Come Together//Echo Smith Case Study

Come Together

// Ecosmith

     I’d say that the genre of “Come Together” (CT) displayed in the music video is indie pop. This is because the band suits the stereotype of this genre. For example the band all stands in a room with guitarist, drummer, keyboard and singer. This stance is seen in many indie pop videos for example blink 182’s “All the Small Things” video and Green Day’s “American Idiot”. As seen below.

 Blink 182

Echo Smith

 Green Day

     Genre characteristics can be seen in all music videos. The idea is that it allows a visual representation of the type of genre the song and/or band belongs too. For example it is common, as seen in the last slide, for rock bands to have a stage set up style of the group performing; similarly it is common in rap videos to have visuals of North and Latin American ghetto’s as well as the rapper themselves as the centre of attention surrounded by money, materialistic goods and attractive, barely clothed, young women. The reason directors of music videos so this is to hone on to the target audience and visualise their fantasies of what they want to be and offer them a guideline to their self identity. This therefore makes the music video effective as the viewer sees what they believe to be “cool”, what they wish to be and how to shape their image to achieve this image. Thereby making the viewer wish to see more videos and see more songs.

Music is used by people as a method of escaping their lives and therefore living in a fantasy, their fantasy which can be unique and personal; or can be generic and relatable. The music video can give a visual representation of these fantasy’s and can often be used to create a narrative, fantasy or a behind the scenes look at a band “off camera”. By using the music video as a method of creating fantasy the viewer can help to build their own story within their own head and steal ideas from what is often cons cued as the artists fantasy, however is usually the fantasy the director sees when listening to the song. This is why music videos are often far fetched however share common conventions and inter-textual references, drawn from personal experience, pop culture and (often in rap) rivalry with fellow artists.



This is a poorly shot home video, from YouTube, of Seth MacFarlane's adult comedy, American Dad. Pictured is the main character Stan fantasizing a narrative in his head while listening to a song by his favourite band. This nicely represents the point of people making their own ideas and connotations of songs and the meanings of them.
This is Eminem's music video to "Like Toy Soldiers". The track is about rap rivalries and the use of music videos to express these rivlaries. The track and music video also acknowledges at the end the lives lost due to these rivalries including such names as Notorius B.I.G and Tupac Shakur.

Screen Shot of the dead rappers who lost their lives to gangs and rap rivalries rife within the industry in the 1990's.

The idea of fantasy is seen also within Echosmtihs' video. However it seems to become more of a sexual fantasy coming from the older teacher towards the young female in the group. The notion that sex sells is becoming increasingly popular and began in the 1980's with artists like Madonna and Kylie Minogue. The young girl is used as a sexual object throughout the video for male fantasy; the video, like many pop music videos, is targeting young males with the age range of 13-25 but will satisfy men of all ages with the links to "sex sells" tactics.

This can be seen in modern day also as the best selling artists these days are mainly young women barely over 20. For example Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry and Rihanna amongst others, all of whom have one common theme: music videos with them center stage dancing around barely clothed with focus on their large breasts and bottoms.
Nicki Minaj's latest release "Anaconda". The music video is all about boobs and bums and is used as one giant inuendo for sex, the track peaked at number 2 on the US billboard chart.

The LP cover for Nicki Minaj "Anaconda"

"Sexercize" The 12th track on Kylie Minogue's latest studio album "Kiss Me Once". The album and track names and content are clearly using sex and sexual innuendo's to sell the album.



Miley Cyrus' notorious 2013 VMA awards performance with Robin Thicke. The video gained 3 million views on YouTube and through the star from Disney star to celebrated sex object/recording artist.

The vastly superior age of Robin Thicke (37) from Miley Cyrus (22) is very similar to the sexual references in the music video for Come Together by Echo Smith where the much older teacher has a strange and inappropriate attraction to the young female student.

This symbolises the direction the music industry is heading where something such as Miley's "Twerk" is deemed perfectly accpetable on a man who would have been 31 when Miley reached the age of consent is perfectly capable of having someone that much younger than him perform highly publicized, soft core sexual acts on him; whereas the teacher in Echo Smiths music video would have been handed a prison sentence for something equally as inappropriate. Regardless of the consent from the female.

However girls are not the only ones using the tactics of sex sells and using women as objects within the music industry as we can see from Robin Thicke's "Unrated" music video of Blurred Lines featuring Pharrell Williams. (The following video contains strong nudity)
 

Here we see Thicke (37) and Williams (41) dancing around with girls half their age completely naked, the video has no narrative, no effort into the production; it can only be described as soft core porn, yet this is the way music videos are made in the 21st century. It would seem that females in the music industry have suffered a nose dive from grace within the music industry from the 40's where females were still desireable within the industry without being literally naked.

Similarly one hit wonder Eric Prydz achieved great commercial success with his track "Call On Me" which also features a highly sexualised music video.
This message is put across within the Echo Smith music video where the lead singer is slightly sexualised and the older male teacher is literally going crazy over her. However the pink lip stick and little use of herself as an actual sex object (ie the lack of nudity) seems to be a throw back to the days when women didnt have to be naked to be famous in the music industry.

However this isnt always the case and some female artists have achieved great success from their natural talent without the necessity to rely upon looks; for example Adele and the late Amy Whinehouse. Both now considered cult legends of the British music industry who's image and grace is similar to that of stars of the 1940's such as Ella Fitzgerald.

 Amy Whinehouse

 Ella Fitzgerald

Adele

Sydney Sierota (EchoSmith)

The location of the music video is set in a high school where the band members are in “Saturday detention” which is an American phenomenon. This links heavily with the 1985 film ‘The Breakfast Club’. The synopsis of The Breakfast Club (TBC) states ‘Five high school students, all different stereotypes, meet in detention, where they pour their hearts out to each other, and discover how they have a lot more in common than they thought.’ The key word to highlight here is stereotypes. This shows that the music video created by Ecosmith is supposed to represent a stereotype of youth music and behaviour.

However the music video also stereotypes the lead singer into what females of the music industry are represented as in modern times. According to Goodwin’s theory the visuals are representative of more than just a narrative to accompany the song and in this instance, the singularity of the female lead singer, front and centre stage in nearly every frame, is the main focus of the music video simply because sex sells. Many of the angles and shots have a sense of voyeurism to them with the microphone not being sung into but being used as a method of seduction and male fantasy, mainly being made to make the viewer imagine the microphone as a penis.

 This has strong links to the 20th century novel ‘Lolita’. Lolita was based on an adult male “Humbert” who has a strange infatuation towards a 12 year old girl he nicknames “Lolita”. The two subsequently tour North America and Humbert bribes her for sexual favours. This is relevant to the music video as the teacher appears to have similar feelings of lust towards the lead singer and she is made out to be a sexual figure desirable to mean young and old.

Still from Lolita (1997)

The Breakfast Club (1984)