Wednesday 31 August 2011

SP - Deconstruction: Muse - Bliss

Artist: Muse
Song: Bliss
Genre: Alternative Rock 
Director: (Not Given)
Year: 2001
Audience: 15-24

"Bliss" is a song by English rock band Muse and is the second track on their second album, Origin of Symmetry. It was also released as the third single from that album in the United Kingdom on 20 August 2001. Matthew Bellamy has said "Bliss" is his favourite song "because it's got all these 80s arpeggios and keyboards on it which remind me of some music I heard on some children’s music programme when I was five. I think I ripped it off that. And that reminds me of when I was a bit simpler, a bit more of a pleasant state." Christopher Wolstenholme said: "We have just always loved playing that song live. Even if you don't know the song it has one of those disco-ey feels to it but recorded in a rock way. It was one of those songs that when we play it live you always know if you are having a bad gig - it will be the song that will get the crowd going." During the tour in promotion of Origins of Symmetry, "Bliss" was usually played as the final song, often coinciding with the release of giant balloons from the venues' roof. At a gig in Australia during the HAARP tour, balloons were released onto the stage, with Bellamy using his guitar to pop them. (Source: Wikipedia)

Muse's Bliss is a mixture of both a performance based and a concept based music video. The performance element features all of the way through the music video as it contains footage of Matt Bellamy, lip-syncing the lyrics to the song. However most of the music video is a concept based idea as the music video features Matt Bellamy standing on a ledge then the song begins as he leaps and begins falling through a hole in space. The hole looks to be on a space station possibly on an abandoned planet, but the clear technology looks to be futuristic and well beyond what exists at this time. The other band members can be seen throughout the video watching Matt Bellamy as he falls each in their own pods. As the song reaches its climax he exist the hole into space and towards what looks like a nebula or a star's photo-sphere. At that points the light causes him to fade out as he begins to turn into dust as he edges closer to a white light and the song fades out. What tells us that it is not a narrative music video and it is a concept idea is that there is no storyline to the video and the lyrics do not fit in with what the actors are doing. It is a completely random idea that they have though of.  

The opening shot of the music video is a close up of Matt Bellamy. Matthew James Bellamy was born on 9 June 1978 and is an English musician, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, pianist, and main songwriter of the alternative rock band Muse. His red hair and his red shirt are striking in this opening shots and are complimented by his dark eyes. This gives him an almost evil look. However soon after, the next sequence of shots reveal that he is in outer space. The technology and Matt Bellamy's clothing and it's colour all add to a futuristic look and it's well beyond what exists at this time. 

At the start of the music video, as i have just mentioned, it features Matt Bellamy standing on a ledge. There are no lyrics at this point and it is just a gentle sound of wind blowing and then the keyboard starts playing. When the song finally begins at the same time he leaps off the platform and begins falling through the hole in space. The hole looks to be on a space station possibly on an abandoned planet, but the clear technology looks to be futuristic and well beyond what exists at this time. This ticks all the boxes for a concept music video. This is obviously a single, random idea. It grabs the attention of the audience. This is because concept videos stand out from performance and narrative routes. The concept route has no boundaries and a creative mind can be used to try new things out. Muse's Bliss is an example of a concept music video. It is very futuristic and for 2001 it is very good graphics. People would never get bored of watching this music video. The audience would be able to watch this video over and over again especially a younger audience which Muse usually target.


Throughout the whole video there are alot of shots of Matt Bellamy, lip-syncing the lyrics to the song whilst falling through this hole in space. This is very different to all the other performance elements i have seen i all the other music videos i have deconstructed. Usually there are shots of the band playing their instruments but mainly of the frontman lip-syncing. Usually there shots of the drummer and bassist for example. These are all examples of what you would expect to see in the performance elements of the music video. However for this music video there are just shots of Matt Bellamy, lip-syncing the lyrics to the song whilst falling through this hole in space. There is alot of shot variety for these sections because it is blended in with the concept sections. They are not two seperate sections like would would usually find. It is all mixed in to one. Fast paced editing is a common code and convention in music videos and this is the case in Muse's song Bliss. This is because the concept music video takes alot of shots to keep it interesting. You can't just have interesting graphics. To keep with the fast feel of the actual song and the vast amount of shots, fast paced editing is a must to compliment both of these things.





It's not just about Matt Bellamy falling through a whole in space. The other band members make an appearence in this music video. Christopher Wolstenholme and  Dominic Howard can also be seen throughout the music video. They feature whilst watching Matt Bellamy as he falls, each in their own pods, along the shaft that Matt Bellamy is falling through. Christopher Tony Wolstenholme was born on 2 December 1978 and is the bassist and backing vocalist for Muse. Wolstenholme also sometimes plays keyboard or guitar instead of bass. Dominic Howard was born on 7 December 1977 and is the drummer for Muse. Again the pods are extremely futuristic and resemble concept music videos. Everything in this music is stereptypical for a concept music video.
 
As the song reaches its climax Matt Bellamy exist the whole and is left into space and starts falling towards what looks like a nebula or a star's photo-sphere. At that points the light causes him to fade out as he begins to turn into dust as he edges closer to a white light and the song fades out. This is an extremeely good ending to the music video because as the song fades out, Matt Bellamy is falling towards the light and it slowly fades out to a white shot. I think this is one of the best ending to a music vidoe i have deconstructed so far and i really enjoyed watching this music video. I liked the concept idea and i thought the graphics are really good. 




Here is the music video Bliss by Muse



Rob Shaw kindly posted a comment on this post and provided an extremely useful link. You can check out the behind the scenes footage of the music video Bliss by Muse by clicking here!

1 comment:

  1. Check out the Behind the Scenes here!
    http://muse.mu/media-player/behind-the-scenes/282/the-making-of-bliss/

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