Characteristics of Folk-Punk

Folk
folk is seen as an old genre which originated in the early 20th century. It is usually basic music with just singing and guitar much like Bob Dylan, but will often use other instruments sometimes less popular ones like harmonicas or banjos. My song choice is just guitar and singing but uses a synthesiser on it for some parts. Contemporary folk artists include people like Frank Turner.


Punk
punk is seen as a dead genre or at least passed its prime. Punk was an angry, energetic genre used to rebel against the state with music. Iconic bands like The Sex Pistols and The Clash popularised it after it had stayed underground for a while. There is a debate in music about whether Green Day are punk or not. Any post-Green Day music has largely become known as pop-punk.






Characteristics of Folk-Punk

Folk punk was popularised in the 80s by bands like the Pogues. Modern bands like AJJ and Days N daze's music videos usually feature performance in them, sometimes it will be raw footage of the band backstage after or before shows.
Folk punk is an extremely niche genre but it has a passionate following with dedicated fan bases for some folk-punk bands like AJJ and The Pogues even though they may not have broken into mainstream culture.



Representations
The police are often represented negatively and depicted as bad people. They use the stereotype of police being oppressive and abusive of power.

A huge majority of folk-punk bands are white and some are Celtic. It is mainly men but there are quite a few women too.

Target Audience
the target audience for this genre would be

Audience Planning

Examples of my target audience
Rebecca, 17 years old
 Rebecca likes art and poetry and reading. Interested in experimental, new wave music and simple acoustic and folk songs. She is a student in sixth and is from an upper-middle class family so she has a lot of money to spend on albums, Spotify, apple music, and going to festivals.
Her hobbies are travelling, going to festivals, socialising with friends and spending a lot of time in music shops. She has a part time job and money from her parents so money is never short. Her parents demographic is A and B as they have good jobs but she would only be a D since she is a student. She likes Ed Sheeran but doesn't like music that's too mainstream and likes listening to smaller artists. She watches a lot of newly released music videos and doesn't usually watch anything too old.

Robert, 22 years old
Likes listening to punk rock and folk-punk and dropped out of university. He plays a lot of acoustic guitar so he likes acoustic songs and his favourite artists are people like Bob Dylan, the Ramones, AJJ, Adele, Billy Bragg and David Bowie. He has a job but money is tight so he spends a lot of time in music charity shops like Oxfam Music. Like many young people, he watches YouTube so he watches music videos fairly regularly, and watches both new and classic videos.

Examples of a typical person in my target audience

Audience Research

The target audience my music video and digipak is going to be teenagers aged 15 or over and young adults in their early 20s. I believe this is a suitable age range because the chosen song for my video is very strange and provocative so people need to be old enough to appreciate and understand it and also young enough to keep an open mind about some of the lyrics and of course the video as it will be contemporary and try to match the song.

Below are scanned images of the surveys I had people answer. Most of the people in my audience research are 16-17 years old which is a good age group for the song I have in mind. a lot of them have selected narrative and concept-based music videos as their favourite kind of video so considering this I think I may have a theme surrounding it and some kind of story within it.

Most of the people answered contemporary music videos for their favourite kinds of videos but also just as many put narrative and some answered lyric videos. Brighter music videos seem much more popular than dark ones so I will take that into consideration and think about what light equipment I will use and the time of day I'll shoot it.

I had look at some of the music video people put down as their favourites.
"Love is on the Radio" is minimalistic and contemporary. It has imagery relating to the lyrics and paper with the lyrics on them.

"I Wasn't Expecting That" Is a narrative, a deeply emotional sad story about losing a loved one.

"The Pretender" a performance/concept based music video with the band and riot police.

"Without Me" concept based with some performance.

 "Roar" Lyric video, everything featured on a the screen of a phone.

"I Want to Break Free" concept based, very comical and provocative (for the time).

Since my audience is quite young, most of them will be students either in school or university so they would fit into DE in social demographics.

"Sleep in the Heat" narrative based, some performance, about the loss of a best friends dog.



For the surveys, I played the song out loud for my audience research volunteers and then gave them the questions to answers.

 

Song Lyrics Analysis

In this post, I'll examine  and research the lyrics of the song and try and find out their original meaning or if they have any meaning as it the song may be quite ambiguous and see how I can use them in relation to my music video.

Sources: https://genius.com/Ajj-getting-naked-playing-with-guns-lyrics
               https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9o0zqEFjb8&t=74s

First of all the song was written by the lead singer who has said it's about children being immature, reckless and dangerous. The song is from his experience growing up and moving into a new neighbourhood. The band is also from Phoenix, Arizona where guns are legal which is important to consider when looking at this song.

