Riptide analysis

The various elements of media language has a huge imapct and influences the meaing of music videos.
one of the elements of media language that is used to influence the meaning of music videos is the budget. If we look at the music video Riptide by Vance Joy, we can clearly tell that it is a low budget music video as we can clearly tell that the footage and images used have been found and cut into the video. Evidence of this being used is the way that they use a montage throughout the video to convey the meaning of the song. For example we see at the beginning of the video we see the woman in the dentists chair and the iamge of the lightbulb fading. In contrast to this, another Vance Joy music video called Georgia is a high budget music video. We can clearly see this straight away as we have a pan view of a jungle, whereas in the Riptide video th opening shot is a poor quality shot of the sky. Also used in the video Georgia that isn't used in the video Riptide is special effects. These are used to create explosions and a gun shot wound. The budget has a huge imapct on the band as if it is a low budget video like Riptide then it won't catch the eye of the target audience, whereas if it is a high budget video then it will catch the eye of the target audience as it looks more cinematic.
Riptide relies heavily on intertextuality- intertextuality allows the target audience to recognise and relate to elements through the clever use of props, backgrounds and stereotypes. A good example of this is when the lyics "The cowboy's running from himself" are sang, a man is wearing a brown waistcoat and a overcoat. He also wears a stetson hat. The target audience wouldn't have to etablish the cowboy in this video as cowboys have been represented in many films and so are well established with this stereotype.
One element that the video Riptide does include is challenging the typical codes and conventions of narrative as it doesn't follow a simple narrative story. Instead what this bideo does is cut links betwen lingustic and symbolic codes. For example when the line "Being dragged away to the dark side" a woman is dragged away into darkness. Another element that this music video does is influences surrealiststs because if you take the lyrics away from the video, then it wouldn't make any sense and goes against reality.
A further element that the video Riptide includes is Roland Barthe's theory of subversion of conventions as it confers to uniqueness. An example of this is when the line "All my friends are turning green" is sung. Most artists may have used actors with a special effect to represent this, however Vance Joy represents this in a unique way as he uses an image of a dollar to represent this. By doing this he could be representing the obvious fact that his friends are turning green at his success, but he could also be signifying the fact that he has more money than he does friends.
This video Riptide also includes the element of semiotics. The reason that semiotics is used here is to convey meaning and also symbolize what is actually being sang. For example we see a clip of a woman untangling herself from a pile of string. This is used to symbolize the lyrics "They come unstuck." This could also denote the fact that it could symbolize that everytime he tries to get into a relationship, it comes unstuck.
The Riptide video also includes the element of cinematic features. The reason that this is used is to catch the eye of the target audience and also that when the target audience watch the video, they feel as though it is like a film. For example, they use a cowboy hat and a cowboy outfit on the actor and placed a desert background at the back of him to symbolize the genre of a western. By using these, they have used the codes and conventions of westerns.
In conclusion the media language used in the video Riptide gains the attention of the target audience and also gains the artist Vance Joy more fans. Secondly, Vance Joy becomes more famous with this video and so he became more recognisable to the public. The video represents Vance Joy as a quircky and creative artist who had a broad imagination.