Riptide, Vance Joy Flashcards
Who is Vance Joy
Austrian singer songwriter
Who is Vance Joy signed to?
Atlantic records
What genre of music does he make?
Indie folk music
How many viewers does it have on YouTube as of 2025
590 million views
What type of Music video is Riptide?
Concept video
What would you usually find in an Indie-folk music video?
Soft colours
Instruments
Outside in nature
Warm lighting
Muted earthy tones
How does the MV break these conventions?
Artist not shown in music video
Not shown playing any instrument
Narrating the song
Pace of editing is not either slow or fast
How does the MV meet these conventions?
Using the same music and instruments
Shots cut to the beat
Montage editing, meanings being created through the juxtaposition
How are women presented in Riptide?
Objectified and victimised
How are women presented as scared?
Through the high camera angles
Terrified facial expressions
Lowkey lighting
How do the representations make the audience feel?
Uncomfortable, which encourages us to see the victimisation of women as undesirable
What do long takes do for the audience
They are hard to look away and force us to question what and why something is happening
What do the short takes do?
Create representations of women that seem scared and jumpy and almost horror like
How are women presented as their own hero?
Through representations of women as powerful and independent when they free themselves
What do the low angle shots connote
Create a voyeuristic view of women as though they are being watched/stalked
What does it mean when the camera cuts to the woman signing and her makeup is deteriorating?
Supposed to shock the audience, create enigma about what has happened and emphasise that women are victims of violence and control
What does the clips of the woman’s makeup wiping off do for the audience?
Encourages us to sympathise with her
How do we know that she is singing the lyrics wrong?
The on screen lyrics
What does the woman’s facial expressions imply
She is panicked, emotional and scared
What does the images of weapons show?
Reflects violence against women
How are men represnted?
We see them in positions of powerful
How does the audience see women
From a male gaze
What does montage editing invite?
Interpreation
What is Eisenstein’s concept of intellectual montage?
New ideas emerge from collision of images and generate new meanings that might not exist otherwise
What does the music video reject?
A clear narrative
What is repeated through the music video?
Overt graphical and literal representations of the lyrics
What genres does the music video feature
Western and Thriller genres
What is polysemy?
The coexistence of many possible meanings for a word or phrase
What is an example of this?
The pile of dollar bills which accompanies the line “all my friend are turning green”
What could the dollar bill mean
Green is associated with envy and greed, potentially his friends are becoming this
What is an example of a surrealist film?
Un Chien Andalou
What are some of the references to Un Chien Andalou in Riptide?
The infamous eye cutting scene could be compared to the hand stabbing scene
What are some of the references in the music video?
Wicker man
Midnight cowboy
Donnie Darko
Dali’s moustache
What is Voyerustic sadism?
A way for men to cope with this idea for the woman’s body to be controlled on screen and made to conform with the social order
What is fetishisation of women?
ideal beauty, a fetish, whose flawless perfection turn any attention away from her difference
Why is there fetisiation of women?
Represents women as untouchable objects of male adoration, something too precious to be touched
Representations of men as simple
Men like motor racing
Men holding guns
Woman sings the mans words, men have the dominant voice
Watching and controlling women
Representations of men as complex
“I was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations”
Men need help from women (reference to the book)
Men as not in control
How does the music video reinforce a patriarchal world view?
Blonde hair blue eyes
Thin body type
Shots of men secretly filming the woman
Are women sexualised within the music video?
Taking off her swimwear
Light on women’s body
Wearing lots of makeup
