrics both tell a different story to each other, as is the relationship between the music and visuals. The visuals are quite sinister but the tune of the song is quite upbeat, which is a convention, of sorts, of the indie/alternative genre because it signifies a difference to other bands.

• One theory is actually challenged within the video because the band are not actually shown, therefore there are no close ups of them. I think that this kind of hides their identity a little bit as this shows that they care more about the music they make than what people think of them.

• There are no voyeuristic views and the video is not primarily audience based, so Goodwin’s theories are rather challenged and I think that the video is an example of something edgy and sharp, unlike a lot of singers today who abide by rules. I found that in almost all, but not all, music videos that I researched, women were not used to grab viewer’s attention because indie/alternative bands are known more for caring about their music and not grabbing people’s attention from half dressed women dancing around for attention.

• There is no intertextuality that I noticed, again sending out a message that perhaps they want to be remembered for them and not for something they put in their video to make the listeners reminisce something they once watched or saw or had.

• The video is very narrative based, with no performance whatsoever, and even though I prefer performance based videos due to the idea we can be with them as they perform, the narrative is cool and quirky and original.

Narrative theoriesTodorov:I have noticed that there is a storyline in the video, making it a narrative music video rather than a performance based one. The equilibrium is that the scene is set in an abandoned factory/parking lot, where men are proceeding to steal something and we are looking from one of the clown’s point of views as we enter the fight scene. The fighting continues as members of each group break off and continue to fight. One of the clowns, most likely the ‘protagonist’ in this sense, has a flashback when he was friends with one of the bad men (the enemy) we see at the beginning of the video. The realisation is that the clown has realised that things have changed and the enemy is no longer someone he is friends with and the new equilibrium is established when the clown finally puts an end to the enemies bad ways by blowing up his car. I think that a narrative helps any music video, not just of this genre, to have some substance and it makes it worth watching because it is essentially like a miniature movie so the audience are engaged.

Strauss:In the video, there are some binary opposites that are very clear, for example Good V Bad is probably the most evident one, from start to finish, for example the ‘good’ is the clowns at the beginning that are fighting the ‘bad’. This could also link to a Hero V Villain binary opposite, indicating roles in the video to give the narrative a more interesting, engaging tone..Propp:For me, I didn’t really recognise any specific characters, except possibly the protagonist, who is the clown, the enemy/villain who is the man from the opposing clan. The metaphorical ‘princess’ is the suitcase that the men are trying to steal.

The bag, ‘princess’, the thing everyone wants.

Technical elementsQuite a portion of the video is made up of handheld camera movements, incorporating panning movements with this to give it a rough, edgy look. A lot of the handheld camera movement is at the beginning, when we are looking at the scene and situation from someone’s point of view. It’s very cool to see it from a point of view that is there because it’s as if we are there too and I think that this portrays the message to the fans that the band want their fans to feel like they are close to the band on a personal level, even if they are not in the video. The scenery is seen from a long , tilted shot, giving the impression of a shaky hand holding the camera. There are a lot of medium long/long shots, though not of the band, of things being broken and smashed (near to the beginning of the video). I feel that this could send the message across that the band are breaking boundaries, by not being in the video, by not following stereotypes of their genre, which makes them different and edgy.

The villain could represent society and the clown could represent the band trying to challenge society’s standards.

Technical elementsEven though the band are not in the video, I said that the clowns could represent the band – they can be amusing but they care most about making people smile/happy, like clowns. The costumes of the clowns are challenging stereotypes of the indie/alternative band also, being bright and colourful rather than scruffy and dark. The estate setting is something that could be linked to the genre because it’s quite unkempt and derelict, which are words that could normally be associated with this particular genre. The majority, if not all, of the lighting used in the music video is natural lighting, which I found to be quite gritty, which could link to the lyrics of the song, which send a hard hitting message to the fans about a serious topic (prostitution/sexuality/age).

This medium close up of the main clown that we see in the video shows us his face makeup and his clothes, which are bright and colourful. However, his facial expression is sad/exasperated, which contradicts what clowns are supposed to be like. I feel like the overall message sent through the visuals alone, especially the characters within the narrative, is that even if things look happy, they might not be, and the band sends quite hard hitting messages in most of their songs.

Technical elementsThe editing is quite fast paced throughout the video, with a lot of quick straight cuts jumping from one scene to another, creating tenseness and suspension, which could represent how the band’s music is, always creating tension due to the mature themes and messages received by the audience. There are also jump cuts during the action scenes, quickly jumping into the action, closer and closer. It’s effective because the intended emotion that was to be created was most likely suspense and that is definitely created. There is also a slow motion pan used, as if freezing the moment in time. I think this was used to make the audience think about the themes and ideas portrayed in the music video which would also make the audience think of the band because they are the ones coming up with the themes because this is how they want to be presented, as mature and able to deal with things that they want to sing about. I know that a lot of their fans would look up to them because they don’t sing about money and girls in the way that some bands and artists do.

By using facial expressions on the narrative characters, such as this one, it creates the idea that not everything is happy and sometimes things in life are upsetting and I think that the Arctic Monkeys are good at letting people know this through music because a lot of their audience, teens, are most likely to listen if it’s through music, which of course is very popular with this age range.