Chemical Brothers - Hey Girl Hey Boy

Aspects of performance / mode of address

In this music video there is no performance as the video is all narrative driven. There is an indirect address to the video as the audience are shown as 'invisible', the audience are just 'peaking' into the lives.


Narrative

There is a Linear narrative for the music video, the flashes and gaps in time are going forwards, not backwards. At the beginning there is a class of children on a school trip at a museum, we see the girl becoming fascinated with bones throughout the video, In the middle she has broken her arm and this is where the flash forward occurs from her bedroom as a girl to the bathroom of a club as a woman. Towards the end of the music video, everyone else turns into skeletons while dancing to the song.


How does the video create an image for the star/artist/band?

The artist are shown as indirectly promoting the dance music culture with the drugs, dancing and raves, this is because the woman looks as though she is hallucinating through the video.


How do the visual elements relate to the song? Amplification, illustration, disjuncture?

The visual elements are amplified in the song, the title 'Hey boy hey girl' is quite simply a boy and a girl who are shown throughout the video from being children to growing into adults. The visual elements make the lyrics have a meaning.


Mise-en-scene

The setting for the music video is in a club, this helps identify the audience which are young people. The woman is dressed in all black which blends in with everyone else as she is at a club. The skeletons are used as hallucinations in the music video.


Use of camera

Tracking is used at the beginning to show the audience that the children are on a bus, this then zooms into the girl which lets the audience know that she is the main character in this music video. A point of view shot is used when the girl is reading the book which makes the audience feel more involved. A low angle shot is used on the boy on the bus to show that he is powerful or perhaps a bully. Panning is used to show the different dinosaurs in the museum. A high angle shot is used on the girl when she has a broken arm, this shows that she is vulnerable.


Editing

Slow motion is used to show the chaos of the children, this is more effective, the slow motion also fits with the song. Elliptical editing is used, this skips time to show that the girl has grown up straight away, this is to skip some bits out and continues with the narrative. The pase of the editing matches the beat of the song, it starts off slower and then speeds up.


Representation

The video represents a young generation connected with drugs which indirectly promotes the dance culture, the music video exposes the negative through the culture. On the other hand, the woman may not be on drugs because we have seen her as a child, fascinated by skeletons, she might think that everyone is the same underneath.


Special effects

Strobe lights are used in the club setting of the video, this is another part of the dance culture. With the use of CGI, skeletons have been created and are there to show the girl's fascination with skeletons and/or the dance culture - hallucinations.


Genre

Electronic/Dance


Audience

Young people around 16 - 30 years old.


Channel

MTV Dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64szVQugrAo