Burn The Witch (radiohead)

Question 1

Who are Radiohead?

Answer 1

Famous British rock band

Question 2

What genre is Radiohead?

Answer 2

Electronic/experimental rock/indie

Question 3

When was Burn The Witch released?

Answer 3

2016

Question 4

What album is Burn the Witch from?

Answer 4

A Moon Shaped Pool (9th studio album)

Question 5

What genre of music is Burn The Witch?

Answer 5

Orchestral pop

Question 6

What are the political views of Radiohead?

Answer 6

• Left-leaning
• Thom Yorke (Supported of the Labour Party)
• Critical of Brexit and Trump’s policies
• Politically provocative

Question 7

What themes appear in the Burn The Witch music video?

Answer 7

• Anti-authoritarian
• Warns against groupthink, rising nationalism, and fascism
• Attack on romanticised, revisionist past, rhetoric of traditional values (Trump, Marine Le Pen)

Question 8

What did the animator who worked in the video interpret the song as?

Answer 8

• Comment on the European migrant crisis
• Scapegoating of Muslims

Question 9

The music is considered a homage to what television programme?

Answer 9

Trumptonshire children’s television programme (1960s)

Question 10

What is Trumtonshire?

Answer 10

short episodic stories set in the fictional English county of Trumptonshire (idealised depictions of rural England)

Question 11

How is the music video a homage to trumptonshire (1960s)?

Answer 11

Direct Intertextual stylistic reference to the stop motion animation and some characters (mayor)

Question 12

What other examples of Intertextuality are there?

Answer 12

The Wicker Man (1973) British folk horror film

Question 13

What is the WickerMan (1970s)?

Answer 13

A folk horror film. In which a naive policeman investigates the disappeared of a young girl in a remote island which ends in sacrifice.

Direct Intertextual references- folk dancing, human effigy, celebration

Question 14

General reception

Answer 14

Over 21k YT comments
41 million views

Question 15

Lyrics- Thom Yorke

Answer 15

• Known for writing a pithy, stream of consciousness style
• Motivated by anger, expressing political concerns, “constant response to double-think”

Question 16

Describe the lyrics

Answer 16

• Cautinary and constantly at odds with the idyllic rural imagery
• “if you float you burn” “abandon all reason” (moral panic associated with witch hunts)
• The villagers are unconsciously growing in panic “this is a low flying panic attack”
• The cautions can only be understood after the fact

Question 17

Opening shot of the close up of the bird perched on a tree branch.

Question 18

The two shot of the inspector being driven along the country ride

Question 19

Wide shot of the villagers meeting in the town square discussing something

Question 20

Insert shots and cut aways of their lives, routines

Question 21

The pub name “the speared bear”

Question 22

The reveal of the “model village”

Question 23

Stylistic conventions of folk horror

Question 24

The red crosses painted in the doors, the wide shot revealing the ducking chairs, the long robes and animal masks

Question 25

The grand reveal of the human effigy (Intertextual reference)

Question 26

The final shot (breaking of the 4th wall)

Question 27

The cyclical final shot

Question 28

How is the video subversive?

Question 29

How is the video subversive?(2)

Question 30

Describe the narrative of the mayor video

Question 31

What is the genre of the video? (Hybridisation)

Question 32

How is the band represented?

Question 33

How is the band represented? (2)

Question 34

How is gender represented? (2)

Question 35

How is Britishness represented?