Research: In-depth analysis of 'Coffee & TV' by Blur

Name of artist: Blur
Title of song: Coffee & tv
Released: 28th June 1998
Producer: William Orbit
Genre: Indie-Rock



Relationship between visuals and lyrics?

I believe that the visuals illustrate a story about a boy which has dissapeared and the worried parents have no way have finding the boy, however an animated milk carton comes to life, and with a advertisement label with the boys face on, goes on search for the boy and also to find romance. The lyrics do match the visuals as the visuals talk about the stress the boy has been put through and give hints to why he might of run away, for example

"I've seen so much, I'm goin' blind
And i'm braindead virtually
 sociability
It's hard enough for me
 Take me away from the big bad world"

The lyrics match the visuals as both the lyrics and the animated milk carton are following the same adventure, the milk is a representation of the missing boy and wants to find romance and get away from his home.

Relationship between the visuals and the speed of the music:

The song as a whole is a quite upbeat sounding song, however there are some parts of the song which almost fall to a silence, the visuals match the slowing down of the music video because as it start to slow down, an event would happen in the visuals, for example at the end of the song when the music starts to slow down, the visuals show the milk carton getting drank and getting threw out, I believe the producer has done this because we relate slow, quiet music with being depressed or sad so when an event such as the milk cartons death occurs, the music would slow down because of it wants to represent the feelings shown in the music video and also by the viewer.


The importance of the artist in the visuals?

The producer of the music video chosen to add a clip of Blur playing towards the end of the music to help represent them as individuals and so that the audience understand how many members are in the group and what they look like etc, also it could be the other way round, for example if the audience was watching the music video and didn't know who it was by although they knew who Blur were, allowing the audience see the band at the end of the music video allows them to understand that this music video was by Blur.

Use of Voyeurism?

There is no use of Voyeurism in this music video, presumably because the main character is a milk carton!

Any use of intertextuality?

I believe that the music video could be influenced by some sort of animation back in 1998, as the rise of animation on real life started to become much more popular in the late 90's, the producer may of chosen to use the animation to grab out to this growing population of animation to attract more interest.

What is the mixture between performance and narrative?

The music video is almost a whole narrative using visuals and the lyrics which builds a solid storyline which builds the story for the viewer to follow, the use of the performance by the band only lasts for around 20-30 seconds so it is a small minority compared to the narrative side of the video.