One Week is a song that was released in 1998 by Barenaked Ladies. It is a fairly unusual song in that it contains both singing and rapping. It mixes old fashioned fairytales with modern pop culture (taking its inspiration from American television). Barenaked Ladies are Canadian alternative rock band that are famous for their comedic style and improvised raps in between songs at their concerts, which can be seen in this video.
The video starts off with a two-shot of a King and Queen in a castle, which makes the audience assume that the video will be a fantasy. The band is involved in the story in the video as well as being shown performing which is fairly common for videos in the nineties. As the video progresses we see shots of the Royal Court dressed in purple which is a direct reference to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Furthermore, a big box is carried out and placed in front of the King and Queen which is another reference to CCBB - “Girl on a Music Box”.
Another story which may be referenced is Alice in Wonderland (A in W) due to the red costumes of the dancers. In A in W, there are red chess pieces which act as the Red Queen’s soldiers and the floor in One Week is chequered like a chess board, further establishing the link between fiction and reality. This can also relate to the lyrics which are about overcoming something difficult – A in W is getting to the end of the chess board by beating your opponent and One Week is trying to make up after a fight. In addition, the dancers are used to show the change in pace in the song. When Steven Page sings just before the chorus the dancers are in white and look angelic, but when Ed Robertson raps, it cuts to women dressed in red provocative clothing surrounded by flamethrowers who scare the people dressed in purple.
As the music changes to an instrumental part, the scene changes to a suburban street further establishing the link between visuals and the music. The band enters the shot by running down the street as if they were being chased and it then cuts to a Gran Torino, which is the car (arguably) made famous by Starsky and Hutch. This is further added to when Robertson slides across the bonnet. They then progress into a race with The General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard which are both eighties television/pop culture references. The video is almost like a dream sequence in the way it plays out. Its use of split screens makes it more interesting for the viewer and it enables them to see close ups of both cars and the people in them. Moreover the sharpening filters used in the editing process makes the colours seem a bit more vivid like a lucid dream. The use of a car chase in a suburban area is a juxtaposition like the singing/rapping in the song. After this, a woman appears in an Evel Knievel outfit riding a motorbike and then crashes which is another nod towards eighties TV. It is possible that it is a metaphor for the lyrics of the song – the person is fighting a losing battle and even though they know their argument is wrong, they still carry on regardless.
This video uses a mixture of concept based techniques such as its use of film and television references which does not quite make up a real plot line, yet still conveys the emotion of the song; and performance based techniques like using standard close ups of faces when singing and playing the guitar.
To conclude, this video is fairly typical of nineties videos due to its superficial irrelevance to the song, however, unlike similar videos, it ends up making sense in an obscure way. Its use of popular culture and children’s books make it a good video for people of a young age.
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