Synthesis of Green Day and Toby Keith

In class today, we discussed both these videos, addressing themes such as the enemy (from within or externally), the American Flag, colors of the video, and mediation.

I'd like to "synthesis" Keith's video with another analysis I may have mentioned in class: nocaptionneeded's discussion of the amount of flags shown in a particular photo.

http://www.nocaptionneeded.com/2011/09/inflating-the-na

 

In this post, titled "Inflating the National Value," the author argues that "What the photograph reminds us is that as with the effects of inflation on the dollar, the flag simply doesn’t buy as much as it used to.  And more, that at some deep level we know that but don’t want to admit it."

We may be able to understand these two videos in terms of this claim. Green Day acknowledges the kind of "artificiality" of the flag--the flag is just paint as it is in Jasper Johns' famous work. Keith's video only tacitly acknowledges the "inflation" of the flag because in order to get its point across, the video feels the need to barrage us with various images of the flag: the flag on his guitar, the flag on his head, the flag in the photos, the insane amount of flags in the background on the screen, and, finally, the sort of "subliminal message" flashing of the flag toward the end of the video (between other images).

This is precisely the kind of "propaganda" and control by the media that Green Day is attempting to point out. Green Day acknowledges the artificiality of even the music video, as we see a moment where we can see a video camera filming the band (through yet another video camera). Ironically, the flag in this video comes to stand for "more" (as a painted, and ultimately, erasable flag) than the barrage of patriotism in the Toby Keith video, where the flag has become something we can possess and control (in the form of a guitar, in the form of mini-flag int he audience, etc.

By becoming a ubiquitous commodity, the flag is de-valued such that it needs to be repeated and flown in our face over and over again to get the same effect. And yet, the effect the flag has on this viewer is that the overkill of the flag reveals the video's artificiality. In the same way, we see that the photographs that supposedly show some sort of authentic past or the "live concert" atmosphere that shows a connection between audience and performer are all mediated and artificial. The photographs are presented as a computer-generated slideshow and the "live" concert is not "live" at all because there are several concerts spliced together under a unified (recorded) song.

There's more that can be thought here and I welcome comments, questions, and further interpretations/connections.