Album Cover Review: The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth

This Album was released in January 2006, the track list is as follows;

1. You Only Live Once
2. Juicebox
3. Heart in a Cage
4. Razorblade
5. On the Other Side
6. Vision of Division
7. Ask Me Anything
8. Electricityscape
9.  Killing Lies
10. Fear of Sleep
11. 15 Minutes
12. Ize of the World
13. Evening Sun
14. Red Light

The album art is very striking and different from many other CD's. This may be because The Strokes were an alternative band and they wanted to come across as unique and different. It is no coincidence that the title and the name of the band are in the four corners of the box. This because the first scientists that explored what earth was believed it was a flat square with the "Four corners of the earth". This shows that the layout of the box art is more than relevant to the title although not instantly recognisable. I think the strikes may represent the strokes of music and sound they make, and the red line being the connection people may have to their music bridging the gap between the bands music and the tastes of their fans.

CD Cover Review The Killers - Sawdust

This album was released in November 2007 and had the tracks:

1. Tranquilize
2. Shadowplay
3. All the Pretty Faces
4. Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf
5. Sweet Talk
6. Under the Gun
7. Where the White Boys Dance
8. Show You How
9. Move Away
10. Glamorous Rock & Roll
11. Who Let You Go?
12. The Ballad of Michael Valentine
13. Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town
14. Daddy's Eyes
15. Sam's Town
16. Romeo and Juliet
17. Mr BrightSide

As you can see it has "the Killers" written in their trademark font and is set in the middle of the width and slightly above the middle of the hight to allow the image below to be more easily seen. The central image is of an arm which is made of wood and is splintered and decaying. While in the background there is a setting of a forest with golden/green leaves. These two images symbolise two of the aspects of life within nature. Nature is beautiful and pretty but nature will always and it will always return to that stage throughout the seasons, it will always be beautiful. The arm on the other hand connotes the frailty of human life and it splintering and decaying suggests that humans are not as interchangeable and adaptive, and mostly that we will all die at some stage. But as the arm is wood it also suggests that humans, while in there prime are just as, if not as beautiful as and a part of nature.

Heart in a Cage - The Strokes, video review/key features

Whilsit researching the alternative genre The Strokes is one of the bands famous for being in this genre.
The song is about a man who is in love with a woman but not being with her, he starts to feel claustrophobic in a large city as if it were a cage, stopping him finding her. All of his chances of seeing her are destroyed by their friends and people making fun of them.

The video grabbed me because of some of the ideas I have had for my video are similar with this one. I had the idea of doing the verse's of my song shot in monochrome, and when hes with his girlfriend switch to a more bright atmosphere. This video is filtered using monochrome and remains that way throughout giving the video a dirty grimy vibe, which is what I want to incorporate into my video. Also the protagonist in this video is alone within a constantly moving crowd with a zoom  that allows him to be seen but only the legs and feet of passers by, in my video I focus on the act of walking as my protagonist will be constantly walking. Its also clever as the othe members of the ban in this video are situated with famous american landmarks but are in open spaces, above the streets symbolysing that they are free. In my video I wanted the band to be seperate from the protagonist but playing to an audience that dont exist. Also the use of slow down and increase of speed in this video has influenced me to think about using this in my video.

The Alternative Rock Genre

The Fool by This Is Smith is an alternative rock song. Because of this I am going to talk about this genre and research other alternative songs and there videos.
The term "Alternative" was introduced in the 1990's to describe the movement of underground independant music rising in popularity. The music itself has a high variety because of the different social contexts different people come from. But independent music is called so because most artists/bands were signed by independent lables, however some bands because more mainstream such as R.E.M.
The most popular Alternative bands of the 21st century have been The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand and 90's bands such as The Killers and The White Stripes.

Mood Board of the Alternative Rock Genre.

Goodwins Theory

Goodwin identified 5 key aspects of music videos that we can look out for:

• There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals.
• There is a relationship between music and visuals.
• The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work.
• There is frequently reference the notion of looking and particularly the voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
• This is often intertextual reference to: Films, TV other forms of media.

