Alternative rock is a genre of rock music that came about from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s. Most commonly associated with distorted guitar sound, transgressive lyrics and nonchalant attitude. It's main descendant is from punk rock being this "out-there" style of rock.
I really enjoyed this music video as it is so different from many other music videos created. It was designed to be a powerful thought provoking video of the stories of people who have suffered and the song is their relief from this suffering. The video released in May 2013 was dedicated to a young lad called Tyler who was fighting cancer at the time. It portrays multiple stories of the members of the crowd at a gig listening to the song, it shows how personal the song is to every individual and how it means something for everyone. The use close ups on the crowd members then to the flashbacks of their lives during each verse a new crowd member is shown which shows how widespread the message the song is portraying is.
The use of a crowd at a gig and the band all playing is classic of the rock genre and shows exactly what the bands genre is; and yet the song being so different changes the genre to that of an indie-rock as the normal genre conventions are too different to be just of the rock genre.
Not necessarily the beats of the music but the lyrics themselves are in time with when the shots change and it shows how the lyrics relate to whats being shown. For example the lyrics "I can't escape this now" is in the flashback of the soldier where he can't escape the moment and he must fight on and yet as the lyric finishes he is stood back in the audience as though the song has let him escape from the situation.
I feel like a music video like this touches everyones heart. With making it personal and generic at the same time by choosing certain members of the crowds stories and situation it allows the audience to become personally affected by the lyrics as well as what is happening. It creates a powerful message which with the final scene of the lead singer looking into the camera emphasises the connection to the audience as though he is looking into you.
Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon
The video released in October 2009 was a big success with record sells for the alternative rock genre, I really like this video and song as it is different from many songs released at the time. It became really iconic of alternative rock at the time.
The story follows that of the lead singer as he tries to deal with mental visions as he begins to wake from what looks like a nightmare. So when the music begins he is led down as it says in the lyrics "here where your laying" as though he is the person he is talking about. Whilst the guitar follows the transitions of shots and the drum beat follows the guitar so unlike most music videos it doesn't follow the beat but that of the change of guitar.
The use of many band shots and focus on the band members makes this video iconically rock based and this leads to an audience knowing that the genre is rock and yet the difference from the original genre conventions and how the song sounds leads to it being a alternative rock and this leads to the music video being changed in many ways and doesn't mean the video has to lead by any specific conventions.
The location of both the story and the live performance of the band is in the same place and this leads to a connection between the band and the song for the audience as the lyrics relate to whats happening in the story of this nightmare possessing him and the music is obviously played by the band but this being in the same place is as the the characters in the story are reacting to the song being played by the band. The similar lighting makes the connection obvious.
Biblical By Biffy Clyro
This music video was released in March 2013. The song itself is a story of how the two sides of a person can always lead to destruction of himself. As he replays he life over and over again the same moment he still comes to the last conclusion of getting beaten up even though the first time he was being a rebel and breaking things then he was the caring person giving money to the receptionist etc. This is why the song was called biblical as though it is the two sides of Jesus, The disruptive rebel king who dissed authority and then the healing Jesus who gave money to the poor; either way he still got crucified. Such are the lyrics "baby if you could would you go back to the start".
There isn't any portrayal of the band itself and this means that it isn't obvious as part of the rock genre just by looking at the music video except the use of the chorus coming in with relation to what is happening in the music video such as when he rips open the curtains and the moment where he smashes the window are all in time with the chorus and the drumbeat so the audience automatically relates this to the video.
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