Wake me up lyric analysis

I have annotated the lyrics in order to show the hidden meanings behind the lyrics.

Annotating and understanding the hidden meaning of the song has helped my group plan the micro elements, style of music video we will use, target audience and conventions we will use.

First we chose which style our music video will follow. As we wanted to demonstrate the meaning of the song we decided that a majority of our music video would be narrative, where we would video our characters waking up in the middle of London with a hangover after a night out which would portray them growing up and facing responsibility they do not want. However we did not want all of our video to be narrative based there for we chose to demonstrate being young through partying and dancing which would fall under the style of performance.

We then started planning who our target audience will be. As the song is about being young and not wanting to grow up we felt we should have a rather young target audience, ranging from the ages of 15-25. This age range would young however be old enough to understand the concept of the song as. We felt this was the right age range as the younger ages of 915-18) would just be beginning to live their lives and would be at the typical 'parting age'. The middle ages of our target audience (19-21) will be finding themselves by trying to sort their lives out, starting new careers, moving out ect. The older ages of our target audience (22-25) generally would be experiences the struggle and new found responsibility's with creating their own lives. We chose such a big age range as everyone within our target audience age range would be able to relate as they are experiences being young and will soon be or are experiences growing up also. We also chose such a wide age range because of the genre. The dance genre has become very popular, especially amongst young adult therefore we felt we could use a wider target audience. We also didn't want to specify a certain gender to target our music video towards as the song is very general. Growing up and facing responsibility's is something everyone goes through at one point of their lives whether male or female. We felt this was a positive as we could have a wider target audience which would gain us more success than a music video about a boy breaking a girls heart which may only appeal to the female gender.

After deciding on the style of music video and target audience we put together a rough plan for our narrative/performance music video. We wanted our video to contrast the present to the future as the song is about what will come in the future. We decided to start our music video off with our characters (2 male best friends) waking up in London after a night out. Throughout the music video camera shots will show the two best best friends finding their way home and discovering what is really important in life. In order to contrast the present day to the future we decided to add flashbacks from the night before. The whole music video is set in the present day as both different scenes are only set apart by a few hours, however the flashbacks of the night before will represent the boys being young and loving life and the morning after will represent the consequences and responsibility's that are soon to come and the boys getting ready to face them. Although we wanted to follow the true meaning of the song as we felt our music video will be more affective we also added in the concept that although going out, being young is fun and friends are important in life you will always go back to your family as they will help you throughout the whole of your life and are the people that stay with you forever. This is why we end the song with both of the boys going their separate way to their families.

When planning the cinematography and editing we did not really use the meaning of the song to help us as we based the camera shots and editing styles that we would use on what is conventional to the dance genre and beat of the song such as fast editing, close-up and mid-shots. However we did choose to use a high angled shot within the party scene as this shows that the characters are young and vulnerable, and also chose to use fast editing which will symbolise how fast they are growing up as well as following the conventions of a dance genre music video as the beat is very fast and will go with the editing.

We also chose to stick to the conventions of dance genre when planning lighting as our party scenes will include strobe, flashing and low key lighting. We will also use natural lighting as it goes with our story board of them waking up the next morning.

Facial expressions and body language where decided based on the meaning of the song as we want the actors to act young and that they are enjoying life throughout the music video however come to realisation on their actions at some point within the music video for example when they are up London and needing to get home.

Our make-up and costume will simply follow our narrative. The boys will be dressed in smart casual clothes that our target audience would find trendy. This is to make our music video seems current, more realistic and appeal to our target audience. The clothing and make up will not change in order to contrast being young and growing up like the setting will.

When planning the setting and iconography the meaning of the song helped us a lot after we saw the contrast between young and old within the song we decided how we would contrast it within the setting and iconography of our music video. The party setting and iconography such as alcohol, flashing lights will show the characters youthfulness and care free attitude to life. While the scene set in London and the missed phone calls will represent the responsibility they hold. Their desire to be young and follow their dreams will be conveyed to the audience through their flashbacks and the way the boys think positively about being young.

Planning lighting & colour

Lighting and colour is important within a music video as it can help a scene come across more realistic. It can also make the music video more conventional to its genre and different lighting can portray difference moods. For example low key lighting may reflect emotions and bad moods in a soul genre however if flashing lights are added it can portray fun and a good time within a dance genre.

