Textual Analysis

The Vaccines - Wetsuit Instagram video

The Vaccines are an English Indie Rock band, formed in West London in 2010. Their debut album ‘What did you expect from The Vaccines?’ was released through Columbia records on 14 March 2011 and reached Number 4 in the UK Album Chart. The Band have been compared to the likes of The Strokes and Ramones however the band say they have such influences from 50’s rock ‘n’ roll to 80’s American hardcore and good pop music. The Band were awarded Best New Band at the NME Awards 2012 and won New Music Award at XFM also in 2012. The band has supported the likes of Arctic Monkeys, The Clash and the Maccabees. The director of the video Wetsuit Instagram Video Poppy de Villeneuve who is fairly small unknown director as there is no recognition of any previous work, the song falls under Indie genre, this genre is aimed at a fairly wide audience mainly in North/West London although it doesn’t fall under mainstream, there are not many conventions to Indie Rock video however there are a few within the video. For example the majority of the video is of pictures of people at festivals throughout a whole summer, Indie/ Rock bands are usually playing or at festivals. All the pictures are close ups of good times at a festival, allowing the viewer to see what people are like at festivals, the clothing they wear for example denim shorts big t-shirts, wellington boots, sunglasses, all with a very bright colour palette, allot of summer colours like oranges, yellows for example giving the message the summer vibe, theme of the festivals. The style of the video if to see what actions are being taken place at festivals, the style of video is to show how much people enjoy themselves at festivals. There is a small part of the video where you see the lead singer lip singing to the song, walking through Reading Festival. 

Some of the lyrics within the song are illustrated by the visuals on the screen, some of the lyrics are contradictory as he sings about putting a wetsuit on and the visuals show people wearing festival clothing, not wetsuits. However some of the lyrics are amplified. The lyrics ‘With a cool cool breeze and dirty knees the visuals show a girl sitting down at her camp site with muddy knees. Also the lyrics ‘I rest on childhood memories’ almost reminiscing over the good times he’s had at festivals, visuals showing good times at a festival. 

There is a relationship between the visuals and the video itself, when the song beat becomes faster the pictures of people on the screen cut faster, there is a small part of the video towards the end where the video shows The Vaccines play at a festival, It is mainly Long shots from backstage at the festival which is allowing the audience to see the crowd, what the band is wearing and the Instruments being played. Usually Indie Rock bands will do this to send the message to the audience that they are musicians if they are playing Instruments in the video.