Video Analysis: Punk Rock 101 - Bowling For Soup

Punk Rock 101 was released by ‘Bowling For Soup’ during their second release of the album ‘Drunk Enough To Dance’ in 2003 and reached number 43 on the UK chart.

The video begins in a narrative style, showing a location with the name of it as ‘Punk Rock Boot Camp’ appearing in the style of a spy movie. A school bus then pulls into a aerodrome, which is similar to that in the Foo Fighters ‘The Pretender’ music video. This is then followed by the performance side of the music video, showing the band in very casual attire as all three have culottes on with band t-shirts and basketball shirts. This adds youth to the band which is also reflected in the use of vehicle at the start of the video and the characteristics of the individual band members which come through during the performance side such as the guitarist dancing in a non conventional rock way.

The narrative of this video also shows the characteristics of the band and presents them in a more down-to-earth manner as they themselves are featured in the narrative. The narrative shows a group of ordinary people line up and get taught about ‘punk rock’, showing them all in a vest and underwear (similar to the outfits worn by young children) and are presented with a new uniform like in the army. This new uniform is seen to be represented by the choice of footwear which is converse. Converse are stereotypically linked to rock bands, but usually these are predominantly younger bands in their late teens. The whole narrative really reflects on the lyrics and shows the journey of these ordinary people showing their transformation into a ‘rock’ style. The journey shows their outfit transformation, lowering of their trousers and new hairstyles that are all conventions of the punk rock style. The leading man in the narrative is seen to be tough, strong and has a conventional rock look. He is then followed by another man teaching the students about rock who is seen to reflect the character ‘Mr T’ as he’s also presented in an army fashion.

The video itself doesn’t contain many close up camera shots, but instead lots of mid and long shots of the band as a group from various angles around the location. The aerodrome reflects the genre of rock as it appears quite old and run down. The few close ups that there are show the instruments played by the artists and usually slowly dolly across which doesn’t really add to the tempo of music. One part of the song shows the band performance from an extreme long shot and on each beat moves in closer to the band, but at alternative angles which really create an effective technique that shows the song tempo. Like other videos I have looked at, there are also plenty of zoom outs to show those that relate to the object. Overall comedy plays the biggest part in this video, and the narrative is more significant than the performance of the band itself, which could be because the band is featured in both. The technique of using the band in the narrative is and effective one as it really shows the audience the personality that shines through each character.