The first style of lighting we chose to use within our music video is natural lighting. We will use this style of lighting when our characters are waking up in London and finding their way home. We chose to use this lighting as if we chose any other style the setting would not come across as realistic, it is unlikely that London in the morning will be pitch black? By using natural lighting we are able to portray the setting allowing the audience to have better knowledge of what is going on. Natural lighting of the sun rising will inform the audience that it is morning and the boys are waking up from falling asleep in the city. This style of lighting is not actually conventional to the dance genre however it is necessary in order for us to portray our narrative to the audience. 

The next style of lighting we will use will be low key lighting with flashing lights. We are using this style of lighting as it portrays the party scene we want to include within our narrative, through the party being dark with flashing lights we are following the conventions of the dance genre as the representation of a party through the lighting also represents people having fun, dancing, and being happy. This type of lighting will build a relationship with the audience as they will be able to relate to the party scene and the buzz flashing lights create at a party, hopefully making them feel the beat of the song and wanting to go to a party like the one we are portraying. 

The third type of lighting we will be using is again low key lighting, however this time there will be no flashing lights. We will use this style of lighting during the last of the shots where Jake goes home to his empty flat. We are using the low key lighting to create a glum atmosphere as Jake is sad that after having fun with his friend George he has had to come home to living on his own whilst George goes home to a loving family and home. This type of lighting is not conventional to the dance genre as it is not associated with having fun and being happy. Although it is not conventional we still feel we can use it as it will help us build a relationship between Jake and the audience as we want them to feel sorry for him and understand our concept of the importance of having family AND friends.

The colours we are aiming to use throughout the music video vary. Colours within the London scenes will simply be natural as it is hard to change them and we want the scenes to look natural anyway. This effect the audience by letting them relate to the realistic setting leading them to think, this could be them one day.

Within the party scene you will not see many colours however we the colours of the flashing lights to be luminous party colours like pink and green. I feel the colours are both very bright colours and do not promote sadness, only happiness therefore will be able to have a positive effect on the audience. Also I feel the colours contrast each other well, they are easily liked by both genders as they are common within the party scene. Using these colours follows the conventions of dance as they portray happiness and partying.

Pie Charts

We chose to present our results obtained through the questionnaire with pie charts. Using pie charts allowed us to see the results clearly making it easier to compare and contrast the results.

                                     

Vox pops

In order to extend our use of primary research my group and i decided to carry out a series of vox pops. By using this method of research we were able to ask the public questions that we felt may bore them if we included them into our questionnaire. We felt this method could allow us to gain a wider insight into the publics expectations and preferences to a dance genre music video. We chose to use a variety of people belonging to different age groups in order to gain as many ideas as possible. Which also gave us more options of what audience we wanted to appeal to.

The questions we asked were:
1. What style of music do you like?
2. We have decided to create a music video for the song 'Wake me up' by Avicii do you know/like this song?
3. What attracts you to a music video?
4. Are you more interested in a performance based, narrative based or concept based 

Vox Pops (link to vox pops)
The vox pops went well as we managed to ask a range of different people from different age groups the questions we wanted to. These ages ranged from 14-54 therefore we managed to receive a variety of different feedback. Through the vox pops we found out what type of music the people we asked, which a majority of said they liked dance, and we also found out that all of the people we interviewed had heard and liked the song 'wake me up' by Avicii which they had so this confirmed our song song choice. We also asked what attracted them to a music video in order for us to follow these needs and expectations so our music video could also appeal to them and finally we found out what style of music video they enjoy. This helped us as we where unsure how much of each style we wanted our music video to be. As the people we asked mosty enjoyed a narrative style where they lyrics where portrayed we decided we would create our music video to be mostly narrative in order to portray the lyrics and a concept. This feedback will assist us in creating our music video as we now know what target audience we want to target and what we must do in order to appeal to them successfully.

Questionnaires

After coming up with our initial plan my group and i decided that is very important to decide which type of audience we are going to target. Having a target audience is very important in the music industry as record labels and artists want to becomes as successful as possible, the record label can achieve this if they are familiar with their target audience and appeal to them successfully. Questionnaires are important when becoming more familiar with your target audience as it is useful to identify certain quality's we want to aim our music video at such as age or gender as the target audience will be who is viewing our music video. It also helps us discover what our target audience are expecting and what they will enjoy watching. Being aware of this could help us become more successful as we can then decide what conventions to follow or whether we want to go against them and create a diverse music video to gain attentions and shock our target audience.

