Hurt - Johnny Cash

In 2003 Johnny Cash covered the Nine Inch Nails song “Hurt” after hooking up with legendary producer Rick Rubin. The original was industrial rock but Cash gave it a country and western twist, giving a more emotional feel. Cash gives hindsight into his life and the mistakes he made in his life through the music video - his declining health was also highlighted. The video was seen as iconic in Cash’s career as he died only 5 months after the video was made.

To really understand the full emotional pain in the video, it’s important to look at events in Cash’s personal life. His older brother, Jack, was killed after being pulled into a saw mill, in 1944, and Cash was emotionally scarred by the incident, being only 12 at the time. His divorce from his first wife, Vivian Liberto, is the incident that most relates to the lyrics in the song as it began the downward spiral into an addiction of drugs, alcohol and affairs with other women. The video portrays this by showing clips of Cash in his youth followed by his present state. His wife also features in the video, although that wasn’t the original plan. We also see images of the Johnny Cash museum – once in its heyday and later when it’s rundown and ruined. This represents how Cash’s health and career have fallen from the top to the bottom.

The lyrics in the Cash’s version are identical except he changes the lyric “I wear this crown of shit” to “I wear this crown of thorns”, to compare himself to Jesus’ crucifixion in terms of his illness. The religious references don’t stop there – an image of a crucifix is shown many times and we see fruit and wine on Cash’s table – a reference to the last supper. The constant references to religion and Jesus in particular are there to highlight how Cash’s life has gone from one where he is idolised to near-death.

The editing of the video is important as the slow, long takes create a mellow atmosphere that, combined with the old pictures of Cash’s career, really emphasise the sadness and pain of Cash. Also the slow pace lets you follow the story and understand Cash’s pain even more.

The video was successful as it played on the heartstrings of the audience as Cash’s ill-health gained huge sympathy as he was such a popular figure in his prime. The contrast between Cash’s hugely successful career and younger life to his declining health in the video made the video iconic, especially with his death coming only 5 months later.

Busted & Fightstar Album Covers

On the Busted album all the band members are on the cover to promote the star appeal of the album. The logo is prominent on the cover so it’s easily recognizable for its young audience. There are no band members on the cover of the Fightstar album as the band is looking for something more meaningful than just promotion and star appeal. The image used – a women and child on the steps of a house surrounded by a flood create an incredibly thought-provoking, surreal feel to the album. The band name isn’t the most prominent thing on the page and isn’t meant to stand out like the Busted one.

The Busted cover is very simple in terms of colour. It uses primary colours and there’s only 3 colours used. The Fightstar cover, on the other hand, uses darker more somber colours and there is far more depth, light, shade and perspective compared to the Busted cover which has no light, shade or depth.

The cover creates a simple vibrant look which would appeal to a young demographic as there is nothing more to the cover than what you see. The Fightstar cover, in huge contrast, creates a much more artistic and meaningful cover which could have many different meanings behind it. It is far less poppy as it isn’t aimed at a mainstream audience and more at people who specifically understand and listen to the genre of music Fightstar make.







The Busted cover is very similar to the previous one. It has all the band members on the front cover with the logo prominent. Again this is to appeal to a young demographic and to a mainstream audience. There is very little more to the cover than the images you can see. Again, this is in complete contrast to Fightstar image, which is complex and thought provoking – it’s likely to have some relation to the music itself whereas the images for the Busted cover are purely for promotion. The logo on this cover is different to the previous Fightstar logo which shows they’re not relying on the name of the band to sell the album and would rather let the music do the talking.

The colours on the Busted cover are, as with the previous cover, primary and as simple as possible to not overcomplicate the page. This appeals to the mainstream target audience. This is a huge contrast to the somber, dark coloured Fightstar cover which has depth, shade and perspective, similar to the previous cover.

The simple cover of the Busted album, exactly like the previous one, gives the effect of mainstream simple music that would appeal to a young, pop demographic, as there is nothing more than meets the eye than the bright front cover. The Fightstar cover, in contrast, has much more to it than meets the eye and the music and the reasons behind the music, would, more than likely, explain the cover choice. It’s appeal is more at a core fan base who are into their style of music rather than a huge demographic, like the Busted cover.

Paulo Nutini – New Shoes

The video starts with a animated images of a street before we see into the inside of one of the houses which is real with Nutini lay in bed. The caption says “Paulo Nutini… as himself” – this comedy film-like opening gives the impression that the song will be pretty lighthearted and fun, which it is. The video relates exactly to the lyrics, which tell the story of a day with his new shoes – the events happening in the video relate directly to the lyrics at the same time. This makes the story flow better.

As Nutini’s music is mixture of genres the video doesn’t follow any typical conventions of a certain genre which gives more creative freedom in terms the editing and camera shots as there is no “rules” to follow – this also gives Nutini much more artistic freedom.

The camera shots used throughout the video are all a front view of Nutini as he goes about his day. We see the story unfold through this view and it lets the viewer familiarizes themselves with Nutini as well as making the transitions flow better. It creates an interesting way to tell the story as we only see one perspective to it. Also, it gives a star quality to Nutini and is instant marketing for the artist as the audience will remember him.

Fast takes are used in the editing to speed the story up and engage the viewer in the song and the video. This makes the video more interesting and fun to watch and suits the light hearted tone of both the song and video. This links in with the animated scene at the beginning of the video.