For our music video, we have chosen the track Inhaler, by Miles Kane.
The song was released on the 19th November 2010 and peaked at a mere #171 in the UK singles chart, (at a time where Willow Smith's"Whip My Hair" was in the top 5), showing the demise of the UK's musical preference profusely.
The artist, Miles Kane, is best known for his time in the band The Rascals, as well as a short time with Arctic Monkeys' front man Alex Turner in The Last Shadow Puppets. Since then, he has developed his own solo career with such singles as Inhaler, Come Closer and Rearrange.
The Lyrics to Inhaler follow:
I've been lookin forward to liftin up the veil
guess is the answer you know that for sure
the night time is the right time dont you know girl
you've heard it before
hey
cold is the shoulder you'll give me for sure
dance with your hips and grind on the floor
the night time is the right time dont you know girl
you've heard it before
In this essay I will be analysing the Arctic Monkeys single ‘Leave Before the Lights Come On’ the song is written by the bands lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist, Alex Turner and the video itself is directed by John Hardwick. Paddy Considine (‘Hot Fuzz’, ‘In America’) and Kate Ashfield (‘Shaun of The Dead’) star in this video in which we see a woman who appears to be suicidal and about to jump off a building actually using the situation to form a relationship with somebody. The genre of this song and its artist would be English Indie Rock and typically a video from such a band would be mainly performance based, but clearly this is narrative based.
At first glance you would not think there is a considerably noticeable relationship between the lyrics of the song and the visuals of the video. However, when studying both closer, there is definitely a slight relationship between the two. This mainly is to do with relationships with people you do not know that well with lyrics such as “my friend fancies you” and “we woke up together not quite realizing how” which definitely provokes thoughts of one night stands and ambiguous relationships, as does the video, but in a different way with the woman who features in it trying to form a relationship through sympathy, due to the fact her victims think she is suicidal. Both the lyrics and visuals show relationships which are gained through uncertain circumstances whether these are caused by alcohol on a night out or the innocence of a person who feels they are dealing with and helping someone who is suicidal.
There are also some relationships between the music and the visuals of the music video for this song. The best example of this in the video would be when after pushing the man in the video too far and getting a slightly violent reaction from him, the pace of the song picks up and a guitar and drum duo begins whilst we see the woman begin to run back to where she started in the video. The pace of both the guitar and the drums builds and builds to the climax of the song and video where the viewer thinks that the woman is going to jump off the building. However, as the woman gets to the edge of the building, both the drums and guitar stop as does the woman before the viewer realises that she is not suicidal, but is just preparing to find her next victim, the calming vocals reiterating the relief of the viewer that she does not jump off.
‘Leave Before The Lights Come On’ is a video that is fairly unusual and unique amongst the norm of its genre as apart from a very short shot at the end of the video of the band’s drummer, Matt Helders, there is no performance element to the video at all and during his appearance he does not perform. The record company that the band belong to, Domino Records, are promoting the band positively with this video as it gives the fans a storyline to get into as well as a quality tune which at this point in the bands career was the norm for example the video released previously to this one “When The Sun Goes Down” which too is a narrative video which features no performance or any band members. The reasoning for the band not appearing in the video, apart from the one shot, would probably be due to the fact that by this stage in their career, between their hugely popular debut album and their second, the band was well known enough not to feature.
This video, as mentioned a few times so far in this essay, is that of a narrative base which tells a story rather than shows you the band themselves performing as you are to expect of bands of this genre.
In conclusion, I feel that this video is very unique and clever as unlike most it actually grabs the viewer’s attention as a television programme or film would do, the fact that it does this as well as delivering a quality tune makes this music video stand out from the rest. There is a good relationship between lyrics, music and visuals all of which you can associate with the feelings of the viewer and the characters in the video adding to the quality of the overall music video.
Kasabian - Empire
Kasabianare an Englishrockband who formed inLeicestershirein 1999. The band currently consists of TomMeighan (Vocals), Serge Pizzorno (Guitarist & Backing Vocals), Chris Edwards (Bass), Ian Matthews (Drums)and former touring guitaristJay Mehlerwho became a full-time member in late 2010. The single Empire was released 24 July 2006 as the leadsinglefrom the bands second album (Empire). The single became popular immediately, entering theUK Singles Chartat #9, its peak position, making it the band's third UK Top 10 single. It was still in the charts in 2007, at #65 before dropping off later in January 2008.
