LH-Deconstructing a Music Video Example-Watch the sun come up

Genre Characteristics

As example is becoming an established artist in the sense that recently a few of his songs being broadcasted on Radio One it is obvious that Example is establishing himself in the Indie Rap subgenre, however this particular song is less obvious. In a lot of example videos and similarly in the indie rap genre it is easy to identify what type of music it is straight away from the video. In the video for ‘Watch the Sun Come Up’ however it is not so straightforward, typically you can identify the genre from the locations, costume, characters and the effects that are used. This is not the case in ‘Watch the sun Come up’ as it is not set in the stereotypical suburban location and does not contain the ‘laddish’ lively characters that many indie rap videos do. This song is set in a foreign country and only contains Example and a woman as the characters. This song is also very out of context as the lyrics in example songs are often ‘jokey’ and put his own unique twist on the narrative but within this song he is quite serious and raps about a romance which is most unlike Example and the genre itself. Although I have said that this video does not coincide for many parts with the genre, Examples costume throughout the video does as he is wearing a denim shirt, relatively skinny jeans and VANS plimsoles all of which would often be seen in an indie rap video. The video is mainly narrative based as it tells a story within itself about romance, lust and love however the video has aspects that are performance based much like many videos of the indie rap genre for instance Plan B- Bizzness Woman.

Relationship between lyrics and visuals

For the majority of the video the lyrics do not directly relate to the visuals but the generall story that the lyrics are describing is apparent. By this I mean that the lyrics talk about a girl and a holiday romance and that is what is shown in the visuals but there is little direct correspondence. Although I have said there is very little direct links there are some for instance “you and that red dress what a pairing, I kept staring,” whilst these lyrics are sung the visuals show a few shots in which Example is staring at a girl that is dancing in a red dress. This is often typical of narrative based videos as it would not be plausible to directly match each lyric with a visual. An example of where the lyrics do not directly link with the visuals would be that it says “love at first sight or holiday romance” and then shows a shot of two beer bottles which imply that there has been some drinking going on. This also fits in with Examples music as it is quite a humorous extract and would suggest that the whole song is down to a drunken night.

Relationship between music and visuals

The music is very important in creating a certain feeling about songs and this is particularly the case with ‘Watch the Sun Come Up.’ The music throughout is quite upbeat and produces a happy feeling that ties in very well with the lyrics as he is describing an enjoyable experience throughout in which he ‘fell in love.’ The music is quite repetitive and this fits with the story as for a lot of the song he is describing and elaborating on the same thing.

Close ups of artist and star image motifs

The bulk of the video is mainly narrative but there is also quite a bit of performance based shots. As both of these are combined there is quite a lot of meat shots and close ups of the artist (Example.) Throughout the video Example performs directly and indirectly to the camera the majority of which are in close ups or mid shots. A possible reason for is that because Example is a relatively unknown artist in the music industry the producer wants to get his face known so that he is easily recognised which will enable his career to have an extra boost. Example features in virtually every shot within the video this helps to add to the narrative as it gives you a sense that example is actually feeling the emotions that he is writing and describing.

Notion of Looking

During ‘Watch the Sun come up’ there is one instance of notion of looking and that is when Example looks at himself in the mirror after he gets up out of bed. The notion of looking is used in this instance to add a first hand more realistic feel to the music video, as this is something that you would expect to do when you woke up so it add to the authenticity of the video.

Intertextual references

Within this video there are no direct intertextual references to something in the ‘outside’ world but the song its self could be considered as a reference. This is because previously he made a song called ‘One Night’ which has very similar music and a lot of the lyrics are exactly the same. However when this song was made he was an illegal pirate artist so this could be viewed as an intertextual reference as it shows the progression that he has made as he is still using the same lyrics but has now ‘made’ it in the industry.


Performance narrative or concept based

The majority of the video is narrative based and this is particularly important as this is a predominant characteristic of the indie rap genre. The story line is of Example allegedly falling in love on holiday, he experiences lust, romance and love although you can gather that they have been drinking alcohol so it is left to you to decided whether they are truly in love. The video also had quite a few performance shots in which Example is still the narrative character but speaks to the camera as though he is speaking directly to you and telling the story. This may have been done so that in future you would recognise him if you saw him in another music video or on TV.