Music Video Analysis Hellyeah- Cowboys Way

Style The style of this music video is a hyper masculinated, fuel pumping, booze drinking party. It begins with the opening with the shot of the lead vocalist walking out of a church, this is a common find in music videos of southern hard rock music, its followed by the chugging of the guitars, so called this to masculinise and put the idea of alcohol in there, it goes on to show a large group of men surrounding the band again enforcing the masculinity. It continues to show the vocalist driving a muscle car past a police car, showing the rebellious nature and anti-mainstream attitude, he drives on past two hitch hiking girls who flash to grab the attention of him, he drives past and makes a rude gesture, this is a metaphor of the high speed, non-caring attitude also again the masculinity is hyped by the use of female gratification and solicitation brought upon by the need for attention from the male that is then beaten aside. The tittle of the song is Cowboy Way, due to the nature of the band being southern, religious and masculine this is loosely related to cowboys and cowboy style shown throughout the video with jeans, large belt buckles, jeans and leathers on both the audience and band. The style of the video is very much shown in the aspect of the band being the centre of attention, portrayed in the scenes of the live show where the audience is surrounding them playing their instruments. The final few scenes show the idea of them being cheered at making the ego of the band larger than life another trait found in masculinity, then a shot of the lead singer driving off into the distance, this is followed by the imagery of the end of the film burning out, possibly seen as a representation to the larger than life lifestyle the band is living, it may also have reference to a band known as pantera which was the first band to do this kind of heavy metal genre that fizzled or burnt out with arguments, drugs and resulting in the death of Dimebag Darrell. Brother to the drummer of the band Hellyeah formally of Pantera.

Conventions The Southern style of Hard Rock/Metal is one closely related to country, as cowboys are a great stereotype for male authority. This video shares its conventions with many other heavy metal music videos, with both the use of attractive females, musical instruments, muscle cars and other hyper masculine iconography. The difference between these genres of music video is that religion is a huge part of southern culture, this is shown in many videos, with the use of iconography used to connote religious beliefs such as churchs, cross and religious writings. One of the most commonly used conventions in this genre of music video is the use of showing the instruments, most commonly used to show musical talent instead of modern day music which relates around dancing and miming. The conventions of

hard rock/metal music videos is used to show the band as a musically talented artist and not just some kid wanting money.

Effects Effects in this video are used to follow the narrative such as fast edits and quick to the point narrative of basic hyper masculine traits. Besides this the effects used are very basic and are mainly camera effects such as close ups and fast edits, of the band and their faces and instruments, this is to focus on the dominance, and masculinity of the members of the band. Close ups are used in this video to show emotion or in this case lack of, wide angle shots used to show the popularity of the band.