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Paramore - The Only Exception (directed by Brandon Chesbro)
I have chosen to analyse this music video because like the "I Wish I Was Someone Better" video it is one of my favourite music videos and it is alternative rock led by a female which is useful when considering my own production.
The American band Paramore, comprising of 22 year old vocalist Hayley Williams, 21 year old guitarist Taylor York, 26 year old bassist Jeremy Davis, 23 year old guitarist Josh Farro and 20 year old drummer Zac Farro formed in Franklin, Tennessee. They are being represented by themselves and by the video's director Brandon Chesbro. This music video was his directorial debut as he is normally just a photographer.
The song itself is quite melancholy but is ultimately a love song and so the lead singer is represented as a young girl in a relationship with her boyfriend whom she decides to leave at the beginning of the video but after seeing what her life would be like without him, she realises she still loves him and goes "back in time" to be with him. This means it is dealing with things that their key demographic, young teenagers, particularly females, will most likely be facing in their teenage lives at some point, and the prospect of being to go back in time and make everything alright again is one that appeals to all, not just a teenage demographic. In the scenes where she is singing with her band outside of the narrative she and her band are represented as being very serious musicians, they sit and play the song expertly without needing to perform it energetically because they have already established themselves in previous music videos as a talented band, so it can focus more on a narrative.
The music video opens with Williams waking up on a couch next to her boyfriend and writing a note that says "I'm sorry," she is presumably leaving him. From there she walks to the next room and hugs her father. A conversation ensues with Williams showing him a photo of her mother, they are presumably talking about her parent's divorce (as made clear in information available about the song). The video continues with Williams in her room staring into the mirror, singing about how love doesn't exist. She then moves through a costume closet and into a restaurant set, where a rotating cast of men pose as her date. She then moves into the next room, where there's a wedding, presumably her boyfriend's marriage to another woman, and she flees the scene when the bride enters. In the video's final moments, Williams spots her ex-boyfriend in the crowd at a rock show. After fantasizing of the two being together at all the previous moments in the video where she felt alone, she then makes her way back through the various rooms to the original set in the beginning of the video. She returns to the couch where the male is still asleep, and hides the note she wrote in her pocket as she lies back down next to him and smiles (fig. 1). The narrative is linear however the video itself is also postmodern due to Williams using the fact that the sets are connected to each other to her own advantage, using them to revert time.
Fig. 1
For the duration of the narrative Williams is seen wearing simple, causal clothes typical of alternative teenage females, such as a polka dot black hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans, her hair is very simple and not obviously styled however it is a faded red colour and she is wearing simple make-up, not overly obvious but still apparent. The colour of her hair is symbolic when relating it to past videos and her past looks which have recently consisted of bright red, orange or yellow. The fact that her normally bright coloured hair is faded suggests that the image that the media puts forward is faded too and this is the 'real' her. In the band performance scenes, she and her band are all wearing black, again typical of alternative music but is also connotating the melancholy tone of the song. In the solo performance scenes in which Williams sings whilst laid on a bed of Valentine's Day cards she is wearing a dress and a fur collared jacket, is clearly wearing more makeup and has styled her hair into curls. This is because although she looks attractive normally, she still wants to represent herself as a desirable woman. Her performance during the solo performance scenes is powerful but is also held back slightly, again because of the tone of the song she is singing.
The sets are clearly artificial as she walks from one room to another via connecting doors. The colours of the rooms are also significant as each room represents an emotion to Williams in the narrative. The first room (fig. 2) we see Williams in is the living room in which she is sleeping on a couch with her boyfriend, the room is lit by the sun quite brightly, however it is significantly brighter when Williams returns to the room at the end of the video, suggesting her happiness. The second room (fig. 3) is at her father's house in which the walls are coloured red, connotating the love she feels for her father. The third is her bedroom (fig. 4) which is coloured green, which, in this case, symbolises the safety of her bedroom. The fourth room (fig. 5) she is seen in is a costume closet whose walls are actually red curtains reminiscent of those seen behind a theatre's stage (which is also used in the band performance scenes (fig. 9) to show that the band are simply playing without a front) which connotates that she is picking out an outfit to put on as a front before she moves on to the fifth room, a restaurant (fig. 6), which is coloured dark blue, which indicates her sadness at having to date and find someone new, this is reinforced by the constant changing of the potential dates until she decides enough is enough, storms out and enters the sixth room, a church (fig. 7). The church is presented as bright white which is in stark contrast to Williams' black overcoat to symbolise that being at this wedding is like watching her own love die. The final "room" is at a rock show (fig. 8) in which she sees the ex-boyfriend again and fantasises that she was with him in all the previous rooms and was happy. Therefore she runs back through each room to the beginning of the video.
