GENRE CASE STUDY

PENNY LANE/STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER

RELEASE/GENRE

The original two videos for The Beatles 'Penny Lane' and 'Strawberry Fields Forever' were both released in 1967 having both been filmed at the same location; Noal Parks in Sevenoak, Kent. Many of The Beatles early 'music videos' have been restored and released on DVD recently, including many of their performance videos, these two however are hugely similar in the fact they both are early beginnings of what we call a music video and hold many of the same aspects of the genre theory. 

Strawberry Fields Forever, written by John Lennon, is a nostalgic song about his early life in Liverpool just as Paul McCartney's Penny Lane is.

The genre of both pieces is ‘Psychedelic Rock’ however this is represented in both videos differently.

STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER BACKGROUND/LOCATION

The Strawberry Fields Forever music video was directed by Peter Goldmann, who also directed the promotional clip for Penny Lane. The film features a range of bright colours, various costumes and a strange set. The video features a piano to which McCartney, Starr, Lennon and Harrison helped pour paint over in order to create something almost kaleidoscopic to match the psychedelic rock genre of the piece. 

The location holds a fairly minimal background for the music, the effect of this being that the focus is held on the band and the use of colour throughout.

Tony Bramwell (the producer of this video and band assistant) helped in set design and was inspired by a comment made by a Klaus Voorman, a friend of The Beatles, after hearing the song he remarked "The whole thing sounded like it was played on a strange instrument". Bramwell agreed and decided to build upon the tree a "piano and harp combined with strings" to reflect the music style. In 2007, writing for the magazine 'Mogo', Harris thought the set design reflected the 'collision of serenity and gothic eeriness' of the music. 

The video has clips that run backwards, overlap each other, it has differing light

sources/lighting, repetition and also uses close ups of each band member. 

PENNY LANE BACKGROUND/LOCATION

Penny Lane was written as a response to Strawberry Fields Forever, the video features a realistic representation of the location in the song at the beginning with shots of the street signs and the green buses around the area. It later moves on to the same location as the previous video where the subject becomes slightly less realistic, featuring scenes of an outdoor tea party, and focusing more on the band members.

The footage of the band on horses around the streets was not shot in Liverpool, instead the filming took place in London, around Angel Lane. The broken shots of Lennon walking were also previously filmed around Kings road, Chelsea. The video is a montage sequence to begin with and moves on to a more steady narrative.  The location again is fairly minimal, however slightly different from the Strawberry Fields Forever video as it contains montage clips of different periods of time and locations.

John Lennon- “We really got into the groove of imagining Penny Lane — the bank was there, and that was where the tram sheds were and people waiting and the inspector stood there, the fire engines were down there. It was just reliving childhood.”

The promotional video for Penny Lane was chosen by New York’s MoMa as one of the most influential promotional music films in the late 1960s.

THEORY OF GENRECOMMERCIAL CONDSIDERATIONS

Denis McQuail suggests that ‘genre may be considered as a practical device for helping any mass medium (music) to produce productions consistently and efficiently and to relate to the production expectations of the customers’, in other words, Mcquail argues that the use of genre in promotional productions such as music videos are used for commercial reasons. He argues they help to maintain a loyal audience in terms of pushing the expected genre of the music.

Similarly, Steve Neale argues that ‘genres exist within the context of a set of economic relations and practices. Economic factors may account for the perpetuation of a profitable genre’. This argues that music/promotional videos are purely for the promotion of a bands music to result in inevitably profit.

It could be argued, that because the two Beatles’ music videos were originally ‘promotional videos’ that these two theories apply. However because these were early music videos, i.e they were not recognised as what we would call a music video that may be seen today, many of the other genre conventions still apply.

THEORY OF GENRE INTERTEXTUALITY

‘Genre is an intertextual concept' (argued by Katie Wales), directors often use references from various pieces of art, literature, film or history. For example, the 1967 Photo by artist Diane Arbus inspired the infamous ‘Grady twins’ from Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’.

The intertextuality in films often represents something of either the history of the piece, the art around the time or the time period itself. Intertextuality can also create deeper meaning to a piece, giving depth to the genre and adding another level.

For example, Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Django Unchained’ uses intertextual references from the film ‘Gone with the Wind’ from director Victor Fleming. Tarantino uses locations and shots almost identical to the 1939 film however, because the genre has been twisted to create something different the reference to the previous film gives the audience a new way of looking at the genre of the piece.

Because each of the Beatles’ videos are fairly early representation of music videos, the intertextuality is limited to the lyrics and atmosphere of the songs themselves. Although it could be argued that they each represent the history of the time period.

STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER GENRELIGHTING/COLOUR

The lighting throughout the Strawberry Fields Forever video is a mixture of diegetic light (the shot of Paul in the tree with the red lights and various shots of blue, green and white lights) and natural lighting, which moves from day, to early evening and finishes in darkness.

