Pink Floyd: The Wall and Quadrophenia - Essay Example

Pink Floyd -The Wall and Quadrophenia The performance of rock music largely relies on the recorded pieces. However, the successful adaption of the rock music to film has brought new taste to rock performance. For instance, the adaption of the album The Wall to the film Pink Floyd-The Wall and the music Quadrophenia to a film bearing a similar name did not bring a change in rock culture but enlivened the performance of rock. