Burn The Witch (radiohead) Flashcards
Who are Radiohead?
Famous British rock band
What genre is Radiohead?
Electronic/experimental rock/indie
When was Burn The Witch released?
2016
What album is Burn the Witch from?
A Moon Shaped Pool (9th studio album)
What genre of music is Burn The Witch?
Orchestral pop
What are the political views of Radiohead?
- Left-leaning
- Thom Yorke (Supported of the Labour Party)
- Critical of Brexit and Trump’s policies
- Politically provocative
What themes appear in the Burn The Witch music video?
- Anti-authoritarian
- Warns against groupthink, rising nationalism, and fascism
- Attack on romanticised, revisionist past, rhetoric of traditional values (Trump, Marine Le Pen)
What did the animator who worked in the video interpret the song as?
- Comment on the European migrant crisis
- Scapegoating of Muslims
The music is considered a homage to what television programme?
Trumptonshire children’s television programme (1960s)
What is Trumtonshire?
short episodic stories set in the fictional English county of Trumptonshire (idealised depictions of rural England)
How is the music video a homage to trumptonshire (1960s)?
Direct Intertextual stylistic reference to the stop motion animation and some characters (mayor)
What other examples of Intertextuality are there?
The Wicker Man (1973) British folk horror film
What is the WickerMan (1970s)?
A folk horror film. In which a naive policeman investigates the disappeared of a young girl in a remote island which ends in sacrifice.
Direct Intertextual references- folk dancing, human effigy, celebration
General reception
Over 21k YT comments
41 million views
Lyrics- Thom Yorke
- Known for writing a pithy, stream of consciousness style
- Motivated by anger, expressing political concerns, “constant response to double-think”
Describe the lyrics
- Cautinary and constantly at odds with the idyllic rural imagery
- “if you float you burn” “abandon all reason” (moral panic associated with witch hunts)
- The villagers are unconsciously growing in panic “this is a low flying panic attack”
- The cautions can only be understood after the fact
Opening shot of the close up of the bird perched on a tree branch.
The two shot of the inspector being driven along the country ride
Wide shot of the villagers meeting in the town square discussing something
Insert shots and cut aways of their lives, routines
The pub name “the speared bear”
The reveal of the “model village”
Stylistic conventions of folk horror
The red crosses painted in the doors, the wide shot revealing the ducking chairs, the long robes and animal masks
The grand reveal of the human effigy (Intertextual reference)
The final shot (breaking of the 4th wall)
The cyclical final shot
How is the video subversive?
How is the video subversive?(2)
Describe the narrative of the mayor video
What is the genre of the video? (Hybridisation)
How is the band represented?
How is the band represented? (2)
How is gender represented? (2)
How is Britishness represented?
