Textual analysis of a music video - The Beat - Mirror in the bathroom

The Beat - Mirror in the bathroom

This was written by The English Beat singer and guitarist Dave Wakeling. He told us the story of the song: "I was working in construction at the time, and it was the winter. I had forgotten to hang my jeans up to dry overnight, so when I got into the bathroom to shower up, I noticed my jeans were still on the floor, soaking wet, covered in sand. So I hung them up thinking well, it's probably best to have them steaming hot and wet. I went to shave, and it was snowing, and I really, really didn't want to go. So I started talking to myself in the mirror as I was shaving up. And it was weird, because I looked deeper in the mirror, and I could see the little caption on the door behind, and I said to myself, Look, David, there's just me and you in here. The door's locked. We don't have to go to work. Of course we did. Got on the motorbike, and I just started pondering as I skated my way to the construction site on this motorbike. And that's how it started. It was thinking about how self-involvement turns into narcissism and how narcissism turns into isolation, and then how isolation turns into self-involvement again, and how what a vicious cycle that can become. So then I just started thinking about different situations where people would ostensibly look like they were doing something, but in fact they were checking their own reflection out. And you'd see it perhaps on Saturday afternoon with people window shopping, half the time they're actually just looking at their own reflection. Then this restaurant opened, and it was a big deal at the time because it had glass tables, and I was like, oh, you can watch yourself."

This was one of the first big singles of the early '80s UK Ska revival. This genré borrowed heavily from the Reggae rhythms of Jamaica. The premier band in the movement was The Specials, and this song lifted The English Beat to that same level.

The music video contains several generic images of the ska genre. The images shown illustrate the genre to be lively, there are several close ups of feet dancing, heads bobbing, and also medium shots of the band members dancing. The performers are very lively, they are enjoying themselves, and this again reflects the upbeat lively generic atmosphere of ska music. The images used also illustrate ska as a genre to passionately involve a variety of musical instrument most importantly of course of which is brass instruments, close ups of the saxophone player whilst doing his solo parts indicate this. The costume worn by the performers is generic of the ska genre, the trilby hat, sunglasses, suit jeans and t-shirt. The costume indicates a mixture of a relatively smart look and casual.

There is an illustrated link between the lyrics and the visuals, the majority of the non performance shots are located in a bathroom and reflection of the performers, reflective surfaces are used throughout. There are close up's used of taps, performers reflections in mirrors. The presence of reflections illustrates the songs theme of narcissism, the performers staring at their reflections. For example when the line ''Can I take you to a restaurant that’s got glass tables,'' there is a shot of the reflection of one of the performers in a glass table, the camera then pans up to the performer. Another example is the line, ''Mirror in the bathroom just can’t stop it every Saturday you see me window shopping,'' and a performer walks past a shop window looking at his reflection in the mirror.

The visuals are the cut become faster in the performance elements of the video and slower in the narrative. The visuals are cut faster in the performance element of the video, which reflects the music’s lively beat of the music, energetic dancing and enjoyment of the performers making music. The faster cuts amplify the sprit of the performers and there passion for music, as well as reflecting this on to the fans/audience, almost making you get up off your seat and be lively too.

The costume worn by the performers in the video is generic of the ska genre, and reflects what fans of the ska genre would wear; this becomes appealing to target fans/audience. Close ups are used to indicate costume, for example there is a close up of the drummers face wearing sunglasses. Generic costume signifiers worn in the video are sunglasses, trilby hats, suits, polo shirts. The lively dancing of the performers is also generic to ska, ska is a lively, upbeat energetic genre, made to get you on your feet dancing and enjoying yourself. Another generic signifier in the video is the presence of brass instruments, a saxophone in this case. Ska is heavily based around brass, trumpets, saxophones, trombones; ska bands are generally larger than average bands and have a wider range of instruments. Performance, instrumentals and dancing are significant aspects of ska.

The music video is performance based, with a slight narrative element; these shots general link the visuals to the lyrics. The abundance of close ups of instruments, dancing, hands and feet illustrates a strong sense of performance

There is a strong sense of looking in the video, created though the repetition of images of reflection. Throughout the video mirrors and shiny reflective surfaces are present, these images illustrate the songs lyrics and message of narcissism. The strong presence of reflect portray vanity, egotism; the images used reflect the lyrics. In the narrative section of the video the performers represent these egoistic characters; they are shown to look at themselves in every form of reflection. The theme of narcissism in the song and video represents a wide range of messages and issues about society and possibility Western culture, a reflection itself on contemporary. The song talks about vanity, the lyrics could be said to personify the mirror, "Mirror in the bathroom you're my mirror in the bathroom", and this suggests ownership, selfishness.