The document discusses conventions and characteristics of folk rock music videos. It analyzes how several videos use, develop, or challenge conventions. Key points: 1) Videos often show the artist alone performing in nature to highlight the music and depict the artist as introspective. 2) Visuals are usually illustrative of lyrics but sometimes amplify meanings. Relationships between music and visuals can be illustrative or develop meanings. 3) Record labels demand close-ups of artists to make them recognizable brands. Long hair on male artists implies authenticity from life experience.

1. +
In what ways does your
Comparing my research findings
media product use,
and conventions with my group develop or challenge forms
production
and conventions of real
Hanan Mohamed
media products?

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GENRE CHARACTERISTICS -
CONVENTIONS
 The band/artist is usually shown
performing within the video, with
shots of their instruments if they
play any or simply their face if
they sing only. They are also
usually performing alone, or
simply the band cut in with
scenes elsewhere e.g. a narrative
cut in with the performance. Their
isolation is often to highlight their
music’s importance rather than
screaming fans, and to indicate
the artist is introspective and
mature. (See Mumford & Sons:
Little Lion Man, Iron & Wine: Boy
With A Coin, Laura Marling:
Rambling Man).
USED - Our band is shown playing in front of trees
surrounded by fields and open space, which is in the
 This is usually done in a location theme of nature. This is in keeping with the depiction
full of nature – somewhere of folk genre artists being in touch with nature as
rural, full of fields, by a river, on a
beach by the sea (Laura Marling: they are surrounded by it, in touch with earth, which
Rambling Man), by a swamp, a assists their ruminations on life on culture, history
forest (Iron & Wine: Boy With A
Coin) etc. and protests, which are common themes in folk rock
songs.

3. RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LYRICS AND
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VISUALS
The lyrics of folk rock songs tend to be fairly abstract most of the
time, however the visuals are usually illustrative for the chorus or a
particular verse, but most of the song will use the visuals to amplify
the lyrics meaning. Bon Iver: Calgary’s visuals are at first illustrative it
says ‘don’t you cherish me to sleep’ and it shows a woman on a bed
sleeping who defies being mollycoddled by being cherished and
wakes up. ‘Hair, old, long along/Your neck onto your shoulder blades’
is sung as we see her lifting her head to show her hair is long, as the
camera moves to show her neck and then her shoulder.
 The visuals begin to amplify in the next verse as ‘hip, under nothing’ is
heard as she falls through the bed and lands standing in a lake. This
is amplifying because instead of merely having her fall off of the
bed, it shows her very foundations are not what she thought they
were so she must go and ‘hunt the cause’ which she does getting up
and finding a door out.
USED
 In a few, rare places the meaning will be contradictory but instead of ILLUSTRATIVE
confusing the viewer makes the artist seem like a storyteller. The visuals are illustrative of the lyrics when the lyrics ‘my friends and I wave
Contradictory visuals can be seen in the first verse of Iron & Wine: goodbye as our ship left England home’ and we had a ship leaving shore as
Boy With A Coin as the lyrics are: A boy with a coin he found in the the friends they were leaving back home waved goodbye to them.
weeds/With bullets and pages of trade magazines/Close to a car that
flipped on the turn/When God left the ground to circle the world
ILLUSTRATIVE – when the chorus plays ‘they say I fight, for king and
country’ footage of soldiers play with their marching being in time to the beat
 This was contradictory as all that could be seen on screen was a of the song, showing that their military march is done with precision, in time
group of women dancing, no boy or weeds or a car to be seen. But in and with conviction of their morale that they are fighting this war for their king
the following verse the visuals take the other direction and actually and country.
amplify the lyrics meaning: A girl with a bird she found in the The lyrics ‘cackling guns against boys so fine’ are heard and footage of a
snow/Then flew up her gown and that's how she knows/If God made soldier firing is seen on screen; in tandem a few moments later when the
her eyes for crying at birth/Then left the ground to circle the earth lyrics ‘over the top the sergeant cries/and into no man’s land’ footage of
soldiers crawling over the top of the trenches play, the lyrics illustrative of the
visuals.
 There is one woman singled out for dancing and we can see no
bird, but feathers are falling from her dress and her dress is moving
AMPLIFYING – when the song plays ‘when she’s in need, when she’s in
like a living bird – her expression is also quite sad. This amplifies
because instead of simply showing a girl in the snow finding a bird danger’ the screen shows a young woman crying into her handkerchief, and
that flies up her dress, the bird is metaphorical and the repeated line amplifies the typical understanding of the lyrics of the ‘she’ referring to our
of God having ‘left the ground to circle the earth’ reflects the women country England, taking it to mean fighting both for our country as well as
dancing endlessly in circles in the same path as people are left on the ‘she’, the safety of the soldiers’ sweethearts who have been left behind and
path of fate, referencing religious messages. are waiting for them to come back home.

4. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MUSIC AND
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The music is mostly illustrative of the
visuals. In Iron & Wine: Boy With A Coin
the style of the dancing matches the style
of the music that is being played, both old
fashioned and classy. The movements of
the dancers hands are very smooth as are
the notes of the piano being played. At the
same time their dancing is still very
obviously choreographed, hips and legs
sharply in time to the guitar strings being
plucked in clearly defined movements.
 In Laura Marling: Rambling Man the music
has a fairly steady ‘one-two’ beat which is
in time with the visuals, to the point where
even the birds flying and the sea waves
lapping have been edited so their speed is
in time with the song. The music being in
time with the visuals actually amplified
meaning at some points e.g. near the
middle of the song and near the end the
music sped as the man leaped into the sea
for his freedom, emphasizing the weight of
his action and its symbolism. This reflects
the common themes of folk genre music
where artists normally perform in settings
full of nature where it’s peaceful which
helps their ability to be introspective and
reflective on life and its meaning.
DEVELOPED
ILLUSTRATIVE – the interval between the first verse and the chorus, the visuals are in
time with the music as the screen shows the guitarist from a low angle, focusing on his
no-nonsense converse shoes amongst autumn leaves and the gradual tilting over him
till settling on his somber face in a close up. The movement of the camera tilting and
gradually getting faster in time with the music, emphasizing that the most important
message of the song within the chorus is coming up.In the return to the narrative
nearer the latter part of the song, there are jump cuts of the soldier doing up his coat in
time to the music; the harsh plucking of the guitar strings along with the jump cuts
reflect his disjointed sense of time as he is still immersed in memories of fighting in

