The song 'Girls & Boys' by pop-punk band Good Charlotte was released in 2003 by Sony International. Good Charlotte are well known for their punk style, expressed through wild hair and crazy tattoos, which are also a main element focused on throughout this video. The song expresses typical punk genre characteristics, the music is fast paced and heavy, loud and controversial in parts. As well as this, the band itself fit the stereotypical punk look. Furthermore, the video expresses rebellion, a characteristic which is commonly associated with the punk genre. However, the rebellion is not from the younger generation as you would expect in a modern day punk song, the video expresses it through the older generation, cleverly through its use of costume and narrative.
Throughout the song, a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is strongly represented (Andrew Goodwin ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ six point analysis). “He’s well dressed, not funny” is ironically presented through the visuals. The video shows an elderly mans’ clothes being groomed and an elderly couple laughing together. At 1:02 we see rebellion, where the elderly man throws a drink at a sports car, at which point a neatly presented lady steps out with her partner, emphasising the “girls don’t like boys, girls like cars and money” lyric. The lyrics undoubtedly criticise and stereotype women for their love for money and materialistic goods rather than the person who provides them, "girls don't like boys, girls like cars and money" supports this.
The video not only is narrative, but also features performance from the band itself continuously throughout the video, yet once again uses the elderly as the audience for the performance. They are dressed and styled in the same way as the band, with brightly coloured hair, bandanas, piercings, dark and studded clothing. Undoubtedly, the performance and featuring of the band has purposely been done as a promotion for the song, most likely to have been demanded by the record company (stated in Goodwin's 6 point analysis). This is often done as a way to remind the audience of the way the band look which may be appealing to certain stereotypical groups of people such as punks and Goths. 
Straight cuts/cross cuts are a common device used in the video, making the edit of the video simple. This is effective because the video has a lot of different scenarios happening and so with this use of the cross cutting edit, it makes it easier for the viewer to follow. The video does not specifically feature any interesting editing techniques or fast paced cuts, which you would normally expect from a video of this genre; however, as the video contains a heavy narrative, this is not necessarily required. During the instrumental parts of the song is where the fastest edits occur, for example at 1:58 where the instrumental piece peaks, the editing speeds up to fit with the beat of the song before climaxing and returning to regular speed cuts (this is one of Goodwin's points - the music and visuals have a strong relationship).
The video itself is similar to several other Good Charlotte videos. Their song ‘The Anthem’ again features both narrative and performance by the band as well as featuring lots of ‘party people’, similarly to how ‘Girls and Boys’ does. This generic trait which we see creates a memorable style, linking the videos together which is to be noticed by the audience member.
For a modern day video, it would usually be expected to evoke some kind of sexual reference; this video does this through mocking modern day intimacy through the use of elders. For example, throughout the video, there is a levelled ratio of men and women all interacting with each other, however, at 2:33 we see the women becoming intimate with one of the male band members. Although, the lyrics are stereotyping women as being ‘gold diggers’, from seeing the types of characters in the video, it is clear to see that the message being put across it that the elderly generation are not like this. The words ‘girls and boys’ we would usually associate to a younger generation and so does not apply to the age group featured in the video. This shows us that the band is referring to younger people in their lyrics. As well as this, the people in the video are having fun, not caring about their appearance and being rebellious, all characteristics which we would not associate with the people that the lyrics are aimed at, showing mockery from the band.
The mise en scene of the video, including the use of props such as skateboards, young clothing such as converse and jewellery including chains and studded bracelets is effective at showing the irony of the lyrics. By doing this, the video strongly explains the narrative of the song to the audience.
No comments:
Post a Comment