Genre and Narrative
The genre of most Hellogoodbye songs including this one is power pop. The conventions of this genre usually includes strong melodies, crisp vocal harmonies and prominent guitar riffs. The song is quite upbeat and lively and I would picture it being bright and colourful and generally a 'happy' feel to the video. This is evident in the video. We see a bunch of teenage boys and girls in a summer camp in America. As the video starts the song is slowed tempoed and not much is happening but as the tempo increases and more instruments are played, the video comes to life with many people dancing and joking around. It suits the feeling of the song of lively and fun.
Power pop has links with the pop rock genre. Pop rock videos usuaully shows a more rebellious side and has a lot of performance in the videos showing the band playing the instruments. The rebellious side is shown in the video. The summer camp is seen to have strong rules against boys and girls together (1:10) but the these rules are ignored as they eventually kiss. The camp team leader who was seen as strict before eventually joins in with the fun at the end. The performance is shown after halfway through the video which will follow rock video conventions but most of the video is narrative based with the performance within the narrative.
The song is about a boy singing about a girl that he loves. The video is amplified without the track as there is a creative side towards it. They are in summer camp and it is the last day of camp and there is going to be a party; this is the narrative which is not mentioned in the lyrics but the song then goes on to sing about a girl and this is clearly shown in the video. "Our lips, can't touch." Is also shown in the video when they kiss which is a direct illustration of the lyrics.
As with all music videos there are a lot of close ups of the main artist. There are also a lot of other people in the music video so they distinguish the band by having them wear glasses / sunglasses. This is now known as their style and are known to be wearing the glasses / sunglasses in public appearances. When the band are playing there are a lot of close up meat shots of the band and the main singer. During the performance the band are wearing suits and generally very smart. This is also seen in their public image as seen in the picture. The glasses in the video are also see on two of the band members
Media Language
In the music video there are many meat shots and close ups to the band and the main singer. This is to show us who the singers are so we can remember their faces, style and image so we will recognise them in the future. When the band are performing there are a lot of shots from the audiences point of view as we see them jumping around and enjoying themselves dancing to the music. This is done to show us what it is like to watch the band live. The audience are full of energy and seem to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. The editing is also to the tempo of the track. At the start when it is relatively slow the cuts are longer than when the song is at it's chorus where cuts are far more often. At 2.51 there are 3 cuts in less than 1 second which goes in time with the drums in the music.
There are few intertextual references to popular culture in this video most of them with reference to be a nerd. It also has the conventions of typical teenage romantic comedies where a boy is trying to get a girl out of his league and eventually gets her. At the start of the video there are a couple kissing in there bedroom and there is a boy sitting near them which references to a nerd as he is afraid to look and has a nervous appearance. At 1:06 we see the boy trying to get with some girls. As he approaches them they walk away. This references in American Pie when a person struggles to get a girl at a party, but eventually at the end (2:15) he kisses the girl of his dreams which is seen in many american teen movies. The whole concept of a summer camp is also from an American Pie movie.
The introductional of the girl is also very 'typical'. there is a light behind her head and as she turns around to face the camera, in slow motion, we see her gleaming and shining and there is also wind blowing in her hair like they do in magazines.
Representation
The band are seen as quite nerdy the start of the video but as the video progresses they are seen as 'cool' because he takes his nerdy glasses off and puts on cool looking sunglasses as he gets his girl. Nearer to the end they are wearing fairly smart clothes and singing their song enthusiastically. They are making the party enjoyable for most of the people. This may help sell there songs to people who enjoys party's as they will associate this song as a track to dance to and the band will be seen as people who live life to the max and life would seem more enjoyable around them.
The main social groups in this video are the nerds. There are also the 'cool' people who are seen to get the girls and more confident with the girls. This is seen at 1:30 when someone just kisses a girl out of the blue and she is seen to be enjoying it. This contrasts the attempt by the nerd just a few seconds before when the girls just walk away. The nerd is seen to be nervous before he approaches the girl as he slaps himself over the face, takes a deep breath and people from behind are supporting him. As soon as he changes the sunglasses he is classified as 'cool' and becomes a whole lot more confident.
Institution and audience
This video is more likely to be consumed by a more focused viewer. This is because the majority of the video is narrative based so when someone watches the video halfway through they may not understand it straight away. But if someone does watch the video nearer to the end, it is mainly performance based so they would not be left out from people who have seen it from the start. Power pop, like rock pop is a fairly mainstream music genre. There are regularly number singles under this genre so this video would be suitable for mainstream music videos such as MTV and VH1. The record label will be incharge to get the video onto the channel which may be quite difficult as the mainstream channels are really expensive and difficult to get onto. The record label would need quite a lot of money to promote the band as they are still growing so maximum publicity will get them noticed by consumers.
Well done Jason, very good work
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