I have analysed three music videos as part of my research and planning before I create my own music promotional video. The first of which is Rock N Roll Train by AC/DC on their 2008 comeback album Black Ice. AC/DC are rock legends, so this song is a rock song, and evidence of this genre can be seen in Medium Close-ups of each band member, especially Malcolm Young (rhythm guitarist) on the opening guitar riff, Angus Young (lead guitarist) during the second and third verses, Brian Johnson (lead vocals) when the lyrics begin, and one or two close-ups on the minor band members, Simon Wright (drummer) and Cliff Williams (bass guitarist). The music itself represents AC/DC’s version of a rock song.
Visual Stylistics
MES: The stage where the band is playing in the video has the backdrop of massive cogs and machinery, suggesting they are playing in a warehouse or a factory of some sort. The title of the song may give a clue as to where they are, possibly in a factory where steam trains are being built or repaired. In terms of props there is the musical instruments the band members are using, including Angus Young’s iconic red Gibson guitar. Also there are cogs in the background, suggesting the shape of a steam train without its traditional “cloak” around the main working parts. Angus lives up to expectations and is wearing his trademark schoolboy outfit. Brian Johnson is doing the same, wearing his trademark blue denim outfit (waistcoat and jeans) and flat cap. The audience who are banging heads, waving arms and rocking to the tune might be a prop in terms of the video, not like a punk video where the lead singer often sings to the camera. Also, an on-stage apparatus adds to the effect of a stage that has been set-up, with lighting, in the middle of the disused factory. There are plenty of silhouettes on the band members throughout the video, the key lights lighting up only the key aspects of the stage.
MES: The stage where the band is playing in the video has the backdrop of massive cogs and machinery, suggesting they are playing in a warehouse or a factory of some sort. The title of the song may give a clue as to where they are, possibly in a factory where steam trains are being built or repaired. In terms of props there is the musical instruments the band members are using, including Angus Young’s iconic red Gibson guitar. Also there are cogs in the background, suggesting the shape of a steam train without its traditional “cloak” around the main working parts. Angus lives up to expectations and is wearing his trademark schoolboy outfit. Brian Johnson is doing the same, wearing his trademark blue denim outfit (waistcoat and jeans) and flat cap. The audience who are banging heads, waving arms and rocking to the tune might be a prop in terms of the video, not like a punk video where the lead singer often sings to the camera. Also, an on-stage apparatus adds to the effect of a stage that has been set-up, with lighting, in the middle of the disused factory. There are plenty of silhouettes on the band members throughout the video, the key lights lighting up only the key aspects of the stage.
Cinematography: At the start of the video, there is a Medium Close-up Shot of Malcolm’s guitar in-hand, then a few Medium Close-up Shots of him as he plays the opening guitar riff. There is also a backstage camera, a slightly high-angled Medium Long Shot, which tracks from right to left following Angus as he plays the guitar to the audience. When the video has been established as being in a train factory and the main part of the song begins, there are crane shots where the camera tracks over the audience from right to left and zooms in gradually to focus on Angus Young who is, by now, dancing in his own unique way whilst playing his guitar. There are a number of Extreme Close-up shots on hands clapping - the emphasis is on the audience who seem to like the tune, maybe a way of selling the song to viewers of the video? There is one close-up of female rocker in the audience near the end, showing that Rock and Roll music is not just a male sport!
Editing (Transitions, pace, continuity or discontinuity editing?): Fast-cutting between each shot, emphasising continuation and Match-On-Action. There was one instance where there was a repetition of the same shot but with different lyrics, but in terms of MOA it doesn’t affect the video in any way.
Special Effects (colours, graphics, CGI etc.): When silhouettes are obvious, even in the establishing shot, there is a use of a white outline on the band members, in comic-book style, which in my opinion gives them more of an unreal, superhero status. It also helps to determine where they are on the stage in the half-body silhouettes, but overall is just another nice piece of CGI and special effects to give the video a more powerful meaning, of which I cannot decipher.
The usage of archive train footage in the background, whilst Angus plays or BJ sings in the foreground, reinforces the idea of a rock and roll train, and on these bits both the foreground and background are in black and white, and the train footage is speeded up not only to represent that the footage might be ancient in our times but to keep up with the rhythm and pace of the song.
