Music Video Analysis- Cage The Elephant 'In One Ear'

Cage The Elephant- In One Ear

Music videos are created for several reasons. The main reasons are to enable the audience to connect with the artist or band, especially newly released artists. This is for the artist/ band to promote their image to the audience, to show their creativity and to promote a certain style.
The target audience for this video will range between the ages 15-30 year olds. This is due to to the humour of the video, it is rather spontaneous and 'off the track'.

This is an indie/rock genre music video. Typical codes and conventions for the genre consist of a home-made feel, no studio use for example, as well as focusing on the band being enabled to perform the instruments themselves. This music video challenges the idea that all indie videos use home made videos, as within this video, there is a set to look like a mental asylum. They do, however, conform to the genre stereotypes with their shaggy hair and 'unique' style, peculiar attitudes and ability to perform live music with instruments.

The opening image of this video consists of a focused close-up of a man’s palm. The background is blurred, yet we see white flashing lights. There is a buzzing noise to signify electricity. A quick cut shows us the tips of the man’s hair, scruffy and oddly- upside down. Very quickly, another cut shows us the face of the protagonist wearing bulky, childish sunglasses. Our first impressions of this man are that he is strange, by hanging upside down and wearing bubbly sunglasses. Throughout all of these shots, the background is still blurred and we are able to identify flashing lights. The beat then kicks in with another cut. We see a mans shoe-less feet walking along the street, his footsteps matching the non-diegetic sound of the drum beats- the introduction to the music. With every guitar introduction, a new shot is introduced of the different band members. We see they are attached to different hospital equipment and the question ‘Hospital or mental asylum?’ is posed.   This question is quickly answered with the specialised walls and frantic movement of the band members.

Quick cuts progress to change alongside the beat of the song. With each image of the feet, the camera is changed to a higher position across his body- so we are swiftly shown more of the main singer. The colours used in these sequences of shots are very simplistic; they are used to accurately portray the scheme of what would be used at a mental asylum. Matthew Schultz  (the lead singer) is dressed in a typical hospital robe. They are all acting in the same frantic manor, which represents the strange mental health they are attempting to portray.

The music shows us separate cuts. One popular shot is almost a polariod effect, so we can see the whole band playing whilst Matthew is headbanging in the centre. There is a mixture of cuts, half showing the musicians playing the instruments in a frantic state, and the other of them performing a task individually (and sometimes as a group). This music video is conforming to the indie-rock genre, as the music is light and up-beat, the musicians are regularly shown playing the instruments and they are un-caring about their reputation. This is definitely shown within the lyrics. This song is based on telling critics that they are unaffected by their judgements- hence “Goes in one ear, and right out the other”. In some ways, the lyrics are linked to the video, as they could be suggesting that people consider them crazy, whereas they are just having fun. Cage The Elephant also challenge the music video in some aspect, as although they have a woman in the media, she is hardly seen as attractive or a sexual object.

The dress sense of the other band members conforms to the indie-rock genre. They have quite a scruffy, stylish look to which many ‘indies’ turn to, and noticeably, most members have long ‘shaggy’ hair.

The general nature of this footage is humorous and light-hearted. The colours in the background remain simplistic throughout with shades of whites and greys. At one point, they add diversity to the colours by making one of the band members luminous in the lights. This adds a pleasant effect and change from the colours that have persisted throughout the piece. Within the screaming section in the video, the lead singer smashes through the wall with a bright green hammer in slow motion. This matches the music pace and explains how he is on the streets as we have seen previously in the video.

This is an enjoyable video for its ecstatic nature and the actions of the band members. The quick cuts and different scenarios also help to portray this music video.