Roy Shuker,
In understanding popular music (1994) series about video directors.
Method of analyzing:
- The mood of the video.
- The narrative structure.
- The degree of realism or fantasy of the settings in the video.
- Themes present e.g love and sex, growing up, political etc.
- The importance of performance - is it there? To what degree is it present?
- Sexuality displayed, Men and Women.
- The video as a," Star" text.
- The music. How it relates to what we hear and what we see.

Music Video Analyses 1, Stand and Deliver by Adam & the Ants.

The mood of the video is appears both frustrated yet playful. This is the effect of the incredibly flamboyant lead singers over the top performance while be contrasted by the suppressed and even violent nature of the music. Throughout the video the lead singer gives off a motif of a very rebellious, highway man. There seems to be a fair amount of distaste aimed towards the rich, a theme which is shown visually (the people in the carriage being robbed) and musically in the lyrics and even parodying the typical interpretation of the rich with a, grandiose, renaissance inspired drum beat (echo throughout the song).

While the setting is in essence fairly real, it is set within another, unknown period of time. The meaning behind this may be a way of showing how the artist performing the song feelings about the time there performing from, that it is still a dark age in which one must stand and deliver, to choose between there assets or there lives.
There is an interesting point at 2:00 when the camera pulls the focus away from the lead singer in favor of the rich lord type who accusingly point his finger toward the audience. Not only does this show a theme of looking, but also conveys a message of the rich judging the audience (the poor for instance), thus lyrically and visually the message is presented to the audience.

There is a large focus on performance within the piece. This is mainly shown by the lead singer and bizarrely barely anyone else moves. This consequently means a lot of the visual energy comes from the lead singer making his actions particularly prominent. The way song presents robin hood theme of fighting back against the rich is mainly represented through the lead singers own style of expressive dance. The cast reacts to this display through hanging the lead singer. This is an interesting way of presenting the theme of rebellion without relying on physical violence (which can become predictable and dull).

The video both begins and ends with the lead singer looking into the mirror applying make up war paint fashioned. There is a certain form of sexualisation here but it seems almost egotistical, as though this scene is confined within the lead singers mind. This is not erotic usage but rather using sexualisation as a form of showing the weak, metaphorically nude image of the artist without the mask he dances around in (his persona).