Genre and Narrative and Media Language
‘The Golden Path’ video carries many obvious indexical signs. For example the colours used in his dream world are all bright and vibrant signifying joy while the dull, washed out colours of the real world connote unhappiness and displeasure with his life. The suit the man is wearing is an indexical sign that signifies business man, and is reinforced by all the people in the real world wearing the same. The dancing in the dream world is an action code for the happiness he feels in this new place he has created. Cultural codes help the audience to understand where the characters are. In this instance, the cultural code is the traffic and big, grey building to indicate he is in the city. Whereas the sun and green fields are the cultural code for his dream world to show that it is far away from the life he leads, most likely in the countryside somewhere in the world.
In terms of Dyer's paradoxes, the artists are not present at all- it is a completely narrative video and therefore it is difficult for the audience to relate. However, I think with out the artist present the video is more “open” because it is easier to allow the audience to have different interpretations. Because of this, it is difficult to state whether the video is extraordinary or ordinary however, I think it is equally both due to the two different worlds in the video: the dream world is all happy and everyone is looking ‘perfect’ and therefore gives an extraordinary view but the real world with its dull colours is more relatable to people so is therefore very ordinary.
This video is a good example of illustration; often throught the video the relationship between the lyrics and visuals is incredibly obvious, with several very literal images to link to the lyrics. For example, with the lyric 'when I walk alone' is anchored with footage of a man walking alone through his office.
I’d say that ‘The Golden Path’ can very easily be considered art as it is not particularly advertising the artist as the band are not shown in the video at all. The video is different to stereotypical band videos, due to the fact they are not promoting themselves and therefore attracts more attention for this reason.
Representation
‘The Golden Path’ video isn’t very stereotypical. There is no artificial looks or dismemberment which will help the audience connect with the video and way of life being presented. Relative height is shown however when the man is seen taller than the woman in his dream world and in the real world.
This video challenges one of the analysis of Hegemonic masculinity because men are sterotypically depicted as the dominant gender, however this music video presents the man as the subordinate to the woman who is seen taking the lead. For example, the man is seen as the subordinate during the kiss because the woman is on top. This man is not shown topless with a perfect body or as particularly strong and therefore contradicts the stereotypical vision of a man, which makes the video more relatable as he is seen being visualised as most men are in society.
No comments:
Post a Comment