Music video analysis: Goldfish - We Come Together

Goldfish are a South African nu jazz/electronic duo. Their music has been nominated for a variety of awards in Africa including best duo/group and best dance album in the South African Music Awards. Their debut album Caught in the Loop was released in 2006. The song We Come Together was released in their newest 2010 album Get Busy Living and features guest vocals from Sakhile Moleshe, the version in the video itself being a remix bundled in with the single. I first discovered the video several months ago and was greatly impressed by the amount of references, so I suggested it to my teacher for studying intertextuality in the lesson and was pleasantly surprised when it was used.

The plot of the video revolves around the pixelated members of the band, their goldfish mascot and his love interest within the world of a conventional retro videogame littered with references to pop culture, art and games themselves. The goldfish's lover, dressed in the iconic gown of Princess Peach from Super Mario Bros., is kidnapped through the methods of fishing by the Stormtrooper-esque Smooth Jazz Posse. The goldfish and the band set out to rescue the princess in hot pursuit of the feline villains, interacting and crossing paths with a plethora of intertextual in-jokes in the most conventional videogame fashion of defeating various end-of-level bosses and raiding the impossibly large antagonist's stronghold for fame, glory and the affection of the aristocratic captor.

 The narrative structure of the video is, when stripped down and analysed, a fairly conventional series of events. The construction is linear and chronological, charting the same group of characters through the events between the Goldfish gig, the quest and the post-game reward/credits. The first equilibrium is the band happily performing to the undersea audience, followed by the disruption of the posse kidnapping the princess. The recognition of the situation is instantaneous and the band quickly embarks on an epic adventure in formulaic home console fashion. The repair is gradual as the group humorously conquers the jazz police and ploughs through boss monsters. The resolution comes when the final boss is defeated in King Koopa style by the cutting of the bridge and the rolling of the winners' text above the goldfish and the princess.

 On the first instance of viewing the video succeeds to catch the audience off guard. The events of the video are all referencing a variety of other sources and are loosely compiled together with the narrative. The spontaneity of the narrative is a very entertaining aspect for the audience, though the viewers are split down the middle by prior knowledge. The gamers and younger generation, conscious of popular content which has surfaced in the age of the internet, consume the video differently to an uninformed audience who could be utterly bewildered by the content. The content of the video is set up to reward gamers and connoisseurs of pop culture, thus partially alienating other audience members, though the music itself helps to bridge the gap.

 The level of intertextuality in We Come Together is at times difficult to take during at the first viewing. The obvious area of inspiration is gaming, but film and the band's own content are also present. To avoid copyright infringement the guest characters all bear the features of cats, yet they are all instantly recognisable to the video's audience. This aspect also labels them as the villains, cats being a frequent predator of the household goldfish.