The music video portrays the members of Kasabian as troopers of the11th HussarsRegiment (of the famedCharge of the Light Brigade) during theCrimean War. The video was shot on location outsideBucharest. The video opens with a boy messenger delivering a message to the band, stationed on the frontlines (a reference to the band's second single "Shoot the Runner"). The boy is shot by an unseen attacker and killed. The band decides to remove itself from the front line and head back to the generals' station while passing their regiment which is disembarking for an attack. After the firing squad refuses to shoot the last survivor of the band (Tom), the commanding officer steps in and shoots him for refusing to enter the battlefield.
Firstly the genre characteristics, Kasabian would be considered as an English rock band and the stereotypical view of the Rock genre would be that of a performance based video, usually with a lot of live footage, showing the band with what they feel is most important, e.g. them and their instruments. However, Kasabian’s Empire video is mainly narrative based, with a small amount of performance (Serge with his guitar and Tom lip syncing). Therefore, you would probably describe this video as being mainly counter-stereotypical of its genre with some aspects that would make it seem stereotypical.
Matching the stronganti-warmessage of the lyrics, the "Empire" video presents a look of fiery death and destruction caused by the war. There is definitely a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals of the video (one of Andrew Goodwin's 'identities' of a music video), one example being the simple lyric of “stop!” when a cannon is fired during the war, this relationship between the lyric and the video establishes the fact that the song and video are anti-war early on to its audience, allowing them to understand the message that the video is trying to sell to its audience. Another example of the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals of the video would be “We’re all wasting away” when the video shows a close up shot of an arm of a dead man with a violin bow in his hand, hinting towards the fact that it could be Serge who had earlier featured in the video with the same bow. The relationship between the lyrics and visuals in this case would be again one of an anti war message, showing that war is basically a waste of life to the band.
Throughout the entirety of the music video, the pace of the editing and shots stays very steady with most shots lasting at least 2 seconds. Therefore, as the pace of the music changes throughout, there is no apparent relationship between the music and the visuals. This could be due to the fact that in the video, the band are shown to be very calm walking through a battlefield away from the battle showing again their anti war message. Therefore, the fact that pace of the shots in the video stays so steady actually intensifies the calmness of the men.
In the video, the band members do feature and there are many different close-up shots of the members (an example of Goodwin's theory, especially of new bands trying to promote themselves), the most often being Tom (vocalist). The most prominent of the entire video I feel would be at the point where we see Tom standing up to the firing squad because of leaving the battlefield. This I feel is the most memorable moment of the video as he is standing up for himself and his beliefs even against men with guns. This gives a very positive view of him and the band as they seem very strong and able to stand up for what they believe in. This close up gives a very positive aspect of the band to its audience and sends out an important anti-war message.
There is just one intertextual reference in the video, right at the very end where the Latin phrase “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” appears on screen, this is part of a famous Wilfred Owen anti-war poem, roughly translating to “It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country”. This reference is very subtle and requires some research to find its meaning and the relevance of the quote in relation to the song. However, this I feel is the perfect ending to a song with a strong anti war message that is unusual to find in a music video.
To conclude, this video is that of 80% narrative based, showing the story of 5 soldiers who go against their superiors as they are not prepared to go against their beliefs, whilst it is about 20% performance based due to the lip syncing and guitar playing by both Tom and Serge at certain parts of the video. I feel that the video is very influential to those who watch and could even be described as inspiring to the viewer, giving a strong anti war message as well as the statement to generally stand up for what you believe in.
Vampire Weekend - Cousins
Vampire Weekend are an American indie rock band from New York City that formed in 2006 and are signed to XL Recordings. The Band consists of four members: Ezra Koenig (lead vocals/guitar), Rostam Batmanglij (Keyboards/Guitar/Backing Vocals), Chris Tomson (Drums/Percussion), and Chris Baio (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals). The band released its first album Vampire Weekend in 2008, which included the singles "Mansard Roof", "A-Punk", ‘Oxford Comma’, and ‘Cape Cod Kwassa’. The band's most recent album, Contra, was released in 2010, which included the singles ‘Holiday’, ‘Giving Up The Gun’ and the song that I will be analysising in this essay; ‘Cousins’.
