The All-American Rejects are an American rock band, who have got my Sunday revisit this week. I reviewed "Beekeeper's Daughter", and have done a few others in the past. The band consists of Tyson Ritter, Nick Wheeler, Mike Kennerty and Chris Gaylor. They have been around since 1999 but released their first song "Swing, Swing" in 2002.
Swing, Swing was written by Nick Wheeler and Tyson Ritter, as expected since most of the songs are written by these two. This song charted at number 13 here in the UK, which is surprising, as rock was in back then, and this song would have no chance at getting to that chart position nowadays. But what's even more surprising is that The All-American Rejects have yet to beat that chart position, meaning this is their highest charting single to date. Apparently it is about Tyson's ex-girlfriend, and it was written when times were really difficult, and the second verse is about moving on.
The music video portrays the song amazingly, but this band looks so young, but what do you expect? Considering it's 10 years ago since it was released. That band is definitely not the band we see in Beekeeper's Daughter. They've grown up and become more confident in themselves, they don't look like the average band no more. But I still don't understand why it was such a hit in the UK.
It is both performance and narrative. It's a pretty good first music video, considering others we have seen in the past. And although not the best, it's not bad either. As for the performance side of things, they look pretty nervous, and not entirely sure what to do, which is weird since they aren't like that no more.
As for the narrative, it's easy to understand, and we follow a couple going through their relationship, everything's all good and then something happens with the car and they have an argument, and they end up splitting up. I like how this one focuses on the male's side of the relationship, usually a lot of music videos decide to focus on the girl's side of things.
Overall a great first music video from these guys, still cannot believe this is their highest charting single in the UK to date, I hope they can release a single soon that will get into the top 10, there's lots of good potential singles on their new album. But promotion is one of the most important things, and they aren't doing much.
So SpeedATW decided to suggest this music video on to my suggestions page. I have never heard of The Naked And Famous, so I was interested in what I would think of this, but then I heard the song and realised that I have heard it before. It was used in an advert in the UK for the Cannon EO5 Camera. It has been used in various TV shows and on various adverts worldwide.
The Naked And Famous are a New Zealand indie rock band. They consist of Alisa Xayalith, Thom Powers, Aaron Short, Jesse Wood and David Beadle. So there's 5 members, which is quite a lot to be honest, but if they create music like this, how can anyone complain. This song became a big success worldwide, however people didn't link this song with the advert, and I bet it would have done much better if it were promoted more.
"Young Blood" was written by Thomas Powers, Alisa Xayalith and Aaron Short. Again it's another band who have wrote their own song, meaning they can connect with it easily and it's usually what makes the song all the more better. It was created to convey the spirit of youth, and it sure does that.
The music video is interesting, that is the only word I can use to describe it. There is a lot of footage used but nothing links this song to the music video. If I turned the song off, the video could be for any song, and the only identifiable bit is the fact that everyone is free and having fun and doing whatever they want to do.
There's a lot of footage used such as the water, which is quite clever as water is open and free which is what young people want to be. But there's just not a lot going on. It's not performance or narrative based, and it just looks like a lot of footage compiled together.
Overall the song is really catchy and I do like it (now I know who created it). But there's nothing special about this music video. And I don't really have much to say about it either.
Okay, so I'm not a fan of One Direction and usually skip over their music videos, but I was struggling today to pick a video for this blog, and I decided to look at the TV, spontaneously, I just picked it.
One Direction came Third on the seventh series of the X Factor. The band members are Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson. It was one of few series that released quite a few artists into this world, they are: Matt Cardle (winner), Rebecca Ferguson (second), One Direction (third), Cher Lloyd (fourth), Mary Byrne (fifth), Katie Waissel (seventh), Belle Amie (eleventh), Storm Lee (fourteenth) and Nicolò Festa (sixteenth). One Direction has had quite a few hits here in the UK, and have recently took over America, winning a lot of hearts out there, and creating "One Direction Infection". Not only that, they have become the first British Group to have their first album go straight to number one on the Billboard chart. I have previously reviewed "What Makes You Beautiful" on this blog. They will be one of the biggest acts around the whole world, but my question is... Why is there a winner of the X Factor, when other positions clearly do better... Where is Matt Cardle now?
"One Thing" is the third single to be released in the UK from this band. It was written by Rami Yacoub, Carl Falk and Savan Kotecha. Obviously only the best writers for this band, they have all worked with big names in the past, and also created What Makes You Beautiful. This is another great and catchy song, and again it looks like a bright future for these guys.
