textual analysis - Kings of Leon - Pyro

Kings of leon - ‘Pyro’

Kings of Leon are an American rock band that formed in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee 1999.
The band is composed of brothers Anthony Caleb Followill, Ivan Nathan Followill and Michael Jared Followill, with their cousin Cameron Matthew Followill. In the video ‘Pyro’ I will be looking at all aspects that make up the film, and In detail analyse each concept of all the areas.At the start of the video, it begins with a man walking towards the entrance of the bar, the lighting is dim and the bar sign is very tacky which immediately gives you some from of setting and the kind of society that its in. He then helps a low life out just before entering the bar. This suggest that he’s a courteous person and straight away draws the viewers attention to him. While he is walking towards the door the music is building up, but is very calm and no real beats have kicked in yet.

Just as he walks through the bar doors the music kicks in, this works really well as it links both with the video as well as picking up pace in the music. Linking them both together like this helps the balance and flow of the video in my opinion. The video itself is very dull, lacking colour which relates to the song. This is very useful in getting the lyrics across in a way that resembles back and forth to the song.

As soon as your in the bar there is a big pan of the camera, that carry’s on for some time showing you around the bar, at different characters and types of people. You notice as the camera is panning that the characters are all lower down in society, alcoholics that have seen better days. It helps set the seen, and is very stereotypical of the type of bar and structure that is originally set earlier in the video. Its a very significant part of the video while its panning, as you get a good sense of what the place is like and the atmosphere within it. They have left this shot as one whole cut which is very unusual, as it goes on for longer than 30 seconds. In doing so, it creates a mellow mood that links with the song and helps set a scene for when the chorus kicks in. As the man starts to walk through, you see him walk off while it pans away to other people around the room. Before he walks off the screen you notice a man and a girl arguing at the bar. This just gets into the shot, which could suggest that it could come important later on.

As it carry’s on going around the bar there is a local band that are performing in the bar. These are the artists of Kings on Leon, but are playing not as them selves but as a casual, local band in the local pub. You don’t see them a lot at all which shows that there more current and urban, wearing rough clothes, as if there to be not known. They don’t put themselves out there in there videos, which suggests that they love there music and it shows this in that scene. It creates a good contrast between them being in their own video, but acting out as other people.

It then goes back onto the man who initially entered the bar. He walks up to the man who was arguing at the start with the women. Its very interesting as you see a glimpse of this at the start, so its very good in the way it links both parts back together connecting the whole video itself. Here it starts to get a bit more violent, and eventually the cut changes for the first time. It then hit’s the chorus, where the violence fully begins. Both the chorus and the fight kick in at the same time. And while this happens its all in slow motion. There is a contrapuntal sound, with the violence and the calm music. Both elements contrast against each other that makes it a very clever scene, and kick starts both parts to the song off. The slow motion carry’s on for a while, where it goes around the room showing the reactions of the other people around the bar. It helps the video flow with the song and works really well, following the contrast as they carry on fighting and the music carry’s on more emotionally and calmly.

As the song gets further into it the man ends up beat up in the floor and four men are standing around him. The chorus is louder now, and almost sums up the man on the floor, as it seems depressing. The line say’s ’I,I don’t wanna be holding on’ this helps the audience understand what’s happening, and you think that he has no hope. It then moves on and the song goes into a set lyric that’s repeated. While this is getting repeated the man starts floating in the air. I almost think this resembles him eventually breaking through with him getting lifted out of the situation. The repeated line is ‘want your love, can you feel it?’ As he rises, so do lots of other people around the bar. But some are not, which I think represent them showing their love to the person getting lifted. However the man rising is contrasting against this as he hasn’t got anyone that’s in the bar who‘s with him, which is why I think the lyric is being visually shown on the video the way it is. While the music is calmly dissolving away, he rises more to a bright light that’s above them. This signifies him getting to where he wants to and eventually the music cuts out and so does the light, linking both together.

After analysing the video I have noticed that its very obvious that the editing links the music, and this is relevant because it allows the song to relate to the video. I also found that though out the song everything is in coordination with the beats so that it all works together. I also think that the actually video is very interesting to watch, as there’s a lot happening but at the same time everything relates so it flows really well. Its very narrative based video, however there is a slight performance based side to it with the band playing as a local pub in the video. I video like this is very relevant to the indie rock genre that they are part of.