Ollie Hosier's BTEC Media Blog: Research Into My Track

The Song: Analysis

The song by Fall Out Boy, 'Sugar, We're Goin Down' was released in April 2005 and was one of their lead singles from their second album, 'From Under the Cork Tree' (2005).

Meaning / Imagery - The song talks about a post-relationship and the problems that it has caused between the boy and the girl. The song talks about how the girl in the relationship treats the boy like rubbish. One quote from the song is "I'm just a notch in your bedpost but you're just a line in a song". The artist here is saying that the boy meant nothing to the girl, like he is an object, however he fights back by saying she is an object, a "line in a song".

Narrative - The song itself does not have a clear narrative, just an explanation of the relationship. However the video itself does. The narrative in the video shows a boy with deer antlers who is seen as an outcast in a small town. He falls in love with a girl in the town who also falls in love with the boy, however the farther of the daughter is not amused. In the end the farther is exposed as he also has deer like feature (feet). The video shows the two lovers in their progress of spending time with each other. I think it was trying to portray the message of saying that you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover.

Genre / Style - Pop Punk / Emo

Pace - The pace is in the range of slow / medium.

Duration - 3:49

The Artist

Clothing / Costumes - Their style of clothing / costume is quite simple for the punk genre. There is not a lot of distinctiveness to their costume other than the fact that they all wear casual jeans and shirts in most of their videos. Their clothing only becomes distinctive in one video which is "Thnks fr th mmrs"

- Casual shirts and jeans.

- Clothing has distinctive features like the piece of clothing around his neck.

Make-up - Not a lot of make up is used, with only one band member using a small bit of eye liner.

Tone Of Existing Videos - Because most of their videos have minimal relation to the lyrics, the tone is hard to establish from the video. However the tone of their songs are clear, they mostly talk about dark and sad memories, which can contain some anger. However the videos are light hearted and add comedy to it.

Locations In Existing Videos - Most of their music videos consist of them performing to the camera, like the audience watching is a 'live' audience. The locations vary from stages to living rooms to proms to a studio of rappers. The locations of their stories also vary from video to video.

- Performing to the camera.

- Performing on-stage / studio.

- Performing in a living room / cabin.

Concepts / Narratives - In most of their music videos, they contain a simple structured narrative that has a beginning, middle and end. For example in their video "Dance Dance" it is about a couple who goes to a prom and about how they over throw the popular kids / bullies. Most of the characters in the video are 'nerds' / 'geeks' and are the same people who are playing on stage, who are less geeky. They slowly become more confident through the video.

Lyrics and My Idea

For my idea I wanted to have a 'geek boy and a beautiful girl fall in love' video, despite their high school / college status. I wanted to make it look like they are breaking the outcast barrier. This is similar to the original video by Fall Out Boy.

Synopsis - At the beginning of the video you will see the band start to play the song with the sound of beat cutting to the narrative section of the video. The narrative will then begin with the geek boy on his own walking through the corridors of a school / college. Numerous amounts of people nudge him as they walk past, like he isn't even there, dropping his books and bag. Walking to his locker the boy gets a bit frustrated and slams the locker, walking off, bumping into a girl, beautiful and pure. She drops her books, they both try to pick them up as their eyes meet. They both smile and start to walk together, spending time together. The rest of the video is them hanging out, the geeky boy getting more and more confident as they start to fall in love. The end will be of them having a very awkward hug / hand shake. Throughout the video it will cut to the band performing.