'Sunshine' Textual Analysis

Here, I will be analysing the music video 'Sunshine' by the artist Matisyahu. With a Hebraic name, the American artist produces music of the Reggae and Alternative Rock genre. This video was produced by Kool Kojak for 2012 Fallen Sparks Records, fitting into the general Reggae genre by showing characteristics such as the establishment of the setting in a Western scene and this also being a relaxed atmospheric environment.

Firstly, when looking at the relationship between the lyrics and visuals these are seen to be both Illustrated and Contradicted. For example; 'So loose your backpack filled with sand'. At this point within the video, the lyrics are perfectly illustrated by the artist opening up a backpack, and letting sand pour out before throwing his bag away. Other lyrics may also illustrate the visuals but in a more subtle manner. For instance, 'All along I keep singing my song'. Here, the music video singularly shows visuals of a camp fire however, this usually congregates ideas of singing around the camp fire therefore, interlinking the visuals and lyrics at this particular stage in a less direct approach. The lyrics 'Its time for a champion, Soothe the soul of the land, Mend the heart from the sea and the sun, Until the sun come up again' are based on a biblical, Judeo ideology of a temple being destroyed then rebuilt. Although, this is not specifically shown by the visuals, religious iconography is witnessed with the artist wearing a Kippa. Furthermore, lyrics and visuals also contradict each other such as, 'On that day my song was born', where the camera is at a close up, tracking the artists face. This consequently, has no interlinking relations with the lyrics.

In comparison to this, I feel there is a fairly weak relationship between the music and visuals. From the beginning, the video cuts primarily to the beat, having only 9 seconds worth of diegetic sound as the camera shoots the artist on a bicycle at a variety of distancing shots. Despite the deep bass appearing later at 21 seconds in and the lyrics 3 seconds after this, the affect on the transitional speed between shots does not alter suggesting a weakness in the relationship between the music and visuals. Moreover, Reggae has a moderate tempo, with repetitive rhythms meaning that the transactional speeds of scenes should be constant, something of which the music video fairs fairly well too.

Apart from the track trying to promote the album and predominately sell as a specific music genre, I feel the main selling point for this song, is the message behind its lyrics. Regarding the meaning, the song is really about connecting with your past, reconnecting with your youth through memory, through meditation, through music – ways of going back. This therefore, applies to a wide audience, whether they are an adolescent, middle aged or elderly. Not only this but, religious iconography within could appeal to a niche theological audience. At the beginning of the video, a religious vote is displayed from the Exodus Bible (The second book of the Hebrew Bible) 
When looking at the artist throughout the video, he is seen to be the dominant figure. However, the artist is portrayed as a down to Earth man, wearing simplistic clothes of natural and neutral colours such as browns and blues. Furthermore, Matisyahu is seen to be a religious follower, symbolised by the black Jewish Kippa worn upon his head. With these characteristics, the audience are able to connect with the artist to a greater extent due to the feeling of mutual status. Moreover, this is opposed to an artist such as Chris Brown, where in his music video 'Fine China', his first appearance reveals him entering a wealthy neighbourhood within a Ferrari, something that most audiences are unable to relate to creating status inequality. 
Next, when looking at previous videos by the artist, these all commonly relate by showing everyday settings, which are neither extreme and ridiculously wealthy but instead, conventional to the working class. Moreover, the artist is also heavily featured in all of his videos therefore, promoting his image to the audience. However, the entirety of Matisyahu's videos slightly differ. For example 'One Day' shows the tracking of an everyday location in a monochromatic colour scheme, with the artist superimposed onto the background. In contrast, the video to 'King Without A Crown' starts in the same manner, with a monochromatic scene but later turns predominately into an animated lyric video, featuring the artist and band. Though concluding, I feel the artist keeps a fairly consistent image, also interminably keeping an illustrative relationship between his lyrics and visuals.

Within the video, there is a small section showing a noticeable reference to the notion of looking. However, unlike many music videos this is not in referral to sexual display. For instance, 'Guilt' by Nero, heavily plays on this division of looking, suggesting females to be sexual predators. Instead, the notion of looking I feel, represents that of a father looking out for his daughter. This can be seen when the artist is looking around the corner, situational to wear the children are playing. This is also evident at the beginning of the video, when the artist is looking at an old photograph. I feel these have been specifically included, to represent the deeper meaning of the song, possibly indicating the passing of someone within the photo or an alteration to the childhood that the artist had, of which he wants to pass down to the young girl thereby looking out for her intensively.

