Since I decided to choose Folk music as the genre for my advanced media portfolio, therefore for my detailed music video analysis, I choose the music video of Laura Marling's Devil's resting place from her fourth album <Once I was an eagle>. The reason that I have chosen this song is because the music video of this song has contained lots of narratives and details, therefore I'm able to demonstrate this song as a great example to assess genre, media language, representation and narrative within the video to see how those features has been put together with the micro-elements to create the narrative and meaning.
Laura Marling- Devil's Resting Place
Artist: Laura Marling
Track: Devil's Resting Place
Album: Once I Was An Eagle
Genre: Folk, Folk Rock
Released: May 27, 2013(UK), v.i.a Virgin Media
Video Length: 3:32
Genre
Based on the theory of Barry Keith Grant, genre allows the audience to recognise media texts by their specific and recognisable characteristics. The music video of Laura Marling's Devil's Resting Place is quite controversial and definitely has challenges the conventions, both the visual style and the audio would not normally be recognised as a folk music track, it's more similar to the indie rock, however the key feature of folk music which is acoustic guitar and other acoustic musical instruments has contained in this track. Unlike the normal visual style of the music video of folk music, for instance such as delightful places(Beach, Park, etc), and singers play the songs with guitar, the music video of Devil's Resting Place is quite gothic and depressing, which perfectly fits the atmosphere that the song could brought to the audience which is quite dark and melancholic, but according to the theory of Buckingham that genre naturally evolves along with the time rather than being a permanent static entity.
Talking about Laura Marling's "Star Image", reference to Goodwin's theory, Laura Marling's "Star image" and motifs are actually constantly changing in my opinion, at her very first album <Alas I Cannot Swim>, the whole atmosphere that this album has created to the audience was a delightful and cheerful mood, the music within it tend to be in a very positive mood, therefore at that period of time, Laura Marling's "Star Image" was quite immature and with full of vitality, she expressed those emotions and moods through her songs. But at this album which is the fourth album of her, her conventions has completely changed into another side, in the album <Once I was an eagle>, her "Star image" is very mature and dark-ish, her vocal changed from a high-pitch voice into a lowering voice which has created a dark and depressive atmosphere, also from the cover of album and the lyrics we can sense the massive change and challenging the conventions that she has created before. Although because of folk music as always represented as the minority in the mainstream music industry, therefore Laura Marling seems have never used the "Male Gaze" to attracted the male audience.
In the music video of "Devil's resting place", in order to fits the conventions that she has created in this album and this song, the whole music video has provided a dark and depressive feeling to the viewers, therefore all the connotations that within the music video were all quite dark-ish and depressing such as forrest, antique feeling castles and dark rooms, candles etc. Those features basically has demonstrate the genre's characteristics perfectly according to Goodwin's theory, also the bath scene has created a link between the lyrics and the visuals, and the man in the black suit has represented the "Devil" in the song which demonstrate the lyrics perfectly and helped the audience to understand the connotations within in the music video. But controversially, despite the bath scene and the man in the black suit, the rest of the music music seems didn't have much links and representations with lyric, also Laura Marling herself didn't appears in this music video at all, which is quite unconventional, because folk music are commonly more about the singer's inner feeling and thoughts, such as Nick Drake, but the lack of the appearance of the singer would make more difficulties for the audience to understand the meanings within the song.
Media Language
Media language is a significantly important content that in order to support the representations, narratives and basically the general enjoyments of a music video.
Based on Vernallis' theory, the whole media language of a music video can been split up into four aspects which is Narrative, Editing, Camera Movement & Framing, Diegesis. Therefore I am going to analyse those aspects one by one, first start with narrative. In the music video of "Devil's resting place", the director has produced a mysterious atmosphere of the narrative which is brilliant fits the genre and the track itself, those long tracking shots has perfectly built the mysterious atmosphere and has attract the attention from the audience, the whole music video may appeared to been non-logical and quite confused, which referring to the disjointed and fragment narrative from Vernallis' theory, although those pieces of fragments of narrative has been perfectly presented into the music video and fits the lyrics well, for instance the woman in the bathtub referring to the "water won't clean you" from the lyrics.
