Is vinyl Dead

Audience Research

Nirvana's 'heart shaped box'

The establishing shot of the video is of a dieing man in a hospital bed with the three band members sitting on chairs by the side of the bed. One noticeable symbol in the room is a black cross on the floor coming out of the bed. With the dieing man in bed having long brown hair and a beard it's clearly a symbol of Jesus and the crucifix. Another noticeable factor is the stream of light that comes through the curtains and falls on the main singer Kurt Cobain. And with Kurt Cobain's blonde long hair the light makes him appear angelic. This all may be linked to the next scene which may appear like a dream, where by the old man is now dressed Jesus and is next to a crucifix. The mise en scene shows a field of red poppeys and with a clear blue sky that all seems quite tranquil other than the crucifix, maybe symbolizing heaven with Kurt Cobain 'the angel' being the dead man's guardian angel. However the tranquility is soon overturned as you see the man start to climb up to the crucifix and the sky turns red as kurt cobain and the band start to perform, this maybe symbolising hell.

Within the performance section the camera pulls focus onto kurt Cobain as well as putting him out of focus. This maybe symbolising Cobains confusion and the illusion that all the happenings within the video are day dreams or images within his head as well as a technique used to create a more frantic performance, perhaps reflecting the band's performances. This may also be for audience appeal and to sell the band as a live band.

Throughout the whole video many symbolic images are used and in conjunction with other elements raise questions of representation. Such as the little girl seen throughout the video dressed in the Klu Klux Klan outfit. She is seen looking up at what appears to be lynched fetuses. This may be a way in which Cobain, in an anti-establishment and anti-religious manner, wanted to question Christian views. As the Klu Klux Klan see themselves through the eyes of god and argue their views through the bible. The use of an old man with a Santa clause hat on who appears to be Jesus as he is crucifying himself on the cross may be a symbol of how Christian values and a Christian festival has now become dominated by commercial use with Santa Clause, not St Nicholas, and the giving of presents. So within the music video Christians appear to be represented as a racist and anti abortionist group. However the use of the Klu Klux Klan child may be a symbol and representing the klu klux klan as being naive and stupid highlighting their ignorance symbolised by the little girl looking up emotionlessly at the dying old man, now wearing a bishops hat, as well as skipping past in a child like manner. The use of the fetus is also used within the drip for the old man as the girl's outfit turns black, symbolising the mans death.

The music video appears to want to argue against Christian values and Christian views much going with the genre of the band from which many anti establishment and anti religious are expressed through lyrics.

Radiohead's 'There, There...'

Dir. Chris Hopewell,

Radiohead's video for 'There, There...' is a serial music video in which we see the main singer in Radiohead, Thom Yorke, walking through the woods with strange anthropomortic woodland animals acting out human like events such as a wedding, feast and within there cottage like houses. The narrative then moves on to a hanging coat within the forest surrounded by crows. It then moves on to Yorke putting on the coat and shoes and running from the birds but failing to get away due to the woods seeming to consume him and turn him into a tree.

The video uses a lot of different techniques to create the correct atmosphere and aesthetic quality of the video. One noticeable way in which it does this is the use of both animation and real footage. And the video itself connects these techniques by using stock motion in the real footage to create an animation like quality to Yorke's walk. This also is the case from animation back to footage as the video ends with Yorke turning into a animated tree. The aesthetics the camera and post production create an archaic or old looking video which is created using a sepia like filter along with a darkened framing to the whole video to make the video look like an old black and white silent film. The use of lighting to highlight certain aspects of the video is used throughout. Such as when Yorke is seen looking around a tree and a beam of light goes across his eyes as he looks left and right. also used to highlight the coat, the wedding and the small tree cottage.

The music itself starts to crescendo and become more dissonant as the narrative comes to what appears to be the answer to the enigmas throughout the narrative, such as why is he walking through the woods, why do the animals act like humans etc. This being the hanging coat much like the golden fleece in Greek tales that Yorke has come to collect. These enigmas are what keep the audience questioning and carry on watching the video. The change in the mood of the music pushes through the narrative much like conventional equilibrium, disequilibrium, new equilibrium style. As the equilibrium is broken as the narrative moves away from the woodland creatures to the coat. The disequilibrium is Yorke being chased by the crows and then the new equilibrium is Yorke being turned into a tree.

Foo Fighters - The pretender

The Foo Fighters single from their latest album 'Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace' is available in a standard CD single format as well as on Vinyl and MP3 download.

