Odd Shaped Head - Corpse in the Kitchen
Biography taken from http://www.unsigned.com/oddshapedhead:
"Leapfrogging conventional rock sounds and hop-scotching conformity, these unassuming young gentlemen yell Up your pigeon-hole! to an industry obsessed with format and repeated musical templates. In the humble surroundings of a quaint English seaside village, four of the four members of odd shaped head reside in chaotic harmony:
Paul (Bass/Vocals)
Ricky (Guitar/ Vocals)
Rob (Drums)
Andrew (Guitar);
from childhood chums to grown up geeky misfits.
The quirky quartet take a plunge with their new single and video ~ the multi coloured ket song ~ due to feature on MTV and stamp their un-erasable mark on 2006. I want a red oneyou can have an orange one well you cant always get what you want! is the Odd shApEd mantra chanted as a dull grey world is assaulted with splatters of bold bright colour.
Their eclectic brand of energetic, rhythmic, funk-punk; jerky bass popping, powerful scatterbrained drumming and stabbing guitars bursting into vibrant melodies draws more fans along to venues already packed with a collage of characters.
Quintessentially British - just like The Beatles are rock, but aren't, Odd Shaped Head are punk, but aren't every half-baked crap band in the world could learn something from these guysthis single will be their road to fame. Excellent!! Lowcut Magazine, Denmark 06"
Their music is very upbeat and quite guitar driven. They are known for their energetic live performances and have had two videos shown regularly on MTV2. Their songs are fast paced and very lively but aren't heavy at all. They gathered quite a large fan base due to their touring up and down the country and the music that they play. they have taken inspiration from bands from the 80s, this is reflected in the upbeatness and use of synthesizers in their songs. They released their debut album, 'I Wonder How This Endeavour Will End?', in 2007 but have not had much success since then. They have a very similar sound to the band The Futureheads.
Technical Convention:
- Band Shots - Shots of the whole band or members of the band. Shots of them performing.
- Shadows, mise-en-scene reflects the atmosphere of the song. Equal division of shots upon each band member or a focus on one key member.
- High, bright and special lighting for pop videos.
- Many high/low angle shots and close-up/extreme close-up shots .
- Occasional animation and video special effects (e.g. CGI and green screen).
- Colour effects are sometimes used, often monochrome/black and white.
Narrative:
- Balanced with performance/cut into performance/ merged with performance.
- Amplifies lyrics.
- Illustrates simple lyrics.
- Disjuncture - unrelated to the lyrics of the song.
Intertextuality:
- Refers to the process where one media text takes idea from another, like a parody.
- Borrowing of images, narratives etc and reconstructing them can be seen as post-modern.
- Draws audience into text, they can recognise elements.
- Not all of the audience will spot or understand the references.
Representation:
- Glamour/pop/rock n roll lifestyle.
- Playing out the popstar lifestyle in the video.
In the 1960s, a tv show called Top of the Pops made its debut. On the show, they showed top artists performing live songs every week. This was the first tv show to regularly show musicians playing songs on television.
Music videos created in the 1960s would always include the artist and would mainly consist of band shots. The Monkees were a constructed band that had their own television show. Their videos included many jump cuts and had a sense of surrealism and wacky comedy.
In 1975, Queen produced a promotional video for their song 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. This was the first time an artist had produced a full promotional video and it became the regular practise to make music videos after the success of 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
Zlad! - Supersonic Electronic
In the late 70s, Mike Nesmith from The Monkees created a video for his song, 'Rio'. This video spurred Mike Nesmith into creating the television show, 'Popclips'. It is considered the first of the music-video tv shows. Mike Nesmith is widely credited for creating the music video genre.
In the early 80s, the tv channel, MTV was created. It was a direct successor to 'Popclips'. On MTV music videos were played 24 hours a day and the early audience demographic led to a dominance of rock music. The success of MTV led to many other music-video channels to be created and the majority of songs would now be accompanied by a promotional video.
The Human League - Don't You Want Me
I chose this video as it is a very good music video and has great narrative and performance parts to the video.
The availability of music videos was increased by greater convergence. The creation of YouTube, iTunes and the advancements in mobile technology means that music videos are much more widely available.
The Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up
I selected this video as it is one of my favourite music videos from the 90s. It is also a very controversial music video as it shows drug use and naked ladies.
Nowadays, there are a wide range of music channels covering various different music genres.
Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball
I chose this video as it is a very controversial video from 2013. It has made many headlines and has been criticised or loved by many people.
