Tuesday 6 August 2013

Analysis of a rock music video - Guns N' Roses "Welcome to the Jungle"




- The group performing in a concert; typical of that genre due to the fans preferring to see rock singers perform live on stage than in a bright, vibrant location. This is because the message and values of rock music differ greatly than that of pop. Rock music prides itself on rebelling away from the 'norm' (this being pop music), hence why rock singers perform in a different location to pop singers.

- Although narrative does not play as big a role in rock music compared to other genres of music (specifically pop), a narrative is somewhat present in this music video. This narrative seems to suggest the singer suffering from psychosis, due to the straightjacket he is wearing, shaking abnormally and eventually unleashing a loud scream. This type of narrative enforces the idea of rock music serving the opposite purpose to pop music, as the narrative to 'Welcome to the Jungle' is completely different to a narrative (most likely involving romance) of a pop music video.

- The choice of costume in this music video has the band members of Guns N' Roses wearing mostly monochrome colours (either black or white). One member, however, wears khaki coloured trousers, standing out from the other members of the group. This could continue to enforce the idea that rock music and pop music are different, as pop music has a specific set of conventions that must be followed to appeal to its target audience, whilst fans of rock music have more of a preference towards the actual music itself, rather than seeing rock music videos following a certain set of conventions.

To conclude, 'Welcome to the Jungle' seems to mostly prioritise on separating itself (and perhaps also other rock music videos) from pop musics, in order to appeal to a different fan base. However, this video also features typical conventions that are present in a majority of other music videos (including pop music videos), with an example of this being a narrative.

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