This document analyzes the music video for the Blink 182 song "All the Small Things" through textual analysis. The video mocks other music genres like pop through various locations, costumes, and visual conventions. It has no narrative and uses long shots, zooms, and slow editing to subvert expectations. The goal is humorous parody through non-conforming techniques rather than telling a story.
2. This song is a perfect example of the rock
genre of music being seen as 'rebellious' and
'mischievous'. This video basically revolves
around making fun of other music videos
mostly ones of the pop genre.
There is no particular narrative in this music
video. It is mainly a performance video.
However it breaks the performance clip
conventions. Usually when a music video is a
performance clip (Sven Carrison 1999) there is only
one or two locations used because it is
obviously focussing more on the performance
aspect. Whereas this video is a performance
but has a wide range of locations that it uses.
This is because the reason of the video is to
mock pop music. This could suggest that the
mocking aspect of the video is a narrative
because they are playing particular characters
in order to portray themselves as pop
musicians.
Blink 182- All The Small Things
Backstreet Boys- I Want It That Way
3. Cinematography
The cinematography that is used in this music
video is a lot of long shots or medium close ups.
There are rarely any close ups. The long shots are
always of the band so you can identify them and
see all of them. It is also making it easier for the
audience to see their locations they are in, making
it easier for the audience to understand the ‘jokes’
in their videos. There is mainly the use of long
shots when it is the ‘joke’ performance this is so
the audience will be able to identify the locations.
Then close ups and medium close ups when the
band are performing as themselves. This is to let
the audience know when they are in the video as
themselves or the pop singers who they are
mocking. There are also not many camera
movements involved in this video, except for a
very slow pan that is shown during a long shot.
There is no particular narrative included in this
video, therefore there isn’t any framing, angles
and movements that are purposely used to help
tell the narrative.
4. Editing
For the genre of music the editing in this video is
actually quite slow paced. This could also be a
representation of them being rebellious and not
conforming because they have not used the
typical conventions that you would usually
expect to see.
Twelve edits are used in the chorus, which seems
like quite a lot of edits however what needs to be
considered is the length of the chorus which was
0:43- 1:03, making it twenty seconds long so
twelve edits in twenty seconds is quite slow
paced for a rock song.
There are quite a lot of zooms used during this
music video, quite often during the chorus this
could be to add to the jokey aspect of the video
because usually you wouldn’t see zooms used
during a performance music video.
Example of a zoom
5. Sound
There is no other sound in this music video except for the
lyrics. There is diegetic sound right at the beginning but
all you can hear is sounds you would usually hear outside
such as traffic, or just noise.
This is because there doesn’t need to be any other ‘acting’
involved in this music video for the audience to
understand what the purpose or narrative of this video is.
Usually in music videos if there is a narrative the story
will match what is portrayed in the lyrics. This music
video does not do that, the lyrics have no meaning to the
video therefore making it an abstract narrative. This could
also show the anti-conforming behaviour of the band
because they are once again not using the typical
conventions.
6. Conventions
Many rock music videos do not follow the typical
conventions of a music video because they are trying to
be seen as ‘rebellious’ and different to other artists.
However because it has become such a common thing for
rock artists to show this non-conforming and rebellious
behaviour in their music videos, they have become typical
conventions of the rock genre and therefore are not that
different from each other anymore.
7. Mise-en-scene
There are many costume changes during this music video.
These are mainly used for comedy purposes as the main
focus of this music video is to mock pop music and pop
artists. The silly costumes are used to amuse the audience
and to dramatize how pop artists actually dress in their
music videos.
There’s one clip in the video when the lead singer is wearing
goofy teeth hinting that is how pop artists usually look. This
is once again to make the video funny, showing there isn’t
really a proper meaning for the video.
The locations that have been used have purposely been
selected to look like the same locations that are used in the
pop videos they are mocking. For example at the start of the
video they are wearing white suits and are in an airport, this
is very similar to the setting included in Backstreet Boys ‘I
want it that way’, they have done this because it straight
away shows the audience what they are trying to portray in
their music video. So the audience will be able to enjoy it
and find it funny instead of wondering what they are doing.
8. Institution
One of the labels that Blink 182 are signed
to are ‘Interscope’ this institution has also
signed similar bands such as ‘All Time
Low’ and ‘The 1975’.
All Time Low are very similar to Blink 182
which suggests why Interscope would have
signed them. This means that All Time Low
will be able to promote Blink 182 and vice
versa.
Interscope would have purposely signed All
Time Low and Blink 182 because they are
such similar bands. So it means that if
Blink 182 promoted All Time Low to their
fans or the other way around, the majority
of the fan base would enjoy their music as
well and would start consuming it, Which
then will create a bigger fan base for the
band and will make them and the institution
more money, and will also give them more
publicity.
