Goodwin Video Analysis

Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity

The video I have chosen to analyse according to Andrew Goodwin's points is Jamiroquai's 'Virtual Insanity'.

The video consists of the artist performing and dancing in a room with white walls and a grey floor with some couches and a chair with no other furniture. The interesting thing about the video is that the floor seems to be moving while the rest of the room stays still. At some points in the video the camera tilts up to look at the ceiling and also down to look at the floor, and when it returns to the centre the scene has completely changed.

The video links to the lyrics to an extent as the song is called 'Virtual Insanity' and the video is very unique and strange which could connect with the 'insanity'. One of the lyrics goes 'See, it's a crazy world we're living in' which also shows a link to the video as the scenes in the video could be described as 'crazy'

This shot shows the room where the sofas have changed position from the one in the thumbnail for the video clip. This has happened because of the floors moving which shows the 'craziness' and the 'insanity' of the video.

This shot shows the sofas coming towards the screen.

The genre of this song has been classified as Acid Jazz and Funk. The characteristics of this genre are portrayed in some of the dance moves that Jamiroquai performs as they go with the beat of the song. The picture below shows the artist performing a set of dance moves that flow with the song.

The video is funky and different and could therefore be related to the genre of the song which is Acid Jazz/Funk. This is shown with the moving floors, unique dancing and padded walls. 

There are a few close ups of the artist during the video and this is due to the record label wanting to sell and promote their artist through the video.

Jamiroquai's iconography comes from his trademark hat which he wears in his videos and which features on album covers.

On the left we can see one of Jamiroquais album covers of a cartoon silhouette of him five times wearing a different hat in each cartoon. The hat symbolizes Jamiroquai and is seen as his iconography to sustain and establish the popstar that he is.

There are no references to voyeurism in this video as it mainly just features Jamiroquai in the song however, Jamiroquai is performing to the camera and is looking at it the whole time. We keep our eyes on him and he keeps his eyes on us.

Because this video was released in 1997 it is unlikely that there is any inter textual references as it was probably one of the first videos to achieve something like this.