Getting naked and playing with guns
There's a gerbil in the microwave, a baseball bat in everyone
Sharing kisses and building a bomb
We'll set it off like Microsoft in '94
We'll set it off like Microsoft in '94

The first two lines of the stanza are about children being immature, dangerous and could be commenting on gun laws in America. It paints a picture of children not having any good role models and being cruel to little animals.
The kisses and bomb part is about a strong bond between people but at the same being cruel to others, or it could be interpreted as something like an explosion of love.
The Microsoft part is referring to when Microsoft's stock went sky high and it became incredibly wealthy, this shows how strong the "bomb" really is.

McDonald's PlayPlace before the Xbox
Cake frosting, sweet talking, bedroom wall
Covered in knives, touching God, burning shit
We'll make a wish and take a trip to Future Town like our daddy did

The first half of this stanza is reminiscent of the singer's early childhood years but then there is a stark difference with the next line. "Covered in knives" is the change of when Sean Bonnette moved to a new neighbourhood. "Touching God"  and "burning shit" is about how other people think they have good morals (could be referring to strict Christians in America) and are doing the right thing but then also being terrible at the same time.

And we'll kill the neighbour kid who only wants to be our friend
His dad is dead enough that his new dad can cure the bends
We'll make a wish and take a trip to Future Town

Sean Bonnette stated in an interview that the song is from the point of view of the "neighbour kid" which changes how one might interpret this song. They are "killing" him simply because he is different. The lyrics relating to his father are about Bonnette's real father leaving and his stepfather raising him. Going to "Future Town" indicates he wants to follow in his father's footsteps and leave the town he's in.

Feeling weird, yet tasting sweet.
It's a top-bottom, rock-smoking magic mask making it bleed
Feeling sweet, getting weird
Now I can see the playground through the trees
And I can see the playground from the trees

These lyrics are very abstract and don't hold much literal meaning. The second line in this stanza is about the general feeling of what it's like to be a child. Feeling sweet is about being happy and stress-free. "Making it bleed" is about the consequences of childhood if you're too reckless. The third line switches the lyrics around indicating there is change, the next line is repeated indicating this change is now permanent.

And we'll show the neighbor kid what our love actually means
He's here from out of town and I heard he's got A.D.D.
We'll climb the tallest branch with a rifle full of dreams
And we'll blow the little dickhead up to smithereens 

Again, the song is about children being hateful towards others. What their "love actually means" shows the harsh reality of people having different morals and values yet we still impose our own values onto others. The fact that they know the neighbour kid has A.D.D shows a lack of compassion. Sean Bonnette is speaking from the bullies' point of view and is essentially mocking them or showing them in a bad light by singing these dark things.

Getting naked and playing with guns
There's a gerbil in the microwave, a baseball bat in everyone
Sharing kisses and building a bomb
We'll set it off like Microsoft in '94
We'll set it off like Microsoft in '94
We'll set it off like Microsoft in '94 in our backyard

Song Choice - Getting Naked and Playing with Guns

My song choice is going to be "Getting Naked and Playing with Guns" by the band AJJ. I have chosen this song because it is acoustic and slower and calmer than typical folk-punk songs, which is a genre I have already researched in my portfolio. I have also chosen this song because of the lyrics; they are very provocative and weird, there is some sort of narrative but it is not completely clear and it's extremely ambiguous but I think I can use some interesting imagery that will link with the song in some way. It also features some religious-related lyrics so I plan on using linking my video to that in some way.
 I think my music video will be contemporary as it will have a performance element in it but also lots of different shots and techniques being used as well.
 The target audience for AJJ is young people in their teens to mid-20s who are still probably trying to figure out what to do with their life. Their fans in general also may just be nihilists as a lot of their lyrics question life. So I will take all this into consideration when planning my own target audience.

Copyright Permission Letter
Below is the message I wrote to One Sided Dummy, the record label that owns the song


"Dear Sir/Madam
I am writing to you to ask permission to use the song "Getting Naked and Playing with Guns" by AJJ, to use for a music video I am making for my A-Level media class.
The video would only be shown to my teachers and the examiners and would not be used to make any profit. Full credit would, of course, be given to the band and record label.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards
Ben Baker"

 Below is their response:

Different Techniques used Music Videos

Slow Motion Music Videos
Some music videos incorporate slow motion into them, whether the whole thing is in slow motion or just parts of it. "Good Riddance" by Green Day does it very well, they had it sped up between transitions and slow motion for when it focused on the character.
I Was a Teenage Anarchist - Against Me
Good Riddance - Green Day



One Shot Music Videos
sometimes directors film an entire music video in one shot, this usually requires a lot of practice from the artist and a lot of takes to get it right. The end result is often a beautiful 3-minute video of an uninterrupted performance. Some famous ones include:
"I Waas a Teenagers Anarchist" - Against Me
"Yellow"- Coldplay
"Macy's Day Parade" - Green Day
"The Scientist" - Coldplay








Black and White Music Videos

Ah yes, black and white music videos, we now have colour video but sometimes we just need to focus on the detail and strip all colour away. These types of video often convey an emotional message, usually quite sad or bittersweet. They tend to usually be performance-based as it is a raw and "authentic" but sometimes delve into contemporary and concept-based.

