Lyrics Breakdown

Time	Lyrics (Total song length 3:46)
0:00
0:18 0:22 0:24 0:26 0:28 0:32	Don't just stand there watching it happening I can't stand it Don't feel it Something's telling me Don't wanna go out this way But have a nice day
0:34 0:38 0:42 0:45 0:47	Then read it in the headlines Watch it on the TV Put it in the background Stick it in the back Stick it in the back
0:49 0:54 0:58 1:02	For the beautiful occupation The beautiful occupation You don't need an invitation To drop in upon a nation
1:06 1:08 1:10 1:14 1:19	I'm too cynical I'm just sitting here I'm just wasting my time Half a million civilians gonna die today But look the wrong way
1:22 1:26 1:30 1:33 1:35	Then read it in the headlines Watch it on the TV Put it in the background Stick it in the back Stick it in the back
1:37 1:42 1:46 1:50	For the beautiful occupation The beautiful occupation You don't need an invitation To drop in upon a nation
2:26 2:30 2:32 2:34 2:36 2:40	Don't just stand there watching it happening I can't feel it Don't need this Something telling me Don't wanna go out this way But have a nice day
2:42 2:46 2:50 2:54 2:55	Then read it in the headlines Watch it on the TV Put it in the background Stick in the back Stick in the back
2:57 3:02 3:06 3:10	For the beautiful occupation The beautiful occupation Don't need an invitation To drop in upon a nation
3:14 3:18 3:22 3:26	The beautiful occupation The beautiful occupation So much for an intervention Don't call the united nations

Audience Profile & Questionnaire

This is a picture of Fran Healey, lead singer of Travis, performing a solo gig at a museum in Germany.

The audience seem to conform to what would be seen as stereotypical indie fashion. The style of clothing shown is rather plain and non-descript, there's a variable mix of polo shirts, hoodies and t-shirts with a pleasant range of colours. The audience seems to be mostly young adults. Of course it's difficult to tell all of this from a picture, so I've conducted a survey in order to try and find out more about my audience and hopefully confirm my current thoughts.

Music questionnaireThis is the questionnaire I gave to all participants, in total 18 people took part in the survey. It's important to note from a statistical point of view that I've tried to tailor this questionnaire towards an indie audience as this is who I wish to make my video for. This questionnaire should give me a reasonable idea of my audience expectations.

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Of the 18 people who took part, the youngest person was 16, the oldest person was 28. The average age of the target audience was approximately 20. This seems about what I expected.

I used paper questionnaires and also electronic ones which I shared through social networking websites.

The first question was to establish that I had chosen the right people to question, I asked which genre they preferred the most. This was the response:

As you can see, from this survey Indie was the most popular genre followed closely by Rock. Pop came in third with Britpop in fourth (Although technically shared with the category "Other"). This is most likely not a true representation of genre popularity but it does show that the answers to this questionnaire will relate to my media product.


Question two asked participants to name three bands they enjoyed, this lets me know about bands I should research in order to identify conventions of genre. Note that in order to improve my results, I have discarded all bands mentioned only once.

 

According to my audience, Travis is their favourite band with 8. Their next favourite is Coldplay, who have 7, followed by Oasis and then Arcade Fire, Stereophonics and The Verve all joined in fourth place with 4. I will further my research into the music videos and albums of these bands.

Question three was a rather open-ended question, I asked what the audience would expect from a video in relation to style. Several participants cited fashionable clothing including leather jackets. Responses I received were fairly similar in nature, here are two of them.

"Indie music has always had an element of standing-out, a lot of videos are usually unrelated to the music, I'd expect to see something whacky."

"I think indie videos need to be spiced up, some of them seem very plain. They are often small productions so I don't expect too many special effects."

This question was quite broad so there's not a lot of specific points I can take from it however I feel those quotes were the most useful.


Question four was also rather open ended and I received a varying range of answers. Love and friendship seemed to be a recurring theme, to be expected as it is a major aspect of a lot of popular music. Following on from that a lot of responses stated their expectation for the music to be about growing up and being young, a few people mentioned war and peace however several people didn't answer the question at all.


Question five was a bit more straight forward. Again, responses mentioned only once were discarded.

 

 Jeans and t-shirts being clear favourites followed by trainers, this does seem to concur with the stereotypical indie image.

The final question was to help me decide on a method of distribution for my media product, here are the results.

The clear winner here is Facebook, with over a quarter of the share of users. Twitter and YouTube are close contenders. This gives me a good idea for which areas I need to focus on to distribute my media product.

Initial Ideas

 

Digipak & Album Cover - The Suburbs by Arcade Fire

Arcade Fire first appeared on the indie scene in 2004 with the release of their hit album Funeral. The album took many people by surprise and since then they’ve become a renowned award-winning, genre-defining international band.

