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Documentary: Contextualisation of the Genre of Documentary

sampattison2501

Updated: Feb 13, 2020

This is the contexualisation of the genre of documentary part of pre-production in which I describe what influenced the idea behind the documentary and how its purpose was consolidated and decided upon. The way the documentary became an expository documentary about getting across the point that Emo Rap and Grunge are both influential on fans of the genres' emotions, as are other genres of music on their fans' emotions too, but they are the two genres that we decided are best representative of how powerful music is and the control it truly has over our emotions. I think they represent the ability of music to make us feel emotions more intensely best because of the content of the music and the messages that are promoted in the music, even if they appear to be negative and dangerous at first they are often used as catharsis in order to get any harmful feelings people might be feeling out of their system so that they don't feel the urge to cause damage to themselves whether it either be physically and/or mentally damaging themselves, it's not healthy either way. Below I have included a few examples of music that helps or has helped me relieve myself of emotions, what emotion/s they helped me express and how they helped to inspire this project and make it feel like a genuine passion project due to the strong and sincere feelings behind it.


The Smashing Pumpkins- 1979

From their 1995 album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, the song 1979 is one that makes me feel a great deal of nostalgia and a sense of longing for a past that it makes me want to recapture with the lead singer and guitarist Billy Corgan's gentle vocals accompanied by the instruments in the background to create an atmosphere of partly sadness but also gratitude that the memories of a perfect summer that it brings to mind, whether you've had one or not it still gives you a feeling of warmness because of how fun it was yet there is also a wish to go back and feel the moment once again. This song definitely helped to inspire this project because not only does it make me feel emotions strongly but it also by a band that is considered to be Grunge, maybe not in this song but in other tracks on the same album and in their other work as well there is lots of elements of the genre and me finding myself getting into them as a band certainly made Grunge become one of the genres looked at in the documentary.


Gorillaz- On Melancholy Hill

The Gorillaz song On Melancholy Hill off of their 2010 Plastic Beach is a song that makes me experience a feeling of tranquility and comfort that everything in life is perfect and any problems that I may be having disappear for the three minutes and fifty three seconds that the song lasts for because of the mixture of Damon Albarn, voicing the character of 2-D with his relaxing delivery of lyrics about escaping to a place at sea where there is no troubles or stress about the pressure life can really make you feel sometimes, with someone you care about deeply and you want to be on Melancholy Hill with for as long as possible. The musical aspect of the song too with how well the instruments structured in a calming way go with the slow tempo does an incredible job of creating an image in the mind of an island like the one described in the song and the one illustrated on the album cover of Plastic Beach. I wouldn't say it inspired the documentary as directly as my previous example I would say that it still inspired it due to how the song is able to make me feel emotions heavily which is what the documentary looks at at its core so this song definitely helped to make the idea a reality along with the other songs I am listing too.


The 1975- I Like America and America Likes Me

A song that makes me feel passionate and understood to a certain degree is the song I Like America and America Likes Me by The 1975 from their 2018 album A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships. The reason it makes me feel passionate while listening to the song is because of the lyrics and how they are filled with rhetorical questions and blunt statements that create confusion and intrigue about what lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Matthew Healy is singing about which I think makes the song much more chaotic and feel more urgent with the desperation you can hear in Healy's voice as he pleads to the listener to listen to him while expressing what I take to be frustration with the world and society we live in out over an almost trap like beat with auto-tune layered on his voice likely to highlight the control technology has over us in the modern age we live in.


I also often feel dumbfounded and overwhelmed by the magnitude of depressing news and varying information we receive almost daily because of how attached we are to our phones now and I definitely find myself asking similar questions and having thoughts in the same vein as the ones that Healy voices in the song because of his own confusion and mindset due to the effect of our current formidable society. I would say that sharing that same viewpoint as Healy makes me feel understood and less alone in what I wasn't sure was a way of thinking that anybody else was so I was very happy to find out it wasn't just me who felt this way and this song definitely inspired the aspect of the documentary in which we see what artist/bands mean to people personally and how they may have an emotional connection with their music or with them as an artist/band because of how much they love their music as well as the intensity of the emotions their music as a band make me feel.


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