Monday, 20 September 2010

Thursday, 16 September 2010

A Brief History On Power Pop

Power pop (or powerpop) is a popular musical genre that draws its inspiration from 1960s British and American pop and rock music. It typically incorporates a combination of musical devices such as strong melodies, crisp vocal harmonies, economical arrangements, and prominent guitar riffs. Instrumental solos are usually kept to a minimum, and blues elements are largely downplayed. Recordings tend to display production values that lean toward compression and a forceful drum beat. Instruments usually include one or more electric guitars, an electric bass guitar, a drum kit, and sometimes electric keyboards or synthesizers. While its cultural impact has waxed and waned over the decades, power pop is among rock's most enduring subgenres.

Pete Townshend of The Who used the word power pop to describe their musical style. The Beatles, Buzzcocks, The Kinks and The Who heavily influenced the Power Pop genre.



In the 90's we had bands like Weezer who adapted the Power Pop genre to more modern standards, they paved the way for a new generation of bands.



We now come to the 2000's were we not have more modern bands such as Jimmy Eat World, All American Rejects, Simple Plan and Forever The Sickest Kids.

Initial Ideas

Magazine Advertisement Analysis: The Verve - Love Is Noise

The Verve's Love Is Noise album advertisement is very simple but yet very effective. You have to remember that this is a magazine and people tend to skip pages that are just full of text unless they are interested in reading it. This is very simple and gives you the name of the album and the artist in the centre and at the bottom it gives you all of the information you need to know such as when it is going to be released etc. The background used appears to be taken on top of a mountain and the clouds can actually be seen below the mountain which ties into the bands image perfectly because they are quite a relaxed band and they are something you can listen to when you just want something fairly chilled. The background is also sepia which gives it not a darker look but makes the obviously bright sun seem a lot calmer and tame.

Another thing that they are advertising is the fact that they are also releasing it on vinyl which is something a lot of artists are doing at the moment and it is also a good selling point because a lot of people like to use vinyl instead of digital downloads or CD's.

9 Frame Analysis: Simple Plan - Shut Up!


Shot 1 (0.05) - This shot is used to show the band as a group which is used to set up the next scene. The group is obviously young and they come across as any young adult does and can seem ignorant and what ever else people are labeled with these days. I think this is a good shot because it allows you to judge for yourselves what you think of the band and it allows the rest of the video to carry on from this.



Shot 2 - (0.38) - This next shot backs up my idea about the group coming across as ignorant, as you can see, Pierre is pushing his way through two security guards to get into this posh Restaurant which actually looks like a party. This also shows a difference in class which is more obvious when the video goes on.


Shot 3 (1.20) - You can see from above that there is a difference in class and the "Upper Class" people don't seem to want them there. They are actually covering their ears and shouting at the band to get out and as you can see the man shouting is acting very aggressive towards the band. I think that this could be showing you that there people in higher classes always think they are more important and seem to look down on those that don't fit in with them.


Shot 4 (1.28) - The image above shows an ice sculpture being kicked over and smashing on the floor, this could signify that young people are coming across reckless to older people even when they aren't doing anything. The video to me shows that people hold things over each other based on prejudices.



Shot 5 (1.31) - Now we can see that it starting to become a generation thing, while the older people are shouting and covering their ears we finally get to see the younger people and they are actually enjoying it. The image above show the young adults at the table and the ones in the background singing along and dancing to it. This to me shows that older people don't seem to understand what it is like fro kids nowadays, times move on and things change, people don't want to do things that they did when they were younger.


Shot 6 (2.30) - One of the bands crew members comes onto the screen and explains that they are actually at the wrong place. As the camera zooms out we see the "Upper Class" sat, this looks very pretentious and fake, to me this doesn't look fun at all and I think that the reason the younger people there were so happy is because they can be broken away from what they have been brought up in.


Shot 7 (2.47) - This shows that the audience in the place that they were supposed to be is actually enjoying themselves, you can see from their faces that they are having fun and liking where they are. Compared to those at the party who seemed bored and made to do it.


Shot 8 (2.59) - Shot 8 shows the crowed of people watching the band, as the camera sweeps around we can see two girls from the previous venue and also see the bell hop from outside the hotel. This shows that people don't want to do what they are made to. In the example of the bell hop, its his job to work where he does but it is not particularly something he wants to involve himself in in his personal life.


Shot 9 (3.13) - Yet again another shot of the crowed but this time we see more of them. Like I said previously you can actually see them having fun and enjoying themselves were as the people previously seemed fake. I have to admit that this is somewhere I would like to be and I would say that this video does show a slight ignorance with a lot of adults as they don't seem to understand that kids these days want to do things differently to how they were don't when they were young.

Shot Count: A Rocket To The Moon - Mr Right



  • There Are Approximately 130 Shots In The Music Video
  • The Pace Of The Video Itself Is Fairly Fast
  • The Video Uses Split Screen A lot Which Means That There Are More The One Shot On The Screen At The Same Time
  • The Video Links Into The Lyrics

Video Analysis: GNR - November Rain