Lyric Timings

Analysis of Lyrics

Short analysis of my chosen song lyrics and how I interpret them.

Genre Conventions - Indie Rock

Conventions of Form - Indie Rock Genre

Music Video Conventions

The conventions of a music video are what features in all style of video. The main purpose of a music video is to promote the artist and song as well as portraying a certain message in the video for the audience to relate to. The theorist that relates to this idea is Richard Dyer, who suggests the theory of representation and proposed that media texts represent themselves to society and an audience. He said "how we are seen determines how we are treated, how we treat others is based on how we see them and how we see them comes from representation." This means the music video encodes a certain message through conventions and the audience decode the message, in a way that represents itself to them as an individual meaning. 
There are 3 video styles, devised by the theorist, Andrew Goodwin. These include narrative, performance and abstract. There are conventional video styles to different genres, for example pop music videos often follow the performance and narrative video style, whereas indie rock videos tend to be abstract, reflecting the music atmosphere through the genre. The music genre often has it's secondary conventions which suggest to an audience what music genre it is as soon as it is watched. These conventions make each video different, with the use of different mise-en-scene and editing, with particular conventions for each music genre.

The conventions of music videos following a narrative theme show different techniques within cinematogrpahy, mise-en-scene, editing and sound.
The conventions for cinematography often use long shots, establishing the area and key characters used in a narrative to portray a realistic story through the video. Many close ups of key parts and expressions that help develop the narrative and high and low angled shots, looking up or down at areas in a music video are used to convey a convincing story, outlining a meaning or message behind the music video, relating it to the song. Pans and tracks are also often used in videos, following the characters and artist as well as getting a full view of key areas and scenes in the narrative. Each conventional technique used within cinematography suggests to the audience what music genre the video is.

Song Choice - Tiptoe by Imagine Dragons

I have chosen the song Tiptoe by Imagine Dragons. "Tiptoe" is a song written and recorded by Imagine Dragons, for their debut album Night Visions. The song appears as the second track on the album. It hit the Billboard Hot 100 at #13 and peaked at #34 on the Billboard Rock songs chart. (Song length - 3:14)

Imagine Dragons are an indie rock band from America who are signed to record label KIDinaKORNER, a subsidiary of Interscope Records. They gained international success after the release of their debut studio album, Night Visions, in September 2012. They have also gone on a world tour, gaining a strong group of fans.
The members of the band include, Dan Reynolds - Vocals, Percussion, Guitar, Ben McKee - Bass, Backing Vocals, Keyboards, Wayne "Wing" Sermon - Guitar, Cello, Backing Vocals and Dan Platzman - Drums, Viola, Backing Vocals. Their years active are from 2008 to present.

I have chosen this song because I enjoy listening to Imagine Dragons and the song  gave me good ideas for a video, through the connotations when I listened to it. I also chose this particular song rather than a single released by them previously because it doesn't have a video therefore I can create my own original idea.  

Textual Analysis - New Politics - Harlem

Written By: David Boyd, Soren Hansen, Jacob Scott Sinclair
Genre: Indie / Alternative

The music video 'Harlem' by New Politics shows a linear narrative where each event follows on from each other. The main band are seen in the video and the lead singer is also the main character.

The conventions used within the video include the use of the lead singer as the main character and towards the end a band performance is used as a finale sequence and ending for the video. The band are also seen in various shots of the video always included in the music video showing the audience who the band are. This is a typical convention of alternative music genre because it not only promotes the song but also the band as well when they're included in the video. It also good for the fan base who want to see the music video with their favourite band included within it. 'Harlem' could be an inter textual reference to the neighbourhood within New York City and the video is filmed in that area with occasional shots of the sign posting for Harlem. The main narrative of the video includes the lead singer and main character, with another band member watching and clapping along to a 'dance off' in the street where he then meets his 'love interest' and they explore the city. This is a typical, re-used narrative of a music video, in any genre.


