Music Video Analysis 2

Warriors Dance -- The Prodigy



I am analysing the Warrior's Dance music video by the prodigy released from the album, Invaders Must Die. The video was directed by Corin Hardy. The genre of this song is perdominantly dance or techno. The characteristics for the video for this genre are displayed through not having the artist in the video, the concept style and the dancers, even though they are cigarette packets, which reflects the idea of the artiste is trying to portray the music and not themselves, which suits the dance/techno genre.

The idea of personifying the cigarette packets allows a rythm to be created through the dance moves where all the 'people' are in time, however, it also allows it to create a sense of continuity throughout the video, with all of the cigarette boxes being identical to one another. This doesn't have any link to the song but the fact that the bands logo is on the boxes suggests that they are very well known as they expect it to be recognisable.

There are very few connections between the lyrics and the visuals in the music video which is probably because it is not a narrative. There are a few however, including "everybody on the dance floor" where all of the cigarette boxes move off to the dance floor to start danceing. To keep the video inkeeping with the song the music and visuals match a lot more with more connections between them. This is reflected in the pace of the cigarette packets, for example, the slower start to the song is reflected by their slower movements. There is also the idea between the more dramatic events happening when the pace and temp of the music is quicker, i.e. the start of the fire. The relationship between these two things is important for the genre of the song as dance music is all about rythm and so the video must have a rythm to it.

The only reference to the artiste, as I mentioned before, was on the cigarette boxes. This could simply be some hidden promotion for the band or creating the idea that they are the same as everybody else, by making all of the people out of cigarette packets including themselves. In The Prodigy's case, they have probably done this because of they have already established a reputation for themselves and do not feel that it is nessecary to appear in their own music video. The use of the concept style may have also been chosen as there is very few lyrics to create a narrative or performance based video around. Another reference to the band in the video would be the use of fire, linking to the idea of rebellion, what the badn is all about.

Overall, the use of a concept based video has created an interesting piece and has complimented the song genre, beat and lyrics well.