Animals, Martin GarrixTextual Analysis

Background

Martin Garrix is only 17 years old. This is his first number 1 single. It was released on 17th June 2013 but has only been number one for 2 weeks (since November).

WritingThe first scene is the artist name on an almost black background, although if you look closely you can see the image begin to form. The artist name may appear as ge isn’t that big and is a fairly new artist but obviously makes excellent music, due to this the name may appear to build more recognition for him.

FireAfter the text appears, it is a video of a little fire starting, fire often represents danger which is probably why it has been done. It also links with the rest of the video. The character in it do come across as quite dangerous therefore the fire may represent them and therefore a target audience as being dangerous. The fire is moving quite slowly and has been deliberately set, we know this as there are matches on it.

Shot Types

Many different shots are used in the video. Long shots often show the scene e.g., dancefloor or show an action, e.g., somebody dancing. Close ups are used to show faces and possible iconography.

Setting/Representation of youthThe video is set in a nightclub, we see a lot of young people dancing around,

drinking and showing sexual behaviour. These are all representations of youth these days, the video sticks to these stereotypical representations. The way the people are dressed also gives a clue and represents the target audience, tattoos may be a common thing for the people aimed at, the way make up is

done, clothes etc, all aiming the video to a certain audience

Enigma Codes/IconographyIn the beginning of the video somebody is shown walking with an old

fashioned clock, he then holds it up and everything goes silent. This clock appear to mean something to the audience, but we’re not quite sure what,

therefore creating mystery, making the clock an enigma code. There is lots of Animal images, whether its patterns, masks, clothes… animal icons are shown a lot, mostly wild animals. Due to this being a reoccurring

theme, we think of the animals of an iconography but we’re not sure what it is trying to represent, whether its just done due to the name of the song or it is trying to say youth and target audience are wild and representing them as having animalistic behavior, other things throughout the video support this

idea.

Further Representation of YouthThroughout the video the characters in animal masks continue to cause mischief.

There are many possible reasons they’re wearing the masks; maybe its because they want there identity to be hidden whilst they act out in a rebellious way, they may be trying to make a statement and be remembered for it, they may be rebelling against

the ideas of youth in the way they are represented. It appears that the character get a kind of buzz from this behavior as they are shown dancing around and almost

celebrating after they smash a car up and set it on fire. The car on fire relates back to the beginning image of the fire, showing the representation of danger was correct.

The person who is represented as the ‘ring leader’ almost takes his mask off at the end of the video, revealing his real identity. Possibly revealing he isn’t some evil

mastermind, he’s just a normal person trying to make a statement.

Music/Video Effects

A lot of the time the video fits with the music. When the music is speeding up, cuts between

images often do in time with it. This is something I could use in my music video.