Toby Keith, “should’ve been a cowboy”: This video cuts from Toby singing to an old style western movie. The entire video is shot in cepia style coloring. the style gives the video a true feeling of the west. The video gives a romanticized picture of the west that I have always dreamed of. The silhouette at the end of the video with the cowboy on horseback is mesmerizing. It gives a very stereotypical look to the cowboy image. I think Toby and I share the same dreams of the open range, a time of freedom. This video reminds me of old westerns I use to watch with my grandpa. Toby mentions Gene and Roy referring to Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, two famous cowboys. To many people, these names may mean nothing, but to grandpa and me these names are gods. Watching Roy Rogers sitting around the campfire and playing his guitar was one of the coolest things to me when I was young. Then there was Gene Autry flying in on his horseback doing tricks. Westerns are about chivalry and pride. In the video Toby is in a showdown with another man. His pride will not let him back down from this challenge. In the end of the video he also saves the girl from the outlaws. Who would not really want to be a cowboy on the open range? This is something my grandfather and I both share and I hope to keep it with me my entire life.

Disturbed, “Land of confusion”: This music video has an old cartoon style like Johnny Quest. The video cuts from a military force, to rioting people with a masked leader, to a group of politicians. This is like the famous G.I. Joes. They always have a new problem or a new force to recon with. For me, waking up early on Saturday morning to watch the new episode of G.I. Joe was a big deal. It is not just any cartoon. It is a grenade throwing, rifle shooting, action packed cartoon. This is an all around boys’ show. I was always changing the channel so my mom would not see the guns on the television, because that would give the wrong message to young boys. As children we did not care what we watched. Today’s cartoons are filled with realistic high-resolution graphics and a lot of smoke and mirrors. They are not like the old cartons the actually had a cartoon felling to them. We no longer have the Wonder Twins and Justice League. Now the cartoons actually move their mouths and you can read their lips. In the old days you were lucky if they even moved their mouth. To me cartoons are no longer cartons. They are moving away form the traditional styles I am used to. I want those Saturday mornings with my brother, sitting on the couch sharing mom’s comforter, eating our captain crunch. It is not about the new or old style of cartoons. It is about the memories you can create from them. It is about two brothers connecting because of a poorly drawn solider.

Hellogoodbye, “Here (In Your Arms)”: Most everyone can relate to going to summer camp. The video starts out with Camp Holadios. Then the video focuses on all the aspects of camp life. This is not what caught my attention. The scene that really stood out to me was a short one where there is a boy selling pogs. You may say what the heck are pogs, but they are probably the greatest invention in the world. They are little round cardboard discs. You stack them in a pile and then you hit them with a slammer. The slammers were round but usually metal or hard plastic. In the video there is a scene where one of the counselors slams the pogs and they go everywhere. This is a game that became very popular when I was a younger. The coolest thing about the pogs was the slammer. There were many types of slammers. There was the all-metal ones with etching in them. There were the plastic ones with cool pictures on them. There was also the ultimate one that looked like a cookie. This one was so great because you could stick it in milk and it would not get ruined. This may sound weird but that’s what the guy said who tried to sell it to me. Pogs were a cool fad that died out quickly. It was not about the crappy little disc, it was about being young and caught up in the latest fad. I miss the good old days of bad fads.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers, “Californication”: This video starts off with a loading screen. The rest is shot like a Nintendo sixty-four game. The video cuts back and fourth from the band playing to the video game. This brings me back to the fourth grade when everyday after school I would play my friends on N64. The games were like the video. We had a snow boarding video game called 1080. We would play it for hours. The music video has a lot of different references to old games, like the water scene where he is swimming under water. This made me think of Zelda. The scene where he is running through the woods reminds me of James Bond 007. These games are not the most technologically advanced games in the world, but they were revolutionary for their time. Before this there were really no three-dimensional gaming systems on the market. At the time all the depth of the games mesmerized my friend and me. Looking back on it now and seeing all of the advancements in gamming today it is hard to see why we were so amazed. It is never about how great the games were. It was about having fun with your friends. In the video the band is going through different levels of the game and experiencing things that might not happen in real life but could. For example when a band member is attacked by a bear. This could happen, but probably wont. Video games are an extension of ourselves and it was a place for me and my friends to be someone else.

