10 Indie/Alternative Music Video Choices

Marina & the Diamonds- Shampain

Yael Naïm- New Soul

Of Monsters & Men- Little Talks

Noah & the Whale- Life is Life

Kate Bush- Running Up That Hill

Mika- Grace Kelly

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour- The Golden Age

Bastille- Pompeii

Kyla La Grange- Been Better

Out of these videos, Shampain, New Soul, Life is Life and Little Talks have been chosen to be analysed. You can find them on the titles 'Music Video Analysis 101-104.'

Audience Profile for the Indie/Alternative Type of Music

        With my main chosen genre, the indie/alternative style, I realise that the audience profile for this could be extremely varied, depending on if a certain indie song possibly goes viral and becomes more famous, such as Marina & the Diamonds with her singles 'I Am Not A Robot.'
         So, the audiences that would be normally attracted to this kind of genre would probably be a group aged 14-35, as independent bands and artists have reputations for writing the majority of their own songs, so certain elements such as emotions and the tune of the song can reflect the listeners feelings. Compared to Pop, the lyrics are not reputed to be repeated throughout the song just to try and encourage singing almost the same line over and over again, even though some pop songs don't follow this 'rule.' This would then connect to mainstream music, as the charts that play the same songs on the TV and Radio would become tedious with the same rap, pop and R'n B songs. Only a few independent artists become famous on the charts, such as Gotye with 'Somebody that I used to Know.' In my opinion, listeners may tend to switch over until a more diverse song is played, one which provokes thought and encourages singing along to almost unrepeated lyrics. With the world of technology making listening to music available on multiple platforms, people may take to YouTube to listen to the independent songs. This would then pave the way for discovery of less known and much more diverse artists on the internet, giving the chance to listen to new music through the magic that is the recommendations tab.
         So, to sum up, this demographic of audiences is quite a wide variety of people, even though most listeners of indie/alternative music would need encouragement via viral 'marketing' on social networking sites, which then begin the discovery of songs that are buried deep within the undergrowth of mainstream pop/rap/R'n B culture.
         Below this paragraph is the links to the referenced indie/alternative artists I have used as examples. Please take a look, and enjoy. Or not :-)

Marina & the Diamonds- I Am Not A Robot-  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_oMD6-6q5Y

Gotye- Somebody That I Used To Know-  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY

     

Album Covers: Indie/Alternative

For the music videos I am analysing, here are the album/single artwork for these songs.

Marina & the Diamonds- Shampain

Noah & the Whale- Life is Life

Of Monsters & Men- Little Talks

Yael Naïm- New Soul

Music Video Analysis 104

Name of Song- New Soul

Artist- Yael Naïm 

GENRE CHARACTERISTICS

            The dress sense in this video is sustained to each person; it doesn't change throughout. This is evident as Yael Naïm wears the same blue striped dress from beginning to end. It's the same with the 'strange' characters who wear odd things and hold odd items, maybe to imply the imagination of the singer? The tune of the song has a very happy but melancholic tone, it has an upbeat piano rhythm with new instruments being introduced through the course of the song. This is evident when a character is shown walking through a field with what looks like a trombone/trumpet, this instrument is then introduced into the song. The cinematography presents a very positive and child-like atmosphere. This is obvious as we are given a bright sunny day and a nice lake with a fancy floating room in the middle, which counts for the child-like factor as the rooms walls fall down and reveal a surrounding lake, which implies the fun imagination of the artist as she then encounters the strange characters and an upbeat, positive ending. The location basically speaks for itself as it much resembles the typical indie genre; a nice wide open space that is empty and seemingly imaginary characters begin to appear. The location is quite easy to tie in with the lyrics, especially here, as the room is floating on a lake. Could that mean something?

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LYRICS AND VISUALS?

              'Im a new soul, I came to this strange world, hoping I could learn a bit 'bout how to give and take.' These lyrics do coincide with the visuals, as the events in the video are certainly odd, with what looks like imaginary characters and the imaginary demolition of a room floating on a lake. This straight away gives us the idea that she has certainly come to a 'strange world.' Apparently the lyrics are about Yael Naïm moving from Isreal to America, so the big cities and the people is like a whole new world to her, hence the song title 'New Soul.'

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MUSIC AND VISUALS?

               The only relationship between the music and the visuals is that both are upbeat and represented very positively, such as the bright sunny day and the colourful clothes worn by the strange characters. 

