Friday, May 11, 2012
Trapped in the Couch
“America” is a song by the English rock band Razorlight on their second album, Razorlight. The artist sings about the lifestyle of the typical couch potato and their feeling of isolation and boredom in American society. In this video, although it looks like a recording of a live show, it conveys a feeling of coldness and loneliness. The shots of a half face, which leave more space for the background, makes the idea of isolation more explicit. At the end of the video, with the artists holding signs saying “PANIC,” “LOST,” “FEEL NOTHING,” all the lyrics and scenes make more sense.
Since this song is written by an English band, do you think it is telling the truth or misunderstanding? What are other interesting details are shown in this video? In this video, the screen in the back keeps showing some freeways and elevated highways, what do you think they mean?
[composed by Blog Group 3]
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I don't know if everyone agrees with me, but is it me or does this sound like he's talking about September 11th or someone he knew who dies in Sept.11th? and I think the artist is trying to reveal "too much sameness," "boredom" that America is undergoing, by showing freeways and elevated highways.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm. Thats kind of interesting. I didn't really think of that when looking at the video. September 11 is kind of a far-fetched idea in my opinion, but the idea could be backed with more evidence from the video. Feels like research all over again! lol
DeleteI think for some there probally isnt a immense significance to being british, but I agree that the song does a great job of portraying what it might feel like for the rest of the world to live in the age of american cultural hegemony.
ReplyDeleteThere are several shots in where the face is either partly showing or when the background is overpowering the body/face. I agree that this shows the isolation and boredom in American society. Or possibly he is comparing his life and how boring it is to the ideal "american" life.
ReplyDeleteI think this song is partly about confusion and feeling lost and I think all of the highways and complex twisting roads symbolize this. They may be showing these roads as to say that life may seem crazy and interesting but there is not really anything great out there because he says everytime he goes out he just come back home. This is also reinforced by saying nothing is interesting in the media and all there is in America is panic and trouble so why not just stay home.
ReplyDeleteWell, I feel depressed while I'm listening to this music video. The dark background, dull lights, empty streets and highways, old car with glass-free windows as well as stress-out several people all deliver a upset atmosphere to the audiences. I mean this is a good job to show it's coldness and loneliness theme about "Panic", "Lost" and "Feel nothing". And in my mind, the scene that leaves me deep impression is that when three is somebody putting his feet on the broken windows and I feel can feel painful of him. It seems to tell me how frustrated he felt at that time. Also, highways are common elements in this music video. In my opinion it can be seen as the symbol of the busy and high-speed life of Americans and the huge press they are under each day. And because of that the relationship between people are more and more distanced and cold.
ReplyDeleteThis music video conveys a feeling that a lot of people feel sometime in their life. There are all these things happening around them that the media makes a big deal about, but they just don't care too much about it because there is not much they can do and it doesn't directly affect them. After a while they just get bored with it and it just creates that dull feeling.
ReplyDeleteI think this song is a misunderstanding. I think they are saying that americans like to cause panic and trouble when there is nothing to bother, we like attention and other problems are not relevant. For example this artist may think: there are problems in other countries we like to get involved, to bring pity on ourselves for having problems to fix. I think its interesting that there is empty freeways and a car that seems to have been tore up by being hammered. I think that it shows that the problems are empty but we create chaos for entertainment. "All my life I've been watching America" they may feel like we create drama for spectators.
ReplyDeleteThe video kind of has a relationship with my video from my research project, Pumped up kicks. Multiple face shots of the band give me this reason. The only difference is that the video has more of a relation to the picture that the song paints. What stood out to me was the fact that there was a couch that had instruments on it. Kind of interesting if you ask me. After all the video is talking about couch potatoes so it is easy to find a relation.
ReplyDeleteI think this song is speaking to the ethnocentricity that some equate with America. "We're the best in the world and we have relative apathy for most of what goes on in the world." These sentiments seem to found amongst many people outside of the US. The empty highways I think are a symbol of how empty he feels America is. I think this is a critique of Americans from an outsider. 'All my life, watchin America' seems to indicate that he's frustrated with how unimportant he feels that Americans view the rest of the world. America goes around and champions democracy and capitalism, yet in the home front we have many social injustices that need to be addressed. Another thought on the highways is the amount of money our government is spending on the highways to show lowered jobless rates among the country is also kind of empty.
ReplyDeleteThis song may resonates with people who feel isolated or bored in America yet I think this song is a misunderstanding since what the song portrays is too passive and one-sided.'All my life, watchin America' does not represent the majority of the Americans.
ReplyDeleteI think this song is showing how Americans are lazy and not as cool as we think we are. To me, the empty freeways represent how people are at home being lazy and watching TV and sitting on the couch. With American's being fatter and lazier than ever, I can see the argument coming from this band. I think the band feels that America is on this huge pedestal and he wants us taken off because after seeing America, he realizes it's really not that great.
ReplyDeleteI think that all the highways is kind of a metaphor for America. Anywhere you go there will be highways, and they all look the same, and to further that I think them being empty symbolizes the lost feeling. I also read a comment about them symbolizing how confusing someone can be with society, because the highways are all tangled together.
ReplyDeleteThis music video is very interesting one. I think it is not the representative perspective of England toward US, but it is the very part of it. The overall feeling of the music video is "vain". Empty high way roads, blue colors and highly developed. I think it is telling the somewhat truth.
ReplyDeleteI have to say I really did not care for this song or video much..while I can see that the artist is tring to send the messege that there is confusion and struggle in America, as well as the idea of being a couch potato and not watching television because to him it seems like it's all the same, unimportant nonsense, I did not find this song to have much depth or detail in the artists messege..it kind of seemed too simplistic to me.
ReplyDeleteI was going to say just what Jeff said. I really doesn't feel like the artist is even trying to make thoughtful or interesting lyrics. He finds television boring just like many other people. These things are brought up all the time. Americans being lazy is also something worth considering with the idea of a couch potato.
ReplyDeleteI do think this is a problem for America or England. I am not a American, while i do not have this kind of feeling when i stay here. I think maybe some teenager will ahve the same feeling as what says in the video. This is beacuse they have already grown up but their future is not clear for them so they feel lost. In the video, the backgroud and environment are all setted to be lonely. but sorry it does not work on me
ReplyDeleteI don't understand what this song is supposed to mean. The artist keeps saying something about panic and trouble in America, but I don't know what he is referencing. The artist said that he has been watching America all his life. He may have been interested in the idea of America. Maybe he wanted to live here, but found too much apathy from the citizens that he did not want to be a part.
ReplyDelete