I’m going to analyse the All-American Rejects music video Dirty Little Secret which was directed by Marcos Siega. The music and band belong to the rock genre as the video includes many rock conventions such as; the use of guitars, drums, massive amplifiers dark clothing’s and stage performance.
There’s not much relationship between the lyrics and visuals in this music video apart from the obvious one. The whole song is about people’s secrets and they’ve told one person hoping that they’ll keep to themselves. The relationship with the lyrics and visual is that the band sing ‘I’ll keep you my Dirty Little Secret, don’t tell anyone or you’ll be just another regret’ and the visual shows loads of different people holding a piece or card with their secret written on it. This is intertexual reference to the artist Gillian Wearing. Also, where the band is performing, in the background they have all the peoples secrets enlarged so it’s like they’re not keeping a secret and telling everyone.
The video doesn’t really cut to the beat because the instruments used are guitars and a drum kit so there’s loads of beats throughout the whole video and they’ll be too many cuts, too fast the audience will not know what’s going on. There are no solo instrumentals but every time you can hear more of the drums in the music then the video shows the drummer and when you hear more of the guitars in the music then the video shows one of the guitarists. The video does change pace with the music, in the beginning when the guitars start playing; it shows one of the band members tapping their feet with the beats. More than half way through the song it calms a bit down and goes a bit slower that’s when the different shots of the video takes more time to change. However, at the end when the music finishes but you can hear the last hit of the guitar coming to an end the shots change really fast showing all the different cards that everyone was holding to the camera.
There are various close ups in this music video especially of the lead singer. He gives a direct mode of address by looking into the camera. This will make the viewer feel more close and personal to him which will help sell this track. The image of the band being offered is positive because they look like normal guys who have a passion for music. Some of their other music videos look a bit popish with dancing such as ‘Beekeeper’s Daughter’ and happier compared to the Dirty Little Secret video. On the other hand, the music video to their song ‘Move Along’ is quite similar to ‘Dirty Little Secrets’ because in the move along video there’s loads of shots of the lead singer wearing different outfits and it cuts really quickly to the next outfit just like the shots of the cards that people were holding up with their secrets on in the Dirty Little Secrets video.
In the video there weren’t any notions of looking such as voyeurism or any camera work, costume or dance to imply sexualised display. Also, there wasn’t any intertexual reference but there was a product placement of Marshall Amps for the guitars. However, there was exhibition because the lead singer knew that he was being watched as he looked at the camera giving direct mode of address.
The music video is all performance based as the band is performing in a room with guitars, drums and the lead singer has a microphone.
This music video is rock genre as the bands performing in a room with amps in the background, the band members play drums and guitars also, there’s loads of fast beats to the song. I’d say the relationship between the lyrics and visual is more obvious than the relationship between music and visual. It’s easier to notice the Dirty Little Secret lyrics with the cards everyone’s holds up with their secrets on than the beat of the song with the movement of the band or how fast the shots change.
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