Their newest album, The Suburbs, relates partly like a story to their original album Funeral. The album’s theme relates around the idea of coming back to their home, the suburbs, and dealing with the way the neighbourhood, originally the prefix to four of the songs from their original album, has changed. The album cover represents this really well.

At the forefront of the album is a view of the back of an old car, the styling of the windows and seats giving an impression of an ‘80s North American saloon car. The vehicle looks over a bit of grass as well as bushes, a tree and a house. The house looks run down with scuffs in the panelling covering the roof; possibly representing the decay of the suburbs as talked about in the album. The entire cover looks worn, giving the impression of an old photograph but also helping to enforce the idea of decay which the dead bush, old car and rusty house portray.

The name of the band is displayed in the top right corner of the cover, out the way. The font styling used for the typography represents a traditional old style of writing. The text is displayed in an arrow shape which is meant to make it look like two overlapping roofs, also an iconic image of North American suburbia.

Pictured below is one of the alternate covers. The picture is a greyscale image of a tree and it’s leaves with the same typography as the main cover but with much larger text, its centred to draw attention. The slanted text gives the impression of roofs in the suburbs.

Conventions of Genre

Travis formed in the ‘90s having released their debut album Good Feeling in 1997. Travis has been described as sub-genres of alternative rock: folk rock, indie rock, post-Britpop and various combinations of either.

To date, Travis have released six studio albums managing to make two #1 albums, others easily reaching into the Top-40. The genre is clearly a popular one but Travis are one of but a few bands assigned to this style.

Coldplay

Coldplay are one of the most commercially successful post-Britpop bands to this date. Headed by front man Chris Martin, Coldplay has very much built its image around the indie style of their music which is reflected by their clothes, album covers, website (fonts included). The style is almost classical, similar to that of Travis.

This here is a frame from the video for Yellow by Coldplay, showing lead man and star image Chris Martin walking along a beach. The entire video is just him walking whilst the scene gets slowly brighter in the sunrise.

This shot is very similar to a scene from Writing to Reach You by Travis in which the star image, Fran Healey, is walking alone down a road. The shots could be interpreted to represent the independence of the artists themselves, possibly saying something about the unique nature of the genre at the time. Both of these tracks were made earlier in the bands careers.

Indie & Alternative Rock

The entire genre of indie music is well known for trying to stand out from the crowd. Alternative rock at the time was no different, defining itself as a genre aside from what people at the time considered rock. The Verve was one of the bands who helped the post-Britpop alternative rock scene by releasing the intensely popular singles “Bitter Sweet Symphony” and “The Drugs Don’t Work”.

Lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft provides the Verve’s star image here whilst walking along down an urban street. His blue unbuttoned shirt inside a very retro leather jacket as well as Richard sporting a tamer rocker’s hairstyle very much shows the calmer direction of the music.

This frame here, a clip from “Lucky Man” shows a scene from a modern apartment. This frame represents the mise-en-scene changes apparent in the genre. Rock generally was performed on dark stages for their music videos but this frame here shows a performance in a light, modern apartment; this is another example of how the Britpop genre has developed and branched out from what is nowadays seen as classical rock.

Despite the initial swerve of fashion in the genre, the clothes seen to be worn by bands like Travis remain quite light, casual and discreet. Perhaps the bands try to relate to their audience through the default styling of their clothes. The plain style of dress could also be interpreted as a rebellion against mainstream music, using icons of clothing as props, such as Lady Gaga.

This here is a picture of a band called Athlete wearing casual clothing. The style of clothes matches the style of their music; soft and easy on the eyes. Standard dress is plain t-shirts and polo shirts; jeans with various shades of blue included; medium length plain hair. As a representation of genre this is pretty much it. Non-descript clothing is the way of the modern folk-alt-indie-rock band.

The Classical Twist

Piano rock band Keane share several similarities to Travis not least being their classically influenced folk-like style.

This frame from the video for Keane’s “Everybody’s Changing” shows a plain white backdrop with the lead singer not looking at the camera. The frames for the video seem photographic at times, following the tried and tested rule of thirds.

The frame setup remains similar; the video swaps the keyboard player and drummer with various characters representing the changing of people the lyrics refer to.

The video is a good representation of the distant, almost disjunct, style this genre uses in its videos.

Advert Analysis - The Beatles

This advert for re-releases of albums by The Beatles most prominently features a picture of the four band members who themselves are iconic to the music industry. Above them is their band logo, simply the text “The Beatles” in their standard font, displayed boldly in red. The red text stands out against the grayscale band picture. The Beatles are obviously well known in the music industry; being that they’re one of the most iconic and influential bands of all time, which the advert builds upon.

