Riptide- Vance Joy Flashcards
What country is Vance Joy from?
Australia
Which record company is he signed too?
Atlantic records (a subsidiary of major label, Warner).
What genre is Vance’s music?
indie folk-pop.
what was Vance’s first single to be released in the USA, and what did it follow?
Riptide, which followed debut EP “God loves you when you’re dancing”
what did his first single in the USA become?
a platinum selling single.
who directed the music video?
Dimitri Basil and Laura Gorun
How many views on YouTube has it had?
nearly 100 million
What is the argument about the low budget?
low budget, so unique style of music video, was it artistic decision OR economic?
What do his later music videos use?
larger budgets, special effects and elaborate, coherent narratives. (e.g. “Georgia”)
How does the budget of a band start out?
small low budget productions, increase in scope and budget from popularity and fans.
What does budget impact?
artistic decisions and visual style of music videos.
What (arguably) is a music video?
An advert for band, OR representation of how “valuable” band are to producers.
What (arguably) are mainstream audiences impressed and attracted to?
Large budget music videos and implied “quality” of that band.
What editing method is used in an “overt” way?
Montage editing
How is a large amount to information conveyed?
Wide range of contrasting shots juxtaposed (mostly through hard jump cuts) to coney info.
How is audience’s interpretation encouraged?
editing together of seemingly disparate images.
What is Einstein’s concept?
“Intellectual montage”- new ideas emerge from collision of images, generating new meanings that might not otherwise exist.
What is an example of intellectual montage?
Male and female suddenly turn heads to look at off-screen, next shot: unrelated pile of $ bills (connections audience make?)
What do many of the hard jump cuts link to?
The lyrics.
What does most of the video reject?
Clearly defined narrative.
What is a rare examples in the video of a short coherent narrative?
The girl going missing in the graveyard.
What type of cinema does the video reference?
Surrealist or avant-garde
What is an example of avant-garde?
The work of Luis Buñuel.
How do the lyrics subvert conventions of music videos?
Overt and deliberate way they are interpreted on screen. (having images exactly reflect lyrics)
What is an example of lyrical interpretation on the screen?
“I was scared of dentists and the dark”: cared female in the dentists followed by shot of light swinging in dark room.
What does the video explicitly reference?
Feature films.
Give an example of the video referencing feature films?
opening shot: cinematic credits, info, title at bottom, similar to “billing block” or “credit block”, often seen in film trailers.
What decision does the audience have to make about the style?
Short Film OR Music Video.
What are all the film genres the video references?
Western, thriller, hipster style of Wes Anderson, Horror iconography.
what are some examples of Horror iconography?
Females being dragged off screen by unseen forces and character going missing in graveyard.
What might the video be designed to do for the band?
Confer a sense of uniqueness or intrigue.
What Theory can be applied to signification of lyrical interpretation on screen?
Barthes Semiotics- signifier/ signified (e.g. dollar bills “all my friends are turning green.”)
How is Barthes’ “status of myth” achieved?
constructed meanings become self-evident through process of naturalisation (allows for complicated readings of images) e.g. colour green relates to money & envy.
What is an example of “polysemy” (Barthes- semiotics)?
“turning green” has multiple meanings: money and envy
What could be implied by the use of polysemy (“turning green”)?
friends (other bands) give into money, friends “turning green” due to envy at Vance Joy.
What is Neale’s theory about genre?
Genres may be dominated by repetition, also marked by difference, variation and change.
How is indie folk music genre dominated by repetition?
low-fi videos with bands playing instruments. Riptide offers variation.
Which inter-text (referenced) explores violence and sexual desire?
Un Chien Andalou (1929)- famous eye cutting scene- hand stabbing in riptide.
What is the argument about the representation of women?
reinforces patriarchal world view OR subverting objectification of women in media.
What is an example of how women are presented as objects to be watched?
woman undressing out of swimming costume with her back to camera.
What are sexualised images of women?
disembodied, isolated sections of women’s bodies (bare feet running away, feminine hands being dragged away).
What is the argument for the images of women in the video?
sexualised, offers for audience pleasure (scopophilia) OR challenges sexualisation of women.
How does the lip-syncing scene at first conform to social norms of beauty and glamour?
at first immaculate make-up, framed and lit in flattering way.
How does the increasingly dishevelled presentation of the woman challenge representation?
Woman not presented as being perfect as she sings “the words wrong”, smudged make-up.
What are examples of trivialising or normalising violence?
female hand being stabbed, gun pointed off screen, lip-synching clutching neck with blood.
What is Gauntlet’s theory?
Identity- diverse representations in video.
How is Gauntlet’s concept of “pick & mix” relevant?
video constructs range of stimuli for audience to interpret. rejects signal messages (invites variety of responses)
How can Hooks’ Feminist theory be applied?
contradictory messages about gender. objectifying ironically knowing way OR feeding into oppression in patriarchal society.
What is Hooks’ feminist theory?
Feminism is a struggle to end sexist/ patriarchal oppression- video part of struggle or oppression?