ARE THERE CLOSE-UPS OF THE ARTIST AND STAR IMAGE MOTIFS?

               The camera does close in on the artists face on occasion, but there isn't a strong sense of relation of thematic elements between this video and the artists other works, so her work doesn't exactly harbour a known artists trademark. There is, however, a similarity in the sound of the music, as her other single 'Toxic' is very slow and melancholic, much like a few parts in 'New Soul.' Her other video 'Go To The River' has little to no relation in thematic elements with this video. The location, costume, cinematography and the tune are almost completely different compared to the cheerful video.

IS THERE REFERENCE TO THE NOTION OF LOOKING?

ARE THERE INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES?

                As long as I know, there isn't any intertextual references in this video, as the lyrics just reflect a new world to the artist, and the video embodies that with imaginary characters and falling walls and floating rooms. There isn't any reference to other texts or other works in general. Maybe there will be, but if so, it's certainly subtle.

IS THE VIDEO CATEGORY ILLUSTRATION, DISJUNCTURE OR AMPLIFICATION? HOW MUCH?

               This video is probably 30% Disjuncture and 70% Amplification. Disjuncture because we already know that this world is 'new' to the artist, so strange and odd things occur in a positive and happy sense because it's a whole new world and she doesn't know what it would hold for her. This leads to the amplification side, as the odd occurrences, such as the room dismantling into a floating wooden raft on the lake and the strange characters are just subtle metaphors for her own impression on moving to a different and bigger place: the people she'll meet and being able to keep afloat in this world etc.

THE VIDEO- http://youtu.be/XgEfYGzojcA

Music Video Analysis 103

Name of Song- Little Talks

Artist- Of Monsters & Men

GENRE CHARACTERISTICS

           Here, costume and location don't technically apply for this video as it's animated, but still, the animated dress sense is very diverse and has a look of a very diverse fashion, with the clothes being multicoloured moving feathers making up what looks like a robe, and also black and white wooly jumpers are worn too, but the style is the same, as the clothes never change. The location is a large factor of the video, as the animated characters venture through a vast, surreal noir-style world in search of what seems to be some sort of salvation. The location could be one of the reasons why the video is animated (even though that's mainly the bands style), because a real set would cost millions, so creating an animated video broadens the imagination and draws on fantasy, adventure and even horror (the large dangerous monsters) elements. Now, the cinematography has sort of already been discussed, as the lighting is dark because of the noir style that the surreal world is presenting, but there are camera edits that are obviously used to synchronise with the songs beat and rhythm, such as when the background singing shouts 'hey!' The camera either cuts to another scene or follows the rhythm between the lyrics and the visuals.

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LYRICS AND VISUALS?

             The relationship between these two factors is quite confusing because the lyrics tell of two people 'walking around this old and empty house, so hold my hand and I'll walk with you my dear,' but it doesn't match what the video shows, but there is that irritating air of mystery where you can connect the lyrics and visuals but thought is needed to do it, as the video resembles something much bigger than what the lyrics suggest. The video just shows a guardian angel guiding these five people through a dark and dangerous enchanted world, which is possible to connect with the lyrics I previously mentioned, as they're being guided through a dark place.

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MUSIC AND VISUALS?

The relationship here is very strong between word and vision, as every single beat in the video, including when they shout 'hey!' there's always something that appears or happens which is used to synchronize with the beat, creating a very smooth rhythm that encourages a good old singalong. This is evident in every scene. An example is when the video shows the five men climbing up a grapple hook that leads to a stone creatures mouth (so the rope that the hook is attached to is horizontally positioned. Here, the lyrics 'some days, I don't know if I am wrong or right' is sung monosyllabically as the words are monosyllabic anyway so that the beat can attach itself to these. At this moment in the video, every time the arms of the men swap over to climb the rope, the lyrics and the best synchronize with every arm movement. This can be found at 1:21 in the video link below.

ARE THERE CLOSE-UPS OF THE ARTIST AND STAR IMAGE MOTIFS?

            The video has six characters (the five stranded men and the guardian) who have members of the band superimposed onto the faces, so there are close-ups of the artists quite a few times throughout, but it's noticeable that they are shown in close-up because they are frightened of the beasts that try and attack them. There are star image motifs, as the bands other video 'King and Lionheart' is shown in the same fashion; animated, darkly lit and an adventurous setting, as the camera pans, cuts and zooms us from a city in ruins to a wide open space of abandoned buildings and structures. The only difference here is that the characters aren't animated.

