My chosen genre of music is Britpop, and the four bands I will be analysing from this are Suede, Pulp, Space, and Oasis. The other 4 bands I will be analysing are from a similar musical background though not quite Britpop and will be Keane, Stereophonics, Radiohead, and Bloc Party.
Pulp originated in 1978 and surprisingly continues to make music to this day and peaked during the era of Britpop with songs such as Common People, Disco 2000 and Sorted for E’s and Whizz. Lead singer Jarvis Cocker also has success in other fields of acting and hosting and is still active in many places in the media industry. The band also had a place in the film industry, creating part of the soundtrack of what made up Trainspotting. The band is signed under Island Records, who have also signed many other bands such as The Killers, U2, Keane, Florence and The Machine, and Catfish and the Bottlemen. Pulp signed with them in 1992 after the release of their single ‘Babies’ during the album His’n’Hers.
The music video I will be analysing by Pulp is for Disco 2000, a song featured on their most successful album Different Class that shot the band into the charts. The album was released in 1995 at the height of the Britpop era. The target audience of Britpop music was working-class people, and the main appeals in this music were fashion, art and politics, particularly looking at a left-leaning stance. The Labour Party in particular aligned this movement, and Pulp showed their conventions of this genre of music through this album. The song Common People in particular, one of their most successful, follows the narrative of a wealthy person moving to London looking for a working-class experience of life. The song points out that such people could never understand the struggles of these people with the line ‘watching roaches climb the wall, if you called your dad, he could stop it all’ and repeats ‘you’ll never live like common people.’ In this way it takes a dig at politicians who try to seem as though they understand what it is like to live the life of the poor, but they will never truly understand as they will always have the money to stay away from a life of struggling.
The song Disco 2000 continues to be relatable to those working class, but not particularly associated with money and more of a natural romance. The song itself was written by Jarvis Cocker towards his childhood teen romance Deborah who he had always liked but could never impress, quite a normal and relatable concept regardless of the listener's class. The song comes from the album Different Class and in an interview, Jarvis Cocker said ‘A long time ago, last century, we made a record and it was called Different Class. It wasn’t called Working Class, and it wasn’t called Upper Class and it wasn’t called Middle Class. It was called Different Class because, let’s get over that and move onto something else. OK?' This shows that he believes a person's class and background shouldn’t define them as a person.
The narrative is followed by a series of text throughout the video and is presented as a storyline with the opening ’Once upon a time...’ This also resembles how this is taken from true events from the lead singers life.
When we see Deborah's necklace, one of the main characters in this narrative, the letters DOA are brighter on her necklace standing for 'Dead on arrival.' This is a symbolic code that shows the singer's connection with Deborah and how from the start it was established they would never have a relationship. The video is set during the 2000's and signifies the new year and shows the different styles and conventions from people at the time, and depicts two characters who's class is not identified as to show their background does not matter and only the love they have for eachother does.
The narrative is a relatable one that anyone watching can relate to and especially why Pulp works in the britpop genre of appealing to those working class - simple struggles such as getting ready and hoping for clean underwear are presented. However, there is not a whole lot of representation in the video and the characters presented are rather generic - a male and female who are both cis, white and fully-abled, presenting a heterosexual relationship. This could be an issue in the britpop genre as there's no presentation of lower class minorities.
The band can also be seen on TV screens throughout the music video, a way for them to work themselves in and shows the lead singers personal connection to what he is singing about, as though he is looking in on the narrative and their lives. This appeals to those who are listening and are fans of the band.
The video concludes with the couple presented going back to ones place and hooking up, showing the smaller things enjoyed by those lower class as can be seen in the Common People music video aswell, and the video all around in the genre of Britpop aims towards its audience well.
The band created this magazine to promote their album. The album itself has a cover with images that can be interchanged to create a new album cover, and this magazine presented new images that could also be included. Each image is a generic scenery with a band member included in black and white, as can be seen in the Disco 2000 music video - everything is very colourised while the band on the TV are shown in black and white.
The band also followed up the album with a tour around England, where they could have a closer and more personal interaction with their fans and the audience of their music videos.
The cover also says at the bottom the first 50 through the door will receive an exclusive shirt from the band which could be encouraging for people to go to the shows.
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