The first is Scott Bradlee and Postmodern Jukebox's cover of "Umbrella" by Rihanna, sung by Casey Abrams. Postmodern Jukebox is a music collective started by Scott Bradlee, where he gets various different singers and instrumentalists and so on, and arranges various songs (mostly pop) into older music genres and styles, such as jazz and swing, for them to perform. It would be a great one to do, because it is upbeat and interesting, has a link to pop music but also more niche genres such as jazz, has no true music video (just a video of the band performing,) and is just under 3 minutes long. We could do a lot of interesting things with the meld of old and new that the song presents, as well as the relationship themes the lyrics convey. The downsides would be that it would be a bit tricky to get all the instruments required for the performance, plus we'd have to be very careful with our appeal to the audience since we don't want to alienate anyone while we aim both at the mainstream pop genre AND the more niche jazz genre and their fans.
"Umbrella" by Postmodern Jukebox. The video is longer than 3 minutes because Scott Bradlee gives an update on the collective's future at the 02:59 mark, which is where the song ends, so you may want to pause the video at this point. It is a very interesting blend of an older musical style with a newer and well-known song, and so we have a lot of scope to craft an interesting music video to go with it. Click to play.
The second is "Istanbul" by They Might Be Giants. They Might Be Giants has a huge discography, but this is one of their shorter songs, that still has a lot of energy and character. The song is themed around the city of Istanbul and how it used to be called Constantinople, and the history of the city. This gives us some clear themes and ideas for a music video, that could be history themed. The short running time might also be a disadvantage, however, as we have less time in which to craft a good video, and thus we might have to drop some ideas and the music video's quality could be compromised if we weren't careful- plus we'd have to be careful to be respectful of the culture of the city and country if we decided to go more that route rather than the historical route.
"Istanbul" by They Might Be Giants. It's only about 2 and a half minutes long, and has a fairly long instrumental intro. We could use the extra time, plus the instrumental time, to create some narrative for our video, but we'd have to be careful not to step outside the bounds of what can be considered a music video, as opposed to a short film with music. Click to play.
"Everywhere" by Ex Hex is the next option. It is slightly longer than 3 minutes at 03:18, so we would have to take that into account and cut it down somehow, but the lyrics are full of imagery and thus have a lot of scope for experimentation and an interesting music video. It has a long instrumental part which we could cut down, and use for even more experimentation. It is a catchy song with simple enough instrumentation, and all of these things combine for it to effectively be a blank canvas for all of our ideas. However, this strength could also be a weakness, as it may be harder to find meaning in the lyrics than in other songs, and we could lack a driving force in the music video that other songs with simpler/clearer messages and themes could provide.
"Everywhere" by Ex Hex. It would be quite a good choice for this project as we could tailor it to our audience very specifically, due to the freedom we have with making a music video out of it. We could adhere to the conventions of music videos and use as much theory as possible because it allows for that by being so abstract yet simple and catchy. Click to play.
The next one is "Sweet Dream" by Black Cat Zoot. This is another song with an interesting set of lyrics that we could adapt into whatever we want, and it is below the limit of 3 minutes too. It is very unknown and indie, and firmly part of the indie pop genre, which gives us an audience to target. It's catchy but also a little bit soft and dreamy, hence the name, which we could use when creating the video- possibly using filters or visual effects or some other kind of imagery to add a dreamlike quality to whatever we decide the video is going to be. It does come with its own set of challenges like any other song, however, such as the fact that it sounds like it might have some non-standard instruments in the backing, but luckily for us the main instruments are still easy things like guitar and drums, and a keyboard should cover the rest.
"Sweet Dream" by Black Cat Zoot. This would also be quite a good choice for this project, as it is catchy yet interesting sounding, with very imaginative and metaphorical lyrics that could be interpreted in many ways to allow for a wide variety of music video ideas. The timing is perfect as it is almost exactly 3 minutes. Click to play.
The final choice on this shortlist is "Halo" by Cage the Elephant. My groupmate Noa suggested it before she knew I liked the song (and band) too, and I think this shared appreciation of the song on a personal level could help us when crafting a music video for it, especially since Jack also really liked it when we played it for him. It is a bit more unorthodox musically than some of the other songs here, which means we are limited somewhat, but we could use its uniqueness to drive the music video if we so wished. It is under 3 minutes at about 02:57, and has a good standard structure of verses and choruses with instrumental breaks, that we could use to form a good structure of a music video.
"Halo" by Cage the Elephant. Noa and I will try to put our like for the song aside somewhat as part of the decision making process- another song might be better in every way, and we don't want to let our appreciation for this song get in the way of that, although later on in planning and construction it could be a boon. Click to play.
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