Lyric Analysis - Miss Miller

Analysing the lyrics of my chosen song allows me to understand the narrative of the video and the meaning behind the lyrics that the artist is trying to convey to the target audience. This will therefore show me the connotations in the music video and how they are relevant to the lyrics in what they represent. In understanding this I am able to consider how I will put the meaning of my songs lyrics across through connotations and representations in my media product. For example, by understanding the meaning of the song I will know what atmosphere the music video should have and therefore what lighting and filters I should use to create this atmosphere. This will ensure that the narrative fits the music video and lyrics and overall the product is successful and makes sense. The song length is also shown through analysing the lyrics which means I was given an idea of how long the music video would be and so how much footage I would need to go where.

My chosen song Panic Chord is written by Gabrielle Aplin about a boys intense love for her when she was only 15. The artist stated that it is the most literal song she has ever written and that her relationship with the boy was "fun and nice" but "not romantic". Despite not actually being in a romantic relationship with the boy he stated that Aplin could not break-up with him because he kept a box of all their memories. This inspired the box of memories that will feature in my music video. Throughout our music video, the artist will be looking through an old-fashioned souvenir box which will have items that represent memories in a relationship.

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My group printed off the lyrics and we sat and marked on the sheet the different meanings and connotations we found in the lyrics. The annotations we made will assist me in planning genre codes and conventions such as the subject and theme of the song as a whole. The song is about memories of a relationship and the breakup of it which is conventional to the indie genre as these are often themes because artists tend to sing about their own personal experiences and emotions. This may be because indie artists are typically down to earth and honest as well as the fact that they write their own songs

When analysing the lyrics I looked at hidden meanings of the lyrics, the audience relationship, artist representation and ideas of the mis-en-scene, narrative and style my group could interpret at certain parts of the song. The first hidden meaning we discussed was developed from the line "maybe I pulled the panic chord." This shows that the artist does not know what she wants and so perhaps panicked and ended the relationship. A hidden meaning of this could be that the artist is too young to know what she wants which makes her not ready for a long term serious relationship and therefore uncommitted. We inferred this through the repetition of the word "maybe" which portrays the artist as uncertain. "Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do" in the sixth stanza represents societies perception of a life (including relationships) and how they should be perfect and straightforward with no flaws or imperfections. It also suggests that every relationship is the same which is obviously false and the artist realises this because her relationship did not meet societies high expectations which put pressure on her and caused her to panic. "Maybe I pulled the panic chord" in the chorus suggests that the artist didn't know what she wanted and was feeling stressed out in the relationship because she did not know what to do so acted irrationally. Therefore this may be something the artist regrets doing (ending the relationship) due to her impulsive behaviour of doing so.  The artists target audience is relatively young and so may experience similar feelings to this which would make them able to relate to the artist and as a result build a relationship with her. Our annotations helped us to plan out our narrative and where aspects of it would take part in the song. A narrative style is conventional to the indie genre because it engages and interests the audience by providing the reason behind the lyrics so they understand the meaning of them more and what experiences may have inspired them.

Due to the song being based around memories, the flashback scenes will be filmed in settings such as picnics and at home watching films or baking together. These scenes are all conventional to the indie genre because indie music videos are associated with being low-budget and not glamorous. These settings can be easily accessed and keep the atmosphere simple which makes it further conventional because indie artists are known to being down to earth and therefore similar to the audience.

My group decided when annotating that our artist will wear white clothes at the start of the music video before the lyrics suggest negative aspects in the relationship. This will therefore portray the artist as innocent and pure due to the relationship being a happy one. However towards the end, the artist will wear black clothes to portray the corruption of her innocence and more negative emotions due to the break down of the relationship.


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In terms of cinematography, the lyrics annotations showed me how I can represent the artist and song through camera techniques. A long shot will be used in my music video  when the artist is sat on her bed with the souvenir box on her lap. This will introduce and establish the bedroom and character. XXXXXXXXXXXrepresent artist, relationship with audience, conventional.


Close-ups will also be used to emphasise on the emotions of the artist. This will help the audience to build a relationship with her as they will understand how she is feeling and may be able to relate to her emotions themselves.XXXXXXXXXXXrepresent artist, relationship with audience, conventional.


My annotations will assist me in planning these two editing styles I have chosen. The first being fast paced editing which adds to the idea of the artists mind racing as memories flood it and she is overwhelmed. This is exciting for the audience as it may disorientate them due to being hard to keep up with. XXXXXXXXXXXrepresent artist, relationship with audience, conventional.


Filters will also be used within my music video. Bright filters which increase the brightness of a shot will be used in the scenes of happy memories to create a positive atmosphere while a darker filter will be used in the bad memories to create the contrasting effect of making the atmosphere negative.XXXXXXXXXXXrepresent artist, relationship with audience, conventional.





My annotations have helped me plan what parts of my music video will be what style (narrative, performance or concept) because it provided me with a printout of the lyrics so I can clearly plan and decide what styles of a music video will appear where. I will use my groups annotations to start storyboarding my music video in detail as it creates rough guidelines of how the music video will be constructed as a whole.