IS THERE REFERENCE TO THE NOTION OF LOOKING?

ARE THERE INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES?

             It's quite difficult to notice any intertextual references, with the only subtle ones being references to OMAM's other songs through the tune of the song, such as 'Little Talks' and 'Mountain Sound' that have a similar upbeat tune that starts the song off and continues through the chorus. The only other reference that I can think of isn't justifiable because it would take reading a whole book to get it, but from the style of the video and the fantastical creatures in it, it seems like one of the Brothers Grimm's dark fairytales. 

IS THE VIDEO CATEGORY ILLUSTRATION, DISJUNCTURE OR AMPLIFICATION? HOW MUCH?

            The video is probably all amplification because we, the audience, can easily put together the subtle links between the lyrics and the events of the video, such as the guardian angel beginning to leadthe men through the enchanted world, with the beginning lyrics 'I don't like walking around this old and empty house, so take my hand I'll walk with you, my dear.' This is why the video isn't disjuncture because the lyrics and images, though visually separate, still create a metaphorical link. It isn't illustration either because nothing that the lyrics suggest provokes the appearance of that suggestion visually.

THE VIDEO- http://youtu.be/ghb6eDopW8I

Music Video Analysis 102

Name Of Song- Life is Life

Artist- Noah & the Whale

GENRE CHARACTERISTICS

            As mentioned before in '101,' the costumes, the cinematography, tune and location are the characteristics of the indie/alternative genre. In this music video, I found that the costumes are still not vast but also not so diverse for this genre, as the band wear suits and the main girl who runs is wearing what looks like a PE Uniform. The cinematography here is much more varied, as the lighting is (seems very) natural and bright, which is reflected by the tune of the song, which is very upbeat and cheerful despite the lyrics being a tad darker, such as 'he took up all his old things, and set 'em all on fire.' The location used is rather typical of this genre as well, because it's using mostly one single location, even though it's a wide open setting on a long street with a school field and houses that run along it, eventually leading to an airport hangar then to a hot air balloon.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LYRICS AND VISUALS?

             The only noticeable connection between the lyrics and visuals is a very large section of the video shown as a metaphor for putting away your old life and chasing a better one. This is shown with the very beginning scene of the girl dropping the slice of watermelon (could that resemble manufactured happiness; the slice looking as though it creates a smile if held to the face?) and screaming, as though she's letting everything go; her old life. The line 'left his house at midnight, resolute and young. In search of something greater than the person he'd become.' This is obviously reflecting the girl throughout the whole video running in a visually straight line, eventually passing everything and into a hot air balloon, as though she's off to find a new life.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MUSIC AND VISUALS?

              The music here is very upbeat, which ties in with the bright sunny day and the bright clothes. It sort of becomes the epitome of a warm day for the video, as the beat at the very beginning plays along the girl running, which gives it a lively feel to it.

ARE THERE CLOSE-UPS OF THE ARTIST AND STAR IMAGE MOTIFS?

              There aren't close-ups of the artist, as the band is shown from many mid-shots maybe to allow the bright and sunny background to be shown. However, motifs are evident, such as the suits they wear, which are also in their other single 'L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N, where they sit in a gloomy bar with black suits.

IS THERE REFERENCE TO THE NOTION OF LOOKING?

ARE THERE INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES?

              There seems to be no intertextual references to books, other music or other works, which shows the video as being more of a genuine indie video.

IS THE VIDEO CATEGORY ILLUSTRATION, DISJUNCTURE OR AMPLIFICATION? HOW MUCH?

             The video is probably 85% amplification and 15% disjuncture. Amplification because almost the whole video resembles the lyrics, but not in an illustrious fashion, more of a semantic fashion. We see the girl running to a location undisclosed until the end, but we know that she's running after a new life as she took apart her old life and 'set it all on fire' and she's 'gonna change' and she feels like her 'new life can start, and it feels like heaven,' possibly resembling the bright sunny day and going up into the hot air balloon at the end. It's also a quarter disjuncture because some of the allegory is so subtle that you may be wrong in thinking you've interpreted it right. Such examples are the shots of the cheerleaders and of the band, which is a normal element of any video anyway.

