Louis's Textual Analysis of a Music Video

The video I have chosen is “Shot Yourself in the Foot Again” by Skream and Example. Skream is an underground dubstep artist but is on the rise to becoming a well-known dubstep artist/DJ. Example is an artist who has varied his genre of music between dubstep, drum and bass, hip-hop and also grime. Example has had a number of number ones in the past few years which involve “Changed the Way You Kiss me” and “Kickstart”.

However I would specify this video to be a dubstep song due to the beats and heavy bass line that is dropped between start and mid-point of the song. Characteristics of this genre would be the large amount of bass in nearly all of dubstep songs, lack of vocals and the upbeat tempo which changes when the “drop” of the song happens. The drop of the song is normally the most iconic part of a dubstep song, this is where normally the heavy bass comes in along with electro sound effects and beats. Its overall sound has been described as "tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals". In this video there are 2 occasions where there is a drop but they last for around 1 minute. On both of these occasions, when the drop occurs the video shows a party atmosphere and everyone having a good time in a pub and then the second drop in a club. Both of these scenes have very fast clips which last around one tenth of a second each and this carries on for around 5 seconds when the drops of the songs occur.

The lyrics in the song depict the storyline, which is basically a man’s birthday and his girlfriend has prepared dinner and a nice evening. However, he decides to go out with his friends and misses the dinner with his girlfriend. The video shows his girlfriend becoming very emotional and aggressive but also at the same time showing the man having a good time on his birthday. There is a twist right at the end where the girl finds out that she is pregnant and then the video leaves on a cliff-hanger and ends. There are only three different verses and they are repeated several times throughout the song and this backs up my point about the lack of vocals in a dubstep song. The lyrics are telling the man his wrong doings throughout the song, the first verse is,

“Take a bag with your clothes

 And leave your keys by the door

 ‘coz she never want to see you no more

 Never should have listen to the serpent

 You shot yourself in the foot again”

This is exactly what happens at the end of the video and the title of the song “Shot Yourself in the Foot Again” is a common expression to say to people who have made a mistake and lost something that otherwise they would of gained if they didn’t make that mistake.

They are not that many close ups of either characters but when there is a close up they usually vary different emotions for example, at the beginning there is a close up on the women and she is smiling, when there is another one the man shows confusion, then another one of the man shows him having a good time. There aren’t however any reference to the notion of looking and also no intertextual references. This video is very narrative based and has a strong storyline throughout it and also has a surprising at the end and leaves it as a cliff-hanger. In my personal view I think that this video is a very good and has been done well with the use of different shots and length of shots to suit the beat of the song and match it. I also like the storyline very much due to the fact that it is a very realistic situation and happens to some people around the world so people may find it more easily to relate to the video.