Daniella JohnstonKings of Leon – Use Somebody

Lead singer, Caleb Followill wrote the song about longing for somebody while feeling lonely on the road/on tour. After watching the video, we can see it has themes of both love and loneliness. The band whose genre is both rock and indie target a wide audience of both genders, usually young adults, as they are more likely to relate to the band and their songs.

Representation of characters

The band doesn’t conform to our stereotypical views on ‘stars’ believing they are more important than the rest of society. Even though they live a life of fame and luxury, we see that they too get lonely at times like ordinary people. Audiences can develop a personal relationship by empathising with the band, especially the lead singer in this video, and they may also be able to gain personal identity with the situation. On more than one occasion we see the band getting out of a car on the way into their gig wearing sunglasses, which likens them to our stereotypical representation of ‘stars’. However, during these shots they are rushing and avoiding the camera suggesting they don’t like the publicity and care much more about their music. This is typical of performers in this genre contrasting with mainstream artists who enjoy being in the public eye.

Representations of the indie rock genre are typical. For example, these genres are both male dominated and to show this there is not one female in the entire video. The overall image of the band is very masculine and they meet our expectations for a band of this genre. The long hair, tattoos, facial hair and being bearded makes them look more ‘rugged’. They also wear dark clothing, usually tight skinny jeans with baggier tops and vests. Black is a colour we would associate with evil and darkness. It connotes power, authority, anger and death etc. and helps them conform to the audience’s expectations of a stereotypical rebellious rock band. Shots include band members purposely blowing smoke into the camera, lying on the floor looking ‘high’ and skidding across the floor in a bar, developing this representation even further. One of these is shown in the image above. It looks like he is trying to catch our attention, similarly to the way rock music is powerful and almost ‘in your face’. This shot also highlights their immaturity and childish behaviour, which is a stereotype for the male gender. Audiences may gain personal identity with the band and the way they behave, especially in scene where they are doing regular things such as going to the pub and playing pool.

Genre type

PerformanceThere are many close ups of the vocalist singing to the camera during emotional parts of the song. We see the playing of guitars, close ups of instrumentalists, on stage performances and screaming crowds.

Conceptual The song tells the story of how life on the road can be lonely. The montage shows the lead singer’s lifestyle revolves around the band, giving him no free time for a relationship. The lyrics ‘You know that I could use somebody’ creates a mood of feeling low and alone.

NarrativeThe camera cuts back to close ups of a female every so often for a second, perhaps one which the lead singer longs for. It has a linear structure in the way it begins and ends at the night after showing clips of what has happened throughout a typical day of the band.

Daniella JohnstonIconography

Instruments They are a traditional rock band consisting of a drummer, guitarists and a lead singer.

TrafficHighlights their busy lifestyle and how they spend a lot of time on the road travelling. Traffic moves slowly, this could represent how the lead singer is feeling in terms of his relationships and how he feels like he isn’t getting anywhere.

Red CarConnotations include danger, power and love – all of these can be associated with rock music and the themes in the video. It represents the bands wealth.

New York City Known for success and also has a lively nightlife to contrast with the lifestyle of the band when they are not performing.

Technical and audio codes

Mise-en-scene

The video is set in New York City, known as the city of dreams. This relates to the band as they are living theirs. They could also be dreaming for somebody too. New York is a global powerful city, known for success and wealth, representing the bands lifestyle. Rock music could also be described as strong and powerful, like the city. In the video there are scenes during the day and the night. These are juxtaposed with each other allowing us to compare the lifestyle of the band to the lifestyle of a regular person. Their lifestyle contrasts with ours as they spend the day travelling and sleeping in preparation for staying awake to perform during the night.

Camera

Long shots establish the setting and set the mood for the video. In this shot, the lead singer is in the centre and is the first person we see, showing he has a higher importance in the band and that the song will be centred on him. There is a clear juxtaposition between the band sitting in their apartment in the dark watching television and the bright New York skyline outside. The lively and exciting nightlife is juxtaposed with the lifestyle of the band allowing the audience to compare theirs to that of a regular person.

Daniella Johnston

Close ups and extreme close ups are used. They create a sense of closeness with the lead singer giving the video an exclusive feel. They tend to be used more during the emotional movements of the song, featuring the vocalist singing to the camera making more of an impact on the audience. In this particular shot, direct mode of address is used as he is looking directly at the camera to develop a relationship with the audience. This is effective as it allows the audience to clearly see his emotions and empathise with him.

Wide shots represent the unity of the band. They are often used to capture a shot with the entire band in the frame therefore they are used frequently in rock videos. Wide shots also contrast with the use of close ups and medium shots of the lead singer and band making the video contain a wider variety of camera shots.

Editing

Time lapse/fast paced editing used whilst on the road highlights that he is always on the go, travelling with the band. It also highlights time is moving forward and fast. The use of this fast pace adds to the concept of the video that he has none of his own time to have a social life and perhaps a relationship. It also goes perfectly with the song as the faster shots are during faster parts of the song and when a shot changes, it cuts directly on the beat of the song. The shots are all in sync with the song and they work well together.

Daniella Johnston

Two cross fades are used in this video. The first one is shown in the image above. They allow us to see two shots at once and this is effective as we get to see the lead singers face against a high angle shot of the city, which we assume to be New York due to the shots earlier in the video. This is effective as it establishes the setting whilst introducing us to the character, and gives us the impression that is where he is currently located. They make the video look more interesting and professional, adding to the narrative.

Black and white is used effectively in this video. We see several shots of the lead singer playing to the camera, alone in his apartment and these shots are in colour. However, all of the shots of the band performing together are in black and white and this could be for a variety of reasons. Firstly, black and white creates a mood that colour cannot achieve and empathises the themes of darkness, being lonely and feeling ‘down and grey’ like the lead singer is in the video. It develops the concept well and adds to the dark and edgy tones of the video, making it a more conventional rock video. The lack of colour during these shots also breaks down the range of bright and fast shots so the viewer isn’t too overwhelmed and can’t keep up with what is going on. Another common reason for the use of black and white is to make footage to appear to be from an earlier time in history or during a dream or memory sequence. This could be to suggest that the band have been together for so long that they play a huge importance in his life and they have lots of memories together.

Neale’s ‘Mental Machinery’

“Genre can be defined by instances of repetition and difference, it is part of a process of ‘mental machinery’ between the ‘industry, text and subject’ is the theory suggested by Steve Neale. This can be applied to this video as it conforms to the conventions we would expect to see in such a video, and doesn’t deviate away and challenge the typical conventions of a rock video, as it is predominantly performance based. We could also argue that it also has a slight concept and narrative. It uses many conventions of the rock genre including urban landscapes, use of black and white and shadow, close ups on the vocalist during emotional movements and of hands playing guitars, fast paced editing, a crowd and live performances. The band also looks how we would expect them to; they have a simple and carefree look like much time hasn’t been spent on their image. This is expected; as they are artists of the rock genre, not mainstream ones, who usually promote their music with their image.

Ideologies

I think the main ideology that has been encoded into this video is that even though celebrities live a life of luxury and have everything they would ever need, this doesn’t stop them from getting lonely. We assume that the band would enjoy every aspect of their life but we don’t realise that they are constantly on the go, working and touring for their fans. This video highlights that although that is enjoyable, they don’t get much time to themselves to live like regular people. In this case, we assume the lead singer is lonely but doesn’t have time for

Daniella Johnstona relationship. Because of this, the audience are positioned in a conventional narrative in which they share the point of view with the protagonist and can empathise with him throughout the song.