Analysis of The Lumineers - Ho Hey (lyrics)

(Ho!)
(Hey!)
(Ho!)
(Hey!)

(Ho!) I've been trying to do it right
(Hey!) I've been living a lonely life
(Ho!) I've been sleeping here instead
(Hey!) I've been sleeping in my bed,
(Ho!) I've been sleeping in my bed
(Hey!)

(Ho!)

(Ho!) So show me family
(Hey!) All the blood that I will bleed
(Ho!) I don't know where I belong
(Hey!) I don't know where I went wrong
(Ho!) But I can write a song
(Hey!)

1, 2, 3
I belong with you, you belong with me, you're my sweetheart
I belong with you, you belong with me, you're my sweet
(Ho!)

(Hey!)
(Ho!)
(Hey!)

(Ho!) I don't think you're right for him
(Hey!) Think of what it might have been if you
(Ho!) Took a bus to China Town
(Hey!) I'd be standing on Canal
(Ho!) And Bowery
(Hey!)
(Ho!) And she'd be standing next to me
(Hey!)

1, 2, 3
I belong with you, you belong with me, you're my sweetheart
I belong with you, you belong with me, you're my sweetheart

Love we need it now
Let's hope for some
Cause oh, we're bleeding out

I belong with you, you belong with me, you're my sweetheart
I belong with you, you belong with me, you're my sweet
(Ho!)

(Hey!)
(Ho!)
(The last one)
(Hey!)

After looking at the lyrics, I believe the song is about someone who is in love but either the other person doesn't love them, no longer loves them or never did love them.
Though the music of the song and the video seem quite happy, the lyrics actually appear to be quite sad.


This video could also be useful for ideas for our music video, as our song is of a similar genre and and have both a male and female vocal, we could use ideas from this for inspiration for our own music video.

Choosing a genre, band and song

To begin with, just choosing a genre was an argument in our group but luckily Karl discovered the group 'The Oh Hellos' and from there on, our project has begun.

 The Oh Hellos are made up of Maggie and Tyler Heath. the sibling duo are from the state of Texas.

The genre of The Oh Hellos is a 'unique mixture of eclectic folk rock'. 



As a group, after studying the lyrics of their songs we have decided to use their song Trees, for our music video.

Trees

climbing trees like we did when we were children
scaling walls; the walls that took us years to build

climbing trees; haven't much since we were children
shaking limbs tend to end up bent and broken
safe inside the walls we built, we found ourselves a home

higher branches, harder fall
hesitation stops us all

oh, you'll never know

climbing trees; haven't much since we were children
shaking limbs tend to end up bent and broken
but heartache pales in comparison to love

http://theohhellos.com/track/trees  

All pictures and information on The Oh Hellos has been taken from their website.

Proof of work in lessons 16/9/2013 - 19/9/2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiP6_geAMpk&feature=youtu.be

In these lessons, we worked on our analysis skills of song lyrics and then researched our chosen genre of music and chosen band.

Bands like The Oh Hellos

Mumford & Sons

Mumford & Sons are a blue grass, indie folk and folk rock group from the UK.

They have a similar genre and style to Mumford and Sons but are not as popular and are unsigned.

The Lumineers

 

The Lumineers are an indie folk and folk rock band from Colorado, USA. Their most notable song Ho Hey.

My first attempt at analysing a digipak

Digipaks

This digipak has been created by the artist(s), Mental Discipline. The digipak album is called Fallen Stars – this is reflected by the front cover which is two falling stars, and the rest of the artwork being deep space. This could be for symbolic purposes of the artist(s) to represent how they feel about their music or something along those lines.

Though this digipak does not contain additional discs it appears to contain a message from the musicians, maybe they’re talking about what it was like to create this album, or maybe it is lyrics from some of the songs. Digipaks normally contain something like this so the artist(s) have an opportunity to express themselves further other than just in music.

This digipak may also contain song listings that are on the album as this is something that is quite common within digipaks; the song listing may also contain listings of who worked on what within each song, to help the audience understand how the music is being produced. .

