1. Introduction
I am analysing the music video for Walking Disaster by Sum 41. They are a punk rock band from Canada that were extremely popular in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Sum 41’s videos often provide a mix of humour by showing silly and abnormal happenings, mixed with shots of the band playing the song, creating a unique style to their videos.
2. What is the relationship between lyrics and visuals, and music and visuals?
The relationship between lyrics and visuals is quite clear throughout the video. There are shots of a single robot walking through a city, which fits in with the lyrics about a lonely person who seems to have no one left in the world who cares about him. As the song goes on, the robot gets into worse and worse situations until it is ultimately dumped in a bin, this happens at the same time as the lyrics talk about it being “too late to save me”, clearly making similarities between what we here and see. Every few shots of the robot are broken up by shots of the band playing the song itself, creating a clear relationship between lyrics/music and the visuals.
3. Are there close-ups of the artist and star image motifs?
There are a huge amount of close-ups on the artists in the video. Whenever we see Sum 41, often we are shown a medium long shot followed by quick cuts through different angled close ups. This clearly shows who song it is without the need for well known stars to take part in the video. Also, because a robot is used as the main character and the only people that we get a good look at are the band, the band is further promoted because it is the robot and them that will be remembered.
4. Is there reference to the notion of looking?
There aren’t many notions of looking in the video, although some interesting ideas do show up. The start of the video shows the robot walking past a fence, giving the idea that it is trapped and isolated from the rest of the world. This fits with what the song is about creating a special link that makes hte video more memorable. We also get interesting shots of the robot trying to cross a road and go up escalators. These are strange because the robot struggles at these tasks as he fails to be noticed, probably because of his height and the fact that it is an inanimate object. Again this links to the lyrics, with the idea that the person the song is about is an inanimate and unnoticed object.
5. Is the music video performance-based, narrative-based or concept-based?
The video is very much narrative based, as what we see fits into the story that is being told by the lyrics. However, it is more than that. The idea that a toy robot is able to walk around a city is odd and thus makes the story slightly performance based. People may see the video but may not enjoy the song, but could still potentially talk to friends about the little walking robot, thus getting Sum 41 more publicity.
6. Conclusion
This music video is a good example for one that link what we see with what hear, as well as including some sort of narrative to the shots. The large number of times that we see the band is also good, as it helps to get them recognised without being intrusive on the narrative of the toy robot. This is quite an enjoyable video as we feel for the robot as the lyrics seem to flesh out his life, making us feel emotionally attacked to him, thus making the video more entertaining.
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