Paramore - Playing God

Genre is used to refer to the type of kind in which something is. We use these type of classifications to determine the target audience of a specific product or text.
Paramore are an alternative rock band, because all the music is created by members of the band using instruments. This gives a sense of passion and appreciation for what they do, it suggests to the audience that they have a real talent which have they have worked for. Rock videos usually use this convention within their videos, to suggest to the audience that they take their life as a musician seriously, and what to perform at all times.
The band appear performing a number of times during the Playing God video. In one scene the band are locked away in the basement, along with the lead singer, who is the protagonist of the video which revolves around her and the idea that she has a secret locked away in her basement. The band are down in the dark basement, performing to the song, they also have thick rope around their bodies, this could suggest to the audience that music controls their life and the basement is used as a metaphor for the way the emotions are locked away, while the band tour around the world. Emotions are usually portrayed within rock music, this is a typical convention of the genre, in comparison to hip hop's materialistic lyrics.
Towards the end of the video, the lead singer and protagonist in the video leads the band with the rope, up the stairs to the exit, this could be used to represent the lead of rock lyrics, and imply to the audience that this genre of music is about finding a path for the artist, as their music is progressive and about their emotions. However the protagonist, leads the band members and the teases them by closing the door infront of them. This could suggest that even when musicians think they are on the right path, they are lead astray or obstacles are put in the way of their goal. This iconography implies that this genre of music is about the singers goal, and is used to make the audience sympathise with them, rather than envy them, like that of a hip hop genre. This represents the progressiveness of rock music.
The video begins with a close up of the profile of the lead singer, Hayley Williams’ face, the camera has an old fashioned home video feel for the beginning, with flickering lights and shots, while the camera itself looks quite old, to give it a tarnished look. The protagonist is portrayed in an almost perfect way, as she strolls towards the house, the camera tracks her movements, she sings directly at the camera suggesting a connection with the audience. A further connection is made when the camera flips to a point of view of the protagonist walking towards a basement door, which almost looks like a coffin which creates a slightly eerie look. As she enters the underground basement, this builds up the crescendo to the chorus and also creates the climax as within the basement as a group of men are revealed to be tied up, these are also members of the band which creates familiarity within the audience, this creates a sense proairetc code as the audience wait in anticipation as to whether anything happens or anything is revealed as to why the men are trapped down there. The room is badly lit creating mystery, which creates an enigma which intrigues the audience to why the protagonist is acting in almost a psychotic manner. The scene then fades out and back in again to reveal the protagonist to be perfect again, the light is back up and shows her to be having a dinner party with friends, and everything seems fine, until there is a shot of her looking towards the camera looking extremely worried, the protagonist is out of focus, while rope and scissors are in perfect focus. This creates questions within the audiences mind as to why the protagonist feels a sense alienation and isolation within this group.
After this the use of episodic narrative is used, to flashback to a similar scene where the protagonist is sitting having lunch with the men trapped in the basment, this scene reveals her to have poisoned the men and they collapse, followed by another flashback showing the protagonist putting the poison in their drinks.