'Drown' is a song by the British Metalcore band Bring Me The Horizon, a stand alone single released on October 21 2014 - the first song to be released following their forth studio album Sempiternal in 2013. Despite the band being placed in the metalcore genre due to their previous releases, this track has been placed in genre of Alternative Rock.
The video opens with the band appearing in front of a brightly lit backdrop, the mise en scene of which may appear to subvert the genre characteristics as it may play against fans of the genre's expectations of what they would expect see from bands such as this. For example, in fellow British Metalcore band Architects' video for 'Alpha Omega' there is a running theme of dark, steely colours throughout the video of which may seem more fitting for the genre, a stark opposition of that seen in this video.
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| BMTH 'Drown' |
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| Architects 'Alpha Omega' |
Similarly, the costumes in the video may appear atypical of the genre as they are wearing a more formal costume of matching suits opposed to the dark, casual costume -of items such as jeans and t-shirts- that you may expect to see in a video of this genre. The use of bubbles in the video also appears to break the conventions of alternative music, as they appear to pose a more child-like appeal, which wouldn't fit with the stereotypical conventions seen in other music videos of this genre. This plays on Kress' definition of a genre as 'a kind of text that derives its form from the structure of a social occasion, with its characteristic participants and their purposes' as the video breaks the conventions set up for the genre accumulated from similar bands, consumers of the music, etc. The apparent break of genre convention in this video highlights the ideas put forward by Nicholas Abercrombie who argues that 'genres permit the creation and maintenance of a loyal audience which becomes used to seeing programmes within a genre', as the video may not be something that appeals to fans of this music stylization without prior knowledge of the band and the genre they occupy, showing a committed and loyal audience to this band.
Whereas the costume and set/composition of the video may initially appear to break genre conventions, it strongly resembles many of the talk and variety show performances of the 60's, like that of The Beetles - a band of which are emblematic of the status of rock music in contemporary culture, a genre of
which led to the evolution of different sub-genres such as metal. Thus, this video presents a clear intertextual reference to this, possibly utilising the style in a satirical way as the performers appear quite uncomfortable in their roles, and do not receive the same reception from their audience within the video as seen in that below.
However, there have been countless claims of an association between metal music and social - as well as mental health- problems such as self-destruction and Satanism, and Bring Me The Horizon are one of the many bands of the genre that have been accused of being 'demonic' by certain groups of religious fanatics, as well as influencing individuals in portraying such behaviour. This idea is present with the exorcism of the drummer midway through the video, possibly a satirical reference to these claims due to the use of the broadcast interruption highlighted by the Muzak edition of the song played over it whilst this is taking place.
Similarly, ideas such as these may lead to the association of the supernatural and mental illness to alternative and metal music, with links to the horror genre. As previously mentioned, this is evident through the idea of lycanthropy and possession, along with the other strange going-ons presented in the video.
The idea of the supernatural being associated with this genre of music, and therefore possibly considered a convention of this style, is reinforced by the use of such themes in other band's music videos, and well as in other videos of this band's as well. For example, another of Bring Me The Horizon's music videos for their track with Architects' Sam Cater 'The Sadness Will Never End' was heavily influenced by the 2008 Swedish horror film 'Let the Right One In' directed by Tomas Alfredson, a film centred around vampires -
another prominent supernatural being in modern pop culture.
Bring Me The Horizon's 'The Sadness Will Never End'
Tomas Alfredson's 'Let the Right One In' (2008)
There are further links to mental illness with the 'audience' in the video, a small number of patients from a psychiatric ward. Katie
Wales notes that 'genre is an intertextual
concept', and similarly John Hartley suggests that 'we need to understand genre as a
property of the relations between texts‘. The ideas explored in this video create a strong intertextual link to the second series of the anthology TV show 'American Horror Story: Asylum', of which explores the themes of Possession/the supernatural, religion and psychosis, all ideas of which are present in this music video.
A Clip from American Horror Story: Asylum
Furthermore, there are other intertextual references evident in this music video, reinforcing the ideas of genre raised by Wales and Hartley. During the performance, there are shots of the bassist looking at his hand which appears to be deteriorating. This is a clear reference to the school dance scene in Robert Zemeckis' 1985 'Back to the Future' in which the same thing happens to the protagonist Marty McFly as he begins to fade from existence, this reference to the cult classic possibly acting as an audience pleasure for those who recognise and enjoy the reference.
Scene from Robert Zemeckis' 'Back to the Future' (1985)
The first video “Drown”, this band may call itself British Metal but it’s a boy band which is marketing itself as “hard” and thus inserts some transitions into Goth imagery which doesn’t convince. Thus if I were a fan of hard core metal I’d be unimpressed. Thus the band may be trying to increase its fan base by going commercial!
ReplyDeleteYou say……This plays on Kress' definition ………………to the end of the paragraph ..loyal audience….
This is very muddled Sian because this music video is unlikely to appeal to a wide base of metal fans, though it may appeal to committed fans of this band. I’d suggest these fans also like the generic style of boy bands with a little bit of danger thrown in.
Kress means that fans of a particular genre will expect specific generic conventions thus if a Bond fan goes to a new Bond film it will be like visiting an old friend and a social occasion with expected car chases and baddies etc.
Fans of classic heavy metal will expect loud music, black T shirts, images of skulls, Satan, crosses, beardy artists who shout, dark lighting and perhaps white faced passive girls who look as though they’ve risen from the grave. Because this music video lacks any creativity let alone convincing heavy metal signifiers this will not be like a repeated social occasion for metal fans.
You have excellently discussed intertextuality and you’ve made a splendid reference to the 60’s retro style which references talk and variety shows illustrated by image of The Beatles early appearances on TV.
It’s just the middle bit which is wobbly. Look at the power point I sent you on audience. You could reference any of these theories but I am an example of somebody who is not in agreement with what has been encoded in this music video thus I am offering an aberrant reading!!!!
Mainly Proficient.