The band Muse is an alternative rock and post modernistic rock band. Muse is also includes a fusion of genres such as space rock, alternative rock, heavy metal, classical music and electronic. The Music video that our group has chosen is their song entitled “Uprising” which has similar and different conventions compared to another music video known as “This is War” by thirty seconds to mars. Thirty seconds to mars is an American rock band from Los Angeles formed in 1998. It’s mostly associated with the progressive rock and metal mixture of genres which also include electronic music, emo, space rock, post hardcore and synth rock into their music videos. Their music video consists of philosophical and spiritual lyrics, concept albums and their experimentation of experimental music to promote their debut. For these two music videos, I will analyse them while discussing the representational codes and theorists to uncover the detail and clarity of the media products to reveal the true intentions and forms of the genre of alternative rock.
During the opening sequence of Muse’s music video of uprising shows a medium shot with a side angle of the fuse moving along, with the use of montage to represent a developing danger and intentions. This makes the atmosphere more dramatized and climatic for the audience. This scene also links to the theory of Todorov that as the opening sequence starts; it begins with equilibrium but slowly develops disequilibrium. The opening sequence creates a peaceful and representational theme to create peace for the audience, but as the music video further progresses this makes them feel more uncomfortable and emotional throughout the transition of the scenes. Whereas the music video “This is war” has used a montage of birds’ eye view and medium shots with thermal contrast imagery. This makes the planet seem abnormal and different compared to the originality of earth. By creating an abstract and contrasting atmosphere, this links to Muse’s music video of using the fuse with different colour contrasts of red, blue and orange to make it more compassionate and development of emotions. This is war also links to Stuart Hall’s theory of encoding and decoding that the audience decode the music video as a perception of the universe and decode it as an abstract representation of media. This can also link to Todorov’s theory of disequilibrium which also links to Muse; both are using this to build a climatic and uprising theme to create a mixture of interpretations for the audience members. The next scene is a medium shot with a pan on the moving truck with the band members. This represents them as figurines and represents them as a part of society which builds up the community and social structure towards the contrast of upper and lower class. Therefore this also links to Marxism making it link to Levi Strauss’s theory of binary oppositions to show contrast of upper and lower classes which provides both pleasures to the classification of the audience members. This links to economic and social aspects which build the audience to create a higher and broader community to develop their intentions and ideas. This use of medium shots and tracking makes it very post modernistic and build the technological ideas. Therefore the music video This is war has also used a montage of black and red text “This is war”, thermal images of the planet and black and white imagery of the soldiers’ insider the truck. This etherises the different perspective of the satellites point of view. The use of zoom and enhancement also supports this theme to build the developing and emotional atmosphere which enhances the audience’s knowledge and ideas of the storyline and structure of the music video. And finally the use of the birds eye view of the truck makes the entire montage a very emotional and perspective theme. This makes the audience feel very confused and this also links to Muse through their scene of the truck scene which both uses contrast of classes or ideas to enthesise the mixture of the theme and structure in order to make it confusing and mysterious towards the audience. These scenes especially link to Stuart Hall’s theory of encoding and decoding that as the audience encode the scene as a state of oppositions they eventually decode it as an opening sequence that intercepts the audience’s neutral ideas and values to build their perceptions and integrity. This also builds up Todorov’s theory of equilibrium which builds up the disequibrium to make the scene and theme more philosophical, this links to the theme of alternative rock which also links to Muse’s use of mystical and psychological aspects towards the alternative rock theme.
The next scene in the Muse music video is the montage of extreme and close ups with the use of medium shot of the fuse to etherise the mystery of the band member’s identity making them inconspicuous to the audience which builds up the confusion and integrity of the alternative rock genre. The use of the close up of the band members allows the audience to feel very intimidated by the band member’s purpose which builds up the purpose of their loyalty to their social class. This not only builds on Todorov’s theory but also Levi Strauss’ theory to enthesise the binary oppositions and contrast of social classes to build conflicting and argumentative situations for the audience to experience and consume. In This is war, the technique is similar to this but with close up and extreme close ups of the soldiers to etherise their emotions and feelings towards war, that they feel isolated and feeble while in the middle of the massacre. This idolises the audience as they feel very insecure and forced to commit this act in order to save and maintain their society making it very sympathetic for the audience. The armour and equipment with the use of static editing makes it a emotional atmosphere therefore the audience interprets it as a video journal making it a timeline across the development of war and peace. This links to societies ‘structure and strength as a community of people and connections between people and places. And finally this can also linked to Roland Barthes theory to symbolic and signs which uses the army as a symbol of hope, encouragement and emotional. Therefore making the theme more empathy and symbolic in order to link to the representational codes.
