Radiohead Burn The Witch Essay
Q) How are media language and intertextuality used in ''Burn the Witch'' to construct representations of groups, messages and values?
Radiohead are a band formed in the 1980s, they're inspired by a lot of different alternative genres such as Kranknock, Jazz and 20th century classical music. Although their type of music is mainly described as ''ART ROCK'' which mainly means rock that challenges you and makes you think. We see this genre come to life in Radiohead's Burn the Witch music video.
The socio-economic groups depicted in the music video are of two different classes; we have the upper class people and then the working class people. Trumptonshire was a show that debuted in the late 60s, the show is basically about community values in this idyllic small community. Trumptonshire plays a significant role in this music video as the whole setup of the village is very much like the village created in the Radiohead music video. The characters are very similar, especially the Mayor character. The Mayor character is seen bossing the villagers (the lower class people) around and getting them to work, all while he takes a stroll around town; showing us a society that follows a capitalist hierarchy.
Some have suggested that around the time of the video being made (2016) that maybe this was some sort of a reference to Donald Trump. In terms of context this was created in 2016 which was a big year as not only the EU referendum took place but the US elections were starting up. Trump's whole campaign had him saying Make America Great again but he's really saying make America like the 50s/60s, when he was younger. Which was only good for some people, this was before the civil rights movement when there wasn't any integration, an old fashioned more 'white' America. Much of the ideology around Trump's campaign is mirrored in UKIP's messages about the EU referendum, both convey similar messages of them ''wanting their country back''. This ties back to the music video and leads us to think, who's the witch we're hunting in 2016?.
The animator of the music video, Virpi Kettu suggested that the Burn The Witch music video was meant to bring attention to Europe's refugee crisis and ''the blaming of different people.... the blaming of muslims'' Although this hasn't been stated by Radiohead themselves some may suggest that the workers we see in the farm, picking the vegetables are migrant workers.
Apart from Trumptonshire another key intertextual reference would be The Wicker Man 1973, which was a british made film set in a small village island in Scotland. It tells of a Policeman arriving to this new village and then being tricked by villagers who later burnt him in the Wicker man figure. The film is more darker than the music video, as we see the main character escape in the music video. But in the film the main character dies. A few similarities between the two are; the star of david, satanic symbolism, the burning of the policeman and the maypole (dancing around the maypole). Burn the witch is basically a pastiche of the two.
Throughout the music video we see other smaller intertextual messages such as the links to mediaeval practices; putting crosses on people's doors (indicate someone has the plague), dunking chairs; which is a reference to dunking of accused ''witches''. Radiohead again challenge us, making us think that modern day discrimination are basically modern day witch hunts, re-enforces the questions around immigration.
In conclusion the music video shows us a more traditional representation of England, in the mise-en-scene we have props such as postboxes, pubs, beef wellingtons and even the style of clothing. All this iconography just makes the audience think of England. But it's not a modern day city-like setting, we have a more old-fashioned conservative mono-culture England. As I've mentioned Radiohead's music is one to challenge your thoughts, it makes us think, is this representation of England as good as we think it is? or is it more toxic as we see more towards the end.
The socio-economic groups depicted in the music video are of two different classes; we have the upper class people and then the working class people. Trumptonshire was a show that debuted in the late 60s, the show is basically about community values in this idyllic small community. Trumptonshire plays a significant role in this music video as the whole setup of the village is very much like the village created in the Radiohead music video. The characters are very similar, especially the Mayor character. The Mayor character is seen bossing the villagers (the lower class people) around and getting them to work, all while he takes a stroll around town; showing us a society that follows a capitalist hierarchy.
Some have suggested that around the time of the video being made (2016) that maybe this was some sort of a reference to Donald Trump. In terms of context this was created in 2016 which was a big year as not only the EU referendum took place but the US elections were starting up. Trump's whole campaign had him saying Make America Great again but he's really saying make America like the 50s/60s, when he was younger. Which was only good for some people, this was before the civil rights movement when there wasn't any integration, an old fashioned more 'white' America. Much of the ideology around Trump's campaign is mirrored in UKIP's messages about the EU referendum, both convey similar messages of them ''wanting their country back''. This ties back to the music video and leads us to think, who's the witch we're hunting in 2016?.
The animator of the music video, Virpi Kettu suggested that the Burn The Witch music video was meant to bring attention to Europe's refugee crisis and ''the blaming of different people.... the blaming of muslims'' Although this hasn't been stated by Radiohead themselves some may suggest that the workers we see in the farm, picking the vegetables are migrant workers.
Apart from Trumptonshire another key intertextual reference would be The Wicker Man 1973, which was a british made film set in a small village island in Scotland. It tells of a Policeman arriving to this new village and then being tricked by villagers who later burnt him in the Wicker man figure. The film is more darker than the music video, as we see the main character escape in the music video. But in the film the main character dies. A few similarities between the two are; the star of david, satanic symbolism, the burning of the policeman and the maypole (dancing around the maypole). Burn the witch is basically a pastiche of the two.
Throughout the music video we see other smaller intertextual messages such as the links to mediaeval practices; putting crosses on people's doors (indicate someone has the plague), dunking chairs; which is a reference to dunking of accused ''witches''. Radiohead again challenge us, making us think that modern day discrimination are basically modern day witch hunts, re-enforces the questions around immigration.
In conclusion the music video shows us a more traditional representation of England, in the mise-en-scene we have props such as postboxes, pubs, beef wellingtons and even the style of clothing. All this iconography just makes the audience think of England. But it's not a modern day city-like setting, we have a more old-fashioned conservative mono-culture England. As I've mentioned Radiohead's music is one to challenge your thoughts, it makes us think, is this representation of England as good as we think it is? or is it more toxic as we see more towards the end.
Very detailed and well written account. Well done A
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