Brainstorm; Notion

The song 'Notion' was the fourth single from American rock band 'Kings of Leon' from their album 'Only By The Night'. The song reached number one on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart for one week in of September 2009. The song is one of the most played songs on my iPod, but I had previously researched into Kings of Leon music videos and they were ok but didn't seem to fixate me or really appeal to me as much as the songs themselves. Then I came across 'Notion'. I didn't quite understand why I liked the music video so much at first but slowly began to analyse in more detail.

The song itself is hard to decode in terms of meaning and the video doesn't relate to the lyrics on an obvious level, but that's the bands style. Other rock bands such as Maroon 5 very often release easy-to-follow narrative music videos with the lead singer as the main character, however Kings of Leon seem to have always shied away from such dramatic exhibitions. The music video for this particular song is evidently set in a winter season as it is snowing, but in a little backstreet area where the band are playing, there are barrells containing fierce orange flames. This alone creates such an attractive contrast of colours of grey for the natural weather and orange from the fire.



The first line of the song is "I've got a notion to say what doesnt feel right" which is all a viewer needs to understand the video. The video shows lead singer Caleb Followill walking through the street, against a huge crowd of people, bumping in to them. This depicts his need to voice his opinion and fight against the status quo and against the tradions and the norm to find his voice and his belief. The fire contrasting with the cold represents the eagerness and hunger for belief and truth amongst the normality and routine that the world is living in. This anxiety is also shown through the effective, unsteady and shakey camera work used on many occasions, for instance when the fire is bursting through the brick wall, the camera is simultaniously shaking to demonstrate an eruption of emotion. The editing is also equally as effective as through the band shots, all the cuts are very quick and edgy, leaving only moments to capture the display, whereas the scenes of Caleb walking through the crowd are long and almost slow motion to show the contrast of breaking free from the status quo with the band, or trying to find your voice and beliefs, shown with Caleb.

"The editing is very effective as in the band scenes, all the cuts are very quick and edgy, leaving only moments for the viewer to capture the display."

Amongst the shaking and quick paces camera work, there are some calm, steady long and mid shots of the band, which represents unity. This shot (left) is a close up of the lead singer, showing his expressions with the fire behind him, which illustrates how he has found his beliefs and is therefore not in the fire anymore as is not alone, as previously he was alone in an alley rather than singing with the band.

What i enjoyed most about this particular video was that although it didnt show a long story throughout or had a lot of climaxes it was powerful in depicting the meaning behind the song. The video is about breaking free and moulding your own beliefs and finding your own voice, which can be very hard sometimes when everyone around is telling you you're wrong (which is what the crowd of people that Caleb walks against represent). The video starts of relativly calmly, with not a lot of fire and aggression, however as the song continues and the passion rises in the lead vocals, the fire begins to erupt and blow from the walls and the shakey camera work begins, it fuels the viewer and keeps them watching and appeals to them. The colour contrasts and shadowy appearance of the band in the street surrounded by bricks and fire speaks aloud without a narrative to explain. In conclusion, I liked how it was the setting, the camera work and the editing that told the story in this video rather than a narrative. Top notch!