Andrew Goodwin's 6 Features of Music Videos: David Hasselhoff - True Survivor (from Kung Fury)

Genre Characteristics
Synth Pop

• Use of visibly, intentionally dated effects such as a 'Tron' style grid
• Focus of fighting
• 1980s fashion
• Shared focus on story and lead singer 

Relationship between lyrics and visuals:

• 'In and out of time' showing a CGI yet purposely dated scene of time travel using a 'Tron' grid as a basis
• The chorus 'Action' is sung during the action sequences while the protagonist of the story is fighting someone or group of people
• The love themes presented are shown through the pink lighting in the narration sections featuring David Hasselhoff
• The 'true survivor' relates to the survivalist costume of the protagonist with the red bandanna and leather gear
•  The 'shadow from the past' section relates to the appearance of Hitler as the main antagonist of the music video potentially returning through presented time travel and basis of the crowd-funded film that the song accompanies.

Relationship between music and visuals:

• The 80s synth-pop style has heavily influenced the costumes of the characters within the music video'sn narrative along with the lead singer's own costume
• Furthermore, the technology shown also fits with this continuing theme of the 1980s and pop culture
• High notes are shown with exaggerated movements by David Hasselhoff
• Climatic sounds incur climatic moments within the music video
• During instrumental moments the action shown is often in slow motion to create a varied sense of pacing within the video

The demands of the record label (close ups of the artists) and artist recurring motifs:

• Focus on David Hasselhoff as a key narrative element
• The links back to the film that the song accompanies are shown through clips of the lead actor
• David Hasselhoff is shown to be a hero despite not being involved with the video's actual story
• Lots of closeups of the lead singer and and emphasis on his movements

Reference to the notion of looking:

• The main section of the looking notion occurs with the break in the action which covers several geographical locations. In it, David Hasselhoff is looking around acting as a watermark for this scene
• David Hasselhoff is also walking down the 'crime ridden' street looking directly down the camera while glancing to the criminals around to build the story of the city requiring a hero to save it

Inter-textual references:

The car that David Hasselhoff stood next to throughout the video was a reference to the TV show that he was the lead of: 'Nightrider' where the car had its own personality. Being an 80s pop culture icon, this reference fit into the theme of the video. Furthermore, David Hasselhoff himself through his appearance on said TV show as well as 'Baywatch', he is a microcosm for the 80s theme itself and his fame brought about much connotations of the 1980s fashion and pop culture heritage.