Case Study 3 - My Chemical Romance

 I’m Not Okay (I Promise)

In this music video there is a fairly equal balance between the band’s performance and the narrative, with the two often overlapping.

This follows Andrew Goodwin’s music video theory with a link between the lyrics and visuals and intertextuality. Although no intertextual references to specific other media products, a certain level of cultural competency is expected to understand the general references to high school experiences and representation in the media. 

The flashing up text keeps the audiences’ focus as well as engaging in the personal identity aspect of Blumler + Katz’s Uses and Gratifications theory. 

This is clearly a music video for the rock genre with zoom ins on the instruments, focus on performance of the band and MCR are easily recognisable by their image. 

Planetary Go!

This music video is purely performance based, specifically a live performance, with lots of camera cuts on both the music and lyrical timing to retain the audience’s interest. 

There are multiple instances of key lyrics flashing up, often animated and covering the majority of the screen. Also, the members are introduced as they appear, akin to movies such as those Tarantino directed.

Although not following Andrew Goodwin’s music video theory in the same manner as their previous video, this video focuses on the performance aspect of the theory, likely in order to promote tour tickets. 

This again is clearly a music video for the rock genre with zoom ins on each band member and their instruments, live performance in front of an audience as the recognisable image of Gerard Way (the singer) in his ‘Danger Days era’ (categorised by his red hair after their album release). This easily places the music video in a timeline of the band for dedicated fans.

Website

Overall the website is very dark to fit in with genre characteristics of rock imagery and it is simple/easy for the audience to navigate and use.

Before the audience can enter the main website, they are taken to a page dedicated to the band’s latest release with links to listen to/watch it. 

The main page of the website displays the latest news from the band, including an intertextual reference to one of their songs. There are links to other pages such as merch and tour information. There is also a pop up to sign up for the latest news from the band, strengthening the relationship between the band and the audience. 

At the bottom of the website there are links to the band’s various social media platforms.