Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 You

Sinead O'Connor

Nothing Compares 2 You

In this blog, I will talk about how powerful the 'Nothing Compares 2 You' video by Sinead O'Connor is. Firstly let's begin by discussing how the video actually came about. Sinead O'Connor did not actually write the song herself, rather she id a cover of the song. The song was originally written and composed by an artist known as 'Prince' and the song was for one of his side projects. When the song was released, it wasn't a huge success that many thought it would be. However after Sinead O'Connr had done a cover f the song and released it, the song began to rise in popularity and managed to top the charts in the 1990s. In the video, it mostly consisted of O'Connor's face as she performed the song. It reached No.1 in many countries and in Ireland it reached No.1 and managed to remain there for 11 weeks. O'Connor also received Grammy nominations such as Record of the Year and she won the Grammy for 'Best Alternative Music Performance'. As well as how well the song was sang by O'Connor it arguably topped the charts for one reason and this is because in the video, O'Connor did something very natural but uncommon in music videos. Whilst Sinead was in the process of composing her cover to the song, her mother had recently passed away. As you can imagine, this would have been an incredibly tough time for her. Now during the song, in the lyrics, Sinead made a reference to her recently passed away mother and this brought a lot of emotion, so O'Connor began to cry but also continue her performance of the song. By O'Connor displaying real emotion, the audience felt it and this gave the song meaning and people where able to empathize with O'Connor. 

A Brief History of the Pop Music

A Brief History of the Pop Music

In the 1950s, America dominated the Pop Music industry. American Artists like Elvis where global stars however due to copyright problems, American music had a certain time where it could be shown in other countries like the UK, this was known as 'Needle Time'. BBC only allowed a few hours a week of American Music. In order to allow the UK to have access to all the top rated songs at all times, illegal Pirate Radio Stations where created that could be accessed by people at home.

Eventually a law passed that allow the BBC to show American music without the need for 'Needle Time'. As you can imagine this led to a huge amount of British Pop Music. Bands such as The Beatles and Rolling Stones are part of what is known as the "Swinging Sixties". These bands where so popular. However they where so popular that when The Beatles used to perform live, no one could actually hear the songs due to the enormous cheering of their fans. As a result of this, The Beatles didn't actually want to perform live anymore as there was clearly no point, so to please their fans The Beatles created a short series of films that went with their music which allowed their fans to still see them at home on TV. This consequently was how the birth of the Pop Videos. The Beatles released "Paperback Whiter" and "Rain" by doing this.

The Song Lyrics

The Song Lyrics

So here I am

doing everything I can

holding on to what I am

pretending I'm a superman

I'm trying to keep

the ground on my feet

it seems the world's

falling down around me

The nights are all long

I'm singing this song

to try and make the answers

more than maybe

And I'm so confused

about what to do

sometimes I want

to throw it all away

So here I am

growing older all the time

looking older all the time

feeling younger in my mind

And here I am

doing everything I can

holding on to what I am

pretending I'm a superman

I'm trying to sleep

I lost count of the sheep

my mind is racing faster

every minute

What could I do more

yeah I'm really not sure

I know I'm running circles

but I can't quit

And I'm so confused

about what to do

sometimes I want

to throw it all away

Controlling everything in sight

I'm feeling weak

I don't feel right

you're telling me

I have to change

telling me to act my age

but if all that I can do

 is just sit and watch time go

then I'll have to say good-bye

life's too short to watch it fly

to watch it fly

So here I am

growing older all the time

looking older all the time

feeling younger in my mind

And here I am

doing everything I can

holding on to what I am

pretending I'm a superman

Superman from Behind Bad Luck! on Myspace.

Profile Of The Music Artists - Who are Behind Bad Luck???

Who are the Band we have Chosen

for our Music Video?

The band we have chosen are 'Behind Bad Luck'. We located them on the www.unsigned.com website. The band have actually been split up for quite a while now but never the less when they where together they where a good band who produced quite a lot of music. To be able to use their cover of the song 'Superman' my group and I had to get their permission first otherwise it could be deemed as copyright. Connor (my group member) was able to get permission by asking them on their Facebook page. The band are a group of 8 who are from New York. They studied at the Crane School of Music. Their genre's include ska, punk and rock. The band members are:
John Pizzirusso: Guitar/Vocals
Ben O'Brien Smith: Drums
Jared Brickman: Bass
Hugh Stuart: Trumpet
Jonathan Wibben: Trumpet/Vocals
Luca Fustioni: Trombone
Scott Kopstein: Alto Saxophone
Devon Toland: Bari Saxophone

Post Modernism

Post Modernism

In today's lesson we looked at the evolution of the music video. We looked at how concepts and techniques in music videos in the 1950s have changed but also share the same features today. We compared two bands in today's lesson and they were 'Take That' and 'The Wanted'. In the lesson we watched the music video by 'Take That' called 'Back For Good' and the music video by 'The Wanted' called 'Walks Like Rihanna'. In the two videos there are many comparisons even to the extent that 'The Wanted' have been called 'The New Take That'. In the 'Back for Good' music video it looks very old whereas the 'Walks Like Rihanna' video is very bright, fast and modern.

Choosing The Music - We Have A Song

Choosing the Music

My group have finally got a song. After looking for various music from unsigned artists on different websites we managed to get a song. After listening to the song, so many ideas where going on in my head. The genre of the song is 'Ska Punk' and this made it easier to find the music because we had a smaller sample of songs to pick from. When our results where a lot broader, we found it a lot harder to find a song. On the unsigned.com we found the song "Superman" (By Goldfinger) as covered by Behind Bad Luck. The song has good lyrics that will allow us to do numerous things in the video. In addition there is already a lot of videos in the 'Ska' genre that we can get inspiration from.