Goodwins Homework, Analysis of 'Psychosocial'

The genre of the music video is metal, so instruments feature heavily, especially the guitarists and the percussionist, as these feature most throughout the video. The vocalist features heavily as well, due to how the song was made, with more predominant vocals. It displays fast moving camera work with much slower shots, contrasting the two. Metal is often associated with death, fire and horror and all of these are featured in the video.

There is no relationship between the lyrics of the song and what is happening on screen, the lyrics depict vengeance, retribution and rebellion. All that happens on screen is a performance. However the mood of the vocals are reflected in the video.

There is a strong relationship between what is happening on screen and and the general tempo of the music. The editing matches the speed of the song, slowing down and speeding up in the correct places, when the solo starts there are much more shots of both guitarists, and when the breakdown begins all the shots become much longer and slower in duration, giving the video a heavier pulse.

The record label for the album, roadrunner, wanted plenty of close ups of the masks that slipknot wear. showing how unique slipknot are and also what makes the video stand out, they also wanted to show the individual artists playing styles, e.g. Mick Thompson's wide playing stance and straight head-banging style, as well as both guitarists signature guitars.

The camera angles used deliberately give plenty of notions of looking, both from looking at the camera and looking in different directions. However, apart from looking at the camera, this is not purposefully done.

The main inter-textual reference is the large demonic symbol in which the the band plays in. Corey Taylor (vocals) says that it suits what the song is about, and also fits the ongoing theme of hate.