This song was composed and sang by a American band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania called "Rusted Root" who are known for their unique fusion of acoustic, rock, world and other styles of music, with a strong percussion section that draws from African, Latin American, and Native American influences. This can be seen and heard very strongly in the video.
The song itself was a major hit, it was released in 1994 and reached number 72 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1995and was used in over 13 major films, most notable films are Matilda (1995) and Ice Age (2002).
The music video reflect strongly the bands genre, opting for more of a world music and percussion feel to it rather than rock, it also has folk characteristics, such as the use of the instruments, like the acoustic guitar as well as the flute and the way in which the song is performed, also the costume which looks very "folky" and hippy, reinforcing the world, folk pop genre this band is known for.
The video itself, includes the band performing on mountains in an arid area, dancing and performing the song, this is inter-cut with a short "story" of a boy who sees a door standing alone next to the road, he then opens it, finds a old Indian who is seen praying to his god, the boy takes an interest in this and gains the Indians trust, slowly as the video progresses the boy becomes free from the modern day society, this is seen most profound where the boy is seen wearing wings, clearly suggesting that he is now free to become whatever he likes.
There are many links between the visuals and the lyrics in this song, as well as many interpretations at what the song is about. The lyrics can be found here. For me, the lyrics reinforce the visuals very much, without the lyrics it would be impossible to understand the visuals. The lyrics don't directly illustrate the visuals, they more compliment the visuals, they seem to make the video more understandable, in order to understand the lyrics you would have to read the lyrics on their own without the music.
In the video there are some cult symbols, such as the eye of illumination, this represents the idea of freedom and enlightenment. At the point where he says
"I may see you, I may tell you to run" which links back to the idea visuals, as cults are often small groups of people with their own beliefs, and this can be linked to the lyrics as its, in a way, telling them to spilt off from the normal world and be unique and an individual.
This song was written and played by the band called Greenday, it was released in 2005 in the album "American Idiot", it got into the top ten in the charts in over nine countries.
The video focuses on a very loving couple. The boyfriend promises never to leave his girlfriend but they later argue when the boyfriend enlists in the United States Army Corp. The boyfriend interprets his actions as a way to show her that he loves her so much that he would put his life on the line to keep her safe; the girlfriend, however, is heartbroken, as he broke his vow to never leave her, and terrified at the thought that he might die in battle. The video then shows the boyfriend in battle in Iraq being ambushed by insurgents.This scene is intercut with scenes of the girlfriend tearfully mourning in a quiet field.
This music video genre is alternative rock, other alternative rock songs include, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nivana, "Take Me Out" by Franz Ferdinand and thousands more, click here for the 100 greatest alternative rock songs.
Alternative rocks can be characterised as being different
to rock songs, being slightly more punk than rock, it includes heavy guitar and
drums, and often music usually influenced by punk, grudge, goth, indie, as well
as classic rock, sometimes called Modern Rock.
It’s not designed
specifically to be popular, usually doesn’t include any synthesizers or mixed
music, and is usually less “harsh” than what one would classify as Hard Rock.
“When September Ends” can be characterised into this, the song alone, fits into
this genre, as it includes heavy use of the guitar and drums, also it can be seen similar to
other alternative songs, like “Take Me Out” by Franz Ferdinand.
When the band
is seen in the video performing, it reveals the genre again. The image below shows the band performing, the background colour adds to the character of the genre, as red is often associated with rock and punk, the dark edges and dimly lit stage also goes with the genre, as its often seen as a dark genre, it also picks out the performers, especially since they are on pedestals.
But the actual music video, with the boyfriend and girlfriend, also when he is in the army, doesn't seem to demonstrate the genre characteristics, this may be because the heavy music, like the chorus, used with the muted video, makes the audience sympathise and feel the sorrow and pain that both parties must be going through. If you were to look at the video without the music it doesn't seem like it would be associated with a alternative rock music video, this could be due to the fact it is a sad and heart felt video and the fact that this song is quite heavy and loud, wouldn't seem like it would accompany a film like seen in this video.
