6th Music video: Rammstein (amerika)

My 6th music video research is of yet another Rammstein video, which is the song, 'Amerika'.

Both the song and the video are both actually quite politically driven, as the song is all about the influence of american or western brands, spreading into other parts of the world, which is shown in the video, through images of monks eating Mcdonalds, TV sets in african tribes, and of course, the band itself on the moon, which turns out to be fake at the end of the video.

Rammstein are known for their themed videos, and their other videos such as 'Du Hast' and 'Ich Will' all have strong themes about them, which is what a Rammstein video great, as they almost tell a story.

In this particular video, this a massive emphasis of props and costume, for example, the band are all dressed in Apollo 13 gear, with NASA themed instruments, with a backdrop of earth and space. This gives the video a comedic value, and yet still helps to project the image of the spread of Western branding and culture.

The song also perfectly matches the scenes from the video, and its like the song was written with the music video in mind, which can be seen in the imagery of the video. like the dancing tribesman holding the pizza, or simply the band playing on the moon, it all fits in.

Some may criticise the song due to it being in german, but if anything, i believe this makes the message more prominent, as if they were american, it would be another Green Day like band, moaning about their own country, where as the fact that Rammstein are from east germany means they know much better the spread of american influence on the world, plus just because its not in english doesnt make it a bad song, you just have to look deeper into it

There are some noticeable Juex-apposes in this video, which highlight further the theme of the video, an example of this would be the traditionally dressed monks, eating a McDonalds burger. First, this is a complete Juex-appose to the the monks, as they are traditional asian Monks, in the orange robes, coming out of a temple, eating an american, capitalist food, which adds to the idea of the spread of the corporate state.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxroiTRg7Tg