Kasabian music video analysis

My first music video analysis would be of the song ‘Man of Simple Pleasures’ by Kasabian.

‘Man of Simple Pleasures’ is the 4th single of their 4th album ‘Velociraptor’. The genre of the music is ‘indie rock’ but could also be classified as ‘Alternative’.

The music video type is a combination of narrative and a concept. In the music video a man with a mask is shown riding a bicycle with his shirt changing to each lyric. This gives the video an ‘explicit meaning’ as the man’s actions are obvious. The location is an almost empty city, we mainly only see the man riding the bicycle through the city. This could be linking to the lyrics ‘by the way I’m on my way But all my life, I’ve been treated like a fool’ suggesting that the man is traveling to a certain location and that nobody seems to respect him not many people are around him.

The music video begins with a close up camera shot of the bicycle’s wheels then a cut to the bicycle handles and eventually a cut to the man’s head. This draws attention to us as each of the clips are slowly creating enigma as is slowly cuts to the identity of the man riding the bicycle, the viewers would want to find out who the man is.

Both movement and still camera shots are often used in the video. The type if movement used is the tracking which helps portray the journey of the man. Lots of clips were taken as we can see from each single cut to each lyric. These cuts give the video a shaky feel to it. Though it might seem unprofessional this was done on purpose to create a trippy and ‘drunk’ feeling.

In this clip the camera is shaky and a handheld shot was most likely used. Again this creates a trippy feeling and we can see that this is how the man is feeling because of the point of view camera shot. This also relates to the lyrics that were just sung before this clip ‘with dyslexic eyes I’m seeing very clearly‘.

Low angles and high angles are used depending on the lyrics. For example in this part of the video a high angle is used for the negative lyrics ‘But all of my life, I’ve been treated like a fool’.

A birds eye view shot is used in one of the clips giving an effect of how small the character is and how big the city is for him.

For the editing the video is edited in to black and white (though it might have been shot in black and white using the camera). The clips are often slow paced which again reinforces the trippyness feeling.

Only non diagetic sounds (the music) is used in the video and the fact that the video is in black and white conveys realism and the past, meaning that a story is being told in the format of a music video.

The lighting used is mainly naturaly looking throughout the video.

The idea of this music video is different to any other video which appeals to its target audience of indie rock fans.