The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals are very minor, there aren't many relationships between it, as this song was written about Billie Joe's father (Billie Joe is the lead vocalist, main songwriter, and guitarist), who died of cancer when he was 10, and he writes this song about how hard it was recovering from his fathers death who died on September 10th and he says "Here comes the rain again." This is saying he is crying again, as he's remembering what he has lost and how much his father meant to him. The video however is how the Director Samual Bayer saw it and Billie Joe agreed it would be good to do that, as including his father would be too personal to him, also it gave thousands of people something to relate to during hard times, as this video adds to the American Idiot anti-war sentiment of the U.S. war in Iraq. Due to the sorrow in the song and possible the video that was released with it, changing the mindsets of people when they came to understand the song, it eventually became a tribute song to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and sound bites were added from various news coverages to the song.
The one connection that can be made to the video and lyrics, which can be seen as quite important is that it`s a song about losing a person you really loved, there's the connection to the video where the girl loses her boyfriend in war. But in order to understand this connection, you had to understand the reason behind the creation of the song.
I think this summarises both the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals and the relationship between the music and the video.
During this music video, there are shots
of the band performing seen left, this would mainly be used to sell the music video. The
close up shots of Billie Joe (Lead singer) and the arrangement of him on the
stage, also note the heavier spot light on him, this reveals to the audience that
this song is being lead by him and the song refers to Billie’s life.
There may be a more emphasis on the performers if this was a different song, for example see 21 Guns, but as this song was written about Billie Joe's loss of his father, and his grievances for him, to make it more understandable to the audience Billie may of put it into a video that people could relate to, and in order to do this, Billie had to give up some of the bands "camera time" in order to get this message across.
Billie Joe’s use of makeup and costume refers to the punk
genre, this may give the idea that Green Day try and edge toward the punk genre
rather than rock, it also perceives the band as a punk rock band, which some of
their songs can be classed as punk rock like Christy Road. The use of make up on Billie Joe and the punk style of fashion in the band, seems to be the only recurring motif in their work.
There doesn't seem to be a great deal of intertexual
references to this music video, again possible because Billie Joe did this song
about his dad, and was a song in reaction to his pain that he endured in
recovering from his dads death.
Whether this can be seen as a intertexual reference or
not, but this song can be seen in rejection to the Iraq war that was occurring at
the time of release, as it depicts American forces coming under attack by
insurgents, rather than the American Army, for example, freeing an Taliban
occupied town. So rather it showing American forces saving everyone’s life and
happy faces, it shows American soldiers coming under attack and being injured,
portraying the Iraq war as negative and despite years and years of control by
the U.S, nothing has changed. (Seen below)
The choice of
images can tell us that this genre of music is dance/hip-hop, this can be seen
by the opening shot of the Police car, with its sirens flashing, signifying
this is a hip-hop/dance music video, also the shots are taken from a downtown
area of a city, we can see rubbish in the alley way, and rundown buildings,
associating the music with the location gives us a well established idea of the
genre.
Also the increase
of the presence of law enforcers, first we see a Police car, with its “blues
and twos on” as well as the security guard who we see at first facing the
camera, then turns to reveal his true identity as a security guard, this again
reveals the genre of the music video.
The only link
between the lyrics and the music video that I can see is when the main
character grabs hold of a fence (see above) and the lyrics are “Let's get
electrified”, this is adds a sense of humourto the music
video, it suggests that the fence that the main character grabbed hold of could
be electrified and that he’s risking his life being somewhere where he doesn’t
belong.
The music is linked to the video in some ways, but there is
very high amount of random movements and actions done by the main character,
this may be done to confuse and add a sense of “rawness” to the music video.
But there are links to the beats and what appears on the screen, for example,
when the arm of the main character falls off and smashes to the ground the
music changes and the tempo of the lyrics becomes faster, it goes from “Let’s
get electrified, Let’s get electrified” to “Pump it, rockin'
it, stickin' it, funkin' it Africa”this is the first scene we see
that would surprise the audience, seeing a arm fall off a man and shatter, like
he was made of pottery, so maybe, with that and fastened tempo puts the
audience into a state of surprise, and they want to see what happens, the tempo
has increased, he’s falling apart, so, they think, the climax of the music
video must be soon, keeping the audience watching.
The lighting is ambient, the light is very grey and almost
monotone, the sort of light you would expect on a cold winters day, which is
the time and season seen on the music video.
This lighting gives off a very depressive and gloomy mood, it
makes the city look dirty, dark and cold to the audience, this may be done to
make the city look at its worst, to emphasise the underlying story.