‘Cousins’ was released as a single as of January 13, 2010, it first entered theUK Singles Charton January 17, 2010, where it reached a current peak of #39. The video of ‘Cousins’ was directed by Garth Jennings, and debuted on MTVu on November 19th 2009.The video features the members of Vampire Weekend performing in a long alleyway in Mexico City. Throughout the song, the members of the band rotate places on a platform that moves up and down the alleyway on a track. While some of the band members are on the platform, the others take positions beside the platform. The band members also exchange masks of one another, wearing them whilst singing.
Firstly, the genre characteristics, ‘Cousins’ would be described as alternative indie rock, stereotypical view of an alternative indie rock video would consist of a lot of performance and the occasional use of narrative. The video for ‘Cousins’ could be described as being fairly stereotypical of its genre as it does contain quite a lot of performance, however, the performance is shown with a very different twist, through a conceptual idea of using the alley way in Mexico City, the tracks and frequent changing of positions from the band members.
In this video there are a few examples of a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. One of these would be the lyrics; “If your art life is gritty you'll be toasting my health” at which point in the video we see Erza in a very formal suit and bowtie raising a cocktail, as you would if you were to be toasting to someone’s health, amplifying the lyrics. Andrew Goodwin refers to the link between lyrics and visuals as one of the key structural factors in a music video. Another example of this relationship would be again when Erza is on screen as he lifts up firstly a boot, then an old record case reading “greatest hits” before finally a list whilst lip syncing the lyrics; “Dad was a risk taker, His was a shoe maker, you greatest hits 2006,little list maker.” This is an example of the band being very literal with their lyrics which to be honest don’t make a lot of sense, once again amplifying them.
As well as the relationship between lyrics and visuals, there are also countless examples of the relationship between music and visuals (another of Andrew Goodwin’s features of a music video), one example of this would be around 46 seconds into the video, where there is a guitar solo, at this point, Erza and Rostam (rhythm and lead guitarists) are both at the centre of the screen playing their guitars, thus emphasising the happening guitar solo and positively illustrating the music video. However, throughout the video, the editing is fairly consistent, regardless of the tempo of the track, which isn’t to be expected when you listen to the song, however, the fact that throughout the video, whoever is on the centre of the screen is on the track moving away does give the video the tempo it needs to keep up with the overall high tempo of the track itself at points in the video.
In the video, there is always someone in the centre of the screen with a close up shot of their face, this would be considered fairly stereotypical of an up and coming band according to Goodwin’s theory, however, at the point of this singles release, the band were already fairly well known and had a solid fan base after their debut album therefore the close ups could be seen as being counter typical. However, it could be argued that the conceptual nature of the video itself needs there to be close ups of the cand members, especially 1:49 into the video, where the band members are shown with masks of the other members on the back of their heads, giving a surreal look as the each turn around whilst singing, before switching to another band member and repeating the process. Therefore in this regard, the close ups are seen as a necessity to the conceptual nature of the video rather than being used to promote the band itself.
The White Stripes’ video ‘The Hardest Button to Button’ video could be seen as an intertextual reference to Vampire Weekends’ ‘Cousins’. This video consists wholly of the band’s drummer and her drum kit jumpily moving about a town, the video for ‘Cousins’ uses this idea to an extent as the whole band are moving up and down the alley way in Mexico City throughout the video, this is a fairly vague reference however, I do feel that there definitely is some kind of link between the two.
I would describe this video as being 50% performance based and 50% conceptually based and in conclusion I feel that the video is very strong in promoting the band, who at this point in their career were already quite famous, it is a video that sticks in your mind which is a big positive and the sort that you would watch before recommending to a friend to watch, slowly creating a bigger fan base for the band, overall the music video is very successful.
For our music video, we have chosen the track Inhaler, by Miles Kane.