Analysis Of Music Videos - 'R U Mine' by The Arctic Monkeys

The First video I am going to analyse is 'R U Mine' by The Arctic Monkeys. As the video begins the first thing the audience see is a radio presenter introducing the station. We can tell this because of the mise en scene within this shot. For example, he is holding a microphone, wearing a set of headphones and has cables around the room creating a studio type setting. This then fades into seeing the view from the car window and then star inside a car with his fellow band members, his drummer Matt and bassist Nick. We can assume that this was shot on a handheld camera because of the quality and the movement within the video which is achieved when using this type of camera. Shortly after it fades back into the radio presenter introducing the song before showing the star again. This allows the audience to link the two things together, the song and artist, if they didn't know already. It also promotes their 'star image' because we see the star within the video as well as the radio presenter introducing them using their band name. As soon as the beat kicks in we see the two band members act as if they are drumming to the beat which creates thought beats and directly links the two together. The genre of The Arctic Monkeys is indie rock. Throughout the video there is a black and white effect which works together with the handheld camera work to create simplicity within the video. This is a common theme throughout the indie genre as often they do not have the funds to be able to afford technical equipment.

At 0:44 we see the main star, Alex Turner, stand up in the car showing his tattoo whilst doing so.

His tattoo is of the Yorkshire Rose. This helps to promote his star image as it shows the audience where he is from. In this case he is from the Sheffield area therefore allowing the audience to link him to the place. As well as this, throughout the music video they are seen to be wearing sunglasses which we associate with celebrities and a star image.

Thought beats are shown throughout the entire video at different points. A significant time this happens is at 1:43 shown in the screenshot. The drummer of the Arctic Monkeys Matt Helders taps the drum sticks onto his shoulder in time with the drum sound in the video. When this is done it links him directly to the music and shows the audience that he is not just the driver but also a band member and an important character in the music that has been made, if they didn't know so already.

At 2:08 two girls are seen in the back of the car with the bassist Nick O'Malley. The girls are seen to be wearing masks and hats as he sings the song facing into the camera. Female gaze is then created as the females are later seen at the band area. This is good as the main audience for the Arctic Monkeys is males. Therefore it will attract their attention to the video.

Finally, at the end of the video we see the band performing the song surrounded by smoke. As well as this there is a TV with a picture of Jamie Cooke the lead guitarist. He wasn't able to go to the video filming as it was his wedding day! The band still chose to include him in the video even though he wasn't able to make it. This allows the audience to see the entire band performing the song which we haven't yet seen throughout the video.