Over the summer we were set individual tasks to select a genre of music and analyse music videos from an artist of choice within it. I chose to do Pop punk and selected Blink 182, Four Year Strong and A Day To Remember. Upon looking at the videos from this artist, I decided that it wouldn't work for me to make a music video in this genre. I wanted my music video to be fun and lively, and i decided that would work better with a different genre.
My analysis
Below are the 3 videos i analysed for the summer homework long with my analysis.
Depending on the genre of a music video, the conventions change. However, the general conventions are that the artist is shown performing, the lyrics of the song influence what is shown in the video, the pace of editing fits the music and the codes of dress reflect the mood of the song. Also, every music video is produced in a style, which can either be what is called illustration – a straight forward performance or narrative video that shows the meaning of the lyrics and visualises the music in a straight forward way, or amplification where the director will amplify both lyrics and sounds with creative interpretation rather than simply illustrating the lyrics. The other style of creating a music video is disjunctive where there is no obvious link to the music and is completely abstract. Artists who use this style of working are Daft Punk and Radiohead. The music of Daft Punk is abstract and the videos match, particularly 'around the world' which consists of a circular platform of all different heights with dancers using cannon to start their set motif.
Depending on the genre of music, the style of video changes. For example, rap and hip-hop artists have a thug element to their videos. Rock artists tend to have videos with a story line such as 'Through glass by Stone Sour' which has elements of performance in the way of the vocalist being tracked as he sings. The lyrics of the song inspire the storyline of the music video which is a famous musician that feels out of place in Hollywood surrounded by the fake and self-obsessed people. Corey Taylor (vocalist) is walking through a crowd of celebrities which include the band members who stick out straight away against the celebrities. Generally the main focus in bands is the vocalist.
I have decided to use the genre of rock for my artist, more specifically a combination of pop-punk and post hardcore. I'm looking at a Floridian band, A Day To Remember as my chosen artist who formed in 2003 and are still in action now. I have looked at their video evolution from starting out until the present day. Unfortunately I couldn't find their first video, 'A Second Glance' (2007) anywhere which was disappointing, but I did manage to find their second video 'Danger In Starting A Fire' (2007) which was a performance in front of a black backdrop with a variety of camera angles. Since then, my artist has evolved slightly musically and have included more of a pop punk sound to their music as opposed to the previous hardcore style. Some of the band members have been switched ,only leaving two original members, Jeremy McKinnon (lead vocalist) and Neil Westfall (rhythm guitar). The film style has also changed over time in the sense that the first music video was very serious and devoted solely to performing. Since then, every video created has combined performance with a fun element and storyline, identifying themselves with tattoos and t-shirts, in particularly in the video for 'I'm Made Of Wax Larry What Are You Made Of?' (2010) where the band are wearing American sports jerseys with the band name and their name on.
A Day To Remember have a range of videos, but I am choosing to compare the most recent and first video that can be found because the most differences will be apparent. I have looked at 'Danger In Starting A Fire' (2007) and 'I'm Made Of Wax Larry What Are You Made Of?' (2010). The mise-en-scene of the first video from 2007 is fairly basic with a black setting, with spotlights being used to illuminate the musicians playing instruments and dry ice cascading around them. The only colour in the video is in the bright graphic t-shirts being worn by band members. This visual set up is used so the entire focus is on the band. Camera and editing has also been used to this advantage by the means of the shot being completely unfocused as it first appears, the musician then comes into focus. Camera has also been used to make the audience realise which part of the music is important at any given time. Close ups are used on the hands of the guitarist when the guitar can be heard alone and when open notes are being played, just the hand is in focus and the guitar neck is soft focused. Editing helps the audience to enjoy the music with fast cuts which portrays energy and when the music breaks down the clip is slowed down and gets faster as the music peaks. In comparison to their other video I have looked at, which is from 2010, the main difference is that it has a storyline inspired by the lyrics as well as an element of performance. The video for 'I'm Made Of Wax Larry What Are You Made Of?' is set on an american sports pitch and the lyrics make reference to a ball game. Overall this video is more fun from the other video I analysed by including fooling around and trying to impress the cheerleaders, but failing by beginning to lose to a team of kids. The dilect in the video is lyrics from the song and the part where a throat clear is heard is also used in the video when someone is injured on the floor. However, the thing that is carried through from the other video is the bands confidence and cocky attitude. This video seems to relate to any comedy sports film, which I think is intentional because the audience can relate to it and compare the two medias finding humour in it. Camera shots are varied including close-ups, long shots and mid shots. Tracking is used to follow the band members as they are running in the ball game. In the performance sections, the band are slightly out of focus at first sight in a shot then they come into focus. The camera and editing techniques are the same as in 'Danger In Starting A Fire'.
Cara.
For my summer project I decided to focus on Yeasayer:
Genre –
YEASAYER are an experimental, indie, alternative band according to aggregator website the Hype Machine, they are now officially world's most blogged-about band. Yeasayer were spotted by Dave Simpson – The Guardian reporter when supporting MGMT in San Francisco and were described as “untrendy as possible, unfashionable with hair tumbling to their waists – they looked as if they'd been blasted in from the San Francisco of 40 years before. Two years on, Yeasayer are gazing into their laptops in a dressing room at Manchester University, midway through one of the hottest tours this year. They no longer look like hippies.”
Yeasayer rarely included themselves in their music video’s (of which there are a limited amount) in their first album *all hour cymbals* but instead used moving images based around peace, love, natural life, animals and tranquil soothing colours resembeling the sun. Whereas in their latest album *Odd Blood*, yeasayer are continuously including themselves throughout their videos i.e in hit single “O.N.E” star themselves on stage playing as a live band whilst constantly flicking back and forth between them and the audiences wild reaction to the music.
The reason for this change over the past 2 years is that their music used to be a lot calmer and relaxing which matched that “hippie vibe” that they gave their old music video’s. Whereas their more popular wide spread energetic and fun album Odd Blood had to adapt with the genre.
The generic convention that yeasayer use in O.N.E link perfectly to their genre of experimental and alternative as the music video consists of faces morphing into moving gew, lights pouring out of the keyboard and emphasis on the guitar by constant close up shots of the instrument being played which links with the indie side of the genre.
Visual style and image –
In Yeasayers music video “O.N.E” they located it at a live gig/party with people drinking and dancing with a band playing behind the lead singer who is singing into a microphone. There is also a man dressed in all black in a glass box full of water breathing under-water whilst others are playing a futuristic board game with lights beaming out of it. The mise en scen used in this video reflects the bands lively, up-beat unique music.
The lead singer is dressed in a baggy white silk shirt with black gloves with various colourful pieces of material attached to himself. He looks miserable throughout the song with shaggy dark hair in his face, “guyliner” and an extremely serious expression on his face, however the rest of the dand are dancing and singing along enjoying themselves with strikingly patterned trousers pink tops, tank tops and scalves.
Regarding editing during Yeasayers music videos they seem to enjoy the idea of faces morphing into other things for example in “O.N.E” a mans face moulds into a grey gewy blob moving around like millions of slugs and later moulds into all the bands mouths singing the song. I think the idea of this is to show split personalities or perhaps people hiding behind masks. It is difficult to tell as there are so many odd shots in Yeasayers video’s it almost becomes normal. There is also a lot of panning across the crowd to show all the different types of people with a range of different outfits/make-up I believe to signify that there audience isnt set in stone and that they are trying to reach out to all different people.
Here is the *before* "All hour cybals" album with single "wait for the sun" and *after* "Odd blood" album with single "O.N.E"
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