Music vids

The music video for the song Clint Eastwood by the Gorillaz is an example of the special effects extravaganza. It shows the characters of the band each with their own cartoon character performing their songs. Each one of their videos are shown like this, and they do not show themselves in their music videos. There is reason for this, the Gorillaz are part of a visual project, in that they also create short cartoon strips, which follow the same animations as seen in their videos. This is part of their iconography as each live performance also shows their cartoon characters. The animation of the characters in the Gorillaz is very important as just by looking at a poster of the style of the animation it is obvious that it is the Gorillaz. Clint Eastwood was released in March 2001 as the first single from their debut album. In the UK it peaked at number 4 and reached number 57 in the US and according to the Official UK Charts Company this single alone sold 480,000 copies in the UK alone. The genre of the song is a mix of, hip hop, dub, electronic and rock. In the chorus of the song it says "I've got sunshine in a bag", which is a reference to the western classic ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’, in which the star who is, Clint Eastwood, is referring to a saddle bag of gold. The film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly stars Clint Eastwood as the main character, and though he is not directly named in the song, there are several references to him, the film and his saddle bag of gold, and the title of the song, was named after him. The video for the song won an award at the rushes soho short film festival awards in 2001, defeating entries from Robbie Williams, Fatboy slim, blur and Radiohead. The verses in the song are rapped by Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, who is being portrayed as a blue phantom throughout the video, while the chorus is being sung by 2D, The lead singer of the Gorillaz. In October 2011, it was placed at number 141 on NME’s list for"150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years" alongside The Verve, The White Stripes and Radiohead. The video has a running time of 4:30, which differs front he album which is around 5:45, but features a vast majority of backing track without talking over the top.

The music video was directed by Jamie Hewlett and Pete Candeland. It starts by showing the bands names ‘Gorillaz’ in what looks like paint written across the screen followed by ‘EVERY DEAD BODY THAT IS NOT EXTERMINATED, GETS UP AND KILLS, THE PEOPLE IT KILLS GET UP AND KILL’ In several countries this was deemed as offensive and a censored version was produced. In the background as this is shown, the yell from the theme tune to the good the bad and the ugly can be heard. The video swiftly moves direction as the characters of the Gorillaz appear in the plain white surrounding and begin to sing. 2-D is shown wearing a red and white top with has the words T-virus on it, which I can only assume is a reference to the film resident evil. As the chorus ends and Del goes on to sing his first verse, the white drop background disappears and the sky clouds over. Through his verse he stops on the ground and it opens up, cracking through the floor past 2-D’s feet which reveals tombstones and gravestones which burst out of the ground, as rain pours down and lightning strikes all around as the camera view pans round. As the camera looks over as some land as the lightning strokes over it, Gorilla hands burst from the ground, one grabbing Murdoc ‘a member of the Gorillaz’’ crotch, and pulls him to ground to which he instantly flees from, this is a reference to the zombie film Braindead by Peter Jackson . More and more gorillas burst from the ground, stand, and pursue Murdoc as he flees from them. Finally, after establishing he is unable to escape, he turns around to glare at them when they start a familiar dance routine. The dance routine is comically similar to that of the choreography in the video for Michael Jackson’s ‘thriller’, and as they continue to dance, Murdoc is struck by lightning. Noodle, the female member of the band is then shown skipping, blissfully ignorant to her surroundings and skips right up to one of the zombie Gorillas and kicks it into the air. Which ultimately defeats the zombie Gorillas and Del is then immediately sucked back to where he came from as the gorillas disintegrate. The band members are then left standing in the cemetery as the sun beams down on them. And to conclude the video, each member of the band is shown in a split screen with their names shown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoQYw49saqc

Getting nowhere is song by the electronic music project ‘Magnetic Man’. It features John Legend. It was released on February 18th 2011 and was the third single released from their debut album. Unfortunately it only made to peak to number 65 in the Uk Singles Chart but has been featured in several TV commercials and Is frequently at the attention of numerous remix’s. The music video for

Magnetic man – getting nowhere is also an example of the special effects extravaganza as it uses visual imagery throughout the video. The video is set in an urban surrounding, an abandoned, neglected city. It maintains strong biblical references throughout as it symbolises the modern day four horsemen of the apocalypse. The horsemen are represented by four BMX bikers wearing different coloured hooded jumpers, who’s reflections are horsemen.

They are seen biking through the streets where various incidents of the seven deadly sins occur. The four horsemen of the apocalypse are described in the last book of the new testament of the bible, called the book of revelations. The chapter talks about a book in God’s right hand that is sealed with seven seals. The Lamb of God (Jesus Christ) opens the first four of the seven seals, which summons forth four beings, riding out on red, black, white and pale horses. Although there are different interpretations of it, they are seen as war, famine, conquest and death. The Christian apocalyptic vision is that the four horsemen are to set a divine apocalypse upon the world to foretell the last judgement. The Antichrist is also shown in the video riding in black robes on an all black horse. The antichrist is said to have difference definitions, but is ultimately the one who apposes Christ. The antichrist is a person who will appear and deceive countless people near the time of Christ's return. The antichrist is associated with Satan and will be aided by demonic forces in his unholy movement against God and in his attempt to rule the world. In the video we see the use of famine as food is ridden with insects, and we see conquest through seeing the newspaper reading ‘world economy : getting nowhere’. There is heavy use of symbolism throughout which Is strongly backed by the special effects etravaganza

The music video for chase and status’s ‘blind faith’ i could only assume is an example of The enhanced performance. The video consists of a narrative, a story. The found-footage style video begins with a group of friends getting drunk and taking drugs, assumably just preparing themselves for the night ahead. While they’re doing this a news repost plays in the background about the police crackdowns on warehouse raves. As the night goes on they move along, firstly into a bar from the house which they were previously in, and we continue to see them taking drugs, drinking, being loud, and snogging random girls. When they get a tip off, pile into their cars and drive until they reach country roads, and finally fields in which they clamber out of their cars and move towards a large barn in which the party continues. The music continues in the barn as the music they are listening to as the illegal rave sets into motion and we see people dancing and jumping around. As the song comes to an end we see the people leaving, wondering out into the mist of the morning as fireworks are randomly set off and people start running around.