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Music video analysis- Green Day-Holiday

The second music video I chose to analyse is Holiday by the pop/punk band Green Day, the video

was directed by Samuel Bayer who has directed music videos for artists of a similar genre such as

Marylin Manson and The Rolling Stones. The music video contains a performance by the band and

also an illictical narrative half way through the music video as the narrative contains what appears to

be a birthday party with different events occurring throughout the narrative structure. The music

video begins with war planes in the sky, which suggests that the band have strong political views on

war and political events, this could be considered as being quite anarchic against the government

which is a typical convention of the genre of music.

A long shot of the band members in a rundown car, all wearing black sunglasses is the beginning of

the main music video; the black sunglasses make the band appear reluctant to establish a

relationship with the audience. The setting of this part of the video appears to be somewhere like

Vegas, which has connotations of alcohol, gambling and bright flashing neon lights, which are

prevalent within the mise en scene. There are three main settings within this video: a birthday party

at someone's house, an empty desert and a rundown car driving through what appears to be Las

Vegas. The settings are all associated with this particular genre as the party setting usually

symbolises a sense of rebellion and fun for the characters, the empty space in this case being a

desert symbolises the more

darker punk side of the hybrid

genre and the rundown car setting

driving through the streets

symbolises again a sense of

anarchy as in this video the car is

swerving off course and driving

extremely fast.

There are multiple characters

featured within the video with the

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majority being played by

the band members themselves. The guitarist: Mike Drint plays the characters of a bar man and a

police officer, the lead singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong plays the characters of a nerd a punk

and two rich guys and Tre Cool the drummer plays a prostitute, a priest and an alcoholic. Each

character is mocked satirically with the priest throwing up after drinking too much alcohol, and the

barman is seen dancing with the "prostitute" this is a typical convention of the genre, to mock

different aspects via characters featured in the music videos. The characters are established by their

costumes, which are flamboyant and garish in order for the audience to easily identify the

characters. The character of the prostitute is dressed in a green sparkly low cut dress, with a large

pink pearl necklace on and voluminous blonde hair this is mocking of the prostitute character as they

have flamboyantly dressed Tre to look this way, also the character of the punk contains iconography

of wearing heavy eyeliner,

striped t shirt and a black leather

jacket which are typically

associated with people in the

punk scene. Other iconic images

are that of a McDonald's which

they drive past, which is quite an

iconic fast food restaurant

typically associated with

America.

The narrative of the music video

is contrapuntal to the music as

the visuals don't match the lyrics

of the song, there is also a

narrative enigma as there are scenes featured such as from the birthday party where the audience

are not aware of events that have led up to it.

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The setting of the desert is desolate with four female dancers and the lead singer featured. The girls

are dressed in ripped fish net tights and green leotards and messy hair which makes them appear

grunge styled. The girls dance in a promiscuous manner in particular when they bend over in front of

one another, women are particularly referenced throughout the punk pop genre in quite negative

representations regarding them as sexual objects which is highlighted particularly here.

Within the digetic sound, typical iconic conventions of the genre are heard such as the heavy loud

drums and electric guitars. There are many references to government throughout the lyrics, such as

the use of the word "propaganda" which suggests how strong media influence is over America.

There is also reference to Hitler with the line "Sieg Heil to the president gasman" which suggests a

strong anarchic stand against the American government and its views at the time. The theme of

anarchy and rebellion is a consistent theme throughout the punk genre with artists such as Sex

Pistols being rebellious against establishments.