Music Video Analysis - Matt Rice-Tucker

Kings of Leon - Charmer

Genre characteristics
The music video is performance based. It is classed as a rock song, so it fits into its conventions of a stage performance, being quite simplistic and original, without complex dance moves and fancy settings.

Relationship between visuals and lyrics
The audience can quite clearly see when watching the music video that it has no relation to the lyrics. Kings of Leon change the focus onto the performance and the lyrics especially. The video may be classed as disjunctive; however it does not involve random scenes or clips which are completely unrelated to the music. It just holds no relation to the lyrics.

Relationship between visuals and music
As I have mentioned the relationship between the visuals and the lyrics were not existent, however what the audience can see is that there is a clear link between the visuals and music. When the song starts it is quite slow, at the same time the video is of a slow pace, keeping in time. Then as the song picks up, so does the pace of the editing. Therefore allowing us to relate the song and the video together. This shows an illustrative view on the music video, as it uses straightforward techniques which fit in the genre conventions at the same time.

Visual Motifs and Styles
Caleb Followill, the lead singer of Kings of Leon is focused on throughout the music video. We see him in at least 60% of the camera shots, possibly due to the record labels demands, as Andrew Goodwin pointed out. We see a specific visual style, with lots of camera techniques which show off his face and his expressions clearly to the audience. We see a range of close-ups focusing on the side and front of his face, so we become familiar with him as the lead singer.

Intertextual references
Due to the fact that this music video is completely performance based, the chance of intertextual references is quite slim. We can possibly relate the fact that the video takes place inside a theatre with no crowd, which doesn’t relate to either the lyrics or music in particularly.

Representation of the Band
As the music video is performance based, the video is bound to concentrate on the band members. Throughout we see a range of different angels and close-ups of each member, allowing the audience to familiarise with them. As well as a performance based video concentrating on the actual band, the audience can also see them use and play their instruments. We see a number of close-ups of the guitars and drums, so we can see them display their talents at the same time. In turn helping Kings of Leon to advertise themselves and sell their single and products.

Media Language
Mise-en-scene - The video is set inside of a theatre, which is clearly shown at the start of the video when a zoom is used to show the setting. The clothes worn by the band are very casual, with the lead singer in a shirt and jeans, standing out from the others who are all wearing black. It gave me the impression that they where not trying to comes across as smart or organised, but giving a more relaxed impression. The lighting used plays a very important role, throughout most of the video the light is extremely dim, only showing off the band and their instruments. We see a number of flashes of light from the flashlights at the back of the stage, when in time with the music. When the lead is not singing, we see the stage go relatively dark compared to when he is singing and he is lit up form the dark surroundings. This is showing off the band whilst they are singing and playing.

Camera Techniques - There are a number of different techniques which have been used to show off the exact same person or piece of equipment from a variety of angles. We can also see several pans, which go from one side of the stage to the other, giving the audience a full view of everyone and everything going on, on the stage. Then when the song pace increases we see the use of whip-pan to fit into the timing of the song. As I have mentioned earlier we also see a number of close-ups on all band members, especially concentrating on Caleb the lead singer, with shots from behind the microphone looking up to his face.

Special Effects – There are no use of special effects or CGI in this video. It is kept simple and original, which focuses on just the singers and their performance.