Analysis - Madeon [chosen artist] - by Josh

 The last video analysis I have done is the music video 'The City' by Madeon, the chosen artist for my music video. I deemed it appropriate to analyse in detail a video done by the artist whose song I am doing to get a real sense of what his style and image is. Therefore, when I film my music video along with my partners, we will have some ideas of what to do when it comes to planning the video. Below is the music video for The City.

 


 Upon first viewing, I instantly liked this video. The song alone creates a sense of having a good time and the video helps to emphasise this. There is a constant presence of the major key throughout this song, as well as other voices that join in with the main singer in places for added effect.

Music

 In terms of the music relating to the video, I believe there to be a significant link between the style of the music and the style of the video. A lot of Electro House music videos generally have lots of people in them having a good time which is what this genre of music is mostly used for. Seeing people having fun whilst listening to this song will influence the way the audience views this song. I listened to the song without watching the video and although it sounded great and did indeed portray the sense of fun and partying. This only furthered my belief when I listened to the song again whilst watching the video. The actual video is a paint war where one side is trying to rescue a hostage from the other team. It has a sense of seriousness about it but the idea of paint being used instead of lethal weapons destroys this image. The vibrant colours in the clothing, paint and the bright urban landscape emphasises that this is not a deadly, fatal environment but more of a competitive one, similar to that of paintball; the serious attitude is there but without the deadly consequences, which captures the exciting nature of the game and the song combined.

 As with many music videos, the editing is driven by the song since a lot of cuts and transitions are made to directly correspond with the song; since there is a distinctive beat to the song it is clearly evident throughout the video. This is most prominent from the video below:

 As the song reaches its climax (0.58) the beat is clear and the video reflects this with quick cuts with the camera bouncing around to emphasise the people running, thus creating the sense of an action video. There are many cuts that last only a fraction of a second until 1.11 where the song slows down, the singing stops and what is seen in the video also slows down, making use of slow-motion to emphasise this (where the man raises the bazooka to the building). At 1.14 the singing comes back and relatively quick cuts (albeit not as fast as before) are seen. This proceeds with the people on the floor below being attacked by paint from those upstairs, with many closeups of the people and the paintballs shown to accentuate the battle between the two groups, such as the serious expressions shown by the people above and the fear by the people below.

 An extremely important point in the relationship between the video and the music is at 1.42 where the music dies down for a few seconds and is brought back to life by the line "so here we go" which can be seen as the signal for the beat at 1.44 which directly links in with the shot of the bazooka, striking the building and bursting into a colourful cloud of orange dust. This launches the video into the same fast sequence to match the chorus with short quick cuts. More people appear as the battle ensues into a raging conflict with many paints being thrown. This continues until 1.58 when the song slows down with few significant beats, apart from those that accompany the cuts from each closeup. This brief sequence could be to portray the emotions shown by the participants and the progress of the battle at that time; the sternness of their expression is matched by their faces covered with paint, indicating that the battle has been going on for some time and are in the main stage of it, perhaps inclining that the song is also in the main part.

Lyrics

  Although there are no evident direct links between the visuals and the lyrics at first glances, when looked at in more depth you can see that there are some subtle meanings behind the lyrics and even the title. "I can feel the city crumbling around me" does relate to the video, the setting being an urban city with unused buildings, "crumbling around me" did possibly have an influence on the location since the whole video is filmed within and around unused and derelict buildings (image left)."But I can see a bright light calling through the dark night" could also be a reference to the brightly coloured paints that being thrown throughout the video, considering the paints to light up and colour the desolate landscape. This is also reflected and directly influenced in the title for the song (image below), with the background being a blank canvas which is brought to life by the vibrantly coloured title with bright and contrasting colours that stand out against the background, which can be seen as having a direct correlation with the video; the paints lighting up the city, actually sharing the same colours and, if you look closely, you can see that the title has the texture of the dry paints used in the video.

 "There is a place in the distance, A place that I’ve been dreaming of, No more time and space don’t exist there, We can dance like there’s no tomorrow, There is a place, no time in space". The opening lyrics here could be descriptive of the derelict buildings, and how this place exists in the singer's dreams, which he is going to make come to life as seen in the video. "We can dance like there's no tomorrow" I believe relates to the nature of the paint war; the dance is their fight and they will fight like they know they won't live to see another day, they will give it their all. "There is a place, no time in space" can be seen as the deserted area in which the buildings are situated, the fantastical place has no time and space and could merely be a creation of the singer's mind, a place to retreat into, or even his idea of a heaven in which exists his ideal world with no physics that can represent the real world.

 "I can feel the heartbeat underneath the concrete, Just like a kick drum plays, Running in a straight line guided by the street lights, Pushing the dark away". The "heartbeat underneath the concrete" line could represent the life of the people in the video that bring the city to life, just as they are the people "running in a straight line guided by the street lights, pushing the dark away"; they are one with the city and they need each other to survive.

There is a place in the distance
A place that I’ve been dreaming of
No more time and space don’t exist there
We can dance like there’s no tomorrow
There is a place, no time in space

I’ve got tomorrow to
I’ve got to go all the way
I’ve got tomorrow to
I’ve got to go all the way
I’ve got tomorrow to
I’ve got to go all the way
I’ve got tomorrow to

I can feel the city crumbling around me
I can’t seem to find my way
But I can see a bright light calling through dark night
Hoping I’ll find my way

Yeah I had what I wanted
It went away so fast fast
Yeah I got to let go
We can dance like there’s no tomorrow
So here we go

I’ve got tomorrow to
I’ve got to go all the way
I’ve got tomorrow to
I’ve got to go all the way
I’ve got tomorrow to
I’ve got to go all the way
I’ve got tomorrow to

I can feel the heartbeat underneath the concrete
Just like a kick drum plays
Running in a straight line guided by the street lights
Pushing the dark away

Yeah I had what I wanted
It went away so fast fast
Yeah I got to let go
We can dance like there’s no tomorrow

There is a place in the distance
A place that I’ve been dreaming of
No oh time and space don’t exist there
We can dance like there’s no tomorrow
There is a place, no time in space

There is a place in the distance
A place that I’ve been dreaming of
No more time and space
We can dance like there’s no tomorrow
Oh oh oh!

I’ve got tomorrow to
I’ve got to go all the way
I’ve got tomorrow to
I’ve got to go all the way
I’ve got tomorrow to
I’ve got to go all the way
I’ve got tomorrow to

Tomorrow
Tomorrow
We can dance

Concept

 A very important concept I picked up when watching this video was that this video relates heavily relates to the Hindu festival: Holi, the festival of colours (video below).

Holi is the celebration of colours and a new season, and as you can see from the video, the participants are having lots of fun, directly relating to The City. It is celebrated by throwing paints and perfumes at each other as a way of representing the new colours of the new season. This can be seen as a way of representing Madeon's colourful and creative personality.