Genre theory in music videos

The Pogues featuring

Kirsty MacColl Fairytale of
New York
By Thomas Cutmore

A bit about the band

The Pogues (also know as Pogue Mahone) are a Celtic punk band from
London, formed in 1982 and fronted by Shane MacGowan. The band
reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s.
MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to drinking problems but the band
continued first with Joe Strummer and then with Spider Stacy on vocals
before breaking up in 1996. The band reformed in late 2001, and has been
playing regularly ever since, most notably on the US East Coast around St
Patrick's Day and across the UK and Ireland every December.
Their music video Fairytale of New York was originally released as a single
on the 23 November 1987. It is an Irish folkstyle ballad, and featured on
The Pogues' 1988 album If I Should Fall from Grace with God.

The genre of the music video

The music video contains a noir and also a classic genre/character to
it as it contains the black and white/noir lighting, the chiaroscuro
lighting that is used in noir films, the video also used the use smoke
filled bar with alcohol which Jacques Derrida explains, Every text
participates in one or several genres. The music video can be linked
to noir media texts, such as The Third Man, Remember my
Forgotten Man and Casablanca in terms of the techniques it uses
and the storyline it creates.

How the video has Intertextual

references.
The Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933); - genre Comedy, Drama, Musical.
The Pogues video features references which can be compared to films and
other music videos of the punk folk genre. In this, the way the video uses
both black and white filtering and noir lighting links it to Remember My
Forgotten Man from The Gold Diggers of 1933 by Busby Berkeley. The
way The Pogues music video links to this media text is the use of black and
white filtering, creating that post modern, past atmosphere. The two texts
also shared the same anti established political landscape where by society
is hard down on those who are more unfortunate than others; - in The
Pogues music video homeless and drunkards, in The Gold Diggers of
1933 war veterans suffering. Both groups are targeted by law
enforcement agencies such as the police.

Screenshots of examples between The

Pogues music video and Remember my
Forgotten Man
Remember My Forgotten Man
from The Gold Diggers of 1933

The Pogues Fairytale of New York

Both texts use the
same idea of the
law enforcement
agencies picking on
the less
fortunate/disabled.
This gives an anti
political
atmosphere to the
video.

Intertextuality with The Third Man

The Third Man (1949); - genre Noir, Mystery, Thriller.
As the music videos genre contains noir aspects, The Third Man
could link to this well as they both contain the same/similar use of
chiaroscuro lighting. Even though the idea of chiaroscuro lighting was
used in The Third Man was mainly to cause a dystrophic feeling to
the characters and also the audience. The use of the same effect in
The Pogues music video however also emphasises a bit of dystopia,
but also emphasises the sense of feeling, such as in the prison cell
when using the lighting effect, emphasising entrapment, it also
creates a dark and depressing feeling upon the audience.

Screenshots of intertextuality in The

Third Man
The Pogues Fairytale of New York

The Third Man

The two texts both use

the same techniques of
chiaroscuro lighting,
sometimes in the same
ways but to emphasise
a different meaning

Intertextuality in Casablanca
Casablanca (1942); - genre: Romantic Drama.
The Pogues music video also shares the same aspects with
Casablanca in terms of the same noir lighting, the use of mise en
scene i.e. the smoke filled bar. The films also use the same costumes
and props/instruments to create the same atmosphere that
Casablanca has. The use of the glasses, the tux/jackets, the styling of
the hair and the old fashion looking, yet also traditional Irish
instruments, i.e. the piano, the simple scale drum kit, the tin whistle,
cittern, mandolin and accordion. These instruments help bring a
classical view to their music video as combined with the black and
white filtering, mise en scene, and the costumes, it creates a classical,
noir genre.

Screenshots of Intertextuality in
Casablanca

Piano

Old Fashioned
costumes/classical
dress.

In conclusion
The music video creates a subversive genre out of the other
Intertextual links with other media texts as it creates a zeitgeist which
audiences of the time and/or audience members who are
enthusiastic in the 40s/50s film culture can therefore tap into the
music video quickly (Nicholas Abercrombie).