Media Music Video Analysis.

Give it Away- Red Hot Chili Peppers

One category that a selection of music videos falls into is ‘disjuncture’, a video that provides an imaginative and completely abstract feel to the song. They are normally not connected at all to the lyrics or the music or even the artists and are created by a ‘auteur’ director. As they have no obvious links they are a point of disjuncture from the song distancing the meaning from the video and just capturing it in the lyrics and the music. An example of a deep and expressive song with an almost ‘random’ video is ‘Give it Away’ by the Red Hot Chili Peppers directed by Stephane Sednaoui. When the French fashion photographer first started working on this video MTV judged it as too ‘absurd’ to show on TV. However, this is the whole point of having a video that’s fits into the disjuncture category and the chili peppers aimed for something that was visually distinct.

In juxtaposition to the rhythm and beat of the music the black and white aspect made the video seem almost poetic and used authentic art covering their bodies in silver acrylic paint. They wanted to do something where they were not influenced from the actual song or the outside world and wanted the video to suggest a whole different matter. They did this by exploring a variety of cinematography using adventurous shots and following Goodwin’s theory of marketing the band by having a lot of close up’s. Sednaoui shot the whole video over again in different shots and angles so it would give the video a poetic but vibrant atmosphere. They also used reverse film effects to emphasise their extreme costumes, which connoted the exuberant nature. Kiedis commented on the final piece as “like nothing else”

The Red Hot Chili Peppers don’t actually fit into one definite genre, even though they are considered as mainstream rock they also have elements of funk and psychedelic rock. However they still use the generic conventions of an American rock band as in their video ‘Give it away now’ they still have a large amount of footage focused on them playing their instruments. This is a typical convention for all sub genres of rock as it proves they are more about their music and not their image. However, RHCP contradicts this convention as although they concentrate on their music they still have the main focus on their exotic abstract image that is emphasized by the exuberant mise-en-scene. They are surrounded by a huge desert but it does not steal the emphasis from the band itself instead it multiplies the crazy atmosphere the video gives off.