The use of cinematography within the music video included middle and close up shots of the lead singing the words and to capture the reactions of the two in the video as different events unfold. It also shows track camera movement as the camera follows the pair around the city, sometimes in time with them; or other times as a long shot following. At the start of the video an establishing shot is used to show the skyline and tops of buildings of 'Harlem', setting the scene. The diegetic music has also started at this point, fading in. The use of editing can be seen through the fast pace shots once the dancing has started and also throughout the scenes where the pair are seen running around the city. Quick edits are displayed when there is a band performance, connoting an idea that the band always have fun when they perform because that's what they love doing. 


The ideology behind the video narrative links into the name of the song 'Harlem' as well as including the lyrics of the song into shots in the video. For example, when the lyrics 'looking sad and miserable' the lead pulls a sad face. This shows that the ideology stays with the video, making it easy to follow the narrative along whilst listening to the song. The lyrics also show 'shake it like a bad girl in Harlem', which relates back to the possible love interest and the dancing shown at continuous intervals through out the video.

Textual Analysis - Smallpools - Dreaming

Written By:
Genre: Indie / Alternative

Dreaming is the music video by the indie rock band, Smallpools. The video shows a non linear narrative where the events of the music video keep repeating but in different orders. The basic narrative is the lead singer at a party where certain scenes keep reoccurring through out the night.  

The mise-en-scene used in the video reflects the indie rock genre. It shows the theme of a house party, as the costumes are average clothes that would be worn for a party. The main character, which also happens to be the lead singer of Smallpools, is wearing a black t-shirt and jeans; casual clothing. The location is set at night time in a flat. The inside is decorated to portray a realistic party location, with lights and cups spread around as people dance and chat. There is also the band Smallpools playing live music, first shown towards the start of the video, reinforcing the promotional side of music videos and something for the fans to relate to. Each prop used shows connotations of partying to the audience, setting a realistic scene. It is important for music videos to present realism through their videos in the narrative style to create a believable storyline as well as an enjoyable video that promotes the music. 
The cinematography used within the video reinforces the narrative and story line. The main cinematographic feature used throughout the video are pan and track shots which follow the main character, this creates central focus on the character throughout the whole video; a way to show the audience what to follow. The frequent use of these different camera movements help the audience focus on the characters' actions as different events occur throughout the video. It also keeps the pace of the song along with the cinematography, creating an interesting video and a more believable story line. Another shot used includes high angle shots which give the audience a bigger view of the scene. These type of shots support the narrative, including the audience in the viewing of the plot. It also establishes what is going on in the scene; a typical convention from the indie rock genre. Matching shots are often used to show the randomisation of each scene that mixes together showing confusion. 
The editing for this video includes quick edits changing the scene rapidly helping portray the confusion the character has as the video progresses. It also keeps the audience entertained and keeps the interest. The editing also reflects the style of narrative because it shows the viewer what the lead role is going through, creating an interpretation for the audience.This could relate to the title of the song 'Dreaming' because typical connotations of dreaming include unexplained events and things that wouldn't happen in real life. Another connotation also includes flashbacks and the frequent swapping between different scenes as the editing picks up pace. 

The conventions of the indie rock genre have been fulfilled by this video, supporting the different features which are used to base music videos on. The micro elements, audience and ideology represent the conventions, showing the audience what to expect and recognise as a music video from the genre. The video also doesn't break the 4th wall, a strong feature from the genre and most typical in this style of music video. As well as focusing on a narrative, the main character also mimes along with his band, showing the link between both the narrative and promotion of the song. 

The ideology behind the video could link back to the connotations of the song title 'Dreaming' and how the video is portrayed to the audience as some things are confusing. The repetition of scenes already shown to the audience reinforces the idea of dreaming, showing events that are normal at first but start to be mixed up and confused created through the jump cut edits and confused facial expression of the main character. 

The representation of the video could link to the theorist Tim O'Sullivan Et Al (1998) who argued that all media texts tell some kind of story. Following the representation from this theorist, the video shows a narrative with a plot at the ending leading to the closure of the party held in his house and the sudden disappearance of the all the guests linking to the connotations of 'Dreaming' and hinting that maybe the character was in fact asleep and dreaming. 

Textual Analysis - Bastille - Laura Palmer

Written By: Dan Smith

Genre: Indie / Alternative

This is the indie rock band, Bastille's music video for the song 'Laura Palmer'. The video shows a non-linear narrative, where each event seems to run parallel against each other, then joins together revealing the plot within the story. The overall narrative of the video shows a gang kidnap the lead singer of the band; who is making a music video on location within this music video and force him to join their gang. 

