CM - Similar Band Case Study: Echo & The Bunnymen

Echo & The Bunnymen are currently a 5 piece Post Punk band, though the bands line up has changed a lot since their formation in 1978. The original line up consisted of f vocalist Ian McCulloch, guitarist Will Sergeant and bass player Les Pattinson, supplemented by a drum machine.

The band have up to date released;

• 11 studio albums
• 9 live albums
• 9 compilation albums
• 8 EP's
• 30 singles 
• 5 music albums 
• 22 music videos.

Which is quite a collection, the response to the albums in particular has been very varied, with the album Porcupine released in 1983 reached number 2 in the album charts and album Reverberation (1990) didn't even make it into the charts.

The band have been through many changes in its career, the biggest change was in 1988 when the band split up after McCulloch quit and another member was killed in a motorbike accident. In 1994 two of the members started to work together again under another name but after a third member joined the double they reformed Echo.

Music Videos

The band have released quite a collection of music videos over time  and i will look at 5 of their biggest music videos and try and find similar codes and conventions within the bands style and how well this fits into the Post Punk genres code and conventions.

The Cutter 

• Performance video
• Mainly performance video in a pretty dark room with a projecter shining on the lead singer, typical shots for a performance video. Band in typical 80's fashion.
• Interlinked with sony are short clips showing nothing more then a cold icey location. In some of these shots they use a person smoking.

Bring on the Dancing Horses

• This video is the dark horses of the lot (if you pardon the pun), this could be because the video was directed by Anton Corbijn, ceebs going into it now its also pretty dark.

Lips Like Sugar

• This video is in two location/ pats. All the shots which are not performance are in black and white,
• Follows a lone figure with a guitar on his back, walking through a city, the person passes three people and they enter a room and the performance aspect kicks in. It is once again in a dark room. They is a gaint eyeball behind them during performance aspect. The lighting in the performance shot is a blackish purple. At points it jumps back to shots of the long figure.

Porcupine

• Performance
• Opens with shots of old WW2 imagery of posters, then clips (anchored with title) of war time russia.
• The band then slowly fade into shot playing the song (in the cutter the band are playing in a dark room)
• The rest of the song is merely repeats of the start but in different order linked with more performance shots.

The Killing Moon

• Performance video with hints of concept
• Imagery of moons and stars and different planets
• Recurring shot of cloth blowing in the wind.
• Performance mainly focus on lead singer for most of song of him performing, framing of just his face with a constant swinging light bulb lighting up his face.
• Dark mood and setting