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