Intertextuality

The influence of video games will predominate for the younger audience with a more plasticised look of characters emerging (as seen for example Robbie Williams ‘Let love be your energy’ in 2001 and Red Hot Chilli Peppers ‘Californication’ in 1999. Linkin Park ‘breaking the habit’ in 2003 and Britney Spears ‘Break the ice’.

Here is the plasticised character that is meant to look like Robbie himself in the ‘Let love be your energy’ video. The lyrics of the song go with the imagery we see on the screen. To me I think the song is a portrayal of our collapsing society, set in a futuristic time. In the first verse it says:

 ‘Out of a million seeds

Only the strongest one breathes – meaning that only the richest/most powerful/strongest person will lead.

You made a miracle mother

I'll make a man out of me’ - there is always a standard to fill in society, he needs to prove himself as a man. Along with this line in the video we see the character running through forests and desserts,  something you would consider primal, manly and strong.

"Daddy where's the sun gone from the sky?

What did we do wrong, why did it die?

And all the grownups say 'sorry kids we got no reply'" – just like a child is asking a question, he is asking us ‘what did we do’ referring to society. ‘Why did it die’ we let things get out of hand,  we aren’t surviving as we were before. Again the video reflects the lyrics with dark scenario and dangerous surroundings Robbie’s character.

Here is the video:

 

Here are several pictures from Red Hot Chilli Peppers video ‘Californication’ that uses animation and the band in the video together. They used the idea of a game with each member of the band having a chance of being the person we see on screen. The games idea looks is if the audience are the gamers playing ‘San Andreas’ and the band is the animated characters, involving us in the experience. They go through varies environment like LA city with buildings to swimming through water with sharks which represents the music business being a shark eat shark world; your never safe. The whole concept of the video was to show that California wasn’t a glamorous and happy place but that it had problems like alcoholics, drug abuse and fornication hints the title name of the song ‘Cali- Fornication’.

Here is the video:

'Breaking a habit' by Linkin Park:

The video was animated by the same people who worked on the film Kill Bill which is why the video is a replica of the film only in animation.

Mike Shinoda had been trying to write a song around this lyrical idea for over five years, but couldn’t do so,  as nothing was working out as he hoped. While the album was being put together, Mike began working on an interlude, crossing a digitally manipulated beat with strings and piano. Brad and Joe suggested that Mike make the small interlude into a whole song. The piece was extended to three minutes and sixteen seconds and went under the name "Drawing." When Mike took it home to write lyrics, it took him less than 2 hours to complete the song that he had been  trying to write for years. With some finishing touches of live piano and live strings, the song was finally complete - six years in the making.

The narrative of the video is harm to me. From the start we see character 1 'Chester' who has committed suicide by jumping off a building. We then see a man in an office who looks over worked and is a drug addict that uses syringes. Character 3 is a woman that is low in confidence and believes she is 'nothing' so she cuts herself and cries consistently. The last two main characters we see are a couple fighting after the women saw her partner in bed with another woman. As previously stated, I think this video is about harm. We inflict so much harm onto ourselves and can’t cope with it when it gets too much for us, so the results come as harsh consequences when we could change all that by thinking differently. Drug abuse and self-harm has been illustrated in a lot of Linkin parks videos accompanying their lyrics.

LINE 1: The first 2 pictures show a city as if it’s a big clock that’s been taken apart. This goes with the instrumental which include ‘ticking ‘at the beginning of the song before the person starts singing.  The 3rd picture is a bird’s eye view shot of a crime scene someone has jumped off the roof of the building and landed onto the roof of a car. The 4^th and 5^th pictures; the 4th picture is a P.O.V looking through a hole at a person sitting in a dark room. To me I think this is saying ‘there’s someone darker inside’ someone that is hidden from everyone else. The 5th picture is a shot of his spirit, the person who committed suicide (Chester’s character) going through people’s rooms and seeing what’s happening in their lives.

Line2:

The 1st picture shows his spirit traveling through rooms. 2nd picture is another character who I will be referring to as 'nothing girl' that seems to be suffering from self-harm as her hand is red and shows the blood. Picture 3+4 again show his spirit traveling into another room. 5th picture shows a man cowering from tomatoes being throw at him by his partner.

Line3:

The 1st and 2nd pictures are of Mike falling. The last 3 are of the drug addict character showing the pain in his eyes and face.

Line1: 1st picture is a close up shot of the tomato being smashed against the walls. 2nd picture is another close up of hands opening a door with keys. This could mean they are unlocking something they shouldn’t see as the colours are dark and grey giving that unsettling feeling. 3rd picture shows the spirit re-entering Mike's body after its been around the building and seeing all the other people dealing with different struggles. The 4th is a shot of the building as the camera travels to picture 5 that is a reverse of Mike falling off the building.  Instead now he’s raising up which leads to line 2.

Line2: Chester is on the roof of the building singing the last verse of the song as the beat is more up tempo, the edits are much faster and shot at a lot of different angles. This shot is angled low looking upwards. Picture 2 is a bird’s eye view shot of the entire band playing. Picture 3 is a low POV shot from the side of the piano player. The 4th picture is another bird eye shot, but lower than other. The last picture on that line is a fast shot of mike but since it’s moving so fast it is fuzzy.

Line3: 1st picture is a sideward shot of a low POV of a member playing piano. 2nd picture is of the drummer in a POV shot. 3rd picture is a close up shot head on of mike. The 4th and 5th picture is of the band playing.

This is Britney Spears 'Break the ice' which also has intertextuality, In 2003

John Stuart’s description of music video 'incorporating, raiding and reconstructing' is essentially the essence of intertexuality. Using something with which the audience may be familiar to generate both potentially nostalgic associations and new meanings. It is perhaps more explicitly evident in the music video than it any other media form, with the possible expectations of Sinead O'Connor- Nothing Compares To You.

