Riptide

Question 1

Who is Vance Joy?

Answer 1

An Australian singer-songwriter signed to Atlantic records

Question 2

What Genre is Vance Joys music?

Answer 2

His music is usually categorised as indie folk-pop

Question 3

Who Directed Riptide?

Answer 3

The video was directed by Dimitri Basil and Laura Gorun

Question 4

How many copies did Riptide Sell?

Answer 4

Sold over 1 million copies worldwide

Question 5

Did Riptide have a high or low budget?

Answer 5

low budget

Question 6

does Riptide have many Intertextual references?

Answer 6

Yes, Intertextual references to other media forms like film

Question 7

What is the effect of a Montage?

Answer 7

Lots of juxtaposing shots through hard jump cuts

Question 8

Does Riptide have a clear, linear narrative?

Answer 8

Rejects a clearly defined linear narrative - reference surrealist or avant-garde cinema

Question 9

Lyric interpretation

“I was scared of dentists and the dark”

Answer 9

Straight forward interpretation with a woman looking “scared” with a metallic contraption in her mouth and followed by a shot of a light swinging in a darkened room.

Question 10

How is a Billing Block used in the music video?

Answer 10

The opening shot makes use of cinematic style credits which is graphically similar to a “billing block” or “credit block” which is often seen on film posters or in trailers.

Question 11

Lyric interpretation

‘This cowboys running from himself’

Answer 11

Western references

Question 12

Horror genre iconography

Answer 12

females repeatedly dragged off screen by unseen forces and a character going missing in a dark graveyard.

Question 13

References to films

Answer 13

offer an implied artistic value that transcends the music video form.

Question 14

Unusual for the genre

Answer 14

Riptide is relatively unusual both as a music
video and specifically as a text within the indie folk genre in terms of its style, rejection of narrative and lack of spectacle or special effects.

Question 15

Vance Joy ‘Georgia’ (2015)

Answer 15

Comparison could be made with a later Vance Joy video Georgia (2015), which follows many more conventions.

Question 16

Roland Barthes - semiotics

Answer 16

Signifiers - e.g. the pile of dollar bills which accompanies the line “Oh, all my friends are turning green”.

Question 17

Polysemy meanings

Answer 17

Video doesn’t directly imply the meaning of the narrative but instead relies on the audience to build there own interpretations

Question 18

Steve Neale - Genre theory

Answer 18

genres may be dominated by repetition, but are also marked by difference, variation, and change.
indie folk music video genre is dominated by repetition (low-fi videos with bands playing instruments etc.) which is then subverted by Riptide

Question 19

Scopophilia

Answer 19

The pleasure in looking at other people’s bodies as (particularly, erotic) objects.

Question 20

David Gauntlet

Answer 20

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.

Question 21

Bell Hooks

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Objectification

Answer 22

Women are presented as objects throughout the video

E.G. In one shot a woman with her back to the camera undresses out of her swimming costume

Question 23

How many views does Riptide have on YouTube?

Answer 23

Nearly 100 million views on YouTube

Question 24

How has a low budget influenced Riptide?

Answer 24

unique style of the music video has an artistic direction

Question 25

What effect does the ukulele have?

Answer 25

Gives of a positive vibe