Fig. 2-9
Perhaps the most dominant image in the video is that of Williams performing while laying down on a floor covered in Valentine's Day cards. Because she is laying on top of them and looking straight ahead it is saying that love is behind her, it is only at the end of the video that she looks to her left to look at the cards and accept love once again.
The lyrics of the song are also very important to interpreting the video's meaning. The scene in which Williams is talking to her father is accompanied by lyrics telling the audience that ever since her parent's broke up she has refused to believe in love.
The camera shots are all very conventional, using close ups to show Williams emotion and slow motion at the rock show to keep the mood of the song. Although one convention of a music video is that the camera usually does not stop moving, it is constantly panning or tracking, something that is evident in this video but the speed at which the shots pan or track is consistent throughout the video. The editing of the video is also conventional, being fast paced, but not noticeably so until the scene in which she imagines that her ex-boyfriend was with her in the previous rooms which is cut very quickly compared to the rest of the video, this is to show that it is a moment of revelation for Williams, a second where everything fit into place for her, and when combined with the slow motion of the scenes juxtaposing it with slow motion scenes at the rock show make this even more apparent.
The institutional source of the text is the record label Fueled By Ramen, a very popular record label known for alternative and pop punk bands. One of the reasons they are so popular is their interactivity with their audience specifically on the internet, having a very Web 2.0 website in which users can sign up and become part of a community. They also let the bands signed to them take creative control of the music video, such as the band's previous video for Brick By Boring Brick for which the band created a treatment before any directors were hired.
A strong element of audience interaction is featured in this video too as the Valentine's Day cards that Williams is laying on were all sent in by Paramore fans, so rather than just saying thank you in a blog post they used them as an integral feature in the video (fig. 10). This also leads to increased viewing among Paramore fans who may watch the video over and over again trying to spot their card and if found, they would tell their friends and they would watch to see it, etc. The method of distribution was to debut it on paramore.net and soon after upload it to their YouTube channel. This is an extremely common method of distribution these days as opposed to debuting the video on a music channel.
Fig. 10
The text is addressed to teenagers and young adults, ranging from 14 to around 25. The fact that the music video will largely be available online is due to this young age range of consumers who will most likely be very computer literate and will find the video with ease.
As a 20 year old male, a fan of alternative rock and a media and film studies student, I fit into the target audience that the music video is aimed at, as well as being able to read and evaluate the text better than the average viewer. Other viewers may not acknowledge or even care about the meaning or reasons behind a music video as long as it enjoyable to watch.
Paramore - The Only Exception (directed by Brandon Chesbro)
I have chosen to analyse this music video because like the "I Wish I Was Someone Better" video it is one of my favourite music videos and it is alternative rock led by a female which is useful when considering my own production.
The American band Paramore, comprising of 22 year old vocalist Hayley Williams, 21 year old guitarist Taylor York, 26 year old bassist Jeremy Davis, 23 year old guitarist Josh Farro and 20 year old drummer Zac Farro formed in Franklin, Tennessee. They are being represented by themselves and by the video's director Brandon Chesbro. This music video was his directorial debut as he is normally just a photographer.
The song itself is quite melancholy but is ultimately a love song and so the lead singer is represented as a young girl in a relationship with her boyfriend whom she decides to leave at the beginning of the video but after seeing what her life would be like without him, she realises she still loves him and goes "back in time" to be with him. This means it is dealing with things that their key demographic, young teenagers, particularly females, will most likely be facing in their teenage lives at some point, and the prospect of being to go back in time and make everything alright again is one that appeals to all, not just a teenage demographic. In the scenes where she is singing with her band outside of the narrative she and her band are represented as being very serious musicians, they sit and play the song expertly without needing to perform it energetically because they have already established themselves in previous music videos as a talented band, so it can focus more on a narrative.
The music video opens with Williams waking up on a couch next to her boyfriend and writing a note that says "I'm sorry," she is presumably leaving him. From there she walks to the next room and hugs her father. A conversation ensues with Williams showing him a photo of her mother, they are presumably talking about her parent's divorce (as made clear in information available about the song). The video continues with Williams in her room staring into the mirror, singing about how love doesn't exist. She then moves through a costume closet and into a restaurant set, where a rotating cast of men pose as her date. She then moves into the next room, where there's a wedding, presumably her boyfriend's marriage to another woman, and she flees the scene when the bride enters. In the video's final moments, Williams spots her ex-boyfriend in the crowd at a rock show. After fantasizing of the two being together at all the previous moments in the video where she felt alone, she then makes her way back through the various rooms to the original set in the beginning of the video. She returns to the couch where the male is still asleep, and hides the note she wrote in her pocket as she lies back down next to him and smiles (fig. 1). The narrative is linear however the video itself is also postmodern due to Williams using the fact that the sets are connected to each other to her own advantage, using them to revert time.