Goodwin states that music videos are a form of advertisment and so shouldnt have too big or dominant a narrative. They should also be repetative and easy for the audience to be entertained without loosing intrest on multiple viewings. Increasing the entertainment of the video can also be achieved by a very good lip sync, as it allows the audience to concieve it as a reality. The image of the band/soloist has to stick, and throughout their musical time period has to get progressivly more popular and universalised. During the production of music videos there are three key points when looking at the relationship between the video and the song. These are:

• Illustrate - The visuals represent the context of the lyrics and genre, this is the most common type of visual relation. Can be expressed and shown using mis en scene and camera shots.
• Amplify - The visuals have some context within the video, however it consists of repetative manipulative shots to get the video to stick in peoples heads, this relation is mostly associated with advertisements as it becomes clear the narrative is mostly ignored. These shots usually use close ups of the performer, to make people remember them.
• Disjuncture - The meaning of the songs lyrics/narration have no relevance to the video, an example of a video like this would be FatBoySlim's "Weapon of Choice" which involves Christopher Walken dancing around to the tune of the song in a hotel lobby.

Review of Previous Music Video: Chris Cornell - You Know My Name

As this was the Casino Royale track this video does contain clips and scenes from the film as well as classic Bond themes, I however will be reviewing the parts of this video that involves the scenes which are not from the film.

Starts with close up of mic - addresses the location and the fact he will be performing
Close ups of the singer and amp - again creates the performance aspect
Lips singing fading transitions - creates a personal aspect with the viewer
1 man on his own performing - again ^
He has a love interest - similar to the Bond Theme
Gets on a plane - persuit is global
Shots of drinks medium long shots of him performing pans -  experience the perfomance
The majority of it is on a plane within the singers story - its about his journey
Car scenes shows a melancholy man - tired, bored, upset wants to find this woman
Lots of cuts (editing), on his face as he sings dubbed well

I chose this song because it has a likeness to to mind and sounds similar. I wanted to see what type of editing and shots were used. It was directed by Martin Campbell which I will look into more detail.

The video shows many genre characteristics, it has more of a story - as most rock songs do, unlike say metal or dance. It shows the story of a man searching for an important woman and going across the world to meet her. It also contains James Bond stereotypes.

Lyrics of my Song

This is Smith - The Fool
Trouble in paradise
Trouble comes all the time
Trouble keeps me up at night
Trouble I'm on your side
Cos without you I'd be fine
But lonelier for the ride
Without you I'd be fine
But lonelier for the ride
Im on your side

Trouble it finds you too
Trouble its on your head
For getting me out of bed

Trouble I cant be free
I need trouble and you need me
Trouble I cant be free
I need trouble and you need me
I need you please

When the good things are done 
When the wars are done I'll be hiding in them 
The smiling faces see the world 
Oh the fool    x4


Theres a man you never knew
Falling from the highest bridge
No trapeze breaking at the knees
Find solace in falling free

Cos the greatest company you see
Hand in hand the trouble and me
The greatest company you see
Hand in hand the trouble and me
Hand in hand the trouble and me

Now the good things are gone 
And wee've all begun 
To a colour in us

The smiling faces see the world 

Oh the fool    x4


The way I interpreted the lyrics of y chosen song was simple. I consider the song's story to be about a young man that has recently lost a lover. He is a fool for letting her go and he is beginning to realize this, he is "The Fool".  At one point in the song he contemplates suicide "Falling from the highest bridge... Find solace in falling free". The way I want the song to come across in the video is of him trying to continue his life without his lover. The verses will have shots of the protagonist on his own as I just said and to show a loss of "life" this part of the video will be in monochrome. However at the chorus when he is remembering the good times it will be shot in colour, but she will be joining him in the activities. I also consider the song to be a progression of the man slowly coming to terms with his loss, and so the I want his emotionally journey to be portrayed as a long walk where he has time to look back.