THE KILLERSSECONDARY RESEARCH

BY VICTOR CHI-CHUNG CHAN

GENRESAlternative Rock

Indie Rock

Post-Punk Revival

New Wave

+ Heartland Rock

OF THE KILLERS

GENRES

ALTERNATIVE ROCK▸ Cultural origins: Late 1970s to early 1980s

▸ Alternative Rock is a genre of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s. Therefore, it is quite hard to specifically define what alternative rock is actually about. But AR can breakdown in many sub-genres, such as britpop, gothic rock or indie rock. Due to the variable properties of this genre, we cannot know what the audiences are like, but at least we understand the word "alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream rock music, expressed primarily in a distorted guitar sound, subversive and/or transgressive lyrics and generally a nonchalant, defiant attitude.

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GENRES

INDIE ROCK▸ Cultural origins: Early 1980s

▸ Back to the 80s, this genre is originally used to describe the music of the band come from small labels. Indie rock was extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include indie pop, jangle pop, and lo-fi, among others. Therefore, the definition of Indie Rock is actually quite vague and unclear.

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GENRES

NEW WAVE‣ Cultural origins: Late 1970s, United States,

United Kingdom and Ireland

‣ It can be defined as the combination with Punk Rock because it was created in a similar era with Punk Rock. But New wave differs from other movements with ties to first-wave punk as it displays characteristics common to pop music, rather than the more "arty" post-punk, though it incorporates much of the original punk rock sound and ethos while arguably exhibiting greater complexity in both music and lyrics. Common characteristics of new wave music, aside from its punk influences, include the use of synthesizers and electronic productions, the importance of styling and the arts, as well as a great amount of diversity.

GENRES

POST-PUNK REVIVAL‣ Cultural origins: Late 1990s United States

‣ Punk Rock was once very popular in 1970s United Kingdom. But after the few years of it, there came Post-Punk which inherited the spirit of Punk Rock. But the history of Post-Punk didn’t last a long success and ended up like the history of Punk Rock. So after Post-Punk, there was a new genre which tried to recreate the spirit of Post-Punk in the late 1990s United States called Post-Punk Revival. It even obtained commercial success in the early 2000s. After the trend of Post-Punk Revival, the bands of this genre didn’t seem to continue this success and a lot of them broke up after the early 2000s.

GENRES

HEARTLAND ROCK‣ Cultural origins: Late 1970s, United States

‣ It differs with the style of Punk Rock because it is influenced by Folk Rock and Country Rock. The style of Heartland Rock is indeed a comparatively specific to other genres, so the characteristics can be identified easily. It mixes typical Rock n’ Roll and Country Rock and it was created in the US. The artists usually have strong identities of America with the style of Country. It is a genre between old and new. Although the genre had already faded in the 1990s, it had an impact many remaining Rock bands worldwide.

KEY BANDS AND ARTISTS WITHIN THESE GENRES

The band we are researching is The Killers, because it is quite a mainstream band so their style and ideologies are not very specific for a certain group of audiences. Therefore, I am going to find some bands of alternative rock, especially founded during the Post-Punk Revival in the early 2000s. The bands may not be very similar to The Killers, but their target audiences are mainly teenagers and young adults, so the ideologies are theoretically corresponding to what they think/want.

KINGS OF LEON

KEY BANDS AND ARTISTS WITHIN THESE GENRES

KINGS OF LEON‣ The themes of their songs are about relationship, but they depict it in a rebellious

way. Because most artists have love song, but the genre depends on how they portray the love theme. In their song – Sex On Fire, the lyrics are about sex. It is quite obvious because the title has already addressed this theme. But the portrayal of love in this song is not only sex, they even depicts the feelings on it directly. It provides a rebellious image to the audiences.

‣ This band has a stronger image of male compared to The Killers. It doesn’t only address by the theme of the song. In their music video of Sex On Fire, they dress to show their arms so audiences see their muscles. A warm colour tone is also used to enhance their passion of love. So overall, the identity of them is quite stereotypically male with strong image and passion and power.

THE STROKES

KEY BANDS AND ARTISTS WITHIN THESE GENRES

THE STROKES‣ The Strokes is a representative during the Post-Punk Revival period. So their style and theme

are quite similar to punk but just slightly different with the original punk in 1970s. They have a style of rebellion, which just the punk bands. It is shown by their clothing in their music videos and live performances. For examples they always wear t-shirts with leather jackets on top and jeans. The vocalist - Julian Casablancas even always wear sunglasses to provide a mysterious image. These are typical punk bands dressing in the 2000s.

‣ The themes of The Strokes are very similar to The Killers and other punk rock bands. Their songs are usually about love. This theme is actually most teenagers audiences are interested in because of puberty that they are curious about love and relationship. Therefore the bands for teenagers and young adults as target audiences would mainly create songs about love to attract their attentions.

PANIC! AT THE DISCO

KEY BANDS AND ARTISTS WITHIN THESE GENRES

PANIC! AT THE DISCO‣ They can be defined as pop rock or alternative rock, so their music genre is not

close to The Killers. But one similarity is they are both mainstream bands. Although The Killers is an indie band, their target audience and style are actually mainstream and for many kinds of audience. Therefore, Panic! At the Disco and The Killers have something in common.

