Music Video Analysis: Antony and The Johnsons - Epilepsy Is Dancing

Epilepsy Is Dancing was released on 13 November 2009. 

Antony and the Johnsons are a music group presenting the work of Antony Hegarty and his collaborators. 

Antony Hegarty (born 1971), often referred to simply as Antony, is an English singer, composer, and visual artist, best known as the lead singer of the band Antony and the Johnsons and for his work with the musical collective Hercules and Love Affair.

Antony grew up in England until 1977 when his family moved to Amsterdam for a year, then moved to California where he lived for most of his childhood. As a teenager, he was influenced by Kate Bush as well as British synth pop – in particular singers such as Marc Almond, Alison Moyet and Boy George, and was also strongly influenced by underground stars Diamanda Galás, Rozz Williams, Divine and Klaus Nomi and American singers including Nina Simone, Otis Redding, and Donny Hathaway. In 1990, Antony moved to Manhattan to attend the Experimental Theatre Wing of New York University, and founded the performance collective Blacklips with creative partner Johanna Constantine.

The genre of his music is considered Chamber Pop: 

Chamber pop, also known as chamber rock, originated in the United Kingdom in the 1990s as a "reaction" against much of the alternative rock and grunge-based music of the time. Chamber pop grew out of growing distaste in the popular music trends of the period, especially the low fidelity and raw aesthetic of the alternative rock-based genres, which had achieved a widespread following at the time. It desired to return to the elegance and classically based style of 1960s baroque pop. By refusing any form of coarseness, aggressiveness or kitschtendencies, chamber pop refuted the styles associated with alternative rock and electronic music. 

Lana Del Rey

A more mainstream, or more recogniseable Chamber pop artist is Lana Del Rey. 

MUSIC VIDEO: 

The video itself represents the genre extremely well due to the alternative nature of the song and video. The title of the song being 'Epilepsy Is Dancing' initially tells the audience that the track is going to be dealing with a representational issue of mental and physical illness or disability. However, the representation of this is not negative and almost romanticises the idea of a serious disability, which is used to make the audience feel comfortable with the issue, but also to not offend any audience members who may suffer with the condition. 

'Ooh now I'm dancing'

There is a strong link to Goodwin's theory of 'There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals' as the track title uses the word 'Dancing' and for the majority of the video the performers are dancing so therefore there is a strong link in the music video to the track. Also at 2:18 in the video the line 'Ooh now I'm dancing' is sung as the visuals are of the protagonist female dancing with other performers. This is used as a concept to link the illness of 'Epilepsy' to be like 'dancing' - almost a euphemism for the illness, but in a non-derogatory way. It is used to represent the illness in a positive light, that it shouldn't be viewed as a disadvantage, but that it is beautiful dancing and gives the audience a completely different perspective on the matter. 


The narrative as a whole is a conceptual narrative, dealing with the issue of the illness and trying to remove the stigma. However, the mise-en-scene is shown to be dream-like to aid the representation and the use of the characters as symbols enables the audience to decode for themselves what they symbolise. 

Such as the use of the goat character, the 'goat' in the conceptual, dream-like land helps her to dance and stay happy, but then the goat is shown in the reality sense and shows the audience the concept of hallucination. This is used to immerse the audience inside the mind and world of an epileptic person as they do tend to hallucinate when they have epileptic fits. Also the use of flicking back and forth between reality and the dream-like place shows the audience the transition for a person with the illness from hallucination back into the real world and that the figments of their imagination can sometimes be carried across into the reality for a short period, such as the goat appearing beside the protagonist as she reaches for the man, then we she is fully awake the goat is no longer there. Showing to the audience that the epilepsy can transport the person with the illness into a different world which is sometimes difficult to let go of, therefore showing to the audience what it would be like to experience that. 

Hallucination

The bright and vivid colours within the video are used to represent this idea of hallucination, therefore adding to the idea of a concept-based narrative structure. 

The use of costume and make-up is very similar to Chinese Theatre where the extravagance is usually used to represent an idea or concept, so perhaps Antony and the director wanted to use this same motif to reflect the concept within the video. Also with Antony being openly interested in Eastern Spirituality the use of this reference could be used to show the audience a different perspective on the illness, against what is believed in Western society and the stigma attached to it. 

Chinese Theatre

The representation of place is also surreal and other-worldly. The mise-en-scene and the use of animals is very much like the dream-like mise-en-scene within novels and films such as 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'The Chronicals of Narnia' where animals are used to personify different emotions or personality traits. Therefore the audience viewing the video will feel as if they are immersed within a fantasy world, and that fantasy world is the mind and imagination of an epileptic person. All of these Theatre, literary and film intertextual references are probably intentional to evoke the idea of fantasy and conceptuality within the audience's mind. It also applies to Goodwin's theory of 'There are often intertextual references; films, TV programmes, other music videos' meaning these references are used to evoke the hallucinatory type emotion within the audience to relate to the illness. 

Alice In Wonderland

Narnia

 The representation of the artist, Antony, is used to strengthen the video as it gives the audience a visual representation of the lyrics as he is singing them, linking to Goodwin's theory of 'The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist'. 

From 0:49 to 0:55 Antony sings the lyrics 'I cry "glitter is love!"' as flowers flow out of his mouth. This could also link further to the idea in Goodwin's theory explored previously that 'there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals' as the flowers are almost like glitter, covering everything and flowers can also be a symbol of love - as people buy flowers as gifts. 

The use of special effects here is to add to the audience's immersion in the fantasy world that is created through the mise-en-scene. It also adds to the idea of Eastern Spirituality in relation to herbal remedies and Spiritual healing, possibly expressed also through the connotations of Chinese Theatre by the costume. 

Also the female-like representation of Antony is accurate due to him openly identifying as 'trans-gender' therefore the audience can not only identify with the representation of illness, but also the representation of gender identity. The costume is almost androgynous, but the elements of pink add a feminine touch, which is typical of an alternative genre and can also be referred to as 'gender f**k', where an individual plays with the conventions of gender roles and representation of gender, outlining the fact that 'Chamber pop grew out of growing distaste in the popular music trends of the period' therefore the addition of the change of gender representation and Spirituality conforms to the idea that Chamber pop artists like to play around with conventionality within society and show audience's a different perspective.