I feel fantastic text

I feel fantastic – Jonathon coulton

I have chosen to analyse the song I feel fantastic by Jonathon coulton. This was directed by Jonathon coulton also due to the lower funding he has due to his more pin point market. The genre of the band is “geek” rock, which is characterised by a strong sense of rhythm, using simple accompaniment instruments in music, and sing able melodies, which is not main stream and is instead aimed at a computer users (a touch of the nerdy side) which is quite a Niche market. This is shown throughout the video as the singer (Jonathon) is shown also it shows the singer as genuine music writer which is another character of the rock/geek indie genre. The mise-en-scene and narrative is very relative to most who work. Showing the stress of the work place and other issues while conveying through the lyrics that the narrative is about popping pills in different situations, playing with the idea that medicine can solve everything. In business terms could be the singer’s unique selling point as they have not got such a default money making attitude towards music and it is aimed at a smaller audience than other singers/bands.

The relationship between the lyrics and visuals is a correlation as the singer’s lyrics directly match his work day shown through the video. The first lyric “I take a wake up pill and fill with energy” applies to the singer as he wakes with his wide smile setting a happy mood which works well with the tempo. The lyric “I drive around a bit cuz work isn't very far” is followed up visually by the singer’s hand grabbing car keys which is followed by shots of a toy car on the road and him in a real car stationary .

Followed up by the lyric “All I know is driving on drugs feels better when they're prescription” which is linked with a medium close ups of singer in character showing the cop his drugs with a weak smile. Then the singer’s words gain in volume for the chorus “And I feel fantastic...” which is embodied through the shot of the singer suddenly bursting into action to run around the park with the cop chasing almost like slap stick comedy.

Later the lyric “Work is anything but quiet these days” shows the singer holding a phone away from his ear while his office partner screams down his own phone directly giving us a matching example

Most of these examples as you can see are illustrating the lyrics of the song giving literal matches.

The video cuts out all sound on the lyric “So I take a Calminex and just chill” to enforce the point of sudden relaxation on screen which is matched with the visual of the singer taking another pill.

The instruments are not shown throughout as the music video stays with the narrative to show the progression of the story the song converses. At one stage the tempo is also dramatically slowed to couple with the lyric “sometimes i like to slow things down”.

The singer is trying to sell this by offering an interesting video that can still appeal to anyone and shows the singer throughout so fans will also be drawn in. The images portrayed by the music video of Jonathon Colton are that he is a joke making character that does his work out of fun over business purely in mind. He is passionate about his music which is shown by the lack of branding or business interference; this gives him a genuine feel while the video itself is different and interesting when compared to the rap genre for example which is purely based upon money shown by beautiful women and fast cars.

At no stage the singer shows flesh or any sexual examples/links, clearly he is not sexual display for any female watchers and the video remains clean throughout reinforcing my view that he is doing songs for the enjoyment over money.

There are few inter-textual references I can deduce. The singer’s looks relate to the work place he is in conveying the low level of fame throughout the video, an example of this is the singer’s shirt and blue tie. The music video is narrative based with no performance based shots in the video perhaps relating to how well known the singer currently is.