And talking about editing aspect, the music video of "Devil's resting place" did use a huge amount of jump cuts and cut away shots which did created the tension throughout the music video, and avoid the boredom of the repetitive shots, also makes the whole video bit dramatic. The transformation between the scenes has followed the pace of music for instance from the forest scene to the bath scene, which has created a tense atmosphere, but afterall this is a music video for a folk track which means there are nearly no heavy beats in the music compare with Pop music or Rock music.
The slow-motion shots which showcased the woman in white dress was dancing in lobby is brilliant, with the flowing flames of candles that reflects her shadows, and the shadows was moving around along with her move which has built the mysterious atmosphere perfectly fits the feeling of the track, and makes the whole scene dramatic. Also the slow-motion which showcased the man in black suit with tattoo slowly walking towards the ancient castle and walking on stairs has definitely rise up the tension degree and has built the mysterious and gothic atmosphere for the whole scene, and makes the music video more dramatic as well. The gothic atmosphere of this folk track has challenged the folk music's conventions. And referred to Goodwin's theory, he suggested that the performers moves with the beat of the music, which in this case would be the dancing woman in the lobby and the tattoo man in black suit, also the juxtaposition shots between them.
Representations
Representations is a major element is music video, tackling the stereotypes between races, genders, religions, and sexualities. In this case of Laura Marling's "Devil's resting place", initially when we looking at the lyrics, it will provides us a feeling of struggling and humiliation, simply I assume that this song is about a event of sexual abuses refers to the lyric "Water won't clean you" and "If you must drink of me, take of me what you please" has shown the despair and helpless emotions of the narrator, also the dark-ish, gothic style music has strengthen my opinion on it. Therefore in my opinion, this song is mainly about sexuality, gender and religion (Because it mentioned devil) representations.
According to Goodwin's theory, music video could been reviewed as the extend of the original track at the most of the case, especially this music video has amplify the original track, therefore the fragmented narrative element within the music video can definitely be deconstructed into representations. The whole music video contains lots of connotations in it, the dirty dressed woman at the beginning of video, the dancing woman and the black suit man, the appearances and subtle relationship between them and the lyrics are all contained narrative in it. In my opinion, the dirty dress woman who has appeared at the opening sequence is the victim of the sexual abuses, her tired and inattentive facial expression has suggested she just gone through something serious which suggests she is the victim, therefore she has represented the vulnerability of women in this case, also from her medieval costume and the medieval settings suggested she represents the white race group. Afterwards, the scene changed along side with the tune, a point of view shot showcased a naked girl were sitting in a bathtub, this part may hinted the lose of purity after the sexual abuses refers to the lyric "Water won't clean you", which means this girl represents the victim in this video as well.
And then with the slow-motion shots, the mysterious man appears, this man haven't expose his face from the start to end, which leaves a myth to the audience and therefore he didn't represents any race group in my opinion, but from the tension he builds to the screen (with the slow-motion shots and appears at change of the tunes), those elements suggests that he is very powerful, therefore since this is a sexual abuses story, he may refers to the criminal, also from his well-dressed black suit and the tattoo on his hand, he may be the devil character refers to the modern devil image (Well-dressed, good looking man with tatto), which represents the evil in this music video. Afterwards, the scene changed along with the tune, showcased a girl in white dress were dancing in the lobby with shaky lights, the dance of her may suggests the resistance of the sexual abuses, and the white dress may suggests the purity, in addition her character could be the justice in opposition of the evil existence, therefore she represents female and god (White cloak) in this scene. Reference to Stuart Hall's theory which is the media is an insight into society but through careful mediation, representations can only be meaningful if shared recognition of people, situation and ideas; according to this theory, this music video is clearly telling a sexual abuses story through a misleading and subtle content, the meaningful connotations within the video only will be understand and appreciate by people who has going through the similar situation, otherwise it's a fragmented amplification piece of work for ordinary people.
Although the plot and connotations within it fits Laura Marling's "Star Image" in this album which is quite darken and gothic.