The music video is performance based, which is usually not my favourite type of music video, however, it's done differently and it puts a great spin on things, and definitely stands out from other performance videos. Which is extremely difficult to do.
There is a lot of One Direction fans involved in this music video. They were invited to join the video, but on one condition only... And that was that they had to find out where it was being filmed through a series of clues, which may be the reason why they are all very excited, although, I bet that is usually what their fans are like.
The music video is basically a tour of London, with One Direction singing here and there, such as on some steps, in a park, on a bus, and in front of fans.
Overall, it's definitely a different kind of music video, with a great song to go with it. It charted at number 9 here in the UK, but has done a lot better elsewhere. These boys are going to be a worldwide success, if they aren't already, and it looks like they've come out on top from that series of the X Factor.
Avicii has quickly become one of my favourite house artists. His real name is Tim Bergling, but his first release was "Seek Bromance" where he released under the name Tim Berg. Not many people realise that Avicii and Tim Berg are the same person. I have so far only reviewed "Levels" which was his highest hit. I hope to hear more from him in the future, and I'm getting excited for when an album gets released. As for the collaborator, it's Sebastien Drums, who is a France DJ and is big in the House genre. He has worked with Avicii a lot, and collaborated on a few tracks, maybe we'll see more collaborations in the future. He is working up to becoming big, and my guess is that by next year, a lot more people will know of him, and I'm interested in what the future brings to this potential star.
The song was made for Cassius, an electronic band, that released the song under "Feelings For You" and managed to get it to number 19 here in the UK in 1999, no wonder I've heard of it before hand. So Avicii has remixed it up and made it so much more with the help from Sebastien Drums, if this is just one thing that can be done, I'm interested in what will be happening in the future. The song got to number 46 on the UK chart.
The music video is an act of pure genius, everyone has played all the video games involved. And I also like the fact that the lyrics have been added, no one is going to mess them up when they sing a long now.
There are a few video games I can reference out, such as Super Mario Bros., Pong, Pac-Man and Space Invaders, although there is a lot more that I can't remember the names of, I'm sure one of them is Tetrix and another is Brickbreaker.
I like that there's a narrative to it too, with the fact that there are two love hearts in love, and this green love heart steals the pink one, suggesting that he is lusting after her, and the red heart is going to get her back, no matter how many obstacles attempt to stand in his way. As for the ending, I'm not quite sure what's happening, maybe the green one feels lonely and is upset? Or maybe it's more sinister than that?
Overall the song is really catchy and it's been stuck in my head all day. The music video is extremely memorable, and I'm sure there's a few people out there who could name all the video games that feature in the music video. I can't wait to see what the future brings for Avicii and Sebastien Drums, I'm totally looking forward to it.
Paramore is definitely one of my favourite bands as you already know. In this song they are a four-piece consisting of Hayley William, Josh Farro, Zac Farro and Jeremy Davis. Recently the Farro brothers left and now Paramore is a three-piece band with fellow friend Taylor York. However this song was released a month after I saw them for the Riot! tour in February 2008 (wow that was 4 years ago). I went with Tink09 and Hollagram Star and had an amazing time.
So "That's What You Get" was written by Hayley Williams, Josh Farro and Taylor York. Which surprised me as Taylor York didn't become part of the band until not long afterwards. Anyway, as per usual, I like the fact that the band wrote the song as they can connect with it more, as you usually find most bands have wrote their own songs.
I like this music video, I like the fact that it's both performance and narrative. However in the UK, the music channels usually only show the performance edited music video, so I was quite surprised today to have seen the full version.
Paramore is one band I could see again and again, their performances are usually so engaging and capturing, they draw you in within seconds, and you are guaranteed to have a good night. Hayley Williams just has this amazing voice that you could listen to over and over. And the music video shows the band off perfectly.
As for the storyline, it's a little mismatched, you cannot be certain of what is going on, however you know that a couple have met up again, possibly a couple that recently put things on hold or even went as far a split up. And so we go over their past memories, which is a perfect touch, and it's really nice to see them.
Overall I love this song, I remember going out and buying it. But the music video is missing something, I'm not sure what it is, but it doesn't capture me enough. Paramore has far better music videos out there, and I'd much rather see them than see this one, I just thinking it's missing some sort of spark.