Unlike my textual analysis on the video 'La La La' by Naughty boy which included a wide range of intertextual references, 'Sunshine' does not. By the promotion of this video, other music videos and separate texts such as TV programmes are not supported. However, the filming of the music video has intertextual references with the star's image. The filming took place on a 3 day trip to Israel therefore, assisting the religious beliefs of the artist due to Judaism originating from Israel.

Penultimately, when considering the video production of 'Sunshine' the video is primarily Narrative-based, meaning that the video follows a storyline, which tends to apply throughout the whole video. This is seen here as a journey of which the artist is taking upon a motorbike, therefore exploring a single location in a variety of different outlooks. There are also a few areas where there is a minimal relationship between the lyrics and visuals, suggesting that the video could furthermore be moderately concept-based too. In contrast, it is clearly seen that the video is not performance-based whatsoever, this usually attributing to a girl or boy band of the pop genre. 


To conclude my textual analysis to the music video 'Sunshine' by Matisyahu, Reggae characteristics are witnessed throughout the video with the western environment and relaxed atmospheric setting. Furthermore, the video heavily plays to a large audience, due to the sentimentality of the meaning behind the song. Like previous videos, the artist promotes himself, being a key figure in all his productions. This helps to advertise the star's image, representing the artist as similar to that of his audience and therefore, excessively aiding a connection between the two. In other means, this is seen with a Illustrative and Narrative-based video, having a relationship between lyrics and visuals, creating a storyline for the audience to follow. 

Desire - Anna Calvi

The tracking shot sees the movement, presumably of a person, walking up the stairs. There is low key lighting at this point, emphasising the cold atmosphere which the home portrays. As the top of the stairs is approached, a lit lamp appears in the central third of mise en scene, with a wall composed to one side of this and silhouettes the other. This therefore, could represent 'the light at the end of a tunnel', suggesting that the desire of the artist is finally in sight.

Next we cut to a wide close-up shot of a cherub. The iconography of the cherub is religious, having a biblical tradition of a winged angel. However, with the close-up the audience are able to notice the crack vertically situated on the cherubs face. This goes with the lyrics 'God knows it's just the devil in me', representing the crack as the affect that the bad has on the good. Not only this, but the shot has a red filter laid upon the shot, symbolising the devil with the colour red but also suggesting that the devil inside the artist has taken over.

Furthermore, religious iconography is shown with a small figurative character of  jesus. Here, the figure is placed upon a red step, being incredibly small. This shows firstly, that the devil is in more power than God, due to the large size ratio of red. In addition, a shadow is over-covering the figure, representing the devil as taking over likewise to the previous scene including the cherub.

Throughout the shots, the common colours are red and gold. Usually, these colours are associated with royalty. In addition cherubs are often owned by the rich. As this appears to be a consistent theme it could be assumed that the desire of Calvi, is that of wealth. However, with the crack through the cherubs face, this could suggest that the artist can not get hold of what she so does desire.

Next, the camera utilises a point of view shot looking through, what I presume to be a glass. Patterned on this is a repetitive pattern of crosses. Again, this keeps the theme of religion running throughout the entire video. Here, the visuals and lyrics create an illustrated relationship, showing an orange light through the glass, being a symbol of fire. At this moment the lyrics sing 'And it's the fire, the fire, the fire'.


The following striking scene, encompasses that of a low light room with an arm hanging out of a bath tub. The lyrics at this point are, 'Leave you like the sun is going to disappear'. Although the visual and lyric relationship here seems to contradict, I feel instead the visuals amplify the lyrics. Reasoning for this is because the sun is a symbol of life therefore, if the sun is going to disappear then it could be assumed that death is in sight. This is then shown visually with a pale arm hanging out of the bath tub indicating a lack of life.

The remaining video is seen to be heavily performance based, showing the artist singing whilst playing the guitar. Throughout my half a minute of analysis, there are a variety of shots used of the artist including; medium shots, close-ups and extreme close-ups. These shots are used for a variety of different effects. For example, the extreme close-up of the artists heavily made up eyes portrays a suggestive and seductive look. The framing instantly carries the notion of looking, objectifying the artist. Not only this but, an extreme close-up captures the rouged lips of Calvi, identifying common conventions such as sensuality and femininity, especially heightened by the choice of colour.

In opposition, medium to long shots are used of the artist to pick upon what Calvi is wearing. Her costume is red and therefore, links to the song title, as the colour red has connotations with desire, romance, danger and the devil - themes which also run throughout the song

Audience Profile

When considering the category of which a One Direction fan would fit into, I would presume their main priority to be that of 'Status'.

