Genre: Nirvana are famous for breaking the mould of rock music, creating a rougher sound compared to other bands. The use of instruments in the video such as the electric guitar again suggest that it is the genre of rock / grunge music because the instruments used in the video are the instruments typically used in rock music. The bands grungy, unkept, 'rock n' roll' image again relates to the genre of rock music because the main focus is usually the music.
Style - Textual Analysis: The video begins with a black screen, fading in to see an aerial shot of a room, with an old man in a hospital bed and the band members of Nirvana sat at the end of his bed. Immediately the non-diegetic sound of the guitar comes in and the song begins to play. The room is empty, grey, boring with only a tiny part of natural light creeping in through the curtain. We can see a big black cross painted on the floor, crosses will become a key part of the music video as it progresses. There is then a jump cut to a long shot of the band members still at the end of the hospital bed, as a bright light flashes; the shot turns into a mid-shot of the band members, looking contemplative in their chairs.
Another bright flash of light transitions the shot into a long shot of a field full of poppies, this is said to be a reference to the poppy field used in the Wizard of Oz. The shot is very colourful, with a bright blue sky, red poppies and yellow hills. We can see an old frail man, the same one on the hospital bed, picking up poppies, whilst wearing a Santa hat. We see another cross, a solid one made of old wood, with a ladder leading up onto it, to the left of the shot. We then see a mid low angle shot, that’s blurred, of the old man picking poppies.
This climbing of the cross could refer to the meaning behind the lyrics, there can be many interpretations from the lyrics and nobody knows the true meaning behind it. But my interpretation of it is that Kurt is talking about his relationship with Courtney Love, this is relevant for many reasons. The lyrics as the man climbs the cross are; 'I've been trapped inside your heart shaped box, for weeks', refers to the fact that Courtney trapped him in the relationship as time went on, so he became passive like Jesus did with God, and gave himself up. We see close ups of the frail man’s ribcage, relating to the fact Kurt may have felt weak at this stage in the relationship.
We see close ups of artificial crows pecking at the cross, this may have linked to the idea that the crows were the media, with Nirvanas new found fame they were ready to expose every detail of Kurt and Courtney’s relationship.
The lyrics 'I've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap, I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black.' appear next, which show the audience that Kurt is addicted to Courtney like he is to tar, and that he wishes he could take away her pain and anger when things turn bad between them.
The next jump cut leads us to a long shot of the band playing instruments in the poppy field in front of the cross, while the sky is now red behind them; this shot then fades into a close up of Kurt Cobains face moving away from the camera, with his hands against his face, singing the lyrics. This makes the video a performance style video as the band is performing to the camera. As the chorus comes in, more distorted, slightly blurred images of a close up of Kurt’s head moving backwards and forwards appear, becoming more fast paced, just like the chorus itself. Kurt is dressed in a metallic shirt and scruffy patched jeans, much like the Tin man and Scarecrow characters, again a nod to the Wizard of Oz.
The following scene is a mid-shot of a small girl dressed in what appears to be a Klu Klux Klan outfit, standing in front of a tree in the poppy field, the tree has plastic foetuses hanging from its branches. A jump cut leads the shot into a long shot of her looking at the tree.
We hear the non-diegetic lyrics 'Meat-eating orchids forgive no one just yet', meaning that carnivorous orchids are beautiful on the outside but deadly this is exactly what Courtney is to Kurt at this point, he was lured in by her beauty but trapped by her nature.
The imagery from this strange 'tree of life' can also relate, meaning that life is a fragile thing not to be destroyed or played with, this is why when the little girl jumps, she cannot reach the foetuses, for she would she destroy them and take their lives like Courtney can do to Kurt because he's so obsessed and dominated by her.
We then see a long shot of an overweight woman with her organs painted on the outside of her body walking towards the tree but not getting any closer, this is because she may have taken too many 'fruits' from the 'tree of life' already, and she doesn’t deserve more. The painted organs mimic the album cover for In Utero.
Sticking with the codes and conventions of music video, the video is in colour, has no diegetic sound and the lyrics / song / instrument dominate the sound of the video. With all the blurring that occurs in the video, it gives the video a distorted feel.
The lyrics 'Throw down your umbilical noose so I can climb right back' refer to Kurt’s longing to restart his life, as there is a really prominent theme of life, (such as the foetuses and the young girl), and death, (such as the man on the hospital bed) in the video.
We then see a long shot of the girl skipping through the field past the old man, then a high angle shot of the fat woman displaying her organs in the field, contrasting the young and innocent with the old and greedy. Due to all this random imagery with no real narrative behind it, it also makes the video fall into the abstract music video category.
With a bright flash of light we see a long shot of the young girl stood in a black costume as she points like the grim reaper to the man in the hospital bed. We then see a close up of a foetus in the IV drip of the man in the bed, it could refer to the Wicked Witches hourglass in the Wizard of Oz which almost killed Dorothy, and the IV drip is the hourglass killing the foetus.
We then see the band members sat in a brightly lit room at a mid-shot as the background is blurred and only Kurt’s face remains clear as he sings to the camera. Suddenly there is a long shot of the room the band are stood in which looks like a box and on top of it is a giant black heart, relating to the idea of a heart shaped box that turns black with anger and pain. A jump cut leads us into a long shot of another brightly lit red room with a bed, desk and chair with the band members present, as Kurt rocks in a rocking chair while singing. Cutaway shots reveal the young girl sat on her own on the bed in this room at a mid-shot. The shots flick back and forth between the band and the girl as we see the girl opening a heart shaped box and then Dave Grohl holding it in another shot.
Form: Seeing as the video is so absract in its imagery, such as the old man on the cross, it would be obvious to say that the music video is of an abstract style; but also the band perform during the video, playing instruments and Kurt singing, so the video is a crossover between a performance form and an abstract form.
Audience: I believe that the audience for Nirvana can range from about 16-30 year olds, this is because the song is still angry and rebellious for the teenagers, e.g. when Kurt screams the chorus which relates to the 'teenage angst label' that followed Nirvana since the release of Smells like Teen Spirit. Also when the song was first released the label sold it to college student radio stations and modern rock radio stations, showing that they wanted a young teenage audience to listen to it. I also believe that it's relevant to the 30 year old adult because the song talks about being stuck in a toxic relationship, and I feel that most adults at some point in their life will have had a bad relationship so they can relate to it, also the video contains some adult themes like dead feotuses that is inappropriate for anyone under the age of 16. The video has 20,860,481 hits on Youtube! Making it extremely popular after all these years.
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