Artist Research Homework - Elliot

The career of The Smiths and, more recently, singer Morrissey's solo career, is clear in terms of development over time. The Smiths, in their earliest videos, fit with the conventions of their genre. In indie videos there is mainly performance, as shown in their videos for This Charming Man and Nowhere Fast. This makes them comparable to other bands in their genre such as Joy Division. In later Smiths videos, such as Stop Me If You Think That You've Heard This One Before and, as a continuation, I Started Something I Couldn't Finish, there are more narrative/conceptual elements. This can make them comparable to similar bands such as The Cure, whose videos included a mix of narrative/conceptual and performance.


This Charming Man
Nowhere Fast
Stop Me
I Started Something I Couldn't Finish


In their videos The Smiths stick with generic conventions in order to identify themselves and the target audience.The band members dress in casual clothing (t-shirts, shirts, polos, jeans, chinos etc.), and do not put a lot of effort into their performances.  Indie music videos are usually set in urban areas, and focus on performance. The performances are usually in a blank room, sometimes with bright colourful backgrounds too, depending on the theme of the song. In this particular instance the performance is set in a blank room filled with flowers. The flowers may be a form of symbolism or representation. Over Morrissey and The Smiths' videos have become much better quality (due to the advent of developing technology) and started to focus more on narrative than performance, such as the video for Morrissey's Every Day Is Like Sunday. Recently Morrissey has gone back to doing straight performance videos, such as You Have Killed Me and I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris.


Every Day Is Like Sunday
I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris


The two videos I have selected to analyse are The Smiths' This Charming Man and Morrissey's The Youngest Was The Most Loved, two very different videos. The typical elements and visual image of the first video are of a typical "indie" video, straight performance and blank/dilapidated room. The camera is also unlike most music videos, with the shots being long rather than short. This may be to show that the band is a little more "cultured" and "arty" than other bands. On the other hand, the video for The Youngest Was The Most Loved is a much more professionally shot and edited video than This Charming Man, playing out more like a part from a short film than a music video, similar to Plan B. It features Morrissey himself seemingly coming out of a courtroom of some kind, obviously accused of a crime. Then as the video reaches it's climax, it's revealed that Morrissey was not arrested for anything and it was just a publicity stunt of some sort. The video is shot in black and white, which seems to make it more "arty", which was probably Morrissey's intention.


The Youngest Was The Most Loved


CD Cover Analysis
 
The Smiths - This Charming Man
B Sides - "Jeane", "Accept Yourself", "Wonderful Woman"
The artwork fits with the theme of the "charming man", as the model seems to look like a 1950s movie star. Apart from the image and the band name there is no other information given on the cover.
















The Cure - Just Like Heaven
B Sides - "Snow in Summer"/"Breathe"/"Sugar Girl"/"A Chain of Flowers"
The trend I am starting to see with the CD covers is that they are as minimal as possible, only including the artist and some artwork. While this artwork is more interesting than the Smiths cover, it does not really tell a great deal about the music or artist style. The slightly Gothic style will appeal to some, though.

Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart

B Side- These Days

This is the most minimal of the covers. Featuring no "proper" artwork or the name of the band, it is a stark image and one that would not be interesting on a shop stand. However, one thing that sets it apart from the other covers is that despite the lack of a band name, the record label name is on the cover too. Maybe this is due to the notoriety of the record label in question.