Research music video 2: "The Pretender" Foo Fighters

 ‘The Pretender’ is a classic stereotypical rock song, however in parts the video does not convey this same genre due to the clean/clutter free area the video is based in. The song begins with a relatively slow paced guitar introduction, while this is the stereotypical instrument to represent the genre of rock but it is at a much lower volume and lower pace than conventional rock guitar playing which is a lot louder and faster. 
The 2 key instruments that represent rock, the guitar (both electric and bass) and the drums, are shown on a white background. This symbolizes how the genre of rock often stands out when compared to other types of music such as pop for example where no instruments are really shown.

In the music video there are a lot of close ups on the artists, especially on the front man Dave Grohl, who was shown as being very tough, and cool through the camera angels being slightly beneath him to make him seem larger and more powerful. Another reason they do this is because they want the audience to focus mainly on the lead man within the band as he will be the most recognisable so it makes sense to feature shots of him every few seconds. But it also contains a lot of extreme long shots and long shots, the reason for this being is because they want to show off the band playing and show how they are a true rock band. The video was also very stylized, with almost only three colors in the video, red, white and black and a lot of stylish shots such as long panoramic shots of them swooping around the set.

The visuals and lyrics do not match as this video is not narrative it is more performance based like other video's of the rock genre. 

A lot of the cuts happen in time with the music such as a change in the riff of the guitar or a new beat kicking in on the drum, however instead of doing what a lot of music videos do and focusing edit speed on the tempo of the music, this video focused on the intensity of the music, when the music was angrier and more intense with the guitar as loud as possible, the editing was faster with more jump cuts taking place showing of the band and the lead singer and eventually the police men all dressed in black.

The typical characteristics of Rock are themes like toughness, anger and often fighting against ‘the man’ and dominant ideologies and I think that is shown in this music video. With the anger in the music video being shown through the expression of the lead singer, while the theme of the dominant ideology is shown as the police men in riot gear advancing forward.

The costume within the music video is very indie and stereotypical rock clothing. This kind of clothing consist of things like skinny jeans, flannel shirts and Baseball styled tee shirts. For example, within the music video the artists wear black skinny jeans, black and white t-shirt/shirts. But the main man Dave Grohl  is wearing the white t-shirt, whereas the rest of the band wore black shirts. They did this because they want the lead singer to stand out from the rest of the band as he is the main artist in the band and they want the audience to recognise him most.

The lighting within the music video is constantly at a high brightness and fairs into the camera which means that it has the effect of just focusing on one particular object or person, the music video focuses on all things within the scenes.

The two main groups being represented in this music video (police and the rebellious rock group) are cliché in the way that the police are seen to be attempting to stop any form of self-expression in place of anonymity (Where the music video is set with the white room ), the longhaired and loud rock band is seen to be typical but not overly stereotypical due to the clean white surroundings and lack of body art that is commonly thought of alongside the rock genre. The single location used is an old warehouse, which has a clean and bright white floor and wall. On the other side of the room is an unlit wall that acts as a separate location that the police (which were dressed in black representing authority) come from. The lead singer and guitarist, Dave Grohl, show the star image of the group, he is shown as powerful and important through the low camera angels. 

How this music video influenced my creativity

The music influenced my creativity as it made me aware of some thing's that can be done to create a star image that I want to be seen for example crazy which could be done through shaky close up's and intense facial expressions. It has also made me aware that it is possible to communicate certain issues like the repression of creativity.