Alex Clare is one of those artists who
are difficult to label to just one specific genre, such is his talent. His
music and style, quite genuinely is so diverse that from track to track you
would be hard pushed to genre name this 27 year old Londoner from Golder’s
Green - soul, funk, dubstep, reggae, electro, rock, grunge - the list of genres
is extensive.
His video of Up All Night is very different compared to Too Close. The genre of this song is Alternative
Rock, and with this genre of music, videos can be largely varied. With this
music video, unlike many current popular music videos, there are no major shots
of the artist, Alex Clare. He is shown once towards the end but was not the
main focus. There is also no lip-syncing involved all throughout the video as
it is not a performance based video. The narrative brought more focus to the
song and the stories in the music video rather than the artist himself.
The narrative of the music video is a mixture between illustration and disjuncture. Illustration summarizes the meaning of the song throughout the video; however, the majority of the music video is disjuncture, through the use of three different situations. With this song being Alternative Rock, the mixture of narratives accompanies the song well. The mood of this video is quite uplifting in contrast to the confused character deciding if he should stay or go in Too Close.
Alex Clare is signed to Island Records, which is owned by Universal-one of the global conglomerates. Island Records has other alternative music artists such as the late Amy Winehouse (who Clare dated for a year), Damian Marley, Florence and the Machine, and Blink 182. I have looked through the list of artists signed to Island and noticed that they have a large number of UK artists, most of whom are not mainstream and therefore not as globally recognized. The record’s main focus of genre seems to be alternative rock and pop.
The use of Alex Clare’s Too Close on a Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 advert resurrected his career as an artist and the song became a hit in the US (peaking at #8 on the billboard) and UK (#4 was the highest position it reached.)
Also, with the recent release of Taken 2, there has been an alternative version of the video released, with images from the movie incorporated. The song is one of the movie's soundtracks that plays at the ending credits of the movie.
Our artist, Marcus Green would also be signed to Island Records, due to him being an artist of alternative genres. We would promote him through social sites such as Facebook and Twitter in order to get him recognition. The type of clothing he would wear would be jumpers and chinos to make the artist appear smart and casual.
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