Music Video Analysis

Foo Fighters - These Days

The music video I am analysing is called 'these days' by The Foo Fighters. The Foo Fighters target audience range from 14-50 years old, so they have a big range but as rock is has more of a niche audience compared to pop or R&B the age range of their target audience varies a lot more. I think the Foo Fighters have a wide target demographic because rock is a genre which I believe any age can like but because its not mainstream it doesn't have a certain age limit on who likes it.

At the beginning of the video there is a fade in to the crowd at the Foo Fighters concert, showing everyones hands in the air holding their phones or different sources of light. It then fades out slightly to show a cross over of that image mixed with an image from the crowds point of view looking towards the stage and the third image that is mixed with both of them is a long shot showing the lead singer on stage. All of these three shots show the bands of point of view and the audiences point of view, which I think is important to this video as it is 50% performance based and 50% narrative based. Also it shows star image/artist which is very common in the rock genre.
The music relates to the visuals because on the heavy beats when the guitars and drums are playing it shows the band playing their instruments with bright lights shinning down and on the quite beats when there are no drums playing it shows low key lighting of the crowd. This creates a contrast and suits the rock genre well as it emphasises the louder parts of the song.
The purpose of this music video is to entertain the audience and promote their concerts, which relates to the style of the music video as it is mainly all concert footage and performance based. This is a stereotypical convention of the rock genre, as most rock music videos are 100% performance based. The majority of the video shows live footage from the Foo Fighters concerts in Australia and New Zealand. It is also narrative because at the beginning it shows the lead singer leaving his family and it shows the band practising behind the stage getting ready for the show. So it gives the audience a taste of their lifestyle whilst touring, which I think is important to include because it doesn't just show the fun they have on stage but it also shows a sad side for them as they have to leave their family and friends for a while. It also shows various clips from when they're in the car travelling, then in the hotel room and on stage when they're practising, this gives an insight of how much they do before the concert, which some people may not realise.
Also the close ups in the video show there facial expressions which don't look very cheerful, they look more grumpy and serious which may convey the rock genre and this applies to the codes and conventions of rock as they usually appear aggressive and angry. They do show aggression when performing, towards the end of the music video they smash their guitars, do a lot of head banging and throughout their music video they are playing guitars with broken strings, which conveys how much power they put into their music. The lead singer, guitarist and drummer all have long messy hair, all of the band members are wearing dark, dull clothing which conforms to the scruffy rock style and at some points the drummer doesn't even have a t-shirt on, conveying how they don't care about their image or what people think of them.
There are close ups of their fans singing the lyrics to their songs I think the close ups help portray the passion and emotion the fans have connecting to the band and the song.
During the video they show a birds eye view of one of the venues Foo Fighters performed at which is called AAMI park in Melbourne and on the night that they performed there were 30,000 people. This birds eye view shot is important to the video as it shows how successful the Foo Fighters are as a rock band to be able to sell out the AAMI park and shows the degree of just how big it is.
At 4.16 the crowd sing 'but its alright' and then we hear them cheer and see a mid shot of the lead singer Dave looking into the camera but pointing towards the fans, this is a sign that this video is dedicated to their fans and I think it shows their appreciation towards them.
The final image is a long shot of the drum kits silhouette and the audience, showing that the show, the song and the music video has ended.