THE VIDEO- http://youtu.be/6HKdXbTI49U

Music Video Analysis 101

Name Of Song- Shampain

Artist- Marina & the Diamonds

GENRE CHARACTERISTICS

       The observations for the genre characteristics of 'Shampain,' it being an alternative/indie genre, is the location, the tune of the song, the cinematography style and the costume. The evidence for the location is obvious with the video, as the setting isn't a large place; a play park for most of the video. We see Marina doing a thriller-style dance through a littered park with two backup dancers. The evidence for the tune of the song is that, even though the video was released in 2010, it has a very retro vibe and sound to it, which isn't exactly a widely used style in mainstream song culture. The evidence for the cinematography is that the look and feel of the video, with help from the camera angles and shots, is a sort of glamorous cheesy indie retro feel through shots such as a close-up of Marina's face with heavy make up, only used to contrast with the smeared make up on her face later on, which is shown with surrounding smoke effects and backup dancers moving like the zombies in Michael Jackson's Thriller, generating the glamorous, cheesy retro feel. The evidence for the costume is obvious as the only costumes worn are binary opposites; a beautiful dress and then a ripped up dress. This implies the possibly small budget as different costumes aren't worn every 5 seconds, unlike mainstream pop music videos.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LYRICS AND VISUALS?

         There seems to be connection with these factors, as there is in almost every indie/alternative music video. Here, the lyrics 'drinking champagne, to forget yesterday, 'cause I remember, the way the way the way, I ended the day...' is quite easily connected with the visuals, such as Marina wearing a nice dress and shown in a golden-coloured tone, then wearing a torn dress, as though she's remembering something bad she may have done and tries to 'forget yesterday.'

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MUSIC AND VISUALS?

          There is only little relationship between music and visuals, as indie probably pays more attention to lyrical meaning and visual representation. However, the rhythm of the music, it being in a retro style, is synchronized at times with the backup dancers and Marina herself as they do their own rendition of the Thriller (as I've said before, so forgive me).

ARE THERE CLOSE-UPS OF THE ARTIST AND STAR IMAGE MOTIFS?

          There are quite a few close-ups of Marina used between the switch overs of her costume and make up. This doesn't create a star image motif, as her dressing isn't similar in other videos, and there isn't really any justifiable motif to do with her style in other videos and singles.

IS THERE REFERENCE TO THE NOTION OF LOOKING?

ARE THERE INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES?

             There are two intertextual references, one lyrical and one visual. The lyrical intertextual reference is when the line 'made by the angel, who goes by the name, of glittering Gabriel' references the angel Gabriel from the Holy Bible, as well as the word 'celestial' being sung at times. The visual intertextual reference is that of (you guessed it) Thriller by Michael Jackson, with the dance moves closely resembling the moves in the 1981 music video.

IS THE VIDEO CATEGORY ILLUSTRATION, DISJUNCTURE OR AMPLIFICATION? HOW MUCH?

               The video is 40% disjuncture, 50% amplification and 10% illustration. It is disjuncture as there are a lot of times where Marina is just shown stumbling zombie-like through a park, which doesn't really connect with the lyrics. However it's also amplification because the stumbling through the park and the zombie-like women seem to reflect that something has gone wrong due to a 'bad night,' which is why Marina is shown well dressed and then dishevelled. The small section that is illustration is just where Marina gets up and walks away from a set of stairs during the lyrics 'the day the day the day that I walked away, away away away.'

THE VIDEO- http://youtu.be/-vHi83LTQjU

    

 

     

 

The Slideshare Powerpoint

Our 'Big Fat' Music Video Research Presentation

I have constructed a short powerpoint (ironic considering the title) based around the section that i am researching for our rendition on the music video 'Human' by The Killers. I'm researching the lyrics to the song, so that i can analyse them and attempt to put them into our own version of the video (for the same song) and try to visually interpret them in as much of a different way compared to the original video. Here are the screenshots of my powerpoint:

The Killers- Human: The Final Music Video, The Planning Stage

It seems, these days, that I'm beginning planning on a tonne of different music videos. This is a plan for our newly appointed music video; 2009's 'Human' by The Killers, the four man band fronted by Brandon Flowers. Beginning our planning today, me, Kayleigh and Jack have chosen different areas of research for the video to be able to piece together later on and create our own vision of the song.
          I chose the lyrical side of the research. Even though this sounds easy enough, I need to be able to annotate the lyric sheet, pick out certain words and find as many allegoric/symbolic references as 'human'ly possible (see what I did there)?
         From first look of the lyrics, they seem to be referencing life, love, suicide and 'opening doors.'
From the perspective of another, the line "are we human, or we dancer" is "his way of asking would you rather be human and live and live everyday doing the same thing, or being a dancer and feeling the music and doing a dance that isn't a regular routine."As I carry on with this research, I'll update my blog to show you the latest news on the research and eventually merge all of the research from each group member together and create a presentation containing this information, using any possible website that creates presentations.

