Textual Analysis. (30 Seconds To Mars)

What is the purpose and function of the video in representing the artist:

30 Seconds To Mars – This is war.

30 Seconds to Mars is an American rock band from Los Angeles, formed in 1998. Since 2007, the band has consisted of actor Jared Leto (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, songwriter), Shannon Leto (drums, percussion) and Tomo Miličević (lead guitar, keyboards). Following the departure of Matt Wachter (now of Angels & Airwaves) in 2007, Tim Kelleher became the bassist for the group, performing live only with both Jared and Miličević recording bass for studio recordings, while Braxton Olita (keyboards) was added to the touring lineup in 2009. Previously, the group also featured guitarists Solon Bixler (now of Great Northern) and Kevin Drake (now of Polaroid Kiss).

I will be analysing the video ‘This Is War’. This specific video is a narrative based video mixed in with performance as the band is used as the actors. The video is all about world peace and how wars should stop, this video shows the actors at war but then weird, mysterious things start to happen to the vehicles. This shows that all the army vehicles are transforming and flying away as if it is disappearing. This portrays that war and terror should be vanishing and going away forever. This portrays the band as a group who wants world peace and believes in the right cause, this will reach out to the audience that this is what they want and all the people that want the same thing will start listening to their music.

There is also many clips and pictures showing world events for example when the lyrics ‘’there are the liars’’ it shows an image of an American president. This portrays to the audience that they are knowledgeable and have an understanding of what is going on in the world at the moment. This will reach out to a wider audience as people will think they can find out what is happening from their music.

The images cut to the beat as well, so it is very fast paced showing that war is a very fast paced atmosphere and also when the vehicles finally come to a stop and all form into a triangle, the lyrics talk about a brave new world which could be related to the illuminati conspiracy about the all seeing eye and new world order. People are very interested in this conspiracy as it is quite popular on the internet so this would make people watch the video and question the artist to see if he is part of this conspiracy which will increase the views and popularity of the video.

There is a lot of close ups of the main character/Lead singer looking straight into the camera which promotes the artists image so people are familiar with who he is and what he can do, there is also a lot of long shots showing the whole band together, portraying them as a band and as actors.

The mise-en-scene of this video is relative to the video, which is army uniform, guns, glasses etc. This shows that they are in character and can be something other than a typical rock band from America.

The special effects in the video show that the video is modern and possibly futuristic as there is tanks, jeeps, boats etc flying around. This shows that they are up to date while it is also entertaining for the audience to watch so they don’t get bored.

This music video is designed to have suspension and keep the audience watching as in the video the jeep they are all in stops and the main character says ‘stop the vehicle, did you see that?’ while he saw it but we didn’t as an audience so we are kept wanting to know what the thing he saw was, this thing then becomes apparent later on in the video, this keeps the viewer in suspense and carrying on watching which is what the artist wants.

This type of music video is typical of the rock genre as war is seen in a few other rock music videos for example ‘Avenged Sevenfold – Gunslinger’, war is seen as more of a cool thing to do, while many rappers aren’t known to have many war associated videos.

In conclusion, this video portrays the band very well, as it shows the artists close up portraying them individually as well as a band. The band being the actors also promotes them as hard working people who are more than just musicians, this will make people watch as people would want to see their favorite musicians acting as well. This video promotes the artist portraying the message that they want world peace which promotes them as an artist who are fighting/singing for a cause, spreading that message through their music, which would promote them as people would start listening to their music, to listen for that message.

Henry Kidman.