Music video analysis- Leave before the lights come on

I have decided to analyse the music video for the song "Leave before the lights come on" by the Arctic Monkeys as I believe that it will be beneficial to see how the band usually produce music videos and therefore I will be able to apply what I can see in this into our music video. I have also chosen this video because there is no music video to our chosen song "Mardy Bum" but the video to this song is similar to what we envisage for our video.

Copyright Request

This is an image of an email sent to Domino Recording Studio who are the record label for the Arctic Monkeys requesting if we can use the song so therefore we will not have any copyright issues with the song being used in our music video, we have told them that it will be used for educational purposes only and briefly explains what our brief is. This request will therefore allow for us to use the song for our music video and therefore we will be able to base our artists image on the Arctic Monkeys as we will be using a song of theirs:

Arctic Monkeys- Representation

Below is a prezi in which I show my research into the Arctic monkeys, this is an important part of research for our music video as with this I have looked into the bands changing styles and sounds along with why they re so popular. This will be very beneficial when it comes to making our music video as we will be able to apply the research to the video through using the research of Style and the changes in their sound to make the video feel/ look like how the band did at the time of creating the song as due to the song being from the first album we can see that they wrote lyrics about night clubs and the culture of Sheffield and we can capture the garage band sound in the video especially in clips of the band. Also from my research into the bands change in style we can see how they had a very relatable look to them at the time this song was released and this is something we will attempt to capture in our video:

Target audience

Target audience:

• People aged 16-30 both males and females who are middle too lower class are the people we will try to appeal to as they will be the most interested in this genre of music and will be the most likely to watch the music video so that is our chosen demographic.
• We will get a focus group together of people in this demographic as they will be able to give us an accurate interpretation of what the people within the demographic will think of our ideas for the music video and therefore we will be able to tailor what we will do to what the demographic want. Our genre is also suited to this demographic as Alternative Rock is one of the top 5 most popular music genre's among teenagers. 
• The psychographic for people who enjoy this type of music and therefore will watch the music video is: Student, Enjoy time with friends, Enjoys going to live concerts, Music is an important part of their life, Fell some relation to artist. These are therefore all things which we will attempt to get across in our music video. 

These are 3 key points to summarise the demographic we are appealing to:

• ETHNICITY:The ethnicity of the fans will be mostly white as this is the audience which the genre appeals to the most and therefore we will attempt to get appeal to mostly white British and American people.
• GENDER:There will be both male and female fans of the genre and therefore we will attempt to appeal to both the male and female fans by including both male and female characters so that the viewers can relate to the characters and also the theme of the video is about a relationship which will appeal to both the male and female viewers. 
•  CLASS:The genre appeals to people of all different classes from working class to upper class however it mostly appeals to the middle class and lower classes mostly the music is something they can relate to due to most of the musicians within the genre being from a similar background. This is exampled by the Arctic Monkeys as they were raised mostly from a middle class background and bands such as Oasis are from a lower class background so people find a relation to the artist, the idea of hegemony supports this as the audience find cultural similarity with the artists in the genre.

Young and Rubican's theory of a pychographic can be applied to our target audience as it suggests there are 7 groups of people who are divided based on their core motivation, these seven groups are:

• The Explorer- They look for exploration and discovery, they look for new experiences and want to be different. This group of people can be seen as very applicable to our genre as we are looking at Alternative rock which is a genre typically associated with people who want to be or are different and don't conform to all the norms of society and therefore will be a group of people we will want to watch and enjoy our video. 
• The aspirer-Not relevant to our genre
• The succeeder-Not relevant to our genre
• The reformer-They value their own judgement and have a lot of tolerance with their core motivation being enlightenment. This group are similar to the Explorer and will therefore be a group we will want to appeal to as they have tolerance and so will want to listen to lots of different things and also they are seen as independent which is one of the key stereotypes of people who enjoy this genre. 
• The mainstream-Not relevant to our genre
• The straggler-They want to escape and are seen to have had a hard life and rely on luck just to get by, they are often seen as consumers of alcohol, junk food and drugs. This is a group that we will most likely attempt to appeal to as they are seen as a group of people who are different and want some motivation and this can be found in certain songs but also possibly want to listen to music which is not so upbeat and this is also found in this genre. 
• The resigned-Not relevant to our genre

Some other popular alternative rock bands which people within our psychographic enjoy are:

From this research into what our target audience will be and the psychographic we can now make our focus group of people within this target audience and therefore we will be able to get some more ideas on what we should put in the video from fans of the genre and begin to plan out how our music video will go. 

