Music Video Analysis 1

Twenty one pilots: Heathens

Who are they?

Twenty one pilots are alternative hip hop, electropop, Indie pop and rock genre. It is an American musical duo. They are originated from Columbus, Ohio. The band was formed in 2009. There are four members in this band; Tyler Joseph, Josh Dun, Chris Salih, Nick Thomas. 

Twentyonepilots.com

This music video "Heathens" was made especially for the new coming up film "Suicide Squad" which is meant to be the "hit" of August 2016. Bellow is the home page of IMDb and as you may see almost all the posts are about "Suicide Squad". 

Performance, Narrative or Concept?

This music video is a concept, where the video is very obscure. The band is in a prison where the main characters of the movie "Suicide Squad" are featured. 

Relationship between visuals and lyrics

This is a concept based video therefore it does not hold into a story.  However, when the singer says

You're lovin' on the psychopath sitting next to you

You're lovin' on the murderer sitting next to you
You'll think, how'd I get here, sitting next to you?

The camera is showing the prisoners from the movie "Suicide Squad"

Genre Characteristics

This band has a lot of genres and one of them is electropop, the way they presented this genre in this music video is through the lighting. They have light, dark blue flashing lights, which are the conventions of electropop genre. 

Intertextuality 

For intertextuality the actors from the new movie "Suicide Squad" were featured. 

Looking/Mode of address

The character from the movie is looking into the mirror while blowing off matches. 

 There is another character looking into security camera. This scene was taken from the trailer.

As the camera pans from left to right. We see the vocalist of the band looking into the camera, this creates a sense if direct connecting with the audience. 

Performance Style

The style of this band is quite unusual. The band is in the prison while they have their instruments with them. 

Star Treatment

The star of this music video is Tyler Joseph. This was shown my camera angles and shots. He is alway in the centre of the frame, usually close ups of his face as well as many eye contacts. 

In terms of editing, the shots of Tyler Joseph keep returning. 

Audience in videos 

Instead of having fans listening to their band they had prisoners. Since the band is in the prison as well as the actors of the movie, the video featured big muscular men with tattoos and prisoners clothing. 

Locations/Mise-en-scene

The video took place in Belle Reve which is a prison where the characters of suicide squad were held. 

Tyler was covered in scars and wearing prisoners cloths. In that way he could relate to the movie.

Representations

There is an inequality between the genders. Throughout the video there are male guards, male prisoners and even the characters who were in the film are males expect the only female "Harley Quinn". 

Pace

The video is edited to fit the variation within the track. Where there is faster paced section of the track the edit is faster paced as well to match it. When he finishes his chorus the pace is faster.