Textual Analysis of Music Video

The video I am analysing is Modestep’s “Sunlight”. Modestep are a four piece live band from North London, their sound is heavily influenced by progressive electro and dubstep. They are key members of the post -dubstep progression in which the ‘filthy’ bass heavy music the genre is famed for, is never avoided but is also incorporated eclectically with electronica.

“Sunlight” is unusual as it has been written and directed by Modestep. The video is a mixture of performance and narrative based. There is a clear narrative pattern; the video follows a group of three pensioners throughout a whole day. There are also performance elements with frequent close up shots of the band on stage.

The video also challenges characteristics of its genre in that there are performance scenes of the band on stage, which this is unusual for dance music videos; however Modestep are a live band and wish to be seen as such. A convention which this video observes is the party scene. This relates to the performance element, the artists need an audience to perform to so party and club scenes are common. Throughout the video alcohol and drug use are if not glamorised, featuring heavily. The use of these substances is prevalent throughout the underground dubstep culture which Modestep belongs to so this is another genre convention the video observes.

Modestep are represented as a cool, young band. The frequent close ups of them show them moving energetically during their performance. This has also been done in their previous music video “Feel Good” There are recurrent motifs throughout the video, the Modestep logo is presented in numerous forms several times, it’s displayed on a vinyl disc, on a balloon and on a t-shirt. The bands logo is always shown in their videos.

Another recurrent motif is the ‘Modestep girl’ a woman wearing a leather jacket and a grey hoodie is seen in the video. This outfit is identical to one previously worn by a girl in the “Feel Good” video.

The lyrics of the song are:
“Put on those shades
And wave to yesterday
The sunlight hurts my eyes”

There is a contradictory relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. This contradictory relationship arises from the fact the video features elderly people, they are refusing to ‘wave to yesterday’ by continuing their youthful behaviour. Also, the lyrics would suggest that the person is drunk or hung-over but this idea contrasts with the visuals as they show the elderly people behaving energetically for example riding bikes and scooters.

The video is not cut to the beat until the last minute of the song during which the pace of the music changes and speeds up, during this final minute the dancers at the party move faster and there is a fast montage of scenes from earlier on in the video.

In the video, several girls are on sexual display. In terms of mise-en-scene they are dressed revealingly and use props such as poles to dance provocatively. The camerawork also implies sexual display with close ups of the girls bodies. The girls completely contrast with the idea of sweet elderly people. An old man suggestively looking at a young, sexy woman and even snorting drugs off of her back completely challenges people’s perceptions of the elderly.

There are intertextual references to the Basement Jaxx “Oh my Gosh” video which also features old people behaving in what could be perceived as an inappropriate manner for their age.

Sophia.