Textual Analysis

“The purpose and function of music videos in representing an artist.”

Nathan Holliday.

Alex Clare is a relatively new artist to the music industry. “Too Close” which was originally released on the 15^th of March 2011 on the Internet, followed later by being released in his debut album on the 11^th of July 2011. The director of this music video was Keith Rivers.

The artist is being represented as a man or protagonist who is having problems with a relationship or isn’t ready for a commitment in a relationship. We see this in a number of different places in the music video including the visuals and lyrics.

The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is illustrative of the conclusion of a relationship because for example, when the first chorus begins with the lyrics, “and it feels like I am just too close to love you” the visuals show two heavily padded athletes fighting kendo style who are closely situated together. Although we can clearly see these two figures don’t love each other, the visuals are practically showing the lyrics on screen.

Shortly after this, the following lyrics are sung, “I can’t hide no more”, and while this is sung the visuals show the camera work watching the Kendo warriors from behind a steel post as if the point of view is hiding, the camera then begins to move out away from the steel post to suggest that they can’t hide no longer, perfectly demonstrating the lyrics.

The relationship between the music and the visuals is partly amplifying because as the director Keith Rivers shows through clever editing shows the Kendo warriors through the visuals begin to up their pace of fighting when the temp of the music also increases. By doing this, they emphasize the amplification of narrative behind the music and the music itself.

Another example between the music and the visuals, which supports Andrew Goodwin’s theory of thought beats, this is shown where the warriors are fighting to the tempo of the music. Keith Rivers has edited the video to a brilliant standard allowing us, as the audience to literally watch the music.

The music video represents the artist in a fairly positive way, as the kendo warriors that are fighting represents the protagonists point of view from the relationship, and from this constant argument based relationship, he is being more mature by walking away from the relationship without trying to hurt his partner. We can tell this from the lyrics. 

In summation, this particular music video can be mostly found to be illustrative between the music and the visuals and the lyrics and the visuals, however they can be partially amplifying at times, this is mainly due to the editing work of the director. This music video also supports Andrew Goodwin’s theory.