Friday, 6 June 2025

Sam Fender - 17 going under: context and initial analysis

What is a music video? 


  • Some form of narrative
  • Video that is appropriate to the song (beat matching)
  • Lip synching
  • Striking props and costumes 
  • Features an artist as opposed to a protagonist 
  • The theme of the song and the theme of the video are similar 
  • And so on and so forth…


Contextual information


  • Sam Fender is a 29-year-old indie/alternative rock artist from North Shields in the North-East of England, an area of social deprivation, where more than 30% of children live in poverty (https://www.nechildpoverty.org.uk/facts/).
  • His mother left him when he was 8, he returned to her at the age of 10 when he was forced out of his father’s home by his stepmother. He was bullied as a child for being overweight and not athletic.  His mother was an NHS nurse but was unable to continue working once she was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia.
  • His music is both personal and political in content and is inspired by his own experiences growing up in his hometown. It has been referred to as ‘music that punches the air and the gut’ (The Guardian, October 7, 2021).
  • Fender won a Brit Award in 2022 for ‘Best Alternative/Rock Act’, voted by fans, where he also performed Seventeen Going Under at the awards ceremony. He dedicated the award to the North East Homeless centre.
  • The track Seventeen Going Under was taken from Fender’s second studio album of the same name, released by Polydor Records (owned by Universal Music Group). 
  • A subsidiary of Universal music group
  • It was written when he was shielding during the COVID-19 pandemic. 
  • The song is introspective in its focus, looking back at his 17-year-old self and trying to make sense of the chaos of that time. 
  • Fender said of the album and the title track; ‘17 is when all the challenges begin: you’re not a baby, but you’re definitely not an adult (turns out that bit takes a bit longer than you think)’ (Rolling Stone).
  • Fender is very passionate about the North East and the issues that face those who live in the most deprived areas or suffer from the fall out of austerity and the collapse of industry in the area.
  • The video was directed by Brock Neal-Roberts. 
  • It went viral on TikTok under the hashtag #samfender and received more that 258 million views.
  • As of June 2023, the video has been viewed 27 million times on Youtube/ Vevo. 





Viewing one - technical elements and connotations

  • Extreme close ups (ECUs) of lips, eyes, sweat on skin, encoding the intense emotions that surround this song. This notion of emotional intensity is anchored through the MS of two young people hugging intensely on a dance floor. 
  • Many uses of long shots and ELSs, which symbolises the idea that Sam Fender is not the main focus of this video. Instead, the establishing shot constructs the idea that the focus of this video is the stereotypical terraced houses of the north of England. By being situated in the middle of this working class environment, a theme of remembrance and introspection is established. This constructs a sense that Sam Fender is humble and down to earth .
  • A number of short shots are edited together in quick succession, providing a variety of different emotions and themes. This use of fast paced editing is highly conventional.
  • Polysemic - many different meanings
  • A particular depressing mode of address is encoded through a close up of bloody knuckles, which connotes violence and uncertainty 
  • Rapid fire cross cutting between high key and low key lighting constructs a binary opposition between happiness and misery. 
  • There are moments of apparent happiness. The clubbing sequences use low key lighting, signifying an exciting and secret environment that will be appealing to a younger audience
  • The intensity of the shots themselves intensifies as the video reaches it’s climax. Techniques include a a rapidly shaking camera and whip pans, which creates a disorientating mode of address for the young target audience
  • POV from a car at night time construct symbolic themes of drink driving and danger. It also communicates to the audience a more complex lifestyle, that there are fast and exciting times along with slow and depressing times, constructing a complex representation of teenage life in the North
  • The setting of the video is stereotypical working class, and is constructed through the MES of terraced houses and and muted colours, connoting a sense of depression
  • The long establishing shot not only constructs a depressing atmosphere, it also constructs Fender as part of the surroundings. Instead of just being another pretty boy pop star, he IS North Shields. This is a highly unconventional mode of address
  • The video frequently cuts to group shots of young people crowded in a field in the outskirts of the town . This not only encodes a sense of community, but also a desire to escape from their situation. This highly polysemic mode of address positions the audience in a relatable mode of address. The target younger audience will be able to relate to these themes and concepts. 
  • The editing is often fast paced, which is highly conventional of music videos. The fast paced editing matches the beat of the song, an example of beat matching. 
  • A colourful music video in spite of its setting. The rapid fire montage of the party scene utilises ECUs combined with the rich colour red, and provides a contrast to the bleak colours of other scenes.  It suggests that sometimes there is escape and fun. 
  • Use of eye level shots concluding the video. This positions the target audience as equal to Sam Fender. This relatable mode of address is reinforced through his nervous body language which represents Fender as a relatable young man 
  • The CU shots of Fender throughout the music video reinforce his performance and his importance. Lip syncing in a music is highly conventional, although Fender never dances or plays guitar. Perhaps this presents a sense of relatable naturalism for this music video. By not playing the guitar, Fender constructs a sense of verisimilitude ( a sense of realism)
  • The setting of the beach symbolises an escape from a depressing reality. However, the bleak MES and the performance of the fighting constructs a depressing mode of address



Viewing two - how are representations constructed through media language?


The North of England 
Arguments and conflicts 
Teenagers
Family issues
Mothers
Working class people
Poverty


  • A shot of a young woman clutching a sports bag with clothes hanging, suggesting she has had to leave quickly. We are left to speculate she has had an argument with her family, and she is now in a position of homelessness. This theme of teenage poverty and uncertainty is just one of many reinforced throughout the video
  • Themes of conflict: the proairetic code of the ECU of the bloody knuckles foreshadows a violent event that happens later, a fist fight between two friends. Here the narrative has been made non-linear, which symbolises that growing up in the north of england is not straightforward. 
  • The narrative of this music video is chaotic and unconventional, forcing the audience to fill in the gaps that are missing. This chaotic narrative symbolically anchors the chaotic lives of teenagers
  • The north of England is constructed in two broad ways. Firstly, the shots featuring Fender construct the North as boring, slow and dull. However, in the narrative shots, we instead see the POV shots of the intense, dramatic emotional situations that affect the people in this town. 
  • The use of ECUs in the final montage construct an intense and emotional mode of address that force us to emotionally identity with the nameless characters. The dance shots clearly show young people on drugs, an intense experience that we are forced to identify with regardless of our own opinions.
  • The fighting girls being dragged apart by boys constructs a stereotypical representation of teenage girls 
  • Sam Fender is consistently represented as working class throughout the video. Fender wears a work shirt with the name of an electrical company on it, a clear working class signifier. The wind has blown Fender’s hair in an unflattering way, suggesting that he is practical and not obsessed with appearance. 
  • The north of England is represented as depressing, as constructed through the MES of the rundown, and stereotypically northern terraced houses. Here stereotypes are used to communicate a specific ideology, that these issues are widespread. 
  • Teenagers are represented as irresponsible and reckless. The fast paced montages of fighting construct teenagers as idiotic and violent. The party scenes however construct a sense of being obsessed with appearance and physical intimacy. Finally, the MES of sweat and blank faces encodes that these teenagers are taking drugs, to escape from the bleak reality of their existence. This highly polysemic video provides the audience with a range of different interpretations.