Monday 29 September 2014

3x Textual analysis of videos (applying LIIAR) in depth as possible


Radiohead - Street Spirit


Language: 

The mise en scene within this music video is very dark, all the costumes are dark/black and the setting of the video is also inconvenient and suspicious as it looks like a caravan park. The editing, mostly slow motion has been placed very well with the pace of the song, as the song is slow and almost makes the audience feel depressed or upset. The video is irrelevant to the lyrics of the song, it's almost random but Radiohead wanted it to just be aesthetically pleasing for the audience. There are a lot of long shots of the band and in slow motion while the lead singer, Thom Yorke is lip syncing and performing in real time. 

Institution:

Radiohead is an English rock band from Oxbridge, who formed in 1985 and consists of 5 members. Radiohead are associated with the labels; XL, Ticker Tape LTD, Hostess, TBD, Parlophone, Capitol. 
Their first massive and successful hit was their debut single 'creep' which initially didn't hit the top charts when first released but several months after it's release it became very popular in the country. Radiohead have sold more than 30 million records worldwide, they have also been voted the best band of the 2000s. 

Ideology:

This music video is from Radiohead's album 'The Bends' released in 1995, Thom Yorke the lead singer has described the video and it's lyrics as "one of their most saddest songs" and that it's "the dark tunnel without the light at the end". Yorke has suggested that the song was inspired by the 1991 novel 'The Famished road' and that it's music was inspired by the american alternative rock band R.E.M. I personally think that the band wanted to create a great video that had no relevance to the lyrics of the song, but make a music video that would greatly go with the mood of the lyrics and make the audience relate to the feelings being portrayed. 

Audience:

The target audience for this music video was teens, mainly 16 and over and young adults, we can clearly tell this through the use of colour and mood of the song and the video, we wouldn't expect a child of a pensioner to watch this type of video and also teenagers are more prone to watch these sorts of videos. 

Representation:

This music video is meant to represent the mood and atmosphere of the song, as before Yorke stated that this was one of their most saddest, depressing songs to date, therefore they created a video and used conventions that would go greatly with the lyrics. Conventions of slow, sad songs that they used were; no use of colour, slow motion, performance and random events within the video that do not relate to the lyrics.

Metallica - Enter Sandman

Language: 

 Within the music video the mise en scene is very dark, almost scary, they have made this video in relation to the genre and the lyrics of the song. The 'Sandman' is someone who visits you in your dreams, they have presented the boys dreams by the use of fade and flash, nearly every scene of the music video is done in this way to try and scare the audience. 


Institution:


Metallica are an American band formed in 1981, the band consists of 4 members. Metallica are associated with the record labels; Megaforce, Elektra, Warner Bros., Vertigo/Virgin EMI/Universal, Blackened. Their first massive hit was 'Hit the Lights', this song was great for their promotion as they were a new band at the time and got the recognized by their target audience, late teens.

Ideology:

This single was released as part of their 5th album, 'Metallica', the single is meant to be a strong representation of a child's nightmares, The plot of the music video directly relates to the theme of the song, combining images of a child having nightmares and images of an old man with shots of the band playing the songThe child dreams that he is drowning, falling from the top of a building, covered in snakes, being chased by a truck and finally falling from a mountain while escaping the truck. During the part of the song in which the child recites a prayer, he is being watched by the Sandman. Throughout the video, the picture flickers continuously.

Audience:

The target audience for this music video and song was for late teens, possibly early teens as well. Metallica played a big part in the movement of metal throughout America, we can clearly tell this through the use of instruments and the choice of lyrics, we wouldn't expect someone over the age of 40 to listen to or watch a music video like this. 


Representation:

Although the music video and lyrics coincide, the song was mainly created to be listened to without the music video, as you get different emotions/feelings from them both, this song is mainly made to represent the innocence of a child and vulnerability. It's also made to dance to and 'mosh' to, as it releases a great amount of adrenaline when listened to whilst being surrounded by other people in one area dancing. however you can listen to this song on your own, this will release the feelings of you wanting to dance or even 'headbang'.








                                            Red Hot Chili Peppers - Under the bridge


Language:

The mise en scene within this video includes a wide variety of colours within, especially when the song song hits the chorus, it has a medium close up shot of the lead singer Anthony Kiedis, surrounded by clouds and different colours, ranging from greens, blues, pinks and purples, this is done to represent happiness or even a drug induced feeling. throughout the video Kiedis is topless, compared to the other band members, such as flea at the start of the music video who is wearing mainly winter clothing e.g. a woolly hat. the song includes a lot of performance. The music video includes a medium close up of Kiedis walking down a street, which comes across as if it wasn't rehearsed as he starts singing to some shop owners and the seem confused. There is a huge amount of editing within this video, mainly fades, colour techniques. 


