Task 2.1- Research into existing products (moving image) Johnny Cash

This song is one of which Johnny Cash covered in the latter years of his life. The original song is by nine inch nails and has a different connotation to which Cash presents.

[Verse 1]
I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything

[Chorus]
What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

[Verse 2]
I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here

[Chorus]
What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

[Verse 3]
If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way

The lyrics within this song show isolation of the protagonist/writer and highlight ideas of death, hurt and sadness. Lyrics such as 'i will let you down' show how he feels self loathing and that he has let everyone down. 

Many lines within the song could also allude to drugs and using a substance to get away from his troubles. 'The needle tears a hole the old familiar sting'  this line indicates that he tries to use this substance to get away from his troubles and memories but it doesn't happen. 

There are also many religious connotations throughout,  'i wear this crown of thorns'  this alludes to Jesus wearing his crown of thorns before he died, perhaps this means that Cash feels that he is coming to the end of his life/musical career and can feel the burden of his life and mistakes upon him.

The music video for this particular song also incorporates all of these different themes previously mentioned. It is a performance and narrative based video including many old video clips and pictures of the musician from the time when he was most popular. 


 


To start off with the video has a montage of images which cut to the beat, for example:

These images show wealth and status, setting the scene and allowing the viewer to understand that the protagonist probably has money. The scene then cuts to a performance of Cash playing the guitar and singing:

This mid shot represents Johnny Cash as being isolated due to the low key lighting, his body language (looking away from the camera) and because he is alone in a hardly lit room. You can tell that it is sunset outside. This could represent that Cash is coming to the end of his musical career, it could also represent the end of Cash's life. The wealth and status you could see in the previous shots in addition to this shot shows that Johnny has all of this money from his musical success, yet he has ended up alone, there is no need for the money when he actually has nothing.

We also see the success of his career from the museum we see that has been built about him. The American flag above this museum also connotes that Johnny is an American icon. However, this idea is juxtaposed by the museum being closed representing that Cash's career may be over.