Arctic Monkeys Research

The Arctic Monkeys are one of the biggest current British bands and are from Sheffield. So far they have released 5 Studio Albums. I am going to look into and analyse the theme of the band by looking into albums and videos and then see if we can capture this in our music video:

This is an attached video of a live performance from the Arctic Monkeys in a smaller stage

Application and consideration of narrative theory

As a group we have decided that for our music video the narrative of our video will mostly have the conventional narrative of an alternative rock music video as we will show both the bad and good side of a situation. For the most part what we show on the screen through acting will be very related to the lyrics of the song and therefore we can show a story as we have already looked through the song lyrics and analysed them to what we interpret them as.
For this song we have decided to stick to the more linear narrative at the moment and Todorov's idea of narrative structure for the most part but will also use Barthes codes in the video of they are commonly seen is videos within the Alternative Rock genre.

For the song our first attempt at a potential narrative is:

Dyer's Star theory

From this post I will be able to see how we will represent the artist in our video as we will be able to either conform to the stereotype in some ways and challenge them in others as we will attempt to make the artist in our video represented in the same way in which the Arctic Monkeys represent themselves. 

Richard Dyer states that the star is a construction and not a real person.The star as an ideology, stars will represent certain social groups and views and will therefore create certain ideologies. It can be broken down into further sections which are: 

Audience and institutions- Stars are made to make money for the institution as the aim is to become a household name so that they can sell more records to people and therefore make more money for the institution, the artists image is modified around the target audience- We can see how the Arctic Monkeys have done this through creating their own style of Alternative rock and are not generic so therefore people see them as new and innovative. The band have become slightly more commercial as they have progressed in their career as their look has been modified to be slightly less relatable as it matches with their change in style of music as the band have gone from singing about clubs and the place they lived and children to more romantic, slower songs. Due to this they have become a household name and are one of the most popular bands in Britain this is demonstrated through the fact that there latest Album "AM" debuted at number 1 in the UK charts they sold 157,000 copies in its first week. As a result, Arctic Monkeys made history as the first independent label band with five consecutive number 1 albums in the UK.

Constructions- A persona is created which the audience can identify with, it is created through the use of videos, magazines and the music- From the use of these media platforms we can see how they use there music video's to create the image that they are both rebellious and resistant to conventions as we can see how they use the videos to demonstrate this, the music they make also creates this image as it has a heavy rock feel to it. Through different images and magazines we can also see this as they represent themselves as relatable early on but later became less relatbale however people will attempt to replicate the way that they dress and so this demonstrates how they are popular and therefore we will style our band/artist based on the Arctic Monkeys due to this popularity. This relatable look is seen in the video below as they wear clothes that people will typically wear and therefore they can be seen as relatable.


Hegemony-This is the idea that people enjoy/ are interested in the star because they have an affiliation to them due to cultural similarities. Some fans even attempt to replicate the star through the way they dress or act- This is demonstrated by the Arctic monkeys as they are a band from Sheffield in England and the lead singer "Alex Turner" is noted for singing in a strong Sheffield accent and therefore we can see how they are culturally relatable as people from Sheffield will feel an affinity with the band and therefore want to listen to them.
All three of these ideas can be seen in the video bellow as the band are shown to be relatable through the clothing, accent and demonstrating there own separate style:


Application of conventions to our chosen band
This can be applied to the Arctic Monkeys as we see that the conventions of a boy band are the they will be:

• Good-looking
• Rebellious 
• Confident 
• Loud

The Arctic Monkeys conform to these convention as they represent themselves in this way across all different forms of media as shown below:

Our chosen song- Lyric Analysis

Mardy Bum 

The song we have chosen for our music video is Mardy Bum by the Arctic Monkeys as it is a song which contains many of the lyrical conventions of the genre but also it will allow for us to experiment with the music video. Therefore, we will be able to both conform to the conventions of the music videos in this genre but will also give us the chance to go against the conventions and stereotypes.

This song is the song we will do for our music video as we feel like it is a song which is conventional in the genre of alternative rock and therefore we will be able to use some of the conventions from videos in this genre that we will analyse to put in our video but we will also challenge some of the conventions where we feel like it will be good to challenge them. Also the lyrics of the song are good lyrics which we can turn into a narrative for our video. The song doesn't follow the typical Todorov narrative and so will be hard to replicate the typical narrative in the video however we will attempt to bring in some parts of the Todorov narrative in the video.  Sometimes in Alternative Rock the video being depicted on screen is different to the lyrics of the song in some way and so we many have some variation on the lyrics. 

