Monday, 15 September 2014

Boulevard of Broken Dreams & Andrew Goodwin, Joe Gow


Andrew Goodwin identified 5 aspects of music videos that the audience should be able to detect in a music video of any kind. The aspects were: The star image, the narrative and performance, the relation of visuals to the song, thought beats (seeing the sound) and finally the technical aspects of the video.

Joe Gow identified six central genres of music video, all of which are defined in terms of their relationship to the display of performance: The anti-performance piece (videos which do not contain a performance of the song), pseudo-reflexive performance (videos which display the process of the video production), performance documentary (videos which contain documentary footage of onstage performance and/or off stage activity), the special effects extravaganza (videos in which the human performance is overshadowed by imagery), the song and dance number (videos which focus on the physical abilities of the dancers and the singer, usually through lip-synching techniques) and the enhanced performance (videos which blend performance elements with other visual elements, a blend justified through either associational, narrative or abstract forms of motivation).
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The first music video I will be analysing with Goodwin's concepts will be 'Boulevard of broken dreams' by Green Day.

The video starts off with a car breaking down on a road (and if we're not getting caught up in specifics here it can be seen as a boulevard), and it is not long before we see the members of Green Day walk past various broken items. One thing that catches the eye however is the figure of a lady. This implies that although all of the objects around them are physically broken, the story behind the song is that it is talking about how the singer is emotionally broken/heartbroken. This therefore could be giving us the general gist of what the song is about. The lead singer of the band is nearly always the focus of the video whenever lyrics are being sung, and whenever he is in shot his lip synching is constantly in time. Him doing this gives the audience a more realistic vibe to the video.

As the video goes on, nothing appears to get fixed yet the singer appears to get angrier due to his loneliness. This plays a big role when it comes to Goodwin's 'star's image' concept. The lyrics and the effects in the video give the song quite a deep feeling to it. Therefore this means that it displays the singer/songwriter as a person who wants to create a song which can have an effect on the viewers and perhaps even make them reflect for a moment. This type of song shows how the band has developed, and does not just make the kind of 'American Idiot' styled piece.

The atmosphere of the video is made very dull and gloomy through use of limited lighting and the old, crackling appearance of the footage. This mood fits with both the lyrics and the emotion that is being displayed through the band members. The slow moving speed of the camera and the lengthy shots also play their parts when creating the appearance of a sad scenario. The costumes that are used add to the effect of sadness, due to the fact that all 3 band members wear either black or dark clothing throughout the entire video. This implies that as the video progresses the mood does not improve.

Goodwin's concept of 'seeing the sound in your head'/ matching the lyrics to the visuals is a bit trickier to apply to the music video than any of the other concepts. He sees the singing voice as an instrument on its own, as well as the fact that the lyrics are telling a story. This would mean for the video to be effective and for the lyrics to make sense you would have to follow the entirety of the 'story'. When this is applied to 'boulevard of broken dreams' it seems that it is a song about loneliness, as everything he sees around him is lifeless and only his vital signs tell him that he is not dead as well. Going through life on your own you get so used to the solitude,  that is the 'lonely road' he refers to in the song. The majority of songs about loneliness are an expression of despair and fear of being alone. 'BoBD' is different. The narrator accepts his life the way it is no matter how horrific it might appear to be.

I believe this video fits with Joe Gow's idea of an enhanced performance because it blends the performance of the band with various other visual elements such as the story that is shown of a man and his belief that he is destined to live through his life alone.





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