Final Music Video

Jake Bugg- Messed Up Kids (Music Video Analysis)

Messed Up Kids is a song featured on English indie rock artist Jake Bugg's second studio album Shangri La. The song is the fifth listed track on the record which went on to become no.3 in the UK's albums chart.

The video immediately starts with Bugg voicing over the track and giving additional detail to the audience about the purpose of the song say that he was not a 'messed up kid' but sees people in his birthplace of Nottingham who are. The first images we get from the video is it is all filmed in black and white so as to not highlight any individual person in the video and detail how anyone can be messed up not just one specific person. The camera straight away demonstrates three close-ups of different characters in the video all of whom look like young thugs due to the way they are represented as they wear chains, biker helmets, hoodies and have earrings all of which mark the stereotype of an inner-city teenager. This pairs with the first lyrics of Bugg's song which is 'Johnny deals a bit of blow on the side.' This is of course slang for drug dealing thus linking the stereotype with the lyrics of the song as the characters in the video are shown as drug dealers which is the connotation that is made with inner-city youths.

The next shots that the camera uses is a slow pan to the right revealing Bugg on the outskirts of the people he is describing clearly separating himself from the group of people he views as 'messed up'. The use of editing is also important in the music video as slow motion is used extensively throughout the music video this is so the audience can easily see various events taken place within the group of people which show almost every stereotypical aspect of inner city life i.e. teenage parenthood, drug dealing, what appears to be prostitution not only does it slow down these scenes but also use the reverse tool to go back and then zoom in on these events to make sure the audience sees what is occurring and also to take in this is a common sight in inner city housing estates.




The use of shots in this music video is very reminiscent of other media pieces such as the movie Kidulthood (2006) which touched on very similar issues which are shown in Jake Bugg's video such as drugs and unplanned teen pregnancies/parenthood. Both of this pieces of media help to support the idea that this is what the inner city society is truly like.

The use of speed is another aspect of the video that makes it stand out as well though. Unlike the rest of the video the pace of the song does not match the speed the camera movies in the music video as the camera is often in slow motion this contradicts the upbeat and fast tempo of the song this is one of the only contradictions in the video however as the lyrics for the most part time in with the events happen on screen such as 'they sell their time, they sell their drugs, they sell their bodies.' All of which can be seen in the images above which help to mirror the lyrics with the narrative of the video so as to reinforce this image to the audience watching.