'Big ideas and plans for the future' - Stereotypically one would assume that a fan of the band would be a young female teenager whom has outrageous dreams about personal relationships with the band members.

'You care a lot about others' opinions' - I would expect fans to encourage friendship group conversation about the band, adopting it as a common interest amongst the individuals. Furthermore, friends could be a possible influence into the likeability of the boy band.

'You make a special effort to be noticed' - Assumptions would arise that One direction fans would support the group on a fashion basis, wearing band mechandise such as hoodies and t-shirts more often than the usual high street fashion.

'In appreciation of beautiful things' - Expectations of the audience assume that the reason for fans of the band are mainly due to their physical appearance, which may have encouraged individuals to start listening to the band.

When testing my audience profile, I decided to send out a survey on Survey Monkey to One Direction fans to see if my hypothesis was correct. I posted this upon various One Direction forums, collecting only a few reponses. However, these are still valid to either support or contradict my theory.

My primary question was; 'What is your gender?'. Here, out of my 12 responses, my hypothesis was proved correct with 100% of respondants being female. Also, supporting this I predicted that the majority of the audience would be young teenegers. Again, this was seen accurate with 11 out of my 12 respondants being in the age catergory of 11-15 years old.

Although I didnt specifically presume, it was shown that most of the boyband fans prefered the music genre of pop, with only 1 respondant favouriting the R'n'B genre. I believe this was predomantly down to the fact that One Direction fall into the music genre of pop and therefore, fans adopt to other artists with a similar style to the boy band.

Next, I asked the question; 'What is your fashion style?'. The answers to this question, surprised me the most by contradicting my original hypithesis. It showed that 82% of respondants opted a casual style, just wearing the ordinary jeans and t-shirts. I predicted that the boyband fans would wear One Direction merchandise, but only 2 people supported my hypothesis by selecting this answer therefore, disproving my inital stereotype.


From this point on in my survey I chose not only to use quantative questions, but also qualitative, allowing me to get a deeper insight into the answers of the fans. The first question I asked was; 'Why did you start listening to One Direction?'. I predicted that the predominant reason for this would be due to their physical apperance however, my results ranged from this to having the band help a respondant through hard times. A common response was fans started listening to the boyband after their hit release, 'What Makes You Beautiful'. This would support that the fans main prioty is staus based due to characteristics including 'The appreciation of beautiful things'. For the fans this may be the messages or deeper meanings behind their songs or even the voices of the boys themselves. 

Furthermore, when I asked 'Why do you like One Direction' this supported my hypothesis to a greater extent due to the majority of respondants saying that the boyband are 'cute'.  In addition, canidates also support the band due to the personalities of the individuals, which in turn, also attribues to the lyrics put across to their fans.

Additionally, to show that my results were valid I asked 'Have you always liked One Direction?' In response to this, 92% of respondants clarified that they have always liked one direction for a number of different reasons. However, one person disagreed after having got tired of the boyband but futhermore, fell for the artists again due to new releases.  These results therefore show I asked individuals from a fan based forum.

Moreover, I assumed that fans would have outrageous dreams about dating members of the boyband. Although this is seen to be incredibly stereotypical, this was proved correct with 100% of my audience claiming that yes, they had wished for a member of the band to be their boyfriend.

Penultimately, my assumption of fans encouraging friendship group conversation about the band was also correct. All 12 respondants clarified that yes, they do talk about the band with their friends, with 11 people often having group conversations about One Direction and 1 person only having the influenced conversation sometimes.
This therefore shows that the boyband are highly influencital in the lives of fans.

Finally, my last question was; 'Do you own One Direction merchandise?' This was the only question with a variety of different answers of which I was not expecting. I predicted that fans would own a range of different mechandise products designed by the band however, only two thirds of my respondants owned the bands merchandise with 1 of those only owning items of clothing.  The other 33% owned nothing relatable to the band which surprised me, due to all candidates being fans of the boyband. This could possibily suggest that One Direction are not the favourited band of all 12 respondants.

 

Overall to sum up, I feel that One Direction fans fit to the 4Cs Segmentation result of having the main priority of 'Status' with characteristics to aspirer. Stereotypically speaking I believe that they have 'Big ideas and plans for the future', 'Care a lot about others' opinions' and have 'appreciation of beautiful things' through the evidence in my results however, the point of 'You make a special effort to be noticed' I consider not to be true, due to the fans not outgoingly showing themselves are One Direction fans by wearing the band's clothing and owning merchandise associated with the band. Although, to obtain a clearer view of this, I would need to collect a larger sample of answers to analysis, rather than stereotyping an entire fan-based audience on only a few individuals responses.