So here are the lyrics that I am annotating:

THE KILLERS LYRICS

I did my best to notice
When the call came down the line
Up to the platform of surrender
I was brought but I was kind

And sometimes I get nervous
When I see an open door
Close your eyes, clear your heart
Cut the cord

Are we human or are we dancer?
My sign is vital, my hands are cold
And I'm on my knees looking for the answer
Are we human or are we dancer?

Pay my respects to grace and virtue
Send my condolences to good
Hear my regards to soul and romance
They always did the best they could

And so long to devotion
You taught me everything I know
Wave goodbye, wish me well
You've gotta let me go

Are we human or are we dancer?
My sign is vital, my hands are cold
And I'm on my knees looking for the answer
Are we human or are we dancer?

Will your system be alright
When you dream of home tonight
There is no message we're receiving
Let me know, is your heart still beating?

Are we human or are we dancer?
My sign is vital, my hands are cold
And I'm on my knees looking for the answer

You've gotta let me know

Are we human or are we dancer?
My sign is vital, my hands are cold
And I'm on my knees looking for the answer
Are we human or are we dancer?

Are we human or are we dancer?
Are we human or are we dancer?

Taken from http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/killers/human.html  

Group Music Video: Fluorescent Adolescent- The Storyboard Years Part 2

We have now finished our storyboard order for the music video 'Fluorescent Adolescent' by The Artic Monkeys. To be able to know what order to place these images in for the video, we scanned over the lyrics multiple times to find which ones match with what the words are suggesting. After about half an hour of moving the images round to match with the lyrics (which was helpful because most of the pictures we drew were literal to the words in the song, such as when Tabasco is mentioned, Tabasco is shown), we finally finished piecing them together.

Now that we have finally finished piecing together our music video, we used the pictures we took of the full storyboard and placed them on iMovie, where we edited it into place. We downloaded the song to be put onto iTunes then drag it over to iMovie where we had to intricately synchronise the songs lyrics with the storyboard images that perceived them. After listening for the first time to the music and the pictures, we were given an idea of where to move the images to synchronise with the lyrics. Two or three lessons later, after moving and adding a few images, we played the song for the final time along with the slideshow of images, and eventually it fit.

Now that we are happy with our finished product, you can view it here at:

http://www.kayleighmusicvideoblogg324.blogspot.co.uk

Enjoy :-)

Planning the Music Video: Blog 1

Here I will show and tell what I have done for the first stage of my music video plan. The music video I am planning for here is the 'Them Heavy People' by Kate Bush, not 'Fluorescent Adolescent' by The Artic Monkeys. I have completed a storyboard for my chosen video (which could hopefully be made) with elements of allegory; characters; settings (mise-én-scene) and location that I have drawn through just over 4 pages of 3X4 storyboard frames to be able to feature the typical three-part 'narrative' of a typical music video. NOTE: This is a post that was made for another intended video, not 'Human' by The Killers.

 

Analysis of the Storyboard

 

       The two main locations that I have chosen for this video are the forest (or just a wooded area) and the room of a house (I drew a kitchen because of the osition of the furniture to be able to pull off one certain scene involving a mirror. The completely different locations are because the forest resembles the actress's state of mind and the world inside her own imagination. The kitchen/house is used to juxtapose with the imagination as the house is intended to be filmed in a more darker tone to correctly oppose the brightness of the imagination and the darkness of reality. The actress is pulled out of her imagination and back into her house (reality). Of course, this would require some quite complicated editing as I intend to throw her back to reality via two shady suited men who drag her through the forest and slumped onto a chair, which is randomly placed so that it resembles her view o returning to reality through a chair. It reflects her state of mind along with the lyrics of the song. As the video plays on, the 'story' becomes clear that the actress is being driven more insane by the real world, which is told with accompanying cross-cuts to a slinky being pulled taut and snapping; the slinky being her mind. Despite the dark undertone of the storyboard, the lyrics do imply these tones on occasion, so the inclusion of a third cross-cut setting is used to show the actual instruments in the song being played and the song being sung by the actress. This is a typical feature in most music videos; where the camera cuts to the band/artist performing the song, as though 'breaking the fourth wall.'