OneRepublic- Wherever I go

OneRepublic’s “Wherever I Go” was released in May 2016 and part of their “Oh My My” album. It was co-written by the band’s lead singer Ryan Tedder. The album was released under the record labels Mosely Music Group (founded by Timbaland) and Interscope Records. Mosely’s distribution moved from Interscope to Epic Records in 2014 with all artists except OneRepublic making the switch. They are described as pop rock.

The video begins with two establishing shots of a city. The first looks down from a high angle over the dull, grey city. In the second shot, the camera still positioned high in the sky but now at a horizontal angle emphasises the general tallness of this city, with many skyscrapers. The impression created is a dull one and the skyscrapers suggest it is very functional and task focused but not fun. The diegetic sound of busy traffic supports claims of this being a productive city. Over the two shots are some lines of text, on the first is the band’s name and on the second is the song name. Above both of these is Asian writing which we assume is the same thing. Seen as the band are American and have no obvious connection to that part of the world, the audience are led to assume this is the setting of the video. It fits with the stereotype that the Asian culture is hardworking and labour intensive.

It cuts to a close –up of an alarm clock, buzzing at 6:00AM. This early time suggests it belongs to someone preparing for work. In the same shot a hand comes into the frame to switch it off. The motivated edit is then satisfied as we see a bird’s eye view of the person. It is a middle-aged Asian man still laid in a single bed which at this point could imply he is single or is staying over alone for work. A rhythm is established when the man opens his eyes as the music starts. We get a POV of him looking at his ceiling to show a piece of damp that looks like an unhappy face. This surely reflects the man’s current status, this is followed by a close up reaction shot. A mid shot shows him looking in the mirror while brushing his teeth and then a long shot reveals a large proportion of the space, zooming marginally. The colours of the paint and furniture are dull whites or greys. It looks neat but empty. A fortune cat and noodles reinforce the Asian stereotypes present in this video. In a close up of his feet, a row of only black work shoes denote the repetitive nature of his life. A goldfish in a classic round bowl is in focus in the foreground and we see the man exit in the background.

Now the cutting rate has begun to increase and the some cuts are synched with the beats of the music. Two consecutive mid shots show firstly the man waiting on a train platform with many other business men as they all board the train however he seems distant looking to his side past the camera. In the second he is stood on the train. Again his attention is diverted and there is a motivated cut to show what he is looking at. Through a crowded train, in focus at the back is a homage to the vintage Budweiser adverts, however this one exhibits the lead singers face. OneRepublic recently created a partnership with the beer company. Other than being product placement, the advert in the context of the video shows that the protagonist has a thirst to have a bit of fun for once, relating to their slogan “When there’s life… there’s Bud”. We see the man’s reaction and then a closer shot of the poster which makes the singer’s identity clearer. http://business.truebreakingnews.com/2016/05/18/why-onerepublics-ryan-tedder-posed-as-a-budweiser-pitchman-in-a-fake-classic-advert/

The setting has once again changed. Now he is in a lift, surrounded by colleagues. The camera begins to zoom and he leans to sniff a female co-worker who notices and looks perturbed. It shows he is desperate for love and the zoom creates a trapped feeling as if there is no escape for him. This is followed by a POV where the doors open to the office. A reverse shot again shows the doors opening with the man behind continuing the feeling of repetition. As the music picks up the atmosphere changes. A low crabbing shot of him walking precedes a close up of his face where there is a sudden look of inspiration as the camera zooms out. He drops his briefcase which bounces and the two times it impacts he ground are synchronous with the hitting of the symbol. The camera movement begins to increase after been motionless for the most part. First a longshot tracks in at pace and then a medium close-up tracks out. Andrew Goodwin identified an actively moving camera as a convention of a music video compared to the more passive film or TV. He flings away a colleagues newspaper showing he is no longer conforming to the rules and rebelling against the serious stereotype of the Asian population. There’s a cutaway to a packet of Asian branded crisps and the man proceeds to toss them at a different associate. Then the camera is positioned in the middle aisle of two rows of desks- the man is at the centre of a longshot which allows us to see that he begins dancing. A close up displays his expression of satisfaction. In a mid-shot of a woman sat at a desk, her coffee cup in the foreground is swept away and she looks staggered. In a separate longshot that tracks in, he throws it away. Two serious looking men step in from the side- the camera tracking in to a medium close up two shot makes them fill the frame, emphasising their size therefore implying they are intimidating. The blocking of the reverse shot places the protagonist between the two guards’ shoulders and connotes he is surrounded in this situation with no clear exit.

The following medium shot shows his response is to dance and a sweeping longshot which traverses horizontally on a slight arc. He slides between the two and all three men spontaneously dance in synch. He spins and points with conviction at something behind the camera. In the next shot, his pointed finger is out of focus in the foreground and a medium shot that tracks in shows a woman which tells the audience she is the subject and the advancing camera narrows our attention to her, foretelling something will happen. It indeed does and in the same shot her top tears in two as if by some magic force so she is left in her bra. This conforms to Andrew Goodwin’s convention of voyeurism and the female body. Sexualising them as objects, however the way in which this was done seemed to be more comical through the shock factor than sexual. This event corresponds with the climax of the song/ start of the chorus where Ryan Tedder sings falsetto.

