Alt-J are a indie rock band formed in Leeds, England in 2007. They are currently signed to Infectious music, an independent record label. The band writes songs about many different themes and issues from relationships to death, however the band don't write really specific lyrics which allows the audience to interpret the lyrics in the way they want to. The band often references historic events within their music and pays homage to people and their artwork including films. Some of the issues sung about are quite serious such as retelling a story about rape which could suggest their music are for an older audience as these themes may be unsuitable for a younger audience.
music video
The music video for the song "Heart Drive Gold" isn't very typical of a music video. It doesn't feature the artist which is quite unusual as a music video is usually used to promote the artist or band. This might have been used to focus on the messages. The music video is quite abstract and up to people to interpret. The music video is a narrative music video, the story is quite simplistic.
The first scene is of digetic sound playing from a radio which could be a reference to a World War as it talks about moving your family to a safe place and during the video includes planes flying over the city. It shows a woman looking at a picture of what appears to be her mum, they are dressed in the same clothing suggesting they were really close to each other.
The woman is followed using a tracking shot of her running down country roads with a pole for high jump. She seems to ignore everything else around her and has one focus. There doesn't seem to be a literal message in the video, its more about what can be taken from it. The woman continues running through the whole video while other scenes continue. There's a scene of a car and 2 men getting into it however it seems like it's a robbery due to how rushed the men seem as they run to get to the car and the bag they carry with them which seems to be overflowing with items. The fact the woman even ignores this shows that she only has one focus and isn't letting anything interrupt or get to her.
website
The background of the website is of the album cover design with promotion of the new album on top of it saying that the album has been released alongside a link to the listen to the full album and another link to listen to a remix of one of the songs off, this straightaway brings attention to this because it is the first thing you see when you open the website suggesting it is important to them but it is also important to their fans.
When you scroll down there are many links to official music videos which shows the creativity of the band because there are so many to watch, there are previews of the video showing the range of topics they choose to discuss. For example there is one where a man laying limp on the floor and a woman trying to pull him up which could suggest the video is about death.
It is very typical of a band website, there are links to their social media in the top right corner which includes their Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. This shows that they want to stay relevant and reach new audiences as they are expanding their social media presence to new apps. This reaches a bigger following as so many people are on these platforms which can bring more attention to them, having their social media platforms linked also encourages social interaction from the uses and gratifications model and is can be used to share their music and interact with the band. It also contains links to tour dates which is expected from a website alongside an official store where you can buy CD's and vinyls which could appeal to an older audience who may be more likely to enjoy physical copies of music.
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