Music Video Research 4: Iron Maiden - The Trooper

Genre: Metal
Style: Performance and concept based

Conventions according to Goodwin:  Fans and followers love the band to have close ups as due to it being a part performance based video it allows the fans to get an experienced that is remotely similar to seeing them live, especially with older music videos as most are recorded on a stage with the band playing rather than in a studio. It is also critical in a promotional video that close ups are attained as this is what fans want to see and also when making reference to Blumler and Katz eye contact with the camera can create a personal relationship as it addresses the audience and makes the song more direct.

This music video also adheres to the conventions of a metal music video, it is performance and concept based, there is a lot of movement in the performance aspect of things and the movements are very aggressive. When looking at the appearance of the artists they also have a very stereotypical metal genre look about them, they have long scraggy hair and plain, yet aggressive faces expressions.

The song also adheres to the conventions of a metal song as it is not written like a ballad or has a meaning of love throughout the song, a lot of metal songs are written about past events and although the events mainly included death, destruction or hate this is what makes metal different to other genres and also how it attracts such a large following, a lot of metal music is similar to historic poetry.

This songs main theme is the charge of the light brigade which was a historic battle in 1854, video clips are within this video showing how brutal it was and a lot of the lyrics are synonymous to the happenings on the video throughout, for example the lyrics "As I lay there gazing at the sky, my bodies numb and my throat is dry" is being sung while a clip including this image is on the screen.



Concepts: The main theme in this music video is clearly the charge of the light brigade but when looking at the lyrics it very accurately portrays the brutality of war as do the clips in the video of the battle, this is something that can still be relatable even though the charge of the light brigade was almost two centuries ago as war is still a huge presence in the world today and it is a way of life in certain parts of the world and different cultures. Metal wasn't exactly pop music in the 80s so it wasn't a large part of youth culture but Iron Maiden were still a very popular band who attained a huge following very quickly, their main target audience was Men from ages 20-40 that is why it is very graphic and the lyrics are very gory, because the stereotypical man is tough and is stereotypically not affected by scary and squeamish things. Middle aged men in that era were also most likely to have been brought up knowing a lot about WWII as it will have been just finish/finished when they were born, so they may have a large interest in historic battles and events and this song provides a historic theme as it shows part of the poem 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

This influenced my planning and creativity as it has inspired me to use instrument performance shots in my video which would enable me to change the style of the video to performance and concept, this would allow me to attract a larger audience as well as giving the video a more rugged, pure rock feel.