Music Video Research - Where's Your Head At

Music Video Research

Artist: Basement Jaxx 

Director(s): Traktor

Camera/Editing:
Large close ups are used, when we see that the monkeys in the music video have human faces and preform to the camera as people. This is to emphasise the shock factor created of the unusual visuals. Throughout, the visuals match the lyrics within the video and an example of this is when the monkeys have their hands on their heads as the song says 'where's your head at'. The music video consists of many shots, however it looks as if it is all taken in one shot, making it an easy to follow narrative structure. When the song actually begins to pick up it's pace, so does the video linking these together.

Narrative:
A producer of pop music goes into a hospital and this is told to the audience by the short dialogue in the video before the music starts. We realise that it isn't a normal hospital through the use of props, for example a nurse carrying a keyboard, to which we then expect an unconventional video. We see quick cuts of monkeys with human faces singing and playing instruments and wide shots of them performing like a band, to make the video look conventional in the strange circumstances. They begin to lose control and try to attack the producer, before he stumbles into another room and realises through the panning of the camera that the doctors are using human brains to make these 'performing monkeys', which is the iconography for a recognisable phrase. This shocks the audience, but sends out the message of how we treat and test on animals and how like it's not acceptable on humans, it shouldn't on animals either.

Conventional/Unconventional:
Aspects of both within the music video:
Conventional -
Stereotypical 'mad scientists' portrayed through the use of costume (white lab coats)
Performance to camera and use of band
Unconventional -
Animals being edited to look like humans - breaks audience expectations
The conflict in the narrative isn't resolved - producer is still trapped in the hospital by the end
Juxtaposition of the doctors being mentally ill and not the patients

What Works:
Breaking the conventions of a music video and using shock to portray a message across in a different way (possibly animal testing/abuse). However, at times the music video doesn't always match the pace and tempo of the song, making it seem like a short film and not a music video.