Originally the song is written by Prince for his side-project The Family. It was later made famous by Irish recording artist Sinéad O'Connor, who covered the song and released it as the second single from her second studio album, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got. However, it wasn't until O'Connor recorded and produced the version along with Nellee Hooper when it became a worldwide hit in 1990. An iconic music video was shot and received heavy rotation on MTV.

In 1985, The Family, a funk band that was signed to Prince’s Paisley Park record label, created as an outlet to release more of Prince's music released their first and only album, the self-titled The Family. "Nothing Compares 2 U" appeared on the album but it was not released as a single, and received little recognition. The song was inspired by a member who had just broken up with his girlfriend. The Family was made up of former members of The Time, and they released only one album.

Mainly shot in Paris, the music video for "Nothing Compares 2 U" was directed by John Maybury and Prince, who also helped with directing. O'Connor's crying toward the end was accidental. She stated on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s that it was caused by the lyric "All the flowers that you planted, Mother/in the back yard/All died when you went away," because she had a very complex relationship with her late mother, who used to abuse her in childhood.

The clip consists almost solely of a close-up on Sinead O'Connor's face as she sings the lyrics, sometimes with angry expression; the rest consists of her walking through an area of Paris, known as the Parc de Saint-Cloud. Toward the end of the video, two tears roll down her face, one per cheek. This is what made the video so popular as she did it with real emotions that the audiences were able to connect with.The background is completely black suggesting emptiness and making it more apparent that she is to main focus for the video, all eyes need to be on her so that the audience not only understand the lyrics of the song but the emotions it carries with it as her face displays it. In the middle and at the very end of the video there is a shot from O'Connor's photo session for the I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got album cover.

The director shot a lot of footage around Paris for the video, but ended up using just a simple tight shot of O'Connor singing. It was the first time most people saw what she looked like and were surprised that she was bald. She shaved her head when she first started recording because she wanted to make a statement and not be known for her beauty. She turned off a lot of people with her political statements, which included refusing to let the National Anthem be played before a concert in New Jersey and tearing up a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live.Although this was a mainstream hit, O'Connor was considered an "Alternative" artist at the time.

Here is the video: 

John Stuart:

John Stuart' description of the music video is apparent in the  music videos of Madness- Our House and Kid British- Our House is Dadless.
The track released in November 1982,  peaked at #5 in the UK singles chart and was their biggest hit in the US, reaching #7 in the billboard hot 100, in 1983. The video characterize the band acting out the song's lyrics in a mews house. The song's lyrics mostly illustrate the working-class family lifestyle, and the band acts them out by portraying such a family in the video. The band plays their instruments in  the living room, prepares for work and school as the 'family', plays squash and relaxes in a hot tub.

Intertextuality was evident between this video and Kid British's video. they used similar codes and conventions but they also changed some to make them modern.

The band members are originally from Manchester and grew up on a council estate. They were eager to let everyone know this with their first single, Our house is Dadless, which samples the famous Madness track, Our house.

The video is mainly narrative based and follows the life of how it is to grow up in these areas.

Instead of representing a nuclear family, this video concentrates on the family being 'dadless'. This shows how the traditional nuclear family has changed over time and its now considered normal to only have one parent (most likely a mother) than having both parents. In this sense, its quite relatable as they have used current social realism to portray modern life in their song.
The theory that would explain this video is Uses and Gratification; this video is relatable for many people especially kids in Britain today. One aspect  of the video helps with is Personal Identity.
Personal Identity - the personal identity allows us to reaffirm the identity and positioning of ourselves within society. We see the characters in the video live a certain lifestyle, this means everyone can find someone to represent themselves or to relate to. 
In this video Laura Mulvey's idea of the male gaze is not represented.  In this case the song and video portray men in a negative light. We are focusing on men not being there and women being the fore front of the family instead of seeing them in an erotic way. This gives them more credit in the eyes of the family as it depicys them having to be stronger and carry their family, but is also seen by society as something to look down on since they are a lone mother without a husband to support them.

Camera Shots

• Within the first 10 seconds of the music video, 9 different camera shots were used.
• The music video begins with an extreme long shot of a city scape - this establishes the scene with typically shows London- the centre of Britain but also where a lot of poverty and deprived areas are.
• Which then quickly pans over to the right, focusing on a working class suburban location.
• Throughout the whole video, the camera cuts to shots of the narrative, which is based on the lyrics; for example, the opening lyrics are: 'See my house is a mad house', and it is at this moment, a young boy runs out of the house in an excitable and frantic manner-illustrating the phrase, 'Madhouse'.
• Also the camera often cuts to a high angle shots as the band jumps over hedges, fences and walls. This is a stereotype of young lower class males showing no respect for other property, this is reinforced by fast paced cuts to set the tempo.  

Misenscene

 - normal clothes, this shows that working class people are normal and live life normally.
- greenery, lowerclass area
-house is messy
- working men - policemen, builders
- high rise flats, council houses
- neighbours peeping over fences
- a man in his garden pretending hes on holiday - this plays on the idea that britain has bad weather and we dont live the lavish lifestyle. Representation
Youth :
 I'm downstairs arguing/
Mum chill out I won't have this in our house/
Ok, your house/
Whiles these lyrics are played the boy comes downstairs. This shows that the youth don't want to help out around the house.
Women
The mum is in the kitchen cooking and cleaning - normal stereotype
The woman in the garden
This video portrays 2 type of women the one that cooks and cleans as well as a sex object. This is ironic as the second women is probably the women that the dad has run off with. The music video starts with the orginal song of our house - madness playing on the radio, someone switches of the radio and the Kid British version is played.
At the end of the video a white van drives off, this also happened in the original video.