BW: Product Analysis

The song 'Set The World On Fire' by The King Blues has been made to specifically represent the artist in a certain way, but uses humour in the video to get it's message across, a convention of the post-modern music video.

Media Language

This video conveys a social message in it, the message being to rebel and not accept the cynical world that we live in. The lyrics act as an aural signifier, including the title, 'Set The World On Fire', clearing discussing the dislike for the accepted norms of the world and the want to change that, or even destroy it.

Various visual techniques are used to do this. In terms of mise-en-scene, the two lines of action are juxtaposed. The bright coloured narrative with the man getting up and reading the paper connotes the ideas of the 'perfect' family life, the very thing the song criticises. In the other line of action, the band narrate the song. In this, the mise-en-scene suggests a working class environment, the grey colours connotes reality in contrast to the falseness of the other line of action.

Above, the split screen shows clearly the juxatposition between the colours used in the two lines of action.

The media theorist Barthes looked at a number of narrative codes to deconstruct music videos, to 'interrogate the obvious'. In this video, semiotics are used to construct a narrative code. The cultural code is used, with reference to 'The Daily Mail' newspaper, a paper often associated with it's right wing and critical stance towards stories, written for the middle market between tabloid and broadsheet papers. The readers of this type of newspaper are the readers that the band are singing about in their song. By understanding the reference to the newspaper, the audience is then able to understand the point about it's readership that The King Blues are making.

Above, we use our cultural code to understand the reference to the newspapers political stance. Here, the 'Daily Wail' is a parody of the Daily Mail.

Furthermore, the semic code is used, using connotation to suggest insight to the audience, such as the contrast between bright and dull colours as fore-mentioned, which show the contrast between the perfect world the family think they live in, and the cold harshness of reality that The King Blues inhabit.

Representation:
The star persona of 'The King Blues' is constructed through this music video, that the band think about the world and are frustrated with it, and want to rebel against it. Here, the band play on their meta-narrative, building on the perception that they are a rebellious band who don't follow the normal mainstream conventions of a band. This may help them in terms of marketing, as they are then marketed towards an audience who feel different and object to mainstream thoughts and production of music.

Above, the visual signifiers such as the working class flat they are performing in, and the casual clothes they are wearing, show the audience that the punk band are rebellious and do not follow the traditional mainstream of many bands.

Two main social groups are constructed, working class and middle class. There are a number of visual signifiers which show this, such as the clothing of The King Blues compared to the cliched expensive clothing of the middle class family. Moreover, mise-en-scene shows the difference between the two social groups, with the middle class and working class houses used.

In terms of ideological discourse, the band are challenging the dominant values that many people hold. Although it is not critical of specific values (aside from the reference to the view on asylum seekers), the band are instead challenging an entire viewpoint, possibly even an entire class. They challenge the idealist, ill-informed perception of the world. The band may do this because they genuinely are frustrated with it. Alternately, it may be as part of a marketing tool to 'sell' the band to an audience which holds this viewpoint.