30 Seconds to Mars are an American Rock Band from Los Angeles, California in 1998 and the band are signed to multiple record labels including Universal, EMI, Virgin and Immortal. The band consists of three members Tomo Milicevic (Lead Guitar, Bass, Strings, Keyboards and Other Instruments), Jared Leto (Lead Vocals, Guitar, Bass and Keyboards) and Shannon Leto (Drums and Percussion). The band released their first Album ’30 Seconds to Mars’ in 2002 and featured their 2 singles ‘Capricorn (A brand new name)’ and ‘Edge of the earth’. The bands most recent album called ‘Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams’ was released May 17th 2013 and includes their two singles ‘Up in the air’ and ‘Do or Die’. The song that I will be analyzing in this essay will be This is War released on the album ‘This Is War’.
This is war was released as a single on March 26th in 2010 and it was released on the labels Virgin and EMI. At its peak position it reached 51 on the UK singles chart. The video was directed by Flood and 30 Seconds to mars themselves. It was released on multiple formats like CD, Maxi Single and Digital Download. The video features only the main singer in the video (Jared Leto) in the middle of a war scene in an unknown location. Meanwhile there is superimposed text on the screen amplifying certain words in the song as the Vocalist sings the song.
In this video there are examples of a relationship between the Vocals and the Images being shown on the screen. An example of this would be in the beginning of the song “To the soldier, the civilian,” there is superimposed text on the screen to amplify the last word on the end of each sentence which is the keywords in the verse. Andrew Goodwin refers to the link between the Lyrics and the Images on screen as one of the key structural factors in music videos. Another example of this relationship would be in the second verse “It's the moment of truth, and the moment to lie” the same occurs to highlight the keywords in the sentence and to amplify them to the audience for the overall meaning.
As well as the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals on screen there is also examples of the relationship between music and the visuals (another theory from Andrew Goodwin). One example of this would be around 1:26 in the video when the chorus is about to start there is a silhouette of the Lead Singer Jared Leto lifting his gun at the same time as the music starts to grow in terms of texture making the chorus more thick and sound very amplified. He also starts to fire his gun as the sound begins to crescendo because of the chorus as we associate a gun as being very loud so it matches the kick in with the chorus. There are also various other noises that we associate with being loud like a car bomb going off on a military patrol and a military transport vehicle being blown up these are all shown while the chorus is being sung to amplify the song.
In areas where it occurs there is always a band member in the center of the screen which is seen as fairly stereotypical in a music video according to Goodwin’s Theory but there is also often someone standing in a third of the screen which means that the rule of thirds is applied in this music video.
There are also very few closeups of the Lead Singer throughout the video as this is very counter typical because most music videos in the rock band genre contain a lot of close ups of the band or one member from the band.
The meaning of the song is about the war in Afghanistan and how to end the war we need to keep fighting to the end and that we will not go down without a fight. The song shows one political figure and then another opposite figure e.g. doesn't matter who you are good or bad there is still a war going on. The message that the video is trying to send to the people that are watching it is warning everybody about how wars affect people around the world in various ways and how we need to keep fighting to keep peace.
The song was released on December the 8th 2009 and at the time the song was released there was a war happening in Iraq and Afghanistan between the US.
It represents the artist in a positive way because they are singing about political issues and how these political issues are affecting other people in the world. It also shows that they are a band that cares in the environment that they sing in which is very counter-typical about other rock bands because they are very unaware about current issues in the world and do not sing about political issues or issues that might be affecting them.
The video ends with all the army machinery e.g. tanks and helicopters fly into one spot and all of them form into pyramid and this is called a Celtic Triad (Pyramid or Triangle shape) and this shape is also seen as a sign of rebuilding something or reconstructing something. These can relate to rebuilding or reconstructing peace in the world in the past, future and present. So overall the video ends with the war being over and the pyramid being formed which is a symbol to rebuild and reconstruct the future to make it a brighter and nicer place.
Post By:
Metehan Hizli
Josh Barrett
Josh Shea
Metehan Hizli
Josh Barrett
Josh Shea
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