Magazine Advert Analysis

Green Day's American Idiot is advertised very well with a clear use of synergy with the black, red and white colour scheme and handwritten lyrics. Obviously their logo is very on both the album cover and magazine page to stand out. The target audience for this magazine would see the page and instantly recognise the logo from the album cover.

Industry/audience
logos/style creates good synergy, this makes it more recognisable for the audience.

Mise-en-scene
Blurry microphone, focussed shot of Bille Joe (singer) so that his face is clear. The image also just about gets his guitar strap on his shoulder

 

 

Handwritten analysis of Billboard and Rolling Stone pages

Extra analysis of content pages featuring artists on them:

 

How the conventions have been used for target audience appeal

Dominant Image: using the frontman because they are usually the most recognisable so it appeals to more people.

House Style: Kerrang’s masthead sticks out and is made to stick in people’s heads. Page numbers are highlighted so it’s easier for the readers to get to what they want instead of the reader losing interest.

Coverlines: made to stick in the audiences’ head as well as entice them into the story

 

Digipak Analysis - Enema of the State

Blink 182's "Enema of the State" has a strong colour scheme, the main colours are yellow, blue, red and white. It is used in the nurse's makeup, her tattoos clothes and the band's logo.The pages of the booklet also feature these colours in the lockers, the wall and the shorts of men, as well as the floor, wall and nurse's outfit in on the back. This is a good use of synergy main cover and rest of the digipak are clearly linked.

The album cover has a nurse smiling at the camera and putting on a glove in a revealing nurse outfit. This links with the album's title "Enema of the State" and makes it more memorable for the target audience.

The immaturity of the photos reflects what the band is like so this will appeal to their die hard fans and will also attract the target audience who are teenagers and young people, slightly more boys than girls.


Industry
The companies have there logos only on the back of the CD case, not the actual artwork itself. The logos are not in the front on the album cover because much like Nimrod fans wouldn't want to see corporate logos when they buy it. the logos are however, on the back

Representation
The girl in the digipak artwork is shown wearing revealing clothes, this sexualises women by creating standards for women. She is represented as a nurse so uses the stereotype that all women are nurses, not doctors. The boys are represented as immature, high school age and less serious than women (as you can see on the back image).

Digipak Anlysis - Nimord Green Day

The album cover of Green Day's "Nimrod" is a black background with the bands title at the top and two black and white photos of people with bright yellow circles covering their faces with "Nimrod" written on each of them. The back also features pictures of the same style with the songs below them.

This is an extremely good use of synergy as the styles are very recognisable and it has a strong colour scheme. The pictures reflect the mood of the band, the style was inspired by a poster of a politician's poster where the face had been ripped off. The lack of identity of a "middle aged man, corporate American" who's identity had been taken through vandalism suited the band. They thought the album cover was striking so they used it. This would suit their target audience as they as the time it was teenagers and young people in their early 20s. The album's artist took photos from old high school yearbooks and scanned the "Nimrod" symbol onto them. The back also features pictures of the band members which will appeal to die hard Green Day fans.
The typography is also very important as it was used for all their touring concerts at the time of the albums release which is why the title is quite large.

The CD itself is amazing because it's like you can hold part of the album cover in real life, its linked so well because it is literally just a section of the album with the songs on it. It also appeals to the target audience because teenagers and young people would have liked the messy handwritten style of writing used for the songs and the occasional scribbles of ink.



Industry
The back of the album cover features a barcode so that they can sell the album.
The record label "Reprise" has it's name on both sides of the packaging, and has its logo just under the barcode. It is very small since the fan-base for Green Day considered themselves punk so they may have been put off by the corporate logo.

Representation

Digipak Analysis - Dookie

The album cover for Dookie is like a collage of drawings, the band's and album title and an explosion all in a cartoon style. There are multiple dogs throwing "dookie" and a plane being flown by a dog dropping bombs with the album title on them. The band's title is in big bright yellow letters that are clearly the largest thing on the cover.
The inside pages of the booklet are white with black pen drawings on them to show the pages as buildings and streets with different characters. The lyrics are shown as if they are on poster stuck to the walls of the buildings, this is the kind of imagery you would see in a city; lots of posters stuck up everywhere. This was good as their target audience at the time were mostly local people.