Rise Against, “Give it all”: The video starts out with this group of people suiting up in all black to go out and vandalize. The video cuts back in forth between the band playing in a subway car, to the people vandalizing. This brings me back to the times when I was in high school and the guys and I would drive around and do stupid things. In the video they climb up a billboard and spray paint on it. There is also a scene where they marker on a random ad on the street. These are all random things that my friends and I would do. Through the entire video they are running from place to place like they are in a panic to be caught. There is always that thrill factor. You are always worried about being caught. That is what makes it so exciting. The thrill that if you got caught you could get into big trouble. Like in the video, we never did get caught, but there was always that potential. I think the subway scene shows how exciting and chaotic it can get. You can really feel the adrenalin pumping. In the end of the video all the people that were wearing black put on suits. They go back to their regular boring jobs and life goes on. The thrill they experienced goes away. For my friends and me we never talked about it outside of the night. It was always understood to be quiet. The thrill may go away, but the memory remains forever.

Eve 6, “Here’s to the Night”: The video starts out with some friends watching a video they recorded of a party. The video cuts back and fourth between the party and people watching the video. I can remember a lot of good times with my high school friends just hanging out sitting around the house laughing for no real reason. In the video there is always someone filming everything going on, that one guy who will always catch you on camera when you are doing something stupid. The best one is of a girl drawing on a guy who has passed out. You always have the great memories that you can recall at the sight of an old friend. For instance the bigger guy in the video that is dancing and pulling off his shirt. This is a memorable time one that will stick with anyone who was at the party. I can recall many of my friends doing stupid things at parties like jumping into pools or off balconies. It is not about the stupid things you do. It is about “the night we felt alive.” It is about having those memories with your friends and being able to share them with one another. Even though we all move on, friends will always have those memories to look back on and remember the times when there were no real worries. It was a time when we were carefree and could just have a good time with a group of friends.

Linkin Park, “Numb”: In everyone’s life there comes a time when you’re a told to conform to the norm. Whether it is your parents, school officials, or employers, everyone at one time or another has been told how to act or dress. The video cuts from the band to a confused girl who sees the world in slow motion. The lyrics coincide with what the girl is thinking and feeling. She feels like she is not her own person. In today’s world there is a lot of pressure from parents and authority figures to follow their example and do what they do. Everyone wants to be his or her own person. They “want to be more like me and less like you.” This is a quote from the song which means I want to have my own expression and be like myself, not like what other people want. The trick is to listen to what people are saying and use only what can apply to your life. You need to be your own individual. I can remember my mom always pushing me to do great in school. I wasn’t the strait A student she wanted, but I worked hard and did the best I could. The thing was that I was satisfied with what I had accomplished and that makes me my own person. The girl in the video found herself through her painting in the end. I found myself through hard work and not grades like my mother wanted.

Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Snow”: This video is filled with relationships. It is about the friends you meet and rely on. One line says, “When I sit alone come get a little known, But I need more than myself this time.” This means that he realized that he needs other people in his life. He cannot find who he really is by himself. People need to create friendships and know they can rely on them. Sometimes it takes that experience with others to realize your true self. Everyone needs to have someone in his or her life to have fun with, or someone that they can talk with. This is something that I have done since my time here at Wesleyan. I have created those friendships. I think people can hide behind things and not let themselves be open to help. They put up a front of having this perfect picture like “snow”. The line where they say, “Running through the field where all my tracks will be concealed and there's nowhere to go”. This line explains it perfectly. People use this perfect image to hide who they really are. People do not feel like they can be themselves. They feel like the need to up this “perfect wonder”. My time at college has made me learn that I do not need that perfect front and I can be the real person I am. I no longer need “snow”. I can accept myself and who I am through my trusting friendships.

The music video I selected was Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics. This is the oldest video I can remember watching when I was little. I can recall hearing the song on the radio first. Then one day when I was watching the television this video came on. I remember watching it and thinking Annie Lennox was a man, with her bright orange hair. She also had on a suit. This really bothered me. Little did I know that she was a British music artist. I can remember thinking she looked really mean and if I met her she would beat me up. Yes, I was really scared of her. I think the reason why I watched the video was the beat and the song. The synthesizers they used really drew me into the song. It was like nothing I had heard before. I was use to all the old country hits. I can recall seeing the cows in the video and wondering why they were placed there. Now, looking back on the video I come to realize that I still do not know why the cows are in the video. The only thing I can think of is that is what she was dreaming.

When I was little I did not really watch music videos. I listened to the radio a lot, but I never watched the videos. For some reason when this video came on the television I was hooked. I started to watch a lot more music videos. Music videos began to materialize the lyrics I had listened to on the radio. To me it was interesting to see what they had in the different videos. I always had my own picture in my head before I saw them on the television, so it was fun to compare them to what the artist had done. Each song is everyone’s own interpretation.

