music video research 5 Artist: Queen Song: I want to break free

The song 'I want to break free' by 'Queen' and its video are unconventional for the 'Rock' genre.

The visual style is surreal as it contains bizarre elements and incorporates them into its narrative. The camerawork is fairly standard, with Freddie Mercury (lead singer) often being the focus of the shots; there are scenes where the camera follows Mercury and scenes where Mercury is in the centre of the frame. In addition to this there are several close up shots of the vacuum cleaner and of pink slippers, emphasising the femininity of the situation, leading to a bigger comedic payoff later on. Speaking of feminine elements, the costume design is utilised for comedy and narrative reasons. The idea of 4 male rockstars dressing up in drag, doing stereotypical things that a women would do (in the 80's) as the housewife such as dusting and cleaning is done to grab people's attention by making the situation humorous. Mercury also appears as a masculine figure (muscular, shirtless, suspenders or the ideal strong man) in part of the video to help convey the underlying message and in both of the settings the band appears to be conforming to the traditional gender roles (i.e. the women looking after the house while the men go to work). The lighting feels unnatural, with their being spotlights in the 'worker' and symbolic scenes and house lights in the main scene. The editing feels rather simplistic with the camera cutting between rooms of the house in a simple way. The transition between the house and the 'worker' scene feels weak with the cropped display within the open doorframe changing to the full size after a brief light flash.

While not clear upon first glance, there is a narrative in the song and the video. The song's message most likely stems from Mercury's experiences as a bisexual during a time where it wasn't socially accepted like it is now (in first world countries at least). The apparent message is that Mercury wants to break free from social stigmas and be with whoever he wants to be with, be it man or woman. One narrative technique that helps convey this idea is the use of the band as feminine and masculine figures; giving off the impression that regardless of who they choose to be or who they prefer they are still the same person. This is supported by the fact that they don't change their tone of voice or the rhythm of the song based on wether or not they are appearing as masculine or feminine. This idea that love shouldn't be restricted is reinforced by both men and women are in the symbolic scene towards the middle of the song. This scene depicts one man with weird features siting on a rock and doing other actions while being surrounded by naked people of both sexes, reminiscent of an orgy in the fact they are all together, relaxed and nude. The Man's distinct facial features (such as his odd ears) represent his distinct lifestyle differences from societal norms, such as having a carefree attitude and having mixed (in gender) sexual partners. Another thing to note here is that they appear out of an enclosed box, clearly symbolising the trappings that people in society place on them. The ease at which the box is opened implies that these stigmas aren't hard to break, which adds a positive lining to their message. In this scene the people have dark marks on their body which could connote bruises and therefore indicates violence against them.

This video is quite unconventional for the 'Rock' genre. The visuals lack any sight of the band performing and instead focus on tackling sexual issues. 'Rock' videos usually have straight forward narratives which makes this video unconventional. The unique aspect of this video I would say is the clever use of drag costume, adding a layer depth to its message while making the video humorous.

The best ideas are: the use of instrumental time (the symbolic orgy) to expand the narrative instead of using it to build up to a conclusion and the use of humour to make a dull location (the house) more interesting. On the other hand I think the transitions at certain points are quite weak and could of been utilised better.