The simple artwork of the piece that just consist of a modified light-bulb along with the title of the single and the bands name is eye catching due to simplicity and draws the focus onto the light-bulb. This simplicity will be mirrored in my artwork as i'll use very simple artwork with an interesting object centered in the frame of the picture.

Genre-wise the band is grunge/rock band who often play big shows and could be said to be one of the biggest acts in rock music. This is reflected in the artwork and the font as it reminds me of a broadway like aesthetics with the white bright light-bulb and the art deco like quality to the font. Also the hand shaped light-bulb could be a symbol of the power of the band.

Textual analysis of Muse’s Dark Star

Music video by Muse performing Dead Star: Videowith John Cornfield [Producer], Muse [Producer](C) 2002 Motor Music/ Taste Media Ltd.

Media Forms and Conventions:

Muse are an alternative rock band who create a mix of electronic rock music to rock anthems and ballads. The song Dark star is a heavier darker rock song in which the video reflects by using certain techniques and conventions. The most notable reflection of this is the use of lighting. The director has chosen to shoot almost all of the video using back lighting to create an almost chiaroscuro effect that highlights and outlines the three band members as well as other focused points of interest in the mise en scene and props. The chiaroscuro effect is added to by the use of the bands costumes who all wearing either black or white clothing as well as Matt’s white guitar, Chris’ black bass guitar and Dom’s black drum kit. The Lighting that creates a sense of darkness and coldness that is unified with the ‘gritty’ and desolate location are both well combined with use of a blue filter either on the camera or post production that fits the cold and dark feeling of the song.

The quick cutaways and pace of the video reflects the pace of the song with each cut in sync with the song. Also the cutaways produce a feeling of disillusion and hostility that reflects the distorted song’s style and muse’s self image. Also the effects used with the camera and via post production reflect the sense of surrealism and adverse settings such as hand held cameras that are unsteady and with tracking movements and tilts create a feeling of surrealism as the audience may not know where they are being put in relation to the location. Also the use of quick zooms and stopmotion makes the audience uneasy. Also the use of blurred shots, short takes, focus pulls and other visual effects reflects the distorted guitar and heavy rock sound of the music.

The use of extreme close ups, close ups and zooms in and out produce a complex and confusing structure that lacks any narrative structure other than the band playing in a dark secluded basement. The use of the basement and hand held cameras as well as a chiaroscuro lighting and a blue filter may be a reference to the film ‘Blair Witch Project that’s soundtrack includes artist not to dissimilar to Muse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAiVszTl0vA

textul analysis of Muse's 'Hysteria'

The video is totally narrative based with no performance element. The video starts with a long shot down a corridor of a hotel with a hotel maid at the end. The use of blurred shots, sudden pace change in music and editing, hard to define images and ellipses reflected the man’s fatigue and shock as he awakes when the maid tries to open the door. The following shots are establishing shots for the rest of the video in which the protagonist is seen looking around his trashed hotel room looking worried and confused and finding a hand held camera on the floor. Through the use of the cameras play back through the Hotel TV the music video shows the man stalking a woman whilst through cross cutting and ellipses the man is seen become more angered, with a e/c of the man’s face as he goes from calm to shacking violently and gritting his teeth. The video within the music video reveals how the man seems to stalk the girl and get her back to his hotel room but then appears to hit her and she leaves whilst cutaways show the protagonist smashing the hotel room’s TV and pictures. The last minute of the song shows a combination of the man trashing the hotel, the woman running away now in normal camera view ( rather than hand held camera), the man screaming in an e/c of his face, the woman being filmed as she seductively strips for the man and the man filming the incident. The use of a hand held camera on the TV and normal camera views help the viewer workout the time scale of the narrative as in the recorded footage would suggest being recorded yesterday etc. but as the video goes on the point in which she runs out and he is smashing up the room suggest the time scales have become parrelel as the camera changes from hand held to normal camera for the womans shots. This parallel editing creates a converging narrative structure although beforehand it was flashback based.

The band use inter-texuality and reference other media texts such as the first long shot of the hotel maid with a vacuum cleaner along a long corridor that the camera tracks down is a reference to rock legends Pink Floyd and their film ‘The Wall’ in which the same composition of a shot of a hotel maid with a vacuum cleaner is used as the first shot of the film. Also the film references the films protagonist who is seen trashing a hotel room.

The lyrics of the song reflect the narrative of the song as well as the title itself as the man creates hysteria within the hotel room. The chorus goes as follows;

'cause I want it now

I want it now

give me your heart and your soul

and I'm breaking out

I'm breaking outlast chance to lose control

Which almost seem to sum up the narrative of the song in which the protagonist stalks and wants to have this woman so much so that when he can’t have her he looses control.

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