The video I chose was Barbie Girl by Aqua. This music video just makes me want to kill myself. This is one of the most annoying songs I have ever heard. The only thing that is remotely good about this video is how funny it is. Ken is bald and has a tattoo and Barbie has black hair. This upsets me. Barbie is blonde, and Ken has a full head of hair. Not that I really care, but it displeases me that they would change these key factors. You cannot change the Barbie icon. Barbie is the perfect stereotype of perfection. I also don’t like the fact that there is a song about Barbie in the first place. Who really makes a song all about Barbie, and that in and of itself is annoying. Barbie should not get her own song. She already has everything else.

The voice of the musician is high pitched and annoying. It is like one of your little brother’s friends that will never leave you alone. You feel like you cannot escape it. The voice and the look of the fake unblond Barbie do not match each other. This makes the video that much more unbelievable and aggravating.

To me this video is creepy. It is really scary how close the costumes and the scenery match Barbie. This video is set up like a Barbie toy ad. When she kisses the horse that really freaked me out. It was too much like the commercials you watch on cartoon network, where the doll moves by itself. When I watch this video, I get a sense like everything in it is really plastic. In that sense the video does a good job of portraying the plastic Barbie doll, but it is also weird because there are real people in this really fake world. It is totally unbelievable.

The music video I chose is twisted transistor by Korn. I had another video picked out, but I decided I wanted to go with something funny. If you know Korn you might be asking yourself how could it be funny. Korn is a more heavy alternative rock band. What makes this video funny to me is that Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, Lil Jon, and DB are in this video. These guys are famous rappers. To see these rappers pretend to be Korn is hilarious. Throughout the whole video they are making fun of the real band members. Like when David Silvera is supposed to be auditioning for “sexy beast cologne,” the two men who are auditioning him keep yelling at him “perfect just what we were looking for.” Every time I watch this video it cracks me up and I cannot help but laugh.

Another thing I really like about this video is the fact that it is not set up in a traditional way. The video is set up like a documentary. They play the song, but throughout the video the producers cut the words out and put dialogue into the video. It is like you are watching a making of the video. The dialogue scenes are hilarious. They use an intern throughout the video to make it that much more funny. One example is when the intern gets arrested. The manager goes over to the cop car and starts to yell at the cops. He says “that’s my intern. He is earning college credit for this mate.” The reason this is funny because the intern is arrested because he is on a bus full of prostitutes. Why would the manager be yelling at the cops? It is funny because the manager has no ground to try to help the intern. I do not know if anyone else who watches this video will think it is funny, but I believe it to be hilarious. The documentary style and role-playing are what sets this video apart from traditional music videos.

This is a commercial was made by the Department of Economic Development for the Nebraska state government. It is a sales pitch for how great our state is. The television commercial uses a lot of visual, textual, and audio aspects to make you want to come to Nebraska. Nebraska as a vacationing spot appeals to the family based vacationer who wants to have fun and enjoyment for the entire family.

For the visual side of things, the commercial appeals to one’s pathos. The commercial uses an emotional appeal of happiness to get the viewer’s attention. The commercial keeps showing the people doing different things together. It shows people riding bikes through a thick brush of tress with mountain like hills in the background. It also shows a couple going to a vineyard at sunset, drinking a glass of wine, and sitting next to a field of grapes. These are things that most people would see as fun and relaxing. All of the things in the clip are places and events that anyone could relate to in some way or another.
The commercial shows the average American ideal. One example of this would be going camping and sitting around the fire. People do not want to think about making house payments or taking out the garbage. They want that relaxing feeling that these images portray. The commercial does not show anyone getting upset or not having fun. It only shows the good side of things. It shows these perfect events happening almost like in a dream. This helps to show how Nebraska is a family oriented state.

For the textual side of the commercial there is a lot of in your face and easy to remember things that appears on the screen. The author uses logos to portray this. Throughout the entire spot at the bottom of the screen there is a phone number and a website to visit. This is a good technique because sometimes you miss the website or number when it only appears at the end of the commercial. Keeping it on the screen for the entire time makes it easier for someone to remember. In the commercial, the author also uses big, bold, yellow, words that flash on the screen. This is a good technique to grab the attention of the viewer. This makes them focus more on the visual side. That is what they want to sell to make you want to come to the state. They use different sizes of text to make the viewer more attentive. Like on the bottom of the screen the text is smaller but clearly readable. Then when the words come on the screen they are big and bold. This makes the viewers focus their attention to what new thing has come up on the screen. At the end of the commercial, the words appear on the screen “Nebraska, possibilities…endless.” In some ways this is too cheesy of an ending. The consumer will not agree with this, but this statement is set up to be the commercial’s thesis statement. Through the entire commercial every visual and textual thing represented is an argument for the words “Nebraska, possibilities… endless.” That is why they use the bold words to tell you about a new argument. I think this commercial does a great job of proving their point with the great visual displays. People are more likely to respond to a visual representation of a subject matter, rather than just reading about it.

