Analysis: Music Video: Fountains Of Wayne - Stacys Mom

The music video, “Stacey’s Mom” is a combination of Narrative, Concept and Performance. These factors all help in portraying the key theme of the video which is the male protagonist’s journey into adolescence and the emotional and sexual change that comes with it. The video mainly consists of a young boy lusting after another girl’s mother and the video displays these fantasies as a method of entertainment for the audience. The video is aimed mainly at the male gender as the mother is made to be the desirable object and some of the later shots of her are almost stereotypical of male fantasies about women.

Camera angles and framing are used rather symbolically in the video to help accentuate the song’s meaning. At 2 min 18 sec there is a mid shot of the boy and the girl sitting on the couch with the mother behind them, yet she is positioned in-between the two characters on the couch. This helps show that this is what the boy is really thinking about and consequently the mother is in the way of the young boy and girl’s possible relationship. It could also be furthered to argue that she is the ultimate goal for the young boy as she is in the distance; a desirable object, and that he will have to work his way up to get to her as he has only just started dating girls.
Low angles are predominately used on the mother during the climax of the song and video at 2 min 31 sec to help show that this is the boy’s fantasy and also to make the mom feel sexually imposing and a desirable figure. It is a flattering angle and furthers the intent of the director’s use of male gaze to help exaggerate the song’s meaning.
The end shot of the close up of the door at 3 min 17 sec shows how our male protagonist has, over the time of the video, entered his adolescent stage and consequently the door to his innocent childhood is now closed.

The majority of Camera movements in the video help show the progression of the protagonist’s journey into adolescence. The initial track at the very beginning of the video shows that these are young children due to their trainers and the fact that they are waiting at a, “school Xing” This links with the end of the video as by the end we will have seen them progress and develop into adolescents.
The track of the protagonist cutting the grass at 1 min 40 sec is symbolic of his passage into his higher sexual attitude of adolescence. This is done through him slowly moving closer to the mom and it represents his slow but gradual development into a man.

The use of editing in the video is cleverly used to help show the band members as something in fashion with teenagers and also as a way to show the male protagonist’s desires. Special effects (SFX) are used to put the band members on various objects that are relatable with teenage culture such as posters, magazines and T.V as a way to appeal to their target audience and it is also a way of showing the characters growing up as they are becoming more involved with these teenage trends.
Cross cutting is cleverly used at 1 min 4 sec as the boy is opening a bottle of soda, a stereotypical drink of the younger generation, and the shot of him there is mixed in with shots of the mother undressing until he unscrews the bottle and its fizzes up and overflows. This shows an overflowing of his sexual desire and a sudden surge of adolescence mentality as the bottle carries heavy sexual connotations.

Mise-En-Scene is essential in representing the key theme of the journey into adolescence. In the opening scene Stacey’s mom arrives in a red sports car; a shot of her holding the gear stick is suggestive with sexual connotations, and also has a small piece of red clothing on her. The male protagonist is also wearing a red tie. The colour hereby suggests a feeling of lust and desire and consequently with the protagonist also wearing red we can deduce that this character is somewhat linked with the mom and also that he is going to have desires about the mom.
The costumes of the young characters in the opening scene are significant as they appear to be quite maturely dressed for their age. This shows their upcoming journey into adolescence yet it also shows that they still have some time to wait due to the clothes still being relatively big on them and some of them are wearing trainers.

Josh Edgington