The style of the booklet pages reflect the punk, rebellious attitude a lot of teenagers shared in the 90s with the messy handwritten lyrics and the minimalistic doodles or punks smoking and bridges blowing up (which also links to some of the album's lyrics "Let's nuke the bridge we torched 2000 times before").  

General Inspirations

I occasionally see something on TV or YouTube that looks really impressive and often wonder how i could incorporate it into my music video when I start shooting it. These are some things that have given me ideas:

From Movies
The scene in Gran Torino where he goes to church for the last time was very interesting, it's like seeing the power of religion just from a building.



From TV
The imagery of guns is very powerful and it may be appropriate for my song choice



From Music Videos
Good Riddance - Where they use slow motion and fast motion between shots it just looks incredible and also gives it an emotional feel and really makes you focus on each of the characters featured in it.

Music Video Analysis - Temple Grandin

AJJ (Andrew Jackson Jihad) - Temple Grandin
Temple Grandin was released by AJJ under SideOneDummy records and was Directed/Edited by Joe Stakun and the Director of Photography was Eric Bader. The video features the band playing their song with their instruments in front of 3 big screens with occasional projections on the band members. The music video also features random things being thrown in like toilet paper and balloons, there's also uses of edits from post-production, these edits sometimes work well with the big screens in the background and the light projections.
AJJ's main genre is considered folk-punk but Google also lists them as art-rock, indie-folk, indie-rock and punk rock. Their style of music is extremely unique so it's hard to define them, they do not have any common characteristics really other than traditional instruments but even then they use a double bass and cello.

AJJ - "Temple Grandin" (official video) - Link




It is a performance based contemporary music video and opens with the band's name and song title as on screen text then transition to a shot of the text on the middle big screen and pans outwards the get the full band in the shot. There are a lot of continuity edits and fast paced cuts. There are mainly long shots of the whole band and then mid-shots for the lead singer. Some are handheld and some are on a dolly.





Lyrics and Visuals
The lyrics themes are about three different people and how they overcome their difficulties and things they do. "Stevie Wonder to the bullshit" is about him being blind, but "write a nice pop song about it" is the positivity and overcoming being blind. Again when they sing about Hellen Keller and Temple Grandin, they are talking about the challenges in their lives and what they do overcome them.

Some of the lyrics are shown on the screens behind them, coming on as soon as they are sung in the song. However, it is only for a few of the lyrics. The fact the lyrics are extremely big on screen yet almost hidden in the background by the band reflects the band's nihilistic approach to songwriting, it shows things are significant (big lyrics) yet also so meaningless (they are hard to actually see). When "Open up your murder eyes" is sang you can see lasers coming out of peoples eyes in the background.


Music and Visuals
The music doesn't really link to the video other than the band playing their instruments in it. The screens change the image(s) when there is a chord change or for example when the eagles are shown some new Eagles appear when the chord changes.The screens are changing at quite a fast pace so this reflects the song as it has a fast tempo. When the key changes at 1:17 the screens go from very bright and colourful to black and white. All of this makes it more aesthetically pleasing for the viewer.



Close ups and Star Motifs
Sean Bonnette - the frontman - has a lot of close ups and mid-shots in the video as his their label wants them to be recognisable. This is an example of Richard Dyer's Star Theory where artists are constructed and made to be like a brand and recognisable for the audience. The bassist also has a few close ups as he and the frontman are the two original/longest lasting members of the band so the audience is more likely to know them.

Music Video Analysis - "Youngblood"

Green Day - Youngblood (Official Lyric Video) - Link

Youngblood by Green Day is a rock song, the music video is a lyric video. It was directed by Chris Curtis and released by Jingletown Records.
The video feature lyrics "exploding" onto the screen, each line is usually in a different font and around something different each time. For example, the "She's my weakness" is a font that looks like it's on fire and is beside a church implying there are heavy religious overtones surrounding it and "fuckin' genius" is written in the style of a maths equation. The lyrics "Youngblood" are the chorus so therefore they are bigger and clear and reappear each time, they also have no image next to them so they are the main focus.

This is good for the audience as it is entertaining to watch, they can comment on the video and discuss it with their friends or other Green Day fans, they may find a sense of identity within the video. For example, there is an Anarchist "A" at one point, while some fans may not be Social Libertarians, they may feel like they belong to the "Anarchist" lifestyle.

Star Motifs
The video features stills of the band members which helps fill the video and gives the fans what they want.