G324: Lyric Analysis and their Importance

Lyrics are highly important I think because they are the main part of the song and typically what the videos are based on. The lyrics are the basis for all songs and can portray feelings or emotion. Lyrics can be like poems and they try and get the writers emotions across to the audience in many different ways depending on the genre.

Queens - Bohemian Rhapsody Lyric Analysis - (this is my opinion on what the lyrics mean, I understand that other people will have a different opinion on what the lyrics mean)

At the start, it starts with the narrator's thoughts:

"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?"

The narrator seems overwhelmed by the idea that he's going to die. He almost wonders whether this is all a nightmare.

"Caught in a landslide, No escape from reality"

 Again, he feels overwhelmed, but he can't really deny that he's about to be killed.

"Open your eyes, Look up to the skies and see,"

 Looking up to heaven and he's wondering about life

"I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy
Because I'm easy come, easy go, Little high, little low"

Here I think that he is quoting a common perspective: he's just a poor man ("boy") and he doesn't deserve sympathy. Much of the song is about how no one seems to care for the narrator, even though he seems mournful and regretful for his actions.

"Any way the wind blows doesn't really matter to me, to me"

Now that he's going to die, nothing more matters. He has no future, no hopes or dreams. He's going to die, and there's nothing he can do about it. He feels very hopeless, and from his perspective nothing really matters.

"Mama, just killed a man, Put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger, now he's dead"

This part is quite easy to understand, he committed murder. I think that he's reflecting on what he's done, and he mentions this to his mother.

"Mama, life had just begun
But now I've gone and thrown it all away"

He was a young man, he had the chance to live a meaningful life, but instead he killed a man, thus causing his own death via execution.

"Mama, ooh, Didn't mean to make you cry
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow
carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters"

Again he's sorry for his actions, and regrets that his mother now weeps for him, as he will soon be killed. The execution will take place on time, so if he's not back again this time tomorrow, it will mean that the execution happened, that he failed to escape it. The narrator tells his mother that, even if he dies, she should carry on living, almost as if his death didn't matter to her.

"Too late, my time has come"

The execution is imminent.

"Sends shivers down my spine, body's aching all the time"

He has intense fear.

"Goodbye, ev'rybody, I've got to go"

He says a final farewell to his family and friends.

"Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth"

The truth is that he killed a man, and now he faces justice. He's going to die.

"Mama, ooh, I don't want to die
I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all"

This is obvious, he doesn't want to be killed, and indeed he wonders if it would have been better never to have been born in the first place.

A new voice starts singing; this voice represents his friends and family who are (or have been previously) protesting his execution.

"I see a little silhouetto of a man"

The narrator seems so poor and pitiful, "a shadow of what he once was", so to speak

"Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango"

I don't know what this means

"Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very fright'ning me"

Both he and them are afraid that he'll be killed. The "lighting" part might indicate that he's to be killed with the electric chair or it could just be symbolic.

"(Galileo.) Galileo. (Galileo.) Galileo, Galileo figaro"

Galileo was unfairly persecuted by the authorities of his time. Galileo didn't commit murder, but the narrator's advocates still draw a parallel, insisting that he doesn't deserve the punishment he's receiving.

"Magnifico. I'm just a poor boy and nobody loves me"

The narrator repeats the common belief.

"He's just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity"

His friends and family argue that, because he's a poor boy, he deserves sympathy and compassion, not death.

"Easy come, easy go, will you let me go"

Here the narrator pleads for his life. He basically says "You don't seem to care about me; I'm 'easy come, easy go'. You don't really care if I live or die. So, if you don't really care whether I live or die, can't you just let me live?"

Then the opposite group, the friends and family of the dead man (and/or the execution authorities) respond to these pleas.

"Bismillah! No, we will not let you go"

The other group wants the narrator to be executed.

"(Let him go!) Bismillah! We will not let you go
(Let him go!) Bismillah! We will not let you go
(Let me go.) Will not let you go
(Let me go.) Will not let you go. (Let me go.) Ah
No, no, no, no, no, no, no."

