TEXTUAL ANALYSIS ‘WHEREVER YOU WILL GO’ BY

THE CALLING

I decided to do a textual analysis of wherever you will go as the song is sung by the same artist who’s song I chose to do for my music video.

The calling are an alternative rock band from Los Angeles, California.

The music video uses a mixture of narrative and performance throughout though the artist is not part of the narrative. The girl gets a tattoo of her boyfriends name but when she returns home she sees him in bed with another women, the girl then proceeds to smash the living room up and you see close up’s of the artists faces to show the passion in their face as they sing the song. The girl then moves on with her life without the boy and meets a new boy, the guy from the tattoo shop and her old boyfriend watches her and her new boyfriend from his car. The song is passionate and people can relate to it with many different experiences, for example in the video the girl sees her boyfriend cheating so that could be one reason why people relate to the song, break-ups but the song was actually written about a man who died and his wife of over 50 years was left hear-broken so 2, death and therefore many people can relate to it. The performance part of this song is separate from the narrative as the artist is not part of the actual narrative.

LANGUAGE

The song talks about heartbreak, something most people in the world can relate to, whether it is the loss of someone from them passing away or a break-up.

The song was written by Aaron Kamin, he wrote this song about his cousin who passed away. His cousin and his cousins wife had been married for over 50 years and he just wanted to put himself in her shoes, losing someone after being together for so long.

Kamin also refers to the September 11 attacks that occurred only a few months after the song's release. He said that the song has "become more relevant in our lives as the world has changed recently. It's been rekindled even more so for us, I think, right about now.

A deep understanding can be taken from the lyrics because everyone knows someone who has passed away or have lost someone close to them in some kind of way.

The song has a strong beat showing that people need to remain strong through the hard times.

IDEOLOGY

The ideology promotes the values and beliefs of the band.

The band could be seen as rebellious as the characters in the video have tattoos and long hair, this goes against the norms and values of society.

Another reason why the band could be seen as rebellious is because the location is set in an almost empty canal that is covered in graffiti, a place where most ‘normal’ people would not go as it is dirty and seen as a place where delinquents go to hang out and break the law such as grafting.

The ideology of the video also shows the audience that you can not trust everyone, even people you love as the girls boyfriend is cheating on her with another girl.

INSTITUTION

The label that the band is signed to is RCA records. RCA Records is an American flagship recording label (alongside Columbia Records and Epic Records) of Sony Music Entertainment. RCA saw continued success with artists such as Christina Aguilera, Dave Matthews Band, the Foo Fighters and Kings of Leon.

Early in the 1990’s the label became part of the RCA Music Group which also included Arista Records and J Records. The company was headed by Clive Davis until April 2008.

Clive Davis (born April 4, 1932) is an American record producer and music industry executive. He has won five Grammy Awards and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer.

In 2004, BMG and Sony merged their music holdings into a joint venture called Sony BMG.

AUDIENCE

The audience of the music video is statistically young people as more younger people watch music video’s than older.

The band is classed as alternative rock and statistically most alternative rock fans are white, male, aged between 16 and 25 and therefore are mainly students.

REPRESENTATION

The music video was created to sell the song as well as show the audience who the artist is and essentially sell the artist too as all the band members are in the video at some point. The band members are not part of the narrative.

The video is shot in darker lighting, representing the video and song to be sad as something terrible might happen.

The artist is represented as confident because they stand strait and look intensely at the camera.

The video is represented as rebellious as the characters are covered in tattoos and the main characters boyfriend is cheating on her with another woman.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

The lighting in the video is dark showing the audience that the song is sad and something bad has happened.

The close-ups show the emotion on the lead singers face as he sings the song in the performance element of the video. The close-ups are also used to emphasise the performance aspects of the video as you can see the artist actually sing.

The high angle shot suggests that something else is bigger and more powerful than the girl the people are small and have no control over what will happen, again, reinforcing the idea of something bad happening.

The low angle shot makes the woman look powerless, but the artists is powerful because he knows something bad is happening.

MISE-EN-SCENE

In relation to the mise-en-scene there is a few locations used! The main location is the old, almost empty canal that youths have used to spray-paint all over. This location was used to emphasize the darkness and sadness of the song.

The narrative part of the video has a range of locations such as the bedroom and the tattoo shop, this gives the video verity and keeps the audience engaged through location change.

The red top that the woman is wearing signifies both love and hate. The girl gets a tattoo of the boys name because she loves him but hates him in this picture as he cheats on her.

The lighting in the video to signify the pain that the woman is going through in relation to her boyfriend cheating on her and having to move on.

EDITING & SOUND

The video used continuity editing and edits to the beat of the song. Throughout the video there is a mixture of both fade transitions and jump cuts to give the audience a feel of being part of what is going on.

The sound in the video is purely the song although the beat does get stronger when the narrative gets more intense. The lyrics are sung with passion making them seem louder when the girl catches the boy in bed with another girl and starts to smash things in the house.