Textual Analysis of Wonderwall

Wonderwall

Textual Analysis of ‘Wonderwall’ by Oasis

 

Genre – The song itself is closer to Britpop than Rock/Alternative Rock, the genre the band Oasis is most known for. There is not much of a storyline to layout the genre as it is mostly performance clips, suggesting a rock genre. There are out of place parts of the video, for example there is a clown simply staring at the camera/audience.

 

Narrative – There is not much of a narrative in the video. Possibly the clown and the puppet could be seen as part of a storyline relating to the song; somehow the puppet has become the clown’s ‘wonderwall’.

 

 

There are some links between the lyrics and the video, for example at 1:24 when Liam Gallagher sings the word winding, you can see that he is being winded upside down.

 

 

There could possibly be a reference in the video at around 1:40 when Gallagher sings ‘There are many things that I would like to say to you but I don’t know how’, the clown and the puppet say nothing, possibly representing the lyrics.

 

Representation – in the entire video, there is only one woman, possibly representing the men are more important than woman. There is also use of the ‘Male Gaze Theory’ (Laura Mulvey), as the woman in the video is seen to be wearing fairly revealing clothes. The band is mainly only shown as them playing the song.

Goodwin's Theory

Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin's theory stated that every music video follow a few of his 7 stereotypes for music videos. Some may follow all of them, some may follow only three, but all music videos will include some of them.

1. Links between lyrics and visual
2. Links between music and visual
3. Genre characteristics
4. Notions of looking ('Male Gaze Theory' Laura Mulvey), Voyeurism
5. Intertextual References
6. Close Ups (because of record label)
7. Performance or narrative based music videos

Examples

(Close Ups) In One Direction's 'What Makes You Beautiful', there are countless close ups of the band, most likely for promotion of the band and the record label.

 

 

 

(Genre Characteristics) In most Rock songs, there music videos normally show the band performing live somewhere, for example, 30 Seconds To Mars' 'Edge of the Earth'.

 

 

(Lyrical and Visual Links) In Wheatus' 'Teenage Dirtbag', there are a few links in the music video that correlate with the lyrics of the song. For example,  the girl in the video starts walking over to the boy on the line "She walks over to me".

 

Teenage Dirtbag Power Point

Teenage Dirtbag

Teenage Dirtbag is a song by Wheatus that was produced in July 2000.

 

                                                   (The band Wheatus)



Intertextual Links

          The music video is linked to the film ‘Loser’, showing a similar storyline and the same actors supposedly playing the same characters.

          They also reference another rock band, Iron Maiden, fairly often in the lyrics.

 

Genre Characteristics

        The music video shows multiple clips of the band performing in multiple locations (sometimes with a crowd there as well). This is stereotypical of rock songs. Another example of this could be Sum 41 – Fat Lip; the video is very similar as they also perform in the middle of a big crowd.

Lyrics

          Near the beginning of the video, the girl comes out of the car when the singer says ‘Her name is Noel’, suggesting that Noel is that girl.

          When the singer says ‘She doesn’t know who I am’, the girl in the video walks past the boy without acknowledging his existence.

          The other boy leaves the boy on floor after he had been knocked over when the singer says ‘He doesn’t give a damn about me’.

           The girl walks over to the boy on the line ‘She walks over to me’.

Close Ups

          There are many close ups of the band member throughout the video, mainly focused on the singer, but the are still numerous close ups of the rest of the band.

There are also many close ups of the actors in the video, possibly being away to advertise them as well as the band.