The two groups have an argument.

"(Oh mama mia, mama mia.) Mama mia, let me go"

Here the chorus of friends and family says "let me go", but I really think they mean "let him go. Don't kill the narrator"

"Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me"

Beelzebub means Satan. The narrator feels that Satan is out to torment him by leading him to such a sad fate. After all, it was probably a devil that tempted him to commit murder in the first place. Likewise, his family feels Satan is tormenting them as well, by killing the narrator to make them feel sad. Perhaps even the dead man's family joins in on this chorus; they feel that it was Satan who told the narrator to commit murder in the first place, and now they insist that execution is the only holy response to such a sin.

Right before the end, the narrator has a sudden burst of passion.

"So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye?
So you think you can love me and leave me to die?
Oh, baby, can't do this to me, baby
Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here!"

I'm not sure if he's talking to anyone specific, or if he's just ranting with passion, screaming at everyone and everything involved.

I think that the narrator throws off his guards and fights to escape from his shackles. In the ensuing musical piece, he struggles with the executioners, knocking the room into disarray. The two families watch closely, but everyone knows it's a useless struggle; there's simply no way for the narrator to escape. In his last few moments before death, the narrator resumes his previous state of mind.

"Nothing really matters, Anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Nothing really matters to me"

 Again, because he's about to die, nothing really matters to him. He has no purpose, no hope, nothing.

"Any way the wind blows..."

This is an allusion to the beginning of the song, where this image was used along with "nothing really matters"

I think that my interpretation of the lyrics is that Bohemian Rhapsody is about a remorseful murderer as he's about to be executed.

G324: 2x Plan for Digipak

Here are my Ideas for our digipak;

This was my first idea, I wanted to have that feeling of space and I thought that this picture was the right one that I was looking for because it suits the Drum and Bass genre, I have looked at loads of different covers in the genre and most of them seem to use a space theme or yellow/black. I then put the text over the image, I chose the text because I think that it goes with the genre and feel of the album, the album has a space feel to me. I think that the only couple of problems with this cover are that the texts are a bit far away from each other and the colour of the text should be changed as it isn't really easy to read and it should be in your face.

This of course isn't a professional cover but it is an idea that will be developed further if the group/target audience decide this is the one that we want to use.

This was my second idea, I thought this was a really nice image to use because I think that the space look suits the Drum and Bass genre, I love how the different colours merge and form a nice oval. The colours are nice because I think that they fit the genre and the space background adds a nice finishing touch. The text is pretty good on this one I feel because it is in the right style and in the right place on the image, the colours draw the audiences eyes into the middle where the text is.

This of course isn't a professional cover but it is an idea that will be developed further if the group decide this is the one that we want to use.

These Ideas are for the front cover, the background theme throughout the digipak would be the background of whatever idea is chosen, this therefore will keep the digipak consistent and easy for the audience to recognise what genre/artist this belongs to.

G324: Notes on what a Digipak and Magazine Advertisement are and their Importance

A digipak is a style of CD packaging that typically consists of a book style paperboard outer binding with a few plastic trays which are capable of holding a CD attached on the inside. Digipaks were quite common when they were first released and all of the biggest artists had to have one released. Digipaks were really popular in the early 2000s and digipaks were also good because they weren't as bad for the environment as jewel cases and were relatively easy to make. A digipak usually is 6 or 8 folds and will hold one or two CD's. A digipak will have a lot of information about the artist and about their new album which is what the artist will want to know about. A digipak is important because I feel it allows the artist/band to connect with their audience.


Example of a Digipak:

A magazine advertisement is a powerful piece of advertising because the advert will normally catch the readers attention and the advert will be in a magazine that is suitable for the genre/target audience. A magazine advertisement for music will typically advertise the artist/bands album or tour. A magazine advertisement is important because it allows the viewer to know when the tour/album comes out and it is important because it creates another dimension to connect to their audience with and it is an important marketing technique.


