Textual analysing of music video 2
For my essay I will be analysing ‘Dirty Little Secrets’ music video by ‘All American Reject’, directed by Marcos Siega, who also directed other videos for ‘AAR’. The genre of this music is pop rock/pop punk; we can tell that this is that specific genre through the style, mise-en-scene as well as other conventions, camera movements and editing. An example of this is that in pop rock music videos, they would always wear dark, ragged clothing, typically what teens would wear. The music video consist a lot of obscure lighting or the use of studio backlight, a lot of crabbing, tracking and panning shots.
Throughout the music video, the leader singer says “I keep you my dirty little secrets”. In addition the visuals show people showing the audience their secrets written in coloured cards for a few seconds. In a way creates a sense of curiosity and may want people to watch it again to find out what's written on those cards. “let me know what I’ve done wrong” the lead singer looks straight to the camera, it seems as if he’s relating himself to the audience, as everyone has their own secrets and mistakes, we can deduce it's exhibitionism as he directly looks and speaks to the audience. “You are the only one that needs to know” this lyrics directs this to the viewer, implying the viewer, can know his secret. It enforces that sense of exhibitionism as everyone is watching it and everyone is involved, so we can relate to the singer. “Who has to know, when we live such fragile lives, it’s the best we survive” We don’t usually see the people’s faces and they are covered, masked or blurred. This implies the people in this video are insecure because of their ‘Dirty Secrets’ and the only reason why their faces are covered is to imply their protection from judgemental people, as they live such ‘Fragile lives’. The majority of the lyrics in this video, people can relate to them, that's why we're so eager to keep on watching it.
The music video has a very fast pace but with slow moving cameras, along with panning and close up shots of cards, allowing the audience to read it for a brief moment. A guitar and drum solos are seen between 2:04 and 2:16 on a close up shot, during these seconds there are close up shots of more cards. During the chorus the pace speeds up and comes back to its original pace during the verses. There are number of different camera works being used, such as crabbing, tracking and panning shows when they show these cards, this shows where the people are showing their cards, mostly in an isolated place to imply their insecurity. The members of the band are performing in a obscure lighted area, which creates that sense of these secrets being 'dark'. At the background of the stage, the whole back is seen covered in cards, this could mean that band could relate to these secrets.
There are few similarities between the band's music videos and as comparison I have looked at, one of their videos called 'Move Along' they have the same genre, however 'Move Along' has much faster pace and faster montage diting, this is due to the different meanings of the songs, so both songs with different meanings won't typically have the same eiditng. Although the montage editing and close up shots of the lead singer, this is to promote the band, it's not used on the leader singer, but other members as well. Although since the other members are seen in mid shots, rather than close-ups, this emphasises the importance of the leader singer. The most obvious relations that both music video, is that they have the same type of genre as well as having the same audience.
The music video doesn't really have any intertextual references. It's simple for the audience, this could be due to the target audience, being teenage boys and girls that would be more interested in the band itself, and relate themselves more to what the song is about. Furthermore 'Move Along' also too, doesn't have a intertexual references, which proves my theory of it being simple. The music video is narrative based, as they aren't performing upstage. The music video is a story about people's secrets being shared to everyone, and each lyric, we can relate or in a way may represent certain people's lives.
In conclusion to this music video, the video attracted a lot of audiences by keeping it simple but also adding meaning to it. The audience can engage with the video really well as they can relate to it too. It's catchy, and meaning-ful.
By Julius Conmigo
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