Chloe Ward, Reepham High School and College (18333), 3219

Monday 24 June 2013

Hyro Da Hero - Sleeping Giants


This is the first song that was released from Hyro Da Hero's first studio album, Birth, School, Work, Death. It was directed by sitcomsoldiers.com, a music production company who have previously directed videos for The Blackout, While She Sleeps and Of Mice and Men.
This artist defines himself as being a rap-rock artist. I could not see many dominating characteristics of this genre in a broader sense, although through looking at the two genres separately I was able to find some common themes. For instance, the artist raps into the camera more often than not, looking straight into it a lot of the time. The entire video is also quite high energy and fast paced, common of many rock videos. It also shows the artist and the band, another convention of this genre.




There are several points in this video when the lyrics and the visuals have something in similar with one another. For instance, at this point in the video, (1:09), the lyrics are "when we let the blind lead the blind; we fall off the cliff at the same time", which is echoed directly through the person falling off the stage. The face is covered as well which resonates the comment about being blind, although the lyrics are probably more in a metaphorical sense than a literal one. It also occurs later on in the song, where he uses these lyrics: "get off your butt and do something; end a war, start a war, fight the peace, lie to me; stop running around so silently". At this point he has caused some chaos in the situation, interrupting the worker's mundane lives by throwing their carefully shuffled and ordered papers up into the air, causing them to panic and fluster. This suggests the artist's presence is causing change in their lives; some of them move less robotically then they do in the beginning.

There is some relationship between the music and the video which emphasises the music to some extent. For instance, throughout most of the video the music is fast paced and the visuals coincide with this, cutting quickly and showing the people moving in accordance to this. In contrast, when the music slows, as if to create tension before the next verse, the people move much slower and there are no cuts between scenarios.
There are a lot of close ups of the artist. He sings into the camera very frequently, adding to the notion of looking as he performs to the camera. He sings into the camera in both of his guises; in his Malcom X-esque gear and then his more stereotypical rap-rock clothing of a tight t-shirt, 'snapback' and his trousers. I feel like this probably shows his versatility as an artist and the way that he changes constantly between outfits emphasises this. He does this frequent change between smart and casual in another video which backs this point up. You can also see the logo behind him in the performance scenarios, on the drum kit, for example.
In relation to the notion of looking, there are shots every 45 seconds or so which show the masked figures in a fisheye style; this is style often used to suggest looking through a camera, perhaps as a nod to CCTV filming everyone's lives. Throughout the video it almost suggests the changes they go through as a result of the artist's presence; they dance in these shots. Their movements are rigid and robotic in the initial few, but then progress into being much more unique, loose and interesting, supporting many of the implied messages in the video.

There may be intertextual references in this video; if so, they are very succint. There is one notable reference; this may not be entirely reliable. I read somewhere previously that there is inspiration from Malcolm X in this video, suggesting why he dresses in certain ways in certain parts; there is some noticeable similarities in dress, as well as the messages of change that he is trying to get through to the people - this is supported in the image. Although it may be coincidental, they are both wearing similar shaped glasses (although Hyro Da Hero's are tinted black) have a similar hand gesture, and are both wearing suits.

3 comments:

  1. Excellent work Chloe. You've chosen a good video to look at. In terms of genre, you could class it as a hybrid or refer to a crossover. Well done for covering Goodwin's structures. Make sure that, in future analyses, you include some detailed textual analysis like you did for the AS exam.

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  2. As a comment, you should pick out any ideas influences that you have got from this video.

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  3. From analysing the video, I learned that I liked the idea of showing people who have clearly been influenced by something and are following it mindlessly; the people in this video have not got facial features and there is very little to distinguish them apart. In the same way, I think it would be good to make the negative influences on Max's life in my own video faceless and hard to recognise; this can also be seen metaphorically to be showing how people can change through certain influences into someone different.

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