There is the main character, the artist Halsey, who seems to be the head of the army she has recruited. It seems as though they are preparing for battle, due to the black clothes they’re wearing, such as the vests, torn gloves and shaved heads. The shaved head is stereotypical of soldiers, because they have to have a certain type of hair length. Therefore this represents the idea of war. New Americana’ challenges the stereotype that women are inferior, due to the fact that the person leading the rebels is a woman.

However, Halsey’s body language come across quite masculine in the music video when she is sat down with her elbows on her knees, smoking, and is emphasized by her costume- combat boots, loves and cargo pants. This challenges the positive representation of a women, because smoking is associated with a person of the male gender.

From looking at their body language, it is clear that they are rebellious young adults, due to their promiscuous behaviour in some scenes and violent behaviour in others- the video crosscuts from a man having his hair shaved to a man weeing on the floor. This adheres to the stereotype of men being rebellious and violent.

It is a narrative music video that starts off with main character walking into the camp. Then there are a sequence of crosscuts and cutaways around the camp, establishing what is going on and the reason why they are there. Then half way through the video, police raid the camp and arrest the main character and tie her to a podium that they are going to set fire to. There are people stood around, who are dressed scruffy and look dirty, therefore suggesting they are the poor who have been overrun by the ‘policemen’ or the people in charge and the leader, Halsey, is part of a gang that are going to try and take back “Americana”. However, there is a smoke grenade launched the people stood around being to help, the girl on the podium, Halsey.

Halsey- New Americana

The women are wearing dark make-up and big hooped earrings which is stereotypical of women to wear make-up. However, it is a negative representation, because it is dark and makes them come across as rebellious.

Men, who look like police or a rival gang, raid the camp and take the people hostage, wearing big helmets and guns. This is a negative representation of police, as it present them as being violent and unfair when they take the main character, Halsey, away. There are people of a black ethnicity on the opposing side, against the rebels. This adheres to the stereotype that people of a back ethnicity are violent and aggressive. However, there are people of a black ethnicity on the rebel’s side, which therefore breaks the negative representation of the stereotype that people of a black ethnicity are violent. The narrative happening here is that Halsey has created a rebel army but has been found out and raided by the intruders.

Right at the end of the video, It cuts to eerie electronic music where there is an image of an old style radio that the artist picks up, which could be suggesting that that is where the woman’s voice was coming from at the beginning. This is because right at the beginning of the video, it had the same long shot of her on the floor. Non-diegetic sound at the beginning is machine-like in the background and the musicians voice can be heard talking over it. The voice is crackled and has a reverb, which has intertextuality with the 1960’s radio.

It is set in a jungle, in a camp where it looks like they are training for battle. The camp is dark, dirty and cramped, suggesting the fact that they have been outcast and are rebels training for battle. There is graffiti on the walls, which further emphasises the rebellious attitude of the people. There is a crosscut to the people in a village that looks run and taken over by a rival gang, that resemble the police because of their helmets. This adheres to the stereotypical view of the alternative genre, because it doesn’t deal with the issue of love, like pop does.

The policemen carry guns with them as they take over the establishment, which is a phallic symbol for power and dominance.

The video is playing images of rocks that have an overlay of blue and pink in an 80’s film style- crackling, date in the top left hand corner and low quality. This is postmodern because the audience don’t know whether it is paying homage to the style or it is actual footage from the 80’s- according to Baudrillard this is known as hyper-reality.

The video is low key when it crosscuts to them in the camp, suggesting they are training in secret and high when they are outside as they’re being chased by the rival gang. The colours of yellow, green, black, red, pink and blues within the video are dark and low key. These colour in particular represent rebellion, love, happiness and loyalty which could all be interpreted as being representing their situation of taking back their “Americana”.

As the leader, Halsey, is being taking to the podium the music cuts out to diegetic sound of her shouting to the people around her “Help! Why are you just standing there?” At the start of the video she was represented as a dominant female, which challenged the stereotypical of women that they are weak and inferior. However, she has been dragged away and is now in need of help, therefore this adheres to the stereotype of women being weak, because she is being presented as the ‘damsel in distress.’ The cutaways become quick and fast paced as the men raid the camp, which helps emphasise the action taking place.