Firstly this music video is both narrative and performance based. As DeMarco is singing throughout the video it also has a narrative running throughout of which makes the music videos stand out from the crowd. I really like this music video as the meaning of the video is quite abstract and non explicit. Therefore it could be left up to the target audience to make their own interpretation of the music video suggesting that Mac DeMarcos fans are more mature music fans. The lyrics of the song are about a woman which is miss leading because when it comes to the music video there is a totally different meaning as you can see Mac DeMarco is dressed in drag. My own interpretation is that he could be trying to portray a different side of him, not to be a woman but describing his inner-self/ other side of him as a drag queen and is singing about himself in third person. When referring to Andrew Goodwin's theory on Amplification, illustration and Disjuncture, this would be a Disjuncture music video as it's very abstract and the lyrics do not match the visuals. I quite like this as I feel that by having two different meanings it means that the music video in turn would be more creative. The fact that this video is abstract and has two different meanings could also reflect that the artist himself is very abstract as an artist and his songs could be considered abstract too. The abstractness of the video is conveyed through predominately the use of mise en scene and editing.
The music artist himself is an up and coming artist. He is known for doing controversial things such as public nudity and being in the public eye for drunken shamelessness. Therefore if fans were to see any of these thing in the music video its is in turn going to be more recognisable to them as a DeMarco video. However he does this in a very subtle way and not in a straightforward and noticeable way, thus fans not being able to notice immediately that this is a Mac DeMarco music video. Instead of being 'in your face' he decides to be controversial by dressing as a woman and also being shown as naked throughout the ending of the video. Moreover, seeing as this is one of the very few official music videos that DeMarco has released it is important that fans are still able to recognize the artist along with his style. I believe that the intangible and abstract setting relates to this because one of the scenes involves a room which is filled with large letters, spelling Mac DeMarco, because of this it can then be apparent to the viewers and therefore further adding to the abstract feel the video has. Overall making it more creative rather than just simply having his name at the beginning of the video. Having this as a setting adds to the stars image of being 'quirky' and crazy and instead of getting across to viewers what type of artist he is and his name in an obvious way it is done in a more toned down way.
Other locations used also appear to be quite abstract such as the theatre, the theatrical basement and also the newspaper at the beginning of the music video. The transition from each setting and scene is not done smoothly adding to the overall abstractness of the video. The video tends to go very slow paced and then really fast paced, at 1.30 the camera slowly zooms out from Mac DeMarco which reveals more and more about the scene and leaves it up to audience interpretation of why he is where he is. It then goes very fast paced and zooms in to the artist in which a handheld camera is used, this gives the music video a disjointed effect and it also makes time quicken up which could appear to be strange to a viewer. Giving the music video a lackadaisical effect and it makes the viewer appear on the same level as the viewer. It is also a code to the viewer that we are about to see things from his point of view so we as viewers clearly get to see the expression on his face conveying emotion to the audience or in this case a non motionless expression in contrast to the stuff happening to him. The fact he is not being fazed by all the things been thrown at him adds to the craziness of the video as craziness becomes the normality. Having the disjointed transitions and close up shots due to hand held cameras makes things and messages about the music video slowly become revealed throughout.
Throughout the music video the lighting changes from being dull to being really bright which enhances the mood of the song. The house style colours throughout this music video are red, orange and blue, these are all really bright colours. These colours are all colours in which are considered 'in your face' colours as they're not subtle at all, this could be the artist trying to portray the message of the video loud and clear through the house style colours as the colours are 'in your face' but yet the message which I interpreted previously is shown in a subtle way.
After analysing this music video if I decide to make an abstract music video of the indie rock genre the things in which I have to take into consideration in order to appeal to a target market are:
- To have a narrative which doesn't match the visuals.
- Have different locations which are random and doesn't match the lyrics.
- The artist does things which are considered as crazy, for example in this video he is dressed as a woman and parading around naked.
- The editing is very disjointed both slow and fast paced.
- A handheld camera has been used so we can see things from the artist point of view.
- Things are revealed throughout the video due to the use of editing.
- The video has multiple meanings.
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