Goodwin's Theory

You Me At Six - "Bite My Tongue"

You Me At Six's music video for "Bite My Tongue" has many conventions that Goodwin would say was conventional for a rock music video. The song is aggressive and conveys how the band want to be seen through this video.

One of Goodwin's theories that can be applied to this music video, is thought beats. This is where we see the sound in our head. The way Joshua Franceschi, the lead singer, conveys his mood through his voice is important. He starts off slow to begin with, to match the pace of the song, but, when the drums and guitars start going, his pace picks up. During the chorus, he is almost shouting. This is because he is trying to give a performance, we as an audience will remember, yet also display his emotions to the lyrics. This enables him to act as a narrator and explain the lyrics through his emotions and performance.

This links nicely onto another point Goodwin makes. Goodwin believed narrative and performance also make a music video. Joshua Franceschi starts off behind a control pad, controlling his other band members. He is singing the song while he is doing this, thus he is performing and narrating, which enables us as an audience to believe it is more real. However, he is also keeping us interested and is helping us to understand the music video. He gives us someone to attach to - someone we find interesting. For the majority of the song, he is the only active character, until Oli Sykes (the lead singer from Bring Me The Horizon), features and sings a verse. We get a sense that they are two similar characters with the same motives, as Oli takes over from what Josh was doing.
As they both sing, they are both in control. This is portrayed by the fact that they control there band members, suggesting only they can effectively control each other, not anyone else.

Star image is definitely evident in the music video. Both Josh and Oli are lead singers from two rock bands and have a rock image amongst the music industry. Oli Sykes is known for being a singer in a heavy rock band, so involving him in the song, suggested the pace of the song would be fast. They both give a performance that  helps maintain their image. Josh gives a emotional performance, as to much his feelings to the lyrics. Whilst, Oli gives a more aggressive performance to match his style of rock and his character. There are many close-ups of both of the lead singers, so that the audience can feel a connection with their star. This is a important part of making a successful music video.  The close-ups of the band help to keep the band's image as a new, young, modern-day rock band.


There is a clear link between the visuals and the lyrics. The song is about arguments that had previously existed amongst the band. When they were at breaking point, Josh wrote this song to convey how he felt. So by having Josh separate from the band, it conveys how he felt at that time. Moreover, by having Josh control the band, it conveys that the band can't function or exist without him. By getting an aggressive personality like Oli Sykes involved, it further conveys Josh's former feelings towards the band as angry and hostile.

The technical aspects of the video also help to convey genre. The dark and gloomy setting help to convey the song as a rock song, also to convey the mood of the song. The white light helps to convey how dark it is and acts as a glimmer of hope for the band in such dark circumstances. It acts as hope that past differences can be put behind them and they can progress onwards. This is further helping to convey Josh's emotions. The quick editing enables us to see the band play and match the pace of the song. Having the band playing is a convention of a rock song and is normally the main focus, however, Josh and his emotions are more in focus.

There are no aspects of voyeurism nor of intertextuality, as the band are not trying to exploit themselves nor anyone else. The song doesn't need voyeurism as the pace of the song doesn't suit scenes of voyeurism; the song more about the band and their emotions, rather than them trying to win over fans by exploiting themselves. They hope people will like them for there passion and unique band performance in this video. Moreover, due to this it is not necessary for their to be any intertextual references, as the band are doing something personal to them. They are not trying to reference anything people may know about, just what they have been through.