Case Study 3: "Wake Me Up"

Song Title:  Wake Me Up!

Artist:  Avicii

Release Date:  17 June 2013

Duration:  4:09

Genre:  Electro house

I think this song is about going through life as a young inexperienced individual.

"Feeling my way through the darkness
Guided by a beating heart
I can't tell where the journey will end
But I know where to start"
The inexperienced person is going though life and knows that what is ahead is unknown. He is guided by his spirit. He doesn't know where he will end up, but he knows where he can start now.

They tell me I'm too young to understand
They say I'm caught up in a dream
Well life will pass me by if I don't open up my eyes
Well that's fine by me
I think by "they" he means the older generation, those who have been through some of life's experiences and are well into their journey. They see the care free nature of someone so young and naive about life and basically are telling him that he is living life like it's a dream (he has yet to really experience or understand it). They warn that if he does not open his eyes and take it all seriously and stop living guided by his spirit, it is all just going to pass him by, and he will look back and wonder where the time went. However, he is loving the way he is living and if that is what happens, he is fine with it.

"So wake me up when it's all over
When I'm wiser and I'm older
All this time I was finding myself, and I
Didn't know I was lost"
He is living life and enjoying it. "They" are telling him he is living in a dream. It is a dream/life he loves, therefore he is asking to be woken up from it when everything is over, when he is older, or when he is now the "they" generation he is referring to. He knows that "they" probably associate his life style with a person that is just finding themselves, but according to him, he never even knew he was lost.

"I tried carrying the weight of the world
But I only have two hands."
I love this line. He tried worrying about all of life's troubles just like everyone else does. However, he stopped b/c there was no point in it, so he stopped worrying.

"Hope I get the chance to travel the world
But I don't have any plans"
He does have wishes to do some things, but at the moment he is care free and has no plans to do so.

"Wish that I could stay forever this young
Not afraid to close my eyes
Life's a game made for everyone
And love is a prize"
He is wishing to live young and free forever. He enjoys how he lives his life. He is not afraid to close his eyes and as mentioned above get "caught up in a dream". He sees life as a game, something fun and something that can be played, enjoyed and won. Love, be it love for someone else, love for one self, love of life, is one of the prizes.

Synopsis of Video

At the start of the video, we see what looks like two sisters living in isolation. They appear to be the outcasts in society, we see this when everyone who passes them looks at them in a strange way as though they are zombies. The younger sister then says "they don't like us". The older sister then replies "I know". From the conclusion can be written that the girls have nowhere else to go and appear to have been left here perhaps abandoned by parents or others,

The elder sister then jumps on a horse and rides down a vineyard and the main instrumental plays.
This scene perhaps shows the sister to be expressing herself through riding the horse.

She then slows down and comes across what looks like a deserted city. She then stumbles across another girl who has the same symbol as her (two arrows on top of each other).

At the beginning of the music video the girl begins the scene on the bed, hence the lyrics, 'Wake Me Up'. The two characters at the start of the music video are outcasts to the rural world due to the fact that their appearance is different to the rest of the people living in that area. People in the town dress very old school, whereas the two kids dress fashionable and more modern. The people walking in the streets constantly give the two kids disapproving looks as they walk by because they are not used to seeing people look, and dress the way the kids are. 

Representation of Stars 

Eventually the older girl, of the two kids, decides to take a journey on a horse away from the city to try find a new life in another city. She then ends up in Los Angeles where the streets are scarce and no-one is around; However as she walks into L.A fashion district she discovers a woman, who is dressed in similar fashion to herself, and the woman then begins to lead the girl towards a party full of similarly dressed people who are fashionably modern, similar to herself.  

 As the older girl finally found where her and her sister belong, she returns back to her original city which is full of people who are completely different to themselves, and wakes up the little girl to take her back to L.A as they have found where they belong. The song title, 'Wake Me Up' compliments this storyline well as it describes the main focal point of the whole situation and creates more lyrical harmony with both the audience and the actors. 

Message behind video 

Overall the music video, Wake Me Up- produced by Avicii is a message about how fashion can determine what people think of you and how you get along with others. It represents the stereotypes which are going around in this world and the fact that modern children are more outgoing compared to the elderly days. 

