Textual Analysis: 1

Media Representations:

The lead singer of 'We Are Scientists' is being represented as 'cool', young and 'hip', with the costume he is wearing, such as sunglasses and skinny jeans, being worn by teenagers and rock stars. He is being represented either by himself, or the director (which I suspect may have been the band as  no information on this matter could be found). However, his teenage representation of being cool and hip is smashed as the video sees Keith Murray performing tricks and stunts on a small scooter, something which can be deemed uncool or cool, depending on the audience's culture, but the fact that he badly performs the tricks, on numerous occasions falling down, represents him as actually being uncool. He is represented as cool in costume, but then seen to be uncool in his actions because of the ideology of what you wear doesn't really define you. For example, he may wear designer clothing and fashionable clothes, but that doesn't make him cool. Looks are deceiving. This is further emphasised when a young boy 'out-does' the singer in performing tricks on the scooter. Overall, he is being represented as an older man trying to be young again,yet failing at it badly. He, for example, makes rude gestures to a notice to keep dogs restrained and then knocking over a traffic cone. His facial gestures suggest that he thinks he's being cool, but we don't see it that way, and laugh at his idiocy. This is what makes the music video clever; watchable. It's a parody; a comedy, and the audience is amused by this. This is the reason behind the unfair and inaccurate representation, as not all older people are trying to be young, and those who are trying to be young sometimes do it better than young people themselves. This music video features many opportunities for the lead-singer (who is actually aged 33) to represent himself as young and cool (most of his band's fan base will see him as this anyway), as well as funny, as he is parodying what he, himself, is. In fact, his actions on the scooter, which are purposely bad, are seen as funny and represent the lead-singer as cool and funny, in that aspect.

Media Languages and Forms:

The denotative level of meaning is a male, represented by the lead singer of the band, going around on a child's scooter; doing tricks. This is quite simple, but on the connotative level it connotes him as being an older person trying to be young and cool; showing off his tricks... poorly. He continuously falls over, and swears to the camera next to a sign which just about everybody will respect, connoting him as simply not being able to be cool; he is pretentious. It also connotes the teenage stereotype, as we see lots of teenagers skateboarding and biking; doing tricks and falling over. However, this music video parodies that with the use of a small scooter as a prop, instead of the usual BMX or skateboard. In particular, the non-verbal structures of meaning in the text, such as his body stances, including a hand-on-heart to the American flag, and the shaking of his head to a sign restricting the use of a ramp for disabled people only, are important because they represent him as being a bit of a pretentious and horrible person; not caring for others. The common teenage stereotype. A great example of his body posture and facial gestures is seen at 1.40 in the above music video, as he holds the scooter like a baseball bat, pulling an angry(?) face. This connotes that he thinks he's tough and cool. The humour comes from this as just before this stance, he almost drops the scooter after performing a trick, again, failing at it. The mise en scene is also significant as it is a sunny, American setting, in the city centre, as it seems, as we can see large, tall buildings and ornaments such as large fountains. To feature a grown man acting like a child in this setting, where you'd expect to find a grown man wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase and a hotdog, is unconventional and connotes him as not knowing what he's doing. An ideal setting for him to mess about on a scooter would be somewhere were loads of people can't see you... this, again, creates the humour. Much of the music video is shot as home footage. It resembles many videos uploaded to YouTube (a web 2.0 site which allows streaming of videos, including music videos) which show teenagers doing tricks on skateboards and BMX bikes, and less commonly scooters, and therefore we usually see Keith in a long-shot or a medium shot/mid-shot, as he is being followed by a second person on a scooter, who is shooting the footage. The music video has no relevance to the soundtrack, except for the fact that the song is called 'Nice Guys' and he isn't a nice guy, or at least, he isn't represented that way. The more clever part of the music video is not what is happening on the screen, in terms of what the lead-singer is up to, but the lyrics, resembling karaoke, placed at the bottom. The lyrics are mostly all wrong, with the lyrics saying "if you're the night sky, act like the night sky", whereas the song actually says "if you're the nice guy, act like the nice sky". Another example is "if few want this, I want it more the new", which is supposed to be "If you want this, I want it more than you". The lyrics are intentionally wrong, and make the music video unconventional. They also reflect the singer's antics, as he is being rebellious, as are the lyrics in some way - not conforming to the conventional use of lyrics on the screen; instead being wrong; playing on the words in the lyrics and how they're being sung.

