Song Choice

We found deciding which song to feature in our music video one of the most difficult things in this process. We considered a range of songs such as:

Florence and the Machine - Dog Days are Over
The Vaccines - Wetsuit
The Vaccines - If You Wanna
The Naked and Famous - Punching in a Dream

We finally decided to use 'Pumped Up Kicks' by Foster the People, this is an upbeat song and we plan to use three boys and film most of our video in London, we have chosen this location because the band is from California so it would be difficult for us to stay true to the origin of the band, so we are aiming to make the band seem British as opposed to American, and what better way to portray this to the audience, than to use London! The landmarks are easily noticed as being British and the scenery is urban. 

Foster the People have only released one album, 'torches', and since its release in may 2011 it has already won, aswell as being nominated for, over six awards in 2011 alone. As well as this, they played in the NME tent at Reading, only second behind the headliners and the album has already gone platinum. The band are well known in the indie genre so this is why we have chosen their song; people would want to watch the music video if they had already heard the song.




As this picture shows, Foster the people have won 3 awards, two of which were for the specific song, 'pumped up kicks', from the album and one for the new artist of the year. They have been nominated for awards from big names such as MTV, Q, BRIT Awards and NME. Considering the fact that the album only came out just over a year ago, that is a long list of awards. This is another reason why we want to use this song for our music video, it is a well known song and we are fans of the band so we would like to do the song/album justice.


This picture shows that the band have only released one album, but three singles which would add to the recognition that the band gains, the best received one of these singles was actually Pumped up Kicks which is why we have chosen to do this song.

Target Audience

The audience that we plan to target our video at are the...


According the UK Tribes, bands that Indie Scenesters like are bands such as Vampire Weekend and The Kooks, although this was true in 2008, when the site published these findings, the Indie Scenesters have moved on to newer bands like Spector, Kasabian and Two Door Cinema Club.
The brands that the website claims that Indie's like are still very relevant today,  


Fashion is an important part of the 'look' of being an indie scenester, again, the look that is described on the UK Tribes website was published in 2008, since then the look of Indie's has changed - although the favoured brands have remained the same. 

The kind of person that we want to aim our music video at would be a 'festival goer,' someone that you would expact to see at Reading or Glastonbury. And considering the fact that the band who created the song that we intend to do our music video to have played at Reading, I think that this is an appropriate relationship between the audience and the song.
 

The media that UK Tribes says that Indie Scenesters are interested in has changed a lot since it was published, the media that Indie's are now interested is more along the lines of NME, XFM and E4.



I took some pictures of the type of audience that we are aiming to target...

A classic sign of an indie scenester is the Baracuta Harrington jacket, very popular amongst mods and skinheads in the 1960's so are now seen as being vintage a retro - a label that Indie scenesters strive to uphold.

Whilst taking these pictures we asked our 'models' questions about where they shop, what they do in their spare time and what music they listen to.

Tom Mcmahon:

Where do you shop? 
- Asos
-Topman
- Brick Lane (Rokit)
- Urban outfitters


What music do you listen to?

- Oasis

- Jake Bugg

                                                        - Mumford & Sons

                                                        - Paolo Nuitini

                                                        - Foo Fighters

                                                             - Vaccines

                                                             - Arctic Monkeys

                                                             - Stone Roses

                                                           What do you do in your spare time?

                                                           - Go to the gym

                                                           - Read magazines (NME)

As well as speaking to Tom Mcmahon, I also spoke to Tom Hammond who likes similar music and shops in similar places to Tom Mcmahon. However, his interests were different, he likes to play football and has more of an interest in media, he watches TV (mainly E4) and also reads magazines.

I spoke to Joe Robinson, (bottom right picture,) the answers that he gave to my questions were very different to that of Tom Mcmahon and Tom Hammond, he likes music such as Joy Division, Madness and the Specials. He buys his clothes from Ben Sherman, Fred Perry, Uni Qlo, charity shops and John Lewis and in his spare time he plays rugby, goes to the gym and works, this shows that he has little interest in media because he spends little time on the internet, watching TV and reading magazines/newspapers.

