The video that I will be analysing is I don’t want to miss a thing by Aerosmith, the genre is classed as a rock ballad as it hasn’t got all the usual characteristics of a rock song but the band are classed as a rock band. Some characteristics of the genre of rock is the dark clothing worn by the artists in the video, the use of the band playing their instruments is also common of the rock genre. Another feature that I will go into more detail later is the performance side of the video, most bands that follow rock have a way of performing which is very over exaggerated and in a style that differentiates from other genres.
When looking at the relationship between lyrics and visuals, the video it features the band performing the song which is intertwined with scenes from Armageddon as this song is the cover song for the film. The visuals in the video don’t entirely contradict the lyrics but they don’t follow a narrative story and give you some imagery to what the song is singing about, for example when he sings “lying close to you feeling your heart beating” the visuals show a bed of sharp nails around the artist singing, which doesn’t show a soft image of what he is singing but the opposite. Which again shows the genre as rock and very dark. When the band are performing you tend to see a negative image of what he sings about, but you are them given some illustration to the intertwining video clips. For example you see the clip from Armageddon where the wife and husband kiss and the song “and then I kiss your eyes and thank god were together” the image on screen creates a relationship with the lyrics and song.
The solo instrumental are made very illustrated in this video, which is probably due to the rock genre and promoting the bands image of playing their own music live with the singing. This makes the relationship with the visuals and music match well as whenever you here the drums or guitar on a slight solo you always see it on the screen at a close up view, highlighting the instrument in the song. The pace of the music always seems parallel with the visuals on screen for example as the tempo progresses faster in the chorus it reveals that the band is playing in front of what appears to be the fictional Space Shuttle with the actions of the musicians and the conductor gets faster and more movement is produced. Also along with Aerosmith, the full orchestra plays in sync with the melody
There are lots of close ups of the lead singer steven tyler and his band members, I think the image trying to be given here is that Aerosmith, even though they are a rock band they can also slow down the pace of their music and be diverse because this song is a lot more relaxed and sensitive compared to their other releases. The record company are also trying to sell this track through the use of a hit movie using the band as their cover artists of the movie. This gives Aerosmith even more of a diverse look to previous songs as it is the first movie track done. This video does still relate to their previous videos as they are always at some point performing through their video, but the rock ballad does change their image to show they are not different but are more widely talented in what they can do in music.
I don’t feel that the actual band have any sense of sexual display, although steve tylers daughter who is featured in the video does have some sexual impact through the facial expressions and body movements from the film Armageddon. Another image of sensitivity is shown through reflective objects and looking through camera lenses or TV screens at the lead singer. This has been chosen I feel because in one section
you see him through the TV with liv tyler touching it as if she misses it like the lyrics that are in the song “I don’t want to miss a thing” this brings a whole new concept to the song as you can actually see the father daughter interaction as if you are looking at it through their eyes, or as if you are looking through a window into their life.
There are intertextual references involved in the video as it is a cover track of a big movie so therefore the movie clips are intertwined with the performance of Aerosmith. The other massive intertextual reference is Steve Tyler’s daughter Liv Tyler being the main star of the Armageddon film and she has also featured in Aerosmiths videos before which adds to the stars image also showing how his life can relate to his daughters.
The music video I feel is mostly performative as the whole way through the band are on a stage and performing to the camera, also they bring in the orchestra and have close ups on the band playing their instruments. Although having the constant flashes from the film you are being told some sort of narrative based throughout from the film but the whole song doesn’t give you a short story so I would class this video as performative.
