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.