We want our target audience to be able to relate to our band and feel as though they understand them; this turns a target audience member into a fan, the distinct difference between someone that we want to target our music video to, and someone that we want to be a fan of the band is that a fan will may like the band for many reasons other than because they like the music that they produce, they may like the bands appearance, like them just because everyone else does or even just generally like the band as a whole, but we want our target audience to specifically relate to the music that is produced by the band as well as all the other reasons why a fan may like the band, it is for this reason that we want our target audience to be music lovers and in turn, festival goers.

I think that British youths will be able to relate to the band especially because the indie genre is more or less an evolved version of British pop which was created when - The Beatles especially - the British took American rock like Elvis, reconstituted it and sent it back to America who in turn added their own style and created bands such as Foster the People.

MTV Rocks

I have decided to analyse the music channel, MTV Rocks. I have chosen to analyse this channel because I think that our music video - when completed - will fit in well with the other videos that are aired on this channel. As well as this, the audience that MTV Rocks targets will also be the audience that we will aim to target with our music video.

I watched MTV earlier during the top 10 songs, I was surprised to see that not all of the top 10 songs were new singles, number 5 in the list was The Killers old song 'dancer,' this surprised me because I thought that they would all be new songs, but it showed that people obviously still buy the single to 'dancer'

I personally think that there are three types of song/video. There are songs that are so good that they dont need an amazing video to be recognised, there are songs that are pretty average, and cover that up with a really good video so that people recognise the song by remembering the video. And then finally, there are songs that are iconic, that also have amazing video's, songs like Thriller that have success in both the charts, and the views of their video.

By watching this channel for a couple of hours, I found that there were different programmes listed, regardless of whether the channel is just going to be playing music, it has to have a programme name that can be listed. When I was watching it, it was listed as "mtv rocks unleashed, top 10!," the programme that was coming on after was called, "ultimate stateside rockers," and after that, "marilyn mansons takeover," and then a regular feature on the channel "Biggest! Hottest! Loudest!"

There were several different artists that were featured on the channel, some were more indie artists than rock artists which I found a bit strange because there are other channels that are devoted to showing indie bands, there were a range of artists on the channel during the time that I watched it, I saw The Maccabes, Greenday, Paramore, The Killers, Muse and Linkin Park among others.

 When I was watching the channel I actually saw a video that literally struck as one of the best videos that I personally have ever seen, as soon as I saw it I wanted to watch it again and felt a strong need to tell me friends to watch it and how good it was, this made me realise the power that a single music video can possess and how easily a song can become well known just because of its video. The video was to the song "All I Want" by Kodaline

The message behind this video is amazing and the way that its shot is almost like its a short film instead of a music video because it has dialogue aswell. This video shows how easily music can convey a moral message, when in unison with youtube which allows it to be broadcast all over the world, music videos have the power to change the way people think.

This video has already got several positive comments and over 100,000 views since its recent release in September of this year.

During this research I realised how easily it was for videos to become widespread. From their debut on music channels, people will then watch it again on youtube, then tell their friends about it so that they will spread via word of mouth, the internet AND via music channels.



I also spotted many different cross promotions whilst watching the channel. Its not very clear fromthe pictures that I uploaded but whilst the videos were being played there was a logo for the new MTV show 'The Valley' at the bottom of the screen throughout the programme. As well as this, before the commercials would begin, there would be an MTV commercial either for the new series of 'Geordie Shore,' the final series of 'Jersey Shore,' or an advert promoting their new show 'The Valley,' this has been done to ensure that people will come back to watch MTV once they see the commercials for these shows which will increase their ratings as opposed to just advertising via the internet or by posters.

As well as the music channel, MTV Rocks also has a website. The channel promotes this which shows intertextual linking, in the logo at the top of the screen, in the little box underneath is the address of the website, www.mtv.co.uk/rocks. Featured on the website are all the links to the different MTV channels such as MTV Classic, MTV Music and MTV Hits. As well as this, there is also a playilst featured on the website which offers the audience a range of new songs to listen to. I noticed that teh channel is mainly aimed at boys because on the website there are loads of adverts for xbox games and trainers.

