Music Video GenresKings of Leon- Sex on Fire

Aaron Phelan

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Introduction

• I am studying "Kings of Leon-Sex on Fire" looking at how the conventions of music videos are used or broken in the video. The song follows the convention of the alternative rock genre, which I have chosen for my analysis of genres in music videos.

• In this presentation I will gain an understanding of how videos confine to their genres.

The definitions of Genre• Nick Lacey report from “Narrative and Genre” published

in 1999 shows a quotation from Lyall in 1975 stating “Genres can be defined as patterns/forms/styles/structures which transcend individual art products, and which supervise both their construction by artist and their readings by audiences.”

The statistics based on audience feedback on music genres

• Graeme Burtons “Burton’s Six Elements” states that genre has six elements. His elements of genre included:

• Protagonists• Stock Characters• Plots and Stock Situations• Icons• Background and Décor• Themes

• Genre is also used to define certain types of audience. Music producers often aim to sell their products to supporters of the genre. This means that the producers have to put certain consideration into the following:

- Locations- Characters- Mise en Scene- Narratives- Media Language- Ideologies

These conventions are very important. The image of the band and the style of music often influences whether the music is a success or not.

The Location:

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Mise en scene:

Black henBible being readRips pages from the book at one point

Based in an old industrial warehouse

The Structure of the music video

Characters:

The bandBible ReaderBlack Cockrel

Narrative:> The story is not really related to the song as it has a different storyPerformance based narrative with lead singer trying to fight off his demons.

Media language:>Dynamic use of editing used to show different angles of the drummer who doesn’t move much.>Focus on close-ups at the start of the video with the lead singers face.>Medium and Long shots of band performing

Ideologies>References to love and religion in video.>Anti-Religious with actor tearing up pages in the Bible.

Kings of Leon’s ImageKings of Leon’s image projects them as rebellious alternative rock stars who abandoned their family and religious heritage.

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We can see that Kings of Leon are a band who have a religious upbringing. We notice that when the lead singer is shown wearing a cross. On close up shots in the video we see the cross quite prominently. The tearing of pages from the bible is quite provocative and suggests anti religion.

The band were formed in 1999 by three brothers and their cousin. They have tried out different styles of music in each of their 5 albums. They give the image that they are not trying to be too popular on the radio and focus on there music. They are laid back and willing to add different genres into each album. They have tried country, angular post-punk and rock in their albums. Their recent album colour a picture of the genres they follow and that meant they could have a gamble due to the last albums success.

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