Video analysis

I have decided to analyse "Uprising" as it is a song which fits into our genre and if from a band in the genre but also the video and song lyrics contain many of the conventions that are expected in the genre and therefore I will be able to see how the conventions are applied in the genre.

Lyrics 

The paranoia is in bloom, the P-R

Transmissions will resume
They'll try to push drugs
That keep us all dumbed down and hope that
We will never see the truth around
(So come on)

Another promise, another scene,
Another package lie to keep us trapped in greed
With all the green belts wrapped around our minds
And endless red tape to keep the truth confined
(So come on)

They will not force us
They will stop degrading us
They will not control us
We will be victorious
(So come on)

Interchanging mind control
Come let the revolution take its toll if you could
Flick a switch and open your third eye, you'd see that
We should never be afraid to die
(So come on)

Rise up and take the power back, it's time that
The fat cats had a heart attack, you know that
Their time is coming to an end
We have to unify and watch our flag ascend
(So come on)

They will not force us
They will stop degrading us
They will not control us
We will be victorious
(So come on)

Hey, hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey, hey

They will not force us
They will stop degrading us
They will not control us
We will be victorious
(So come on)

Hey, hey, hey, hey

This song fits in well with with the genre and so does the video and therefore it will help to influence how we make the music video for our chosen song. This is because the majority of the video conforms with the typical video/the stereotype apart from the narrative as there isn't much of one and this is something we will try to incorporate into our video but we will also challenge some of the conventions which are conformed to in this video. 

 Before the lyrics begins this shot is used which establishes what is happening and the tone of the video as we see a wire lighting up possibly suggesting there will be an explosion. Also the mise en scene has a dark theme which gives a impression that the song will have a darker feel to it and also this conforms to the convention of the videos containing dark settings. We also see low key lighting which is a continued theme in the video which is a semantic code as it suggests that something bad is happening or will happen. We can see that there is currently and equilibrium as the wire is burning but has not caused any issues yet and there had been no acknowledgement from the band, who are the key characters. 

We are brought into this shot through a cut which is the transition used through the video. This is the first shot of the Band as we see them playing the instruments and they are in sync with the music. Also we see that the way the band is represented is conforms with the conventions of the genre as they are mostly in smart casual black/dark clothes which is often seen in Alternative Rock music videos. This represent them as being possibly mysterious or negative but as we see they are not so this therefore goes against the conventions of black clothing. The instruments used also are typical of the genre as we see two Electric Guitar's and a drum kit.

Next we see how the the singing begins and the band is shown in a dark setting again which is a continued theme through the video. However the setting in which the band is playing in differs from the first one which shows that the video challenges the conventions as most often the band performs in only one setting. This low angle shot is a shot type that is often used when showing a band playing in a video. The low angle shot connotes that the band as is in control and a wide shot is also used with the band in the middle which connotes them as important to the shot. 

In this shot we see how the theme of low angle shots is continued and the band are in the original setting where they performed. At this point in the video the chorus begins and we can see how the song is talking about a revolution of sorts and we can see how this theme is continued through the shots and settings in the video. The low angle shot in addition to the lyrics in the chorus create an action code which makes the video entertaining for the viewer to watch. We can see how the Todorov narrative progresses and the band are seen as looking to take over the place they are in and this is supported by the lyrics in the chorus. 

In this shot we can see first of all how the lyrics are related too as he smashes the store window which is symbolic of a revolt. Also we see how editing is used as the smashing of the window is matched up with the music as this is at the same time as the lyrics "so come on" and a separate part of the guitar playing, this is also an action code which makes the video more entertaining for the viewer. Goodwin's theory of illustration is applied as we see that this happens on the beat.

The next shot we can see how once again the video is matched up to the beat of the song as the bears burst out of the floor as the songs rhythm changes again. This may be representative of the lyrics again as although there is no singing at this point the bears rising out of the ground is inline with the songs theme.This is possibly demonstrating the disequilibrium as they are damaging the town. 

This shot is then showing a fire which again conforms to the lyrics of the song and also the fact that there is a fire is suggestive of a rebellion which is what the lyrics are suggesting. Once again we can also see the use of a low angle shot. This show uses low key lighting in the background but there is high key lighting used to show the fire which creates a big contrast and therefore vivid imagery that will enthrall the audience. We can also suggest this is binary opposition due to the contrast between the light and the dark and the revolutionary's and possibly the government.