We decided to create our own questionnaire as we could ask questions specifically related to ideas we had in mind such as the genre and artist we wanted to use. Creating our own questionnaire allowed us to receive primary feedback which meant all the information we received was relevant to what we needed to know. we asked open and closed questions in order to receive qualitative and quantitive feedback

After discussing together what questions to include into our questionnaire we decided how we would dispute them. We decided to give them to 40 people altogether with a 20/20 ratio of female to men. We each gave out 10 questionnaires to random members of the public ensuring we gave them to 5 females and 5 males each. We divided the ratio of female to men specially so we could contrast the differences in gender preferences to help us decide whether we were going to appeal to both genders or one in specific.

Our questionnaire)                    

Initial planning idea

My group consists of 4 people,. They are Amiee Austin, George Hoy, Jake Poulter and myself. Individually we all have certain skills which will contribute to the success of our music video as a whole. Together so far we have all inputed creative ideas and discussed our strong points which consists of creativity, camera and editing skills.

In our first group meeting there was lots of discussions about the theme and genre we were going to use. As a group we felt that the genre of a song reflected the theme we could include, for example we felt that a dance song which was fast paced would connote happiness and friendship whereas a slow country song stereotypically connote heartbreak and sadness. As a group the main theme and concept we wanted to include in our video was happiness, friendship and family rather than heartbreak and sadness. After discussing this we decided to do a dance song as hapiness, having fun and partying with friend is one of the many conventions of a dance video. We then decided on the song Wake me up by Avicii, we feel this song is upbeat and the lyrics are positive enough for the themes we would like to include. We also feel the slow paced at the beginning and end of the song and the fast paced beat throughout the middle of the song will enable us to create a contrasting narrative. As a group we had other idea's such as 'Londons Caliing' by Clash, as we wanted to include an element of being in the city however felt the song was too slow and drery. We also considered 'The sun don't shine' by Sonix which we was close to choosing however we felt the lyrics in 'Wake me up' would connote our themes and concept ideas more. The way we are going to choose to connote out themes are through a narrative/concept music video there will be some performance such a dancing but this will be used within our narrative and not a performance direct to the camera.

As our basic concept is about family, friends and having fun we chose our narrative to consist two teenage boys, who were best friends going to a party. Although our music video narrative is of two best friends going to a party out music video will start from the morning after. We chose to do this in order to create a flashback affect by using jump cuts and fades to flashback back to the night before. We wanted to include flashbacks of the two boys partying rather than the narrative going in chronological order so we could represent the lyrics of finding their way back home. The boys do not know how they got to the place they find themselves waking up in the morning, but the flashback help them gain their drunken memories back. In between flashback the two teenage boys will be filmed making their way home laughing at te flashbacks if the night before, eventually the boys go seperate ways so they can go home. Upon arrival we will use a split screen to contrast the differences between family life. One boy will return home to his warm family home greeting his little sister whereas the other will be an only child going to a place he doesn't really like to call home. The idea of this is to contrast how friends and having fun is important however your family will always be the ones you go home to yet some people are not lucky enough to have families like others.

The first point we considered once we had come up with our basic idea was mise-en-scene. In order to make out party scenes seems realistic we wanted to include realistic clothing therefor our characters will be dressed in casual party clothes as they are teenage boys and they tend to wear very basic clothing also because the party we are portraying isn't massively glamorous and teenage boys do not tend to go to party's in suits ect. For lighting we chose to use lowkey for the party scene with flashing lights as it is conventional to the party scene and dance genre and natural lighting for the day time scenes as when filming it will be light out showing it is the morning after. Icongograohy was another important element of mise-en-scene we needed to include to portray a realistic party scene. As we will be filming the party scenes of out music video at an actual party this will not be a problem as we will have all iconography needed which will include thins such as alcoholic drink, empty beer bottles, lights ect. For location we chose to film in a club for the party scene as our party scene will be real, London for the scene where yh boys wake up as we feel this is an iconic location in which people will recognise and remember and out own homes for the scene where the boys return home in order for out scenes to be realistic. Characters will be positioned centre frame throughout the video as they are the significant characters and the narrative is based around them. 