Institution:

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American band, formed in L.A in 1983. The band consists of four members who were introduced through one another. The band who are mainly Funk Rock are associated with the record labels; EMI and Warner Bros. The bands first massive single hit was 'Under the Bridge', the single went on to become number 2 in The United States and has gone on to sell more than seven million copies worldwide. 

Ideology:

This song is about the lead singers past drug abuse earlier on in his life, Kiedis and another band member Hilel Slovak were heavily addicted to Heroin and eventually Slovak died of a Heroin overdose, this is the inspiration for this song. Kiedis used to go under a bridge in downtown L.A and purchase Heroin from gangs who would provide the service under a bride, Kiedis has stated that even through he felt depressed when writing this song he stated that he would never resort back to drugs and that the line 'take me to the place i love, take me all the way' is where his friends, family and band is. 

Audience:

The target audience for this video and song is teens, late teens and anyone who has suffered drug abuse. this is due to the lyrics, however can be targeted to u=younger audiences who may not understand the lyrics but may like the sound of the song and the video comes across bright and happy representing youth. 


Representation:

The video is meant to represent Kiedis' love for the city Los Angeles, as he walks through it talking to locals, 











Monday 22 September 2014

History of Medium

The history of Music videos has only been recent, as the first ever music video for a song and not just for a movie is classed as Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in 1975, however there has been arguments towards this as others state that Bob Dylan’s 'Don't look back', which was filmed in 1965 but yet released in 1967. The video included Bob Dylan standing in front of the camera to the right of the screen in a long shot, in the background we see the back of a hotel in black and white. He is holding some placard cards with the lyrics of his song and he is showing them in time with the lyrics, which are being sung over the top, it is a very simple music video. Queen's music video for 'Bohemian Rhapsody' was very innovative for the time of its release as no one had seen anything like it in the past, the video only cost £4,500 to make and took only 4 hours, Queen released the audio version before the released the video and was already a hit but not as big as they wanted it to be, so they decided to release the song along with a video, this was a huge success for the group and they managed to sell over 1 million copies by the end of January.




One of the most popular and famous music videos of all time is Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' 1983, which lasted 13 minutes 42 seconds, making it the longest music video in history. It's the most successful music video as it has sold over 9 million copies as of 2006 since its release. The video cost $500,000 to produce. When the video was released it was put on television nationally and replaced every show on television for 13 minutes, this was a brilliant way to advertise his brand new single and its new music video.



In August of 1981 a new television channel was added to American TV sets called MTV 'Music Television', this channel was specifically made to promote and show music videos. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by television personalities known as "video jockeys," or VJs. In its early years, MTV's main target demographic were young adults, but today, MTV's programming is primarily targeted at adolescents and teenagers. MTV has spawned numerous sister channels in the U.S. and affiliated channels internationally, some of which have gone independent. MTV's influence on its audience, including issues related to censorship and social activism, has been a subject of debate for years. As of August 2013, approximately 97,654,000 American households (85.51% of households with television) receive MTV.

Before the introduction of a single music video on it's own, many music videos were shot for films, this mainly happened during the 50s/60s. For example Elvis Presley's ‘Jailhouse Rock’ video was a scene shot for his musical drama film 'Jailhouse Rock' (1957),  The single was released in April of 1957 and was a number one hit in the U.S for 7 weeks, then in October of 1957 the original movie was released and included the music video for Jailhouse Rock. Other Artists who have managed to do the same as Presley was the Beatles 'A Hard Day's Night' (1964), The single was released just a few days after the film, however the song is featured in the film right at the beginning and has a video to accompany it, of the four Beatles trying to escape from the horde of young girls who are chasing them. This was a recurring thing with the Beatles and Elvis, they would release a movie with at least six songs within each, and then later or earlier than the release of the film they would release them as singles and later make albums from the movies.



















Thursday 18 September 2014

Conventions of a music video

Most Conventions of a music video come under the genre of the video, for example if the song was about a love story, then the audience would expect to see conventions of love, such as bright colours like reds and pinks, also characters within the video kissing and doing couple activities, contrasting with this would be a break up song, for example 'Breakeven' by the Script, this music video includes black and white footage and the only use of colour within the video, is the flashbacks to when the character in the video was with his then girlfriend. The video is also very slow and upsetting, these are all conventions you would expect to see from a music video.

