Analysis of Music Videos #1 : American Idiot by Greenday

Song : American Idiot

Artist : Greenday

Director :

Genre Characteristics:

The music video is of the band performing in front of the camera and the video sometimes is fast forward. Towards the bridge of the song, green paint or liquid splashes on the band.

What is the relationship between lyrics and visuals? :

Key lyrics are portrayed in the video such as ‘Media’ is shown through the screen of the camera they are performing to. This is a play on the word as they are talking about the media and they are on it. ‘Tension’ is shown through (as if) fast forwarded clips and so compared to the normal film, it is strange. In addition, towards the end of the music video, the word is used again and the video flashes black to video every few seconds.

What is the relationship between music and visuals? :

When the music becomes quieter and only the drums can be heard, the speed of the cuts becomes much slower than the other parts of the song. This may be to let us concentrate on the lyrics that they are singing and therefore mostly the lyrics can be heard.

Are there close-ups of the artist and star image motifs :

There are close-ups of the band when they are talking about relevant things to them or the audience they are aiming at such as ‘age’, ‘tension’, ‘welcome’, ‘it’s meant to be ok’, ‘television’ etc…

Is there reference to the notion of looking? :

There is some notion of looking as the video has shown the band singing into a camera, so when definently know that it’s a music video as a camera is filming them. This breaks the 3 wall rule as we go outside the scene set and see what is going behind the music video.

Are there intertextual references? :

There is some references as the band say ‘that they are not a redneck agenda’ and ‘one nation controlled by the media’. It tells us that America might influence their audiences too much and might not have the right information as ‘tension’ is stated in the song therefore there might be some truth in the music video. Also, the fact that they have a camera to film them represents what the lyrics as saying as there is only one camera to show audience the media, and not a lot of other points of view is being heard.

Is it performance-based, narrative-based, concept-based? How much for each?

It is performance-based as all we see the band and them singing.