Textual Analysis - Awolnation

Awolnation - Sail (2011)

Genre

The genre of this song is electronic rock, however there are not many stereotypes of either present in the video, for example a rock music video would usually feature a live performance whereas this one does not. 

Narrative

The narrative tells a story of a teenager/young man who is looking into alien activity and ends up getting abducted. There is some relevance to the lyrics, but not much. 

Representations

Here the representations focus mainly on age. The young man featured is interfering in business that is obviously not his to interfere with, and perhaps biting off more than he can chew with his project. This could represent the teenage ages as being an age where people think they can do things far greater than what they are capable to deal with. It's a negative view of teenagers abilities, but quite a positive one with regards to passion and the boys desire to find out about these aliens. 

Mise-en-scene

Lighting has been carefully considered for this music video. The low-key artificial lighting sets the mood for the house to be a dangerous place, the light coming in from the windows causing shadows to be cast and creating an edge of unease for the main singer/character. Clothing has also been chosen for a reason, with the young male dressed in young teen clothing, a hoodie and jeans to express the young age of him. He does not dress like a professional, so you don't think of his work as professional. The setting is in a typical large American style house, one most likely to be associated with hauntings to inform the audience of what type of occurrences could happen.

Sound

The sound is diegetic, with the main singer lip syncing and then playing the piano in time with the music, as if it was happening exactly at that moment in the story. 

Camera

The cuts are fast, keeping a suitable amount of tension as it flickers from scene to scene. There are also the typical close up of the main singer, which fits into Goodwin's Theory. There is rarely high or low angle shots to show dominance, but there is a high angle shot when the young man is taken by the aliens which reinforces the aliens superiority.