Relationship between Lyrics and Visuals
As I have said in the paragraph above, the double-time black and white archive train footage relates to the lyrics because the speed of the footage illustrates how the train is rocking and rolling. Near the end and at the end of the video, the archive footage changes to footage of the train approaching our screen at speed, then two (American Railroad?) trains collide at speed. But this is repeated twice before, for the first time in the video, the archive footage is given a dose of the superhero white outline, then right at the end there is a low-angled Medium Long Shot of Angus’ hand as he points his finger into the air on the closing guitar riff. An explosion, or rather a flame, appears on-screen as he ends the song, but it is one of those game-show effects that have obviously been added during post-production.
Relationship between Music and Visuals
On the opening guitar riff, a fast cut occurs and the establishing shot, of Malcolm’s guitar, in the white superhero outline, appears. Half-way through the opening riff, there is a fast cut to a high-angled shot on the stage where all band members can be seen standing in their half-body silhouettes. A close-up on the drum stick as it hits the drum for the first time as the first drum beat of the song is heard. Angus beats his feet onto the stage with every drum beat, 1) to keep himself in rhythm as a musician, and 2) so that continuity is kept within the video. When Angus or Malcolm play their own guitars, a Medium Close-up on them as they play; the same applies to BJ when he sings the lyrics. The audience seem to sing along and are focused on at the right moments - they sing in rhythm with the song being played.
Close-ups of band and Star Image Motifs
Angus is being represented as the lead guitarist who will beat the hell out of his guitar if he has to. Malcolm, on the other hand, and as the brother of Angus, has been represented as exactly the opposite of Malcolm; having a relaxed, laid-back approach to the style in which he plays his guitar. He is represented as being the coolest of the pack, maybe having a heart of steel. BJ is represented as the singer, though he looks like a British farmer by the way he is dressed. Simon Wright, drummer, is represented as a band member; as is bass guitarist Cliff Williams, both members a minority in the video but having a major impact on the song itself.
Editing (Transitions, pace, continuity or discontinuity editing?): Fast-cutting between each shot, emphasising continuation and Match-On-Action. There was one instance where there was a repetition of the same shot but with different lyrics, but in terms of MOA it doesn’t affect the video in any way.
Special Effects (colours, graphics, CGI etc.): When silhouettes are obvious, even in the establishing shot, there is a use of a white outline on the band members, in comic-book style, which in my opinion gives them more of an unreal, superhero status. It also helps to determine where they are on the stage in the half-body silhouettes, but overall is just another nice piece of CGI and special effects to give the video a more powerful meaning, of which I cannot decipher.
The usage of archive train footage in the background, whilst Angus plays or BJ sings in the foreground, reinforces the idea of a rock and roll train, and on these bits both the foreground and background are in black and white, and the train footage is speeded up not only to represent that the footage might be ancient in our times but to keep up with the rhythm and pace of the song.
Relationship between Lyrics and Visuals
As I have said in the paragraph above, the double-time black and white archive train footage relates to the lyrics because the speed of the footage illustrates how the train is rocking and rolling. Near the end and at the end of the video, the archive footage changes to footage of the train approaching our screen at speed, then two (American Railroad?) trains collide at speed. But this is repeated twice before, for the first time in the video, the archive footage is given a dose of the superhero white outline, then right at the end there is a low-angled Medium Long Shot of Angus’ hand as he points his finger into the air on the closing guitar riff. An explosion, or rather a flame, appears on-screen as he ends the song, but it is one of those game-show effects that have obviously been added during post-production.
Relationship between Music and Visuals
On the opening guitar riff, a fast cut occurs and the establishing shot, of Malcolm’s guitar, in the white superhero outline, appears. Half-way through the opening riff, there is a fast cut to a high-angled shot on the stage where all band members can be seen standing in their half-body silhouettes. A close-up on the drum stick as it hits the drum for the first time as the first drum beat of the song is heard. Angus beats his feet onto the stage with every drum beat, 1) to keep himself in rhythm as a musician, and 2) so that continuity is kept within the video. When Angus or Malcolm play their own guitars, a Medium Close-up on them as they play; the same applies to BJ when he sings the lyrics. The audience seem to sing along and are focused on at the right moments - they sing in rhythm with the song being played.
