Music analysis 2

Moving On by Asking Alexandria

Video Analysis

The song Moving On is a power ballad by the English Metal core band Asking Alexandria. Asking Alexandria run under Sumerian Records who helped to release this song as the sixth single on the bands third album “From Death to Destiny”, which was released in July 2014. The song is about the band without all the typical rock conventions such as the drugs, sex, partying or script, but it is about how the band are away from home and missing their families, which lead to one of the guitarist (Ben Bruce) stating that the song made him feel vulnerable as it is about their true feelings. To relate to this, the music video displays the band on tour, with between shots of the band reuniting with family and displaying messages such as, “Thinking of you always”.

The video opens with a long shot with a pan movement, which has dark lighting of the guitarist stepping out onto the stage. This could represent the members opening up about their feelings of being on tour. It then cuts to the band members in a long shot walking towards the camera in slow motion with a black and white filter. Here we can see the costumes of the band members display a lot of dark clothing as a conventional colour of a rock video is black. Some of the costumes have cut of sleeves to display the band member’s tattoos who can also be seen to have long hair in order to enhance the rough appearance. The camera then cuts to a close up of the lead singer in order to use match on action editing to cut to the band in concert. The music then matches the visuals as through the long guitar solo there is a few close ups of the guitar being played. In this solo, there is short cut-outs of the bands backstage footage, which all have a black and white filter. This filter implies that the band are not as happy as they appear on the colourful stage, because they are homesick. The location of the backstage atmosphere is quite vacant and open space this could be to amplify the emotions we get from seeing the black and white filter, in contrast to the vibrant atmosphere of the stage location where you can feel the excitement of fans, which helps the audience to feel included in the event as if they’re experiencing this thrill for themselves.

The video uses fades when cutting from one image to another which leaves a short sense of superimposition. From this it is suggested that all band members share the same feeling of home sickness between them, as it kind of displays the band as a unit. There is a tracking long shot of the tour bus on the road with the same black and white filter in order to illustrate the meaning of the lyrics to a further extent, and to demonstrate that tour life is not everything that it is usually seen to be.

At one point the prop of a cigarette is used in order to demonstrate how it is very stressful for the band members, who are expected to withhold a certain image and impress fans at the same time. Furthermore, there is the prop of the cell phone shortly after this in order to imply how it is hard for the band members to get into contact with their loved ones. These feelings can be matched by the behind the scenes facial expressions of the band who look tired like they have given up hope, which helps to relate them with the lyrics when it says “I’ve never felt so hopeless”.

This video strongly relates to the rock genre and its conventions, as the audience is made to see a stereotypical view of their expectations for this genre. First of all, in the costumes there is a lot of black, as rock is expected to have quite dark meanings and emotions. Furthermore, there costumes are torn and damaged to imply the view that rock artists are meant to be rough. This idea of roughness from the band members can be further implied through the props of the cigarette and the alcohol bottle displayed at certain points in the video, as the rock genre is often related to the topics of sex, drugs and alcohol. Finally, I think that the most obvious way that the video can be related to the rock genre is the actual setting of it. Rock music videos are often thought to happen in live settings which would explain the footage of the band in concert. In doing this the band excites their fans as they make them feel involved in the experience, which could promote Asking Alexandria as a band.

The music relates to the visuals as the rough tone of the singers voice shows pure emotion, which relates to the black and white visuals displayed from the band missing their homes and leaves the band looking vulnerable. Therefore, the vulnerability in the raw emotion of the singer’s voice reflects the vulnerability that we can see they feel in the video. Furthermore, the music relates to the visuals as when it is clear that a certain instrument is playing, or when it over powers the other instruments, that instrument appears in the visuals, for example this is shown many times by the superimposition of the guitar when there is a guitar solo. The editing is not fast paced in order to match the rhythm of the music therefore, it cuts every four or eight beats of the drums. Finally, the editing is not too drastic, as a lot of fades are used between shots in order to display the smooth rhythm of the music.

Andrew Godwin’s theory applies strongly to this music video as it includes most of the aspects of this theory. First of all, the music relates strongly to the visuals through matching the instruments and vulnerability with what we see on screen, as explained in the above paragraph. Furthermore, the lyrics match the visuals as the lyrics explain how the band are feeling lonely and homesick while they are on tour. In addition, the music video reflects the genre of the music through the signifiers of the conventions of rock, such as the live performance and the dark clothing and lighting as explained above. Finally, the music video fulfils the needs of the record label through displaying many close-ups of the artist in order to promote them. However, there are parts of the video that do not follow this theory. We cannot identify any intertextual references within the video, which I am confident in as no intertextual references have been identified by their fan base in the comments section on YouTube either. In addition, there is no obvious reference to the notion of looking meaning that the video does not follow this theory completely unless you count the fact that we, as an audience, are looking into the bands life and their feelings of being on tour. This also means that Laura Mulvey’s theory on the Male Gaze is not being followed as there are no females present in the video other than one of the band members girlfriend.

Digipak

The first thing that becomes noticeable when looking at the album cover is the black and red colour scheme as from this the audience can identify the genre as being rock straight away. The writing and font on the cover is the logo of the band, which helps to create convergence and continuity across all of their products, which helps fans of the band to easily recognise that this is one of their products. The girl in the background is an intertextual reference to one of their other music videos, the death of me, which I have analysed previously. This also creates a sense of continuity throughout this album. However, part of this girl is missing with a cracked effect around it, to make it seem as if it has been smashed, this could be to link to the violence associated with the rock genre, or It could relate to the meaning of the song as it seems the heart is missing and could relate to the saying “home is where the heart is”, so this could suggest how the band is missing home.