Textual Analysis - Oasis

Oasis - Wonderwall (1995)

Genre

The genre of this music is alternative/rock, a comon genre convention of this would be a live performance for the rock genre and playing in an unusal location or a visual narrative for an alternative genre. With the video for Wonderwall, Oasis lean towards the alternative conventions, playing in a warehouse type locaton, which would not be a common place for a band to play, with cuts to a clown and various other odd shots or close ups with the instruments.

Narrative

Fitting with the genre conventions of a rock video, there is a lack of narrative with this video. There are shots of each band member playing an instrument and/or singing, but the shots of the clown and the band members sitting on the chairs lack a storyline or narrative thread. However, because of the genre this still works well for the video, the focus being on the members of the band and what instuments they are playing.


Representation

Gender is the main representation in this video, with the majority of the screen time taken up by males, the only appearance of a woman is quite voyeristic and objective with a very minimal and negative representation. She is dancing in a tightly fitted flamboyant outfit and seems to only be there for entertainment purposes. Her screen time is extremely limited, and she is the only woman in the video unlike the high number of male appearances who are pictured in a much better light. The men have better clothes, connoting wealth and importance, and are not used for entertainment purpose excluding the one man dressed as a clown who still has more screen time than the woman.

Mise-en-scene

The video is set up in a warehouse and is purposefully filmed in black and white. Using a black and white colour code reflects the visuals to the lyrics and has connotations to an old age, something that will be forever and the lyrics talk of a universal emotion of loving someone unconditionally.

The lighting, however, is obviously going to be artificial due to their location inside a warehouse. This 'fake' light could be considered to connote how this relationship that is being talked about will develop or how it already is. Using something fake instead of natural often has negative connotations about it, and the lyric 'And all the lights that lead us there are blinding' could also reflect the use of artificial light and the negative aspects of it with regards to the song. 

Costume has obviously been considered with this video. The people dressed up as clowns for example. The actual band are usually dressed in smart casual wear, with a shirt and trousers, sometimes with sunglasses too, despite them being inside a building. The use of a smart attire and sunglasses inside could be a display of arrogance, with the link with the lyrics of the main singer talking about how he doesn't think anyone could feel the same way about the person of interest as he does. Arrogance in that respect is displayed by a higher standard of dress code, with the sunglasses inside, arrogance is connoted with a common stereotype.  

  

Sound

Within the music video, there is a main use of diegetic sound. with sound first coming from the vinyl at the beginning of the video and then a continuation of diegetic sound with the main band member seen singing or lip-syncing, and then the instruments playing seen on screen playing the same notes.

Camera Angles

There is a low angle on the main singer at a few points during the video, connoting dominance and linking back in to the aspect of arrogance already seen by his choice of clothing. Other than that, there are many close ups of the instruments being played and a mixture of long shots and mid-shots of the band and actors in the video.