Target Audience 

I think that this music video was aimed at people aged between 17-23 due to the fact that it revolved a lot around how these 2 young girls felt uncomfortable in an area full of adults and people who did not dress like them. It represents how youth have a specific style of fashion which is different to adults and towards the end of the music video, there was all young people inside the concert having fun which is why I believe it was partially aimed towards this age range. 

Themes & Motifs 

The theme behind wake me up is love & fashion due to the fact that the older girl loves her sister and believes that they both deserve better and because they weren’t comfortable living in the area which they was living in, she took time to find a place where they both would fit in more with the others. Also, when she found the place, she did not leave her sister behind and went all the way back to collect her, hence the theme of love. Fashion was also a theme of this music video because the reason why the girls did not fit in and were looked at in a bad, intimidating way was mainly due to what they were wearing around the streets in public. It did not fit the usual way people dress around their area. 

  

Camera Angles 

Close Ups- There was several close ups camera shots on the people who were looking at the two girls in the street to express and show all the emotions and thoughts which they were feeling towards these two girls because of the way they are dressed. 

High Angle- At the beginning of the music video there is a high angle over the two girls on the bed. They are both wearing the same clothes which makes it evident to the audience that they are related in some way. The older girl has a sad expression on her face which suggests that they are unhappy and alone. Represents the mood and motif of the music video straight away. 

Establishing Shot- At the beginning of the music video there is an establishing shot where they show the area which the two girls is living in and the state of their house. Their house louse dirty and run- down which could suggest that they have low income and the elder sister is the main carrier for the younger one. It also creates the image of what kind of people live in their area, as there was fields with a lot of plants, it shows that there is perhaps a lot of elderly people who live there and rarely anybody of their age. 

Mise- En- Scene 

Both of the two girls were wearing jeans and tops, which is everyday casual clothes which is worn by people aged within their range, however, the area which they lived in was not used to their style of clothing which then represented the fact that there is no sense of belonging and they were looked at as if they weren't equal to all the others living there by the way they were dressed. Also the clothing in the music video could be an example of how adults and children dress and behave in such different ways. Towards the end of the music video, the elder girl ended up at a party which shows how young people are usually perceived and the stereotype that they love to party and have fun. Once the elder girl found these group of people living in a completely different environment to what they were in before, she began to get into her comfort zone and there was a camera shot, close up, of her smiling which is completely opposite to what her facial expression was at the start of the video. 

There was also a symbol on the girls body which I think represented the youth and towards the end of the video there was a few camera shots on other young peoples symbol too, which showed the audience that the symbol must have represented something. 

Editing 

CutScenes- Towards the end of the music video the cut scenes inside the concert, when everyone was dancing, started to increase in speed to represent how the emotions and tempo of everyone inside the concert. It also represented the youth of our society and how most of them try to take life in the fast lane and how they are always out having fun and partying. If you compare the speed of the cutscenes at the end of the music video to the start, it was much more slower when they were in the environment which they were uncomfortable. 

Long take- Throughout the scene where the two girls were walking through the street with the people looking at them in an intimidating way, there was a lot of long takes on the people's faces so that the audience had enough time to read their facial expressions and understand the thoughts which were going through their heads when they looked at the girls. 

Text- There was text used at the end of the video to remind the audience of the name of the song and then tell them who the directors was. 

Narrative/Performance 

Majority of the music video was narrative based as there was a constant story being told through the scenes being showed. There was very little lip syncing from the lyrics of the song, the only performance based action was when the two sisters had a quick little conversation whilst sitting on the wall. The rest was all narrative based which was very effective as it made it easy for me, as the audience, to understand fully what was going on throughout the video. 

Ideas For Main Video 

From this music video I think that the theme of a narrative based video is very effective, especially for the target audience that I am aiming my video at. When the music video matches the lyrics being said and is describing the scenario through various cutscenes I believe that it makes the audience feel that they are more closer to music and they can relate to some of the lyrics as they have a visual example which they can see and analyse. If I want my music video to have a strong message to my audience then I will base a narrative music video on what 'Wake Me Up' did and follow the way how they structured and organised each scene. I also like the way the costume of the characters in the music video represented a certain group of people, especially representing the target audience. The increase in cut speed towards the end of the video increased the tempo and lifted the audience from what was previously quite a sad and reflectful music video. When there is areas in my music video whereby I want the audience to feel the vibe of the song I will increase the pace of the cutscenes so that there is a positive effect on the audience.