Textual Analysis

Artist - The Goo Goo Dolls
Song - Iris



Genre Characteristics?

For the Goo Goo Dolls, their style of genre is Punk. When associating music videos to Punk music, I usually picture the video featuring lavish sets and the artists wearing costumes similar to those of Lady Gaga. However with this music video ,performed by The Goo Goo Dolls who are a punk band, they have kept the costumes simple but effective and have used what seems to be an old tower and a tunnel for the video.

What is the relationship between music and visuals?

The music does correspond with the visuals in several ways, but first you have to understand what the song is about. The song is about someone who has an invisible identity who no one understands who then finds their true love. They want their true love to know that they exist and that the person is the only one in the world who can understand and love them. This can be seen clearly in the video as it shows a young man watching a girl (his true love) and feeling as though she thinks he is invisible but really she understands him. So there is a definite relationship between the music (lyrics) and the visuals presented in the video.

Are the close-ups of the artist and star image motifs?

During the video, there are close-ups of the artist, this occurs when he is performing with his other band members. Close-ups also occur when the 'story' side of the music video is being shown. The close-ups used in this video aim to make the audience pay more attention to one particular person or one particular object and to also help them i.e. knowing what is happening in a particular scene etc.

Is there any reference to the notion of looking?

There is reference to the notion of looking because during the video the band are seen playing their instruments in a tunnel and nearly every time the lead vocalist is in shot, he is looking straight down the camera, making it feel as though he is looking at the audience, which is an effective way to gain the audiences attention. So yes there is reference to the notion of looking.

Are there any intertextual references?

I think that this is the only video i can recall seeing someone based in an abandoned tower spying on his one true love by using telescopes. Yes it may be random but it does work and does correspond with the music being played. Because no one has done something like this before it makes the music video unique. Because of the music video being unique, it resulted in the song growing in popularity as listeners could easily associate the song with this video.