The next scene is a medium shots and long shots of the flame slowly moving along the fuse which etherise the anger and fear the lower class begins to build which links to the Marxism and communism of the theme therefore making it very symbiotic and contrasting. After then the guitarist is shown as a medium shot as he swings his guitar when the music ends with a loud sound. This creates power and influence for the guitarist showing his dominance over the audience making him have leadership and becoming a head leader of the lower social class in the conflict which etherises his obsession and integrity. However in This is War they have used a black silhouette of a soldier combined with a montage of person titles- “The civilian”, “The soldier”, “The martyr” and “the victim” which these titles all show different purposes and ideas allowing them to express their own beliefs and values. The civilian is used to represent innocence and a victim of the war showing his purpose as a victim and forced to be a part of the conflict. The soldier is represented as a person who fights and serves in the conflict to protect their country which makes him a representative of his society therefore linking to Levi Strauss’s theory of binary oppositions. The martyr is represented as a person of different ideas and beliefs therefore strengthening the community and causing a broader range of ideas and opinions. And the final person the victim links with the civilian due to both their innocence and representations of their forced acts in the conflict of the war which makes it sympathetic for the audience showing allot of sadness and sympathy. This links to Todorov’s equilibrium theory due to half of the people being involved and to the half being involved in the conflict as soldiers and people with differentiated opinions.
During the next scenes is another long shot of the band near a fire to represent their hope and fear as they group around the fire which makes them very scared and feared from the upper class. This links to Todorov’s theory and Barthes’s theory to symbolic and codes making the fire represent hope, fear and anger for the lower class. During the scene, a bulldozer and a caravan are used to create the landscape for the music video making it more realistic and show allot of emotions making the audience feel very intimidated towards the storyline. The close up of the singer plus the long shot with the use of zoom and slow motion creates a climatic and builds allot of mystery and psychological atmosphere. This builds confusion, sadness and anger due to the conflict of the classes due to representations of their class. Their reputations is shown as abstract and abnormal making them different towards our society therefore making them different characters and have personnel opinions to show their expressions. The slow motion enthesisisng this to build the audiences excitement and becoming surprised. This creates the roller coaster effect allowing a range of feelings, ideas, development and representations. This also links to Barthes’s theory of symbolic theory making the band as a whole symbol of the lower class and a mystery that the audience wants to reveal and identify the identity of the characters. This symbolic theme is similar to this is war because with the text Moment truth, lie, live, die and the soldier repetitive saying fight. These all are used to represent the war’s true intentions. War and conflicts are about uncovering and showing the true intentions of the reasons why war is used between different societies that the truth is shown allot of different forms and structures, this makes them different compared to other societies showing allot of storyline and form. The word “fight” is used as a repetitive word to make the conflict feel like a never ending and true intention that society ahs to use in order to draw their influence and power towards different countries, but however this links to the persons of victim and the solider making them prisoners and forced to a lifestyle of conflicting and encouragement to fight against others for their glory and potential gain. The close up of the gun being shot and the helicopter flying makes it build the conflict in order to show the different acts and objectives the soldiers must complete in order to save their country from extinction and destruction.
In the next scenes for the muse music video a bird’s eye view is shown for the truck moving and a close up of the singer. This makes them linked and shows them wanted from the society therefore representing them as fugitives and makes the audience feel very scared and shocked to see the purpose of the band members. As the medium shot is shown for the band members when he says the loud word “Force us” this links to their purpose to fight and challenge the traditional values of society allowing them to feel individual due to them being different towards society that they question the rules and regulations of society so instead they challenge society in order to preserve their culture and group. This links to Levi Strauss’s theory of binary oppositions of classes and making it link to the music video genre. With the combined use of the fuse at the “going out of business” and smoke this represents the band’s destruction and mayhem over the city which makes them the leaders of conflict and release their anger in the urban city. The fuse is represented as their rage and divestment spread across the urbanised environment.
The other music video This is war uses the same technique of slow motion of the soldier with the verse “brand new world” to make him feel a representative to create a new community that will benefit everyone in society and allow them to feel happiness and feel more communicating with each other in order to show connections and links between members of society and conflict. This links to Vladimir Propp that the soldier is represented as the hero whereas war is a symbolic perspective view of the villain allowing them to build the narrative and form of the whole music video. The next scene consists of the words Liar and honest with a montage of riots and the police defending against people against society. This shows two different sides of the truth mentioned before in the media product. This makes the whole situation very consistent and links to the soldier’s purpose of defending against the people to challenge the social and political opinions of society. However the words the leader, messiah and pariah are all mentioned as leaders of their own ethnic groups showing the audience historical reference and a development of society allowing them to see the different values and opinions of different cultures and societies allowing them to be differentiated and this draws more to Strauss’s theory of binary oppositions. Also the use of red and blue for the texts clearly show different oppositions of feelings and emotions that the red represents anger, detestment and hatred of society that those who challenge the circumstances are condemned to a life of horror and being corrupt full of the truth being lies and nothing to have purpose or integrity for their lifestyle. The blue is represented as calm and tranquillity allowing it to represent few people who are represented as followers of society and not involved with conflict linking towards the titles of civilian and martyr.
