AT: Deconstructing music video: 3

The Kooks - Always where I need to be

Representation

How are the band/ artist represented? their star persona constructed?

Richard Dyer has written extensively about the role of stars in music. The star image is incoherant, that is complete and open. Irrespective of the medium, stars have some key features in common. It is evident in this video that the band depend upon a range of subsiduary media such as the music video itself to consturct an image.

The band is represented as a low-fi, authentic band, which helps to create a relationship with the audience in order to make them feel a part of the band, this is further reinforced by the comradatory of the band and the locations used in the video of which are in the UK furthermore represents the band image. This conforms to indie as being independant as their star image is low-fi and therefore keeping away from the commercial side of the industry. However the subsiduary media is in order to sell the album or track and therfore it apears to follow commercial conventions however it could be argued that this is done to help create awarness of the rebel against the industry and thus adding meaning to their meta-narative.

How are different social groups represented throught the video?

The middle class is represented in this music video. The costume they are wearing is casual outgoing clothes of which we see them constantly in urban environments. However it is rarely shots of down narrow streets or alleyways so therefore it represents the middle class. It is performance based however these seem to be in remote locations and this futher reinforces there comradatory. The video conforms to stereotypes of the middle class social group and however challenges some dominant ideologies.




What is the ideological discourse?

The males are represented positively as they are seen as exploring different places and location within the UK, this is a dominant ideology within the UK as it is often that the males often go out and have this comradatory and will often go out together in large groups. This builds up to the repeatability of the video as each shot is in an interesting location and leaves you trying to figure out where they are and there is alot of disjuncture as the female he talks about in the song is only shown untill later on in the song leaving us at a climax. Although the video is from 2008 it still conforms to residual ideologies of that its a couple of young teenages out all together going round exploring different places and the narrative of boy meets girl. The band also challenges dominant ideologies with the music video as normally youths are represented as being rebelious to the law , however this is not evident in this video and the possible reason why the band has done this is to help build upon their star image and in order to go off at a tangent to the commercial industry in order to stand out above others also furthermore making there video stand up to repeatability.