Textual Analysis- Teenage Angst

Teenage Angst- Placebo

For my second textual analysis I have decided to look at Placebo's Teenage Angst. I am interested in the literal and the metaphorical way in which they portray confusion, expression, isolation and alienation among teenagers within the video, and the metaphorical way they communicate teenage angst in general. In my music video, I want to include the extended metaphor of self-fulfilling prophecy, without explicitly stating in the music video that this is occurring. I want my character (a vampire) to be insulted and feared for their existence and consequently, at the end of the music video, kill a person in a vampire-esque way (drinking their blood). 

Mise-en-scene

The most apparent element of mise-en-scene within the video is the setting and location. The video appears to take place inside a bright red box in the middle of a sunny field. At the beginning of the video a young boy dressed in what seems to be a white polo shirt (maybe for school) comes across a black box in the middle of a field and enters it. The clothing of the boy could be to indicate his age (as a young school boy) but it could also perhaps stipulate purity or perhaps even naivety.

The fact that the box is in the middle of a scenic field on a sunny day could be stipulating isolation and mental contrast. A child leaves the serene and bright world around him to enter a confined space that he cannot then get out of.

In the extended metaphor that is teenage angst, this entering the box represents the boy entering teenage-hood. The box symbolises the isolation that many teenagers feel whilst growing up.

The colour red is also another prominent aspect of the music video. The colour clearly signifies the title of the song, with the colour red often being associated with anguish, confusion, vexation and desire.

Inside the box, the band members (also the only apparent adults) are shown to be dressed in red, whereas all of the teenagers in the box are wearing white, but are surrounded by red. This could show how the confusion and anxiety you begin to feel about the world when growing up makes a lasting impression on you and may even follow you into adulthood. Goodwin's music video theory also applies here, as there is a link between the song's meaning and the visuals (which metaphorically convey teenage angst through colour) and more specifically, there's a link between lyrics and visuals when the frontman sings "I'm still not satisfied": he and the rest of the band are inside the box for the duration of the video, and appear to be trying to get out just like all of the teenagers.

Editing

Aspects of Goodwin's music video theory is shown through the editing of Teenage Angst, for example, the visuals match the pace of the music when the first two cymbals sound on the intro to the song, where there's a cut to the frontman tilting his head from one side to another. This is also the first time we see the band members and become aware that the music video is a performance/conceptual piece, and so the editing also works to introduce the band into the song.

A match-cut is deployed where the boy tries to escape the red box and a cut away shows him pushing his face into the wall only to find that it stretches, the shot that follows the boy pushing his face forward is the frontman stepping backwards away from the camera, as if finishing the action that the boy had started.