Narrative
As a matter of fact, most folk music video nowadays didn't contained many narrative elements, or no narrative elements at all, the most common folk music video will be the singer him/herself singing with guitar and walking around places in the video (Such as Cat Power or Maroon 5), but Laura Marling has definitely challenged the conventions in this music video, she has emerged a huge amount narrative elements within the music video and created a whole different feeling out of it, refers Sven Carlsson's theory which says music videos generally fall into two rough groups, therefore most of folk music videos are the performance based which means they mainly focused on instrumental playing, but Laura Marling's Devil's resting place has challenged the conventions, this music video is more conceptual based, despite the few dance scenes within the video, the most of video are showing something else, for instance narrative element, and it did produced with artistic ambitions, but this music video is indeed not a pure narrative clip, though refers to the concept of the narrative clip, the visual story is easy to follow and can stand alone as a short silent movie, also contained no lip-sync at all, but with amplification use of the lyric, I would see this music did not contain much perceptible visual narrative, but much more fragmented blend, therefore I would say this music video is an Art-clip. And due to the mysterious atmosphere and the non-linear story of this music video, refers to Barthes theory, this music video contains a lot of enigma code which basically means keep setting up problems and puzzles for the audience.
Talking about Laura Marling's "Star Image", reference to Goodwin's theory, Laura Marling's "Star image" and motifs are actually constantly changing in my opinion, at her very first album <Alas I Cannot Swim>, the whole atmosphere that this album has created to the audience was a delightful and cheerful mood, the music within it tend to be in a very positive mood, therefore at that period of time, Laura Marling's "Star Image" was quite immature and with full of vitality, she expressed those emotions and moods through her songs. But at this album which is the fourth album of her, her conventions has completely changed into another side, in the album <Once I was an eagle>, her "Star image" is very mature and dark-ish, her vocal changed from a high-pitch voice into a lowering voice which has created a dark and depressive atmosphere, also from the cover of album and the lyrics we can sense the massive change and challenging the conventions that she has created before. Although because of folk music as always represented as the minority in the mainstream music industry, therefore Laura Marling seems have never used the "Male Gaze" to attracted the male audience.
In the music video of "Devil's resting place", in order to fits the conventions that she has created in this album and this song, the whole music video has provided a dark and depressive feeling to the viewers, therefore all the connotations that within the music video were all quite dark-ish and depressing such as forrest, antique feeling castles and dark rooms, candles etc. Those features basically has demonstrate the genre's characteristics perfectly according to Goodwin's theory, also the bath scene has created a link between the lyrics and the visuals, and the man in the black suit has represented the "Devil" in the song which demonstrate the lyrics perfectly and helped the audience to understand the connotations within in the music video. But controversially, despite the bath scene and the man in the black suit, the rest of the music music seems didn't have much links and representations with lyric, also Laura Marling herself didn't appears in this music video at all, which is quite unconventional, because folk music are commonly more about the singer's inner feeling and thoughts, such as Nick Drake, but the lack of the appearance of the singer would make more difficulties for the audience to understand the meanings within the song.
Media Language
Media language is a significantly important content that in order to support the representations, narratives and basically the general enjoyments of a music video.
Based on Vernallis' theory, the whole media language of a music video can been split up into four aspects which is Narrative, Editing, Camera Movement & Framing, Diegesis. Therefore I am going to analyse those aspects one by one, first start with narrative. In the music video of "Devil's resting place", the director has produced a mysterious atmosphere of the narrative which is brilliant fits the genre and the track itself, those long tracking shots has perfectly built the mysterious atmosphere and has attract the attention from the audience, the whole music video may appeared to been non-logical and quite confused, which referring to the disjointed and fragment narrative from Vernallis' theory, although those pieces of fragments of narrative has been perfectly presented into the music video and fits the lyrics well, for instance the woman in the bathtub referring to the "water won't clean you" from the lyrics.
And talking about editing aspect, the music video of "Devil's resting place" did use a huge amount of jump cuts and cut away shots which did created the tension throughout the music video, and avoid the boredom of the repetitive shots, also makes the whole video bit dramatic. The transformation between the scenes has followed the pace of music for instance from the forest scene to the bath scene, which has created a tense atmosphere, but afterall this is a music video for a folk track which means there are nearly no heavy beats in the music compare with Pop music or Rock music.
The slow-motion shots which showcased the woman in white dress was dancing in lobby is brilliant, with the flowing flames of candles that reflects her shadows, and the shadows was moving around along with her move which has built the mysterious atmosphere perfectly fits the feeling of the track, and makes the whole scene dramatic. Also the slow-motion which showcased the man in black suit with tattoo slowly walking towards the ancient castle and walking on stairs has definitely rise up the tension degree and has built the mysterious and gothic atmosphere for the whole scene, and makes the music video more dramatic as well. The gothic atmosphere of this folk track has challenged the folk music's conventions. And referred to Goodwin's theory, he suggested that the performers moves with the beat of the music, which in this case would be the dancing woman in the lobby and the tattoo man in black suit, also the juxtaposition shots between them.
