Planning-Analysis of "Modestep - Sunlight" music video

Throughout music videos various different motifs can be seen these include 'Love, Violence, Racism, Poverty, Sexuality, Materialism, Politics & Humor. Each music video uses at least one of these or a variety throughout.

Analysis of the music video

I have chosen the following video 'Modestep - Sunlight', below i will present screenshots of sections of the film these will be examples of these common motifs.

Screenshot 1 shows an elderly gentlemen stealing alcohol from an off license, this is controversial as young people normally commit these types of crime. It is also controversial as this man is old enough to buy alcohol legally where as teenagers are not old enough to buy it legally.

 

Screen shot 2 shows the elderly actors riding BMX’s along a sea front. This is seen as controversial as adults of this age don’t normally ride bikes in general, let alone BMX’s which are popular amongst the youth of today. This fits into the 'Humor' motif as the viewer would find this funny.

Screenshot 3 shows an elderly man with a 'beer cap' this is also seen as humorous as this is something a teenager or a younger person would be doing. This is seen as controversial as elderly people don’t wear beer caps, and are normally associated with flat caps.  

    

This image of the elderly man smoking a 'joint' which contains cannabis is extremely controversial as the generation of today are slated throughout the press and media for taking drugs. Therefore this is controversial as elderly people look down on the youth of today where as this image shows they are the same and committing the same crimes. The picture on the right shows the gentleman sniffing cocaine of the women’s back, this is controversial as he is taking drugs but also because has doing drugs off a strippers back.

This screen shot shows the friends surrounding a table drinking out of tea cups, this is a normal image which springs to mind when thinking of elderly peoples actions. However instead of drinking tea or coffee they are drinking 'Jagermister', this is controversial as this isn’t an everyday image you see.

                                                                          

 This image shows a table being turned over by the elderly friends, this can be seen as violence which leads onto why this is controversial. This is seen to be controversial as the older generation are very laid back and placid, this image goes against the norms and shows them being the opposite.

  

This screenshot shows the elderly actor relaxing whilst a young women in just her underwear, seductively posing. This can be seen as the motif sexuality, this is very controversial as older people tend not to be seen with younger women in this context.

Fragmentation of the body

Fragmentation is showing close ups of one body part during a clip, this is then used to emphasis what is going on. This draws your attention to this one thing and makes you concentrate on this.

Below shows an example of this, it shows the man using drug paraphernalia, but by just focusing on his hands draws the viewers attention to what is going on.

Break from the music video narrative
 

A break from the video narrative is a part of the music video that takes a different path to what has been going on. Throughout this music video it shows elderly people doing controversial things. But throughout different parts of the video it shows the actual artists singing and making the actual song. This therefore is what is meant by a break from the narrative.

By Taylor Goodwin