The use of special effects is profound, despite there being no
CGI, throughout the video, the main character loses body parts as if he was
made of pottery, they smash into pieces as if they were fragile, possibly signifying
his fragility, and how hard and harsh the western cities are. (see right)
The location is in a 21st century American city, and
then the main character is from a poor country, with a lack of food and water,
judging by his appearance. This could be in the music video because the
director, Chris Cunningham, may be trying to make out that harshness of our world compared to
the main characters world and how we have become senseless to other people, for
example, when the main characters arms falls off, the man who caused that, just
stands and stares, before moving on, not a slight sign of remorse or guilt. This
may be a sign suggesting that the western world has lost touch with its
emotions and therefore the cultural signifier could be that the western worlds
have become hard, emotionless and out of touch from their real self’s.
Genre
The first signifier which
reinforces the hip-hop/dance and “Electro funk” is the Police car seen in one
of the first scenes of the video, with its flashing lights on, this signifies
that the music is hip-hop genre music, you would expect to see flashing lights
in hip-hop and dance music videos, this conforms to the genre. Another
convention that goes along with the idea of the hip-hop genre is the rundown
buildings which are seen at the beginning of the video, this reveals the
genre, as hip-hop and dance is sometimes a suppressed genre, which often
include racist, explicit or offensive terms in the songs, making this genre a
“quiet” or discreet genre, not often spoken about with ease at times. Also another generic signifier is the men
break dancing, in underground car park, both the location and men dancing
signify the hip-hop, dance genre. The men break dancing shows what is connected to hip-hop and dance music, and
what type of people this music will appeal to, this reveals that this music
video would appeal to working class people or people who are in that circle,
this idea is very stereotypical and does not occur in all people who like dance
or hip-hop music. The location also reveals that this genre is “underground”
and out of view from the public. With
the wet, harsh and non-ambient lighting of the car park it reinforces the
ideology of the genre.
Narrative structure
Unsure of what the question is
asking me to do.
The music video to me, is
narrative based, the video is played out according to the song, for example, at
one point it says “Let’s get electrified, Let’s get electrified, Let’s get
electrified….” Then at this point the main character grabs a metal fence, which
would have been electrified, revealing that the music video is narrative based.
Inter-textual references
Chris Cunningham , the director
of this video makes this city, most likely New York, look harsh and almost
violent. This video is very much like another video by Gil Scott-Heron called “New York Is Killing Me”, like this video,
it very much goes along with the ideology that cities are dark, gloomy places,
not for the faint hearted.
Also Cunningham also refers to “Blade Runner” where the main
character portrayed as a slave and
alien compared to other people. This is similar because in the black man in
'Afrika Shox' is seen to be alien from what he is wearing, how he acts and what
he’s wearing. This is also shown with the urban landscape, within both 'Blade
Runner' and 'Afrika Shox' there is an urban surrounding which is unfamiliar to
both the main characters in the music video and the film.
Also the film
“Metropolis” has been connected to the film, the characters are seen to be
lining up in a “zombie” state, like the main character in the music video.
These films
both appeal to the younger audience (found on IMDB), this would be the reason
why Cunningham has used these films to reference in the film, to attract a
younger audience, optimising the largest amount of viewers possible.
For our music video, as said before, we wanted to include animation, to make this video stand out from the rest, as animation mixed with real live footage of the artists playing isn't something that is seen very often.
I found this website which had a variety of stop motion animation (website link underlined) which is what we wanted to aim for my the end of it.
One of mine and the groups favourite video was the video seen below;
As this one seems to be most possible to create, a simple stop motion animation, with possibly words being written out with the hand or without it, and possibly creating images with maybe lego or newspaper cuttings, which would portray the idea of "information" which is what the song is called, though the artist, Brian Korteling, said that this song "is about leaving a situation with no clear idea if it is the right thing to do or not but going on gut feeling...." , we hope to incorporate this into the music video some how.
First one is done by Jet, called "Cold Hard Bitch", this appeals to me most, as the use of different camera angles used and the video puts us with the audience and the artists, as they are doing ordinary things that a band would do, signing, playing, hugging and socialising.
Another music video which appeals to me a lot is a song by Travis, called "Why does it always rain on me", this is because the song can be related often to our own lfies, it talks about how life can be hard on you, but you can bounce back.
One more video to come- due to the various computers not playing sound at school, will be completing it at home asap.