Example of a Magazine Advertisement:

Digipak's are usually consistent in conjunction with the advertisement so that the consumer knows who the artist is/band are whether they are looking at the digipak or the advertisement. Having a consistent theme makes it easier to promote one or the other and if the consumer were to see the advertisement then they will associate that with the digipak when they see it in the shop rather than having to really  look for who the digipak is by.

G324: Digipak Ideas and Analysis

I have been thinking of some ideas for our digipak and I got some inspiration from some digipak's that already exist and they are in the Drum and Bass genre as well.

This first digipak idea is from the Drum and Bass/Dance artist DJ FRESH. I like this cover because it has nice colours that are blended in with a weird object (skull) in the middle of the cover, I think that it's funky colours go with the dance side of his genre and the skull is more on the drum and bass side.

This is the second digipak idea and it is from the group NERO who do a few different genres and one of them is Drum and Bass. I like the fact that they have a space feel to this cover, this is pretty common in drum and bass digipak designs because it has a futuristic feeling.

This is the third digipak idea and is from the British Drum and Bass group Chase and Status. This is a group we were considering to use because they are in the right genre and are British. I like Chase and Status' album/digipak cover because it uses the conventional colours for drum and bass which are black/white and yellow, I don't really know why these colours are used but they are.



This is the fourth digipak idea and is from the Drum and Bass/Dubstep artist Stan SB and he is the artist that we have chosen to do our music video on. We chose Stan SB because he had the right song for us to make a music video from, it was in the right genre, the lyrics are excellent and the feeling is right.

This is the fifth digipak idea and is from the artist Example, one of his genres is Drum and Bass. This cover is a typical cover for drum and bass because it uses yellow and black. This cover is very simple yet I think it is very effective.

G324: Music Artist Poster

 

This is a music artists poster from a genre that our group are considering for our final music video, the genre of this specific music artist is dance/house, I like this music artist poster for the song "Around The World" because it fits in with the background of the music video for this song. All of the people on the bottom there are in the music video as well so in that respect they also relate to the genre/music video. In this sort of music genre you tend to see red/green/blue colours because they are associated with dance/house music. The image on the poster does fit in with the genre of the music artist, it shows what is going to be in the music video in a subtle way and the message it is trying to get across to the audience I think is "we're not conventional artists, we like to mix things up".

 

This music poster is a good poster but it doesn't really fit in with the typical conventions of music posters; the ways it doesn't are listed below:

• The artist isn't in there themselves, therefore the artist has gone with a cartoon poster to try and relate better to the song and perhaps the record label didn't want the artist on the poster, they wanted to do the poster in a unconventional way to most posters.

• With this poster because the artist isn't on there they don't look into the camera to grab the users attention, they try and do it in a different and kind of cool way by using cartoons and the same colour scheme to the background on the music poster.

A few problems with this poster are; that it doesn't say when the album/single is released, where it is available to buy and the record label isn't on there.

 

Typical Conventions of Music Posters:

• Typically the artist tries to promote themselves instead of the actual album or single.

• The artist normally looks into the camera to capture audiences attention.

• The image on the poster always represents the album/single itself, what the lyrics of the song mean and what the artist wishes to get across to the audience.

• The colour-scheme links in with the image as well as the album/single itself, in that one image it tells the audience what they are going to get from the album.

 

 

This is the music video for "Around The World", in the background you can see the same colour scheme board that is used on the music artists poster promoting this song, this is good because it follows the same theme as the video and is therefore easy to associate the music video to the music artists poster.

G324: Lip Syncing

Lip Syncing is the movement of lips to a pre recorded song to give the appearance that the person who is performing is the one who is singing.

The film track and music track are recorded separately during the creation of a music video, the artists usually lip-sync to their songs and often imitate playing musical instruments as well. Artists also sometimes move their lips at a faster speed from the track, to create videos with a slow-motion effect in the final clip. Some artists have also been known to lip-sync backwards for music videos such that, when reversed, the singer is seen to sing forwards while time appears to move backwards for his or her surroundings these make interesting music videos when watched.

