Iconography Investigation: Avicii

Falling into the genre of electro/dance, much of Avicii's iconography is centred around clubbing, parties and colour. Within all of his CD covers also lies the theme of escapism in some form, mostly through the slanted AV logo which is used amongst his fan base to connect everyone together; if you are part of the Avicii 'clan', you are somewhere you belong with lots of likeminded people. 

Avicii has grown enormously in popularity over the last two or so years, and is well known for the catchy, lively club anthems with relatable and realistic lyrics, providing an escape for the audience; someone who is in the same situation. 

In terms of the link between the lyrics and the CD artwork, there is again this strong connection to the praise and pride of being individual. There is also a strong representation of Avicii as an artist. This is cleverly shown on the CD cover for the single, 'I Could Be The One' where he collaborated with Nicky Romero. They divide the album cover in two from corner to corner and edit 'vs' (versus) in betwen, which represents a battle. The contrast in terms of colour is clear too; Avicii is represented with bright pink and orange gradients, which represent his sound as lively, colourful and fun but also complex: layered and evolving. In contrast, Romero is represented with darker grey outlining which shows how his style is much more toned down, simple and consistent. In many ways, these two opposites seem to balance each other out. 

Furthermore, Levels' cover artwork relates both to its music video and the idea of escaping to a different place. The music video starts with a man in an office environment, talking to a fellow co-worker, when he suddenly starts to dance. He scribbles Avicii's name on various surfaces, and dances on tables, while co-workers disapprovingly observe. Later, he gets immobilised by a taser and falls into a coma, where he has a vision of himself pushing a boulder up a mountain while lip-syncing the lyrics. At the hospital, just before he wakes up, a flower sprouts from his mouth, which infects the male nurses looking after him with an unknown substance, making them collapse to the ground. At the end of the clip, all the doctors and nurses end up dancing, also presumably infected. This heavily links to the front cover in that it could be interpreted that the eerie doorway is the abandoned/infected hospital, and perhaps it represents ground level, holding connotations to letting go and becoming free (preferably due to/through the music). 

He has his own font which is used to spell out Avicii; it is slanted and modern which linked to the tone of his music; edgy, different and new. It is also where his logo has derived from, as by filling in the 'A' and the 'V', you get unusual, parallel triangles. If you had never heard of Avicii before, and you just came across the triangle symbol logo, there would be a very subtle link made to the AV theme, which makes it easier to recognise his work. This was also used in the above music video, 'Wake Me Up' which highlighted the idea of people feeling isolated and out of place until they discovered Avicii. 

Overall, the iconography clearly represents Avicii as a new, modern and fun artist, which really suits and supports his music work.

Textual Analysis of You Make Me (Lyric Version) - Avicii

Avicii's 'You Make Me' is an upbeat catchy pop/dance combination which hit number 1 in the UK dance charts, and depicted busy city life. It held characteristics of dance and pop genre such as:

• Rarely any static shots - the cuts are not so quick, but the action within them is very fast paced as it is sped up.
• Makes you want to dance
• Energetic
• Repeated riff
• Underlying narrative

In many senses, this music video is quite unconventional in terms of the dance genre; usually they are set in intimate nightlife scenes or streets etc, so follow quite an urban theme. 'You Make Me' does the same, but from a different perspective which I think is really interesting. 

At first glance, it doesn't appear that the lyrics have any sort of link to the visuals, so initially I classes the video as totally concept. However after observing it a few more times, I did notice somevery subtle semantics within it. For example, there is a very subtle narrative within the video in the form of a sunrise. At the beginning of the video, it is rising out of the clouds, and shots of it in the middle of the sky are embedded amongst others. We would then expect it to set on the other side of the frame at the end of the video, however it actually ends up rewinding and effectively resetting. This holds links to the lyrics on the fact that he is singing about someone whom we assume he is in love with and connotes to their relationship never falling/setting. Another link to the lyrics is the (excellently executed) time lapse, which argualy relates to lines such as, "all my life" and, "I've been waiting for someone like you" as they both hold connotations to time. A further link is that some of the city scenes are of construction work such as a new road being laid down, and a playground being build. These shots closely link to the lyrics and title, "You make me". 

In terms of how the visuals link to the music, an obvious example would be how the editor has artistically overlaid all of the lyrics onto the top of the shots. These appear on the beat as they are sung, which is possible because the song as a whole has quite a simple structure with very few lyrics which are repeated throughout. Other representations occur towards the end of the video, where a symmetry effect has been applied during the editing process. This works really well with the music as the bassline is being repeated, or mirrored. It gives the video even more energy and keeps the audience interested by using a range of shots. I particularly love the edit of the clouds at 1:37 where they have taken a time lapse of them moving as usual, but then split the screen down the middle and sped the movement up. It is an amazing shot and looks almost like a hot tub in the sky.

Like with most of Avicii's music vides, the artists themselves are not included in the visuals, so it follows the theme of their usual content so the audience are immediately able to recognise their style. There is no reference to the notion of looking at all - in fact, the only people you can see are tiny specs on the ground! I think that the video is largely concept based, surrounding the idea of time and there is a very subtle narrative underlying but no performance element. 

Overall I really love this song and always have ever since it came out, so I was hoping that the video would do the song justice, and I think it does. The major shrinking time is extremely effective and plays  on the idea of waiting and time passing by.

It also made me think as to whether we could produce a separate lyric version of our music video too, which commercially we would release about a week before the official video to build up an enigma and to also make the track more recognisable, expanding our audience.