My Song Choice and its Lyrics

I am currently waiting for a reply from Warner Music Group, however if they get back to me and there is no copyright issues, the song I would choose to appear in my final project/music video is a song that I have previously analysed - Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams. However I have tried several times to contact Warner Music Group and various people it employs.

Looking at the exam boards requirements, it states that there is no need to obtain permission as long as the student has tried to get in contact with the music company. I originally E-mailed the man who sent me the link to the request form on the 9th of October and instantly got a reply.

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"Boulevard Of Broken Dreams"

I walk a lonely road

The only one that I have ever known

Don't know where it goes

But it's home to me and I walk alone

I walk this empty street

On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Where the city sleeps

And I'm the only one and I walk alone

I walk alone

I walk alone

I walk alone

I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me

My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating

Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me

'Til then I walk alone

Ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah, aaah-ah,

Ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah

I'm walking down the line

That divides me somewhere in my mind

On the border line

Of the edge and where I walk alone

Read between the lines

What's fucked up and everything's alright

Check my vital signs

To know I'm still alive and I walk alone

I walk alone

I walk alone

I walk alone

I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me

My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating

Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me

'Til then I walk alone

Ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah, aaah-ah

Ah-ah, ah-ah

I walk alone

I walk a...

I walk this empty street

On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Where the city sleeps

And I'm the only one and I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me

My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating

Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me

'Til then I walk alone...

 

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Brief History of the Band

• Green Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1987 by lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong and bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt
• Their big breakthrough happened between the years of 1994 when the producer of Reprise Records (Rob Cavello) signed them on, and soon after their debut album 'Dookie' was released, 3 of the songs that featured on it instantly went to #1 
• They are one of the world's best-selling bands of all time, having sold more than 75 million records worldwide
• The group has won five Grammy Awards: Best Alternative Album for 'Dookie', Best Rock Album for 'American Idiot', Record of the Year for 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' and Best Rock Album for '21st Century Breakdown'

Awards

• The band has won a total of 94 awards whilst being nominated for a total of 215 (lost out 121 times)
• Their first award was presented in 1994
• They've won every award they have ever been nominated for at the California Music awards (18 times)
• The majority of the awards they have won have been won by the group as a whole for their performance, instead of individual songwriters, etc.

Band Name

 

These are various names I have come up with that could have been the name of the band that will appear in my final project/music video:

 

 

After eliminating the ones that didn't particularly sound right for my genre of music (Punk Rock) I was left with Ceres, Back to the Light and Onyx, and after determining which one I preferred, I arrived at the conclusion that Onyx would be the name whilst merging it with the font I used for Ceres...

 

I used the website 'Cool Text' to generate the image. The form of text was called 'Lasers', and the font is called 'BatmanForever'.

Music Magazine

 

You're Gonna Go Far Kid

 

 

The music video I'm going to look at that can be associated with my Youth Sub-Culture presentation is The Offspring's 'You're Gonna Go Far Kid'. Unlike the 4 music videos I previously analysed on this blog where I applied Andrew Goodwin's and Joe Gow's concepts to the videos. For this one I will be looking at the codes and conventions of the piece.

 

Props:                                                                                                                         The main prop that the music video director has decided to focus on is an acoustic guitar. This is rather strange given that the song is actually performed on electric guitars. At the beginning of the music video, the star can be seen cutting things down and out of his way with a scythe. Indicating he is on a path of destruction before the lady hands him a guitar which turns out to be his saviour. After he is handed said guitar he is never seen in any shot without it until it is taken off him at the end, the star even clutches it tightly when travelling through a dodgy looking neighbourhood. Implying that he fears without the instrument he will lose all respect that has been gained from various people.

 

Costume:

At the beginning of the video, the man's costume conveys the man as being poor or and/or irrelevant to society. As the song progresses, the guitarists clothing gets more formal as he gets increasingly recognised for his skill. The different audiences he performs to dress as if they are in different places on the socio-demographic model, because when he gets richer, the onlookers appear to become better dressed as well.

Stock Characters:

There are only 2 stock characters in 'You're Gonna Go Far Kid'. There is the guitar player and the woman that appears to be an angel. Through the entirety of the video, it appears that it is the male is in control, however going against stereotypes, the woman has the true source of dominance in the video as she possesses the ability to take away everything that made the guitarist so important.

Stock Events:

The primary stock event of the video is a man finds fame through learning how to play the guitar. It turns out that everyone seems to love his music, and it is because of this that he starts to become increasingly egotistical.Over the music video we have seen the man progress from bringing other people joy for the fun of it to expecting riches for the music he makes. The woman takes away the guitar from him because he abused his power too much. After this he gets taken away from the social gathering as he now has nothing to offer the people.

