Week Four: Naomi's Textual Analysis of 'Valerie' by The Zutons.

Textual Analysis

The Zutons – Valerie – Narrative-based video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9AzKJDgm_M

Genre Characteristics:
Indie Rock: Young Male lead vocalist. Four out of the five band members are male. All band members are young. There is one female musician. All the males have wild hair that is mid-length; this is common for this genre. The female has long and volumised hair, this is also common for female musicians or singers of this genre.

Relationship between lyrics and visuals:
Mention of jail in the lyrics and a majority of the scenes are set in a prison in Texas. ‘Did you have to go to jail, put your house on up for sale’ – 1:03 in the song. Here people seen smashing rocks, chained together. In a Texan prison this is seen as a typical everyday task for the prisoners.
Throughout the song there are constant references to the letter ‘Z’. This is a reference to the bands name – The Zutons. At the start of the song there is a huge ‘Z’ shaped prison the emphasise this.

Relationship between music and visuals – Guitar seen at 1:35, where band member Boyan Chowdhury is seen in the prison cell playing the guitar. This music video is unusual in comparison to other music videos of this genre, due to the fact that many Indie Rock videos feature musical instruments and the band playing them constantly, this video however, does not follow this rule.

Close-Ups and Image Motifs – At the start of the song all five band members are having mug shots done to introduce them.
Band members
· David McCabe
· Abi Harding
· Boyan Chowdhury
· Sean Payne
· Russell Pritchard.
Many scenes of band members doing typical prisoner activities:
Poker – 1:36
Eating together – 2:15
Smashing rocks – 0:56

Notion of looking – Abi Harding seen hammering rocks in small bodysuit – this is seen attractive to men, a woman with a heavy weapon/tool.
Abi Harding doing sit-ups in her cell – showing off her legs – which are unusually shiny – meaning they have been oiled to show them off.

Intertextual References – Shawshank Redemption – in the film, where Andy creates a hole to escape in the entire time that he is in the prison. He covers the hole with posters of several women over the time he is imprisoned. In the music video, there is a guitar case that covers the hole that they have made.
Also there is a man in isolation in the music video at 2:06, this is also a link due to Andy spends several days at different times in the film, in isolation.