ACT: KraftklubTRACK: Fenster (Window)
ALBUM: Keine Nacht Für Niemand
(No Evening For No One)
YEAR: 2017
GENRE: Indie rock, Sprechgesang
DIRECTORS: Mario Clement, Chehad Abdallah
LABEL: Vertigo Records (owned by UMG)
SINGLE?: Yes, second single, released before the full album
BACKGROUND
Indie rock band formed in 2010, this is their third album. With their first album they rose to prominence very quickly and attracted the attention of multiple record labels, similar to the Arctic Monkeys in the UK. However unlike the Sheffield act they didn't sign with a German indie label equivalent, but with Vertigo Records, a
- Their last single, Dein Lied (Your Song), had already caused some controversial debate when the lead singer apparently slutshamed his ex-girlfriend (he later stated he was writing and playing a different character in the first person)
- This video has a more political tone in contrast to the personal, but deals with a similar character who is frustrated on events/the situation around him
Short compilation vid I created in order to get a taster of the band:
To summarise, they started out with comedic videos, similar to those of Blur for example, showing a playful sense of rebellion.
With their second album some of their songs got darker, serious and more political.
This is foreshadowing the dark nature of the Fenster video.
To summarise, they started out with comedic videos, similar to those of Blur for example, showing a playful sense of rebellion.
With their second album some of their songs got darker, serious and more political.
This is foreshadowing the dark nature of the Fenster video.
THE THEORIES I WILL ADDRESS:
- Firth's basic video types
- Andrew Goodwin's 6 Music Video Conventions
- Roland Barthes's codes
- Carol Vernallis
- Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory
FIRTH PERFORMANCE/NARRATIVE/CONCEPT:
Starts off as a pure narrative video, but then the performance comes in later in the world of the narrative.
The narrative follows a man who wants to go on a rampage in the city.
The editing has quick shots of the performing as a climax, so that acts as a teaser for live performance.
As is typical, the band members who are just playing are looking stoically down, while the lead singer sings at the camera all the time, and the backing vocalist and guitarrist mixes both
Most videos either do solely performance videos or cross-cut them equally with narrative and/or concept.
Those who don't know the image of the band well won't be able to follow this preferred reading, but the band members make cameos as corpses.
LYRICAL THEME
The lyrics deal with a angered character who is expressing his frustration about the state of the world, how the government.
It was interpreted as a parody of a conspiracy theorist or a right-wing enraged citizen, and received criticism it was encouraging such people to commit suicide.
EXTRA SOUNDS:
Diegetic intro with the song being played in the car, as soon as we get to the second shot it is on normal sound and carries on like that throughout the video
Sounds of the antihero screaming and shouting, beeping his car and the buttons on the car radio, the sound of the bullet firing to kill himself, as well as doors opening and blood splattering.
TITLES:
Act and track in one on two lines appears after 2 seconds Director isn't mentioned. All upper-case, serif, artist name bigger than track, track is in French-style exclamation marks.
GOODWIN'S SIX MUSIC VIDEO CONVENTIONS
GENRE CHARACTERISTICS:
Rock normally features the band cross-cut with narrative segments, however here we only have them appearing at the end.
CLOSE-UPS OF THE ARTIST:
The band do not appear a lot, however the lead singer always looks into the camera towards the end, never taking his eye off, where as the backing vocalist does to play with his guitar, putting emphasis on the lead singer.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LYRICS AND VISUALS
At the climax when narrative when the anti-hero shoots himself the lyrics are saying "Jump, jump out of the window"
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MUSIC AND VISUALS
The lyrics of frustration go well with diegetic blips of the shouting man.
NOTION OF LOOKING
The lead singer and backing vocalist are looking at the camera.
INTERTEXTUALITY:
Capturing the Zombie zeitgeist from the current TV series The Walking Dead. Just like Bring Me The Horizon and Taylor Swift did with their Follow You and Look What You Made Me Do videos. All the way back to Michael Jackson's Thriller video (which was inspired by 1950s and 1960s horror films such as Night Of The Living Dead) the zombie genre is an easy simulacrum for music videos.
Comparisons were drawn in the press with this video from The Ärzte, Hey Junge, a band which influenced them as well as lot
ROLAND BARTHES'S CODES
ACTION CODE: "A code which contains sequential elements of action in the text" (Slideshare)
We follow the protagonist through multiple scenarios.
CAROL VERNALLIS:
Musicologist Carol Vernallis argued that there is too much ellipsis in music videos in order for it be an authentic narrative, however here there is a somewhat unclear narrative but still a narrative we can follow due to it not being cross-cut with the band. There is an ellipsis towards the end as the lighting has changed to night time, this could be a fews hours later or in the context of a post-apocalyptic zombie
BRANDING:
The band are dressed in red, the new look they moved on after white and black for their previous two albums respectively:
After the video ends there are tor dates, which are on the website and will also bee turned into merchandise, on the back of jumpers, T-Shirts and hoodies and on posters.
The new album is also being pushed, this is the second single released two months before the actual album.
REPRESENTATION
A small detail, the woman he sees is dressed in red, not very glossy lipstick but still the stereotypical red
There is a shot of her leg however one could argue that this is not sexualised due to the gore:INFLUENCES ON MY PRODUCTION
The urban locations, and the shots of graffiti influenced my video.
However mine does not have the band only appearing at the end.
SMALL DETAILS:
- Have a character in the narrative sing one of the lyrics (something I observed in another other Kraftklub video, Sklave and Arcade Fire's Everything Now video)
REACTION:
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