Music video analysis

Martin Solveig +1

The music video i have chosen to analyse is a song called "+1" by a house artist called "Martin solveig". The song was produced by "Spinnin Records" and currently has around 350 thousand views on Youtube alone after only being released on the 8th of June 2015.

Here is the link to the song on Youtube;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uRi_xo92VE

Analysis

In this music video a lot of different micro elements have used to create a lot of different representations and images in the music video. Micro-elements like camerawork, sound, editing and Mise-en-scene have heavily been used and are very clear within the music video and they all were created to produce a meaning.

 

During the music video there is this scene where these blocks are built and the shadow casted from the complete creation has the song name "+1" inside of it. I like this as it is subtle, yet smart and creative. Most house music videos conventionally portray or evoke a specific message to the viewer and I feel that the message that this music video is trying to portray that everyone has their "1" they just need to find them, and this "1" could be anyone from a friend to a lover but everyone does have their "1".
 

 

In this scene we see a demonstration of the costume and props used within the music video and one thing that stands out to me the most is how bright and vibrantly coloured the costumes and surroundings are within the video. The costume is very retro, due to its bright and vibrant colours with patterns, which conforms to house music video conventions from when the "house genre" originated in the 1980's. Throughout the video I noticed that all the costumes used were;

• used bright colours 
• retro
• represented or were from the 90s
• interesting and eye catching
• unusual and therefore unique and different
• patterned and abstract

Which furthered my understanding of how the costume for this genre was constructed and how it conformed to previous conventions.

 

This scene in the music video is very odd as it is unexpected and different, however its unique and conforms to the conventions of the music genre because of the bright background block colour contrasting the whit box where the men are dancing from. This scene could also have a hidden message about everyone having their "1" as there are two heads but only enough legs and arms for one body so it could also represent that your "1" is exactly who you are and likes or does what you do, but they are just in their own body. Or it could represent how in sync two peoples minds could be,

 

 

In this scene, we see a finger play a keyboard in time with the beat of the song, also as each key is pressed, the colour of the shot changes to purple and other vibrant colours which once again conforms to conventions as strobe lights are used within clubs on dance floors, and the beat of a house song is meant to encourage people to dance so the background changing colour to the beat could also represent/symbolise being in a club of some sort.

 

 

 

Here are two more screenshots from the music video and both of these have some sort of mirror effect on them which mirrors half of the images along side the original half and personally I really like this effect. Even though it is not a house music video convention to split the screen of image and mirror it, it could still represent the message of the video and song by showing that maybe the "1" people are trying to find is just another side of themselves and its meaning could be to try and find yourself and who you really are.

 

 

Finally this scene in the music video is very abstract and different, it involves a woman drinking from a wine glass which also has a goldfish inside it. It doesn't conform to any convention of the house music genre and the message of the video isn't really shown here either. Maybe the message of this scene could be that this "1" which everyone has could even be a pet or animal you are close with. Apart from that, I cannot really understand what the message of this scene is.

Overall this music video that I analysed does conform to a lot of the conventions of a house music video, there is a lot of costumes designed around the 1980s and the vibrant, retro colours further push this music video to conform to the conventions. The message of this music video not only relates to the name of the song and lyrics incredibly well, but also is clearly shown throughout all of the music video in  one way or another and the whole idea about everyone having their "1" but they just need to find them is a constant clear theme throughout.