The second point we discussed was how the artist is being represented. The real artist (Avicii) will not be featuring in our music video as we are recreating the music video. However as our music video is not performance based we will not be aiming to re-represent the artist through our characters either therefor there will not be a representation of the arist only on the characters who are part of the narrative. 

Cinematography was the next element we discussed. As a group we talked about using lots of variety when talking about cinematography, we started off with the basics such as close up to show emotions such as happiness and confusion then decided on mid shots and long shots to show the characters movements, then decided on panning shots to establish setting.

For editing we decided that we will include fast editing such as straight cuts and jump cuts to follow conventions of the dance genre and party scene as well as slow editing as it is commonly used to slow down scenes in order to let the audience see what is happening in a party more clearly within dance music videos such as 'we found love' by Rihanna. We also chose to use fading techniques to fade the flashbacks in and out to make them seems like they are actually fading back into the characters memory.

When choosing the style of music video we wanting to create more of a narrative based video. This is because it would be difficult to create a performance type as the dance genre is more about listening to the beat and dancing to the song rather than feeling the emotions of the words sung. We also chose to include concept as we did not want our music video to be meaningless, but have a positive message to our target audience.

Another vital element we had to consider when planning our music video was the codes and conventions we where going to follow. The dance genre portrays happiness and having fun therefore we chose to include party scene and being happy with lots of friends. Within the party scene we wanting to include all the conventional elements of a party for example flashing lights, alcohol and dancing in order for our target audience to be able to relate to the music video and be able to build a relationship with our characters.

Our target audience was something we also had to consider, we discussed who we thought our narrative idea and style of music video would best relate to along with the actual song. Our target audiences ended up being young teens/adults (15-25) we decided on this age group for many reasons. Firstly the song is very current and doing well in the charts along with the dance genre which is also recently become very popular amongst young people and more dance songs are appearing in the charts such as kissfm top 40 which is watched by a lot of young teens/adults. Another reason is that Avicii's target audience is roughly the same therefore as it is the same song we feel ours should be similar. And lastly we feel the narrative we want to create appeals best to young teens and adults as they are currently at the the age where they are going out partying, having fun with their friends however facing tough times with finding themselves or even at home with family as teens tend to argue a lot with parents.

When discussing what theory's we wanting to follow we chose to follow both Goodwin's and Dyers however not all the points. For Goodwin's theory we knew we wanted to ensure our music video contained genre characteristics, this was so we had more of a chance of getting our music video appealing to our target audience also because we simply liked the characteristics of a dance music video and want to recreate it as we feel it will be very fun. We also wanted to follow the second and third point of his theory where 'music and visuals' and 'lyrics and visuals' share a relationship, we chose to follow these points as we feel it contributes a lot towards making a music video appealing as we feel that as teenagers when we watch a music video and don't get the meaning in connection to the lyrics, we feel less affected by the song. We do not want our audience to feel like that as we want the visuals to highlight the meaning and beat of the song. We decided we would not follow his point of voyeuristic treatment of the female body as we want to keep the attention on Jake and George and we also felt that intertexual references where unnecessary as we wanted to focus on the concept of our music video.

For Dyers theory we decided to use 2 of his most common values of a star which where youthfulness and rebelliousness, along with many of our own values such as fun, loving. We also decided to try and follow his 2 paradoxes of an artist being simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary as well as present and absent.

We then carried out research in order to build our inspirations and ideas for our music video. This included us researching other music videos from the dance genre and more into Avicii as an artist. We also annotated the lyrics of 'Don't wake me' in order to gain further understanding of the meaning of the song. This research has been presented in other posts.

Copyright

Copyright is the law put in place which gives creators of origional pieces of work exclusive rights to it. After a piece of work has physical form, for example a song, the creator becomes copyright holder. The copyright holder can then take credit for the work allowing them to sell, display and reproduce the work. Generally copyright is 'the right to copy' which is why we must ask the copyright holders of our song 'Wake me up' By Avicii permission to use the song.  If we do not gain permission to use the song or use it without asking copyright holder, our music video could be taken down and we could also possibly be sewed if the music video was created in order to gain profit. 

In order ask permission for copyright on our chosen song i contacted the copyright holder via email.