Music Video Analysis Essay

Music video analysis of ‘Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles’ and ‘Uprising by Muse’

Video Killed the Radio Star was released in 1979 and it was the first ever music video to be shown on MTV two years after its initial release. The music video itself was a very good representation of society in the 1980s as it’s focused highly upon science fiction and the astronomical. This was a key subject in this decade because of space travel and people’s new profound interest in the space age.  Therefore, the music video of Video Killed the Radio Star targets the main topics with society at that present time.

As a whole, the music video is very disjointed and disconnected with non-traditional trajectories. The first thing the audience sees is a shot of the moon, straight away symbolizing space. We also see a little girl with an old fashioned radio and a black and white picture of the singer overlapping; this could be representing the advances in technology at this time. The radio could be representing modern technology, and the black and white picture could be representing an old fashioned black and white television. The overlapping of the black and white image of the singer could show that television is “overlapping” and taking over radio. The little girl is very interested in the radio which could suggest that the next generation will only be interested in new technologies, such as television.  The explosion on the radio occurs when the audience hears the first line “video killed the radio star”, which could represent radio being destroyed by television. Therefore this would be perfectly matching the visuals with the lyrics so the audience can easily understand the message. Then we see the little girl transform into a grown woman, signifying that they are the same person and could suggest that she has been “transformed” by the current space-era society.

The audience then sees a studio with musicians that are displaying no expressions and the voice of the singer has been edited. Therefore the video could be described as “fake” due to the musicians not appearing to be playing the instruments and the emotionless dancing. This could suggest that they are being controlled by the music as there is no emotion, or fake emotion, shown by the musicians. Next we see the grown woman in a test tube; this could represent the sense of feeling trapped in society and wanting to find an individual identity. The little girl has her hand on the test tube, representing that they are the same person and that they are connecting.

Towards the end of the video we see a stack of old radios that act as the background and then several televisions rise up from the ground in front of the radios. This could represent the idea of television taking over and could link back to the overlapping of the black and white image at the start and that television is “overlapping” radio, which also fits in with the song. The televisions are modern for that time period and the radios are old fashioned and not real which shows that they are insignificant and television is what audiences what to see. There is no presence of power shown throughout as everyone in the music video appears to be controlled by the music and it is asynchronous as the lyrics and the visuals don’t match. This makes the music video appear very disconnected and disjointed from the audience’s point of view.

On the other hand, the music video of Uprising highlights key issues in today’s society which mainly focuses on the theme of rebellion. The song begins with a quite an “alien-like” introduction which could link with the theme of the music video of Video Killed the Radio Star and could also represent the idea of feeling “alienated” within society. The music video has a very dark and dismal setting throughout and the audience are presented with mass destruction. This could link in with modern society because of the issues with the rioting, which is amplified through the fire and explosion we see at the beginning of the video. This symbolizes danger and further demonstrates all the damage. The audience then sees that the band are located in a model village which could be a metaphor on real society as towards the end of the video the village has collapsed. This could be showing the artists’ representation of thoughts on modern society and post modernism which are portrayed through the music video. We continue to see many shots of graffiti on the walls and shops that have closed down, which could be associated with the stereotype of youth and vandalism.

During the middle of the music video the model people start burning and melting, this could be representing people in today’s society being overpowered by higher society. This could be further demonstrated with the teddy bears, which are normally associated as being cuddly and cute but are shown as nasty and battered. Therefore they could be representing people in higher society as the bears are much taller than everything within the model village, which could demonstrate power through levelling (such as the big teddy bears and the small model people). During the music video, the audience sees a long shot of one of the teddy bears knocking down a bridge; this could be representing the idea that the people in power are destroying society.

Throughout the music video of Uprising there is repetition of the lyric “they will not control us” which could represent the idea of breaking out for an individual identity and not conforming to the rules of society. The lyrics and visuals match very well as the lyrics are about protesting and rebelling against a high power and the video portrays this through all the damage and destruction that the audience sees. This differs from Video Killed the Radio Star as the music video is asynchronous throughout. Power is very strongly distributed throughout the whole music video which is also shown through several close-up shots of the main singer whose face is shadowed and fits with the tone of the video. This is very different from Video Killed the Radio Star as power is not shown in the music video. Furthermore, the music video could mainly be portraying the thoughts and feelings of the artists’ personal views on today’s society.