Under the bands picture is an alliterative phrase “REMASTERED. REDISCOVERED.” The short phrasing of the two words helps to portray what the advert is about. The larger than standard font draws attention to the text. The text on the advert seems to become smaller further down the page, which draws the audience further in to read the entire page. The phrase “IN STORE NOW” is short and to the point; informing the consumer that the albums listed are available for purchase.

As a classic rock band, the style of the advert represents the genre. The black and white photograph gives an elegant feeling of classic music. The band members are pictured wearing clothing that would be popular in the ‘70s which helps to appeal to older members of the target audience who may share The Beatles fashion sense.

Advert Analysis - Morrissey

This advert for a new album by popular artist, and former member of The Smiths, Morrissy presents itself using the iconic image of the man himself. As was seen in the advert for The Beatles, the image of the singer appears just below the name. The name Morrissey stands out against the rest of the advert by its colour; both the singer’s title and album title appear in a stylish classic font which represents the singer. The colour-scheme of the advert revolves around a mix of dull grey and light blue which also represents the star image.

The text which describes what the album is about is positioned around the singer’s head. A special mention is made to the single “I’m throwing my arms around Paris” which is a popular song by the artist. Smaller text is used to introduce the song title. The singer’s name in the smaller text is in capitals which makes the name stand out against the other text.

At the bottom of the page is a larger bit of text which states the release date of the album. The baby which Morrissey is holding appears to be pointing at the date. Under the date is a link to Morrissey’s website.

The advert attempts juxtaposition of old and new. Morrissey is shown to be holding a baby, possibly implying a link between the old album and Morrissey’s trademark old alternative rock style; the baby representing something new.

The advert as a whole is very unusual and fits in nicely with the overall alternative rock/indie genre which the album is part of.

Nine-frame analysis: Travis - Closer

Closer by Scottish folk band Travis was promoted by a music video that showed the band members as Clerks in a supermarket with Ben Stiller playing cameo as their boss.

Watch the video on YouTube 

 

0:05

The establishing shot shows a supermarket with only a few customers in; this establishes the mise-en-scene immediately with high-key lighting and the various products and tills as the props in this store. The supermarket store is a typical North American convenience store. The mise-en-scene presents a view of a typical supermarket. As part of the editing, the video is shown in slow motion to emphasize the slow boring nature of the supermarket.

The mise-en-scene helps to portray the performance of four supermarket clerks who seem to be sick of their mundane jobs; three band members are shown in the opening scene dancing with a price-gun, throwing a customer’s shopping and trying to stack a high pile of cans. In addition to the three clerks already shown there is a clerk wearing a mascot suit.

1:11

In this frame we’re shown a close up of the lead singer just after having taken off the mascots head. Immediately after taking off the costume head the singer begins signing to the chorus of the song. The lead singer, Fran Healey, is the star image of the band and is portrayed throughout the video as the leader of the store clerks. From the outside of the store the audience has a clear view of the inside of the store with its high-key lighting. The mascot even wears a vest, part of the costume as store clerks, which the other band members are seen wearing.

1:37

This frame is just after Healey walks into the store. The character is shown taking his mascot suit off and spreading the parts down the isle. The low shot shows the character walking along the isle; throwing his suit away helping to express the characters despondent attitude to his job as part of the narrative. The pieces shown here being "left behind".

1:50

After the lead singer enters the store and grabs the microphone for the store intercom, a brief bit of diegetic feedback sound is heard which grabs the attention of clerks and customers alike. This frame shows the drummer of the band next to a lady with a puzzled face looking around in response to Healey’s singer.

2:00

The two women in this frame look at each other with rather apathetic looks, their body language suggests that they are not comfortable with one another. The close up camera frame helps to amplify the mood of the characters.

2:21

This frame presents the audience with a close up of two people holding hands. These are the clerk and the old lady from 1:50 which can be told by the clothing as well as the skin. The joining of hands helps to illustrate the meaning of the song, the holding of hands is a typical convention used to show people coming together.

2:38

This cut away shows three customers dancing with their trolleys amplifying the happy mood of the song. The swinging of trolleys is synchronised with the instrumental, which helps provide a sense of synaesthesia for the track.

3:07

As the store manager, played by well known actor Ben Stiller, bursts through the back doors into the main area of the store; the music stops except for the melody of the song which is played in beeps as sounds which sound as though they’re being played through the intercom. The narrative of the piece is furthered as the boss, perceived as a bit of a loner, seems to take issue with the music being played. The camera shows a frame of a speaker giving the impression that the melody is diegetic. A close up of the managers face peering over the store portrays the character’s paranoid state of mind followed by an over the shoulder shot showing the side of his face.

4:15

At the end of the video, we see the four band members exiting the store. The music fades off as they walk into the dark neighbourhood away from the brightly lit store.