Wednesday, 14 August 2013

Blondie

I used the Article by Rolling Stones to gain a better insight into the band, Blondie.

Blondie is 'one of the most commercially successful and adventurous' bands/ survivors of the New York punk scene, who have released three platinum albums; Parallel Lines, Eat to the Beat and Auto American.
The band consisted of, the bleach-blonde and only female Deborah Harry who became an international icon and boyfriend Chris Stein, who developed the melodic side of the punk genre; Gary Valentine, Clem Burke, Chris Stein and Jimmy Destri were also members of the band.
A few months after their hit single, Blondie made their British Concert Debut, Gary Valentine then left the band and created his own which then broke up Spring 1980.


Album Covers- 
The Band here are represented as being quite a united strong band, with Harry especially being the dominant one in the group due to her stance being strong with her hands on her hips and not smiling unlike the rest of the band. They seem to be putting on a front as being strong but up for having fun and unique which is appealing to the audience, this also comes across in some of their music videos.

In this Album cover the Camera angle is straight on, which does not make the band seem less dominant as the camera is far away to fit in the whole band making it seem like you are taking on all 6 of them, which in a way makes them seem daunting but powerful.
The set of the Album is an image of the band on a striped background, this is in contrast with their costumes which is smart but slightly edgy as all the males are in black and white suites with skinny black ties, and Harry is wearing an all white dress and shoes, I believe this is to show the dominance and strength of her in the band. The stripes switch as it passes them making it seem as if they changed it up and differed the design of it due to their rebelling and punk feel.  Blondie's logo is bold and in red to stand out to the customers, but I believe the swirly writing is a juxtaposition to the type of music that is produced by them.

This Album Cover has a different feel to it completely as it only shows Deborah Harry singing. I believe this is because she became and icon and along with her boyfriend became the main face of the band, Blondie. This album will be easily identified as Blondie just for Harry's presence alone. The writing/logo is the same as used in the previous Album cover which shows that it is part of the bands identity, the font is now in pink, but the Album name is in capitals underneath just like previously in capitals on top. Harry's hair here is not as slicked and well done, she has 'punk' hair which shows the genre off more, the setting seems to be, or seem to be mid concert; this gives the band the identity of being about the music and mostly the singing as she is with a microphone. Harry has nothing but spotlights focusing on her, and she is wearing a yellow shirt of dress, again not focusing on that as this Album seems to be about the music alone.

Music Video-

The set of this video is a mixture of what seems like 'home videos' of Harry in the sea, her in the city and Blondie performing on stage.

The Camera used in this music video seems to be handheld, like it is a friend that is filming her and when it is the concert scene, a fan in the audience. In the urban city scene it seems like handheld also but from a distance that makes it seem like she is not meant to be being filmed. 
Clips in the video also seem to consist of bloopers of them making the video showing a fun side to Blondie.

Te editing of the video seems to be mismatched and rebellious like Harry and Blondie come across, which helps the genre tie in better and represents the band to the audience as being a punk rock fun band.
The costume and props are not 'set up' they are all representing who the band is, by the set on the stage to the urban, edgy outfits the Deborah Harry is wearing.

Concert Set-
The concert set is linking with the Album Cover at the top of this post. The stripes again show that link but the mismatched striped revealing the word Blondie shows that they have changed it up again, like what was said about the Album Cover. Other than that no props are used, which seems to me that they are trying to represent to the audience and public that they are all about the music they create.


Newspaper Articles-
Article in Classic Rocks news, recently released in August 2013, proving that although they are from the 1970's Blondie and their music is still talked about and loved.



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