Textual Analysis of a Music Video

Our deal by Best Coast

Directed by Drew Barrymore

The video I am going to be analyzing is by Best Coast and directed by Drew Barrymore. The genre of the music is indie pop and surf pop. The broad characteristics of these genres are normally performance based or they flick from narrative to performance frequently.

The only link between the lyrics and visual is that they are both about a relationship of some kind and people not being able to be together for some reason. In the music video, they are both from rival gangs which means that it’ll be difficult for the both of them to be together, also at the end of the music video she punches him which results in him falling off the side of the building and falling to his death which means they definitely can’t be together. In the lyrics it says “I wish you would tell me, how you really but you’ll never tell me cos that’s not our deal” which shows that she wants them to be together but he wont tell her how he feels because of some deal they both made but by the end of the song she says she doesn’t want any part to play in the deal anymore “that’s your deal, that’s not my deal.”

The link between the music and visuals contradicts itself. The music is quite soft and surfy while the video is quite gritty and to the point. There are solo instrumental bits, which are illustrated by the video, as the song is only 2 minutes and 9 seconds long while the video 3:51.

The record company is looking to sell the track by including stars into the music video such as Chloë Grace Moretz (most famous for Kick-Ass), Tyler Posey (most famous for Teen Wolf), Miranda Cosgrove (most famous for iCarly) and many more. The image that is being offered of the band is that they are romantics. The video doesn’t relate to any of the previous videos Best Coast have done, all of the other videos they have done have been light and soft.

The intertextual references used are of Greece as where the two main characters meet is where they race in the movie Greece, it is also linked with West Side Story as West Side Story is about two youngsters from a rival gang who fall in love and can’t be together. The music video is almost shot in a Greece style and the storyline copies West Side Story.

The music is all narrative based as it has a storyline throughout the whole of the video. Overall this video is completely different from the conventions of this genre and the other videos which have been created by the band.