Music Video Analysis Questions

Unfinished Sympathy by Massive Attack is a song about not getting over a relationship. She is unable to move on from the relationship which is suggested by the music video when she is oblivious to everything around her. This relationship is the only thing she can think about.

Burn the Witch by Radiohead is a song about a group of people that want to kill a witch. It has a connection with a fear of outsiders and the group of people do not want any "different" people to be with them. This relates to the video as well as the band have said that the video is about the European refugee crisis.

Unfinished Sympathy conveys a message that love takes over and it is the only thing that people care about when they are in it. This is shown by Shara's ignorance of everyone and everything around her.

Burn the Witch conveys the message that we, as people, have a fear of outsiders although we shouldn't. The video more than the song, has messages about today's global politics to do with refugees and migrants.

In the Unfinished Sympathy video, the main band of massive attack are not featured very much. 3D, Daddy G, and Mushroom are only in the background for short periods of time. The main focus of the video is Shara Nelson walking down the street. Because they are in an 'average' setting, the streets of LA, it represents the band in a normal way as normal people. It represents them as down to earth. It represents the band's roots and where they came from because Massive Attack are a band from the streets of Bristol.

In the music video Radiohead are presented as socially aware because they know that the way we treat outsiders is wrong and immoral, they just wanted to "wake people up a bit". They are represented as being creative as they have found an interesting and different way to express their views.

Massive Attack have been represented in this way because they want their audience to know where they come from and that they value their roots. Love is also a mainstream topic for music so it would maybe appeal to a wider audience.

Radiohead have been represented in this way because they are a more alternative band so want to be more creative, they want people to be influenced by their message and so they represent themselves in such a way that may draw attention. The Burn the `witch video is in the style of the 60s kids TV series the Trumptonshire Trilogy and so this would gain attention from anyone that watched or had heard of this show.

I think that the Massive Attack video does represent the band successfully, as it does not portray them in a bad way that could damage their reputation. They are represented to appear normal and down to earth and I believe that the video does this by blending them into the background. They do not stand out and anyone who didn't know what the band members looked like wouldn't realise that they are in it at all, only the star of the video - Shara Nelson.

I think the Radiohead video does represent the band successfully as being creative. It represents them in a weird and alternative way which correctly reflects the style of music that they make.

The Massive Attack video is created using one continuous tracking shot which leaves the focus on Shara Nelson on a permanent basis. It is utilised to create a sense of immediacy. It appears as though we are following her and are there at the moment because there are no cuts between different camera angles.

The Radiohead video was created using stop-motion animation in the style of The Trumptonshire Trilogy (a children's TV show from the 60s). This was utilised to appeal to an audience that may have listened to the band when they started as they would likely have been children when the show was on air. It was also used as a way to convey a message about the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe.

The Radiohead video references both Trumpton and The Wicker Man because they contextually reachable for the original audience of Radiohead. Their audience, when they first started in 1985, would almost definitely have known about and/or seen either one of both of these - meaning that their audience may be able to enjoy and understand the video and song more than people that weren't fans originally.

'The street' has been used in the Massive Attack video because it shows where the band came from and the type of music that they produce. The band originated on the streets of Bristol and they produced Trip-Hop which was an alternative to the 'street' version of Hip-Hop.

The visuals of the Massive Attack video don't suit the lyrical content of the song, in my opinion. This is because the lyrics are those of a typical love song, however the video is not suited to a love song as it is on the streets of downtown LA - not a very romantic setting. However, the video doesn't seem out of place with the other elements.

The visuals of the Radiohead video do suit the lyrical and musical content of the song, in my opinion. This is because the video, music, and lyrics are all quite creepy and eerie. There is a dark and twisted nature to all of the elements and so, I would say, that they do all work well together.

From the video, Massive Attack fans may get the pleasure of being able to see a different lifestyle that is featured in the video. Because Massive Attack are a British band that majority of their fans were also British. The video is filmed in LA and so the fans had the chance to see a different place and lifestyle than that seen in Britain.

The audience for the Radiohead video get pleasure from the intertextuality of Trumpton and The Wicker Man. This is because a lot of the fans of Radiohead would have seen both of these things and so would get pleasure from the presence of these things.

Finlay's A Level Media