Close-ups of band and Star Image Motifs
Angus is being represented as the lead guitarist who will beat the hell out of his guitar if he has to. Malcolm, on the other hand, and as the brother of Angus, has been represented as exactly the opposite of Malcolm; having a relaxed, laid-back approach to the style in which he plays his guitar. He is represented as being the coolest of the pack, maybe having a heart of steel. BJ is represented as the singer, though he looks like a British farmer by the way he is dressed. Simon Wright, drummer, is represented as a band member; as is bass guitarist Cliff Williams, both members a minority in the video but having a major impact on the song itself.
In terms of this video relating to other [past] videos, it does retain some of the traditional AC/DC trademarks (especially with the comic book characters of the band members). Most of their videos have been performance-based, Who Made Who being an exception as having some narrative in the video as well, though this may have been encouraged by the fact that the 1986 album Who Made Who was in fact AC/DC’s own soundtrack to the Stephen King horror film Maximum Overdrive where robots are created, have minds of their own and dominate their creators, and start wiping out humanity; but yes, this video certainly contains the same kind of content that you should expect to find in an AC/DC music promotional video.
The notion of looking: There isn’t any voyeurism or exhibitionism of the band, but the clothes that Malcolm wears could suggest his laid back approach to life. If you were to read into the history of rock bands like AC/DC, you find that the lyrics in their songs relate in some way to the concepts of enjoying sex, getting laid & drunk and enjoying life as much as you can, whoever you are!
Intertextuality: Doesn’t seem to be any intertextuality, yet the black and white archive footage of trains in the background (on close-ups shots of Angus or BJ) could have some form of intertextuality to documentaries made about steam trains, or the Wild West - an example could be the collision of the two American Railroad trains near the end of the music video.
Is the narrative performance-based, narrative-based or concept-based?
Basically performance-based, with a tiny bit of a storyline, but this could just be a concept (the trains).
Conclusion
The video for Rock N Roll Train sure does promote the band’s comeback album Black Ice since the 2000 release of Stiff Upper Lip, but numerous online reviews have suggested that although the song and the video are brilliant, it isn’t as good as some of AC/DC’s other [previous] material, so the audience have taken to it but not like they would have done to AC/DC’s best-selling album, Back In Black, released in 1980 after lead singer Bon Scott’s death and Brian Johnson’s arrival.
Overall, the video for Rock N Roll Train has to be a video under the Rock genre, not the heavy metal or metal genres. And yet even though there is no voyeurism or no sexual references in the visuals, the video concentrates on each band member, as old as they are, introducing them to new AC/DC fans and reintroducing them to current fans. There is no need for any CGI as the band is the centre of attention, not the Special Effects, therefore I think the video ticks the right boxes to be classified as a rock video.
The notion of looking: There isn’t any voyeurism or exhibitionism of the band, but the clothes that Malcolm wears could suggest his laid back approach to life. If you were to read into the history of rock bands like AC/DC, you find that the lyrics in their songs relate in some way to the concepts of enjoying sex, getting laid & drunk and enjoying life as much as you can, whoever you are!
Intertextuality: Doesn’t seem to be any intertextuality, yet the black and white archive footage of trains in the background (on close-ups shots of Angus or BJ) could have some form of intertextuality to documentaries made about steam trains, or the Wild West - an example could be the collision of the two American Railroad trains near the end of the music video.
Is the narrative performance-based, narrative-based or concept-based?
Basically performance-based, with a tiny bit of a storyline, but this could just be a concept (the trains).
Conclusion
The video for Rock N Roll Train sure does promote the band’s comeback album Black Ice since the 2000 release of Stiff Upper Lip, but numerous online reviews have suggested that although the song and the video are brilliant, it isn’t as good as some of AC/DC’s other [previous] material, so the audience have taken to it but not like they would have done to AC/DC’s best-selling album, Back In Black, released in 1980 after lead singer Bon Scott’s death and Brian Johnson’s arrival.
Overall, the video for Rock N Roll Train has to be a video under the Rock genre, not the heavy metal or metal genres. And yet even though there is no voyeurism or no sexual references in the visuals, the video concentrates on each band member, as old as they are, introducing them to new AC/DC fans and reintroducing them to current fans. There is no need for any CGI as the band is the centre of attention, not the Special Effects, therefore I think the video ticks the right boxes to be classified as a rock video.
