Oasis - The Importance Of Being Idol Analysis

The video opens with a close up of what looks like the start of a TV drama, the words ‘Don’t Believe the Truth’ are spread across the screen.

This tells us that the band is very much imposers of the government and that they believe people are being brained washed as members of society. This straight away tells us that the band our outcasts and that they do not follow the crowd. The video is in black and white sticking to the codes and conventions of this genre. The lighting is very hard causing a lot of shadows creating a very moody atmosphere. The tones of black and grey have connotations of evil and mystery. This could link to the fact we don’t know what the truth is leaving this mystery.

If you are familiar with the band you would know that the font of this text is very much different to fonts they have previously used. If you are watching this for the first time it would give the impression that the band are very serious and are strong believers.

We are then greeted with a long shot of a street where two kids are playing with the text ‘Oasis in The Importance of being idol’ the kids are playing football this is very a working class sport compared to rugby which is signified to be a upper-class sport. Form this we understand that the band come from a low income family.  

This next shot of an old lady collecting milk from her doorstep suggests that this video has a narrative as it does not show the band members in it as stereotypically done.

We get a sense that this video is set in the past, this is done through mise en scene the wallpaper in this shot looks very dated and not modern, the clothes look cheap and non-expensive linking pack the band coming from a low-income background. The fact this video is a narrative does tell us that the band don’t want to be seen instead produce this small montage of how they grew up.    

the panning upwards of the man on his bed creates a sense of mystery creating enigma to both who this man is but also who Oasis are as a band. The man is on his bed with what looks like his work clothes this signifies that he is always working. The lyrics ‘I sold my soul for the second time’ are parallel to this scene following Giddens idea of the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. The lyric itself could mean life is very hard, if you have to sell your soul twice then you really want to get rid of it almost like he has been given a second chance but his life is that bad he doesn’t want a second chance.   

Further on we see a close up of the lead singer looking in the mirror, the scene just before we saw the man on the bed looking in the mirror two, this could suggest that these two people are the same but are being showed with two narratives.  

The more we watch we realise that that the man is actually dead and the lyrics ‘I can’t get a life if my hearts' not in it’ imply that because his hearts not in it he might aswell just die. The previous lyrics (My best friend called me the other night

He said "Man, are you crazy?"

My girlfriend told me to get a life

She said "boy, you lazy") suggest the man is crazy and mad, it also tells us he has lost everything.

The whole video is very morbid but shows the way of life which tells us a lot about the band. In this shot we see cards and rizzlor papers on the side connoting bad and in a way quite ironic, the man is dying in the video and smoking can kill you so tells us that the band are very clever in the making but also the need to show they smoke as if it makes them cool.