Music Video Textual Analysis #4

Laura Marling
Rambling Man
3 minutes 15 seconds

 

 

Laura Marling's music video to Rambling Man was produced in 2010 through EMI Music. The song is interpreted to be about a fear of becoming something you don't want to be, something that others expect you to be. In a way this isn't dissimilar to the music video I am creating; Heather has a fear of being controlled by her "illness" again although it's something she cannot help. I have decided to analyse Marling's music video because, as well as the lyric meaning being similar, the music video structure is similar to the one I am creating. What's more the acoustic genre matches that of Emily Denton's.

 

One feels that there is a strong correlation between the lyrics and the visuals throughout the music video. The lyrics largely illustrate directly what is going on and seem to be a first person narrative of the male protagonist's life. At times it could be interpreted that Marling is narrating her 'side' of the story; so she is speaking about her role as a woman and her feminine identity. At the outset the lyrics are:

Oh naive little me,

Asking what things you have seen,

And you're vulnerable in your head,

And you'll scream and you'll wail till you're dead.

These lyrics are paired with emotive shots of the protagonist in different locations to illustrate, and in some cases amplify them. The shots are all close ups and extreme close ups with the exception of one, perhaps to establish the protagonist's appearance. The lyric "Oh naive little me" appears when the male subject looks up into the mirror, this is a direct illustration of his thoughts. Additionally, the line "And you're vulnerable in your head" is depicted almost throughout the entire opening. Vulnerability as a theme can be established in the lyrics and the visuals; the protagonist's bare body is exposed throughout the opening, representing him as vulnerable. Clothes can be interpreted as protective and concealing, therefore the omission of them make him seem raw and defenseless. He is "vulnerable in [his] head", this lyric is illustrated by the extreme close ups of him splashing water on his face and his eyes. The eyes are the most expressive part of the body, thus they would reveal to the audience his vulnerability by conveying his sadness.

The following verse is similar in that the lyrics are illustrated by the visuals. The lyrics are:

Creatures veiled by night,
Following things that aren't right,
And they're tired and they need to be lead,
You'll scream and you'll wail till they're dead.

The first line "Creatures veiled by night" is illustrated by the image of a hand in low lighting, only the fingers are visible by the light bouncing off them. It could be inferred that the "creatures" are the bad habits or bad things that the protagonist doesn't want to occur. Therefore, the dark lighting could represent the evil or extreme bad that enhibits the male subject. What's more, the hands are a very controlled part of the body; meaning an image of the hands being paired with "Creatures veiled by night" is suggestive of a greater force which is either out of the male protagonist's control or fully within his control (depending on the situation). However, the following lines juxtapose this illusion of a greater force: "they're tired and they need to be lead, You'll scream and you'l wail till they're dead". The visuals and the lyrics have a more implicit relationship here as the narrative begins to develop. Essentially, the lyrics portray the male's need to control his inner demons until they are no longer present. The images are close ups of him packing a bag with a beach towel - perhaps an indication of the escape from the person he's turning into. Ultimately, the  illustrative relationship between the lyrics and visuals provides evidence towards Andrew Goodwin's theory in Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992, Routledge).

 

In terms of the music and visual relationship, there isn't a hugely strong connection. Significantly, this is because the video doesn't really cut to the beat of the song. On occasion, the video will cleanly transition on the "heavy", more prominant beats of the song but usually the video cuts aren't inline with the music. The length of the shots are varied, possibly due to the variation in pace of the music at times. Some parts of the song have a fast tempo and some are slow. It's crucial to note that as the beat on the song gets faster towards the end, the pace of editing becomes quicker and jump cuts are evident. The latter parts of the video, where the male protagonist is in the sea cuts mostly in time with the music.

Marling's music video is a mixture of peformance and narrative; similar to the video that I am constructing. Therefore, the shots of Marling are close ups and act as star image motifs. Marling isn't a fully established artist as she isn't known by many people, this the record company would be looking to sell her image along with the track in order to make her more well known. As mentioned, the close ups are used to establish her appearance; her face will be the main feature that sells at the outset as she becomes more established in the music industry. One notes that this use of close ups is a frequent motif used by Marling in her other videos, perhaps because she has yet to become popular in a mainstream sense. Her music videos to "Devil's Spoke" and "Cross Your Fingers" have both used close up shots during the performance aspects. Each of her videos are fairly similar in the performance parts; she is playing the guitar and singing. In contrast, her video to "Ghosts" is more of an animation and conceptual video. So, on the whole one would say this this video is fairly inkeeping with her previous materials. Having said this, her hairstyle and appearance is often different in her videos, perhaps an indication of her versitility in fashion and ability to appeal to more than one type of audience member. It's worth noting that Goodwin's theory is further emphasised at this point as he theorised that "the demancds of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style)".

Within the music video to "Rambling Man" there are many references to the notion of looking. Initially, the shots of the male protagonist are of his eyes and him looking at something. As mentioned, this could be because the narrative is being established and the eyes are an emotive part of the body. Furthermore, there is a shot of him looking into a mirror (similar to the one I have created in my music video). This references the notion of looking as the protagonist seems to be analysing his features and questioning himself when he looks in the mirror. The shots of Marling looking into the camera could also be seen to reference the notion of looking as she seems to be directly staring at the audience. Interestingly, the notion of looking isn't done in a sexualised way like many music videos of recent times. One might say this is because the music's genre is different from other studies I have looked at, therefore it's not a convention in this genre. Goodwin's theory can be referenced once more here as he thought that there was frequent reference to the notion of looking. However, his theory is challenged in that there was no voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

There don't appear to be any intertextual references within the music video. Perhaps this is because Marling was a fairly new artist at this point so she wanted to establish herself as an artist instead of referencing other texts media materials. Crucially, this places focus on her performance as an artist and the narrative as opposed to the video being endorsed by multiple brands or influenced by outside corporations. As stated, the video is performance and narrative based; the weighting of each category is fairly even. Goodwin's theory is further challenged by the fact that there were no intertextual references within the video.

 

To conclude, Marling's music video establishes her identity as a female performer whilst still attracting a target audience by incorporating a narrative which many people could relate to. The lyrics are strongly related to the videos narrative, however the music isn't explicitly related to the visuals perhaps due to the genre of music and the narrative needing to continue with some fluidity. Although there are some parts of the music video which provide evidence towards Goodwin's theory, it is challenged at certain points of the video.