Task 4 Media.

Music Video: The Vaccines- Wreckin Bar (Ra Ra Ra)

Pretty girl, wreckin' bar, Ra ra ra ra yeah you are! Growin' up, I'm twice the man, Yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah I am! The angels gave F. Scott Fitzgerald, The evening news and the morning herald, I know that you're from very far, Les femmes, les bars; c'est pas une joie! "Where you been?" you can say, Hey hey hey hey yeah you may! That might seem a bit below, No no no it's funny though! Let's go home I think we oughta, I know you're your Mother's daughter, Well brought up; royal blue, I haven't got the time for you! Guitar Solo Finger pointing, presupposing, Watch out, man, that door's a-closing, This is what you get when you turn your back, A clear blue sky turning dirty black!

I chose to analyse the text/lyrics for the video and song by The Vaccines, Wreckin Bar, as it is in my opinion a good song and it represents the type of song that I may listen to. I first heard the song whilst I was at the NME Tour at the Birmingham O2 in Feburary where I went mainly to watch Magnetic Man however The Vaccines were also playing prior to them. Before this I had not heard many of their songs other than Post Break-up Sex so it was the first time I had really listened to their album. The influence this first encounter might have had on my interpretation of the text was that rather than listening to the lyrics I was probably more focussed on the atmosphere therefore the music and beat was more important to me than what they actually had to say. I would place this song and it s lyrics into an indie/alternative genre and think the fact the lyrics talk about a girl is pretty typical of this, as well as many other, genres. An example of where it does this is Pretty girl, wreckin bar, ra ra ra ra yeah you are! , although it is singing about a girl it isn t quite as derogatory as other genres sometimes portray such as a dance/pop song by David Guetta Sexy Bitch , without quoting any lyrics it is already apparent that the female focus of this song is to objectify her whereas in the song I am analysing pretty girl is more complementary. The text is true to its genre but more so by guitar solos and by being a band more so than its actual lyrics. The lyrics do slightly depart from being a typical indie/alternative genre as they are quite repetitive, which although all songs are in part with choruses etc, it is more apparent. This repetitive nature even shown in the title Wreckin Bar (Ra Ra Ra) is more reminiscent of pop music for example Ke$ha s songs are often repetitive your love your love your love is my drug etc. I feel the video was aimed at young adults and late teens that go to bars and gigs as the video is of a typical band just playing alike they would at these venues. I think the video is pretty typical for its style of music (even though indie is perhaps trying to be different and many videos show no or limited connections) as it features a typical young male band with their typical indie attire playing

guitars and drums, without sounding too stereotypical it does assume that the listener is also a young indie type who enjoys gigs and maybe favours bands to single artists (as these are mostly found in the pop category). I think it also assumes that you are of a middle class as you can afford to go out to watch bands and fit in with the general bar scene but you re not too rich to look down on such behaviour. I think it also probably is more male focussed as even though it shows no females in the video to have the whole male gaze aspect it is portraying a sort of lads feel to perhaps give the feel of just having the band as a group of friends playing together without the need of females to have fun. The text actually has no relevance to me, in that I get what it means but it doesn t mean or signify anything for me particularly. It does take for granted that you know who Scott Fitzgerald is otherwise the reference to him has no meaning, although other than that the lyrics are pretty straight forward in meaning. I don t think I do resemble the ideal reader of the lyrics or watcher of the video as I believe that would be someone about my age, although a male rather than female. However saying this I do think I have a pretty good sense for their type of music as it is mostly what I listen to so the video probably would seek someone a bit like me. There are no notable shifts in the videos style other than the disco ball spinning (which features for the entire video) slowing down so that you can realise that the band are playing inside the ball; the video seems to want to prompt an admiring spark as they have conducted it in a very unique way and it s only about half way through the video that you realise this. The response window is pretty narrow as there are no visuals or lyrics that are too meaningful/ dramatic/ violent/ thought provoking so what you can think of the video is limited. It is just the band playing in a disco ball and it is more admire the creativeness or think it was a bad representation and don t like it. Therefore there is no after effect or penalties for responding in certain ways; this kind of thing would be more relevant to more out there and shocking videos such as Smack My Bitch Up by The Prodigy which is much more likely to have mixed responses due to its explicit nature. I didn t find myself reading between the lines of the song too much as it seemed pretty straight forward with obvious metaphors that don t take much thinking for example a clear blue sky turning dirty black! which essentially is getting at a squeaky clean track record getting ruined by a turn to rebellion or simply by just going out and living your life and making mistakes rather so than living a sheltered life. This video is typical of music videos in some ways and not in others. A way in which it is different is its duration more so than its content, it doesn t even reach the 1 minute 30 second mark, with most music videos being a lot longer with more content and more storyline. Its lack of story line in visuals however would most probably be down to its confined time in which to put a story across. It is however typical in that it features typical music like things, for example the band is playing in a disco ball, (the fact that a band is playing at all screams typical convention as so many do) and guitars and drums and singers and fast paced spinning of the ball all again contribute to a typical video. It does however also use special effects and costume as well which again make it follow music video conventions, mostly to an amplification genre I would say as it doesn t illustrate a story as such and it isn t completely unrelated but it is a creative video which does feature the band.