CBR "Stop Where you are" Analysis

Titanium 500 Word Essay

Titanium Music Video

"Titanium", a song produced by David Guetta featuring vocals from Australian artist Sia, tells the tale of a young boy with supernatural powers. The boy tries to overcome these powers and suppress them, leading to the destruction of a school hallway and eventually (at the end of the video) an explosion. The song carries messages of inner strength with the lyrics "Shoot me down, but I wont fall" and "I'm bulletproof". Using guns, which carry heavy connotations of violence, as a representation of how society can supress and degrade people.
The song also holds links to Guetta's life. Growing up in a Muslim family, Guetta was frowned upon for trying to pursue a career in music. Revealing his father was enraged and wanted him to do something else for his future.
He proved that he would make a career in music whether they liked it or not. Which remains to be the message behind both the lyrics and the video of this song. No matter how much people push you down, you must always get back up, hence the lyric "you shoot me down, but I won't fall". Showing how inner strength can get you much further than others opinions on you.
This is also evident in the Chorus where Sia, the lead vocalist, sings about being bulletproof. Meaning no matter what you throw at her it wont damage her, with a continuing motif of the metal alloy "Titanium", which carries heavy connotations of being strong and durable.
At the start of the video the camera starts with extreme close ups on both the boy and the carnage and chaos resultant from his superpowers. Then we see an extreme long shot revealing the boy sitting in the centre of this carnage, the camera is placed slightly above the boy leading to this representation of innocence and frailty. With a mid close up of the boys face as he starts to stand up and walk away from the chaos he made. Perhaps reflecting the message of the video to stand up and face your fears or believe in yourself. The boy runs away from the mess he made and tries to forget about this catastrophe. He then puts a red, woolly hat on perhaps to express his desire to hide and run from this experience, further portraying the message to believe in yourself. A little later in the video the boy arrives home to a mess in his house, he then turns around to see a news report on the T.V stating the supernatural occurrence in the school, he then grabs a bag and runs to his room, with stuffed teddy bears and toys strewn around his bed and the floor. He then throws this teddy bear perhaps symbolising the boy throwing away his childhood and running from his life. When various police officers arrive in the boys room, all the toys and bears are floating in the air, symbolising the act of letting go. As the video goes on the time of day slowly ticks to night time. Representing the gradual dying of the light and growing of the boys powers, to conclude with the explosion at the end happening in almost complete darkness. This could further represent the message of the video being no matter how dark things may get you will always shine, symbolised by the yellow glow emanating from the boy before the explosion.

Titanium Music Video Notes

Titanium David Guetta ft. Sia

·         Absolutely no branding

·         “You shoot me down, but I won’t fall”

·         Sia, David Guetta, Gorgio Tuinfort and Afrojack all wrote the song

·         Released online July 2011 as an advert for a single, album and artists

·         Ballad drawing from genres of house and urban dance

·         Katy Perry turned down this song as she thought it was too close to her song “firework”

·         Supernatural, suburban scene

·         “Courageous enough not to reveal all its mystery’s”

·         Capital FM – “A very Cinematic video”

·         About inner strength

·         Premiered on December 21^st but did not include features of either artists – what they represent without showing themselves

·         Focuses on a young boy with supernatural powers

·         Pulled from US Radio in 2012 due to use of gun related lyrics

·         Directed David Wilson, filmed in 2011

·         Suburban setting similar to a lot of American films

·         10 mark or 15 mark – roughly 15 to 30 mins long

·         Motifs – supernatural, special powers, Puberty affecting the body and mind, inner stress, standing up for rights

·         Camera / Mise en Scene. Editing and sound. Representation and intertextuality and messages

·         David's life story you might get it better. In school he was considered a nerd and bit of an outcast. His upbringing was very traditional, being raised as a Muslim and at age 13 he began mixing music, which enraged his father, who wanted something else for his future. In the end, he proved that even if the world were against him, he would make it whether people liked it or not. That is the idea behind the video. Titanium talks about our inner strength and being strong in ourselves.

·         The song uses guns and bullets as a metaphor to the hateful words that people will say to us. In the chorus Sia, the vocalist of the song, sings about being bullet proof. This means that we should not worry about what people say about us. In verse two, the song talks about how people can continue to shoot us down but its not us who will be hurt more if we stand our ground.