We want our music video/song choice to fit in easily with the playlist that is featured on the MTV Rocks website, we think that it would be appropriate and relevant in the playlist and would be believable. I searched 'Foster the People' in the search bar on the website to see if they were actually featured on the website, I found that they have a section of the website just for them which adds authenticity to our music video.

Planning

Textual Analysis of Music Videos

I have chosen to analyse Foo Fighters video to 'The Pretender,' I have chosen this as my second analysis because I thought it would be helpful to me to analyse both a narrative-based video and a performance-based one, 'The Pretender' video directed by Sam Brown currently has 58,465,355 hits on Youtube and the band itself has had a massive following since the demise of Kurt Cobain - and evidently Nirvana - and the advent of the Foo Fighters.

 This music video belongs to the genre of Rock, it possesses many characteristics of this genre, for example, there are a lot of close ups of the members of the band playing their instruments and a lot of 'headbanging,' mostly from the lead singer Dave Grohl. As well as this, there are a lot of long shots so that the whole band can be seen by the audience. A lot of aggression is shown and the mise en scene is typical of a rock video, the band members are dressed mostly in black and white and are wearing skinny jeans and vans. The colour scheme is simple and effective white, black and red.

Due to the fact that it is a performance video, there are very few links to the lyrics and the video because the camera mainly focuses on the link between the music and the shots. However, there are a few lyrics that are illustrated by moments in the video.

The line "and so it all began," is illustrated in the video by the song actually beginning at this point. Although the guitar starts as soon as Grohl walks out onto the 'stage' the drums indicate the beginning of the entire band contributing to the music.

The drum beat that is used in this sequence is almost like the introduction to the second verse of the song. Many have said that drummers in bands are talentless and pointless but this single shot shows that without that drum beat the song would not have a real start point, I think that this is an important part of the video because - with Dave Grohl being a previous drummer himself - it is as though the video is blatently showing the importance that the drummers position holds in a band and this is being emphasised through this one shot.

Another line that is illustrated in the video is the line, "the secrets that you keep are ever ready," when Grohl says the word 'secrets' the camera moves up to look at the ceiling, this shows that the camera does not want to invade any secret that may be being kept by Grohl so the camera shot is almost personified by the fact that it 'looks away'

The final connection that I found between the lyrics and the video was when Dave Grohl is repeating the line "who are you," he does this whilst staring at the guards that have approached the line, this gives the impression that he is antagonising the guards and daring them to come forward and attack them, he makes them feel insignificant and inferior by literally saying to them 'who are you?'

Because it is a performance video, there are a lot of ways that the music is illustrated by shots in the video. For example, there is a close up of a William Goldsmiths guitar when his distinct guitar riff is heard at the beginning of the video, this shows the audience who is playing the instrument and what specific instrument is being played, it also illustrates the sounds that are being heard.

One of the most obvious links between the music and the video is the diegetic sound of Dave Grohl singing. When he is singing the camera is almost always showing him at the microphone miming/singing the lyrics. This clearly shows the audience that Grohl is the singer and the shots of the other band members with intruments establishes who is playing what instrument and what talents each member posesses.

  

Something that happens frequently throughout the video is cuts from shot to shot that occur to specific beats of the music. These happen really quickly and there are often several different shots in the space of one or two seconds. The video changes pace with the music and after the red wall explodes the pace of the video drastically changes.

There are many close ups of the lead singer, Dave Grohl, and he is flattered by the camera a lot throughout the video. The video actually starts with a solo of him singing and playing the guitar, then after the first verse the rest of the band come out and start to play their instruments. Interestingly, you dont actually see Grohl's face until the other band members start to come out which, although establishes him as the front man, suggests that he does not want to be seen as superior.

There are a lot of close up of Grohl's face where as the close ups of the other members of the band are mainly of them playing their instruments, this emphasises the point that Andrew Goodwin makes about the fact that there is a lot of demand on the part of the record company to offer a lot of close ups of the main singer to  the audience, this video accomplishes this goal.