Through this analysis I can see that I am now able to see how we as a group can both challenge and conform to the stereotypes from the genre as we can see that the band are wearing dark clothing which is like the stereotype however the narrative of the video is not like the typical narrative and also the band are performing in more than just one place and this is something we could possibly try to do in our video. One key part of this video which I feel would be a vary good thing to incorporate into our video is the transitions in the song or the beat matching up with the video in most place.

Lyric Analysis

In this post I will analyse the Lyrics of the Arctic Monkeys song "Do I wanna know" by looking into what the lyrics mean and the tone they are conveying and therefore will be able to look at how the lyrics are would apply to a music video as although this is not the song that we will chose for our video it will give an idea of the genre conventions in the lyrics and tone of the songs in the genre. The music video for this song however is very different to any other Arctic Monkeys video and other video's in the genre and therefore I will analyse the lyrics only as the video and lyrics have very little correlation.  

                               



                    SECTION 1

                    SECTION 2

                   SECTION 3

                     SECTION 4

Section 1

The song begins with the phrase "Have you got colour in your cheeks?" this can be said to be a semantic code which is shown often in this song as many of the lyrics refer to additional meanings as shown by this lyric, this lyric is possibly suggesting if the woman is still alive, or happy/ enjoying yourself, The next phrase is possibly the suggesting if the woman can move something or get away from it. The song goes on to read "have you got some aces up your sleeve" which could be wondering if this person has any ideas about how to get out of the situation they are stuck in. The next lines then suggest that the writer is possibly obsessed with the woman and that the he is always reminded of her. The final line then says "spilling drinks on my settee" which implies that he is drunk, this could be considered to be an action code as it creates action as the audience will be emerged in the text and therefore if this is depicted in a video it will make the video entertaining for the audience.  This therefore creates the idea that the narrative is about the man attempting to get the woman as we can see how it follows Todorov's narrative theory; we can see an equilibrium at the start of this as the man is possibly attempting to talk to the woman.  

Section 2/4

The chorus then reads "do i wanna know, if this feeling floats both ways" which is the writer asking if they both feel the same about each other, this is another example of an enigma code as it suggests that the man is wondering if the woman feels the same way as he does. Then it states that he would hope that she would stay and that the night was made for him to say to her what he can't/ shouldn't say. The next line is "Crawling back to you" which therefore suggests that everything he does leads him back to her. The song then continues as the writes asks if she has ever thought of calling when she is drunk. The song then reads " maybe I'm too busy being yours, to fall for somebody new" which is therefore showing he is suggesting that he can't fall for anybody else because of her. The final lines state "now I thought it through" and then "crawling back to you" which suggests he had thought about it and he wants to go back to her. We can infer from the chorus that there is is a disequilibrium as the woman leaves due to the phrase "sad to see you go" therefore we can see the use of Todorov's theory. The idea of Binary opposition suggested by Levi Strauss is can also be represented as the man is seen as pushy and aggressive whereas the woman is shown to be more passive which both conform to the stereotypes of males and females but also support the use of the theory of Binary opposition.

Section 3 

This section begins with "so have you got the guts?" which is a possible suggestion of the writer asking if the woman is brave enough to possibly telling him yes/no and is one again like most of the lyrics in this song a semantic code as it is non literal but instead refers to an additional meaning. Then the song goes on and the lyrics read "been wondering if your heart is still open and if so i wanna know what time it shuts" which implies that he is asking if there is still a chance that they can be together. The following lyrics convey the impression that the writer is trying to kiss the woman and the is hoping they could be together if she wants. Before continuing into the chorus. We can see how there is the return to the equilibrium as the man and woman are talking again as we can also see how an enigma code is created by the line "been wondering if your heart is still open and if so i wanna know what time it shuts" as we are left questioning if the woman does decide to get together with the man or not. 

Overall this song conveys a dark tone to it as it is about a relationship which wont work as the lyrics along with the dark sound of the instruments create this impression. In the lyrics there is no clear narrative to it however we can infer that a Todorov's theory of narrative can be applied to it, most of the lyrics in this song are semantic codes as they refer to additional meanings not what the literally read like. The theory of Binary opposition is also a continued theme through the song and this can be useful as we can also use binary opposition in our music video due to the contrast between the man and the woman in the video. Along with this it helps us as we can see many of the lyrical conventions in a song from this genre and therefore will be able to apply that to our video when we chose a appropriate song and therefore apply the appropriate video as although the video for this song is not a conventional alternative rock video as it allows for more focus to be put on the lyrics with the video being just something to watch, this is done because the lyrics are mostly all semantic codes and so should that is where the viewers focus should be.