The writing appears to be quite plain compared to the background image, this could be so that the background image of space seems more prominent. The writing within the case is white and quite small so it may not be as important quite as important as the larger, more spaced out writing (band name/ album name). The writing in the case is white whereas on the outside it is yellow, this is probably because the outside writing is more important as it is there to catch the eye of a potential buyer/ fan of the artist(s).

This digipak is an album of Diablo Swing orchestra (d:s:o).

The outside of the casing is just plain black with the artists’ name written in a white font: this makes the name of the group more prominent so it stands out and catches the audience’s attention. The name of the group is also an acronym which may have been used as a bit of a mystery to the audiences that have not heard of the group, they may pick up the case and read about it as they are intrigued about what the acronym means. The writing on the front of the case is also in the font of a typewriter which may have been used to gain a more vintage look.

The colouring inside the case tends to be beige's and browns which gives it a natural or vintage look. This may have been used to work with the cover and to create a more vintage look (this may be a reflection of the group’s music, as they are a swing orchestra, their music is likely to be aimed at an older generation and so must appeal to them).

From what I can see of the disc, it has been made to look like a vinyl record spinning; this is another way of getting a vintage look and appeal to older generations as they probably grew up listening to vinyl records.

On the left, inside the casing, there appears to be a sing along book which would include song titles and lyrics. The colour of the sing along booklet fits in with the olden/ vintage theme. The sing along booklet can be tucked away into a pocket within the case for easy care of it. The pocket also fits in with the colour theme, as it matches the song booklet. The pocket also appears to contain messages from the musicians which is another way of them reaching out to their audience other than just their music.

I have been shown how to improve on this work and I will work on this and then re-post the final copy.

Work that helped to influence us

http://www.slideshare.net/JackBrommers/codes-conventions-of-folk-music-videos

We have taken inspiration from this person's work. It was quite useful as it showed us what is normally in folk genre music videos and the themes of them.
The themes of folk music videos tends to be nature.
The music videos often contain rural settings and minimal special affects. In other words the video tends to be as natural as possible (natural lighting, natural sets and more).

This piece of work has been very useful when planning our video - we used the information to make bases for our work.

Video evidence of classwork

This is a  video of one of our lessons to show that we have actually worked in class. The song that accompanies the video is by the group we plan to use for our music videos, and it is also our chosen song.
The band are The Oh Hellos and the song is Trees.

Original genre video research

Indie Rock genre music video (ideas)

• Costume: laid back outfits that are of dark colours (black skinny jeans, hats and dark suits)
• Position in frame: lead singer is typically positioned centrally and towards the front (this is because they are the ones that are more likely to be recognised and attract an audience) and the groups tend to be positioned close together
• Facial expressions and gestures: facial expressions tend to be minimal and serious; they do not smile as this does not go with their music type
• Props: The band’s instruments are some of the most important props. If a band appears in their music video they tend to be shown performing with their instruments (however some bands such as Arctic Monkeys tend to prefer not to appear in music videos but instead just stick to the narrative of the music video)
• Camera Shots: Close ups of lead singers are very common (to show facial expressions)
• Setting: Settings tend to be urban rather than rural (back streets are a popular setting – this is because it tends to go with their look and genre more)
• Editing:  Straight cuts are popular and repeated (they do this because it  fits with the fast pace of the music and allows the video to flow – this could suggest their lives are fast based and could even possibly play on the fact that indie bands tend to live their lives on the road)

Evidence of work

 
This is a page of our work full of ideas for our music video. It also shows how we decided on the genre of folk for the video.
It is evidence that we are working on the ideas for our music video!

First plan of a music video (thoughts and ideas)

Deciding on a target audience

Music Video Analysis ( Bleeding Rainbow - Waking Dream)

Bleeding Rainbow are a indie/alternative rock and grunge group based in Philadelphia.

 

608 × 450 - stereogum.com

The whole of the music video fits in with the song title, Waking Dream, as the video is quite abstract in places to give it that dream like feeling.

Though the video is quite abstract in places, the costumes of the group are not, they appear to be in your typical grunge attire: denim jackets; hoodies, skinny jeans and trainers.

