Royal Blood - Little Monster (Music Video Analysis)

     I chose to analyse the Little Monster music video by Royal Blood. The band consists of Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher, two males from Worthing, UK. The British duo and their songs have been associated with the ‘rock’ genre due to heavy guitar riffs, strong drumming and hard bass. Many hybrid genres such as ‘modern garage rock’ and ‘blues rock’ have also been associated with the band. Little Monster, the band’s second single release, was recorded and produced with Black Mammoth Records (an independent record label) and also Warner Bros. Records. The second single from the rock duo went straight to number one in the UK Official Rock Charts. The single was then later released with a performance music video that shows stereotypical and non-stereotypical rock conventions. The video was filmed at a live performance of the track, which was then edited together with the song and then released to the public.

     One element of the video that shows stereotypical and non-stereotypical rock conventions are the characters involved. One group of characters, the crowd, shows typical rock conventions in a range of different ways. For example, the crowd shows aggressive behaviour at the live performance (which is usually linked with rock shows because the music the artists play encourage that behaviour). Some examples of aggressive behaviour featured in the Royal Blood video involve crowd-surfing, shouting, jumping and pushing around. These examples can also be seen in previous rock videos from bands such as ACDC with their Thunderstruck video. As ACDC are a classic rock band that most, if not everyone, is aware of and because Royal Blood are featuring elements from ACDC’s video in their own, the band have more or less given themselves the title of a rock band.

     However, the actual appearance of the Royal Blood members go against the stereotypical image of a rock band, which could mislead the public into thinking, they’re something they are not. For example, a stereotypical rock band would be seen with long hair, leather jackets, black clothing, just like Metallica or Kiss. Whereas Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher have short, stylish hair and stubble, alongside of this, they also follow the current fashion trend e.g. denim and bomber jackets, this itself goes against typical rock conventions.

     Due to the video being based on pure performance rather than any narrative or conceptual themes, the video is difficult to analyse for any storylines or short events. One other element that the video shows rock conventions is through the narrative events. As the Little Monster music video is pure performance, it could suggest that the band were unable to afford to pay for the props/scenery for a narrative video. This is quite common for a rock band as the rock genre isn’t as popular as it used to be. Therefore meaning that artists with rock features and conventions are less likely to earn as much money as someone like David Guetta, as his genre is pop/dance which is more popular than rock.

     The important element that shows most of the rock aspects in the video is through iconography. This is where certain objects or props are linked with different categories. For example, the instruments featured in the video (guitars, bass, drums, microphone) are all iconic of rock and are easy to identify. So because of this, the video can be quickly identified as a rock video.

     In addition to the instruments, another iconic feature of rock is the crowd. As previously mentioned about the aggressive behaviour being encouraged by rock music and how it influences the crowd to act out aggressively, this is also common for the rock genre. The pushing around people do at gigs, otherwise known as a ‘mosh pit’, is mainly seen at rock concerts, which is why you could say that the Little Monster video is indeed rock. It’s that well known and associated with rock that it’s even got itself it’s own name.

     In addition to my previous point about ‘rock’ being less popular therefore artists earn less money, the artists tend to book smaller, more affordable venues when touring. This is why the Royal Blood Little Monster video is a very small and compact room with very little space for people to move, you can see this in the image to the left. It shows the roof of the venue very low down, as if it’s just a few inches off the singer’s head. Furthermore, as rock artists play smaller venues, their shows are more intimate which creates a bond or relationship between the artists and crowd.

     The whole video is in black and white, which makes it hard to analyse the colour and the meanings behind them e.g. red for danger or blue for sadness. Also, due to fast pace cuts and edits, it makes it very hard to see the facial expressions of the band, which also makes it difficult to analyse.

     Different technical aspects in the video such as lighting, editing and cinematography all create and show typical rock ideas which is common to see with rock artists/videos.

     The lighting in the video has been specifically placed behind the artists so that the light is projecting onto the crowd. This lightens up the crowd so as Royal Blood are performing, they can physically see the faces and facial expressions which relate back to the ideology of a friendship or relationship at the show. In addition to this, as the light is coming from behind the British duo, it creates a silhouette on them because they can block out the light. Therefore, drawing more attention to them because they’re the more important ones in the room. This is a typical rock convention as many popular or upcoming rock bands are self-centered and like to have all the attention, some members like more attention than other members (usually singers).

     As I said previously that the video was filmed at a live Royal Blood performance of the song, it is obvious that the directors/cinematographers have used more than one film camera. This is clear as the cameramen have shot different angles of the rock duo performing and haven’t left out one shot of them. For example, they’ve placed different clips from different cameras together so that the whole video would flow perfectly with the track. This is typical for a music video in general, regardless of the genre, as many directors tend to edit them like this. However, some videos are different as they sometimes stop and play the song to perhaps fit a storyline. Therefore this Royal Blood video follows typical music video conventions.

     In addition to this camera feature, there is also another clever technique that the director or cameramen have done. The majority of the camera angles aren’t steady, which means the people filming have used a handheld camera to capture the action and have purposely done this. For example, the cinematographers have used a handheld camera to create the idea of kinetic energy within the video to match the action of the crowd and band, almost as if it’s a point of view shot. Alongside of this, the editors have also used fast pace editing, which could potentially link with the energy of the crowd as well. In addition to the idea of kinetic energy, I also believe that this was done to make the audience engage with the video and feel as if they’re physically there watching the band play.