{Genre Analysis

Group Work

Lost Frequencies - RealityFelix Safran De Laet, also known by his stage name as Lost Frequenceis is a Belgian DJ and music producer. In 2014 he became famous for his remix of the song “Are you with me” by Easton Corbin. The remix became to be one of the hottest songs in years 2014 and 2015, reaching top of the charts in countries such as Australia, Austria, Germany and United Kingdom. In 2015 Lost Frequencies has released his newest track named “Reality”. The song reality fits into one of the Dance subgenres – Deep House. Deep house as a genre has a very similar audience in comparison to our chosen Progressive House genre meaning that this analysis will give my group a huge advantage in terms of picking out essential elements in order to make our product effective. The music video for “Reality” is narrative based, revealing a specific story. This is something my group would like to implement into our own music video therefore by analysing it would pinpoint any specific areas we can look out for and also implement into our own work.

StylesThe song ‘Reality” by Lost Frequencies falls into the Deep House category which most commonly follows a performance / concept based music video style. The music video for ‘Reality’ countertypes this stereotypical image by having a narrative style throughout its music video. We can see a clear storyline being implemented by the main character finding a mysterious map, researching and going for a hunt which ends in what seems like his death. The music video is very calm in terms of shot speeds and the scenes themselves are mainly captured in slow motion. As a result this causes the visuals to reflect the music tempo, creating an aesthetically pleasing video to watch. This follows Andrew Goodwin’s theory of having “a relationship between the music and visuals”. The video itself does not only focus on the main characters, but also captures their surrounding. This slows down the action which occurs in the video as well as intriguing the audience by the large amount of various shots, allowing them to acknowledge what is surrounding the individuals within the video. By the video being rather slow paced it allows us to participate with the video itself, and go on the journey with the characters, allowing the audience to easily take in what is going on which in my opinion is a very positive aspect of the video. In comparison to other deep house examples where the video is concept based and portrays a hidden message this music video is very clear and well structured due to its narrative style.

IdeologiesDue to it being a narrative music video it has a hidden ideology which is mainly hidden in various shots which portray symbols. From what I have seen in the music video I believe the message relates to the relationship between the male and the female in the video. It shows their journey of real, committed love which they take on a test by going on the treasure hunt. The music video shows us that no matter where we are, even in the middle of nowhere, love is what we need. It shows us that having a partner could allow us to experience beautiful moments. We then are shown that in life comes a moment in which the relationship could be put to a test and as in this music video, it could be destroyed. I believe the music video tells us to care about our loved ones as once we loose them throughout our journey, we loose ourselves. The message in this music video is very hard to understand, which requires to look at the various symbols which are portrayed in it that give the music video a meaning apart from it portraying a story.

ConventionsLooking at the previous group research of the stereotypical codes and conventions of dance music which includes Deep House, I have concluded that this video shows a complete countertype of what you were to expect from this genre. As we can see throughout the video we have been shown locations such as a library, outdoors fields, ship and even under the sea whereas the stereotypical convention of Deep House is clubs and parties. This countertype is mainly achieved due to the fact that the music video is narrative based rather than concept or performance like most Deep House videos. In terms of the people which we can see in this music video we can tell they are rather responsible, loving and calm in comparison to the stereotypical image of the young individuals being considered as party animals, wild and careless. Furthermore, the stereotype of women being depicted as ‘sexual objects’ is not visible within this video, which does go against the code and convention of dance music videos. On the other hand I believe that the ‘Reality’ music does follow the hand held camera convention which is mainly seen throughout dance music videos. A good example of this can be seen closer to the begging of the song where various close ups and tilts have been used in order to resemble the characters point of view. Concluding, I believe that by the overall concept behind the video of it being narrative rather than concept/performance based has made the video to be a huge countertype to what the audience would normally associate with the dance genre, causing the video to be rather unique and enjoyable.