Justice - D.A.N.C.E

This video doesn’t demonstrate the typical genre characteristics of an electro techno band and the variation and innovation of their music style is evident through their choice of music video and the pop art style that is used. There are no aspects of band performance as well as no meat shots of the duo themselves. It is clearly a post modern style and approach to this particular genre and demonstrates a shift from the expected video. The group members Augé and de Rosnay walk and the images of their T-shirts constantly change and morph (cars, mouths, eclairs, lollipops, numbers, letters and the lyrics). The lyrics of the song would suggest the video would include people dancing and a band performance of some sort; however the video is certainly contradicting the song lyrics by using this pop art animation style. It also is illustrative of the lyrics as the lyrics are frequently portrayed through the imagery on the t-shirts as well as the lyrics themselves also appearing on the t-shirts, in addition to this they also appear on a black background in time with the lyrics. According to Goodwin the record label will demand various close-ups of the duo; however this puts that theory into doubt as there is not a single shot of the artists. I have also looked at other Justice videos and the pop art style is not a reoccurrence across their works so once again challenges Goodwin’s identification that this is a requirement. There is also no voyeuristic treatment of the female body as the only image of a woman is quick and she is not particularly noticed as a key element of the video, however the animations on the t-shirts and also at the beginning of the video there are some images of the female body being represented in a misogynistic and negative manor, with the focus being on there legs and also some are disorientated suggest that nudity is present.

The pop art style is the primary and the only really noticeable technique used in this video, in particular the t-shirt animations that I earlier stated. The group and directors have stated that this was just fun and the t-shirts have little or no meaning, however they have admitted to designing some for specific reasons whilst some are still available to buy or are old t-shirts that they wanted to feature. “They're wearing blank T-shirts in the video, and we did the animations for it, they’re all based on flat, 2-D graphics, which we had to animate”. The technical aspect of this visual effect is very precise and time consuming and in particular the sequence were the keyboard falls from the t-shirt. However it seems the purpose of this video and this technique was simply to create an original and unique video which illustrated the lyrics in the same approach. The mise-en-scene in the video is key to the video and the focus is obviously based upon the t-shirts animation, the use of colour is also pivotal as it is bright and stands out above the surroundings of duo.

This video represents the band in a very unique way as it gives little away in terms on their personalities, it does however portray them as different and original to that genre of music. It doesn’t have any reference to the groups meta-narrative and there are no meat shots of the band to build up their image. The appeal of this video and the reason it will help them to sell records is largely because of the pop art style and post modern approach to the video. The fact that is something new and unique will contribute greatly to the repeatability factor that can make a video successful. The auteur directors are now recognised a on a global scale after the group won best video at the European music video awards and have been used by Kanye West in his video for “The Good Life”. The representation of the band is limited because of the lack of narrative and little in the way negotiated readings of the band.

The video is clearly illustrative in terms of the lyrics being frequently displayed in the video in the pop art style. However, it is also a form of disjuncture as the video challenged the typical conventions of a techno music video. The typical fan of this genre would expect band performance in a nightclub referencing a live performance. The reason for this is simply because the group see themselves in a different light and believe that their influences from other genres of music and in particular the 70’s and 80’s should be amplified in there videos as well as the songs themselves.

There is an intertextual reference to the song ‘video killed the radio star’ by The Buggles in 1979 and the ideas that they used in their video, in particular the sequence of the old radio at the beginning of the video as well as the song name appearing on one of the t-shirts with the slight change to “internet killed the radio stars” to make it relevant to the modern technological age. There are also references to popular culture on the t-shirt animations, in particular the images of the female body and crime aspects that are portrayed on some of the animations. The relevance to the audience in this is that it can help them to respond to the band and the more dedicated viewer can pick up these factors.

This video can 100% be considered art, the directors are also considered to be auteur. This is safe to say because the video is unique and original and they have chosen something that had not been considered in the mainstream music industry before. They have moved from the expected and created a technical piece of brilliance that intrigues and causes discussion amongst people in the music industry. It is certainly post modern also because it has shifter from the expected of this genre and demonstrates a new area of the music video that can be explored. The video is most certainly challenging in relation to it allowing and opening a new wave of directors such as French directorial duo Jonas & François who shot this video. There is more freedom for artists to attempt in their videos. However, whilst it is not questioned that this video is post modern and art, it is still commercial in terms of this change bringing in a lot of interest and publicity to the group, because of the style and technical aspect of the video.

The video doesn’t really represent and particular socials groups in any particular way, a reference in the songs lyrics “Neither black nor white/It doesn't matter” however represents a equality between race. The representation of woman can also be considered derogatory as the images of woman on the t-shirts is blurred and text in relation to those images reads “ultimate Lolita” which can most certainly be interpreted in a negative manor. The only real analysis of ideological discourse in the video is that the idea that woman are seen as desirable and objects of sexual desire is reinforced through this imagery and text seen in the video.

This video would be considered as being targeted at the focused audience as the genre is quite specific and would appearing on channels such as MTV Dance. However, the success and recognition that the video has received could mean that it has become vaster and more towards the ambient viewer.