This video is very dissimilar to most of the other videos that are made by the Foo Fighters, videos such as 'Walk,' 'Learn to fly,' and 'Everlong,' are comical and story based which gave the band a "carefree" reputation. However, the performance side of this video is similar to their video to 'All My Life.' The mise en scene is very similar with the simple set out of the stage, the backdrop and the very similar close ups of Grohl...

I dont think that this video really puts the band/singer on sexual display; thats very unconventional of a rock video, its more in rap videos that there are provocative dancers and the artist is seen as sexual. The clothes that are worn by the band and the policemen are very conservative and casual, interestingly, there are actually very few notions of looking in this video, I think that the reason for this is because the video focuses mainly on the performance and talents of the band as opposed to telling a story - which would usually use notions of looking, such as windows.

As I said earlier on in this post, there is only one main intertextual reference in this video. The video relates to the way that the band performs on stage, the movements and facial expressions that are shown by Grohl in the video are similar to that that he does when he performs, the headbanging especially.

The song itself, as said by Grohl, is about political unrest and people not getting what they were promised by the government, this is shown in the video through the use of the police squad - evidently hired by the government - trying to maintain social control and the band represent societies outrage to the government, there is a line on the floor in the video that suggests the divide between the government and society, and when the police squad step over the line they should be prepared to face the consequences - in this case, the paint. However, Grohl also said that he wants the song do be open to personal interpretation.

In conclusion, due to the fact that this is a performance based there are more links between the music and the video then the lyrics and the video, this is very common amongst performance based videos, its a very typical video in terms of what to expect when Foo Fighters release a video that is performance based, the close ups of the lead singer and drums, the mise en scene and the shots of the individual band members are all very similar.

Conventions of Music Videos

In 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' Andrew Goodwin talks about what is conventional of a music video, he talks about how there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals in videos, with the visuals either illustrating or contradicting the lyrics. This statement can be supported by many music video's as evidence of this can be found in almost all of them, but I am going to show an example from Geri Halliwel's 'It's raining men',

In this music video, the line "humidity's rising," the camera literally rises up her body as if it is the humidity.

Similarly to this, Goodwin also says that a relationship exists between the music and the visuals, for example, a dance move can be emphasized in the music video when a distinct drum beat is heard.

Goodwin says that particular music genre's have their own music video style and iconography, this means that rap video's often stereotypically cast attractive women to attract the male gaze and a outfits and mise en scene that look expensive

In the music video for 'Otis' by Kanye West and Jay-Z an expensive car is shown with four girls sitting in the back, however the materialism of this music video is contradicted at the end when a message comes up that tells the audience what the car was made for. This message contradicts the stereotype of the video. 

In the music video to 'monster' by Kanye West, there is a lot of focus on expensive jewellery, his infamous 'diamond' teeth are focused on in a 5 second shot of just his mouth


 
Rock video's generally are more performance based, this is done to show the talent that the artists possess, close ups are used to show the instruments that are being played and the lead singer of the band is often flattered by the camera and features in the video more than the other band mates. However there are also a lot of rock video's that are comical such as Foo Fighters 'Walk,' although this video does still flatter the lead singer and feature a performance section at the end. The lead singer is often flattered by the camera because, according to Goodwin, there is a lot of demand on the part of the record company for a lot of close ups of the main vocalist, this always creates a front man of the band and distinguishes a single member of the band as the most popular, this in turn gives the band a positive stage presence as the audience jump at the chance to see the famous front man in person. However, there are some bands, such as Kasabian, which have established themselves as a band around having two front men, Serge Pizzorno and Tom Meighan.

 
 Country music video's are often American, these videos are often based around a single artist with an acoustic guitar and the scenery features a lot of the stereotypical American countryside - like Texas, this is shown throughout Keith Urban's video to 'Days Go By'






 

According to Goodwin, artists may develop their own star iconography in and out of their music videos which over time becomes part of their star image. A perfect example of this is Lady Gaga, from her first appearance in the music video world she has been seen as unusual. This image has is also stuck to outside of her music video and it is very rare that she is photographed looking 'normal', the most controversial picture that was taken of Gaga was when she was photographed at the 2010 Video Music Awards wearing an outfit that consisted entirely of meat, she later claimed that this was to show the world that "she was not a piece of meat," many artists have followed suit and copied Gaga in the aspect that they want to be viewed by the public as being exceptionally un-ordinary in order to increase their fame, although it can be argued that gaga is no the first unusual artist to break the music scene, with previous female artists such as Bjork and Kate Bush taking the industry by storm with their strange presence. Artists like Nicki Minaj and Azaelia Banks are now put in a similar category to Lady Gaga.



