Monday, 7 September 2015

Indie music video analysis - 'Budapest' by George Ezra


The music video for ‘Budapest’ by George Ezra conforms to the conventions of indie music videos as most of the video is performance based where he sings and plays his guitar. This means that the video also follows Andrew Goodwin’s music video theory as it clearly demonstrates the characteristics of the indie genre.


There is an obvious relationship between the lyrics and the visuals as George Ezra is seen lip-syncing the song for a lot of the video which amplifies this relationship. Furthermore, some of the specific lyrics match what we see on screen, like when he sings ‘my many artefacts’ and it shows a man carrying an antique urn. This again emphasises the relationship and so conforms to Andrew Goodwin’s theory.


There is also a link between the music and the visuals since the whole music video is cut to the beat. This link is further shown with George Ezra’s guitar strumming matching the beat of the song and also with people’s movements being in time with the music such as a man’s sneeze and everyone turning their heads towards him. In addition, the mood of the music is reflected in the visuals as the happy feeling of the song is indicated in the colourful video. All of this shows that the video follows Andrew Goodwin’s theory.


Additionally, the video also conforms to Andrew Goodwin’s music video theory because it meets with the demands of the record label by having various close-up shots of George Ezra. This helps him gain promotion as he can become more recognised in the music industry.



There are a few quick shots of a woman wearing a crop top and so uses the notion of looking to sexualise people, subverting Andrew Goodwin’s theory as it says that this feature is likely to be used by synthetic artists, whereas George Ezra is organic. However, it is only a tiny number of very quick shots that show this and she is still mostly clothes, and therefore doesn't subvert the theory to the full extend, with most of the video conforming to it since the rest are fully dressed and non-sexualised.


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