Research: My Favourite Music Video: Textual Analysis

Context

"Naïve" is a song by British indie rock band The Kooks. It was released on 27 March 2006 as the fourth single from their debut studio album, Inside In/Inside Out (2006).

"Naïve" charted at number five on the UK Singles Chart. The best-selling single of the band's career, it was the UK's nineteenth best selling single of 2006. It also did relatively well in New Zealand, reaching number 15 on the combined sales/airplay RIANZ chart. The song additionally charted in the United States, peaking at number 22 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart.

"Naïve" was featured on the soundtrack for the film 17 Again (2008) and on "Resolve", an episode of One Tree Hill, as well as on the show's third soundtrack, The Road Mix.

Textual Analysis

As the music starts to play, we are shown a young male walking slowly through a room, coming out to a street and walking into a different room. Whilst we are following the male the camera is tracking him with a hand held camera. The song is only just starting with little instruments being used at this point but as the drums come in, we get our first shot change.Still with the hand held camera, we can see that the young male is lip syncing the words whilst showing he is clearly upset or worried about something.

The shot then changes to a scene of the young male and a girl in bed together. This could suggest that they are in some kind of relationship of some description. However, as the scene continues, there are also other people laying on the floor around the house which could then lead to a suggestion that they just had a fling together at a party perhaps and the girl just woke up and thought she made a mistake.

We then see the girl perhaps play-fighting with the male backing up the suggestion that they are in a relationship and this is a part of the video where they are getting along at this point. Whilst we see this scene, we also see the young male walking through a crowd of people whilst singing.

The young male appears to be looking for someone and is most likely trying to find the girl. The lighting is very dark and red in this scene which could show that he is physically in a dark place but also mentally in a dark place due to something which may have happened with his girlfriend.

A shot of the two sat on a bed and not interacting with each other at all is then given to us. 'I may say its your fault, because I know you could of done more' is then sung over this shot which means something may have happened which has caused tension between the pair. the lyrics suggests that she might of cheated on him. The way they are sat in the image above supports this suggestion as they are sat apart and not looking or talking to each other at all. The scene is also a very dull scene which gives away the impression of little emotion.

We see a shot of the male laying in bed clearly thinking about what has happened as he is now alone. The lyrics 'she's such a smiling sweetheart' suggests that whilst he is just laying in his bed, he is thinking about how she could of done what she had done, Even if she is a 'smiling sweetheart'. 

However, after a few more seconds of the male walking through the crowd, We see the girl at what seems to be the same event having trouble staying balanced with a glass of wine in her hand as well. This is a suggestion that she is struggling without the young male by her side and has turned to alcohol to try and numb the pain.

The lighting within the video also shows that the young male doesnt care about anything that is going on as there are bright flashing lights going on and his isnt bothered by them at all. He is seen looking at other blonde girls but none of them are the one he is actually looking for. This could show he does still actually care.

There is then a flashback of a scene where the girl is throwing up in the toilet and the male is there to help her out so she doesn't get any sick in her hair. Mid-shots and close ups are primarily used throughout a lot of this video to help see the male singing and show the girl as she is stumbling around drunk.

For a lengthy period of the video we see the young male still walking about inside the crowd as what seem like flashbacks come up of the girl in a toilet with another man. The young male bangs on the door but she doesn't answer him. He then walks off into the crowd to continue drinking with his friends. Later on he goes back to the toilets to find the girl stand up as she opens the door to see the other man pulling his trousers up. She looks at him with no emotions as if she doesn't even care about what the young male has done for her in the past. The male walks out in disgust where it returns to real time from the flashback.

After that scene the male walks back to his friends clearly annoyed and angry as he pushes someone out of the way whom he accidentally knocked on his way past. As he is then sat with his friends, the girl walks past still with her wine, walking very gingerly as she is still drunk and probably not knowing what is going on. The main star male we have been following for the video looks at his friend who is staring at the girl and nudges him, indicating that the girl is not worth going near.

The main star male we have been following for the video looks at his friend who is staring at the girl and nudges him, indicating that the girl is not worth going near. This then fades to black as it is the end of the video.