The use of the diegetic lighting at points in the video presents the psychedelic rock genre of the piece fairly well, the harsh lighting of the background set lighting creates an unusual and slightly dream-like atmosphere to the video. The lights are placed strategically as the camera moves around each band member, giving a spinning feeling that reflects the nature of the piece.

The natural lighting also presents this dream-like state. The use of the light moving from day into night gives a sense of passing time that slows the piece down, reflecting the psychedelic genre. There is also a point where Paul appears to change the natural light form day to night, this also heavily reflects the genre of the piece giving an unusual atmosphere and possibly leaving the audience slightly confused.

The colours used throughout this video are vibrant and change often(with around seven costume changes) this again reflects the chaotic genre of the piece and mirrors works of the bands such as ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’.

STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER GENRE CAMERAWORK/EDITING

Although the video for Strawberry Fields Forever does not feature the entire song, the camerawork and editing does reflect the piece as a whole whilst still maintaining the genre.

The beginning of the video features the band walking ‘backwards’ and ‘forwards’ (the clips have been reversed), the use of clip reversal happens again as Paul ‘jumps up’ the tree. This is reflective of the song, later on in the piece the track is played backwards, reflecting the psychedelic tone of it and creating something unusual. This unconventionality is also reflected in the excessive use of jump cuts, giving the illusion of a broken timeline.

Close ups of Paul and John are used overlapping the clips following Ringo and George. This gives the effect of something dream-like and allows for each of the bad members to be seen but still keeps with the conventions of the psychedelic genre. Here the edit and camerawork clearly fits the genre of the music.

PENNY LANE GENRELIGHTING/COLOUR

The lighting throughout the Penny Lane is, as Strawberry Fields Forever contains, mostly the natural lighting of the location used. Although the genre of the piece is still ‘psychedelic rock’ the lighting throughout the video reveals less of this than in the previous video.

It could be argued that the natural lighting of the locations was used to enhance the lyrics of the piece. The nostalgia of ‘Penny Lane’ is brought out by the use of lighting, and the audience get a feel for what life may have been like. The effect of this gives the audience a place within the song, allowing for the lyrics to be easily relatable even though they are fairly exclusive to the band.

This nostalgia is also reflected in the vibrancy of the colours, the vivid nature of each shot could reflect the memories portrayed in the lyrics.

The colours used throughout out the video also enhance the nostalgia of the piece. Red, blue, green and white are all used in costume and setting highlighting not only the colours that are prevalent within the song; with mention of ‘fire-engines’ and the ‘blue suburban skies’, but also could be an almost royal way of portraying the English countryside. The Red, greens, blues and whites all represent a something very British, this could be a way for the audience to again relate to the piece and to present the band’s nostalgia of the location clearly.

PENNY LANE GENRECAMERAWORK/EDITING

The Camerawork in the Penny Lane video is fairly conventional in terms of following the lyrics and the band.

The video begins with a shot of John, tracking him walking through the streets of Chelsea. These shots could be reflective of his reminiscing the streets of Liverpool (Penny Lane). These shots also places the audience with the band and allows for them to follow them as they follow the song lyrics.

The next few shots present the lyrics to the song, the barber shop, the Penny Lane sign and the band ‘stopping to say hello’. These shots all create a wider narrative to the piece and give the audience a visual of the nostalgic lyrics.

Later in the piece the band move to the same location as the Strawberry Fields Forever video, the camera continues to follow each with close ups and tracking shots of the band. This again places the audience with them and gives narrative to the lyrics.

The editing of the piece is quite similar to the previous video, however there are more jump-cuts. The jump cuts are very fast at times (fitting with the beat of the music) however often they are slow moving crossing to clips of either each band member or lyrical visuals such as the roundabout or policeman. There is also a reference to the psychedelic rock genre, through the edit. There is three of the same shot of John putting on his sunglasses, played consecutively creating a similar unusual atmosphere as that in the Strawberry Fields Forever.

ELEMENTS OF THE ZEITGEISTThe Beatles were hugely important in defining the zeitgeist of the 1960s, they reflected

many of the cultural changes of the period.

Beginning with the start of rock and roll they moved through the rock-pop songs reflecting the bouncy fun and love of the decade.

Later however as the Vietnam war continued it produced a more psychedelic phase of the Western World, the ‘hippy movement’ comprised of free will, love and peace held this genre together. This is heavily reflected in the video of Strawberry Fields Forever, the nostalgia of both videos also reflects the nostalgia felt by many of the period.

Both videos reflect life in the 1960s in different ways, with reference to the psychedelic aspects in Strawberry Fields Forever and the everyday life presented in Penny Lane.

Paul recalled “These videos and films are spectacular reminders of the time we lived in”.