Steve Grand- All American boy.

I felt as if I needed to analyse another music video which showed the gay couple image in which we were trying to go for with our own video. The musician produces pop rock music which is a fairly similar genre to 'JPNS GRLS' who are of the garage rock genre.

Genre characteristics.

The main genre characteristic of this music video is having the singer present throughout the whole narrative. Pop Culture videos often show the singer in their own story along with jump cuts of them singing often with an instrument. This video shows the singer playing a guitar in a similar background to the one which is shown throughout the narrative. High key lighting is a common aspect of this genre as it reflects the amount of energy which is portrayed through this type of music. This genre often contains multiple narratives which is evident through the party scene, the scene of the singer on his own and the moments of the singer with his 'lover.'


Visual story.




The visuals frequently refer to the lyrics which are played at the same time. There is a moment where the two friends/lovers first sit together and they start to drink with one another, at the same time the lyrics 'drinking whisky' are heard and an image of the singer thinking about the memory is shown. Every time the singer refers to the other guy in the visuals he calls him the 'All American boy' at the same time this is said, a picture of the man with another woman is shown on the screen which gives a stereotypical image of an 'American lad' who is clearly interested in the opposite sex and all that that entails. The visuals in this music video are fairly similar to ours as we have a lot of shots of me and Lauren 'drinking' and 'smoking' which is what is shown in this video also. It is unclear to the audience whether the guys are friends or lovers which is what we were trying to go for with our video as our aim was to leave it unclear and let the audience decide for themselves. The singer talks about them being together in the 'morning light' where the scene shows them in the daytime spending time with one another.


Message.



The main message behind this video is about the negativity of stereotyping. There is a common stereotype of what someone who is homosexual should look and act like. This video is trying to steer away from that. The singer is trying to show that you do not need to cover it up if you are gay, you do not need to try and hide it away and pretend you are something that you're not just so society can accept you. He wants it to be known that being different is good and it is just as impressive to be your true self then trying to impress people who don't truly know the real you.


Intertextual reference.



The intertextual reference of discrimination is prominent throughout the music video. This video was released this year, just after gay marriage had been made legal in 50 States across America. I believe that this maybe un-deliberate release date was tying in with the reference of acceptance. Gay marriage being made legal was a huge deal in America as the country had been extremely prejudice before then. The music video is fitting in with this law and saying that it is now ok to openly express how you feel, even if it is different from others.

The video is narrative-based as some of the lyrics are said as the image is shown on screen. The artist is singing about his experiences and memories with this man and at the same time the very memories that he is talking about are being shown on screen. The part where the lyrics become more monotone and there is an argument between the two guys, it is shown. The part of the song where the tone becomes more upbeat is also shown at the same time as it is sung.

Starting to edit the music video.

On Friday the 6th of November Sam and Lauren began to edit our music video, unfortunately I couldn't make it but I made sure that I gave them my input and they sent me the part that they edited to look through when they had finished. So far we have half of the video edited and we all are happy with the outcome. The next steps are to decide exactly what order we want to put some of the shots in as recently our media teacher gave us some feedback on our ideas and mentioned that she though a disjointed narrative would look the best. We all liked this idea and want to incorporate it into the editing process. This means that our ending may be slightly changed to me or Lauren looking back to the past at our time together. This is fitting with our filming as a lot of the shots that were taken were blurry so we thought we could make this look like a dream like effect. This also fits in with our album cover as it shows me on my own on the front and back cover which could be interpreted as me looking back on our friendship because now I am alone. We have easily agreed on many aspects of editing and filming and hope to have completed editing the music video by next week leaving us time to add in any details.

Information about the genre Garage rock.

Garage Rock is a style of pop music. It is an extremely energetic style of music which is seen as a separate genre to rock and roll. This genre first started in the United States and Canada (which is where JPNS GRLS are from.) It gained recognition in the early 1970's where the term was used to describe young amateurs who rehearsed in the family garage, though many were professional. It is often characterized by sometimes aggressive and unsophisticated lyrics.  It is sometimes called "garage punk," "protopunk" or "'60s punk" to distinguish it from the more commonly known punk rock of the mid and late-1970s. Some bands were made up of middle-class teenagers from the suburbs, others were from rural or urban areas or were composed of professional musicians in their twenties. The earliest attested use of the term "garage band" dates from March 1971, in a review by John Mendelsohn in Rolling Stone; later the same year, the term was also used by Lenny Kaye in the same magazine. Typical themes revolved around the traumas of high school life and songs about "lying girls" being particularly common. The themes contained nasal, growled, or shouted vocals, sometimes punctuated by shrieks or screams at climactic moments of release.Occasionally, the tempo would be sped up in certain, usually instrumental, passages sometimes referred to as a "rave-ups." Thousands of garage bands were extant in the US and Canada and hundreds produced regional hits, in an era where it was not uncommon for a band to participate in a battle of the bands or cut a record and have it receive airplay on the local AM radio station.

Our album package.

Front cover.