DW: 'So Calm' by Cave Painting - Genre and Representation

This is the conceptual video for 'So Calm' by Cave Painting, a song taken from their first album Votive Life.

Genre

• According to Andrew Goodwin's 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' (1992), music videos tend to comply to a certain set of rules, that can be found in all genres in some way. Being an indie rock band, the fact that this is a conceptual video is quite common and, despite being signed to Third Rock Recordings, having no band appearance in the video is also rather conventional of the genre. However their disjunctive style does actually promote the bands image; it seems to suggest that the band do not want to comply to mainstream music conventions and selflessly promote themselves by appearing in the video, instead they rely on the obscurity of the video, perhaps, to promote their band and their image. 
• Goodwin's "notion of looking" can be applied in this video; the old television set that shows images of the women involved in the video gives the impression that the audience is being distanced from the action - watching it through a second screen rather than first hand through just the audience's computer or television screen. This adds to the disjuncture in this video, its aim is to not involve the audience physically, to in fact involve them emotionally by the creation of enigmas, revolving mainly around the mystery of the female characters who don't appear filmed in a voyeuristic manner - even with the occasional focusing on the women's lips or legs. 
• Despite the visuals not being a physical illustration of the lyrics, or necessarily an amplification of them, the music still fits. Its disjunctive nature anchors the varying pace of the song and intensity of the instruments, therefore increasing the repeatability factor for this video which, is ultimately what the record label and indeed the band, want. 

Representation

• Richard Dyer wrote extensively about the idea of being a 'Star', stating that the star image is 'incoherent' and one that is incomplete and somewhat 'open' to interpretation. He then devised two paradoxes about the star image: 'The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary.' and 'The star must be simultaneously present and absent from the consumer.' The latter, especially, applies to this video; there is a complete absence of the band, physically, yet still the creativity and obscurity of the video leads the audience to understand the bands message and meta-narrative - making the audience feel as if the band are still there. It can be inferred that they don't want to be recognised as a commercial success at the fear of tainting the personal aspect of their music.  
• The second paradox also, on some levels, applies. However only the extraordinary element can be counted for. The video is quite peculiar, the disjuncture and the disregard for any real form of narrative structure, make this video both hard to follow and creatively challenging; therefore, to say that it is ordinary is far from the truth. If the video did fully comply to that paradox, it wouldn't be so artistic or visually arresting as the audience wouldn't be constantly questioning what is going on. 

• Throughout the video, there is a definite contrast between scenery and props. The scenery is very much rural and abandoned, the intense sun and dusky surroundings connote a remote and untouched area; which is why the high heels, the television, the toaster and so on and so forth that are littered around the frame boldly stands out and very much ruin the tranquility and prehistoric nature of the setting. 
• This is where the dominant ideological discourse can be found; these filler shots of random props on the scenery represent the destruction of untouched land by modernistic behaviours, that technology has ruined our creativity, and that our pioneering has upset nature. So instead of targeting one singular social group, this video addresses society as a whole. 
•  Goffman et al's theory of women in popular culture further progresses on the aforementioned argument. The physical dismemberment, where parts of a body are displayed rather than the whole body, of people, just having arms laying about in the scene as if coming up from the ground connotes an idea of today's society being buried - as if nature is having some form of revenge. The reason why this is suggested is that the dismemberment of the women is far from voyeuristic; it challenges Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory that states that the dismemberment of women displays how men view women, in a purely lustful way. Despite no male presence in the video, there is no objectification of women, nor are they seen as weak; they don't really seem to be presented with any dominating emotion, other than complete control of what they are doing.