Oasis Wonderwall

Oasis was a British group from Manchester United Kingdom. The two main people in the band known as Noel & Liam Gallagher are the two who started Oasis and set them on their way. Notoriously known to fight the band broke multiple times and apparently for good in the past couple of years. Both going their separate ways with their music careers they are both now in different bands. Oasis - Wonderwall is one of Oasis’s biggest hits, released in the 1990s when the bands were in their prime.

Oasis Wonderwall Lyrics

Today is gonna be the day
That they're gonna throw it back to you
By now you should've somehow
Realized what you gotta do
I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do, about you now

Back beat, the word was on the street
That the fire in your heart is out
I'm sure you've heard it all before
But you never really had a doubt
I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do about you now

And all the roads we have to walk are winding
And all the lights that lead us there are blinding
There are many things that I
Would like to say to you but I don't know how

Because maybe, you're gonna be the one that saves me
And after all, you're my wonderwall

Today was gonna be the day
But they'll never throw it back to you
By now you should've somehow
Realized what you're not to do
I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do, about you now

And all the roads that lead you there are winding
And all the lights that light the way are blinding
There are many things that I
Would like to say to you but I don't know how

[Repeat x2]
I said maybe, you're gonna be the one that saves me
And after all, you're my wonderwall

Camera movement, shots & angles

The first 10 seconds of this video consists of pretty much one shot where the camera is placed in one position of a tripod and someone moves into its view. We then get a point of view shot from that person as they play the cassette player. We get a bird’s eye view of the cassette player in which we establish that the song is performed by oasis. We then get the camera in the starting position but this time with someone sitting on the chair with their back partially turned to the camera playing the guitar. This is when the music starts.

It then appears that the camera is being zoomed in closer and closer and we get a range of shots, extremely long shot, long shot and closer with the zoom. This appears to have the effect of drawing you in to the person, almost like it is saying come and have a look at my life, drawing attention.

We then get a shot of some swords singing and then some guitars completely still. My impression of this is that the music they have just created is all done via instruments that they are playing and therefore it is the cutting edge of the time when it was released. If not cutting edge, certainly a very good song for the time it was released.

It then goes on to give us a range of different shots but the one that stands out the most, is when the camera is looking over the main singers shoulder into a mirror and we see the reflection of the singer. We do not look directly at the singer when we first see him but a reflection. This is almost to show that he is a reflection of his former self, possibly showing change.

We the get a medium close up of the same person, not a reflection but an actual shot however this time he is sitting on a chair with glasses. IT seems like the main signer is trying to hide himself from the audience. The following shot is also interesting as he is sitting on a bench with multiple people; again possibly showing that he wants to blend in, as these people are doing pretty much nothing, except one person is reading the paper, possibly representing public behaviour.

The next most interesting shot is almost an establishing shot where the camera runs up and instrument, to the players hands and we see him fiddling with something, again not being able to see the performers face.

Around 15-20 seconds later we get a shot where all of the band members are sitting on a bench and the camera has the effect that it is rolling past, however the camera is in a close up position where we can only see each member of the bands head.

The most difficult shot to perform in this music video would have been when the lead singer is sitting on a chair and appears to be spinning. This would have been hard to perform as the camera would have had to move and not the person, obviously. So to keep this smooth they would have had to create a device where the camera moves around the person and not the person moving.

Editing, transitions and special effects

We do not get a massive amount of special effects or transitions in this video however the first apparent one is that the video was shot in black and white. This adds for added effect for the music video as the video itself is not as extreme as the band could have made it. It is a very calm and subtle music video for the song that it is being performed too.

Within the first 20 seconds we get transitions, this is when the cassette player fades out into the shot of the singer sitting on the chair with the extreme long shot. This is a good technique for that shot as we clearly see that the record being played is by Oasis therefore fading it out to the main acoustic performer is an effective move. We then get some flashes in which it jumps to the saws and then once again to the guitars.

It then flashes back to the long shot of the cassette player, and then fades to the bird’s eye view of the record. It then fades back out of the cassette player and into the main singer of the band. Again this is extremely effective as it sort of screams to it, ‘This is oasis’s record, I play the guitar & I am the main singer’. I could not help notice that the order in which the people appear in the music video is the main guitar player, and then the singer. This could be to show that without the main guitar player the singer would not be able to perform.

The majority of transitions are made up of fade in and outs and also flashes to jump between shots quickly. The next thing to become apparent is the colour splash that is added. The video is in black and white however, we get a pinch of colour when a clown’s hat is in full and bright colour. The clown would not look the same without his hat and therefore the colour splash represents that it is the heart of his costume. This is the same for when the main acoustic performer’s guitar has the same effect on it. This again could mean that this instrument is the heart of the band’s music.

We also get the slow motion effect on the saws as they are swinging. This is a good effect to show that Oasis is ahead of other musical groups at the time and the other groups cannot catch up to them. Therefore the saws in slow motion could represent the fact that their career is moving slowly compared to the soaring Oasis.

Another good effect that was added to this video is when we get a range of small and different shots revolving around the main singer.

