Textual Analysis

Music Video- The Kooks - "Sofa Song"

• Genre-Indie rock band
• Performance based
• This video is rather simple in its construction and probably wasnt made on a large budget, however it is effective in providing a clear positive advert for the band as many of the conventions of the genre are met and it presents the band in a positive way.
• There were many close-up shots of the lead singer aswell as the other members of the band, meeting the needs of the record label and developing their star image.
• However despite the regular close-ups this is an indie band so there is a clear sense that their image is not overly important, rather its is the music that drives them.
• The whole video is a visually decentred experience with fast paced images some of which are barely discernable and due to the excessive voyeurism in the video (the band are performing in a room of mirrors) it is easy for the audience to miss many images during the first viewing, giving the video repeatability.
• The band are all wearing similar style clothes and have similar hairstyles developing their image of a close group and also cementing their colective style.
• The lighting in the room is fairly darkly lit with the band members in the main spotlights.
• The video serves to amplify the meaning of the lyrics.
• There is also a clear link between the beat/rhythm of the song and the editing, as this is a performnce video there is fast-paced editing that increases dramatically in pace as the song itself increases in pace, most noticably during the chorus.
• There is great deal of camera movement used in the video aswell as a handi-cam.
• All of the band-members are shown to have stage-prescence and their performance is given authenticity through the close-ups of their instruments, especially their guitars.