Music Video Research - Example - Stay Awake

Example - Stay Awake

This is an abstract shot which adds to the theme of madness throughout the music video, as there is no real narrative, just a series of clips that give the impression of madness. The location of this shot looks to be in a wood which again is different to locations you would expect from the music genre. Another interesting point of this shot is the producer used rule of thirds.

Shows a shot of the main singer, Example, this is typical of music videos as we would expect to see lots of shots of the band or artist. We also see Example raise his hands up which gives the impression of power to the audience which could also be reflected in the song lyrics as he is talking about raising up the next generation. The letter E that he is standing next to is Examples logo which helps people recognise who he is, it is common to see the artists name or logo's flash up or be in the background of the artists own videos.

Here we see a lot of youths all jumping around in front of big speakers, this is an interesting shot because it shows both what we would usually expect to see from a dance track but also it is very different as they are not in a club. This is just one of a series of abstract locations that Example has chosen to give a club like atmosphere outside of a club.

The people in this shot are meant to be stereotypical image of of youth and young adults of today and the types of people who would listen to dance tracks. The setting is also a urban looking area, which again has been done to show the culture that we are in, of youths hanging about on the streets and generally messing around.

This shot is interesting as it really shows what Example was trying to achieve with this song and music video. In an interview Example mentions that this song is meant to reflect what the dance scene does to people or how it effects people (The interview will be at the bottom of this post). So this shot is showing the culture of drinking and just messing around and having a laugh with a group of friends, like what they would be doing if thy were in a club. Although this song does not have a narrative to the video, there is a message being shown through the song and through the video that in fact the dance scene is not a bad thing.

This is an interesting shot as it gives the impression of a love film with the way the girl is walking through the Field of flowers which could represent the love of some people of the dance music scene. Also it shows another location used. Showing that many locations can be used in dance music videos.

Interview with Example about the song:-