Now, the whole office explodes into a choreographed dance routine. Many longshots allow us to take in all of this precise expression. Standing on a desk he does an amusing air thrust, heightened by the desk belonging to the only worker not participating in the huge dance number. This disgruntled worker protects his fortune cat. As he jumps down from the desk, there is blatantly a double used to perform the more complex dance moves. His height, build, hair and face is all different. The swap is so obvious it has to be on purpose for comical effect- a parody. At this point, the video is beginning to show its true colours. At the double spins out of frame, the real actor spins in. The blocking means that the protagonist would have had to teleport to the move the distance he did in so little time in order for us to actually believe it was the same person, adding to the comedy. He lands in an office chair and as he wheels towards the female from the lift scene, the camera (at the seated man’s eye line height) tracks right while panning left and begins to ped upwards to now meet the eye line of the woman and over the man’s head. She spins him around in the chair and pushes him away showing she has the power over him. His disappointed expression shows he has failed in his courtship. It corroborates with David Gauntlett’s theory of Girl Power in pop culture- women are taking a stronger, more assertive role and have no need for men. This also supports the decline of tradition in the media where women are no longer seen as the dependent housewife. Because he is pushed towards the direction of the camera it tracks back then it switches to a camera mounted on the back of the chair which maintains a steady close up of the back of his head. It makes the audience feel as though they are with him on his journey. Seemingly he is heading for a wall until it opens revealing a secret room with a lavish white, gold and black design. Here the band is presented for the first time in the video with a longshot doing a live performance. They appear only for the first time two minutes into the video that is 3:30 minutes in total. The closest shot type out of a few different ones is a mid-shot. This contradicts Goodwin’s idea that, especially in pop, there are many close ups of the artists and a focus on star appeal (especially the lead singer in the band as they are generally the most prominent).

The camera tracks back and short shots in quick succession which cut to the beats of the song show the central character being sucked back into the office. Up until this point, the video’s colour scheme has been bland to represent an office environment. The only hint of colour was on the Budweiser poster which obviously included the lead singer, Ryan Tedder. As the freshly inspired man leaps up from his chair, there is a seamless cut where everything in the office (clothes, furniture and walls) turn from dull greys to bright blues, oranges and pinks. I think the introduction of colour straight after the man experienced OneRepublic is meant to imply the band bring colour into your life with their music, reflecting the band in a positive light. It appeals to their fairly young target audience. There is a clear relationship between the music and visuals as the change happened as the song reached its most upbeat part. The video illustrates the mood in a visual format. The band are wearing coordinated, mainly black smart/casual outfits. They look fashionable which is conventional for all music videos but especially pop as it must reflect a stylish culture. The choreographed dancing is typical of pop videos. Now there is something close to a montage of people doing random dance moves and someone yo-yoing. These shots are punctuated with cross cutting to further live performance from the band. It breaks the stereotype mould that Asian people can’t have

fun and switch off from work. Amongst all the madness, the protagonist points to the approaching camera. We see in the subsequent shot it is his love interest- the one who has rejected him once already. In a MCU, she is shown smiling back. Three unrelated shots later a longshot from the side of the man in his same pointed stance captures him sliding across the office floor- how he is able to do this without moving or being pulled/pushed is hidden from the viewer like the technique used previously to rip off that woman’s shirt. In the same stationary frame except moved to a different position further down the office, he is flung into her arms- the smooth transition is amusing. The camera tracks backwards in a mid-shot as he sprints through the office. As he runs past sets of desks he triggers paper flying into the air and the explosion of computer screens and light

bulbs. A cutaway to a computer more closely highlights this. A rotating cut of the two lovers display their closeness. A green screen is used to implement an Anime inspired background- it has a characterised drawing of her in manga style alongside love hearts. This and the removal of the natural background shows how involved they are together and completely absorbed in each other’s company. Her pose is also a reference to Anime and that genre of course originates from Asia as is the setting of the video. The reverse of this over the shoulder shot exhibits him in a similar pose. Again he has his own manga character. The respective colours of the background (pink for the woman’s and blue for the man’s) are traditional stereotypes for gender associations. At the end of his sprint he leaps into the air. Once he is off the ground, the video goes into slow-motion so he hangs in a Superman like pose expressing the self-satisfaction he feels. Before he starts his descent the music stops and there is a ping of a lift arriving at the designated floor matched with an abrupt cut back to the lift scene from near the start of the video where he leant in to smell the woman. This scene plays out again but differently

with everyone but them two exiting the lift and she asks in Asian with subtitles “Are you getting off here?” before leaving herself. This is the first piece of diegetic sound since the opening establishing shots excluding live performance. Left frozen, the doors close on him and are representative of curtains being drawn at a theatre to signify the end of the show. Asian text wipes in from either side with the doors and is replaced with the English version which states the band name and song title. It implies to the audience that the whole video in-between these two lift shots was his fantasy and never took place. It is a sobering and sad ending that grounds us as he continues to be lonely having (in his imagination) found love. The fact it was a dream explains the magical force that allowed him to slide across the floor and undress the woman.