Lyrics-
A-Punk" is a single by indie rock band Vampire Weekend. released on February 28, 2008 as the second single from their 2008 self titled album. It was written by Ezra Koenig, the lead singer.
Johanna drove slowly into the city
The Hudson River all filled with snow
She spied the ring on His Honor's finger
Oh-oh-oh
A thousand years in one piece of silver
She took it from his lily-white hand
Showed no fear--she'd seen the thing
In the young men's wing at Sloan-Kettering
Look outside at the raincoats coming, say "oh"
Look outside at the raincoats coming, say "oh"
'Ey, 'ey, 'ey, 'ey!
'Ey, 'ey, 'ey!
His Honor drove southward seeking exotica
Down to the pueblo huts of New Mexico
Cut his teeth on turquoise harmonicas
Oh-oh-oh
I saw Johanna down in the subway
She took an apartment in Washington Heights
Half of the ring lies here with me
But the other half's at the bottom of the sea
Look outside at the raincoats coming, say "oh"
Look outside at the raincoats coming, say "oh"
Look outside at the raincoats coming, say "oh"
Look outside at the raincoats coming, say "oh"
'Ey, 'ey, 'ey, 'ey!
'Ey, 'ey, 'ey, 'ey!
The music video directed by Garth Jennings, that was said to convey the song's "spiky energy," used footage of the band performing as sped up stop-motion figures, simulating winter and underwater scenes during the performance. Despite the band being sped up, they "never miss an upstroke beat." The video made its worldwide premiere on January 7, 2008 on MTV2's Subterranean indie video block.
Audience
I think that this video would be for a more ambient viewing as it is simple so you do not have to concentrate and think hard about it to understand it. It could be the type of video that you can just put on in the background and watch as you do something else. I think that as this video is not a mainstream video, and the band isn’t really famous then they would have quite a lot of say in the video and the record company will just give them a budget and let them get on with it, the record company may just give them a list of things they want to do within the video.
Narrative and the Genre
Within the music video for ‘A-Punk’ by ‘Vampire Weekend’ there are several key feature of a music video as identified by the Goodwin theory. The video is performance based as it features the band performing the song to an the audience, being the viewer. The video could also be seen as concept based as there is only a loose relation between the video and the lyrics. The video is a slightly illustrative video. This means that there is some relation between the video and the lyrics, but the video does not explain what is being said in the lyrics it just illustrates the main parts. The video is quite lo-fi and simplistic, making look more unique and not mainstream. For the most of the video, the band are just standing in front of a white background, wearing bright, bold coloured shirts and playing there instruments in a very exaggerated, extravagant. The genre of this music video would be indie rock. We know this as this is the typical genre of the band and they conform to the typical styles of the genre by being band playing instruments like guitars and the drum kit.
Representation
The band are breaking many conventions within the video and if you break conventions in society you are seen as rebellious. This again supports the uniqueness of the video and how it is nothing like a charts music video. They break conventions in the way they move around as the video is quite jerky and fast as it has been sped up, and they break conventions in the way the play the instruments. The band are represented as quite childish from the video. They use finger puppets and the way the exaggerate hitting the drums as hard as they can all makes the video feel quite childish.
Camerawork
There is only one camera shot used during the whole video and that is a long shot. The camera does not move throughout the whole video. The editing techniques are very simplistic. The editor uses a fade when the background changes from white to black and then it fades back to white. When it comes to the shot of them underwater which illustrates the lyrics which say ‘at the bottom of the sea’ a blue filter is used over the camera lens to connote the blue of the water and fish are used to connote the bottom of the sea. There are no any special effects used in the video and this creates an authentic, budget feel to it as they the fish in the video are just finger puppets that they are holding in front of the camera. There is a reference to popular culture in the clothes that the band wear, within in the genre that the band are aiming for the clothing that they wear is considered to be stylish. The the clothes are representative of the genre the band belongs to being the mise-en-scene. When it comes the with cold winter shot the band are all wearing hats and scarves which suggest the cold along with the snow on the black background which creating the idea of night time and implying that night time is cold.
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