Choosing a song.

When choosing a song for Rickie and the Islanders, I have been experimenting with using exising songs from previous eras. I felt that by doing this, the band would have a vintage appeal to a young audience as well as possibly appealing to an older audience.
I feel that by choosing songs by bands that have an easily recognised lead singer, the new image being portrayed of the existing artist fronting in a band would work well.
An initial idea I had was 'London's Calling' by 'The Clash'. The song immediately sparks ideas for a video in my head and therefore I felt that with this song, the idea of having a location shoot and a studio shoot would fit in well with my idea of having a filming location and a studio shoot.
Despite my ideas, the video for the origional song is very dated and unimaginative which could be a bonus for shooting a new video as I would not have to live up to a standard already set, nor go to alot of trouble to avoid copying existing material. However, I feel that this song may be slightly too obvious and well regognised, therefore hard to re-vamp and the genre of the song is more Ska music which is not the genre of band I had in mind.



Then two more song ideas came to mind, the first being 'Naturals not in it' by the english post-punk band 'Gang of Four', from the 1979 album 'Entertainment!'
I think that the bass to this song is something that could really channel and carry a good music video, however, I could not find an existing video to look at, which could leave me complete creative freedom with nothing to compare to. Even though the band is post-punk primarily, I feel that the overall sound of the song would not clash with the image of the band.



My third song choice, and one that I felt strongly about towards when starting my thinking period, is The Boomtown Rats, 'I don't like Mondays'.
I feel that this song would be very interesting to create new visuals for as the back-story for the song of 16 year old Brenda Ann Spencer who took her Dad's rifle to school and carried out a shooting spree, all because she didn't like Mondays. I feel that Amplification Music videos and songs that have meaning behind them are very interesting and I feel that this is something I would definetly want to consider when making my music video.
The only thing I would say about this song is that it is very stop-start, which could affect the pace of the music video and make the editing quite slow, which I believe will determine whether the video looks proffesional or not.



Another song that I have chosen to consider for my music video is 'Still New' by the Smith Westerns. I feel that this band are very much what I am searching for directionwise for my music video. I feel that the sound of the music reflects how I imagine Rickie's music to be previously, but with a new vintage flare.
I love how the band have a vintage sixties/seventies vibe about them, I think that this would work well with my initial idea as well as make the video and band current in today's market. I believe this is a good thing as if I were to use an existing song from a previous era and create a vintage inspired video alongside it, it would not appeal to a younger market.
I love this song, and I feel that the visuals could be beautifully psycadelic, although I have to think about the band aspect of the video, and I don't think that this is a song that could be easily lip syncd to. I also feel that the song I choose should have a more upbeat feel about it, still maintaining a rock aspect in the sound.






I began to listen to more of the Smith Western's album and I feel that this song, 'The End of the Night' would be a good contender for the final video.
When listening to this song, I feel that the rock aspect is there aswell as having a strong vintage flare about it. This song in particular makes me recognise the band's 60's psychadellic influence aswell as being a young and modern group.