AD: Music Video Analyses

This post will mainly focus on the star image of the band Eels by analysing the types of music videos they have made over fourteen years. (1996-2010). The lead singer goes by the name of "E", and will be referred to this name throughout.

Novocaine For The Soul

Song: Novocaine For The Soul

Album: Beautiful Freak

Year: 1996

Style: Amplified Performance

Lyrics

• Novocaine For The Soul is a performance based video, with meat shots of every band member. As this is one of the earliest videos of Eels, it would not be illogical for them to establish their qualities and values, as well as their image at this stage, seeing as this would help audiences put faces onto the band and thus establish a connection between the two. 
• This connection is further enhanced by a first person mode of address, effectively reducing the distance between the audience and the band.

• The star values are reinforced by the use of wires to lift the band into the air. This in some respects hints towards the band's originality and creative talent, and creates a direct connection between the lyrics and the visuals, due to the factors below:
• Novocaine is an occasional additive in illicit street drugs, such as cocaine. 
• The performance of the band hovering above the ground.
• The lyrics: "You better give me something, so I don't die"
• These factors combined create the connotation of being high on drugs. However, taking into context the lyrics of the song, this becomes more of a social comment than a glorification of drug-use.

• In some respects, the use of wires help promote the band, as it makes for a more memorable music video. This means that this otherwise artistic visual is in reality a demand of the record label (in this case, DreamWorks Records, now a subsidiary to Universal Music Group) in order to sell the song and its album.

Saturday Morning

Song: Saturday Morning

Album: Shootenanny!

Year: 2003

Style: Disjunctive Narrative and Performance

Lyrics

• This particular music video is completely disjunctive, which could be seen as part of Eels' values of creativity and originality, but also a total disregard to the conventions of music video narrative and performance - this latter aspect being a part of a rebellious attitude.

Where the lyrics and the visuals meet are mostly seen in the first minute of the music video. 

• The props - in this case, the pancakes - are symbols of breakfast and thus morning. 
• The costume - E's pyjamas - a metasymbol of morning.

Tilføj billedtekst

• As mentioned, the music video is highly disjunctive in the sense that it includes a dubious narrative, and only very slightly supported by the lyrics. The locations have very little to do with the lyrics, as does the eventual ending to the music video.

• Nonetheless, the music video builds upon the one of Dyer's two paradoxes: The star must be ordinary and extraordinary to the consumer. In this case, E looks completely ordinary to the viewer in both costumes. However, on-board the truck, once he picks up the guitar, he changes into something (albeit only fractionally) more extraordinary, his guitar-playing catching the attention of the "zombies".

Zombies - originality at its best.

• Despite the aforementioned conventions of the star image conveyed in this music video, it could be argued that the use of a disjunctive video does very little to enhance Eels' actual star image as original and creative. In some cases such as this, the disjunctive video is simply poorly executed and ill-conceived.
• Arguably, however, this could mean that the video itself is a parody on rock and roll stars - incoherent and not caring about the conventions.
• These factors combined make this video ideal for ambient viewing - in essence, it plays upon the idea of E's voice being enough to make the audience listen, but the video itself does not offer a lot in terms of artistic or commercial properties. 

Spectacular Girl

Song: Spectacular Girl

Album: Tomorrow Morning

Year: 2010

Style: Amplified Narrative 

Lyrics 

• Following Dyer's paradoxes, the band is absent from the music video itself, whilst still being present through the lead singer's grain of voice and, although not as apparent as previous videos, their choice of a low-fi narrative.
• This means that fans of the band will recognise "E"'s voice and as such associate the video with Eels. The band's metanarrative as eccentric, original and challenging of social values - the latter due to the context of the video, shine through these factors.

• There is an element of fetishism, one of the parts of the music video theory established by Andrew Goodwin, which is only present for a short section of the music video. However, in the context of both the song and the video, this is arguably representative of a sexually strong female character; her use of a rifle (the signifier) - which to some extent has connotations of a phallic nature and symbolises power over life and death - breaks away at the stereotypical representation of women as weak or in need of a strong, male counterpart. 

Fetishism or Femme Fatale?

Definitely a Femme Fatale.

• This is further enhanced by her costume, the all black colours symbolising death or the Grim Reaper.

Top half

Bottom half

• This, in turn, builds upon the star image of Eels, and falls under Dyer's theory of artists positioning the consumer in relation to dominant social values, otherwise known as the hegemony. In this case, by having a strong female character, Eels utilise their star image to promote new ideas of how women should be represented, positioning the audience in relation to how they view the mainstream. This could to some extent help establish the star quality of Eels, as they ultimately affect the band's appearances outside of music.

Overall:

• On the whole of Eels' star image, the metanarrative developed through Eels' music videos establish them as challenging of social values, creative and original, all three traits found in Richard Dyer's theory.  The first value is most likely an on-going critical commentary, and an attempt to make the band seem like trendsetters - most seen in the last video. 

• Taking into consideration the fact that Eels are described as an alternative rock band, the styles of music video that accompany their music enforces their chosen genre.

In considering whether these music videos are art, porn or advertisement, it could be suggested - based on the analysis of these three videos - that:

• Novocaine for the Soul is the combination of both art and advertisement, considering it being the debut song of the band and the use of wires to makes the video stand out.
• Saturday Morning is an abstract form of art, its disjunctive narrative and performance making very little sense.
• Spectacular Girl being advertisement and porn at the same time, although the latter is somewhat debatable if one views the video critically - in this respect, challenging gender stereotypes.