Vance Joy

 Riptide music video

Throughout the majority of the music video, there are various literal translations. For example, when the line discussing the riptide is sung, a visual representation of a riptide is presented on screen. This causes the video to appear with a more simplistic view; essentially helping the audience to further engage. With this image being repeated every time the chorus is played, the audience see this image a lot which fits in with Steve Neale's Genre Theory- when he discusses the repetition within a genre.

During the beginning of the music video, we see bright colours which help the audience feel happy and up - beat. The background being a beach can cause nostalgia and the audience could relate to their happy times at the beach. However as the video goes on, the colour palette darkens to match the lyrics and the images. There is also a sense of horror which links in with iconography.

Representation

Women in Riptide are seen to be mostly objectified and victimised in some way, we see this in various scenes for example, when the woman was tied to a tree an another scene which looked like she was being tortured. Throughout the video high camera angles are used to make women seem smaller and insignificant. Terrified facial expressions and dark lighting create an atmosphere of fear, as though women should be scared as well as victimised. Therefore, the representation of women in those shots are stereotypical as they are seen as weak and helpless. The representations in this video often make audiences feel uncomfortable, which encourages us to see the victimisation of women as undesirable. This could be suggested by the scene by the women with bruises and blood on her face. As the camera is very close up to her face and its quite a long take which could make it hard to look away from and could force us to question why it is happening. The sections of fast paced editing when the women are being tortured, dragged and abused create representations of women that seem scared and jumpy. In the scene when the woman is able to untie herself from the tree which could represent how some women act as their own 'hero' in the music video, creating more powerful and independent representations of women. Another example of positive representation is when there is a low camera angle which suggests that women are strong and dominant. In the media women are usually sexualised and certain shots throughout the video only show specific parts of women's bodies which dehumaises them and makes them appear like objects to be admired. The main focus in the video is on women and representing them, therefore there isn't any representations of men or many shots of them, as the main theme is violence against women.

Genre and Audience

The indie genre often takes an unconventional approach to many things such as media language and representation. Independent music (often referred to as indie music or indie) is music that is produced independently from commercial record labels. It is self-published music that can be categorized into diverse genres. The term ‘indie’ or ‘independent music’ can be traced back to as early as the 1920s after it was first used to reference independent film companies but was later used as a term to classify an independent band or record producer. A few examples of well known indie artists are Arctic monkeys and Twenty one pilots. Vance Joy fits into the category of indie music because he produces his own songs and he fits into more than one genre.

Narrative and Iconography

Throughout the music video there isn't one main narrative, however its gets the narrative from its lyrics and iconography and has a linear structure. Most of the imagery is very literal to the lyrics but as we go  on in the video sometimes the imagery is metaphorical. This is shown when there is a shot of a dollar note which connotes to the lyric 'all my friends are turning green'. This could symbolise greed or being green with envy. Throughout the music video, it frequently references thriller genres but mostly uses horror genre  iconography for example, females being repeatedly dragged off the screen  by unseen forces. This idea could link with Steve Neale’s Genre theory.

Postmodernism

Riptide is a postmodern text, we see certain aspects of this throughout the video especially intertextuality, for example the horror film style that the music video shows when the girl unites herself from the tree which makes us think she has been kidnapped or tortured. Also how we are positioned deliberately in a distressing and confusing situation. Reflexivity is also another postmodernism technique that is used to break the fourth wall an example of this is when they use a fake film that doesn't exist and we are aware of this.  Also because they show a cassette tape being pushed into a recorder this is a reminder of olden times as technology has moved on as we are now using CD’s or mobile devices. Intertextuality is also used through the mise-en-scene which suggests the conventions of an Western film.