The mise-en-scene used in the video is typical to the indie rock genre. The costumes that the characters wear are dark t shirts and jeans, including shirts and vests typical for the male characters. The female character featured in the video also reinforces the indie rock genre by wearing cut off jean shorts, a simple t shirt, black army style boots and dark make up, including plum lipstick; a feature that contrasts against her pale skin. The female character wears her long hair down throughout the video; a hair style that is common to the mise-en-scene of the genre but also suggests connotations of youth and freedom, a strong representation portrayed throughout the video. The props used consist of masks that the gang wear that links into the narrative, significantly hiding their appearances with only the video audience knowing who is who and quad bikes which they drive around on. The quad bike is a stereotypical mode of transport that younger people use for fun, suggesting that the group has been stereotyped in order for the audience to recognise them as youth. The props on the set of the music video location are lighting shown in the shot from the production teams point of view and other equipment used to shoot a video. The props set up the scene of the video and make it realistic to the audience, helping them understand the ideology behind the narrative. The locations of the video swap from the gangs point of view to the video production teams'. The main location featured shows the area of the gangs abandoned scrap yard where they are shown to hang around the most. Each time the video cuts to the gang location it's daylight or dusk, in a dry, sandy area. The location of the film production is a field and wood area and they are shooting in the dark.

The cinematography used conforms to the genre conventions of indie rock. The beginning of the video shows a handheld home video camera, which tilts at the sky and then zooms out from the female character. The use of a home style camera relates to the narrative of the music video and adds a slightly different effect than then normal video camera. It could suggest to the audience that they are looking into the gangs history and everyday life, getting to know the characters better. The next few shots are mix of long and establishing shots with a tilt upwards. Each shot switches back and forth between the parallel story lines, a technique I could use in the editing of my music video. There is an eye line match within the video, showing a gang member with the video camera, then an edit to what he's filming. This is realistic for the audience because it shows the two separate narratives often following a linear sequence, making the video more understandable. The close ups of the gangs faces also suggest the stronger link between the audience and those characters instead of the story happening with the rest of the video's characters. The facial expressions are hard to read, but don't often show positive emotion, but rather guarded and secretive. The narrative starts to unfold through the cinematography, when a track shot is used to gage the destination travelled by the gang, whilst rapid edits between both locations and sets of characters lead the audience to question the next sequence of events. The audience know when the two story lines cross over because a shot of the lead singer is seen on the home video camera footage. This would suggest that the gang had ideas of kidnapping/ holding hostage the band member, by documenting the process of the plan and when it's carried out. The next shots reveal the narrative on the home video footage; highlighting the aftermath of the kidnap and how the gang turns him into a member. This is reinforced through the hand camera movements whilst following the characters. The final shots in the video are home film footage alongside back and forth close ups of the masks the gang wear. The lead singer of the band is handed a mask to wear, accepting he is now one of the gang and the final shots in the narrative are another kidnapping from the audiences point of view and a blackout to finish. The cinematography portrays an interesting narrative to the audience, keeping them interested as well as conforming to the conventions of the narrative music video style.

The sound used throughout the video in non-diegetic from the song over the top of the video, a conventional feature for most music videos. The only diegetic parts of the video, which reinforce the narrative to the audience helping create a more realistic video, include the very beginning, where the sounds of the video camera can be heard and about half way through the video cuts to a dog barking on home video style footage, the first audible shot of the dog. This happens just as the gang kidnap the singer, suggesting it's used as an interruption for the audience to distract their attention for a while. This is an unconventional part of music videos, which highlights the stereotype of the indie rock music genre, of breaking the rules.

The editing of the video fits along with the music, showing fast pace edits and quick shots between different locations and characters. This keep the audience interested with the video as well as relating it to the narrative. The editing is conventional to the choice and genre of music and song. The fast editing goes along with the beat of the song, keeping it in time and flowing well. 

 The male characters dominate the video, with only one main female character. This links to the stereotype around males and them being the most dominant gender when in gangs and committing acts like kidnapping. This also shows the female character to find comfort within the male gang, as she's the only member to be female, unusual for her to belong there within the female stereotype. 