Lip syncing is done quite often when the artist is performing at a live concert because they are auto tuned in the actual track and don't want to sound bad on stage. Lip syncing is improtant because the artist can't always sing to the song for the whole time they are performing on the stage, especially if they are dancing at the same time.



This person on YouTube has done a compilation of different songs and he has lip-synced to them, I thought this would be a good example of lip syncing when he clearly isn't actually singing every song.

G324: Independent Learning - Music Video Factsheet + Activities

Purpose of a music video -

- Sell products/ the song.
- Products can be marketed.
- Product desirable.

General Information off the Factsheet -

- Songs used to only available on TV music channels e.g. TOTP.
- Music + videos allowed in a variety of platforms now .
- Videos can be uploaded to sites such as YouTube.
- Viewed on devices such as mobile phones and iPods.
- The availability of this music on YouTube means that people were more inclined to watch the videos for free on YouTube other than paying for the music on iTunes.
- Laws put in place and record companies tried to sue anyone who uploaded a video from their record label.
- The record companies realise now that these sites are really time consuming to stop people uploading music like that.
- Most companies now allow their artists' music videos to be online but under controlled conditions
- Song BMG have a YouTube channel that hosts their artists' music videos from which there are links to iTunes to buy the songs.
- Television shows associated music such as X-Factor, upload performances from their show up to their YouTube channel so fans can view their contestants performances. They also have links so that fans can download the music off of iTunes.
- In America, 3 major record companies have combined to become VEVO. These are Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Abu Dhabi Media (along with content licenced by EMI).
- MTV Networld and Warner Music Group have allowed American Internet Users to access music videos via their MTV site.

Conventions of Music Video:

- Movement is essential to music videos and usually compliments the rhythm of the song.
- Movement can be achieved by physically moving the camera, the people moving and dancing or through the speed of editing.

- Narrative - Most music videos have them. The storyline may relate to the song's lyrics and illustrate what is being said or be independent from the song and tell a different story.

- Intertextuality - Music video is such a well established genre that it is possible for producers to play with the conventions by making references to the genre in general and to other music videos.

- Band or Artist - Most music videos feature them altough some might go against this and they are also a product to be sold.

- Lip-syncing - The artist may be featured performing their music in the form of lip-syncing.

Activity 1: Analysis of favourite music video

This video by Naughty Boy called La La La is my favourite music video at the moment because it has a good catchy song, the music video is very well done and there is an imaginative narrative to it. The main narrative is trying to include The Wizard Of Oz, where the man with silver face paint on is meant to be the tinman, the dog is meant to be the lion, the person dressed up as a scarecrow is meant to be the scarecrow and i think this intertextual reference is very creative and pretty easy to actually get because most people have seen the film The Wizard Of Oz so it links in nicely. I think that the camera tracking the little boy is decent because it shows his journey and the clothing is especially creative because it is appropriate to the narrative and follows the same sort of style in The Wizard Of Oz.

In this video, Naughty Boy himself isn't in the video so I think it is narrative based and not performance based. He wants to get a certain message across and if he was in it, it wouldn't get the message across as easy as it does at the moment. At about 2:36 in the music video there is a tv on the screen, this is especially effective because it isn't easy to read but gets a message across and the message on the screen says "Hotel Cabana" which is Naughty Boy's new album so this is promoting their album without the audience realising really. I only realised it because I delved into this music video to see if there were any hidden messages. Overall this is my favourite music video at the moment, my opinion is bound to change sooner or later but this is my favourite at the moment just because of the good intertextual reference to The Wizard Of Oz and the catchy song.




Activity 2: Conventions found in music videos

Genre:                   Clothing:                  Behaviors:                       Video settings:

Hip-hop          Blinged up clothing    Fast cars/bling on them     Street

Metal/Rock    Dark/black clothes      Playing electric guitars      Live performance

Punk               Tight, black jeans       Skateboarding                    Skate park