Textual analysis of a music video: Goodbye Mr A – The Hoosiers

Goodbye Mr A – The Hoosiers
Mise-en-scene	At least one of the band members are in the majority of the shots in this video. There is one primary location for this video which is the Heroes (The Hoosiers) hideout. It is a rather comical music video, we see a pun, ‘Hoosier Gunna Call?’, which refers to the Ghostbusters tagline ‘Who you gunna call?’. The whole video based around The Hoosiers being superheroes and we see lots of superhero connotations on screen such as costumes, flying, front pages of newspapers and ‘the key to the city’.
Sound	Almost all of the sound in the music video is the song only 12 seconds of dialog at the end of the video is sound which doesn’t feature in the song.
Camera Angles	There are lots of close-ups and long shots of the band members singing and playing their instruments. Whereas shots regarding the narrative are primarily close-ups and mid shots
Transitions	A wipe transition is used at the beginning after the comic book sequence, this wipe transition moves from bottom right to top left and symbolises a page turning.
Narrative	In this rather comical music video the narrative shown in this music video is a group of superheroes overthrowing a solo ‘perfect’ superhero (Mr. A), becoming the new great heroes and gaining the trust and key to the city and then disposing of Mr. A on a giant firework.
Titling	The opening 23 seconds is styled like a comic book and in this sequence we see titles showing the band’s name, the name of the song and the band members (using their superhero names).

Textual analysis of a music video: Club Tropicana - Wham!

Club Tropicana – Wham!
Mise-en-scene	The video features the main characters of the music video in nearly every shot in the video.
Sound	There is 30 seconds of ambience at the start of the video this is done to show how secluded and exclusive the resort where this music video is set is. The rest of the sound is the song which plays for the next/remaining 4 minutes of the song
Camera Angles	The majority of the camera angles which are used when the artists are singing in this video are close ups and long shots (which show the full bodies of the artists). Mid-shots are used on artists, when they are not singing, and the other main characters in the video. An establishing shot is at the start of the video just like it would be in a film, setting the  scene.
Transitions	There is a frequent use of cross-fades in this music video. They are used to emphasise the passing of time and changes of scene.
Narrative	This music video really just follows 2 groups of people, 2 guys (who we later discover are pilots) and 2 girls (who we later discover are air hostesses), on their holiday. Despite occasionally trading glances this video doesn’t follow the traditional pop cliché of a guy chasing after a girl, even though if you were to look at the list of characters for this video you could get that impression.
Titling	The titling of this music video is similar to that of a film. This is because it has titles at the beginning for the name of the song (the equivalent of a film in this sense) and the main stars of the video. There are also credits at the end which list the cast, cameraman , editor, producer, director and record label (which would be the equivalent of the production company)

What is the purpose of a music video

A music video is used to:

Promote the song, as a music video is another way of getting a song out there and into the eyes and ears of the public. This is something that cannot be applied to a particular music video because it is something that all music videos do.

Promote the artist, just like promoting the song,  a music video is another way of getting an artist and their work out there and into the eyes and ears of the public.

A good example of this is Gangnam Style by PSY. Before this video was released PSY was probably barely known out side of South Korea. But thanks to the unbelievable success of the music video for Gangnam Style on YouTube, which has now topped 1.7 billion views, PSY has become an international sensation!


Entertain the audience, this is when the video tells a story along side the song to keep the audience entertained so they don't switch off the music video even if they don't like the song.

A good example of this is Needing/Getting by OK Go. The video has no link to the video what so ever but it is enchanting in the way that it is fascinating to watch. This guaranties that the viewer is not going to switch it off.


Help with the songs narrative, this is where the on-screen visuals support the lyrics in the song by giving them a visual interpretation which give the viewer a better understanding of the song.

A good example of this is What I Go To School For by Busted. It features several links where the lyrics match the on screen visuals such as, "I dropped my pencil on the floor" and he drops his pencil on the floor.


Make an impression, the video invokes a reaction that plants the song in your mind as the videos so memorable.

An example of this is Rock DJ by Robbie Williams's which features Robbie stripping down to beyond the bare flesh... Thanks to award-winning special effects. The image of Robbie Williams tearing off his own flesh left a stamp on the minds of many. So much so in the Dominican Republic that the National Commission of Broadcasting and Radio banned the video, accusing it of being Satanic!