Textual analysis - The Kook 'Naive'

This is my first textual analysis. I have chosen the song Naïve by The Kooks as we are using a song by this artist for out final coursework. Therefore I thought it would be helpful when it comes to planning our music video, as we will have a general idea of the kind of characteristics that The Kooks have in their own videos. The song Naïve was released 27th March 2006 as the fourth single for their Inside in/Inside out album. It charted at number 5 in the UK singles chart and became the 19th best selling single in 2006.

This is a screen shot from the opening of the music video. The low saturation in this image is a key characteristic of Indie pop videos. This is usually to contrast their songs from stereotypical pop songs which are known for their bright colours and high saturation. Low saturation is used here because it is set at night, which is often seen in Indie Pop music. Also, the main focus is on the lead singer, which is another characteristic of many Indie Pop videos.





This next shot displays a characteristic of Andrew Goodwin's theory into the key features of music video's. It portrays the idea of a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The words in the song at this point are 'In such an ugly word', which reflects the feel in the video that the girl is upset. Another aspect of this idea it in the flow of the video. The beats in the song are reasonably slow, and so are the cuts between each shot. This is in contrast to the rhythm of the singing but works well as it follows the flow of the overall song.

Here are a range of shots that show the lead singer singing through a crowd. Band performances are a key aspect in Indie pop music videos, however this video goes against the conventions and just uses lip synching. Another point from Andrew Goodwin's theory, that many record labels demand a certain style which should be followed throughout the artist/bands videos, has been shown in this video. The use of many different close ups shows an underlying demand from the record label. Also, it is clear that lighting is important in this video as there are many different colours shown in these shots. This is another important aspect of Indie-Pop music videos, which usually use false lighting to add to the low saturation effect and to show that it is different from mainstream pop music.