The video's narrative creates an understanding through visuals and gives the audience something to follow. The shots switch from home video style to standard filming altering how the audience view the video keeping the interest alive. It also shows each aspect of the plot by using the different camera styles, giving the audience another indication as to what is going on. The narrative is easy to follow as the video goes on. The overall structure is simple but clever when incorporating the different camera styles. Using the band in the videos narrative also creates the link between the target audience and video, portraying an appealing video for their target market, who are most likely going to watch the video with the band featured as characters. There is a part of the video narrative where the lead singer is singing along with the song, almost like it's a performance style video, not narrative. The only way the audience discover it's part of the plot is when the production team start to direct the lead singer and the song carries on. The mix between the story line and the band performing is blurred for the audience, signifying the video structure to be less predictable creating a more interesting plot. 

The conventions of form in the indie rock genre are shown through the narrative, 4 micro elements and audience. The narrative conforms to the genre form because the characters/band never break the 4th wall between the audience and story. This creates the conventional indie video recognisable to it's audience and separates the music genre. The video expectations from the conventions of form often reflect the mood and style of the song. This is a feature shown in 'Laura Palmer' reinforcing the idea that the video follows the conventions. The mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing and sound reflect the music genre, establishing the genre and create a recognisable video for the audience as well as setting conventions for videos in that genre to follow. 

The ideology behind the music video is very abstract in relation to the lyrics but it is easy to follow the actual story and watch how the plot unfolds. There are parts of the lyrics that match with the narrative. Because the song itself has connotations of a quite sad and dark song, this is then portrayed through the narrative. The use of a gang and kidnap reflects the dark connotations behind the song and is stereotypical for the indie rock music genre. The occasional band view is also a key part of the ideology, linking the audience to the video by including the artists in the video. 

The representation of the characters varies from the typical protagonist and antagonist binary opposite in any typical narrative structure. The difference is easy to spot through out the beginning, with the gang being the antagonists and the band being the protagonists. It's only towards the end of the video where this ideology is challenged due to the plot changing and the main protagonist becomes part of the antagonist gang. The lead is shown to slowly become accepted by the gang and eventually is given a rubber mask to wear himself. This could relate to the dominance of gangs and links into the theorist, Tessa Perkins with her theory of stereotyping and how stereotyping is important in music videos to show a clear idea of the different characters role within the narrative.

'Laura Palmer' could be an intertextual reference to the American TV series 'Twin Peaks', which follows a similar ideology as the video itself.

Media Theorists

Comparison of Two Music Videos

Here's a comparison of two existing music videos to show crucial changes and developments through out the years in music video production. 

Imagine Dragons - It's Time (2012)

U2 - With or Without You (1987)

These two videos are very different from each other. The first video by Imagine Dragons shows a narrative, creating a story for the song 'it's time' where the band are on a quest. The video contains high CGI effects throughout the video, with lots of factors to create a convincing video that reflects the narrative thoroughly. The cinematography used within the video shows a lot of pans and establishing shots; presenting the area and set of the music video to be very large and puts the 'wow' factor on for the audience. The edits throughout the video are also fast pace depending on the event linking to the song. They show the changes of scene and character strongly and add to the narrative to make a successful video. Furthermore the video also contains slight performance elements from the band where they are seen as a band performing the song. 
Alternatively the video by U2 portrays a performance narrative through out the video for the song 'With or Without You' with a slight abstract atmosphere within that. The video highlights a basic performance from the band, with a typical layout that would be seen on a tour/TV performance. This adds to the recognisability of the video by keeping to what the audience would be used to seeing. The cinematography of the video keeps to close up shots of the lead singer and long shots of the whole band, keeping to the same shots throughout. The edits also stay the same with occasional edit to an abstract shot and back again.
Likewise, a few similarities include the use of the whole band within the music video, relating to the audience as the audience would want to see the band in a music video. Additionally, both music videos have the same concepts behind the idea of promoting the music on further media products. This shows that no matter what decade music videos were released, the main purpose was to promote the song whilst keeping the audience interested.
This comparison infers how music video production has changed throughout the years and the quality of video production has improved immensely with the more money used on a video the more successful it hopes to be. The videos are all used as promotional tools and shown to a wider audience as well as the audience for the artists. 