Representations
Representations is a major element is music video, tackling the stereotypes between races, genders, religions, and sexualities. In this case of Laura Marling's "Devil's resting place", initially when we looking at the lyrics, it will provides us a feeling of struggling and humiliation, simply I assume that this song is about a event of sexual abuses refers to the lyric "Water won't clean you" and "If you must drink of me, take of me what you please" has shown the despair and helpless emotions of the narrator, also the dark-ish, gothic style music has strengthen my opinion on it. Therefore in my opinion, this song is mainly about sexuality, gender and religion (Because it mentioned devil) representations.
According to Goodwin's theory, music video could been reviewed as the extend of the original track at the most of the case, especially this music video has amplify the original track, therefore the fragmented narrative element within the music video can definitely be deconstructed into representations. The whole music video contains lots of connotations in it, the dirty dressed woman at the beginning of video, the dancing woman and the black suit man, the appearances and subtle relationship between them and the lyrics are all contained narrative in it. In my opinion, the dirty dress woman who has appeared at the opening sequence is the victim of the sexual abuses, her tired and inattentive facial expression has suggested she just gone through something serious which suggests she is the victim, therefore she has represented the vulnerability of women in this case, also from her medieval costume and the medieval settings suggested she represents the white race group. Afterwards, the scene changed along side with the tune, a point of view shot showcased a naked girl were sitting in a bathtub, this part may hinted the lose of purity after the sexual abuses refers to the lyric "Water won't clean you", which means this girl represents the victim in this video as well.
And then with the slow-motion shots, the mysterious man appears, this man haven't expose his face from the start to end, which leaves a myth to the audience and therefore he didn't represents any race group in my opinion, but from the tension he builds to the screen (with the slow-motion shots and appears at change of the tunes), those elements suggests that he is very powerful, therefore since this is a sexual abuses story, he may refers to the criminal, also from his well-dressed black suit and the tattoo on his hand, he may be the devil character refers to the modern devil image (Well-dressed, good looking man with tatto), which represents the evil in this music video. Afterwards, the scene changed along with the tune, showcased a girl in white dress were dancing in the lobby with shaky lights, the dance of her may suggests the resistance of the sexual abuses, and the white dress may suggests the purity, in addition her character could be the justice in opposition of the evil existence, therefore she represents female and god (White cloak) in this scene. Reference to Stuart Hall's theory which is the media is an insight into society but through careful mediation, representations can only be meaningful if shared recognition of people, situation and ideas; according to this theory, this music video is clearly telling a sexual abuses story through a misleading and subtle content, the meaningful connotations within the video only will be understand and appreciate by people who has going through the similar situation, otherwise it's a fragmented amplification piece of work for ordinary people.
Although the plot and connotations within it fits Laura Marling's "Star Image" in this album which is quite darken and gothic.
Narrative
As a matter of fact, most folk music video nowadays didn't contained many narrative elements, or no narrative elements at all, the most common folk music video will be the singer him/herself singing with guitar and walking around places in the video (Such as Cat Power or Maroon 5), but Laura Marling has definitely challenged the conventions in this music video, she has emerged a huge amount narrative elements within the music video and created a whole different feeling out of it, refers Sven Carlsson's theory which says music videos generally fall into two rough groups, therefore most of folk music videos are the performance based which means they mainly focused on instrumental playing, but Laura Marling's Devil's resting place has challenged the conventions, this music video is more conceptual based, despite the few dance scenes within the video, the most of video are showing something else, for instance narrative element, and it did produced with artistic ambitions, but this music video is indeed not a pure narrative clip, though refers to the concept of the narrative clip, the visual story is easy to follow and can stand alone as a short silent movie, also contained no lip-sync at all, but with amplification use of the lyric, I would see this music did not contain much perceptible visual narrative, but much more fragmented blend, therefore I would say this music video is an Art-clip. And due to the mysterious atmosphere and the non-linear story of this music video, refers to Barthes theory, this music video contains a lot of enigma code which basically means keep setting up problems and puzzles for the audience.