SFX:

In this shot we see the star of the video surrounded by darkness. The guitar is acting as a beacon of light, and of happiness and hope. The people in the background start to surround the guitarist as if they want to listen to the music in order to be happy. This shot in particular connotes that in even the darkest of times, music does not fail to bring joy to those playing it and the onlookers that are merely listening.

Lighting:

In the early stages of the music video when the star is playing his guitar as he walks through the town, the lighting is very dim. This darkness personifies fear, treachery, and terror of the unknown. When the video gets to the stage where the guitarist has found fame, the lighting has gradually gone from dim to bright. It is generally understood that light stands for purity, hope, and new beginnings and from what the video suggests the star has all 3 of these things.



Youth Sub-Culture Presentation

 

 

Stop Motion Animation

Another project that I had to undertake was a stop motion production. Much like my first transition project I was put into a group with 2 fellow media students. The task involved us picking two objects which would be the main focus of the clip, and we would then move them into various positions to construct a story. My group chose a T-Rex and a 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle' with which we would create a series of events, and we would use a Samsung Galaxy 3 to film these events.

This project has given me the option of using the stop motion effect in my music video. Although I don't believe I will use this type of effect for my final product, it is good that I have at least obtained the skills so that if I change my mind, I still have the option.

Mood Board

 

In order to present an initial concept of what things my music video is likely to contain, I created a mood board featuring an array of props, bands, clothing and album covers. This allows me to have many kinds of thoughts when it actually comes down to making my music video.


In order to create this mood board I used pictures from Google images and screenshots from various music videos on YouTube. Guitars feature heavily on my mood board, meaning they'll almost certainly feature heavily in my video also. Aside from instruments, there are pictures of various bands that have a fashion sense that I believe would fit the style of my music video very well. For instance the pictures of the two bands on the top row (Sum 41: Left & Green Day: Middle) have the type of 'punk rock' look I would like to have, however I may also wish to take style tips from Jim Root (middle left) and Metallica (middle right) as I believe my choice of genre could well work with the black outfits too.

Transition Project 1

 

This video has no relevance to the genre I have chosen...at all. I merely set about this task in order to familiarise myself with Adobe After Effects. I had previously used AAE about 3 years ago briefly around a friend's house, and over those years there has been a few developments. Not many major changes, primarily the layout. I worked with fellow classmates Brandon Wisdom and Dan Bunn in order to film all of the footage.

 

What I've learnt/relearnt from this project:

• How to cut down footage in order for it to fit perfectly with the song
• How to effectively use an array of effects on AAE
• That seeking what you require to film can take more time than expected

Angels

Although 3 music videos would be enough to analyse. I thought I should analyse another just in case, because I'm not entirely sold on producing a music video in the style of 'Shipwrecked'.

Continuing with Andrew Goodwin's 5 aspects of music videos and applying them to some of my favourites, I decided that the second music video I will be one from a sub-genre I have not explored yet. 'Angels' is a song by the symphonic metal band Within Temptation. Although the video has drums and electric guitars featuring in it, the singer's voice is one that you would usually associate with a more classical piece of music, however the mix of the voice with the metal styled music to create ' symphonic metal' is surprisingly pleasant to listen to.

In terms of the relation of the song to the visuals, it's pretty accurate compared to the past couple of music videos I have looked at. It tells a story of two people. The star of the video was hurt and a man came a long and took her into his home to take care of her. She gradually fell in love with him, only to be killed by him later on. "Dark intentions, your feelings for me" indicates a long time before she is murdered that something unfortunate was going to happen to her in the near future.

The star portrays a character of a delicate nature, who is also rather vulnerable. This can be shown not only through the way she moves when singing and the fact that she is trying to make herself small when she is sitting at the side of the road (as well as looking down). Yet the implication that she is vulnerable is expressed in her style of singing.  If we compare her image portrayed in this video compared to previous music videos (such as 'Mother Earth'), unlike the star in the Green Day and Blink 182 videos, the singer for Within Temptation barely develops at all. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. Due to Within Temptation being a much smaller band than either Green Day or Blink 182, it is understandable how the band would want to stick to the style of music video that first found them major success.

