1. By Alt-j Music Video Analysis
Breezeblocks
By Alt-j
Music Video Analysis

2. context
Released in 2012, breezeblocks is personally one of the most interesting contemporary music videos. It was directed by Ellis Bahi and was Alt-j’s first official music video and since being uploaded to YouTube on the 23d of March 2012, it has got 146,913,508 views. YouTube has been a very important tool in Alt-j’s success, since it was made in September 2011; they have gained over 3 million views and nearly 700,000 subscribers. The video won at the UK Music Video Awards for “Best Alternative Video” on the 8th of November 2012.

3. the narrative
The video features a violent fight in an apartment between a male and female character shown in reverse, beginning with the death of the female character at the hands of the male character, who bludgeons her with a breezeblock. As the fight progresses backwards, it is revealed that the female character is the aggressor in the fight, having ambushed the male character as he returns home to discover his presumed wife bound and gagged. With the strong narrative, it is no wonder that the video won so much praise as the whole video is filmed in high definition slow motion and played backwards, it becomes a cinematic triumph.

4. Genre, colour and Special Effects
The genre of Breezeblocks is alternative rock. This underground style originated in the 1980’s. Some other alternative rock bands are The Arctic Monkeys, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Black Keys. Traditionally alternative rock music videos tend to be narrative based, which breezeblocks conforms to with slight hints to conceptual elements.
The only special effects that are used in the video is the reversing of the chronology and the slowing of the footage. These two effects create an artistic feel to the video. Reversing the chronology is a unique and unusual convention to be used in a music video.
The colour scheme for the video features dull and dark colours, which in turn add to the creation of the melancholy atmosphere of the video.

5. Video concepts
The video rejects many aspects of mainstream music videos. There is no objectification of woman, therefore the gaze theory is not present; this is because of a lack of sexualisation within the concept of the videos narrative, however, the extent of which the female characters in the video hold power is arguable as one of the female character exists only as a plot device.
As well as excluding the exploitation of the male and female gazes, as the artists are not featured in the video there is no exploitation of star imagery. By steering away from the use of star image and other performance techniques, the Breezeblocks music video emphasises the importance of the narrative and reinforces the idea that the song and the music are the important features to the video, and not the physical identity of the band.

6. Chronology
The video for Breezeblocks is presented in reverse chronological order, utilising slow motion to fit the pace of the music, creating an oddly relaxed feel to the video’s style which contrasts with the events depicted. Along with fitting with the pace of the song in terms of tempo, the cuts used in the video are timed in correspondence to the beat of the music, and a visual representation of the lyrics is used in some places… as the female character is struck with the breezeblock before being drowned, the lyrics go “hold her down with soggy clothes and breezeblocks”.

7. Connection between lyrics and visuals
The lyrics become significantly influenced by romance with the lines that feature towards the end of the song: “please don’t go, please don’t go, I love you so, I love you so”. These lyrics, put into the context with the video, give the impression of the conflict being result of an infatuation of some sort between the man and the murdered woman. The match up between the song and the video relates to Andrew Goodwin’s theory in which he states a music video must have some correlation to the music it represents.

8. Conclusion
In conclusion, Breezeblocks’ music video has moralised elements of the alternative rock genre and incorporated the songs lyrics to make a video that relies on the audience’s interpretation and understanding in order to evoke proper emotional response. This is because alternative rock as a genre often include literally techniques such as metaphors in lyrics, therefore for the song to be understood properly the audience will have to be looking closer, where many alternative rock fans will know what to be looking for. When it comes to making my own music video I will use this as an example of the power you can get from incorporating a relationship between the visuals and the lyrics. I will also think about being creative with the chronological order of the music video, I will consider using timing to make a more advanced video.