As you can see in this shot we have the main singer in the middle and then the other band members and others surrounding him. These shots are spinning whilst the middle one is still.

We also get the effect where the same shot is cut into 4 and we can look at all of them.

We then get a shot where the lead singer is in the background on one shot and other shots have been layered over the top. This is to show who the main singer is but at the same time also show the other members of the band.

Mise-En Scene

There isn’t a major amount of props however the music video isn’t jam packed with stuff it is a very calm music video as such. From start to finished there are a range of different props that I have listed here:

“Cassette player, clown costume, guitar, chair, saws, mirror, newspaper, drums, glasses, cello, football table, ladders, dart board, dummy, tambourine, skittles to juggle with, Unicycle, statue, speaker phone”

The actual band members are not wearing anything to make themselves stand out; they are just in casual day to day clothing. The only costumes that are recognizable are the clown and the woman who is standing near the guitars.

The location seems to be in a warehouse, or a very large room in which they had enough space to perform the music video. As the video is not manic not a lot of space would have been needed.

The band members do not have many facial expressions throughout the video, however near to the end they all pose for the camera and strike a smile. The clown on the other hand always seems to be unhappy and looks down with his facial expressions and the way he moves around also suggests that he is depressed. The music video is in black and white with some colour splashes to set it off.

Representation

The band in this music video is represented in a manner where they are very professional with their music. I get this impression because it is them performing for the audience but with very little play and it is almost all professional and layed back. With the black and white colouring and the blank facial expressions it is almost as if the band is so caught up in the lyrics they do not know what to think of the song therefore strike blank poses.

Ideologies

The lyrics “I don’t believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now” are strong, however when you look at the bands facial expression throughout the video you would expect them to have big happy in love faces however they come across as lonely and depressed. The song first appears to be a love song where you feel extremely strong about someone but it could be interpreted as both love and hate by the way the band appears with their facial expression and the black and white setting for the video.

Genre

The genre of this music is Soft rock/indie. This is because of the music is performance based and singing as not been auto tuned in anyway. This makes the song have that unique feel to it where you are able to click with the lyrics and the band performing the music as it feels more like it has come from the heart. There is no intertextuality that I can see in this music video.



Audience Reception/interpretation

People may interpret this music video in a range of different ways such as it is a loving video in which the band is close and looks after each other and another interpretation could be loneliness. My interpretation of this video is that the person was once in love and now is not in love with that person anymore. I get this from both the lyrics and the lack of facial expressions posed by the main singer. This is also shown by the loneliness of some of the band members as they are sitting on their own and also the black and white affect that the music video uses. The colour/life of the person has been drained and the colour splashes possible sparks f love in the most unusual places.

Stuart Hall Theory

Stuart hall has this idea that people can look at a piece of media in many different ways. So he believes that everyone has a preferred idea of what a Music idea can mean or what its target is. He also has a believe that people can look at it in one way and compromise the ideas of the piece. For e.g. you look at one meaning and many other possible meanings of the piece of media. Last but not least he believes that again people can look at one piece of media, believe it to mean one thing and completely flip the idea and believe it means the opposite.

Preferred reading - I think that people will look at the band and the music video as very layed back and an easy life, almost as if they are not working but having fun with what thy are doing i.e. the clown, the circus, sitting down.

Negotiated reading - They may be having fun but they do not know what to do themselves - sitting on the bench bored.

Oppositional reading - The business they are in is not as good as they make it seem, they feel trapped, like they are in the circus and there is no way out.

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin theory identifies 5 key aspects of music video that we the audience should keep a look out for and these are:
Do the lyrics match what we can see on screen - thought beats.
Narrative and performance
Star image
Relations of visual to song
Technical aspects of music video

First we need to look at the structure of the song i.e. the chorus/verses and how they relate to the music video. Secondly we need to consider the artists voice and how they see their voice to represent something/how they stand for something. Oasis has a feel to the band that is very hippy and retro therefore matching the video well as it is a very odd music video with the clown and the circus and the band not doing much.

Last but not least songs often tell stories and sometimes not so the artists voice can one tell the story in a very specific way and the music video normally matched this video. The music video matches the lyrics and the artists tone of voice so for e.g. Oasis's - Stand by me hit is a good example as the song itself tells a story and then the music video tells the story as well with the band featuring in it. This makes the impact of the music video much better as we can see the story on paper and tight in front of us.

So here we can see that the Band consists of 5 people and the colour splash adds the effect of the hippy feel to it and the use of the megaphone also adds to this effect. This was taken from Oasis smash hit Wonderwall.

Laura Mulvey

The Laura Mulvey theory is the idea that girls are used in music videos for purposes other than what they are needed. Often enough girls are used in video just to keep the audience watching for e.g. Flo Rida's Whistle Music video consists of him surrounded by a lot of women which has no relevance to the lyrics of the song.

Here for e.g. this shot was taken from Flo Rida's Whistle, where he is wrapping about blowing a whistle which has more than one meaning... and there are lots of girls half naked. So the use of girls in this video helps to keep men watching the video and possibly women bu on the other hand it has no relevance to the lyrics of the song.
This theory does not apply to this song.
Created by Luke Thornton