Tuesday, 13 December 2011

Discussion of chosen artist: Paramore

Chosen artist: - Paramore

 Paramore are an American band, first formed in 2004 with members Zac Farro (Drums), Josh Farro (Lead guitar), Jason Bynum (Rhythm guitar) and Hayley Williams (Lead Vocals). Bynum left the band a year later and was replaced with hunter lamb that later left the band in 2007. The band has only recently lost two of their oldest members, the Farro brothers, so are now only a three-piece band. The band has released around 15 singles, each with an accompanying video, most of which never entered the mainstream charts.

Out of the 15 released 11 of them entered the charts, but never got any further than around number 15 in them. By the time their latest album ‘Brand New Eyes’ was released, the band had gained enough recognition for it to go straight to number one in the charts. Looking at the album list, you can clearly see Paramore’s rise to fame from their first album. Paramore’s main target audience is teenagers, as they can identify with some of the lyrics to the music.

Crushcrushcrush is one song that you can identify with, with lyrics such as:

“I got a lot to say to you Yeah,
 I got a lot to say
 I noticed your eyes are always glued to me
 Keeping them here And it makes no sense at all”

Dealing with teenage crushes etc. As Paramore have become more well known they have appeared on two different soundtracks. Twilight Soundtrack: Decode, I Caught Myself Transformers: Dark of the moon Soundtrack: Monster The lead singers image changes in almost every video, mainly with her hair colour. The main reason a lot of people recognised her when the band were just starting out, was because of her bright orange hair, but in recent years she has changed her hair colour to blonde, bright pink and orange.

Overview of the Rock genre

Chosen musical genre: -


Rock The rock music genre originally started in and after the 1960’s/50’s in mainly the United States. Rock is mainly centered around the |Electric guitar, but also includes instruments such as the drums, bass and generally a singer. Rock has diversified into several other groups including more modern ‘Screamo’ style singing, which includes heavier music paired with literal screaming and inaudible words. Rock has since the 60’s combined with a number of different genres including pop and punk. Punk rock was developed mainly between the years of 1974 and 1976 in the United States and later brought over to the UK. This genre is one that has stuck and brought into the modern day.

 The most well-known rock bands and singers are along the lines of:
• The rolling stones
• Bullet for my valentine
• My chemical romance
• The white stripes
• The killers
• System of a down
• Red hot chili peppers
• Blink 182
• Foo fighters

The rolling stones are a key band in the development of the rock genre as they were first formed around the time that rock music first came about (1962) and have continued to steadily release new material that was always of the rock genre, sometimes veering into the heavier rock but always the same genre. Their music all has the same rock-y feel to it. As of around the 1990’s rock music has taken a turn into the more pop-y and punk side with artists such as Cobra Starship, Paramore, VersaEmerge and Gym Class Heroes being classed as still rock, but more pop rock as their music has less guitar and drums and a lot more bass to it.

Tuesday, 27 September 2011

Video plans

Paramore – Monster Visual Style Dark and moody, most of the video will be filmed in Muxton woods, and the surrounding area. It will be half performance and half narrative. The performance will be filmed in a clearing in the forest; no drummer will be in the video as it is too inconvenient to include a drummer with the hassle of moving a drum kit around a forest, and not just that, but the original video shows no signs of a drummer.

Cast
Niki - Singer
David- Guitarist
Kyle - Bassist

Practicalities: - Location Almost 100% filmed in Muxton Woods, and the surrounding area. Any shots that needed to be added later may be filmed in a place similar to the woods.

Costumes Both guys will wear black jeans and a dark shirt (Or as dark jeans as possible) With dark shoes/trainers; both guys’ clothes will be plain and un-patterned. Niki will wear dark jeans, with a stripy shirt or a patterned shirt so that she stands out from the guys.

Times to film As much of the video will be shot in either one day, or one weekend, as times for the rest of the cast will be a little erratic as nobody is on the same schedule.  


This is a aerial screenshot of the location that i will be filming. It is located just off Marshbrook Way in Muxton and is a very large woody area. 