Goodwin argues that there is likely to be reference to voyeurism particularly in the treatment of women, but also in terms of systems of looking. Windows, doors etc give a sense of people watching other people, they can also frame the shot in the video. Similarly to this, location is an important part of the appearance and reputation of an artist, many artists such as Pitbull and Kanye West are very much centred around the Miami/Hollywood reputation

There are key elements of music videos, the first of these are the lyrics, these tend to help establish a general feeling or mood or a sense of subject matter rather than offer a coherent meaning. Key lines may play a part in the visuals in the video, but rarely will a music video simply illustrate a videos wholesale. An example of this is the video for Snow Patrol's video for "open your eyes," this video is simply a car, driving really really fast through a city, you don't see the driver or the car you just see the road ahead. The end of the video shows that he was driving so fast because he wanted to see - what is assumed to be - his girlfriend. 

This shows that the lyrics establish what the music video is going to feature because the video literally doesn't make sense until the last few seconds, the audience then realises that the line "I wont waste a minute without you" is why the car was going so fast.

The second of these key elements is the music, a music video tends to make use of the tempo of the track to drive the editing and may emphasise particular sounds from the track by foregrounding instruments such as guitar, keyboard or drums. This relates to what I was saying earlier in the post, if a distinct sound is heard in the track of the music video, then a particular action will occur in the video that will emphasise that sound.

In the video to 'In the air tonight' by Phil Collins the massively famous drum beat is complimented by a shot in the video that shows a multi-coloured face zoom in and out to the beat of the drums.



Finally, 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' by Andrew Goodwin is generally seen by those who are interested in/study media as offering a deep knowledge of the world of media and it is thought that it offers new insight into the psychological view of television and music videos. I searched the internet for a review of the book and found one that praises the work of Goodwin.

Textual Analysis of music videos

I am analysing Eminem's music video to the song 'stan' featuring Dido, directed by Philip Atwell & Dre. The genre of this music video is rap, the video possesses many characteristics of that genre, for example, a lot - but not all - of the lyrics are mimed, the colours and lighting in the video are very dark and a lot of the locations look like they are in poor areas and look very grimey. This presents rap as a very street born genre.

 According to Andrew Godwin, there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals either illustrating, amplifying or cotradicting the lyrics. This statement is validified throughout this music video.

Here we can see that during the line "I wrote you but you still ain't callin," the video shows that he is writing a letter to Eminem. As the audience, we know that he is writing to Eminem for many reasons, the fact that he is miming the words as he is writing them down gives the audience a look into what would be a private conversation between two people (in letter form,) but the basis of the rap song is that we are told what Stan is writing in his letters and this shows us his psychopathic tendancies towards Eminem. Also, we know that he is writing a letter to Eminem because one of the most predominant parts of mise en scene in the shot is the envelope on the table that is addressed to Eminem.

 


 Another relation to the lyrics and the video is when the line "I scribble addresses too sloppy when I jot 'em," and during this line, Stan aggressively scribbles on the piece of paper that he is writing on. The aerial shot of him writing shows his resemblance to Eminem which also highlights his obsession to the audience. A lot of the shots during this sequence also illustrate the lyric: "I got a room full of your posters and your pictures man."

One of the most simplistic yet obvious relationships between the lyrics and the video is during the line "My girlfriend's pregnant to, I'm 'bout to be a father," during this line the video cuts to a shot of Dido sitting on a bed with her pregnancy bump obvious. The room around her is dark which focuses all of the audiences attention on her, the shadows above her eyes suggest that she is tired, both physically and metaphorically.

