2. The Band
Biffy Clyro is made up of 3 men; Simon Neil, James Johnston and Ben
Johnston. The band originates from Kilmarnock in Scotland.
Biffy started in 1995 and has been signed to 3 labels over the 19 year period;
Beggars Banquet, 14th Floor and Roadrunner. These are quite unheard labels
which shows the bands more independent style of music.
They’ve released 6 studio albums, 3 of which reached the top 5 in the UK
album charts. Opposites which reached number one.
With the release of their fourth album; Puzzle, they reached out to new
audiences as they chose more ‘mainstream’ music as it had a lot more simpler
rhythms.
They have since headlined Leeds and Reading festival as well as headlining
Isle of Wight 2014 which I did go to and I only caught the end of Mountains
which was amazing,
They are renowned for the great live shows which make them festival favorites
and with songs such as “Mountains”, “Many Of Horror” and “That Golden Rule”
which are UK smash hits, they are well known.
4. Analysis of website
Same font
as on
Opposites
cover
Tab to see bands
live show photos
Tab to keep the
avid fans updated
on tours, news and
other stuff.
Simple and
sleek design
throughout the
website.
Clean and
fresh fonts to
make the site
seem
professional
and so the
band are
taken
seriously. Plus
it looks more
appealing
than a weird,
rock style font.
The website has a general sleek feel to it which is quite unconventional for the genre as it a bit
more “pop” but it works really well with the “Opposites” album design and the rock style is still
present with the homepage photo of Biffy at T in the Park as well as the design of the bottom half of
6. Album covers
This is from “Blackened Sky”; the bands first studio
album released. As you can see the band was a lot
more indie at the time of its release as the cover art is
more amateur and looks less artistic as the latest covers
do. The quirky cover is because of the bands more
unique and indie style at the time.
The “Opposites” album cover is a extremely well
designed piece of art that shows the bands progression
into mainstream rock and the UK charts. The difference
between this one and “Blackened Sky” is huge as
“Blackened Sky” uses much less graphical effects and
this cover is reminiscent of Salvador Dali’s melting
clocks artwork.
8. Biffy Clyro – Biblical
The music video for Biblical is about a man who is in a motel room
that is awaiting a phone call on his bed. When he receives the call,
he gets up and goes out.
The video shows the man receiving the phone call and leaving the
room twice. However, the first time, he is horrible and seems to not
care about anything as he pushes a man into the pool and then kicks
over a water cooler. The second time around he is nice and kind as
he helps a child out the pool and then gives the employee a huge
bundle of cash.
However, both times he is attacked by a group of three thugs as he
interacts by them and both times he accepts and takes the beating.
The video may be talking about how the inevitable will happen no
matter how you approach it and the thugs could connote death and
both times he approaches “life” differently and one of the main lines
in the song is, “Baby if you could, would you go back to the start”
Which is followed by, “take any fresh steps or watch it all fall apart…
again”.
9. Is the style generic?
The style of the video in terms of colouring is
perfect to the indie rock/alternative rock genre as
it is faded and drawn out colours which match
the themes and tone of the song as it is about life
and the bad decisions made along the way and
how when you live you have two choices; to live
it happily and be nice or be horrible and focus on
the doom and gloom.
The pace of the cuts match the pace of song’s
beat which works well in establishing the tone of
the video and song without having to listen to the
song.
10. Analysis
This is one of the opening shots of the video. This
shot establishes the setting the character is in so
we see that his life is not luxury and that he is or
will be in some kind of trouble as this is the
stereotype set upon motels.
This shot uses Goodwin’s visuals to music idea as
in the song a phone rings. As it does the video cuts
to a shot of the motel room’s phone as it rings away.
When the character gets up and leaves the
room, he pulls his curtains opens with
aggression. He does this in time with the beat.
This is again another example of Goodwin’s
idea of visuals to music.
11. Analysis
When the character walks through the lobby the
first time, there is a strong white light protruding
from outside. This could connote the “white light”
that we see before we die as he will soon be
attacked outside.
When he first gets jumped, the character looks
impatient as though he just wants to get the attack
or “death” over and done with and not take the last
moments in.
The second time that he goes through the lobby, the
lighting is a lot more high key and less gloomy. This
represents the positive side to this time around and he
walks a lot more confident and happy.
12. Analysis
As he awaits death the second time he sings the
song while having a grin as he walks. This is also
accompanied by the lens glare during the shots as
it makes his surroundings look more upbeat and
positive.
When he walks to his death, he slides across
the thugs car. This shows how he knows what
will happen but he will be cocky and enjoy the
moments he will have before the attack.
As he is about to get the beating, we cut to a
close-up of the character. He is shown in high-key
lighting and with a sense of acceptance on his
face, this is to show the two sides of story as we
see him accepting his fate whereas he was
rushing before.
13. Analysis
As the song comes to an end, we see 3 shots that
connect back to the beginning of the video. This is
to show how he cant win by being horrible or even
being nice as both times he is caught and beaten
so this time he lays down as the phone rings and
stays there.
He does this so that he is shown to have seen the error
of his ways and before the phone rings, he says; “Baby if
you could would you go back to the start.” This line is
exactly what the video is about. The restarting of a
certain event for the character and how he approaches
it.
The video also has a clear input from the record
label as the lead singer; Simon Neil is the
protagonist in the video and they establish him
as being cool and the use of close-ups
throughout try to make him recognisable.
14. Cross-media – Conclusion
The video is consistent with the artistic style of the album in
a few select ways. However, the dramatic and more indie
style of the video doesn’t have the sam colouring and style
as the website or album cover from the “Opposites” album.
This is because the song is not the head song from the
album and isnt one of the biggest songs from the album
anyway so it doesn’t really need to have the same themes
and style as the album and website as that is more for the
main songs video.
The indie style to the video that I said works with the image
Biffy Clyro portray as they were incredibly indie before
“Puzzle” was released. This is so they can seems artistic
but also the video is very well shot which gives them a
professional look as well.
