Annotation Of Lyrics

Lyrics To Our Chosen Song: Imagine Dragons- Monster

Ever since I could remember,
Everything inside of me,
Just wanted to fit in (oh oh oh oh)
I was never one for pretenders,
Everything I tried to be,
Just wouldn't settle in (oh oh oh oh)

If I told you what I was,
Would you turn your back on me?
And if I seem dangerous,
Would you be scared?
I get the feeling just because,
Everything I touch isn't dark enough
If this problem lies in me

I'm only a man with a chamber that's got me,
I'm taking a stand to escape what's inside me.
A monster, a monster,
I've turned into a monster,
A monster, a monster,
And it keeps getting stronger.


Can I clear my conscience,
If I'm different from the rest,
Do I have to run and hide? (oh oh oh oh)
I never said that I want this,
This burden came to me,
And it's made it's home inside (oh oh oh oh)

If I told you what I was,
Would you turn your back on me?
And if I seem dangerous,
Would you be scared?
I get the feeling just because,
Everything I touch isn't dark enough
If this problem lies in me

I'm only a man with a chamber that's got me,
I'm taking a stand to escape what's inside me.
A monster, a monster,
I've turned into a monster,
A monster, a monster,
And it keeps getting stronger.

I'm only a man with a chamber that's got me,
I'm taking a stand to escape what's inside me.
A monster, a monster,
I've turned into a monster,
A monster, a monster,
And it keeps getting stronger.

Individual Treatment Of Ideas

Name of band: Imagine Dragons

Title of track: Monster

Outline of ideas: I have warmed towards the idea of making an intertextual reference to Dracula in this music video, with the lyrics being easily relatable to the concept of vampirism of such. The idea is that the protagonist is in his bedroom finding difficulty in sleeping.. As he battles with himself and the song progresses he grows more and more uncomfortable and finds it harder to contain himself. There will also be scenes at night where he is walking on his own looking out of place as a crowd of people get on with their lives, indicating the contrast between himself and the rest. The protagonist will have a love interest who will fall as his first and only victim in the video, with the video potentially ending with an indication of her transforming into a vampire as well.

Resources I will need:
Actors- Male protagonist, female protagonist, extras (pedestrians to make the video look more legit and have a realistic feel).
Props- Dracula costume, make-up, fake blood, fangs.
Settings- Bedroom, bathroom, cemetery, public road or park.

Justification of ideas in relation to genre and artists: My ideas for the music video more or less extract the stereotypical conventions of the respected genre, being indie and rock, with the motif of darkness and extremely strong meaning behind the words. The Gothic nature of the narrative I have decided upon suits well with the genre and it is a video that the band who this song belongs to would use.

Shortlist Of Potential Songs And Final Chosen Song

Analysing Representations Of Gender In A Music Video

I am analysing the music video ‘girlfriend’ by Avril Lavigne which belongs to the genre of pop rock and pop punk. In this video there are two different representations of females. Avril Lavigne is represented as the superior subject in the video. She is shown to be quite an evil character as she is trying to split the couple up which is shown through her body language and actions. She hits the geeky girlfriend with a gold ball and pushes her away from the male. Avril is portrayed as an emo/Goth, which is understood through her black hair, and costume, which is a stereotypical representation. In contrast to this, the girlfriend is dressed in a chequered skirt and a pink cardigan over a pink t-shirt, emphasising her femininity, which contrasts hugely to the understanding of Avril being a troublemaker. Costumes and body movements have been the key to identifying the different representations of the two females. Avril happens to be matching in clothing in relation to the boy, signalling how they both have something in common. The costumes and actions clearly show the audience what character from Propp’s theory they are trying to play. Also, Levi – Strauss’ theory has been used as the two females are complete opposites; good vs bad, geek vs popular, masculine vs feminine. This is another way they have showed two different representations of women.