Fig. 1
For the duration of the narrative Williams is seen wearing simple, causal clothes typical of alternative teenage females, such as a polka dot black hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans, her hair is very simple and not obviously styled however it is a faded red colour and she is wearing simple make-up, not overly obvious but still apparent. The colour of her hair is symbolic when relating it to past videos and her past looks which have recently consisted of bright red, orange or yellow. The fact that her normally bright coloured hair is faded suggests that the image that the media puts forward is faded too and this is the 'real' her. In the band performance scenes, she and her band are all wearing black, again typical of alternative music but is also connotating the melancholy tone of the song. In the solo performance scenes in which Williams sings whilst laid on a bed of Valentine's Day cards she is wearing a dress and a fur collared jacket, is clearly wearing more makeup and has styled her hair into curls. This is because although she looks attractive normally, she still wants to represent herself as a desirable woman. Her performance during the solo performance scenes is powerful but is also held back slightly, again because of the tone of the song she is singing.
The sets are clearly artificial as she walks from one room to another via connecting doors. The colours of the rooms are also significant as each room represents an emotion to Williams in the narrative. The first room (fig. 2) we see Williams in is the living room in which she is sleeping on a couch with her boyfriend, the room is lit by the sun quite brightly, however it is significantly brighter when Williams returns to the room at the end of the video, suggesting her happiness. The second room (fig. 3) is at her father's house in which the walls are coloured red, connotating the love she feels for her father. The third is her bedroom (fig. 4) which is coloured green, which, in this case, symbolises the safety of her bedroom. The fourth room (fig. 5) she is seen in is a costume closet whose walls are actually red curtains reminiscent of those seen behind a theatre's stage (which is also used in the band performance scenes (fig. 9) to show that the band are simply playing without a front) which connotates that she is picking out an outfit to put on as a front before she moves on to the fifth room, a restaurant (fig. 6), which is coloured dark blue, which indicates her sadness at having to date and find someone new, this is reinforced by the constant changing of the potential dates until she decides enough is enough, storms out and enters the sixth room, a church (fig. 7). The church is presented as bright white which is in stark contrast to Williams' black overcoat to symbolise that being at this wedding is like watching her own love die. The final "room" is at a rock show (fig. 8) in which she sees the ex-boyfriend again and fantasises that she was with him in all the previous rooms and was happy. Therefore she runs back through each room to the beginning of the video.
Fig. 2-9
Perhaps the most dominant image in the video is that of Williams performing while laying down on a floor covered in Valentine's Day cards. Because she is laying on top of them and looking straight ahead it is saying that love is behind her, it is only at the end of the video that she looks to her left to look at the cards and accept love once again.
The lyrics of the song are also very important to interpreting the video's meaning. The scene in which Williams is talking to her father is accompanied by lyrics telling the audience that ever since her parent's broke up she has refused to believe in love.
The camera shots are all very conventional, using close ups to show Williams emotion and slow motion at the rock show to keep the mood of the song. Although one convention of a music video is that the camera usually does not stop moving, it is constantly panning or tracking, something that is evident in this video but the speed at which the shots pan or track is consistent throughout the video. The editing of the video is also conventional, being fast paced, but not noticeably so until the scene in which she imagines that her ex-boyfriend was with her in the previous rooms which is cut very quickly compared to the rest of the video, this is to show that it is a moment of revelation for Williams, a second where everything fit into place for her, and when combined with the slow motion of the scenes juxtaposing it with slow motion scenes at the rock show make this even more apparent.
The institutional source of the text is the record label Fueled By Ramen, a very popular record label known for alternative and pop punk bands. One of the reasons they are so popular is their interactivity with their audience specifically on the internet, having a very Web 2.0 website in which users can sign up and become part of a community. They also let the bands signed to them take creative control of the music video, such as the band's previous video for Brick By Boring Brick for which the band created a treatment before any directors were hired.
A strong element of audience interaction is featured in this video too as the Valentine's Day cards that Williams is laying on were all sent in by Paramore fans, so rather than just saying thank you in a blog post they used them as an integral feature in the video (fig. 10). This also leads to increased viewing among Paramore fans who may watch the video over and over again trying to spot their card and if found, they would tell their friends and they would watch to see it, etc. The method of distribution was to debut it on paramore.net and soon after upload it to their YouTube channel. This is an extremely common method of distribution these days as opposed to debuting the video on a music channel.
Fig. 10
The text is addressed to teenagers and young adults, ranging from 14 to around 25. The fact that the music video will largely be available online is due to this young age range of consumers who will most likely be very computer literate and will find the video with ease.
As a 20 year old male, a fan of alternative rock and a media and film studies student, I fit into the target audience that the music video is aimed at, as well as being able to read and evaluate the text better than the average viewer. Other viewers may not acknowledge or even care about the meaning or reasons behind a music video as long as it enjoyable to watch.