Analysis of Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams music promo

Analysis of Green Day’s Boulevard of Broken Dreams promo

 

The music promo for Green Day’s Boulevard of Broken Dreams follows a lot of the conventions of the Pop Punk genre. One of these conventions is a fairly even split between performance and narrative. This video follows this convention as there is narrative for around half of the video before the performance at the end. The narrative of the video may not follow the conventions of a typical narrative from a pop punk video. In this video the band members are seen walking across a bleak place before walking along an empty road. This is probably done to reflect the title and theme of the song which is about being alone. This is a common theme in the lyrical content and meaning behind pop punk songs.

 

In terms of costume the video follows the conventions very closely as the band are wearing clothe that can be considered to be typical of pop punk and other similar genres. They are all wearing tight jeans and the costume is predominantly black.  The lead singer is also wearing makeup and this shows that he and the band want to be considered as different and this is a common theme among pop punk bands and fans of the genre. The mise en scene of the video portrays a bleak picture and this can be seen to be fitting with the lyrics and emotion the band is trying to give across.

 

As the song focuses on emotion a lot there is a lot of close ups of the lead singer to show his emotions as he performs. This is very common in pop punk videos, again this is due to the emotions trying to be shown. In other forms of rock music there will be as much focus on performance but with a lot less emphasis on individual members of the band and certainly less close ups. However, this video can be seen as differing from the conventions of pop punk it has a stronger narrative. There are also a lot of wide angle and long shots.

 

There are also effects placed on shots throughout the video. The effect may be to show that nothing is as pure or as clear as it seems. The pace of the editing reflects the pace of the song. With the slow build up gradually getting faster as it gets to the big chorus.