The main focus of this commercial is set up around its audio and visual. This commercial is set up like a puzzle. Without all the pieces, it will not work. The author uses different pieces of this puzzle like the sound and the visualizations in the commercial to carry his piece. The author uses the cause and effect rhetoric style to implement these two things together.
The author’s use of narration in this television spot makes everything he says not understandable to the viewer. One example of this is when the narrator says, “ you could find reds and whites in our fields of greens.” To the ordinary person this phrase is more like a riddle than a statement for a sales pitch. When the viewer hears this they try to make sense of what the narrator is saying. Because of this, they cannot associate this phrase with having a fun filled trip with the children. They are trying too hard to figure out the phrase.

The author uses visualizations to help carry the television ad along. One example is a couple at a vineyard. The clip starts with a far shot of the couple sitting at a table next to an olive field. Then the camera zooms into the couple’s glasses hitting each other for cheers. After that the glasses move out of the shot all you see is a vine of grapes. When the viewer watches this on the screen they think of a romantic dinner with tcheir significant other or going on a date with someone. When you watch this scene you do not realize why the camera shows just a close up of the grapes standing alone and not go back to the couple, or why the couples glasses get a close up of its own.

When the author brings the pieces of the puzzle together they become clear and precise. When the author says “reds and whites” the camera zooms in on the glasses. When the narrator says “in our fields of greens” the camera is focused on the vine of grapes. You as a viewer realize that the reds and whites in a green field are types of wines that are made from the grapes in the fields. Without this narration and visualizing the commercial does not make sense and the viewer is lost. When these two elements are included in the commercial, it creates synthesis for the people watching the commercial. The author uses these things of puzzlement and then counterbalances them with visual effects that make everything flow.

Another aspect of the commercial is that the author uses narration and speaks directly to the audience throughout the commercial. The narrator says, “ There is more to Nebraska than you have ever imagined.” When most people imagine Nebraska all they think of is as flat land with nothing to do. Most people talk about their drive through Nebraska, but it is never a vacationing spot. I think when the narrator talks directly to the audience it makes the viewer more focused on the commercial. It gives them a sense of involvement. The scenes in this commercial would appeal to a person’s emotions. The author uses pathos. When a consumer is looking for a place to vacation they are looking for a place they can have fun with the entire family. The vacationing spot needs to have something for everyone to do. This commercial shows different aspects of Nebraska that most people do no think of.

This commercial is definitely selling itself to a certain audience. The music during the whole commercial sounds like some old tape I would watch at my grandma’s house. The music is more geared toward the older aged consumer, rather than the younger consumer who would not be able to go on a vacation by themselves. This commercial is trying to sell itself to the middle-aged consumer who probably has a family and goes on big vacations. The commercial appeals to them because they see these families on the screen having fun and they want that same experience for their family. They are trying to show Nebraska in a family oriented way. Almost every one of the scenes shown with the exception of the vineyard there is a family doing stuff together. The vineyard scene would be geared to a parent’s night out.

The author uses ethos in this commercial to create his credibility. This commercial does not really say who is the sponsor besides Nebraska itself. It gives itself credibility by the website and phone number to call. The website is www.visitnebraska.org and the phone number is 877-Nebraska. These in and of themselves gives the author credibility. I believe most of the credibility that this commercial has is implied with all of the different elements and how they come together. One example of this is all of the visual aspects and the text written on the screen. Another form of credibility given by the author is the sound of the narrator. He has a deep laid back voice. It is a voice you can trust. If it was a high pitched squeaky voice I believe this commercial would lose some of its credibility.

I believe this commercial does exactly what was intended to do. It forms its own thesis and gives points to support that. I think it supports it thesis very well giving visual, textual, and audio examples together to form a one-minute commercial. The author takes all the different pieces of his puzzle and creates synthesis with them. This synthesis is what carries the commercial through the entire television spot. This is a great example of how to appeal to a particular audience. This commercial truly supports itself in showing that Nebraska is a family oriented state.