Avril Lavigne goes against the common assumption of men being the more aggressive and dominant force in  terms of behaviour, as in the video it is clear how she is the more confident and forceful in her actions, being the most forward and triggering almost all of the actions that take place. Additionally, you can argue that she isn’t represented as a sex symbol which is what female artists are stereotyped to be in this day and age. Even though she is hinting towards lust and intimacy in her behaviour she is not presented overly in a sexual form, which is clear through her dress sense. She does at one point wear a mini skirt but not to an extent where she is exposing herself or leading for the audience to take a ‘male gaze’. Commonly, women are portrayed as decorative objects that dance and look sexy as oppose to playing instruments and showcasing credible talents such as the art of creating music. Avril subverts this as we see her play the electric guitar for a substantial amount of the video.

Analysing Narrative In Taylor Swift’s Music Video ‘You Belong with Me’

In this video, the artist plays the role of protagonist and narrator as she is the main character whose eyes we see the story through and she is also singing the story to us, with this being both narrative and performance based. The video portrays objective character identities in the narrative as everything we see, again, is through her eyes. The only point for arguing towards it being subjective is through the boy’s emotions when he sees his girlfriend cheat on him, however, even this is seen through the protagonist’s eyes; it is her story we are seeing. We can apply Todorov’s narrative model to this video as it involves the three stages: equilibrium- the geeky girl is in love with the boy next door who only sees her as a friend. Disequilibrium- the girlfriend cheats on the boyfriend. Resolution- the geeky girl is transformed into a beautiful girl and gets the boy. The ideological values being reinforced through the narrative structure can be interpreted in a negative way, in that this video is suggesting you need to be hot and beautiful to get the boy in the end. On the other hand, it can be interpreted in a way that states everyone can be beautiful or is beautiful no matter who they are.

We can identify Propp’s characters in the video as there is a hero- (character who seeks something: Taylor Swift), a villain- (character who the hero must overcome: the girlfriend), and a princess- (the reward and goal for the hero: the boy). These types of characters used together for a narrative are quite common, however, stereotypically the hero and villain are male with the princess being a female, not surprisingly. The fact that the roles in terms of gender have been flipped here, refers to this idea of women becoming more empowered and how we as a society have evolved. The video involves a number of pairs of opposites reflecting (and resolving) the narrative conflicts and there are different sets of oppositions between the jock, the geek and the cheerleader. This is where Levi Strauss’ theory comes into play. You get the battle between popular vs unpopular and beauty vs ugly. These oppositions identify the central ideological messages of the video, being the celebration of beauty and the physical aspects of life.

Barthes’ narrative codes are present in the music video. There is an action code which is when any action implies a further narrative action that we as an audience are meant to piece together. This is seen when the boy is having an argument on the phone which is inaudible to us but we can assume it is between him and his girlfriend. There is also a cultural code in that we as a society have prior knowledge on certain things that help us understand the narrative codes. For example, high school stereotypical characters, and how the ranks work. There is an enigma code in that we ask the question of why the boy is still with the girlfriend when he knows he likes the girl. A semantic code can be applied to the dress sense of the hero and villain towards the end of the video. The hero is in white, signalling purity, innocence and goodliness while the villain is in red, implying danger of such. Additionally, the glasses, notepads and wallpapers reference her geeky lifestyle. In terms of the villain, even her car is red to emphasise how she is the villain.

There are subconscious references in the video in which we can almost go on to say it uses parody as a way of critique, taking apart the idea of the jock and the geek. Most postmodern narratives are thought to be like this with the stories familiarly involving the concept of two completely contrasting individuals fighting over a prize which happens to be the love of another. In reference to Cameron’s modular narratives theory, there are no anachronic types involved as there are no flashbacks or flash-forwards in the video. There are also no forking paths or split screens as there are no alternative versions of the story; there is only one outcome and additionally, the screen is never split.

Codes And Conventions Research Task

This is a presentation displaying how the different genres in the music industry are each represented. The purpose of this research is to help me in better understanding what music videos consist of in relation to their respected genre.

Codes and conventions research task from AsianSensation