Deconstruction of Arctic Monkeys

The Killers are an indie rock band so I have decided to analyse a video, CD cover and website of the Arctic Monkeys.



The Arctic Monkeys are an indie rock band. I am going to analyse their music video “fluorescent adolescent”. This video completely subverts the expectations of everyone as everyone would expect to see the long shaggy hair which is shown with most indie artists and the instruments are not shown in the video whereas those would be expected to be shown. Most indie rock bands have bits with them performing in but the Arctic Monkeys seem to prefer the narrative and in this video the narrative shows a group of clowns and a group of non-clowns fighting at an old warehouse, there are flashbacks showing that the leaders of each group used to be friends as young kids. Both leaders attempt to kill each other throughout the video. When the video comes to an end the non clown leader attempts to run the clown leader over, the clown leader then see’s that the car has been leaking petrol and then drops his lighter to see the car with his former friend in burn up in flames. In the lyrics at the end it says “ took a left off last laugh lane” and I think this refers to when the guy tries to run over the clown but then the clown gets the last laugh when he burns the car down and he also says “ and your not coming back again” which shows the guy isn’t coming back because he’s dead. Other than this the lyrics don’t reflect the video, which means the relationship between the lyrics and visual is disjuncture.



The font for the CD cover is not exactly the same but it is the same style (Fancy distorted text) as on their website.



On the releases tab on their website there is a list of their albums and the cd cover I chose is also there as shown above. On the CD cover it is just shown as a plain usual street but then there is bright psychedelic colours in the windows to make it stand out and to make sure the cover doesn’t look too plain. On the website at the top there is a silhouette of the full band which blend in with the text also.