Coldplay - Don't Panic Analysis

Genre/GenericConventions

Coldplay are an alternative rock band and this song is of that genre. The generic conventions in this video include

·          -   Use of dark and dull colors – in the scenery, general colors of the video, colors of all detail ranging from the clothes to the buildings and even the color of the rain.

·          -   Emotional – the feel of the track is emotional and it’s as if they have a sad story to tell

·          -   Deep topic – the narrative of the story and the lyrics are of a deep topic

·          -   Depression or sadness – The narrative, lyrics and the scenery of the video shows element of depression and sadness.

·          -  Performance in co-operate with narrative – There are shots of artists singing along with cross transitions into scenes of what they’re talking about

·          -  Parallel editing – A lot of video transitions from artists singing to the narrative side of the long shots of power stations, water cycle etc.

Textual Analysis

There are long shots/establishing shots of background at the beginning which then zooms into a mid shot of artist singing inside the house (linking into the convention of artists performing).  Throughout the video there are a lot of zooming in and out of long shots showing the scenery and transitioning between different images of buildings and the sea etc. there are also a lot of close ups of all the artists, even the ones not singing. There is a distinctive link between lyrics and visuals which are also contradictory for example when the chorus come on and in the verses Chris martin says things about living in a ‘beautiful world’ and then the video goes into long shots of a dark rainy gloomy scene of building and power stations, and it also shows his house getting flooded and all the artists getting swept by the water. Dark gloomy background with rain and dark clouds, links into the generic conventions of sadness or depression in rock videos. The editing in the video includes a lot of quick shots to show all scenes and because it’s a narrative it shows a story as well as shows the artists performing so there are a lot of short shots.

Theory

The theory of Binary Opposition can be applied to this video as the lyrics contradict the theme of the video. The lyrics are talking about living in a beautiful world but in the video you see dull colors, pollution, factories and industrial building, flooding etc. Theirs is also a slight narrative theme to the video as in the lyrics the artist says at the end ‘everybody has somebody to lean on’ and in the video it shows the group going through difficulties such as flooding or all the other bad things happening and they are still together at the end of the video which maybe shows that they always have each other. The gratification we can examine from watching this video maybe for leisure purpose or entertainment or maybe for consumers to relate to the video emotionally.