JT: Music Video Analysis - Genre and Narrative

Arctic Monkeys - 'R U Mine?'

 

·     Arctic monkey’s music video of ‘R U Mine?’ demonstrates indie rock genre characteristics through conjunctive performance in their video with their lyrics and visuals matching as they perform their track in a car, or pretend to. Goodwin’s theory of key features of a music video shows that the video creates a feeling of Para social intimacy as the band sing and perform directly into the camera and get very close and personal this is reinforced by the use of a handi-cam.  The video has a very natural feel to it as if they shot it all in one take for the majority of the car scene as the band appear to be very laid back and doing other things while performing, reinforcing the rock n roll lifestyle of not caring too much or not trying too hard for anything. 

·    Goodwin would argue that the relationship between the music and the video is conjunctive and illustrative as the video is a performance based one. There isn’t a cutting rate that amplifies the music that is rhythmic to the beat, however the grain of voice is obviously synchronous as the lead singer of the band is performing it.

·    This video could be considered art as well as performance, as there is a dark film noir feel to the video that gives it an artistic style, conventional of the indie genre characteristic.

·     Bordwell and Thompson's narrative theory (1997) cannot really be referenced to the video as there is no fabula to the narrative, there is no clear purpose or aim as it is more performance-based.