Music analysis 2

Dancing on Nails (We Are Harlot)

Video Analysis

The song Dancing on Nails, by We Are Harlot an American hard rock super group formed by the lead singer, Danny Worsnop formerly from the band Asking Alexandria, who work under the record label Roadrunner records. This song was the second single of their self-titled debut album released in 2015 and presents the band’s first music video. The whole album combines various music elements into their songs but seems to revolve around one subject, as the lead singer said “the whole album is basically about sex!”, the singers passion for this came from the love of his new relationship.

The first 22 seconds of the video consist of the music video consists of a montage of images including close –ups and longshots of the equipment as the band sets up and how the band play their instruments. The angles are mainly straight, however they use a high angle on the drummer to display more of his instrument. These shots are very quick so there is no obvious camera movement, but there is a slight pan in the long shot.

During this montage they use clean cuts and invisible edits due to the fast pace of the shots, however between one or two of the transitions they use a bright flash of light to give off a strobe lighting effect. Within these 22 seconds we are able to see most of the mise-en-scene of the video. The video is mainly located in a large hall, so that we can see the band and all their instruments. There is low-key lighting in this scene as the light sources are artificial, such as the chandeliers and the studio lights in the background. This type of lighting makes the band look intimidating, which fits in with the genre of the music, as stereotypical rock bands are thought to be quite intimidating. This is furthered through the use of a black and white filter, as it makes the band seem cold, as these colours do not allow the audience to connect with the band to some extent. The costumes of the band consist of boots, leather jackets and jeans mainly making them look rough, which is emphasised by the bands hair styles. However, the lead singer wears a blazer which gives off the impression of sophistication, contradicting the stereo typical view of a Hard Rock band. During this montage we see most of the facial expressions of the band in close-ups, this helps us to see the passion of the lead singer and how the rest of the band are fun yet edgy, in essence through close-ups we are able to see the personality of the band members. The main props in the video are the bands expensive equipment and instruments, which creates the impression that they’re a professional band who are very talented which is presented in the way they use these props. The main colour presented in this video is black as it is dark but it is also a stereotypical feature of the genre which is rock, so by using this colour viewers are quickly able to recognise the genre of the video.

A relationship is presented between the music and the visual as the dark, dirty studio atmosphere amplifies the rough sounding effect we get through the singers voice. Furthermore, the edits are taken to match the music as they cut at every other beat of the first instrument that plays in the song. In addition, at the start of every chorus they cut to a close up of the drummer, as there is a strong drum beat, this then switches to a long shot of the band, this technique creates a strong link between the visuals and the music, because there is repetition of similar images at the beginning of each chorus.

These mise-en-scene features and shot types carry on throughout the rest of the video, however slower paced edits are used, as the pace of the music slows down slightly. In doing this we are able to see more camera movements in the band shots, such as when they zoom into the lead singer, or when they reverse zoom on long shots of the band. During the video, short clips of a woman dancing blending into the wall are displayed which give off the impression of a concept based video meaning this is a hybrid between concept and performance.

The song is about how a woman makes a man feel like he is on edge through temptation, therefore there is a dominant ideology presented in the lyrics that woman are there as a type of sexualised object or man’s possession, so we are made to see them in voyeurism. This ideology of women being sexualised has been portrayed in the concept of the woman blending into the wall dancing, as it suggests the woman is there, but not physically as if the man can’t get to her. We are made to see the sexualisation of the female body in voyeurism as the camera does close-up shots of areas of the woman’s body, such as her breasts, which are seen to be highly sexualised. Through using this ideology the video follows Laura Mullvey’s theory of the “Male Gaze”, as we, the audience, are put in a position where we are meant to be tempted by her body, in order to relate the lyrics to the visuals.

The Genre of this music is hard rock. Typically, this genre is stereo typed to be quite rough, so people expect to see tattoos, piercings, messy clothes, dark colours and possibly violence. Therefore, the video uses Iconography through following some of these stereotypes in the colour black, the leather jacket and the scruffy appearance of the band members. This idea is furthered by the strong actions of the way the band members use their instruments, making the video appear quite violent as their muscles seem to be quite tense i.e. in the way the lead singers face can display veins, which imposes the idea of passion within the video.

This video only partially follows Andrew Goodwin’s music video theory. This is because it fulfils the typical genre expectations and displays the looking theory through the male gaze as explained earlier. However, there is no link specifically between the lyrics and the video, because this is mainly a performance based video. Furthermore, the video does not display any intertextual references, which opposes the theory, I am confident in this idea as no references have been found by their fans on the website YouTube, when they discuss the video in the comments section. In contrast, it does follow the theory as it uses many close-ups of the artist in order to promote them, which follows the needs of the record label that We Are Harlot belongs to. Therefore, this video is limited in the way that it applies Goodwin’s theory as it uses some of the concepts, but not all of them.

Digipak:

Above I have displayed the front cover of their album as it is part of their digipak. The cover uses dark colours in the background with many patterns, giving off the impression off tattoos or graffiti, in order to be able to associate this band with rock. The symbol around the band logo appears like a car logo or a sunset, as this is a new band it could sugget an end to a previous era for the lead singer this may be the previous band he was in, however it also seems to represent a journey. The fact the album is self-titled allows promotion of the band and continuity through their products, which helps to settle the idea of the new band to their growing fan base, as we can see in youtube comments that fans are already preffering Danny’s new band to his old one. Finally, the mustard yellow colour of the logo seems strange, as it appears to juxtapose the rock genre, because yellow is seen as a happy colour, however as it is a dull yellow it gives a retro impression which kind of suits the tone of voice of the lead vocalist.