Powerful Performers: Zack De La Rocha

The recent return of Rage Against the machine has brought back to life the powerful personality of the bands front man Zack De Le Roach. When thinking of Rage Against the Machine there is no doubt that their unique front man Zack De La Rocha pops in to mind. The singer’s political outbursts received so much attention because of his powerful on stage performances; Rocha seems to attack the government with his powerful style of what can only called shouting. However his deliverance of lyrics has its own unique sound which emphasizes the meaning of the song. Rage the machine has songs attacking racist policemen, the government and corporate America which seem to be above the law. If Rocha was a softly spoken front man there is no doubt that Rage Against the Machine would have not made the impact they have on the music indistry. Rage Against the Machine are of one the lucky few to be inducted in to Kerrang's hall of fame; which includes Slipknot, Metalica, ACDC, Motley Crue and Ozzy Osbourne.

Magnetic Man-I Need Air

The reasonably new video I Need Air by Magnetic Man has received some good publicity recently and is rated highly by NME as it has been shown recently in NME's most requested. The video it's self is a fairly simple club scene, however the blue lighting vastly improves the music video's basic mise en scene. What i like about the video is how the semi-slow motion camera shots make the people in the crowd stand out, and also the way the club scene rewinds slightly to emphasise the movments of the people in the scene (1 min 24 sec). The blue tinted lighting in the video is accompanied by dark shadows of the dancers which i think is a nice contrast and what i think is great about this video is that for a simple widley used style of video it does not become boring to watch or padded out.

Below is a link to the music video I Need Air by Magnetic Man:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2vWQFHP3D0

Copyright ©

Copyright will most deffinatly be the biggest problem with the music video project this year.Obtaining permission for a decent music track from an artist will be a big time consuming task. I have been browsing websites such as Myspace, Freeplaymusic and Unsignedacts.com for artists offering copyright free music. However I have not yet decided on what genre the song for the music video will be. I would like to gain permission from a good up and coming artist by mid september. I believe an up and coming artist will be most willing to grant me permission because if the music video gets a hint of Youtube success it could put them in the spotlight, and if the video is failure there reputation will not suffer.

The History of the Music Video

The first ever music video to be aired on MTV was ironically called Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggels. It was shown for the first time on the 1st of August 1981 at 12:01 am. The Buggels had created a new trend in the music industry, music videos were at first used to promote artists songs and as music videos were being shown regularly on television it became a battle to create the best music video.

Music videos have grown in the same ways films have; as technology evolved new innovative techniques and effects became popular and each new development inspired a creative mind to push the current technology further. A good example is Money For Nothing by the Dire Straits; this revolutionary music video was the first to use computer generated animation. In modern times the video looks like a humorous Lego like animation, however in 1985 it was ground breaking technology.

Noah and the Whale: 5 Years Time

I have always been a fan of this song but recently while researching I came across its video. I was surprised by the quality of its video; it is defiantly one of the best original videos I have seen in a long time. What I like best about this video is the Costumes and the Performance of all the actors taking part. The ridiculous retro costumes accompanied by big aviator sunglasses make the actors look odd; however the performance and attitude of the actors make the video great to watch.



The simple dance routines also stood out to me, they gave the video the simple but “summer-ish” feel. I think the producer of this video has made a great video for what seems to be a reasonably small budget; the small pub it was filmed in gave the video its calm old Mise En Scene which matches the costumes perfectly.

This video has many small details which when put together create an impressive originality, and because of those small details such as costume, setting, handheld camera angle, dance routines and the great miming/instrumental matching the video makes it unique. There is a good match of the characters playing the instruments to the other events which occur such as the dance routines which makes the video run smoothly and doesn’t seem “padded out”.





Below is the link to the video 5 Years Time by Noah and the Whale:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8YCSJpF4g4