I am analysing Nirvana’s video for the single ‘In Bloom’. The video was released in 1992 and was directed by Kevin Kerslake. The genre of this band is Alternative indie rock/Grunge and the video characteristics for them genres is generally playing instruments and acting like they don’t care. This video is performance based but the performance is based into the narrative as they’re performing on a show. It has an early 1960’s feel as it’s filmed on an old camera and is continuously in black and white.
There is a relationship between the lyrics and the video made for this song. The title of the song ‘In Bloom’ is also featured in the song lyrics. This phrase could suggest that they’re the prettiest and most presentable they’ve ever been and will be to the general public. This song is about the fame they’ve received after their breakthrough single ‘Smells like teen spirit’ in 1991 and how people like them because other people do, yet they don’t understand what their music is really about. This is where the lyric ‘He’s the one who likes all our pretty songs’ comes from. Additionally, Nirvana are shown described as ‘thoroughly all right and decent fells’ which is completely different to how they actually are shown.
This video is split into two parts. The majority of the video is the band being shown dressed in suits and playing their instruments normally while the second is them dressed in dresses, tearing apart the stage causing havoc. The second part of the video, they’re shown as how they are majority of the time to the public. This video shows them acting differently to how they normally would, which could suggest they’re putting on a front while dressing in suits when they actually feel like being reckless and tearing the stage apart. Since this video is set in the 1960’s it could be referring to how even though their songs are just becoming popular and they’re just being noticed on the radio they’ve been around for a long time, obviously not as long as the 1960’s but I feel that’s what they’re trying to show.
This video is like their other videos in the sense that all of their videos have a performance based plot with a narrative as well. The video for ‘In Bloom’ has been shot with a 1960’s feel and in black and white, which none of their other videos have. Their video for the song ‘Smells like teen spirit’ also has a crowd but in that video, the crowd seem livelier because they jump up from their seats while in this video they just cheer throughout the video. There is close ups of the leader of the band, Kurt Cobain which is how the label can sell the track because people remember faces rather than names.
Overall this video is mainly a typical music video for the genre of this band with a few differences like them dressing smart and having a 1960's feel to it. It's similar to their other music videos as well, as they all have a performance base.
