For this essay I have chosen to analyse a track called
"Your Graduation" by pop punk band
Modern Baseball from Philadeplhia. The track is taken from their latest album,
"You're Gonna Miss It All", released on Run For Cover Records in 2014, and the music video was directed by Kyle Thrash.
Modern Baseball come under the broad genre of pop punk, but tend more towards an 'indie rock' side with the style of their other tracks- "Your Graduation" happens to be their most 'in-your-face' track, with other songs such as '@chlo3k' and 'Tears Over Beers' being a lot calmer and more indie, similar to other bands such as The Front Bottoms. The genre of pop punk, however, has general characteristics of youth angst, heartache, loneliness and bad times in the past whilst looking on to better things, and music videos are often performance based. "Your Graduation" is the
"stand out track" on the album, with high-speed instrumentals and more "hardcore" vocals, potentially widening the audience for the band, at Brendan Lukens discusses uncertainity, regret and his unfortunate luck in love.
Relationship between lyrics and visuals
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| "It's been three whole years of me, thinking 'bout you everyday" |
After looking closely into the video, meaning between the video and lyrics does become more apparent, as different representations could be drawn. Brendan, the singer who we are first introduced to, sings in an almost lazy, careless manner, which links to the hopeless undertones of the lyrics. The first lyric,
"It's been three whole years of me thinking 'bout you everyday, sometimes for hours sometimes in passing", is reflected by the video as he is shown with 8 different girls throughout the course of the video, and yet in all of them he has a completely blank expression on his face and is not looking at the girl(s). Zoom outs are utilised here to show that this mentality is a result of his surroundings. The lyric is illustrated through this as it shows how he has been unlucky in love and nothing is right unless he is with the person he has been thinking about for so long. Another potent lyric is when the narration-based lyrics spot Brendan's ex, the girl who he has been thinking about, on the stairs at a party "too drunk to stand" and wonders whether he will stay with the new man forever. At the end of the video, the scenario switches, and the girl is left looking blankly into the camera at her Graduation, an intertextual link, and Brendan walks away, as the band sing,
"Go ahead and walk away."
Relationship between music and visuals
The relationship between the music and the visuals is also quite apparent. The scenes cut to the beat and after each lyric, further enhanced when the drums kick in to keep the pace up, giving the piece more rhythm. In instrumental sections, the band is depicted playing in the street in front of a crowd of enthusiastic, typical fans of the genre, [2:11]. Notable areas where the pace of the visuals change are at the first chorus, at around 1:03, where cuts are regular after every few beats, and certain images such as a rainy night are shown, connoting the angst further, and at the end of the track where the drums become more aggressive, and the visuals reflect this with a series of fast-paced cuts to show different situations in the same room, possibly further depicting the turbulent relationship. Other notable cuts are at 1:14, where the screen goes black in time with a cymbal before the next line of the chorus. During the performance based sections, birds eye views are used where the drummer is looking up to the camera whilst singing or performing, and the audience looks down on the crowd in the street for the most part, which could signal how the singers are looking up for hope with regards to their unrequited love (1:39: "Remember all those countless nights where I told you I loved you.. oh just forget it!") Pans and other movements are used during the performance sections to represent how everyone gets into the song at around this section as it where it picks up, and cuts are much faster and more frequent than in the pre-chorus. Interestingly though, during the main instrumental at the end, at 2:17, slow-motion shots are used, to show the crowd and the skateboarder (stereotypically a characteristic of the genre) which could represent how people are lost in the music and are focused on having a good time and forgetting their troubles.
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| "Oh just forget it!" |
Does the video make use of close-ups of the Artist and Star Image Motifs?
Close-ups are used continuously throughout the video, both to detail the narrative and to create the star image motif- Modern Baseball are a relatively small band with a niche fanbase, and hence would look to expand on that by including performance based scenes in their video. By including scenes with the crowd passionately singing along, crowd surfing in the street and grabbing the artist, they increase the demand for the artist as it makes them seem more popular, but still keeps to the image the band wants to portray of themselves, such as the angst and meaningful lyrics. However the close-ups of Brendan are also used to detail the narrative and construct meaning, as he seems lost and blank in the repeated zoom-out motifs that are featured in the video. By contrast, Jake (the drummer) is portrayed more through the close-ups, as although like Brendan he is the only one that looks at the camera and connecting to the audience, he actually interacts by singing along during his sections, as he is not featured in the narrative side as such.
References to the Notion of Looking?
The references to looking in the video are not in a sexual manner as such, and the artist is not being highlighted prominently, but there is evidence of sexual display, for instance at the party, Brendan is shows centrally whilst everyone around him is enjoying the party, and notably there is a couple on his left kissing on the sofa. The main references to "looking" would be where Brendan looks into the camera and not around him, whilst the females are all looking/talking at him, and he does not see this as he is so fixated by the grudge-like resentment of his ex that is being portrayed.
Intertextual References?
There are a few intertextual references within this music video. The video could be compared to Modern Baseball's video for earlier single,
"The Weekend", which has a very similar structure, especially at the start where Brendan is centralised looking into the camera singing, which is likened to the sections where he looks blankly at the camera in Your Graduation. There is also a repeated image of the crowd enjoying themselves and having a good time whilst the band performs, drinking and such. The other intertextual reference would be the name of the song itself and how it is represented through the video- "Your Graduation" is not mentioned once in the song itself, leaving the audience to interpret why the song is titled this, from the video I have interpreted it to be the stage when the girl walks away from the narrator, as the video seems to regress backwards through the narrative to go back to the start- at the end, good times are shown in a quick montage before the roles are reversed and the girl, presumably the ex, is left looking into the camera, and is then left. The "Graduation" could be literal, or could represent finally finishing and moving on life. The beginning of the video is left unanswered as to meaning, but it features scenes that are displayed throughout the video, such as the swings, the skate park and the party.
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| "Go ahead and walk away." |
Is the Music Video performance, narrative, or concept based?
Videos of this genre are generally performance based with a very minimal narrative, however "Your Graduation" incorporates a much deeper narrative and a more varied performance based video. Instead of the band performing at a concert or tour like in other pop punk videos, the band are performing to a crowd in the street, quite intimately but also aggressively. The narrative allows for more meaning to the lyrics to be constructed and allows the audience to feel more of a connection with the artist, which could possibly lead to the development of sales and popularity increase.
To conclude, "Your Graduation" is a narrative and performance based video that portrays a turbulent end to a relationship and the issues that followed in its aftermath, and how it effected the narrator, but also how people can relate to and enjoy the music of the band.
