Klaxons - Golden Skans

This song is called 'Golden Skans' by the band 'Klaxons' and it was released on 22 January 2007. The music video is directed by Saam Faramand and is heavily influenced by "Can You Feel It" by The Jacksons. It features a message at the beginning very similar to the words spoken by the narrator in the "Can You Feel It" video. It also features other elements from the Jacksons' video including an inventive and contemporary use of light and dark with all three band members wearing different coloured ribbons, and moving dramatically to the music. 

The music belongs to the Indie genre, a similar genre to our song choice, and the colour scheme and abstract happenings in the video reflect this music type. The video is in a dark setting and the singers seem to be getting wrapped in brightly coloured ribbons, not something we see in your typical music video. 

The lyrics don't seem to correspond with the visuals in this video because the meaning to the lyrics is unclear. The only thing you could say matches the lyrics is that they seem to be throwing gold around in one stage of the video perhaps linking to the song title and chorus words 'golden skans'.


Although the lyrics don't correspond with the video a great deal, there are similarities between the music and the video. The pace of the song is reflected by the pace of the cutting in the video. During the slow verses the cuts are very slow and less exciting but when the chorus drops the visuals become more dramatic and the tempo increases. Also throughout the song we can hear sounds of explosions and these are shown in the video, they are perfectly placed at the beginning of choruses and at drops in the beat for emphasis.


This was the Klaxons first song and so they had to make a big impression. That they did. They illustrated themselves in a very dramatic and extravagant way connecting to their Indie target audience. There are plenty of close up shots of the band so they audience know who they are listening to. The record company are going to want to sell this track by it being recognised by its weird and different video. When people hear the song played on the radio the image of the singers getting wrapped in ribbons will come to their minds. This video represents their image as a band because it is their first step into the music scene.

The video can be perceived as a bit sexual because the artists aren't wearing any clothes however I think that they are just trying to look natural. Plus as I mentioned above the video is quite abstract and so the naked effect adds to it. The artists are very animated in the video, they are smashing and throwing things. The actions are emphasised with the use of over-cranking, this slows them down so we can see the impact of what they are doing.

There are no clear intertextual references other than the obvious 'Can You Feel It' by the Jacksons.At the opening of the video we see a message across the scene, and this is also featured in the 'Can You Feel It' video. Other elements from the Jacksons' video include an inventive and contemporary use of light and dark with all three band members wearing different coloured ribbons, and moving dramatically to the music.

This music video definitely isn't performance-based, it is narrative-based with maybe a hint of concept. The artists aren't singing on stage but are singing along in their video, at the same time their video doesn't have a story to it either. Again making it quite abstract. I'm beginning to think the video is concept-based because it seems to revolve around ideas rather than have any sort of storyline to it.

Eminem - Stan (Short Version) ft. Dido

This video is called 'Stan' by Eminem and it is from the genre of Hip Hop. The dark colour scheme with murky greens and grays is a typical characteristic of a Hip Hop music video, reflecting the serious meaning behind the music.

In the video we see 'Stan' writing a letter and we see and hear him rap it at the same time, thus matching the lyrics. Through the song Stan's words become more harsh and he becomes frustrated, this is also shown in the visuals as we see his face screw up.

Also more specifically there is a line where we see Stan with his little brother standing outsidein the snow waiting for Eminem to come out from his concert and we hear the lyrics, 'That's my little brother man, he's only six years old, We waited in the blistering cold for you, four hours and you just said, "No."' Another example is when we hear the line, 'I seen this one shit on the news a couple weeks ago that made me sick' and the visuals match these lyrics by showing a cut off the news.

There is no obvious relationship between the music and the visuals, like the cuts aren't necessarily on the beat and the pace of the editing doesn't change much. Arguably some would say that the pace of the editing picks up in the last scenes as Stan is driving his car, the pace of the music in this section is still the same pace as the rest however. To add drama to these violent scenes strobe lighting is put in, making it appear even more edgy.


Although what is noticeable is that we see Eminem when it's his part in the song and Dido when its the chorus and she sings. As the viewer we are encouraged to sympathise with Dido because she is the one who has to suffer with Stan's obsession with Eminem. To support this the colour schemes surrounding Dido in the video are all dominated by warm colours like yellow and orange. On the other hand Stan is often under low key lighting surrounded by grey and black colours, suggesting that he is the unfavourable character in the relationship.

Although Eminem doesn't feature in the video much himself the whole song is about a fan who is obsessed by him. This is how the record company are looking to sell the track, all listeners of the track are going to remember it for the video with the obsessed fan in. Eminem isn't actually filmed in the video until the end but his face features in it throughout, with posters of him on walls and clips of him playing at concerts.
I believe that the artist in this video is trying to send out a message to his fans, that he cares about his fans but that he doesn't support obsessive fans like Stan. This is expressed through the line, 'And what's this shit about us meant to be together? That type of shit'll make me not want us to meet each other'. I feel that he's trying to portray himself in a positive light as a star who has such a busy life but still makes time to contact his fans.