 The second verse of the song mostly focuses on the anger that Stan feels towards Eminem because he hasnt yet responded to any of the countless letters that he has sent him. The anger that Stan is portraying is seen through the aggressive tone that he uses during the line "FUCKED UP you dont answer fans," the emphasis on the 'fucked up' shows the listener that he is angry even though he calms himself before he says it, "I aint mad," here the lyrics actually contradict eachother.

 In this sequence the video illustrates what the lyrics are saying, the line "we waited in the blistering cold for you," is shown in the video by a shot of Stan - only wearing a tshirt - and his little brother literally standing waiting for Eminem to come out whilst its snowing only to be disappointed when a girl lunges at him and causes the guards to take Eminem away. This sequence shows the ignorance of Stan because he doesnt realise that Eminem didnt leave through choice, he was taken away by his security team for his own safety but because Stan is practically a stalker he just sees it as Eminem intentionally 
ignoring him.

 Another of the most obvious ways that the video illustrates the lyrics is when Stan says, "remember when we met in Denver," and the video literally shows Stan and Eminem meeting in Denver.




In this video it is hard to find a close relationship between the music and the video because there arent many distinct beats that the video can cut to. However, in the scene where Stan is in the car recording the cassette for Eminem, the shots cut from a close of of stans face to a shot of the mirror which a picture of Eminem is hanging from, this makes it seem as though he literally feels like he is talking directly to Eminem because he is looking at the picture.


 As well as this, the fact that Stan has a picture of Eminem hanging from his mirror highlights more his obsession with Eminem.


In this video there are very few shots of Eminem in the main part because its meant to be more of a story based video as opposed to a performance based one. However, when Eminem is shown the shots/point in the story show him to be superior and very famous. For example, when Stan and Eminem meet in Denver Eminem looks disapproved when Stan hugs him which makes him out to be disloyal to his fans, also, the part in the video when Eminem is dragged away by his security guards

As an audience we see that Eminem did not voluntarily leave, he was forced to by his security so we see that Stans allegations are unreasonable.

A lot of videos by Eminem are based around a story and are not performance based, his video to 'When I'm Gone' is similar in the way that it tells a sullen story about how Eminem does not want to be a bad father to his children. However, in this video the main character of the video is actually Eminem where as in 'Stan' another person is the main character.

This video has very few sexualised displays, however there are some notions of looking, doors and windows are used throughout the video. The beginnig of the film starts with the camera looking at then going through the window to the house, this suggests that the recipents of the house arent meant to know that they are being filmed which adds to the secrecy of Stan's obsession with Eminem, this idea is later reinforced by the fact that Stan's own girlfriend is shocked by Stan's secret obsession when she finds the room that he has dedicated to pictures of Eminem

Another feature of looking that has been used is when Stan looks in a full length mirror, reflecting back in the mirror is not a reflection of Stan, but an image of Eminem looking back at him. This creates an element of confusion in the audience because it is as though Stan wants to BE Eminem, perhaps he is jealous of his which is why he is so obsessed with him? This is also an example of the music video images contradicting the lyrics because it is being suggested that Stan does want to be Eminem but the lyrics suggest that he wants to be WITH Eminem.


There is one main intertextual reference in this video, the shot of Eminem performing on stage shows the performance side of the stars image, the video makes it obvious that he makes eye contact with Stan which creates a connection with the two characters and the facial expressions show how relevant the eye contact was to each character. Stan's facial expression shows that he feels as though a connection was made between the two because of the eye contact where as Eminem simply saw it as accidental.

This music video is narrative-based. The basis of the video is that it tells a very private story, there are many aspects of the video that are actually very dark and disturbed, this is shown through the potrayal of Stan's basement that he has obviously dedicated to his obsession of Eminem. The video actually puts across a very severe message, it shows the audience the burden that some fans put on celebrities, one the audience sees the end of the video they see the guilt that Eminem must feel.

In conclusion, this video contains many links between the lyrics and the video, this is because it is a narrative-based video and tells a story based around the lyrics. It has few - but not as many as a performance based video - links between the music and video. Eminem isnt featured constantly throughout the video, the main protagonist is Stan.