 Before the music even kicks in the band are announced in a company title not far off from the SEGA logo from the days of the Megadrive. The title screen comes next, a staple of many games, urging the player to give input with their controller. As the video begins the princess is an instant riff on Super Mario Bros., the smooth jazz posse being henchman characters from Star Wars with the storm troopers. Elements from past and present are blended with the heroes leaving the ocean via the help of characters from Excite Bike and Bubble Bobble, then are launched by a giant slingshot in the fashion of the recent iPod app sensation Angry Birds; practically every shot in the video is in homage to the playing style of a certain videogame. As the characters are granted weapons (which happen to be their favoured instruments) to attack the enemy in classic over the top fashion, the convention of the Easter egg, a hidden bonus planted by a game's creators, flashes for a single frame on-screen. The Easter egg itself is, ironically, an actual Easter egg. Icons from games such as the original Mario Bros. games continue to feature with the power star and the power-up item taken from headbutting floating boxes during the boss battle. As the verse changes, so does the format of the video, switching swiftly from Pac-Man to a 3rd person three-dimensional driving section mirroring Grand Theft Auto as the characters head to the smooth jazz club. As they approach the building they hide within a box labelled 'The Orange', a box seen typically in the Metal Gear Solid games the name of a bumper game package released by Valve. The group enter the club disguised as cats in pop culture, specifically Meowth from Pokemon, Hello Kitty and Felix. As they walk past the bar, YouTube star Keyboard Cat (who is in fact Sakhile in disguise), Donkey Kong, R2D2, Bowser/King Koopa, Tintin and a cat with a head in the shape of an optical illusion similar to the works of the painter M.C Escher. A bar brawl ensues with Darth Vader, Donkey Kong and the mascot of Angry Birds, which the band wins using Pac-Man himself, the conventions of combos and special moves from classic fighting games such as Street Fighter and a scene reminiscent of the game Duck Hunt. After defeating the next boss with 'ludicrous gibs' the club is blown apart by Bomber-man. The slow-motion scene features iconic characters from a variety of cult sources including Cactuar from Final Fantasy, Parappa the rapper, Finn from adventure time and the protagonist of Katamari Damacy as the vinyl record player rises up. The record player functions as a boost for the Sonic the Hedgehog-like giant ‘mecha’ robot the band are piloting. They leave the planet, passing by two South African astronauts on their way to the volcanic final level. They crush police cars and battle Garfield, defeating him as in the castle levels of the original Mario games, rescuing the princess as the song ends and unlocking bonus content in the form of a Claymation 'new dimension'. Some references go by so swiftly that multiple viewings may be necessary, such as the 'derp' internet meme written on an island close to the beginning of the video and the terminator facial piece on the face of one of the band members when dressed as cats.

 The connotations displayed in the video present the band as a mostly masculine force for good. As in many videogames, the band members possess god-like powers and are the deus ex machina of the scenario, the miraculous saviours who against all odds defeat evil. It could be argued that the figure of the woman is undermined in the scenario as merely a love interest, a helpless princess at the hands of the final boss, though this aspect is not set in stone for videogames (games such as Metroid and Half-Life 2 contain powerful female heroines or support characters). The band themselves are an all-male group and are therefore catered to appeal to a male audience. The malevolent presence of the smooth jazz genre in the predatory cat characters connotes the desired genre of the band and their opinions on the out-dated forms of jazz in the industry. The band incorporates elements of the nu jazz subgenre, bringing jazz to a more contemporary setting & audience.

 Applying other aspects of Goodwin's Theory to the piece, the band are successfully advertised without a live action image. The video contains no live performance from Goldfish, instead representing Sakhile, the band and the mascot in pixel animation. Artists including The Chemical Brothers place vague representations of themselves in the videos. This highlights the artist and sells them even though they are not physically present. This method is used successfully in We Come Together as the band members are recognisable even though they are animated. The video also promotes the band through performance despite being only an animation. The band is depicted twice in the video performing to an audience in an exciting and enticing manner. The notion of looking comes into play with the inclusion of the start menu, creating the illusion that the entire video is just a game played by an omniscient yet unseen character, or even a member of the audience. The band is also being observed by the suspicious cats in the jazz club and audience in the club/under the sea. Keeping to the art style of the video there are little to no opportunities for objectification of the female body. The relationship between the music and the video is a synchronised movement. The video is cut to the beat, with events, characters and attacks by the band moving with the song. The creators of the video originally planned to have the sprite characters of the band change shape and gyrate to the beat, but they chose to keep to the videogame style strictly and opted for the finished product of subtle movement. Examples of this include the stomping of cars by the mecha, the running of the band in the 3D section and the combination of attacks in the band's first confrontation with the troopers. The characters also play their instruments and sing in time with the music when a performance arises. The relationship between the lyrics and the video is much less literal. The song's subject is vague but empowering, an upbeat song to dance to about a romance between two people wishing to "love each other 'till the end of time". The love story in the video is between the goldfish and the princess. The South African flag and racial diversity of the band with Sakhile in tow reflects how far the country has come since apartheit and the worldwide reach of racial acceptance. The themes of the song and the video are contemporary enough to appeal to today's technologically informed generation of 16-25 year olds, though it also brings in an older alternative audience experienced in retro videogames with the vast amount of intertextuality.

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