‣ If we look at the dressing styles of Panic! At the Disco, we can see they are similar to The Killers by their neutral-sex appearances. Normal rock bands usually wear casual clothes such as t-shirts and jeans, but PATD wear differently. All the members always wear suits and even with eyeliners on their eyes. In order to catch the audiences’ attention, they would like to try different types of costumes to be variable.

THE IDEOLOGIES OF ROCK GENRE

Rock is a representative of youths and young adults audiences since they are the target audiences of this genre which was founded in 1950s. Through the years of development, the genre has been divided into different genres towards different directions. Even though the variety of the genre is a fact, the key ideology of rebellion has not changed a lot. The sub-genres of rock can be defined as many levels of rebellion.

But The Killers is a mainstream band. The target audience of them are not only teenagers, but a huge age range of audiences. Therefore, they are comparatively low level of rebellion to other punk rock bands. Even though this is a fact that they don't hold an extreme ideology, they are indeed influenced by punk rock according to their genre. So the themes of The Killers contain the ideas which are suitable for all the audiences but they still show the vitality of youth.

THE IDEOLOGIES OF ROCK GENRE

LOVE THEME‣ Like most of the rock bands, the songs are about love because this is what teenagers are

interested in. Although there are many bands making songs about the same topic, there is always a demand of this kind of songs staying in the market. An image of the band towards love depends on their audience, then they would always make themselves the perfect lovers for their audiences. In the songs of The Killers, their songs always show their weak side on love. They don't look tough in their music videos, but looking like a caring, low-key gentleman. This is the difference between them and others. For other punk/post-punk bands, the bands always look tough and show the strength of being men to create a protective feeling to their fans.

‣ Due to the diverse types of audiences, the themes of love in The Killers’ songs are not just about relationship or puppy love. Although they have many songs based on this theme, they still made songs about family love and parents. They even make annual Christmas song at the end of a year such as Boots, which is about father’s love. So The Killers has a large range of audience to keep their work stay at mainstream music market.

THE IDEOLOGIES OF ROCK GENRE

DEPRESSING TONE‣ Teenagers are experiencing their puberty which makes them emotional. There are many factors

would make teenagers tend to listen to music which depicts the struggles in their teenage period. For example, the Emo used to be a popular culture among the teens during the 2000s and it is an exact reflection of the teens’ ideologies. Emo is not only showing what type of music they listen to, but also a lifestyle which reflects their thinking. They tend to dress in dark tone and frequently spreading out depressing feelings. Some of them might even have acts of self-harming or suicide. We don't often see mature adults have this kind of acts or dressing, but it only appears in the teens. Because it is exactly how the teens select music according to their ideologies.

‣ Of course, The Killers is much different compared to the Emos. But they also adopted this ideologies of teens into their music. Their songs are always about lost and struggles of love. We don't always see happy endings in their music videos. It is what exactly teenagers are being through with. This style started fading in their later period, but it is still a good reference to their early work.

THE MISE EN SCÈNE IN THE KILLERS’ MUSIC VIDEOSThe styles of The Killers is variable, as mentioned above, because they are a mainstream band. Fortunately there are still some similarities between all of their music videos that we can refer to.

The Killers was founded in Las Vegas, in which is a well-developed city and full of entertainments. Therefore, there are many Vegas locations (or Vegas-like) where were used in their music videos. More than that, they even emphasised the this characteristics in their videos that address that they are from Vegas.

THE MISE EN SCÈNE IN THE KILLERS’ MUSIC VIDEOS

CLASSICAL SETTING‣ Las Vegas used to be a desert before it

was planned to be a metropolis. As a result, there are two types of locations are often used in their videos. Sometimes they used desert as their videos’ location, in order to emphasise the circumstances before Vegas was developed. This setting is also used for a Western background in their videos as if they bring the audience back in the 19th century. Due to the Western background, all the band members would dress like cowboys or Western-like characters to associate with the location. For example, they denim jackets and jeans which make them dress like Western.

THE MISE EN SCÈNE IN THE KILLERS’ MUSIC VIDEOS

URBAN SETTING‣ Other than this, sometimes they used

the metropolitan scenario to highlight their “Vegasness”. The landscape of the city is frequently shown to confirm their identity. It creates an expression that they are living in a big city and sometimes they feel lost. Apart from Vegas, they also filmed their music videos in other metropolises such as Tokyo. It builds up their image of being modern to imply that they are new, young but classic. In this urban setting, they would wear suits which makes them look like gentlemen. Or they would wear other modern clothes like biker jackets.

THE MISE EN SCÈNE IN THE KILLERS’ MUSIC VIDEOS

UNUSUAL COSTUMES‣ The Killers didn’t only follow the

conventions, they also made their costumes variable and fashionable. They have impressive ideas of performances. They would like to dress something unique to attract audiences’ attention. Especially for the vocalist - Brandon Flowers, he is the leader of the band so he is the one often dresses different and p re t e n t i o u s c o m p a re d t o o t h e r members. Their costumes are not only unique but also spiced up with hilarious styles which some of them are not seen normally on streets but only in theatre drama. Therefore, the art of The Killers’ performance is not close to reality, but on the level of drama instead.