Writing on the Wall Music Video – Textual Analysis

Genre:

The genre of the music video for the song “Writing on the Wall” is within the Pop genre, but the genre of the song itself tends to be within both the pop and rap genre of music.

Narrative:

The narrative of the video is very clear and in some ways can be seen as cliché as after seeing the beginning of the video it is easy to predict the end. The basic storyline is Strickland Banks has an affair with a fan and doesn’t come home to his wife who has cooked them a romantic dinner.

The main themes of the music video and song is “Love” and “Trust”. This is due to the fact that Strickland Banks has betrayed the trust of his wife and has lied as he told her he’d be coming back soon. Also due to the fact this song is based around love this is another main theme of the song.

Out of Todorov’s five stages of equilibrium, three are shown within in this song. This includes...

1.      Equilibrium

2.      Disruption

3.      Recognised

This song is part of bigger narrative that Plan B created about a fictional artist (Strickland Banks) therefore the other two stages are highlighted in the next few songs that they made.

The characters in the narrative are fairly recognisable. Strickland Banks is seen as false hero as he is the main character but betrays his wife and lies to her while on the phone, he can also be seen as villain for the same reasons. The victim within the story is Strickland Banks’s wife as she is left alone by the villain or false hero.

Representation:

 

Representation of gender is a big part of this music video and is shown stereotypically. An example of this is the wife within the music video is only seen in her kitchen and seen as very domestic. This is stereotypical as women and rarely highlighted as a main character and are stereotypically seen within music videos and films as house wives. Strickland Banks within the clip is seen as the one who earns money as he is the star and has a creditable job. Additionally he is represented as a celebrity in the music video since while he is on stage he has a huge group of fans watching him. He is also seen as successful and popular, but he can also be seen as held-back as his wife calls him while he is enjoying himself drinking in the bar.

Visual Codes:

The music video is suggested to be not set in modern times and set within the 1970s or 1980s. This is shown through certain aspects within the music video, one of the main aspects of the video being the hair style that the wife has. This hair style was popular during these times and is not seen now.

The music video is set within a few different locations including…

·         A night club - where Strickland Banks performs

·         A house – Where the wife is cooking a meal

·         A bar – Where Strickland Banks gets drunk (as seen to the right)

Different camera angles are used in the music video for different characters. For the wife a high angle is used. This connotes her weakness in the relationship and how she can’t control what her husband does. High angles are used on Strickland Banks as he is in control and is seen as the false hero in the narrative. This is stereotypical as men are normally seen as more powerful in both music videos and film.

Technical Codes:

During the music video certain shots have connotations. An example of this is when there is a close up on a boiling pan. In this shot the food starts to rising and fall. This has connotations of love as it connotes that love can both rise and fall much like food. Also during this shot the pan boils over. This also has connotations of love as it can the love between the two main characters is ending and “boiling over” much like the pan. Another shot that has connotations is the wide shot of the pan boiling Strickland’s wife. This connotes that love can burns and additionally connotes that the love between Strickland and his wife is ending.

Audience:

This music video is targeted at a specific audience and therefore tries to cater and relate to this audience and the content will be based around them. For this music video I think the target audience is in the late teens to the early 20s. This is due to certain aspects within the video. For example…

·         Setting – The different locations within the video are related to the age group mentioned before due. The two locations that are relatable is the nightclub and bar. These are stereotypically areas for the age group to be therefore making it relatable.

·         The Scenario – The scenario that Strickland Banks and his wife are in can be relatable to this age group whereas a younger age group may not be able since it is unlikely they have been through a situation like the one shown in the video. The target audience may have been through the scenario presented in the video.

Institution:

The music institution that promoted this video is 679 Warner Music Group and are aiming to promote the fictitious artist Strickland Banks to a certain age group as well as the music that goes with the video.

Strickland banks is promoted as a celebrity to the audience and sold as a star within the world that the music video is set in.

How this will help us with our music video?
This will help us as by looking at professionally made music videos we can take aspects from it (e.g. shots) and use them in our own therefore making our music video of a higher quality and overall making it look more professional.