PW - Music Video Analysis #2

Artist: Jamie T
Song Name: Sticks and Stones
Genre: Indie Rap/Hip Hop

This video I am analysing is called ‘Sticks and Stones’ by Jamie T. It was released on June 29th 2009. The track is about Jamie travelling on the train and his reminiscing about things that he'd seen on the line. The genre of this music track is Indie rap and is by the same artist as our music track we have chosen for our music video.

Genre & Narrative

The music video is mainly narrative based with some performance based parts mixed in with the narrative as Jamie T is singing to the camera. There is no real story to the video but it just shows Jamie T with his friends singing to the camera which are the meat shots of the video. This music video demonstrates genre characteristics in that the behaviour shown by the actors and the lead singer in the video are that of rebellious young men. They are shown breaking things, drinking alcohol and smoking which is a convention of rock and Indie music videos. They are seen to be acting in a rude and comical way which can be seen as being relaxed and chilled out. However, Jamie T is seen as being a bit more serious compared to his friends which could show he is serious about his music work.

Throughout the video, there is mostly illustration used as most of the lyrics match the visuals. For example, in the second verse Jamie T is shown standing at Hampton Wick train station, then shortly afterwards the lyrics say ‘I’ll be stuck at Hampton Wick’ which is illustrating the lyrics through video. Furthermore, when he says “Boys like him don’t shine so bright” he is referring to the clown character in his music video who is seen acting the opposite to what his convention is. As clowns are naturally seen to be happy and fun in their own environment, the idea is completely reversed as the clown is seen drinking alcohol and smoking in a casual and relaxed manner. This therefore can be seen as being postmodern because it is ironic and playful; it makes fun of the clowns’ typical convention of them being funny as its image is radically changed. It is also postmodern as the video is nostalgic because all the characters are wearing retro clothes and trying to be like the retro culture of the 80’s era.

Media Language

The cutting rate is quite fast throughout the video as the track is quite upbeat. The track is quite a happy track which is made to cheer someone up because Jamie T is singing about reminiscing about things he has done in his past, mainly happy memories.

Throughout the video there are not very many close up shots used, normally in a music video the close ups are seen as the ‘meat shots’ of the video because they are the shots that are used most often. However, in this video the meat shots are mid shots and long shots of the group Jamie T is seen with. Therefore it makes this video unusual because it has gone against the general conventions of music videos. Andrew Goodwin famously identified features of a music video and one of them was that the demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist, but in this video these close ups are not as frequent as he might have suggested there should be. I don’t think this takes anything away from the video because it is still a good video as the mid and long shots are used effectively with close ups in-between. There is a sense of ‘notion of looking’ or voyeurism as one of the locations in a car park is filmed through a pane of glass. This glass is vandalised by the group including Jamie T which portrays them as being rebellious and rude. The camera techniques of this video are very lo-fi and amateur, there are no spectacular shots such as bird eye views or extreme long shots. The majority of the filming is done through handicam shots which makes each shot slightly different from the other, this effect is used well and benefits the video because it keeps the consumer entertained and their attention is kept throughout because they are looking at the location at a different angle at each shot. This amateur style of filming also helps Jamie T’s image as he does not want to be seen as being glamorous with lots of money because that is not what he is about. Jamie T loves his music so he is not in it for the money and so he shows this in his music video by keeping it lo-fi and unglamorous, unlike other artists who keep their music video's hi-fi to make their image look modern and stylish, however Jamie T is more unique than this and has his own 'sound' therefore he likes to keep his music video's unique.

The editing of this music video uses a fast cutting rate which changes location quickly. In each verse, the location changes between about four locations about nine or ten times.

The clothing that Jamie T is wearing is very much an 1980’s style, his hair in most of the locations is similar to hair in the film ‘Grease’ which was released in 1978. This shows one of the Goodwin’s features of a music video as there are intertextual references to the Grease film. The music video also has references to the lo-fi music movement of the early nineties. Such videos have minimal budgets and share similar aesthetics. This lo-fi movement which became a style offered freedom from the increasingly burdensome financial requirements of the high-fi production music videos whose budgets were large. This movement later became a well known way for Indie music artists such as Jamie T to make it big for themselves and present themselves to a wider audience.

Representation

There are about six or seven locations in the ‘Sticks and Stones’ music video, they are of two train stations, a car park, a back garden, a house and an alleyway. Some locations appear more than others and also at different times of the music video, it became evident that the car park location was the most used location and the alleyway was used for when Jamie T’s chorus starts. This is because of the strong relationship between lyrics and visuals because when the chorus says ‘Runnin’ with believers, no time for fevers’ he is seen with another man running down an alleyway towards the camera in a playful manner.

In this video Jamie T is being represented as fun loving and relaxed. This is shown throughout the video in a number of different ways which add to his meta-narrative. He always has a grin on his face which is becoming an iconic image of his because his face is so recognisable. Part of his costume is similar to other videos he has produced as he is wearing his cap again which is also iconic to his name.

Institution and Audience

This music video can be consumed by ambient viewing, this is because viewers will be flicking through the channels and then go back and watch the video if they like the look of it. This type of music will probably be most likely to be played on VH1 or Kiss channels or other such urban channels. The record label will probably be looking to promote this video as widely as possible because the artist is not widely known so to create the most revenue the record label must sell this video in the best way possible so to attract the most viewers.

Here is this music video :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9APEZMeH0o