Analysing a Music Video

1) Genre characteristics in music videos

This video is of 'Wetsuit' by the 'Vaccines', The Vaccines are an Indie Rock band who formed in 2010. Looking at the video by this band we can see significant features from it that let the audience know what Genre the band will be; the main being that since it contains mainly images taken rather than film, we can directly see the type of audience that would listen to this band. Indie as a genre is associated with the freedom to explore things that may not appeal to the audience of mainstream pop/r&b etc. We can see this since the people in the images give us a carefree opinion, generally having fun and just enjoying the music.
A lot of sterotypical 'indie kids' use the photo programme Instagram to take photos, there is a direct appeal to The Vaccines audience in this video as every part of it is taken via Instagram, this means that it will be enjoyed by listeners and they would be able to tell what kind of music video even if they did not listen to the music.
Almost all of the video has a sepia or colour boost tone, this gives it a more colourful, optimistic feel. It lightens the mood and this again helps the video define the genre, since compared to a video of a 'Metal' or 'Hardcore' band of which the shots would be dark and brooding, The Vaccines however have a positive vibe to them. 

This is a comparison between the music video I have chosen and 'The Final Episode' by 'Asking Alexandria', as you can see there is a clear difference in which you can see the bands are two completely different genres of music.

2) Relationship between lyrics and visuals.

The song itself is about livivng in the moment, being young and being stupid while you can.

• "For goodness sake, let us be young. 'Cause time gets harder to outrun"
• "With a cool, cool breeze and dirty knees, I rest on childhood memories."
• "Put a wetsuit on. Come on, come on. Grow your hair out long. Come on, come on. Put a t-shirt on. Do me wrong, do me wrong, do me wrong."

With the meaning in mind, you can see clearly how the images relate to the song. They are all of young people, teenagers, kids and young adults going out and enjoying life. There are silly clothes and alcohol involved and you can see the memories captured witht he photographed, as if by capturing these moments will preserve the present time and the youth that all these people share before they have to grow up and take life with a more serious tone.

In these two screenshots I have taken, they reinforce the point I have made and that the song is telling it's audience - Alcohol and kids smoking, things that young people do that often have silly consequences but because they're living in the moment, they don't care right now.

3) Relationship between audio and visuals.

Justin Young is the vocalist for the band, his voice has the impression of an old 80's rock vocalist rather than a band from the 2000's, giving it a classic, soothing sound. The images shown in the video perhaps represent this since many of them have a 'Sepia' or 'Cross Process' effect which, although

on recent images, gives them an old-fashioned look. The band took inspiration from bands such as 'The Ramones' and 'The Strokes' which both have a similar sound to them.

Justin young also sings with a calm, controlled voice which relaxes the listener, making them feel carefree. The images show this feeling of freedom and recklessnes within them.

4) The Record Label's needs will be met with closeups of the artist and they may develop motifs across their videos.

The band themselves are not shown directly in the music video, this this differs from the 'norm', however this could be because since 'The Vaccines' are an Indie band, they have a 'do it yourself' attitude, and Indie bands do not rely as much on their record labels as much bigger, mainstream artists do, this could be why they do not appear in closeups or clear shots.
The video does have a motif however, as there is a repeated theme of festivals and young people and it is most likely that the images are taken from actual gigs/concerts that the band had played. This would be to promote them since it would show how 'fun and lively' they are to see play and would encourage people to buy their gig tickets to see them. It also makes the idea of camping out at festivals, which indie bands such as the vaccines are likely to play and would need publicization, and this would then inspire more people to do it.

5) frequent reference to the notion of looking
This again goes against the normal music video expectations as there isn't really a notion of looking throughout the video, The Vaccines are not shown so the video focuses on the fans, although you can see the stage at one point during the video, the band are not the focus and there are no mirrors or screens included, so from this we can gather that the main reason behind the video is to publicize the music rather than the artist or the majority of the fans shown. There is a roughly equal amount of women to men and neither are dressed to make sexual implications to the viewer. I beleive that the fact there is no real notion of looking enforces that this is an Indie band, since unlike the generic 'pop' genre in which music videos would focus on the lead singer in a skimpy outfit, the point of this music video is to appeal to that specific audience, who are more likely to enjoy a more creative side to the music video.

6) There is often intertextual reference.
There are slight intertextual references in the video, the bands album cover features several times throughout it to publicize the band and the concerts being shown are obviously from The Vaccines own. Vevo's logo is present in the corner at all times so that they are given credit for supporting the music video, which would advertise their website. Other than this there isn't much display of other forms of media like TV or Film for example, since they are an Indie genre since and, as I have said previously, have a 'do it yourself' attitude so they would not need to advertise other forms of media.
Vevo are however, looking into becoming a TV channel, if this is the case in the end then the video would also promote Vevo's channel to viewers.

Above is Vevo's website which would show the music videos from which is gets it's publicization from. As you can see, the other bans displayed have a similar theme to them as the vaccines in the photographs.

The is a screengrab from the same website, but as 'The Vaccines' were displayed on screen, the website flips through the bands that they helped to make the videos for and this then gives the band advertisement aswell.