HOW DO GUITAR-POP MUSIC VIDEOS USE GENRE CHARACTERISTICS AND CONVENTIONS?
Many guitar-pop videos are known for being low budget, but as it is becoming a more apparent
genre, this doesn't seem to be the case.
When
looking at bands like The Last Shadow Puppets and Foster The People, it is
evident that there is a much higher budget and a wider availability of
locations and resources to make the videos seem to have a much higher
budget, making the videos seem much more glossy and mainstream.
When you
look at the video for ‘Someday’ by The Strokes, although it was made before the
others, it is a much more conventional style of guitar-pop video. It is much more
dimly lit and have a seemingly much lower budget. The colouring of the
video makes it much less glossy and can create connotations of a much more dark
reality, especially as it was made much earlier than the others.
A lot of
generic guitar-pop videos are set in locations that are also of a low budget. This doesn't
seem to be the case with many of the newer videos as they're much more glossy
and high budget but, if you look at the video for 'Someday' it is clear there
are some much more conventional settings. This looks like a much lower budget
as it is set in a pub that looks like it has been filmed in a hand held
manner that creates a much more 'rustic' look.
Mise on
scene is a huge part of the story telling aspect of many guitar-pop music videos.
Using mise on scene helps to create a narrative in many videos of this genre.
For example, looking at the video for 'Aviation,' the video create a story that
doesn't directly link with the song itself. Using an isolated location, cold
lighting and creating character profile, a completely different narrative is
created. Similarly, in the video for ‘Someday’ the mise en scene creates a
persona for the band and can create something for people who follow the band to
relate to.
It is very
common in guitar-pop music videos to see an element of performance. For example, in
all 3 videos, each band shows elements of performance alongside a narrative or
a performance of another type. Looking at the video for ‘Best friend,’ it’s
almost a 50/50 split between the bands performance and the narrative. Similarly,
in the video for ‘Aviation,’ the narrative is much more prominent but there are
elements of performance that form part of the narrative in itself.
Typically,
in an guitar-pop music video there are close ups and flattering shots of the band
members. For example, in ‘Aviation,’ although the band members are in a
situation that doesn’t exactly make them seem dominant, they’re shot in a way
that allows them to still seem in control of the edit and the video itself.
APPLYING ANDREW GOODWIN'S THEORY
All 3 of
these videos covey characteristics and conventions of the genre, but don’t necessarily
have links between the video and the lyrics. For example, all 3 songs don’t really
link to the videos but if you look into it in a much more in depth sense, you
can see some more subtle links.
The video
for ‘Aviation’ is a video that has multiple intertextual references In the
sense that all of the recent videos for the album ‘Everything You’ve Come To
Expect’ link in the sense that they tell the story of a wedding that went
wrong.
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