Always Like This is the 6th track on Bombay Bicycle Clubs' debut album; I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose released 7th July 2009. The genre for this album is classified as Indie on last.fm and Alternative on the iTunes store.
The video primarily uses the themes of a VCR playing back the performance of the band in a variety of lower/middle class urban housing estates, which supports the repeated lyrics of the song; 'I'm not whole' as the locations are not wealthy. The VCR effect also speeds up and slows down which supports this line of the lyrics as it is made to feel like the videos missing parts out. It also adds an old, cheap feel to the video, which relates to the Indie rock genre as they are not using new expensive technologies. The VCR could also help relate the audience who are sat at home most likely watching the music videos on social networking sites such as YouTube or the music channels on TV with the band because it could remind them of their home videos, reinforced by the locations, costume and budget of the video as well.The clothing in the video is very casual. Worn out trainers, simple printed T-shirts, jeans, hoodies and checked shirts created this casual feel. This costume setup supports the lower/middle class theme of the video.
Urban housing is the primary theme for the locations, including a variety of different semi detached houses, garage block and small high street stores such as a off license and a corner shop. These locations are very common all around England. This would make it very easy for the target audience to relate to the band and their locations. Locations such as these do not require a large budget to film on which relates to the Indie genre of the band since independent record labels are quite small unlike the large record labels.Moving onto the performance side of the video, the band is featured nearly always during the video which moves a separate narrative out of the video, therefore giving focus to the band itself. The band performs with only their guitars and the bare minimum of percussion instruments. This lack of technical equipment lowers the feeling of a large live performance in a venue but concentrates only on the emotion and technicality of the music being played as well as supporting the low independent budget as well.
The colours video is quite desaturated, which gives a more rugged and smaller budget to the video. There is a varied colour pallet within the mise en scene which avoids any stereotypical themes of other genres such as Metal where the colours are quite dark throughout the videos.
The video:
Some interesting ideas here and I think you have covered most of the aspects you need to cover. Some screen shots would help highlight the points you make.
ReplyDeleteI think there is something interesting about the use of the VCR look in the video. Why would a band use that? You say people will watch it on YouTube etc which is a world away from VHS video, so why might they use it?