21 guns-Green Day
I will be analysing
’21 guns’ by Green Day, which is a single from their album 21st
Century Breakdown. The single was released on 25th May 2009 as a digital download and then July 14th as a CD single. The music video was directed by Marc Webb and filmed in Los Angeles. The genre of the music video is alternative rock. The song
addresses the topic of patriotism; it brings up the 21st century
breakdown in a lot of ways, and the 21 gun salute for someone that’s fallen. This song is much slower compared to other Green Day songs addressing a very serious topic.
The video is set in an ordinary white room. The colours used
are black, whites and reds suggesting a serious/ reflective mood. The video
starts off with very slow music while the protagonist Christian is looking at a
bullet, the music reflects all the thoughts running through his head, as he is over thinking about past events. Then the music suddenly begins to get louder as a close
up of the bullet is shown, suggesting pain and the bullet could be the reason for this.
The video then cuts to car lights which look like they are approaching the
viewer on the screen, this is very mysterious and questions the viewer what is
happening/ happened? The bullet drops and then the band begins to sing.
We first see a close up of Christian singing,
he is wearing very heavy eye makeup and he is dressed in black, this reflects the genre of
rock, all band members look very serious giving blank facial expressions. We
then see Gloria the girl looking out of the blinds, red lights flash onto her
from the police car suggesting danger, maybe she is the reason behind all of
this? The lyrics also reflect the mood for example ‘worth dying for’ suggesting
pain and distraught, Gloria looks at Christian showing that he is worth dying
for. The room is very messy and untidy suggesting broken hearts. Bullets fire through the walls and the sofa
showing they have given up ‘throw up your arms’, and the fish tank breaks
killing the fish. Feathers drop as they kiss symbolising the couples
everlasting love for each other. Towards the end of the music video the lighting changes to a red/purple
colour showing they are back together, suggesting the colours of love and intimacy.
The video cuts to the beat of the music every time the beat drops, the drums and guitar are used when the scene changes from either the band performing or to the narrative which describes what is being sung. The video also changes pace with the music, when the song reaches the chorus the song gets louder and close ups of instruments are shown being used passionately- reflecting the very passionate moment, everything is now shown faster. For example when the chorus begins bullets are fired through the wall in sync with the beat of the drums and guitar. However in the final chorus, when the video shows us that the couple are back together the guitarist of the group is shown in the middle of the room, and we shown a panorama of him strumming on the guitar alone. This scene is delicate and therefore the pace is a lot slower.
The notion of looking is not as extreme as other music videos, however the use of mirrors and screens replace this. We see the protagonist looking through the broken mirror many times. Both the male and female protagonist look at their reflections in the mirror through the broken glass.
The image we get from the band is a rocky look. All members
are dressed in dark colours mainly black and grey, they are dressed in shirts
and leather jackets. The setting of the music video also suggest the genre of
rock, everything is black, white and grey, with black writing on the wall. Each
band member has a sleeve tattoo which is very common in the rock genre, giving
them a serious, edgy kind of look. The band members are all seen wearing heavy
eye make-up and messy long hair.
Andrea
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