Don't Look Back Into The Sun - The Libertines
The Libertines are an English rock band, formed in London, in 1997 by frontmen Carl Barat and Pete Doherty. Part of their recording career was described as the garage rock revival of that time, one of the aptly named 'The' bands and spearheading this movement in the UK, the band is centred on the song-writing partnership of Barat and Doherty. The band gained some notoriety in the early 2000s. Although their mainstream success was initially limited, their profile soon grew, culminating in a #2 single and #1 album in the UK Charts. In December 2004, their self-titled second album was voted the second best album of the year by NME magazine. Both of their full-length LPs were produced by Mick Jones, of the British punk band The Clash. Despite all of the bands fame and success, this could not resolve several issues within the band, leading to the breakup of the band. It was only this summer that the four members have reunited to play a series of shows, including main stage slots at Reading and Leeds Festivals. The director of the video was Alexander Strickland-Clarke, he is a fairly small and unknown director as there is no recognition of any previous work. The song falls into the Indie Rock genre, this genre is aimed at a fairly wide audience, although it isn’t quite mainstream. It is hard to put down in stone any set conventions to the indie rock genre, but there are a few that can be seen within this video. For example the whole video has a rough, unpolished look to it, from the way Pete and Carl look, to the camera shots used, this is done purposely to create a certain image for the band, they don’t care about people’s perceptions of them, more so the music itself. The video is both performance based and narrative based. The video shows numerous clips of the band performing the song live at a gig, throughout there are cuts between this gig and a day out with the band, which doesn’t really have any relevance to the song itself.
Some of the lyrics within the song are illustrated by the visuals on screen, and some of the lyrics are amplified. Within the first verse of the song the lines ‘Oh my friend you haven’t changed, You're looking rough and living strange’ are sung, these lyrics are illustrated by a medium shot of the camera crew walking into a shop looking rather shabby, and strangely dressed, as one of them is wearing a kilt, and Pete Doherty and Carl Barat themselves are wearing Grenadier Guards tunics. Also as the line ‘You’re looking rough and living strange’ are sung there is a close up shot of Pete in what looks to be toilets pointing at writing on the wall that says wasted hitlers youth, amplifying both the words rough and strange. Another line illustrated through the visuals was ‘You’ve cast your pearls but now you’re on the run’. The visuals on screen shows a medium shot of Pete and Carl looking at cd’s, as Pete puts a few into his tunic pocket, followed by a shifty and rough tracking shot of Pete walking out of the shop, expressing in a different sense to how it’s meant to be heard, but nevertheless ‘now you’re on the run’.
The music and the video sync together well from start to end throughout this video. At the start of the song the pace maintains a constant reasonably slow tempo and volume, shown visually by long slow cuts, including a tracking shot of Carl walking down some stairs, and a medium shot of the band just stood still for a photoshoot in an unusually quiet London street. Throughout the first 30 seconds of the song the sound slowly crescendo’s becoming louder and louder as more instruments are added, building up to what becomes a faster tempo to the song. As this tempo changes the visuals also change in sync with the music, with faster cuts showing the band performing, and close ups of the guitarists playing, panning in and out very quickly, keeping to the fast tempo of the song. Everytime the chorus is sung, these very fast cuts are used as we see the band performing live, and whenever a verse is played, we see Pete and Carl walking the streets, but with longer shots without cuts, this has a very good effect, and does well to split the narrative and performance based parts to the video.
Rough Trade (The Libertines record label) are looking to sell the single, and promote the band in a very obvious way. By creating a very lively and up-tempo music video, they are selling the band and giving them their own image as a whole. The close ups of the band performing live gives an insight to the bands energy and enthusiasm, and the stage show they perform shows the audience the vibe that Rough Trade are trying to express. There is a real emphasis on the bands musical ability within the video, giving them the ‘real raw talent’ vibe Rough Trade have tried to create. Don’t Look Back Into The Sun was only The Libertines 4th single and even though they were reasonably well known by then, they didn’t really have any set motifs, so this was an opportunity for the record label to set the tone. Throughout a long, slow paced instrumental, there are several close ups of the band walking around the streets, with close ups of each member, and shots of the entire band together, this has been done purposely to sell the artist’s, and promote them as a band together.
Alexander Strickland-Clarke overall did a good job with the video, labelling the band with an image, and also highlighting there intense and thrilling live performances. From watching the video it seems as the aim set was simply to promote the band, and this was accomplished in the video, by a plain and simple video, with nothing fancy about it, almost representing the indie rock genre as a whole, focused solely around the music itself.
Jake Stout.
Some of the lyrics within the song are illustrated by the visuals on screen, and some of the lyrics are amplified. Within the first verse of the song the lines ‘Oh my friend you haven’t changed, You're looking rough and living strange’ are sung, these lyrics are illustrated by a medium shot of the camera crew walking into a shop looking rather shabby, and strangely dressed, as one of them is wearing a kilt, and Pete Doherty and Carl Barat themselves are wearing Grenadier Guards tunics. Also as the line ‘You’re looking rough and living strange’ are sung there is a close up shot of Pete in what looks to be toilets pointing at writing on the wall that says wasted hitlers youth, amplifying both the words rough and strange. Another line illustrated through the visuals was ‘You’ve cast your pearls but now you’re on the run’. The visuals on screen shows a medium shot of Pete and Carl looking at cd’s, as Pete puts a few into his tunic pocket, followed by a shifty and rough tracking shot of Pete walking out of the shop, expressing in a different sense to how it’s meant to be heard, but nevertheless ‘now you’re on the run’.
The music and the video sync together well from start to end throughout this video. At the start of the song the pace maintains a constant reasonably slow tempo and volume, shown visually by long slow cuts, including a tracking shot of Carl walking down some stairs, and a medium shot of the band just stood still for a photoshoot in an unusually quiet London street. Throughout the first 30 seconds of the song the sound slowly crescendo’s becoming louder and louder as more instruments are added, building up to what becomes a faster tempo to the song. As this tempo changes the visuals also change in sync with the music, with faster cuts showing the band performing, and close ups of the guitarists playing, panning in and out very quickly, keeping to the fast tempo of the song. Everytime the chorus is sung, these very fast cuts are used as we see the band performing live, and whenever a verse is played, we see Pete and Carl walking the streets, but with longer shots without cuts, this has a very good effect, and does well to split the narrative and performance based parts to the video.
Rough Trade (The Libertines record label) are looking to sell the single, and promote the band in a very obvious way. By creating a very lively and up-tempo music video, they are selling the band and giving them their own image as a whole. The close ups of the band performing live gives an insight to the bands energy and enthusiasm, and the stage show they perform shows the audience the vibe that Rough Trade are trying to express. There is a real emphasis on the bands musical ability within the video, giving them the ‘real raw talent’ vibe Rough Trade have tried to create. Don’t Look Back Into The Sun was only The Libertines 4th single and even though they were reasonably well known by then, they didn’t really have any set motifs, so this was an opportunity for the record label to set the tone. Throughout a long, slow paced instrumental, there are several close ups of the band walking around the streets, with close ups of each member, and shots of the entire band together, this has been done purposely to sell the artist’s, and promote them as a band together.
Alexander Strickland-Clarke overall did a good job with the video, labelling the band with an image, and also highlighting there intense and thrilling live performances. From watching the video it seems as the aim set was simply to promote the band, and this was accomplished in the video, by a plain and simple video, with nothing fancy about it, almost representing the indie rock genre as a whole, focused solely around the music itself.
Jake Stout.
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