RM - Radiohead - Just Deconstruction

Band: Just
Song: Radiohead
Genre: Rock
Director: Jamie Thraves
Audience: 15-24
Year Released: 1995

Radiohead’s “Just” is a concept which also features the band performing live in what appears to be a hotel room.

Protagonist who has the majority of the focus

The custom side to this music video focuses on a middle-aged man whom decides to lie on the floor throughout the video with the exception to the two sequences he features in at the start of the video which feature him getting into a bath and walking down a high street. The protagonist doesn’t give an exploration to why he is lying of the floor until the very end of the video, by this time he is surrounded by members of the public. Throughout the video there have been subtitles to anchor what the cast has been saying however at this point they stop therefore not allowing the audience to know why the protagonist is lying on the floor. Radiohead haven’t announced what dialogue the protagonist says during the sequence whilst there are no subtitles.

Thom Yorke

During this video the middle-aged man is the audience’s main focus. This goes against the common convention that the lead vocalist of the band, in this case Thom Yorke, has the majority of the focus. However the common convention which is that lip-syncing is featured in music video does apply to this video.

The majority of shots featured in the music video feature close-ups and medium shots of the band or cast members. This allows the audience to see the emotion of people’s faces as well as speaking the dialogue which appears as subtitles. In this video there is also the use of zooming in and out as well as panning, an example of this is the last few shots which zooms out from the protagonist and pans to the right (pictured left). As well as this each element of the video is show in sequences, normally of three to five shots, therefore allowing the audience to follow the concept idea as well as view the band playing band performing live easily.

There has recently been a cover of this song by Mark Ronson which features Alex Greenwald, from Phantom Planet, singing. The video used for this song has been directed to look the same however there are small changes for example instead of Radiohead performing the song it is Mark Ronson. As well as this it is also meant to be a sequel to Radiohead’s version. Click here to watch Mark Ronson's version of the song.