Music Video Analysis - 21st Century Breakdown

21st Century Breakdown  - Link"21st Century Breakdown" - Green Day
This music video is a concept based video with elements of performance. It was released in 2009, directed by Marc Webb and the genre falls under pop-punk and alternative rock.
This is a very unique video so it is very different from other music videos of the same or similar genre. Some generic characteristics used in the video are the band playing their instruments, close-ups of the band/instruments and mid-shots. The video is unlike any other music video as it is animated in graffiti for most of it, this then makes the video able to have various different transitions that they couldn't do if it was live action. The video was shot in live action then edited in post-production.

Lyrics and Visuals

The visuals in the music video are graffiti animation of the band and other people with lyrics occasionally animated in a wall. At one point in the video the lyrics "I was made out of poison and blood" were animated as graffiti on a wall with "blood" in red to make the lyric stand out. Other examples are the lyrics "21st Century Breakdown" on the wall during the chorus and when the camera is focused on Billie Joe Armstrong (lead singer). These lyrics being shown visually keeps the audience engaged with it. They obviously chose the more provocative and interesting lyrics to animate as it is better for the video.

When Armstrong sings "homeland security could kill us all" he makes the shape of a gun and pretends to shoot himself in the head with animated blood splattering behind him as if it were coming out his head.

Music and The Video
In the opening of the music video, the main couple kisses after two beats of the drum and the opening guitar chord is played as they kiss. It then zooms in on them and transitions on to Green Day playing.
On some of the chords that Armstrong strikes, the animation is paused and animated graffiti comes up and goes to the next shot.
After the second chorus (1:49) there is a drum solo, there is a bird's eye view shot focussing in on the drummer's sticks and the zooms in on the drum, transitioning on to the next shot.

Close Ups and Star Motifs
The album cover for "21st Century Breakdown" is a graffiti stencil of a young couple kissing, this imagery is repeatedly seen in the music video, in the introduction, when they fix the car (1:46), during the mini drum solo (1:49). This also links with the imagery in Green Day's "21 Guns" music video where a live action version of the couple kisses.
A lot of the shots are mid-shots of the band and there are close-ups of Armstrong (lead singer). At 2:16 during the guitar solo the camera focuses on each of the band members. After that, it goes into a sort of "tunnel" silhouette shot in the shape of the side of Armstrong's face.



Intertextuality
As I mentioned before, the imagery of the couple kissing is taken from the album cover and also links with the 21 Guns music video.
A graffiti animated version of Richard Nixon is featured, it is of him throwing a baby and then giving his iconic peace sign gesture which was very popular in the media when he was in office.
There are other shots of politicians on televisions but no one in particular.