'Mono' by Courtney Love
I am going to analyse the music video above and say what I think is effective about it. Before analysing the media language, I would like to say a few background points first because I think they have strong influences in the video. The music video 'Mono' was the debut single of Courtney Love's solo album 'America's Sweetheart'. Although Love was already known for her career in the grunge band 'Hole' and for being Kurt Cobain's widow, the music video was a promotion of her career as a solo artist. Therefore, we could expect it to promote Courtney's style which is evidently rebellious. I believe that the genre 'grunge' makes it appeal to both young audiences and older audience since the genre itself is reminiscent of the 80's youth.
About the structure: It includes a narrative in which Courtney Love is both the narrator and the character. I believe that the structure is 'amplification', though the lyrics aren't very clear, it seems that the topic is 'bringing back' the rock, and possibly bringing back Love's career as a rocker. The video starts with Courtney Love being awaken by fairies in the forest, where she seems to be dead in a glass box and dressed like a princess. This idea creates intertextuality with fairy tales, in which the princesses are in deep sleep until their charming prince come to save them. However, in Love's video, no prince come to save her, breaking the stereotype of a 'donzel in distress'. When Love is coming out of the forest, many paparazzi emerge from the ground. This is a representation of Love's career, the idea that she was 'dead' because she disappeared of the music world, but when she started her solo album, she came back to life, which brought attention of the media since she is a controversial artist. Love enters the supermarket and starts to destroy everything, showing her rebellious attitude which fits with the rock grunge genre and contradicts the way she is dressed like a princess. It gives the idea of a 'punk princess' and it might represent how she considers herself the princess of grunge.
A presentation about Camera work, Editing and Mise en Scene
1. You may want to pause the slides to be able to read them.
2. The slides are numbered at the top with their original order (1,2,3).
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