Analysing The Ramones- Rock N Roll High School video by Sofie Tooke

Rock N Roll High School- The Ramones

This is a clear narrative and performance based music video with syncronised editing and action. The narrative is of the band posing as high school students in detention rebelling. This fits with the title, lyrics and meaning of the song, as it is based in a high school and the general image of 'rock n roll' is teenagers rebelling. This image fits with the 70s/80s brit rock sound and the band's image of being scruffy rockers, alongside their similar fanbase, meaning the video would appeal to the target audience. There is a clear intertexual reference of the movie 'Rock n Roll High School', about students having a disregard for education. The song was written for the movie and starred the band itself, as in the end they take over the school with the students. The editing is mainly off beat and there are no use of tracking dollies or gliding camera angles (which is probably due to the equiptment available at the time). The shots are neither short nor long and remain fairly basic throughout.



The mise en scene of the video clearly show the school scene from the beginning, as it begins with a school bell and the word 'detention' is marked across the door. The teacher wagging her finger at the 'students' shows that she is the one in charge, however the band go against this when they begin to break the rules as soon as she leaves the classroom, such as writing on the blackboard. The words 'Ramones Rule' is shown scrawled across the wall outside of the classroom in spray paint, adding to the bands teenage rebellion image, the subject of the song and the narrative of the film the song was soundtracked for, as The Ramones take over the school with the rebellious rocker students.



The lyrics reflect the mood and the narrative, providing an illustrative representation. The word 'rock' is repeated every few lines and the rock image of the band remains very clear, as they are playing guitar on the table, and wearing stereotypical rocker clothes such as leather. This reflects the genre along with the headbanging and lively performance action. Joey Ramone, the lead singer, lip syncs throughout and matches the lyrics with action. For instance, he writes 'I don't care about history' on the blackboard, and points at each word when he sings them, and when he mentions 'chicks', two girls are shown outside the classroom waving.



The only digital effects that are really used in the video is a section which seems to be stop motion of a drawing of a stereotypical angry teacher on the blackboard, drawn by Joey Ramone. This image is playful and fun, contrasting against the boring black and white of the board which shows the battle between teacher and student. It mirrors the feelings of the band and they're hatred towards the teacher in a comical way, ('I hate the teachers and the principal') making the viewer feel the same.

The video could be applied to John Stewart's theory that the music video has the aesthetics of a TV commercial. This is because there are many close-ups of the band's faces and the mise en scene and action represents The Ramones image and lifestyle. There is little reference to the male gaze, apart from the line 'I just wanna get some chicks', matched with 'some chicks' outside of the classroom and a close up of one. This is probably because in the time of the video and song, things within the media tended to be a lot more tasteful.

We like the rebellious idea of this video, for our music video and the idea of not having a story to follow. This video includes stopmotion which we are also very interested in but the rest of the editing is fairly basic. I think most of our editing will be quite basic, but we will rely on after effects (filters etc) to give our video the interesting edge we are looking for.