There isn't much editing within the video other than the more dream like sequences. This could be to show the difference between the dream world and reality. They make the camera blurry at points in the video when she is within the dream.

The lighting is mostly natural, until she enters the dream sequence when they use neon and bright colours to give it a more abstract and unrealistic feel.

The video also includes shots of the band playing, I've found that this is quite popular with indie and rock artists.

Music Video Analysis ( Don Broco - Hold On)

Don Broco are an alternative rock band formed in Bedford.

The theme for the song seems to be sex. It is about cockiness and how a guy may use a girl as an object (especially when they are famous). This is represented by the lyrics of the song and the performance of the band - especially the lead singer (Rob Damiani) and how they treat the girls within the video.

The costumes also reflect this theme, as the band are wearing smart and formal wear (smart suits and then formal casual wear) while the girls are dressed in tight trousers with white vests.

Positioning in certain shots placing one band member with several females - this makes it seem like they are his spoils rather than independent people.

The editing includes a lot of wipe transitions which may have been used to make you feel like each member is pushing the other one out of the way to show who is the most important, to show who is the best.

Music video analysis ( Sound Of Guns - Sometimes)

Sound Of Guns are an alternative and indie rock  band from Liverpool.

They're video, 'Sometimes', seems to have a plot which ends with the underdog good guys (the band) beating the bad guys.

The target audience is based towards young adults as one, they tend to listen to this genre of music more and two, the video is quite grown up and contains adult themes (such as nudity, kidnapping, threat and violence).

The costumes vary from the two character groups: while the band where a more typical indie rock group attire (skinny jeans and fashionable boots), the villains of the video tend be wearing plainer clothes, maybe more like what you'd expect a group of kidnappers to wear. Another thing I noticed with the costumes is that both groups wear dark clothing but the band also wears bright colours whereas the villains are all in black.This could be symbolic to show a difference between the villains and the heroes of the music video.

The cinematography tends to be mostly hand held shots: I think this way of filming has been used to make the video seem more realistic; gritty; to give the audience more of a sense that it is actually happening.

Sound has been used well in this video as the song plays throughout the video but at points it shows the lead singer and the band singing; the clever part is that they make the singing look like it is conversation. This is a great way of linking the lyrics of the song with the music video.

My thoughts on the A2 media task

 

1. My initial impressions of the task was that it wasn’t what I wanted to do; I wanted to do film. The reason I wanted to create a short film is because it is something that I’d like to do as a career and something I feel confident about completing. The main reason I didn’t wish to create a music video is because it is something I do not know a lot about, it was like stepping into the unknown. However after thinking about this, I realised that this would make the task more of a challenge which may encourage me to work harder.

2. The task entails us working either as a group or individuals to create a promotional package for the release of an album which will include a music video promo; a website homepage for the band; a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

3. My plan of action to complete the task is to start with doing research into other music videos and bands. I will follow this up by deciding on a group and a song with my group. Then we will be working on the promotional video primarily, and in the spare time and after completing the video we will create both the cover of the digipak and a magazine advertisement.

4. What excites me about this task is getting to do something new to me and gaining experience in an area of media which I am unused to working with.

5. I envisage facing several problems, from struggling to decide on a group and song amongst the group to the actual filming off the video. I can tell the filming of the video will be quite difficult due to the nature of other videos that I have analysed: music videos flow very well and seem rather difficult to create.

6. My idea for the music is that it should be indie or alternative rock. For the video I have an idea of telling a story with the music video that relates to the lyrics of the song: one music video I have looked at which idea I liked, was that the music video of Sound of Guns – Sometimes (the song lyrics are used when the characters within the song speak, they sing the lyrics).

7. What I’d like to learn more about is the editing of music videos as this will greatly improve the quality of my editing which would then in-turn improve the quality of music video that I produce.

8. I have already began research into creating a music video. I have started to look at existing indie, alternative and garage rock for inspiration for music videos. I have also began to analyse music videos to see how they are edited and what tends to happen within the videos. I plan to carry on with this research and similar research into music videos.