Below is photo of their music video, which includes the use of colour on his phone when watching a video of his past girlfriend, but notice their is no colour around the phone screen as that is used to represent the present and his emotions now.

Monday 15 September 2014

Lyrics timing

                                          
                                        "Under The Bridge" - Red Hot Chili Peppers


Opening guitar riff (0.00-0.30 seconds)

Sometimes I feel
Like I don't have a partner
(0.30-0.34 seconds)

Sometimes I feel
Like my only friend
(0.35-0.40 seconds)

Is the city I live in
The city of angels
(0.40-0.46 seconds)

Lonely as I am
Together we cry
(0.46-0.53 seconds)

-Guitar riff and drums (0.53-0.58 seconds)-
I drive on her streets
'Cause she's my companion
(0.58-1.04 seconds)

I walk through her hills
'Cause she knows who I am
(1.05-1.09 seconds)

She sees my good deeds
And she kisses me windy
(1.10-1.15 seconds)

I never worry
Now that is a lie
(1.16-1.22 seconds)

-Guitar riff and drums (1.22-1.28 seconds)-

[2x]
I don't ever want to feel
Like I did that day
(1.29-1.33 seconds)

Take me to the place I love
Take me all the way
(1.33-1.38 seconds)

I don't ever want to feel
Like I did that day
(1.39-1.44 seconds)

Take me to the place I love
Take me all the way
(1.44-1.55 seconds)

-Guitar riff (1.55-2.01 seconds)-
It's hard to believe
That there's nobody out there
(2.02-2.06 seconds)

It's hard to believe
That I'm all alone
(2.07-2.12 seconds)

At least I have her love
The city she loves me
(2.13-2.18 seconds)

Lonely as I am
Together we cry
(2.19-2.24 seconds)

-Guitar riff and drums (2.24-2.30 seconds)-
[2x]
I don't ever want to feel
Like I did that day
(2.30-2.35 seconds)

Take me to the place I love
Take me all the way
(2.35-2.40 seconds)

I don't ever want to feel
Like I did that day
(2.40-2.46 seconds)

Take me to the place I love
Take me all the way
(2.47-3.08 seconds with guitar and drums)

-Guitar riff and drums (3.09-3.15 seconds)-

Under the bridge downtown
Is where I drew some blood
(3.15-3.20 seconds)

Under the bridge downtown
I could not get enough
(3.20-3.25 seconds)

Under the bridge downtown
Forgot about my love
(3.25-3.31 seconds)

Under the bridge downtown
I gave my life away
(3.31-3.55 seconds)

Ending guitar riff (3.55-finish)

Lyrics 'Ode to Viceroy' and analysis

                                                               

                                                    'Ode to Viceroy - Mac Demarco'


Viceroy, early in the morning
Just trying to let the sun in and open up my eyes
Viceroy, as it's getting later
Heading for the corner, already running dry

And, oh, don't let me see you crying
'Cause, oh honey, I'll smoke you 'til I'm dying

Viceroy, don't take me for a fool now
I'm only trying to calm down just trying to keep it cool
Viceroy, as it's getting later
Heading for the corner, I'm leaving it to you

And, oh, don't let me see you crying
'Cause, oh honey, I'll smoke you 'til I'm dying

The lyrics within this song are about a cigarette company 'Viceroy', the meaning of the word Ode means poem, or song. Mac Demarco has an obsession with smoking and his favorite cigarette company is Viceroy and therefore chose to write a song praising the company and overall just expressing his feelings for smoking. In nearly every shot of the music video he is smoking, he expresses he wont ever stop smoking Viceroy or any cigarettes, we can clearly see this in the line 'Cause, oh honey, I'll smoke you 'til I'm dying'. The lyrics basically show what he does with the cigarettes as in the first verse he explains that he smokes them in the morning, and by the end of the night he is running 'dry' meaning hes running out of Viceroy cigarettes. in the second verse he explains why he smokes them, he explains that he does it because he's 'only trying to calm down' and 'just trying to keep it cool'. 







My chosen music video and song



                    'ODE TO VICEROY'- MAC DEMARCO

Brief and Ancillary texts


Brief:

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video; together with two of the following three options:

- A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package)

- A magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package)