1) Genre characteristics towards the music video
Snow patrol's song 'Run' released in 2004 fits into the 'Indie'/'Alternative' genre of music. Its clear that this genre often offer specific features. One key element this genre offers is showing the band in one from or another! for example, in 'Run' the main singer in the band is shown simply walking outside continuously and the band emerge once the chorus kicks in. This can be compared to the Verve's song 'Bitter sweet symphony' where the leed singers walks through a town whilst miming the lyrics and the whole band are seen at the end of the video and merge into a group. Although Snow Patrol have taken this approach of portraying the band in the video, many 'Indie' videos show the group actually playing instruments to give the audience the feel of a 'live' performance.
2) Relationship between lyrics and visuals
No clear connections can be seen between the lyrics and the visuals of 'Run' except for the the chorus. The lyrics 'Light up, Light up' are accompanied by the band lighting flares in the dark which obviously matches the lyrics to the visuals.
As well as the chorus the final verse, 'To think i might not see those eyes, Makes it hard not to cry' also fits in with the visuals of the video as the main singer is shown wandering in the dark almost and gives the audience the feeling that he is almost lost and may not see his love again. The darkness could also be represented as a metaphor for being stuck in the dark not knowing when he will see his lover.
3) Links between the music and the visuals
The music itself reflects largely on the visuals them self. For example, the slow tempo of the song allows for long clips with very slow cuts on each scene. The tempo also links to the depressing feel given off by the lyrics mixed with the music. This melancholy sound links very well with the dark visuals as black and other dark colours are well known as psychologically depressing colours.
4) Demands of the record label
It is almost impossible to find out the exact restrictions of the individual record label responsible for the production of Run by snow patrol. However Sven E Carlsson had a theory that suggested that artists were restricted in the way they can perform. He believed that this was because with established artists, audiences would be used to seeing similarities in image, facial expression and movement and large differences in these areas would potentially confuse, if not put off the consumers. After all, image, presentation and body language are all factors that audiences either are used to, or simply expect from the genre being presented to them. We also found this out from our market research as various audiences we contacted had strong opinions on how they believed the artist and other imagry should look after listening ot the song we had chosen.
5) Voyeurism and the notion of looking
The music video shows no voyeurism and has no sexual content in the entire production. Only male actors are used and all of these are not shown in a sexual light in any way. since there are no women shown this rules out the use of the male gaze theory and the idea of the opposite sex being 'sex objects' and the lyrics themselves provide a caring, and non exploitative song which reflects on the video.
6) Concept, performance or narrative based video?
The music video uses a mix of concept art aswell as performance based imagry to show the miming of the lyrics aswell as being able to provide it's audiences with sybolic messages incorporated in the video. For example the use of flares once to chorus kicks in ot only matchs the lyrics 'light up, light up' but is symboli for hope, love and of course light.
7) interextual reference
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