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ANALYSIS OF KINGS OF LEON VIDEO FOR “USE SOMEBODY”

RCA Records is very proud to announce that Kings of Leon's single "Use Somebody" has hit the number 1 spot on the Top 40 Radio charts in both airplay and audience. Amazingly, this is happening exactly one year after the album Only By The Night was released. At this point, with all the radio "Use Somebody" is getting in all the formats, the song is reaching a cumulative audience of 100 million on the Hot 100. The album has sold 1.3 million copies in America to date!

This song was the fourth song on the band’s 4th album ‘Only by the Night’ released through

Columbia Records on 23rd September 2008. According to the Use Somebody Song-facts,

Caleb Followill wrote this song about longing for somebody to have a cuddle with while

feeling lonely on the road. He said on his band’s website: “It’s about being far from home.”

The single seems to try to retract a stereotypical viewpoint on popstars and people in the

industry whom are all forsaken to be above themselves and believe they are better than

everyone else. It is in some ways a plead to let all the fans out there know that deep down

they are lonely at times...just like everyone else. This tells us they are down to earth which is

a factor which can relate one to want to listen to their music as ‘they can relate to it’.

The first shot is an "inside out shot" showing a man in the frame, most probably a key

person as he is the first person to be shown in the first shot. Through the windows you see

the New York skyline which has several connotations such as night life, fun, excitement etc.

This could signify the kind of life styles the band hand or in turn the kind of lifestyles we the

viewers believe the band to have...

There is a combination of ELS, Aerial shots tracking and swooping into and over the action of

the busy illuminated city at night, something which relates to their lifestyle as they are

always busy and on the go...on the road as it seems very lonely.

The low-key lighting acts as a tool for enigma, the band are wearing sunglasses at night and

get out the car, which likens them to 'stars'. They appear as exciting as the New York views

with their placement central in the frame. Lighting is very important in this video and is

predominant in the first 33 seconds of where the camera goes in and out of differently

coloured lights from different sources, such as buildings etc.

Fast paced editing suggests their fast pace lifestyle, along with the sped up footage of road

and cars, suggesting movement and that they’re constantly on the go. Intercut between that

and them playing live performances with live audiences etc... complements the other

locations where we see their 'rock star' lifestyle.

The montage sequence of editing is achieved mainly by cuts but the first time we hear

words being sung, is when we see an overlap, which introduces the singer as the main

singer, slowly with an overlap connecting two places together. he is the light, stars are

sources of light, and he is a star, this is where editing and visuals and lyrics are all

intertwined.

The shot of the airplane along with the sped up footage of the cars on the motorway seems

to suggest a journey which they are on, maybe a journey to another performance as this is

what we constantly see throughout. Along with this the desperate plead is made obvious

when he sings “you know that I could use somebody” and looks up into the sky as if looking

for God to help him, putting the audience in a position to feel sorry for him.

After these words the key man in the video sings the video cuts to a flash image of him on

top of a girl in bed and cuts straight back to him on his chair. This is reality showing us his

past thoughts which is why this affect has been done fast so we don’t get it mixed up with

reality. He then goes on to sing the same line, only this time he is looking at the camera

putting us the audience in a position to be sincere and open our hearts out to this clever

gesture.

The video goes black and white for about 20 seconds as we see shots of the band rehearsing

and hugging each other before a performance and just laughing with one another. This

signifies that they are just as normal as the next guy, only they have a lot of money. This

makes them as a band seem very down to earth and can help people relate to them, this is

the boys, not the pop stars. The music at this point is very slow but the tension along with

the beat begins to pick up until we see them actually performing live and the colour comes

back, this is the return of the pop stars...