CH - Technodanceaphobic (Personal Response)

During class, we engaged in discussion with the rest of the group. After showing and analyzing many tracks, including Still Take You Home by the Arctic Monkeys, we decided between Josh and I that our preferred track at this point in time is Technodanceaphobic by The Enemy.


This track is from the genre Indie-pop/rock. I can tell this because it has the unusual compilation of an Indie track, not abiding to the usual song format (especially with their chorus of only a repeated phrase). It is pop-rock because it encorporates guitars and heavy bass riffs such as those found in common rock, with the lighthearted lyrics and upbeat feel of popular music.





The above is Technodanceaphobic, a track by The Enemy. Listening to this song, I had many ideas;

1. the motion of running


2. the characters described in the lyrics became very real, with personalities and image


3. the repetitive chorus was perfect for a fast-paced cutting rate, maybe a montage or other interesting editing technique


4. a chaotic, nightlife scene, possibly urban


5. youth culture and teenage years, partying and relationships


6. a lo-fi video, stylishly done but with an obvious low-budget look. Maybe a few special effects in editing, but made to look like a British low-fi urban video

I love that the track is so upbeat, with a catchy rythym and a riff that continually changes (such as the addition of the xylophone in the second stanza) keeping the audience interested. The lyrics are amusing, easy to listen to and stay in the mind of the audience as they are repeated throughout; this will make it easier to build on this song, as the audience are already interested rather than having to build an entire narrative to keep their attention. I love the use of language that builds connotations; 'daddy' and 'mummy' give the song the image of being twee and cute, in juxtaposition to the characters that are then created within the lyrics; rough, dangerous youth or 'Bad Girl' and 'Bad Boy'. The strength of these characters will make the narrative easy to build upon.

To the left is a rough sketch I created earlier, after Josh Mason described the way he viewed Becky (a character in the song, described in the lyrics as "Becky was a bad girl, she never knew no right from wrong.")
Both from Josh' and the lyrics' description, I got a strong image of this girl Becky who we may or may not feature in our video.

The image left itself has many connotations; the character is evidently young, yet is carrying alcohol and dressed in an adult manner (carrying high-heels connoting a long night out) which fits with the indie culture of youth coming of age, or the confused age of indie (acting more adult yet a childish manner of singing or childish sounding songs with ridiculous lyrics). Another connotation of the image left is that she is dangerous, the Atypical 'Bad Girl' of films and other media that we are so used to as it is stereotypical.

I could not picture the other characters as strongly, but after much discussion with the group we decided that all characters will probably feature in the film itself, whether it is obvious they are the specific characters from the lyrics or otherwise.

A video that would be comparable to the ideas we have in mind would be Sticks N Stones by Jamie T.

The above are some screen shots from the film for Sticks N Stones. Jamie T is a British indie-rapper artist, whose budget for music videos is quite small (probably around a couple of thousand pounds, if that) which is why I believe it is easily comparable to our film; it's a lofi aesthetic set in urban England, with a part narrative combined performance video. Even the rough, in-your-face lyrics are similar, with a no-holds-barred attitude to what the audience is told. The two screen shots are my two favorite from the video; both depict the artist, Jamie T, with a friend/group of friends having a good time and obviously enjoying themselves. This helps the audience to feel involved, as well as giving it a light-hearted and cheery feel to a video about violence and homophobia which could have easily been very negative.



In conclusion, I personally love the song Technodanceaphobic and am glad we have chosen it. It has already provided many strong ideas within our group that I'm sure we will work on in the near future.