Riptide

Opening Scene

Film credit opening

Cinematic feel

Uses letting found on cinema images (poster)

Idea of Hollywood (fame & success)

Link to Andy Warhole & Marilyn Monroe

Female Representations

Victimised Women- tied to trees, dragged under bed, tortured at the dentists

Suffering to obtain the Hollywood look

Parallels to the way in which women are represented in the media

Woman tied to tree escapes- capable of saving themselves

High-camera angle to make women look small

Terrified facial expressions

Long- uncomfortable takes of woman singing the words wrong

Connotes a message- shouldn’t objectify the woman in question- makes the audience uncomfortable to see these bruises and blood

Woman at the microphone- Spotlight on her with the makeup and hair done, the cuts back to the woman. Her eyes glance off camera- create a tense and scary atmosphere. Make the audience feel scared for her- and why she has been assaulted. She’s viewed as important

Sexualisation? Seeing their legs and feet

Some images of violence- stabbing and guns. The violence against women. The sexualised pictures of women alongside violent

Video invites the audience to interpret the text

Bell hooks- end oppression- is the video trying to reinforce/challenge this?

Male Representations

Heterosexual male perspective of awkwardness

See men as voyers- watcher and spying on women

Shots of men in reasonably powerful positions

Typical patriarchal views of men on society

Vance Joy

Indie genre-unconventional approach to these representations and shock factor

Vance Joy wanted to break into the American market with this video- links to American dollars

Jealously

Money is now my friends

Shocking-Viral publicity?

Theory

Feminist Theory: Bell Hooks

Theories of Identity: David Gauntlett

Hooks could be used as a stimulus to explore the seemingly contradictory messages about gender in the video

Is the video objectifying women in an ironic or knowing way or is it instead feeding into the oppression of women in a patriarchal society?

Use hooks’ position that feminism is a struggle to end sexist/ patriarchal oppression to ask whether the video is part of that struggle or part of the oppression

Use Gauntlett to explore complex and diverse representations in the music video

His concept of the pick and mix seems particularly relevant to the style of the video which constructs a range of different stimuli that the audience are invited to interpret

The video rejects singular, straightforward messages and instead invites a variety of different responses and interpretations

Social and Cultural Contexts

Consider the context of the music video in terms of the texts and media forms it references and explore the significance of these texts in relation to the way women in particular are represented.

Buñuel and Dali’s Un Chien Andalou (1929) to explore surrealist film, considering the way this film explores violence and sexual desire in a way that might inform the music video

The infamous eye cutting scene in Un Chien Andalou for instance could be compared to the hand stabbing scene the music video

A brief exploration of the subconscious might also afford the chance to add depth to a discussion of the representation issues in the video and its sometimes dream-like logic

Consider Theoretical Perspectives

Semiotics – Roland Barthes

Explore the concept of signifier/signified using specific signification in the music video and how this might be interpreted according to social convention, for example the pile of dollar bills which accompanies the line “Oh, all my friends are turning green”.

Explore Barthes idea that constructed meanings can come to seem self-evident by discussing the connotations of the colour green in relation to both money and envy - this could be said to have achieved Barthes’ status of myth through a process of naturalisation which might allow for complicated readings of the image

This example of polysemy could be interpreted in a variety of ways e.g. is it implying that friends (possibly in other bands) have “sold out” by giving into money? Or might instead these friends be turning green with envy at the success of Vance Joy?

Genre Theory: Steve Neale

Use the video to explore Neale’s idea that genres may be dominated by repetition, but are also marked by difference, variation, and change

Discuss the ways in which the indie folk music video genre is dominated by repetition (low-fi videos with bands playing instruments etc.) and the extent to which Riptide offers variation to these aspects

An extension of this discussion might explore the way that the video fits into the wider economic and institutional context of the music A level Media Studies Fact Sheet 3 industry