Rammstein: Sonne (industrial metal eg)

ACT: Rammstein

TRACK: Sonne

YEAR: 2001

DIRECTOR: Jörn Heitmann

GENRE: Industrial Metal

MAIN AUDIENCE: Male, 15-24/34

Rob posted on this in August and I thought I'd add a few comments; interesting choice! I know the track well but had never seen the video.
Here's the vid first of all:


A few initial points:

• perf. through lip-synching, but without a translation its hard to say whether its narr or concept!
• fairly fast-paced editing, with some long takes though
• colour and lighting a key consideration
• vid can only be understand if we grasp both the precise genre and target audience
• skilful cross-cutting is key to the preferred reading

GENRE/AUDIENCE: Loosely, its heavy metal, but more specifically its 'industrial' (or industrial metal) - other comparable bands would include Rage Against the Machine and Nine Inch Nails. The typical audience for this would be male youth: 15-24, but comfortably extending to 15-34 (25-34 = 'mature youth'). Industrial metal goes beyond the traditional guitar/bass/drum/vocal line-up to incorporate recorded, synth-processed sound, and is also seen as 'dark' - a world away from the 'hair metal' of Bon Jovi, Motley Crue and other giants of mainstream metal.
The crashing sledgehammers, and the sparks that fly up, are a neat signifier of the genre within the video.

GENDER: The youth male audience ensures that the Snow White depicted is heavily sexualised to fit the male gaze: the tight top, thick, bright red lipstick and the long take which lingers on her suspenders. They've taken an archetypal signifier or icon of (Disney) innocence and purity and flipped it to fit with their darker vision.