AJ Smith

February 12, 2016

DTC 355

Rhetorical Analysis

The multimodal text that I chose to analyze for my time-based text is the music video for the song “Holiday” by American punk band Green Day. This is a screen shot from the music video, or multimodal text, for “Holiday”:

The video consists of a multitude of video clips that show the band members driving recklessly in a 1968 Mercury Monterey convertible around an unknown city. About half way through the video the setting changes to an unknown bar where each of the band members are dressed as different personas. The video then transitions to Green Day’s lead vocalist, Billie Joe Armstrong, singing in front of the car that they were all driving in with worn can-can type dancers around him. The ending to the video shows the band members back inside the car and the car breaks down on a desert road.

The visuals to this multimodal text suggests that the intended audience are those who enjoy the partying lifestyle or are fans of punk rock. However, I believe the intended audience for this multimodal text are those who love punk rock and have a strong political viewpoint towards American conservatism. While the visuals of the multimodal text illustrate punk culture (partying around the city, the sound of the bands guitars, the appearance of the band, harsh language, rebellion etc.) and promote the song, the aural and text of this multimodal text are the indicators of who the intended audience is. Some examples of these indications are: “Hear the sound of the falling rain, coming down like and Armageddon flame, the shame, the ones who died without a name.”, “I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies.”, “Another protester has crossed the line, to find the money is on the other side.”, “There’s a flag wrapped around a score of men, a gag, a plastic bag on a monument.”, “bombs away is your punishment, pulverize the Eiffel towers, who criticize your government.” Each of these texts are portrayed in the aural and text aspect of the multimodal text and each one illustrates heavy emphasis on themes regarding politics, war and rebellion. The characteristics and preferences that the audience of this multimodal text appeal to are those who wish to get their political points bluntly across regarding American conservatism. The harsh tone of the aural and text within the multimodal text indicates just that. The strongest features to the “Holiday” multimodal text is the aural and text. The visuals and organization are also strong, but are wholly unrelated to the aural and text of “Holiday”. The genre behind the multimodal text for “Holiday” is a punk rock music video on YouTube that was designed and directed to promote an individuals political views.

The genre of these types of multimodal texts usually contain strong and harsh/blunt language, as well as creative composition and design. An example of another multimodal text for this genre is the music video for Green Day’s song “American Idiot”. The multimodal text for “American Idiot” contains visual images that directly relate to that of the aural and text aspects, whereas “Holiday” does not contain visual imagery relating to the aural and text. Green Day’s “American Idiot” is another explicit political song, however much more toned down compared to “Holiday”, that portrays the population of

America as conformists that are controlled by the media. However, like with “Holiday”, the contrast and organization of the multimodal text put heavily emphasis on the band and the aural. The organization, proximity and alignment of the elements in “American

Idiot” constructs emphasis on the lead vocalists/guitarist of the band, as well as the aural and elements of the environment. Another example of a multimodal text within this genre is the video for Green Day’s song “21st Century Breakdown”. Green Day’s “21st Century

Breakdown” is another song that is wrapped around political issues that were occurring at the time the song was written and illustrate Green Day’s lead vocalist/guitarist, Billie Joe

Armstrong, personal experiences with these issues. Compared to “Holiday” and

“American Idiot”, the multimodal text for “21st Century Breakdown” differs substantially in design and organization of the text’s elements, but still falls in the same genre. The multimodal texts for “Holiday” and “American Idiot” used physical environments to add organization, element, alignment, framing and proximity, which then added emphasis on the aural and text. The text for “21st Century Breakdown” does not contain physical environments, but rather illustrated and animated images that contain the physical environments and an extreme contrast of color. Like with “American Idiot” these illustrated and animated images relate to, and will match up with, the aural and text of “21st Century Breakdown”. Compared to the multimodal text for “Holiday”, which illustrates the punk lifestyle more than the political statement, and “American Idiot”, which is a much more toned down but still strong illustration about an individuals political thoughts, the multimodal text for “21st Century Breakdown” heavily emphasizes an individuals political views by heavily illustrating the personal experience of the lead vocalist/guitarist, Billie Joe Armstrong, through the aural, text, organization and alignment of visuals, and proximity of more relatable elements. One final example to compare with “Holiday” is Green Day’s multimodal text for their song “21 guns”. The concept of their song “21 guns” focuses mainly on the political actions of war and the conception of American patriotism, while also illustrating the perception of certain surrenders of a relationship. The multimodal text for “21 Guns” utilizes a multitude of transitions between two characters, which hail from Green Day’s rock opera album entitled “21st Century Breakdown”, in an unknown room and the band performing in the same unknown room. Similar to “Holiday”, the multimodal text for “21 Guns” contains different elements that do not directly or are only partially related to the aural and text.

There are two meanings behind the song, one is about being anti war and regards

American patriotism; and the other regards giving up on fighting in a relationship and acting on the true feelings that you have for your significant other. The multimodal text for “21 Guns” focuses mainly around the second meaning. The aural and text aspect of

“21 guns”, like with “Holiday”, “American Idiot”, and “21st Century Breakdown”, illustrates political views but mainly focuses on the war aspect surrounding politics. The organization, sequence and contrast of the elements puts heavy emphasis on the two unnamed characters and makes the audience wonder why they are fighting. Like with

“Holiday”, the multimodal text for “21 Guns” utilizes the secondary meaning behind the song for visual effects to appeal the audience, while also presenting the major and political meaning through the aural and text aspects.

The multimodal texts for Green Day’s songs “Holiday”, “American Idiot”, “21st

Century Breakdown”, and “21 Guns” are all different from one another in composition and design but are all the same by their audience and genre. The design composition of the multimodal text for “Holiday” balances the visual cultural aspects of punk and the political message behind the aural and text aspect . The organization and alignment consists of multiple transitions of the band in the car and the bar, before combining the two settings in a multitude of transitions. The effect of the organization and alignment gives the audience information that the band members are the focus of the video. The color and contrast of the environmental elements and the clothing of the band members indicate the type of audience that this multimodal text appeals to. The color and contrast consists of dark clothing and specific style to the stereotypical “punk” and specific designs and layouts of locations and activities that the stereotypical “punk” would be seen doing. These are the design elements that give indications that the aimed audience are individuals that favor punk culture and punk rock. The aural and text elements differ substantially from that of the visual designs. While the visual designs illustrate the punk culture, the aural and text of “Holiday” regard politics and political issues, but still relate to a major theme in punk culture, rebellion. The aural and text also indicate that the aimed audience are those who have strong political views through the harsh language.

Lead guitarist/vocalist for Green Day, Billie Joe Armstrong, described “Holiday” as, quote: “a slash at American conservatism. The song is not anti-American, it’s anti-

War. I wrote the song as a sort of outspoken ‘fuck you’ to [George] Bush”. The multimodal text for “Holiday” appeals the audience through striking visuals that portray the punk lifestyle constructing an instant connection between the text and the audience.

The aural and text of “Holiday” appeals the audience with a strong and harsh political view that enhances the visual images and brings out a major theme from punk culture, rebellion. The combination of having different, but balanced, meanings behind the visuals and text of “Holiday” results in having an effective and interesting multimodal text. The design elements capture the audience’s attention and encourages them to analyze the lyrical composition and hear the political message being said.