http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZLfasMPOU4
Genre and Narrative
Fountains of Wayne are a powerpop band. Powerpop draws inspiration from the 1960s and typically incorporates a combination of musical devices such as strong melodies, crisp vocal harmonies, economical arrangements and prominent guitar rifts. The tempo of this song is upbeat and lively. It is about a boy who is attracted to his friends mum.
Powerpop videos, like rock videos, usually show the band playing instruments in the majority of the video. However, in this video the band are not seen until the chorus. There is a visual effect on the band. They are black and white and the background is a bright purple/pink. They also have a couple of white lines surrounding there body. This gives us a very retro feel which relates to the origins of powerpop.
The song is called Stacys mom and is about a boy who is attracted to Stacys mom. The video is a direct illustration of the lyrics. It shows the boy at Staceys house trying to impress her mum by playing it cool and ignoring Stacy herself. The first verse starts by saying "Can I come over after school? We can hang by the pool." The video shows them by the pool. The following lines show Staceys mum carrying a few documents wearing a black top and black skirt which could be associated with an office worker. The lyrics are "Did your mum get back from her business trip?".
There is a lack of the band throughout the video. We do not see them perform on a location in the video. As a result the boy fills the position of a rock star. Around Staceys house he is in a swimming pool with sunglasses on, on a thrown like chair, a girl is trying to impress him and brings him drinks in a glass bottle. Also, near the end of the video at 3:08 we see him in a tuxedo holding a rose which makes him look rich and high class. The boy is wearing a t-shirt which says 'Mr. Wonderful' it could refer to rock stars who are over arrogant. The scene at the end where Staceys mum is pole dancing reminds me of after gig parties that rockstars may have where attractive females are dancing.
Although the band do not play a big role in the music video we can see them through notion of looking. During the video we see the band performing within the narrative storyline. We see them perform on the posters in the girls room, magazines, on television during the second chorus and reflection of the girls sunglasses during the second verse.
I think that in some aspects this video can be considered a form of art. It follows many conventions of music videos by having attractive females and high production values but it maintains the bands image by having them perform within the video but in a different location. I think the visual effect of a pink background, black and white performers and white surrounding is effective in powerpop videos as it relates back to the retro look which is when powerpop was formed. The white lines look likes the sketches that artists leave in a cartoon drawing. Cartoon effects are really common in powerpop album art covers.
At the end of the first chorus there is a series of fast cutting rates which are in sync with the drum beat and within these cuts there is just a shot of the bands name in a shape of a CD.
Media Language
Unlike conventional music videos this track has more shots of the narrative then the band itself. Usually the main focus is the band but in this video, the band are not seen much throughout the verses but are seen quite a lot during the chorus where they follow usual conventions. There is a fast cutting rate as the tempo of the music is more upbeat and there are plenty of meat shots of the band. There are also a lot of close up of the band playing instruments. Following the first chorus the camera is filming a stack of magazines by the swimming pool. This shot lasts for 8 seconds without moving which is very unusual as most shots in powerpop videos last under 1 second but within this shot, on the magazine we see the band performing. They are still in the pink background and the band is still black and white. There are various cuts and shots within the magazine shot.
The focus of the narrative are on Stacey and her mum. This means that there are a lot of shots of both of them. During the second verse Staceys mum is getting a massage in the garden and we see a lot of shots of dismemberment. The same can be seen during the final verse where Staceys mum is pole dancing in their kitchen. Collectively, the shots anchor the image and song name of Staceys mum. This is further enhanced when stacey is drinking out of a straw with a star on it which glistens in the sun to make it look as though it shines.
There are many intertextual references in this video. First of, there is the whole idea that many young boys fantasize about an adolescent mother. This is seen in many teen movies such as American Pie.
In the first scene of the music video where there are a group of people waiting we see a boy with sunglasses, long hair, shirt and tie. This person is a reference to Ric Ocasek, the Cars front man. This is further enhanced by the number plate of Stacys mums car. Which shows "I ♥ Ric". At 1:15 we see the lead bouncing his head to the music, this is a reference to Elliot Easton the guitarist from the cars. There are further references with to the cars by the Roland Juno 6 keyboard and the album cover showing 'Stacys mom' in a car is a reference to a number of Cars album covers.
When Stacy was sun bathing in the garden we see her in some heart shaped sunglasses, this is reference to the 1962 film Lolita. The video also references the 1982 Fast times at Ridgemount High. In the video the boy is in Stacys toilet and sees Stacys mum coming out of the swimming pool. The boy begins masturbate and before he finishes Stacy opens the door and catches him red handed and quickly closes the door laughing. This also happened in the movie.
Representation
The band are not seen that much throughout the video but when they are seen they come across as quite retro because of the colours they use. They are also all wearing really smart suits. This could represent their band image as not being your typical rugged rockstar but a smart rock type band. This is quite typical in powerpop artist. For e.g. Hellogoodbye often wear suits when performing. They usually wear checked shirts and cardigans in their music videos. We also see the band playing the instruments which tells us that they write and play their own music unlike some manufactered bands.
Throughout the music video we see 3 specific social groups. First of all there is the group of school boys at the start. These boys get excited when they see Stacys mum, they represent typical teenage boys when they see an attractive elder and tries to impress them like Stacys friend trieds to do throughout the video. The 2nd social group is Stacy herself. She is the typical 'girl next door' or the 'cheerleader' in school. She is seen to try and impress the good looking boys but ignoring the others as she pushes her way through when she is getting picked up. And she always thinks that her friend is trying to impress her when it was actually her mother. The final group is Stacys mum. She is an attractive business mother who enjoys massages and and is seen as quite wealthy because of her swimming pool and nice car even though she doesn't have a husband (Since your dad left, your mum can do with a guy like me)
Institution and Audience
This song was gained worldwide fame mainly because of it's video and is Fountains of Wayne most known song. It charted in America and England making it a mainstream song. I would expect to see this music video on mainstream channels such as TMF and 4Music who plays a variety popular songs such as The Saturdays and Jay Z. I would say that this video is ambient viewing. This is because it does not have a particular storyline we need to follow and does not require the viewer to think about what the video is trying to portray. The viewer can have the song in the background and can view the video at any time and able to get into it. The song itself is quite repetitive so is able to get into the viewers mind if viewed passively.
The record label would need to pay a lot of money to get the video onto the the mainstream channel but with the amount of people hooked onto the video and bought the single the money would've been worth it.
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