RESEARCH INTO MUSE:

Albums, videos and their progression of their career.

First EP Album

Released:

• Their first album was simply labelled ‘Muse EP’, limited to 999 hand-numbered copies. They named this album after the name of the band to promote themselves and to allow people to know that they are the people who play this new style of music. ‘EP’ stands for ‘Extended Play’ which means it has more songs than the original copy.

• It was released on 11th May 1998 by Sawmills Studio label Dangerous Records.

• This album only had 4 songs including, ‘Overdue’, ‘Cave’, ‘Coma’ and ‘Escape’. This was because they are a very new, alternative rock style band so were cautious of spending too much money on songs people may not like the sound of.

• The image on the front of the album is the drummer, Dominic Howard. This distorted image was used in the American film ‘12 Monkeys’ where Bruce Willis is seen tearing down Muse posters in Philadelphia in 1996.

• This distortion of the image, from the different colours, the re-arranging of the image and the way the image itself looks, reflects the way the band is alternative and how their music is not classed as normal.

First Studio Album

Released:

• This album was released in the UK on the 4th October 1999 through Mushroom Records.

• It reached number 29 on the UK Albums Chart.

• The album cover shows a woman walking in space. This not only reflects the sci-fi themed music the Muse play, but also reflect the way that they are alternative and that their music is not ordinary.

• Upon its release, the band received positive to mixed reviews. This was because of the alternative style of the band and people were not sure what to think about the songs they play.

Other Albums:

• Other albums include ‘Absolution’, released September 15th 2003, ‘Black holes and Revelations’, released 3rd July 2006 and ‘The Resistance’, released 14th September 2009.

• All of Muse’s albums starting from ‘Absolution’ are released every three years. This means we are expecting their next album in 2018.

• All of the album covers produced my Muse all relate to the alternative style of their music, relating to the sci-fi theme of their songs.

• ‘Black Holes and Revelations’ relates to one of their most popular songs ‘Supermassive Black Hole’. This song has achieved 41,827,335 views on YouTube and increases each day.

• All of the albums have ‘Muse’ written on them, letting people know who plays the music of these albums.

Music Videos Muse

Released: Supermassive Black Hole

• This song was released in 2006 in the ‘Black Holes and Revelations’ album. It is their most iconic song with 41,827,335 views on YouTube. The music video that goes with this song is very abstract with elements of performance due to the video having nothing to do with the lyrics, but we do see the band performing the song.

• The budget of this song would be very high, with lots of costume and props to make their video look as strange as their music sounds.

• There is a lot of editing in the video which matches the music which is played. This connects to Andrew Goodwin’s theory of music videos and how the editing must match the music. Furthermore there are lots of strobing effects on the camera which again give it the disoriented look that the music connotes.

Music Videos

Muse Released:

Sing For Absolution

• This music video has 7,057,430 views on YouTube.

• This music video is again based in around the theme of sci-fi which links with the alternative style of the music they play.

• The budget was a lot due to the video being primarily CGI, and only a few props being used. With this video being released in 2010, the CGI is very advanced and look very good, showing that they spent lots of money on it.

• The music again matches the video due to the sci-fi theme around it, showing that the alternative style carries on throughout all of their music making them more unique than other bands.

Music Videos

Muse Released:

Aftermath

• Aftermath was released on the 12th May 2016- making it their most recent music video. It has had 1,350,989 views on YouTube already.

• This music video is a stop-motion animation which means it has been drawn by hand and pictures have been taken at every stage and then put together to create a ‘moving’ image.

• Applying this music video to Andrew Goodwin’s theory, the visuals match the music. This is because the music is a lot different from their other videos, it is a lot softer with more emotion- which relates though the war-time video.

• The budget would not have been very high for this video due to it being so simply edited, but it would have required a lot of skill to fully produce and edit to the standard that is has been.

• Also the intertextuality of this video shows not only the enthralling music video, but also the real problems of the world and how war changes people for better and for worse. This links with the title of the video ‘Aftermath’ as it is showing the aftermath of war and how it damages people and homes and peoples lifestyles.