Genre Choice

We have gone back and fourth between genre's but eventually decided on the genre of Alternative Rock.

We have decided to do this genre because we feel like it has lots room to make an effective music video as the genre allows for us to explore many different types of songs and there lyrics which we can then apply to the music video.
Within the video we can also apply much more of a narrative as through our research into the House genre we found the the lyrics were often very repetitive and therefore would not make for an effective music video as there would disjuncture in the video which is not what we want as in the video we feel there should be some illustrative portrayed in the video, therefore the video would relate to the lyrics of the song.

Narrative Structure

There are many theory's which we could implement into our video if we are going to create a narrative for the video as we chose an Alternative rock video so the narrative will relate more to the theory's and there will be more of a narrative.
There are many theory's such as Todorov, Barthes, Levi-Strauss and Propp but the theory I see that relates the most to the music video will will potentially do to go with the audio relates into Todorov's theory of narrative the most.

Todorov-
Theory basically states that most of the story or plot lines follow the same story or path. There are 5 steps to the theory:

This will be analysed in reference to the song "Mr Brightside" by The Killers

1. Equilibrium- The majority of the characters are content and happy as everything is as it should be. In a alternative rock video this can be seen often as we can see how there is a certain scenario where a character begins the video feeling happy. This is exampled in the song Mr Brightside by the Killers, as the main character is  happy in his band as they band are just performing as show and so it is connoted that everything is normal. 
2. Disruption-  The second part of the story will feature a problem or something to disrupt the happiness, can also be called a disequilibrium. In an alternative rock video this is often seen as we can see how characters have something bad happen to their world. This is seen in Mr Brightside when the character realises that the woman is the one that he wants but he can't have her due to the antagonist not wanting them to be together, this therefore disrupts the equilibrium that was previously seen when the man was happy performing in the band. 
3. Realisation- This is the part of the story where mostly all of the characters realize there is a problem. They realize the problem in Mr Brightside when the two characters attempt to be together but the woman has to go back to the man who is in control of her and therefore prevents the two characters from being together and so the characters have realised the problem 
4. Resorted order- This is the part where the characters attempt to stop the damage and repair the problem. The order is restored when the man and woman finally get each other In Mr Brightside there is no restored order as the man and the woman are never together and this is how the video doesn't fully conform to the Todorov Narrative theory.
5. Returned to equilibrium- This is the final part of the plot and is where there is a return to the happiness at the beginning. In Mr Brightside this is seen as they realise that the man doesn't want the woman and they go back to not being together. This is seen in Mr Brightside as the man has to leave the woman at the end of the video and therefore there is a return to the equilibrium found at the start of the video but not a new one as the video ends with the characters in the same position as there were when the video started. 

Barthes-

Barthes theorised that there are open and closed texts and that open texts are texts which are open to interpretation and can have many different meanings. However, Closed texts are texts which have a single definitive meaning in mind.

Barthes other idea contains different ideas about narrative structure which I have described below:

Hermeneutic/Enigma codes- A mystery or a hook used which therefore makes the audience curious and interested in what they are watching. In Mr Brightside this is seen when the audience want to know why the woman wont be with the man and so they watch on to find out, as we can see how the man wants the woman but she will not go near him at the start of the video and so the audience will want to watch on to find out. We could attempt this in our video as we can create mystery about the man and woman and why there relationship is falling apart and therefore the audience will be intrigued. 

Proairetic/ action codes- Action and suspense which is used to emerge the audience in the text. This is seen in both the use of the dance scenes and also the scenes when the man and woman are together as it is fast paced and emerges the audience in the video as they are drawn in. We can attempt this is our video when the lyrics speed up or when then man and woman have an argument as this will therefore emerge the audience. 

Semantic code- Elements of the text which refer to additional meanings. This is not often seen in alternative rock music video's and isn't portrayed clearly in the music video for Mr Brightside but could be applied in ours through certain props we use in the video or potentially the clothes worn by the actors. We could do this through possibly showing broken picture frames with the couple in it so that it represents their relationship.

Symbolic code- They are used to convey meaning through symbolism. This along with semantic codes are not often seen in alternative rock music video's but again can be represented through props used. 

Referential code- Deals with references within a media text to an external body of knowledge. This is also not often seen in alternative rock music video's but again we could possible attempt do use this in our video.