The song is rather slow paced in most places, and in order to make the video reflect the slowness of pace, the camera movement is particularly slow, and that goes for the speed at which it zooms in and out as well. Special effects are featured in this music video because it is the simplest technique that can be used to create the spectacle of something that could be viewed as supernatural (E.g. The angels flying and the red eyes of the priest that light up to symbolise evil/the devil). The priest is also wearing black that could back up the idea of him being evil, while the woman wears white/light clothing to display innocence. The video has been edited in such a way that it has been given a browner/dustier effect. The colour brown traditionally connotes security and stability, everything she felt towards the man who betrayed her. However, as the video progresses, the atmosphere changes from having a brown 'tinge' to having a red one, conveying her rage towards her killer's actions.

The voice is a very expressive instrument in this video, not only are the lyrics deep and meaningful that create a serious story to the audience, but the style of which she delivers the story in expresses her pain and sadness of the fact that she was deceived and betrayed by the person she loved. The star of the video was hurt and a man took care of her. She fell in love with him, only to find out he was a serial killer. It acts as a metaphor to everyday relationships and how people can hurt someone without knowing it ("You took my heart, deceived me right from the start").

For the music video to be effective, the audience must feel as if what they are seeing is real. To make the video more authentic, the artist acts as both the narrator and a participant. This allows her to express her emotions as the character who has been victimised as well as the narrator viewing the story from another perspective.


Album:

First Date

Continuing with Andrew Goodwin's 5 aspects of music videos and applying them to some of my favourites, I decided that the second music video I will be analysing is Blink 182's 'First Date'.

In previous songs such as 'What's My Age Again?' the singer portrays a character that acts very immaturely, in 'First Date' it is no different. From swearing at a woman who just had an accident, to urinating in a bush at a go-kart track. Therefore this shows that the artists want the audience to view their music in the same way as they had viewed it previously.   Even other characters in the video do not appear very mature, for example when the girl laughs about the star's penis size, or when the guy with the baseball bat knocks over the woman on the bike. The  perception of the band's identity before this video was one which portrays them as serious off camera, yet about as immature as it gets when recording a music video and at a live gig. So taking Goodwin's theory that a star develops over time and/or with every music video that they create. In Blink 182's case, the star can be seen to develop slower than Goodwin may have anticipated.

In terms of the relation of the song to the visuals, only about half of the video consists of the first date the singer is having with the girl. The other half either consist of the 3 members of the band playing in what looks like a pimped out garage or just hanging around with his friends at a go-kart track. More specifically, the lyrics state how the singer is nervous around the girl and is constantly jealous of everyone else around her. Yet he always seems to be happy around her. This could be so that although he is trying to appear cheerful around his friends, the audience can tell that in actual fact he is feeling rather paranoid that this girl will crush him (E.g. "Please don't hint that you're capable of lies, I dread the thought of our very first kiss, it's just a target that I'm probably gonna miss").

The camera rarely moves in the video, when it does it is just the slightest of adjustments in order for the star to remain in the centre of the screen (bar the shot at the go kart track). This is likely to be because the video director wants the viewer solely focused on the band (and when necessary, their instruments), instead of getting distracted by camera movements or any form of complex special effects. The video therefore goes from shot to shot very quickly with nothing but the use of instant transitions. The mise-en-scene used in this music video is very peculiar, because it isn't as if the band are usually dressed in this manner. The clothing of the main woman is the traditional sexy look, however the 3 main band members are not dressed traditionally at all, instead they are all dressed as if they have no fashion sense whatsoever. Which would make sense, due to the song being about how the star does not have a clue how to act around this girl and is constantly paranoid that she will leave him (E.g. "Could you guess that I didn't know what to wear?"). The lighting and the colouring of the video is very bright (which adds to the events that they can be seen doing) to create a cheerful atmosphere.

If the singing voice is to be seen as an expressive instrument, then 'First Date' would not be seen as a serious song. A serious music video is pretty rare for Blink 182 to produce, even in a song such as 'I Miss You' where the lyrics are meaningful, what can be seen in the video can be rather random and irrelevant. The voice is not singing in a style which is trying to convey any form of strong/deep emotions to the audience, nor is it attempting to get an emotional response. Instead the music video is more about the band just having a laugh and creating a piece of music that is fun and enjoyable to watch. This remains true with the artists form of address, because although the artist is telling a coherent story that is simple to follow, the style of which he communicates the story to the audience remains unserious.

This music video is likely to appeal to its target audience as the people who generally like this don't usually like mainstream music videos, and this is anything but. Instead this appeals to people's inner immaturity, and the typical Blink 182 fan has this in great quantities.

Much like 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams', I see this music video as being what Joe Gow would call an enhanced performance as it blends the performance of the band with various other visual elements.


Album: