Music Video Analysis 2- Jake

Track: Teddy Picker
Artist: Arctic Monkeys



I am looking at this video because it is performance lead, like our music video will be, and the song is by the same band that perform our music video.

From this song the Indie Rock genre is clear. The band play in a basic recording studio and their equipment is transported in an old transit van. This modesty shows that the band represents simplicity- they will not fool people into liking their music with dramatic videos and crazy onstage performances- they are their to play music. The simplicity of performance that the Arcitc Monkeys have has to be carried over to our music video so that we conform to these Indie Rock conventions but it is important to make sure that out video has repeatability as the music video is there to entertain.

The music video is also very visually simple. For example there are no complex editing techniques or visual effects, what you see is what you get. This provides appeal to a different audience than, for example, Britney Spears as the band is actively avoiding selling themselves. In our modern day cult of celebrity a growing percentage of audiences are moving from popular music to this alternative Indie scene. This is shown by the Arctic Monkeys having the fastest selling album in UK chart history "selling 363,735 copies in the first week" (Wikipedia, sourced from TheGuardian.com. The title was "Arctic monkeys make chart history" and it was written by Alex Kumi) despite the fact that they are signed to an alternative record label (Domino records). They also showed that they are not a pop music sensation by being the first ever band to be shortlisted for the mercury music awards (one of the most prestigious and artistic based music awards in Europe) for two years in a row.

The track "Teddy Picker" is about celebrities becoming commodities or, as Arctic Monkeys put it, the "teddy" which is pulled up above other bands (Teddy's) by the picker (media producers) yet just as soon as they are made "stars" they fall into notoriety- joining the pile of used and discarded commodities. They are highlighting this point and stating that they will not sell out and try to be the world's biggest pop sensation. After all "who'd want to be men of the people...when there's people like... you".