Textual Analysis of music video one: Linkin Park – What I’ve done

Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. Formed in 1996, the band rose to international fame with their debut album, Hybrid Theory, which was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2005 and multi-platinum in several other countries. Its following studio album, Meteora, continued the band's success, topping the Billboard 200's album charts in 2003, and was followed by extensive touring and charity work around the world. In 2003, MTV2 named Linkin Park the sixth greatest band of the music video era and the third best of the new millennium behind Oasis and Coldplay. Having adapted the nu metal and rap metal genres to a radio-friendly yet densely-layered style in Hybrid Theory and Meteora, the band explored other genres in their next studio album, Minutes to Midnight, which was released in 2007. The album topped the Billboard charts and had the third best debut week of any album that year.

This song differs from most of Linkin Park's previously released songs in that it features almost no lead vocals from vocalist Mike Shinoda, save for a brief "na na na" refrain at the end. The song also has a downbeat exactly once every second, consistent throughout its entirety. Although it was released in 2007 it was used for the film Transformers, credits, advertising etc that was seen in cinemas around 2008 which increased the tracks sales yet again after a year of its official release however this track has now been unofficially nicknamed the transformers song.(Quoted from wikipedia)

The song starts out with a piano
riff, before adding a hip hop-inspired drum line, and then introducing a raw-sounding guitar riff. At the very start of the video emphasis on life
is shown by using colors of life such as blue and green with the grass reversing into the mud which links to the music almost like it is drawing the life back into the earth, as soon as the grass disappears into the mud the piano riff starts. While the piano riff is occurring a shot of a scorpion is shown which is walking along the desert that funnily enough links to the film which was made a few years later with a scorpion transformer that is first seen in the desert however of course the video couldn't have used the film for inspiration as the film wasn't released at that time however it could of worked the other way round. The keys from the piano also link with the steps that the scorpion is making across the sand. A small pan is produced which begins to draw the audience towards the band before cutting to another pan which goes left across the stage showing the location. An eagle is also shown as is a cog wheel which turns with the ticking of the one second beat that lasts throughout the whole video, this then cuts into various small clips and shows the band members who remain still as the camera circles them however the camera seems to take footage from underneath the members making them seem important and powerful although one band member holding a guitar seems to be moving slightly. As the guitar them comes into the sequence a shot of an explosion of some sorts is shown from a bird's eye view in black and white giving the feeling that you are looking through a camera thus linking to the notion of looking. From then on it features footage of the band playing while every so often showing footage of social issues, environmental issues, and historical figures good and bad. These include terrorism, destruction, obesity, abortion, Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Adolf Hitler among many more.

In various places within the video the lyrics match what is being shown within the video yet not to an extent where everything matches or the video would become boring as you wouldn't want to hear someone singing about making a cup of tea and the video is exactly that for about 3 minutes, it would just bore the audience. "Mercy come" is spoken as a shot of the sky is shown which may represent a link to god as he is supposed to reside within the sky and will help people in times of need as well as show mercy. "Wash away" links to a video of a polar bear swimming into water as well as a sewage tunnel pumping water away thus wash away. The lead singer within the video looks out at the camera during a point in the video and sings the lyrics "face myself" where he almost rejects what he had just said as he turns to the left of the screen hinting that possibly what mankind has done can't be easily faced or owned up to. After the first chorus the word "Hands" is sung where Mother Teresa is shown clasping her hands together in pray possibly showing that the destruction within the video is so bad that we need to pray thus linking to religion and with the first lyrics i spoke about as they both talk about religion. "Cross out" is sung before a burning cross is then shown which again could hint to Jesus on the cross. The final lyrics that link to the visual elements of the video that i have picked out is when the music goes quieter and the words "start again" are sung the lead singer walks away from the camera into lights which signify to me a new start or a new life or maybe even hope, theses reasons are backed up by the fact that a flower blooming is shown shortly after this as well as a baby scan of a child. I feel that linking the lyrics to the visuals can increase the meaning of the video and the way that it affects the audience.

As well as the lyrics matching the visuals the actual beats of the music can match these scenes making more of an impact. Near the start of the video there are scenes of various animals such as a rhino where the cuts link to the beat of the song thus giving it fluency. A flamethrower is used at the camera and the audience as the music fades and the signing begins to start right near the start of the video almost pushing you into the next sequence. Another visual is shown as the guitarist strum with two loud beats as the sun behind him also shines brightly twice with the strums increasing is size and brightness, this is on the lyric "I've" which then leads in the chorus where the beats occur more often. The sun is also shown with the artists in front of it where it shines stronger with the beat this allows the audience to see the artists of the band and identify them easily by using natural light instead of artificial which funnily enough global warming is hinted at in the video with ice bergs falling into the water due to artificial technology. The many explosions within the video are also linked with the beat of the video which i feel increase the effect of the beat by almost showing power with it. These as i said before give more of an impact and allows the video to be fluent and match up without leaving anything left so that it looks like it shouldn't be within the video.

All members of the band are shown however the main singer is obviously shown the most out of the group and they are shown in a few ways either a face shot which shows emotion and recognition of the member or a full shot view like at the start of the footage where each member is shown motionless with their musical instrument.
A sense of motion is used through time scheduled movements such as the appearance of clouds over time, the movement of cars plus others which give the video narration through all of the clips that are shown, thus giving it a slight story.

Contrast is shown within the video to emphasize the meaning of the clips thus making the audience react and connect more, an example of this is when a video of a starving African is shown which goes to a sign saying eat and then fades to a large male munching into a gigantic burger which is followed by a similar couple of clips of a person losing weight with a tape around their waist and another starving African, these clips show that the world has become centered around certain cultures and have forgotten others. Another hint at this is when shots of various places are shown such as the coliseum, pyramid, Stonehenge plus others which i feel show that the whole world is involved in the mess.

Reference to looking is also shown within the music video such as black and white clips with are easily shown to be recordings and almost make you feel that you are looking back in time, various other homemade like videos are shown such as the clip of the young child running in their garden as well as a clip of a pregnancy scan almost like the parents have allowed you to watch. Another feeling of watching something that you feel that you shouldn't really watch is of the male taking drugs on the stairs thus making you want to turn away from the screen.

The band keep to their genre by using various characteristics of that type, for instance the dark clothing with is typical among rock singers as well as the loud beats and the loud drums. The lead singer also leans with his microphone and the stand again this is typical for rock type singers however they refrain from screaming and yelling as they use pop type beats within some of their songs unlike their first album that they released. That said the band don't do any typical boy group dance numbers.

There are no sexual references within the video as i feel that the main aspect of the video is to show that the world is being destroyed but by us as the song is titled "What I've done" this gives the video meaning as the clips show what is going wrong with the world yet shows some of the people who have helped make it a better place thus i feel that the video tries to show you that we can help stop the wars and the pain that is being caused today. However many people feel that this video as almost telling the audience what to do and what to feel yet the bank argued that they were simply showing what was happening to the world and that we should stop mistreating the world which is unique to a band of their nature who are stereotypical on drugs and don't care about the world.