'Use somebody' by Kings of Leon - Analysis

The first music video and song I have chosen to analyse is 'Use somebody' by Kings of Leon. The genre of the bands music is indie/rock. The genre can be identified by the audience when the music begins, as it has the strong, hard beat familiar to rock.

 

the beginning 30 seconds of the video is a part of only instrumental music, to begin the video there is short sharp and fast shots from many angles for example: panning shots, long shots and birds eye view shots.
, this is to show us the scene of the music and the lively area of where the music is being played. There are various shots of the band which is actual tour footage and they can be seen in live performances, this is used to indicate that they are an authentic band who play their own music and instruments as seen in the footage. This is emphasised by close ups of the band in performance.

During the first verse of the song a shot reverse shot pattern is used between shots and the lead singer. Again the shots are short and are of the band in concert, but there is also shots of each member of the band individually. This allows the audience to see and become familiar with all members of the band.

The video turns into black and white when the chorus of the song begins, which conntes that its the bands past and there past performances.

On the final verse, instead of going back to the close of the lead singer in colour, the shot is kept black and white and keeps using actual footage of the concert. More short shots are used however this time they switch between concert footage, which is black and white, and shots of the band on a night out in a bar and also in concert which is in colour. This allows the audience to get a sense of the bands personality by seeing them when not performing. Also by using black and white and colour on certain shots, it shows the difference between the past and present.

As the song comes closer to the finish the shots become shorter and shorter, which could be used to symbolise the increasing need for a woman. The close up shot of the lead singer is used when the line 'someone like you' is sang which is emphasising the need, along with long shots of him each time the line is used.

The finishing of the song and video ends the way it began. This could indicate that nothings yet changed for the artists and its all still the same for him no matter how much he sings for the women he loves which shows sadness and loneliness.

The music video is a performance video as it has the lead singer miming and therefore performing the song to the camera. Overall I think this is a fairly typical video for the genre of the music as a lot of rock music videos tend to use actual footage as part of their videos as opposed to pop videos.