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DEMANDS OF THE RECORD LABEL
 A large number of close ups of the artists are used in all of the videos,
even in the ones where there is a large narrative taking place in order to
keep the viewers back to focusing on and reminding them of the
artist/band (Laura Marling: Rambling Man). By constantly focusing on
the face of the artist, especially if they’re new, makes them more
memorable and a brand in themselves.
 Conventions of the artists appearance if men, tends to mean fairly long
hair to the shoulders or at least floppy around the ears or chin. This
emphasizes their masculinity (also with suits in Mumford & Sons: Little
Lion Man), maturity and life experience, which in turn imply authenticity
that the artist knows the life issues that they’re singing about in their
song. (Iron & Wine: Boy With A Coin, Mumford & Sons: Little Lion Man).
Costume tends to be very minimalist, simple colours and traditional cuts
which lets the viewer focus on the actual performing of the artist and
USED –We decided to use the convention of
narrative actions of any actors if present. This makes sure to draw more
attention to the actual music itself, instead of being distracted by minor
details like overly extravagant clothing with bright colours and patterns. the artist having longer hair than usual with the lead
singer, but kept it a little more contemporary by
instead of him having shoulder length hair it was
 Make up if used for the women is usually naturalistic so subtle, which
also lessens distraction by beauty/appearance and gives off along with merely grown out a little to around his ears, and a
the simple clothing an impression of humility. (Bon Iver: Calgary) This little height in the hair of the guitarist was left instead
was turned on its head for Laura Marling: Rambling Man but still had of him having e.g. a shaved head. Close ups were
the same intended effect as its extravagance of make up only served to used in our video at the appropriate moments where
highlight the humbleness of the rambling man’s lifestyle and dourness the most emotional lines were sung in order to
of his clothes. achieve a greater feeling of intimacy between the
viewer and the artists. Their clothes were kept very
 The only video I found which defied convention was Bon Iver: Calgary
basic without detail or diverting designs, in simple
in that the artist did not appear at all, which defies the convention of leather jacket, hoodie, jeans and converse.
showing and focusing on the artists’ face within videos to sell them as
an artist.

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NOTIONS OF LOOKING + VOYEURISM OF
FEMALE BODY
 NOTIONS OF LOOKING
 The notions of looking are effectively referenced in Iron &
Wine: Boy With A Coin where the use of the dancers
watching their own performance within the video – hinting
that they are aware of the audience, and they are
performing for them.
 In Laura Marling: Rambling Man there’s a reference in the
beginning of the video where the man looks at himself in
the mirror. This shows his self-awareness, and the camera
shoots it from the same angle where he must be able to
see it and be aware of his audience although he does not
directly look in that direction at the viewer.
 VOYEURISTIC TREATMENT OF THE FEMALE BODY
There were hardly any females within our video
and the only one we used was stock footage, in
 Iron & Wine: Boy With A Coin has chosen a slightly more
subtle way of viewing the female body voyeuristically. In the a close up of a young woman in a dress crying
medium close up shots of the singer’s face we can see the into her handkerchief. We challenged the
main dancer’s bust behind him emphasised further by how convention of treating the female body
her head has been cut out of the shot.
voyeuristically as in the particular clip we
chose, the camera did not focus on her in a
 In Bon Iver: Calgary the female is treated voyeuristically as
the viewer sees her half dressed in a sheer nightgown physically intimate way and therefore it did not
tossing and turning in her bed which is an intimate objectify her.
location, and the feeling of voyeurism intensifies as the
camera lingers on her neck, legs and bare skin.

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INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCE
 Intertextuality was found to be rare within the
music videos that I researched, present in only
one: Calgary – Bon Iver.
 In this video, the woman rises up out of the
ground coming up from a whole hidden world
beneath the earth up to ground level – this is a
direct reference to the film Pan’s Labyrinth.
 As a folk rock band, part of the genre is being very
true to the music and the integrity of the artist –
Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon writes his own songs and
produced the album For Emma forever ago
independently. This is reflected in the production
of the video. Instead of taking clips from actual
films and embedding them in the video, the label
has chosen to recreate the concept of coming
from a world underground and filmed it
themselves with their own actors and extras for
the video.
 This was appropriate as the film is about a girl in
fascist Spain who escapes into a fantasy world

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TECHNICAL DIRECTIONS –
ARTIST/ACTOR MOVEMENTS, POSITION
ETC
 Artist/bands / actor’s positioning, movements, gestures, pose
and mode of address etc.

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TECHNICAL DIRECTIONS – EDITING
DIRECTIONS
 (Match cuts, jump cut, reverse shots – cutting rhythm etc.)

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TECHNICAL DIRECTIONS – MISE EN
SCENE
 CHALLENGE – highly stylized colour scheme, monochrome
band footage to highlight guitar in red, blood of lost soldiers and
a sepia tone throughout footage of the soldier living in the
current day who is still lost in thoughts of the past
 including
colour, figure, pops, lighting, objects, costume, location and
setting and use of crowds/dancers etc.

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TECHNICAL DIRECTIONS –
FRAMING OF SHOT