History of Chosen Genre - Indie Rock

Indie Rock is a sub genre of Alternative Rock, that originated in 1980s UK and USA. In the 1990s when bands started to break into the mainstream, the term Indie Rock was used to describe those acts that still held an outsider and underground perspective from mainstream music. As a result of changes in the music industry in the 2000s and the key importance of the Internet, a number of indie rock acts began to enjoy mainstream success, which lead to the questionable use of the 'Indie Rock' term. 

The main characteristics of indie rock, describes independent record labels with the do-it-yourself attitude of the bands and artists involved. Although bands and artists still have distribution deals with major corporate companies, they are still free to explore sounds, emotions and subjects of limited appeal to large, mainstream audiences.

A list of artists and bands included in the indie rock genre; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_indie_rock_musicians 

Beginning of Indie Rock genre- 1980s:

During the mid-1980s, the phrase "indie" began to be used to describe the music produced on post-punk labels rather than major labels themselves. The indie rock scene in the US was projected through college rock radio play lists, which played popular bands like R.E.M. from the US and The Smiths from the UK. These bands rejected the dominant synthpop of the early 1980s, helping inspire guitar-based jangle pop; other important bands in the genre included 10,000 Maniacs and the dB's from the US, and The Housemartins and The La's from the UK. In the United States a number of popular indie rock record labels were founded during the 1980s, including Washington, DC's Dischord Records in 1980, Seattle's Sub Pop Records in 1986 and New York City's Matador Records and Durham, North Carolina's Merge Records in 1989. Chicago's Touch and Go Records was founded as a fanzine in 1979 and began to release records during the 1980s.

1990s:

In the 1990s, major changes to the indie rock genre were seen, with grunge bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Hole, and Alice in Chains broke into the mainstream area, achieving popularity, commercial chart success and widespread exposure. Punk revival bands like Green Day and The Offspring also followed in popularity and success becoming grouped under the "alternative" umbrella. Whilst in the United Kingdom, Britpop saw bands like Blur and Oasis break into mainstream, leaving the regional, small-scale and political elements of the 1980s indie era behind. Because of these changes, the term "alternative" lost its original meaning of being signed to independant record labels and now refered to indie bands achieving mainstream success. This theory changed the original term to being signed to an independant record label is more of a career choice for bands privy to industry functions rather than an ideal. The term "indie rock" became associated with the bands and genres that remained dedicated to their independent status. Even grunge bands, following their break with success, began to create more independent sounding music, further blurring the lines of who is included within mainstream music and alternative.

2000s:

The 2000s, saw the change in the music industry and the decline in record sales because of the growth of new digital technology and increased use of the Internet as a tool for music promotion. This allowed a new wave of indie rock bands to achieve mainstream success and existing indie bands that were now able to enter the mainstream included more musically and emotionally complex bands including Modest Mouse (whose 2004 album Good News for People Who Love Bad News reached the US top 40 and was nominated for a Grammy Award), Bright Eyes (who in 2004 had two singles at the top of the Billboard magazine Hot 100 Single Sales) and Death Cab for Cutie (whose 2005 album Plans debuted at number four in the US, remaining on the Billboard charts for nearly one year and achieving platinum status and a Grammy nomination). The new commercial breakthrough and the widespread use of the term indie to other forms of popular culture, led a number of commentators to suggest that indie rock had ceased to be a meaningful term.
During the decade the term which hadn't meant a lot in the United States with very limited usage "became the label of choice for Americans – and an even greater worldwide audience – to talk about modern rock and pop music".

History of Music Videos

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes.^[1] Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos date back much further, they came into prominence in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, these works were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip", "promotional video", "song video", "song clip" or "film clip".

Music videos use a wide range of styles of film making techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation and live action. Many music videos interpret images and scenes from the song's lyrics, while others take a more thematic approach. Other music videos may be without a set concept, being merely a filmed version of the song's live performance. -(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_video#History_and_development) 

The very first music video aired on MTVs first broadcast day in America was 'Video Killed the Radio Star' by The Buggles; shown on August 1st, 1981. 

Music Video Timeline: