I will be looking at lead singer of the band 'Chris Martin'. He is the lead vocalist in coldplay. I have chosen him because coldplay are of a similar genre to my alternative rock band.
Martin is an English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, also he is lead vocalist, pianist, rhythm guitarist, and one of the more popular members in the band Coldplay
Coldplays first album 'parachutes' is what got them recognised, they have also released 6 studio albums as well as several EP's.
As a solo artist, Martin has written songs for Embrace ("Gravity") and Jamelia ("See It in a Boy's Eyes" and he has co-written with Coldplay producer Rik Simpson. Martin has also done collaberations with Ron Sexsmith, Faultline when he sang on two of his haunting Faultline tracks: 'Where is My Boy?' and 'Your Love Means Everything Part2.', The Streets, and Ian McCulloch.
He also sang a part of the vocals for the Band Aid 20 single, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in 2004. In 2005, Martin collaborated with Nelly Furtado on the track "All Good Things (Come to an End)", for her 2006 album, Loose.
Star image in early years
Here is the video 'Yellow' which was in Coldplays first album 'Parachute' in 2000.
As we can see he is constructing quite a casual image, he isn't overdressed, fancy nor does he particularly look like a star. However, this casual appearance is what gives coldplay their image, I have also recognised that the use of sexualising women is not used very much in any of their earlier videos, showing that they are mature and this may interest their music towards a female audience and older men as they tend to focus more on the band and their music rather than the typical visual appeals such as sexualisation.
This is also seen in their early video for 'The scientist' where the focus of the video is the lead vocalist, central in the camera as he walks and sings the song with a familiar or everyday background, e.g the English beach or town.
How their image has developed in more recent videos
In Coldplays more recent music videos we can drastically see how their image has changed. Chris Martin not only looks more masculine, but he is also wearing smarter clothing and looks more of a star, although his videos still feature him as a main part of the image, there are now elements of females seen within the videos, this may be because nowadays men respond and enjoy the music video more when a female is involved. As they have expanded their career and become more famous they have broadened their audience and changed their image in order to stay within the publics interest. The lighting in his newer videos has also changed, which makes the videos become a lot more professional and less casual. They are more complex and involve more shots. As we can see in this video the close up shots as the first sentence is sung and walking around has become a signature opening for Coldplays music videos.
Within this more recent music video we do capture whats meant to be a live performance, with an audience, this is a change in image for Coldplay, however, it is a convention of rock videos, and as an alternative rock band they are using the conventions to create different videos, although still using the signature walking and central short of Chris Martin as the song begins.
Close ups
There are constant close up images of the singer, and central long shots of him walking. This extenuates him as the lead singer and band member. We can see in all of the above videos that even from his earlier videos, close ups and central shots have been key in their music videos. As I have covered, the hairstyle and costume of the star is quite smart/casual and the hairstyle is neat, but masculine and doesn't give away any particular wealth or stardom to the band, this is an aspect which may be recognised and appreciated by their fans and audience as they do not portray themselves in a way which segregates them from normal people who aren't within the public eye.
Camerawork
There is a lot of tracking in each of the videos, whereby the camera will track where Martin walks, this gives him a sense of power, but also makes him seem quite down to earth because of the location which he is walking through. There are hard cutes used mainly within the music video, I presume this is because it makes it easier to cut to the beat and makes the videos have a better continuity.
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