Narrative:

The narrative doesn't follow the conventional Todorov narrative structure, where the  equilibrium is disrupted by an event, leading to a quest and resolution, which in turns restores the equilibrium to its former state. It is linear, but there are no cause and effect. Instead it is just a collection of shots, following the lead singer on a scooter badly performing tricks and making a fool out of himself. The audience is positioned through a POV shot, of sorts, as we are looking through the eyes of the person who is following him; who is filming him, and therefore we, like the cameraman, are embarrassed but amused. Although we are following Keith, the lead-singer, the hero/protagonist of the music video is actually the little boy towards the end, as he is good on the scooter and makes a fool out of Keith, whereas Keith, the villain/antagonist goes around causing trouble such as swearing and riding on public property. The narrative embodies such ideologies and values as the 'cool' people being the villains of society, as they make fools out of themselves.

Genre:

The song in the text belongs to the Indie Rock/Pop genre, however, the text itself belongs to the conceptual clip music video. The conventions in the text include having the lead-singer of the band as the star and having no performance or narrative that refers back to the music itself. The audience can identify that the music video is going to be conceptual due to the lack of performance clips, as seen in the above blog post of 'The Kill' by Thirty Seconds To Mars. The more generic theme of the video, also, is the skateboarder theme (although the skateboard has been replaced with a scooter to parody it). This theme usually features a cameraman following a skateboarder around whilst he/she performs tricks to success. This video follows that theme but parodies it, as the scooter rider performs tricks to no avail. This, therefore, treats the conventions of the texts it derives from, playfully and ironically, openly mocking them. The star of the music video also creates irony as he is an Indie-rocker, a type of rock star who stereotypically doesn't skateboard (or use scooters) as that sport, if it can be called a sport, is usually associated with skate-punk and pop-punk bands such as Blink-182 and Sum-41, for example.

Media Institutions:

The text was distributed by the label Master Swan; a label which I have, this minute, only just heard of. The label doesn't appear to be a major record label, and I doubt it has any subsidiary labels of its own (it's possible that it, itself, is a subsidiary label of a larger conglomerate or major record label). Therefore the institution hasn't affected or shaped the text in any way. This is something seen throughout the whole 'Indie' scene. The word 'Indie' derives from 'Independent', and the scene is notable for the artists' individuality and ability to express themselves and freely manage themselves (or have a close friend to manage them; not a company man in a suit) and have the ability to just make their own music videos, if they want to, without any input from the institution except from the money they are given. The song which the text was made for is distributed by iTunes and Play.com as well as other online retailers who deal with digital downloads (as it wasn't released as a hard-copy). The text itself, however, can be seen on various music video channels such as Q and NME TV.

Media Values and Ideology:

The video creates the ideology that teenagers are foolish, but can get away with it due to their immaturity, whereas adults trying to be young and cool can't get away with it, as they are grown-up; they are mature. This affects the criteria for which footage would make it to the music video, as the music video needs to be silly, funny and most of all, make the lead look like an idiot. This means that only footage showing Keith as acting cool, failing at tricks on his scooter, and being publicly humiliated will make it to the final cut. Any serious footage simply wouldn't fit, and would be hypocritical to the overall ideology of the text.

Media Audiences:

The text is addressed to teenagers of the Indie sub-culture or alternative sub-culture. The text targets these teenagers, of the specific criteria, aged 13-19, as they spend the most money on music and are revealed to be the probable most likely group of people to buy and consume the most music. The audience will be able to see a representation of themselves in the text, and they are an active audience, so will be affected in different ways. However, the majority will see the humour in the video and be able to laugh at the singer, as well as themselves. This means that the text represents them in a fairly fair way, as it is mostly depicting the older generation pretending to be the new generation. The audience will receive the text in an informal way - on television. As stated above, the text will be broadcast on channels such as NME TV and Q, as well as many others. The size and consistency of the audience will be large, which I stated briefly above, and due to the teenage mind usually being childish and immature, the audience will find the text funny. This means that the parody music video, a conceptual clip, is a success. I, as an audience member, and fan of We Are Scientists, evaluate the text as clever, but most of all, funny. This doesn't seem to be affected by my social status, age, gender and/or background, as the part I found the most funny and entertaining was the lyrics at the bottom of the screen. I doubt, however, that the older generation would actually enjoy the music video, but in some instances they are; in this case, however, that is unlikely and I think the audience is strictly prohibited to the teenage indie sub-culture, of both males and females.