Audience Theories: Diversion is used in my work, in that the characters are escaping from the world into the forest, which symbolises them escaping from reality into a world of dreams. The unreality of the situation is represented by the strange colours of the editing on the skies

Personal relationships are used in that audiences can relate to the main female lead. 

Monday, 26 September 2011

Target Audience

The target audience for my media product would be teenagers of the ages 13 to mid twenties roughly. This is because the style of the music is more suited to this age group. People who enjoy bands such as My Chemical Romance, All Time Low, Paramore etc. People who are also not a fan of more mainstream pop music would also enjoy this music as some of the videos are a little out of the ordinary. The song was also featured on the Transformers soundtrack, so fans of that movie may also enjoy it as it is related to the movie.

Thursday, 22 September 2011

Paramore Textual Analysis'

Paramore – Crushcrushcrush

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei8hPkyJ0bU&ob=av2e

The music video for this song depicts the struggles of being in love. The main character in the story of these lyrics per se, is struggling with a crush, always flirting and making her feelings obvious, whereas the person she has a crush on doesn’t seem to return her feelings. The video itself is set in a desert almost, quiet and dusty and nothing but the band and their instruments, until later on in the video that a few more people begin to appear and trash the set.

Textual Analysis

The song itself consists of a lot of guitar, which is normal for the sound of Paramore, paired with constant vocals and drums. The song sounds quite similar to most of their work.

There are no particular scenes in the video, but there are two overlapping stories, one being more minor than the other. One of these scenes is of the band performing whilst in the middle of the desert. The cuts in this video are quick and sharp, going from person to person in a matter of seconds with the main focus being on the lead singer.

The video is set in a desert and all of the band members are shown in the video. Because of the lighting in the video there are a lot of silhouettes and shadows cast, as it is filmed at either sunrise or sunset (More likely to be sunrise as it is lighter as opposed to darker as it would be if it was filmed at sunset)

There are a lot of low angled shots looking up at the singer and the band members, making them appear taller than they are (Useful for the singer as she is quite short anyway!) There are also a lot of front angled and side shots of the singers face, making her seem like the most important band member. There are also a lot of close up shots of her face.

Paramore – Misery Business

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCyGvGEtOwc&NR=1

This song again deals with typical teenage issues, of love and love in general. The lyrics relate strongly to the video. The lyrics talk about the way that the main person is in love with someone and your typical high school ‘It’ girl comes in and takes him away, but later gets her comeuppance when the main person gets the guy in the end, a typical teenage love story.

Textual Analysis

The song itself is still very similar to their usual style, as it has a lot of guitar and drums, and constant vocals. It is the typical Paramore rock style of music.

The editing is again very similar to the style as the first video (Crushcrushcrush). It’s mostly quite a bright video, as it is set in a school/college with a typical college/school storyline. The video is split into two different storylines, one performance and one story. The performance part goes much faster than the story part does; as the story is more important than just watching them play. The main focus is again the singer as she is considered the main person.

There is much of the same movement as the first video, but it is set in a school/college and a studio. As a typical Paramore video the singer finishes the video frozen in a strange pose.

There are a lot of quick shots in the video that makes sure that all of the action gets seen. The video is of a typical length for a song.


Paramore – Brick By Boring Brick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCyGvGEtOwc&NR=1

The lyrics to this song show the surrealism of the childlike mind. In the video a younger version of the lead singer enters a fantasy world filled with magic and wonder, later to reveal that the world starts to fade away and go back to being the horror that it once was. The child has built up a world of magic because they don’t like their real life, and the real world starts to fade away, but is still there behind all of the magic and fairies.

Textual Analysis

The video’s colour has been changed into a sepia/yellowy gold tone and is set in a fantasy world. A lot of blurring effects have been used so as to simulate a fantasy world and make it more believable. Leave and petals falling have also been added to give the effect of an autumn day, which contrasts with the colors of the video.

No band members are actually shown in the video besides the lead singer. The cast is made up almost entirely of actors, chosen specifically for the roles, as opposed to the roles being created around the band members.

The sound is Paramore’s usual style, but with a slightly bouncier edge to it.