Elvis Presley – Jailhouse Rock
I am using this music video for my research because of its popularity in mid of 1950’s. It can also be called as the “promotional film” because back in 1950’s the idea of “music video” was not created yet. At the end of 1950’s, people would only be able to recognise some of the promotional films and not music videos. Furthermore, this video is a small fragment from a film where Elvis Presley took part in.
I want to start with 50’s because this time is dedicated to my latest project about the Women’s right. I focused at this decade during my AS level. There are a lot of good and well – known songs which were created since 1950’s, therefore I want to pay more attention to this era of music. The most famous artist of that decade was Elvis Presley, who created rock and rock’n’roll genre.
Elvis Presley was an American singer and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is often referred to as the “King of Rock and Roll” or simply “the King”. His music career began in 1954, recording at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African – American music to a wider audience.
Most of his first works were done in black and white. I think it will be beneficial for me to analyse music videos in different colour schemes because I can possibly use this concept for my final project.
Elvis Presley – Jailhouse Rock
Analysis of the promotional video :
Elvis plays a wrongly accused convict who becomes a “star” among other prisoners when he gets out. The film, which is considered one of the best of his 31 movies, is famous for the scene where Elvis performs this song in an elaborate dance number taking place in prison.
I can’t analyse the music video in details as they are not many changes in settings, locations or costumes. The music video is more thematic that narrative, because it takes place in a fake “jail”. The most important part in this video is the iconic dance moves. The song is very energetic and positive where the protagonist sings and dances with other characters.
We can see the pure illustration of lyrics; all words have a connection to an image that we can see in the music video. Elvis is singing about how he got into the jail and how he spends time there. In the promotional video, we can only the see the settings of the jail, therefore this is more an illustrating video.
Elvis represents his image through the dance moves. His target audience will be more interested in watching the film because they know that the artist participated in that movie. This movie does not only represent the image, but also promotes the artist and the song. The film was targeting to represent Elvis as a talented and good looking artist. This production helped him a lot to promote the image and make Elvis be more popular in that decade.
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