Textual Analysis –
Bang Bang Bang by Mark Ronson and the Business Intl
Bang Bang Bang is the first single from Mark Ronson’s third album, “Record Collection”. Since his last album, “Version”, Ronson has changed from a producer to a whole new entity which resembles a band: Mark Ronson and the Business Intl, which includes a bass player, drummer and a keyboard player. Each song on his album has different singers like his sophomore album. The artists he uses on this song are Amanda Warner and Jonathan Davis, who are relatively unknown. This song leaves his old style of reinvented cover songs and goes in a new direction of eighties pop mixed with an old French nursery rhyme (Alouette). The song has been very well received, getting to number six in the UK singles chart. The lyrics do not really make sense at first listen, especially since a lot of the song is sung in French. However, the song that is sampled is a well known rhyme , even in this country. Alouette is a song about plucking feathers from a skylark’s head, which is slightly morbid, compared to the video.
The start of the video is somewhat irrelevant and confusing. The first image is a black screen with the word “Play” which means that it is symbolising a video recording (which brings us to a “back to the future” theme), and then an advert of a sandwich spread called “Ronson” is shown, which is a reference to the popular filling “Nutella”. This has absolutely nothing to do with the video, except the reference to Mark Ronson. The shot is fuzzy, like an old fashioned advert which is a clue to the time in which the video is set. As the video carries on, it cuts to a television studio showing a two-shot of Ronson talking to a Japanese chat show host. It appears that he is promoting his new song, which he then performs. When the host speaks, it sounds like French (with French and English subtitles) which does not go with the visual image; however, it supports the French theme found throughout this song. Ronson, on the other hand, is speaking Japanese (with Japanese and English subtitles) which also does not go with the lyrics, although it goes with the theme of the video. The various cuts of the men are standard for videos of this genre – a lot of mid shots and mid close ups to easily see the person’s face whilst still being able to see some of the surroundings; and wide shots which shows the whole person and illustrates location and context. An example of this is when Ronson goes to the stage to perform. The style of cutting is not too fast and not many of the cuts are in time with the beat. Some of it is in time with the start or end of verses, i.e. it cuts to Warner when she starts singing the chorus (synchronised). There are no solo instrumental bits, because a lot of the song is made using synthesizers, however, it does show Ronson playing the keyboard when it is more prominent than any other instruments used. The keyboard is also like a mini story in between shots of the group performing. It is made to look like it is a spaceship, blowing up things which comes back to the destruction motif – “Bang Bang Bang”.
This video is dissimilar to many other pop videos because there is no objectification of women, which seems to be commonplace in modern pop videos. Even the dancing is just normal club dancing, not a man and a woman “grinding”.
There are a few intertextual references in this video, one being a kind of “Back to the Future” style of special effects. This could also be a reference to any and/or all space films, such as Star Wars, Star Trek and Doctor Who. Even the singers look like they are travelling at “warp speed” because the background is the galaxies and starts zooming past them. At the end of the video, after the song has finished and the chat show finishes. An old tennis match is shown. You can tell by the clothes and hairstyle that it is another reference to the eighties. When the tennis player gets angry because of a point given to his opponent, he starts throwing his racket around and stamps his feet like a child. This is reminiscent of a match involving John McEnroe, who screamed at the linesman “You cannot be serious?!”.
To conclude, this performance based video is very stylised and can also be considered as being a “cult classic” in years to come. It brings older audiences into a mood of nostalgia, whilst still being entertaining for a younger viewer. It is a good video to kickstart Mark Ronson’s comeback.