The next scene involves with sparks, slow motion and multiple TVs with flam while the guitarists smash the glass. These etherise the lower class’s support and challenging of the society value by destroying and attacking the retail and business of the upper class to de form their economy and cultural ideas to make it more vulnerable and weak towards the conflict, however the next scenes involving the bird’s eye view of the truck slowly moving away and the close up of the band members show their true inner feelings that they feel forgotten and mysterious that society has rejected them to the edges of reputation allowing them to feel disorientated and weak towards society. This re enforces Levi Strauss’s theory of binary oppositions while building Todorov’s theory of disequibrium that as the storyline progresses the theme starts to unravel allowing them to feel very angry and distrusted towards the groups of people that often represent them as dangerous criminals. The scene with a fire with people around it shows their community witnessing the danger and fear that the lower class have created to affect and destroy their class structure so they can feel distrusted and show allot of hatred and anger. The teddy bears are shown in a medium shot as they rise which shows and represents the upper class as death but however they are uprising against the lower class and attempt to stop their maniacal acts of mayhem towards society’s greatest aspects. And as the water tower and the ending sequence come closer together this allows the audience to feel at the end very horrified and psychologically confused to whenever this conflict as ended or started to begin across a global scale. The use of collapsed buildings and teddy bears with the side angle of the truck with the band members clearly represents the lower class has won over the upper class that the conflict, although has ended in this urbanised city, this has started a multiplayer effect which builds up the development allowing society to feel its most vulnerable and weakest points. However this also causes the lower class to feel a part of them has left to death which shows that both classes have been partially destroyed. This situation has clearly demonstrated the use of Propp,s Todorov’s theory of disequilibrium and Strauss’s binary oppositions theory in a media product to reflect the feelings and destruction of the class. That although the conflict has ended in this music video, but however the war has begun on a global and begins to corrupt the psychological minds of the people in order to consume their inner thoughts and feelings to force them to commit acts of horrific nature. Therefore the other music video This is war uses similar conventions but has applied a different technique that the long shot of the truck flying with a side angle of a soldier firing a side pistol clearly demonstrates the antagonist point of view that the soldiers feel they are involved with a war they can’t control or decide a side of conquest. The silhouette of the soldier with a low angle of the soldier represents their curiosity and confusion over the strange and abnormal activity occurring on the abnormal planet which reflects humanity’s thoughts of survival and to expand on their knowledge to learn more on the truth and resolve the situations with their own ideas and values. This links towards the Muse music video by the use of perception and the death and ethnic representations to represent the conflict. This could be useful to apply towards our music media product but however this can challenge more traditional conventions to the alternative rock genre. Eventually the point of view from the satellite and extreme close up of the group of soldiers represent their own interpretations of the whole situation that as they are more confused and show allot of inquisitiveness their are beginning to question their true potential over the implement of war and the conflict that is beginning to start. This makes the audience feel that although war is occurring frequently, however, there is something much more undiscovered that is oblivious and obscured to the audience making it a real inner danger and threat towards the community that our society has grown and nurtured from the evil and overcrowding conflicts that war has grown and spread across the globalised world. This is similar to the Muse music video because both apply the theme of mystery and discretion in order to not reveal the danger till the end in order to show the real mastermind behind the conflict of either abnormal or abstract war conflict therefore causing allot of confusion and spread ideas and knowledge for the audience to feel that knowledge is hard to interpret and to decide which is the truth and what is created by society that people accept as facts. The ending shows a pyramid full of metal therefore causing allot of ideas and perspective. The pyramid is a symbolic viewpoint linking to the Egyptian monument showing allot of religious and cultural heritage therefore causing allot of historical reference and links between the supernatural and humanity’s society therefore making the abnormal seem more connecting and similar towards our society in order to prevent more conflict and allow humanity to see that this abstract and abnormal force isn’t represented by the appearance and perception of society’s values. However some of the audience members will begin to question whenever the war will end and allow peace to create tranquillity across the landscape and atmosphere of the planet. And therefore this raises further questions to whenever humanity will ever end the war in order to help all civilians and people who were forced to be involved in the conflict. This creates great sympathy and empathy for the audience with them knowing that they feel very disorientated and obscured that the people are very scared and show allot of rejection against the war that they want to escape but they can’t due to the never ending storyline and form of war that the soldiers, war lords and armies are all contributing in order to protect the countries and planet so they can provide a bigger and better future for the future generations for other people to enjoy and consume as they commit to their own lives.
To conclude both music videos uses allot of Strauss and Todorov’s theories to preserve and develop their conflicts but however this draws more questions on the fate of the future for either humanity or the upper class’s survival. Muse has clearly shown allot of class conflicts and destruction of the urbanised way of life the upper class has begun to be civilized with and to consumer in, whereas in this is war the people start to question on the abnormal and supernatural events occurring against humanity and their values therefore drawing more to the integrity of society and the community. Both use similar mise en scene such as editing of jump cuts and montage sequences, and also similar colour contrast while using special effects such as CGI to create and develop the representations of the theme for alternative rock for the philosophical and psychological aspects. Our group believes that both music videos will help assist our media product by providing the necessary technique and ideas in order to structure and create ideas for the overall form of our media product. But mostly our group wants to include conflicts with theorists such as Strauss and Todorovs while linking to Marxism and communism which provide a variety of cultures and political aspects.
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