Riptide

Question 1

Who is the song by and what country is he from?

Answer 1

Vance Joy, Australia

Question 2

What record company produced this song?

Answer 2

Atlantic records (subsidiary of major label, Warner)

Question 3

What genre is this song?

Answer 3

Indie folk-pop genre

Question 4

What did the song ‘Riptide’ become in the USA?

Answer 4

A platinum selling single

Question 5

Who was the video directed by?

Answer 5

Dimitri Basil and Laura Gorun

Question 6

How many views did the video get on YouTube?

Answer 6

Nearly 100 million

Question 7

Did the music video have a low or high budget?

Answer 7

Low

Question 8

What editing technique is used in this video?

Answer 8

Montage editing

Question 9

What is montage editing?

Answer 9

Where a wide range of contrasting shots are juxtaposed (through hard jump cuts) to convey a lot of information

Question 10

When was the musics video released?

Answer 10

2013

Question 11

Give an example of where the editing of images matches the lyrics

Answer 11

“All my friends are turning green” and the image of a pile of dollar bills

Question 12

What does the video reject?

Answer 12

A clearly defined narrative

Question 13

What is surrealism?

Answer 13

A 20th century movement that explored the workings of the mind, the irrational, the poetic and the revolutionary

Question 14

What does the word surrealist actually mean?

Answer 14

Beyond reality

Question 15

What does the surrealism movement contain?

Answer 15

Ideas and images from unconscious minds
Dream worlds
Rejection of conventional artistic and moral values

Question 16

Who, where and when was the surrealist movement founded?

Answer 16

Poet André Breton in Paris in 1924

Question 17

What is the goal of the surrealist movement?

Answer 17

Liberate thought, language and human experience from the harsh/ oppressive boundaries of rationalism

Question 18

What is rationalism?

Answer 18

Basing opinions and actions on reason and knowledge rather than on religious beliefs or emotions

Question 19

What is Avant-Garde in terms of art?

Answer 19

Art that is innovative (original); that introduces/explores new forms or subject matters

Question 20

When did the Avant-Garde movement begin?

Answer 20

1850s

Question 21

What is Avant-Garde applicable to?

Answer 21

Art that pushes the boundaries of ideas and creativity or does things that haven’t been done before

Question 22

Is Riptide a performance, narrative or concept music video?

Answer 22

Concept as it is based around a single idea/ concept that is unusual and obscure ( how to photograph women for example)

Question 23

What is the term for when the images match the lyrics?

Answer 23

Overt graphical representation

Question 24

What is the significance of the first shot including what looks like a ‘billing block’, which are used on film posters?

Answer 24

The fact that the video is like a short film

Question 25

What genres of film and directing does the video often make references to?

Answer 25

Western and thriller genres

Also the directing style of Wes Anderson

Question 26

What iconography is used?

Answer 26

Horror genre iconography such as girls being dragged off the screen

Question 27

How is Riptide an unusual video for its genre?

Answer 27

Doesn’t follow a narrative

No special effects

Question 28

What 2 things could the lyrics “all my friends are turning green” be referring to?

Answer 28

Money or envy

Question 29

What is an example of polysemic lyrics (have two meanings) and what are the two possible readings of them?

Answer 29

“All my friends are turning green”
Other bands have sold out by giving into money
Friends turning envious of Vance Joy’s success

Question 30

How can Neale’s genre theory link to this music video?

Answer 30

It repeats generic conventions of indie-folk pop such as niche fashion and the ocean
However goes against conventions of this genre by not following a narrative or having on screen graphics of the musician

Question 31

What does Scopophilia mean?

Answer 31

Pleasure gained from looking at other people’s bodies as (usually erotic/ sexual) objects

Question 32

What is an intertextual reference to Riptide?

Answer 32

Buñel and Dali’s ‘Un Chien Andalou’ from 1929

Question 33

What scene from ‘Un Chien Andalou’ can be linked to one in a Riptide?

Answer 33

Eye cutting scene in ‘Un Chien Andalou’ could be compared to the hand stabbing of the hand scene in Riptide

Question 34

3 examples of women being presented as an object to be watched:

Answer 34

Back to the camera undressing out of her swimming costume
Bare feet running away
Feminine hands being dragged into the dark

Question 35

How does the video challenge gender representation?

Answer 35

The woman lip-syncing the words incorrectly at first appears to conform to social norms of beauty but becomes more and more dishevelled (makeup smudges) throughout the video

Question 36

Examples of violence in the video:

Answer 36

Female hand being stabbed by knife
Gun being pointed off screen
Lip-syncing woman clutches her neck and her hand is bleeding

Question 37

2 possible readings of the violence in the video:

Answer 37

The many examples of violence could be normalising violence

Or it could be seen to be trivialising it (making violence seem less important than it actually is)

Question 38

How does bell hooks’ feminist theory link to Riptide?

Answer 38

The video could be read as objectifying women because of the many images that makes them appear like objects of sexual desire (undressing, running from behind)
Therefore the video feeds into the oppression of women in a patriarchal society

Question 39

Is Riptide a concept or performance music video?

Answer 39

Concept

Question 40

How does Riptide subvert the conventions of this genres music videos?

Answer 40

No clips of Vance Joy performing

No narrative