The tracks on the CD are listed below
No. Title Length
1. "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" 2:54
2. "Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts" 2:58
3. "Chun-Li's Spinning Bird Kick" 4:40
The single was released in October 2005 off the bands first album ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’
This became the fastest selling debut album in the UK
The genre of the Artic Monkey’s music is alternative rock with psychedelic overtones. The font used to define the band’s name on their CD covers reinforces this identity.
I chose to make a video about an Artic Monkey’s song because they were the first band who made their name on the internet. Their fans copied the songs off the demo CD and began file sharing the music. The bands popularity grew as a result of social networking sites, in particular Myspace. They were ground breakings artists which captured my imagination.
I chose the track ‘Bigger boys and Stolen Sweethearts’ for my video. This is a song about a teenage romance. I selected this song because I enjoyed the way the story was told. I appreciated the narrative incorporating Tordorov’s ideas about the formation of a new equilibrium. The younger boy in the song loses his girlfriend to an older boy. I also visualized some of Claude Levi’s binary opposites in the song; love/ hate, happy / sad and winners/losers. As the main characters in the song were teenagers I could relate to their situation and experiences. I felt confident about translating the narrative into a video.
The words of the song are sharp, witty and graphic lending themselves to video representation of teenage attitudes and rites of passage. The language is simple, informal and colloquial. My age group can relate to the imagery and language in the song.
The duration of the song is 2min 58sec which is suitable for a promo music video. The purpose of the video is to promote CD sales so it is important that it grabs the attention of the viewer. They must be able to understand the narrative quickly and it must not be allowed to go on too long otherwise the viewer will loose interest and switch off. The video is intended to be a taster for the album.
The Arctic Monkeys hail from Sheffield, England which means I should be able to produce a suitable music video in my local area.
As this song formed part of the bands demo CD I liked the idea that a video had not been done before so offered a new opportunity. The music characterized by strong guitar rifts and minimal production. The sound is raw and gritty but very energetic.
The lyrics of the song ‘Bigger Boys & Stolen Sweethearts’ are as follows:
There's always somebody taller
With more of a wit
And he's equipped to enthrall her
And her friends think he's fit
And you just can't measure up no
You don't have a prayer
Wishing that you had made the most of her
When she was there
They've got engaged
No intention of a wedding
He's pinched your bird
And he'd probably kick your head in
Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts
You're better off without her anyway
You said you wasn't sad to see her go
Oh no
He might be one of those boys
That's all pretty and vain
Likes to go in the sunbed
stays out of the rain
So that he don't get his hair wet
cos You wouldn't want that
At least he hasn't got a Nova
Or a Burberry hat
They've got engaged
No intention of a wedding
He's pinched your bird
And he'd probably kick your head in
Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts
oh You're better off without her anyway
You said you wasn't sad to see her go
Of but of course you were
Have you heard what she's been doing?
Never did it for me
He picks her up at the school gates
At twenty past three
She's been with all the boys
But never went very far
and She wagged English and Science
Just to go in his car
They've got engaged
No intention of a wedding
He's pinched my bird
And he'd probably kick my head in, oh
Now the girls have grown
But I'm sure that they still carry on in similar ways
Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts
So I'm better off without her anyway
I said I wasn't sad to see her go
But I'm only pretending, you know
Yeah, I'm only pretending, you know
Yeah, I'm only pretending, you know
Oh I'm only pretending, you know
Another song I considered for my video was the Artctic Monkey's track Mardy Bum. I ultimately rejected this option because the I felt the narrative in Bigger Boys was stonger tackling the thorny issue of teenage romance.
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