Vance Joy Riptide Product Context Australian singersongwriter signed

Vance Joy - Riptide

Product Context • Australian singer-songwriter signed to Atlantic records (a subsidiary of major label, Warner). • Genre – folk-pop (similar artists: Beirut, Hozier, Mumford & Sons, The Lumineers, Of Monsters and Men) • Riptide was Vance Joy’s first single to be released in USA following his debut EP ‘God Loves You When You’re Dancing’ (platinum selling single). • The video was directed by Dimitri Basil and Laura Gorun and has more than 250 million views on You. Tube.

Economic Context • Low budget, unique music video style. • ‘Georgia’ by Vance Joy uses a larger budget with special effects and elaborate, coherent narratives. • Funding in relation to music videos – low budgets are used by up-andcoming bands (in indie scene – the lo-fi quality of certain videos can be a unique selling point).

Intertextual references • Donnie Darko – earthquake chandelier shot. • Wes Anderson films – anachronistic objects. • Montage editing – contrasting shots juxtaposed through hard jump cuts (Eisenstein’s intellectual montage – where new ideas emerge from collision of images and generate new meanings). • Reference to 80 s actress Michelle Pfeiffer. • Surrealist/avant-garde cinema parallels – consider: Luis Bunuel’s Un Chien Andalou and the concept of dissociative imagery – exploring the subconscious (dream-like logic). • Opening shot – use of credit block (movie poster conventions). • VHS – Velocity. • Horror genre iconography – Ouija boards, tarot cards, nightmare shots, hypnotism, graveyard scenes (consider retro: Hammer Horror, Suspiria).

Andrew Goodwin’s Music Video Theory • Thought beats - seeing the sound in your mind’s eye • Narrative and performance – concept, story or band lip sync? • The Star Image – how does the artist craft a persona with representations? • Relation of Visuals to song – how is meaning created between the lyricism and the music video imagery? • Technical aspects of the music video – mise-enscene.

Codes and conventions • Concept of subversion – overt and deliberate lyrics to visualisation having an ironic tone and satirical intent. • Graphical representations of lyrics – jarring. • Compare with Vance Joy’s ‘Georgia’ (2015). • Target audience – indie subculture. • Images of violence – knife, gun, blood on hand. • Lip-sync sections – woman sings lyrics into microphone – beautiful glamour smeared in development of chorus, intertitles have incorrect lyrics. • Women are repeatedly represented as an object to be watched (scopophilia) - Does the film reinforce a patriarchal worldview or subvert it?

Theories • Roland Barthes – Semiotics • Signifier/signified – “all my friends are turning green” (double meaning). • Polysemy – implying that friends have ‘sold out’ by giving into money? Envious? • Steve Neale – Genre Theory • Genres dominated by repetition – marked by difference, variation, change. • Riptide subverts and conforms to indie genre conventions in ‘Riptide’ • Consider resourcefulness of bands on a budget. • David Gauntlett – Identity • Diverse representations – pick and mix – range of stimuli in music video rejects singular, straightforward message and encourages a variety of interpretations. • bell hooks – Feminist Theory • Contradictory messages about gender – objectifying women in an ironic way? Feeding into the oppression of women in a patriarchal society? • Feminism is a struggle to end sexist/patriarchal oppression – negotiated reading with this text.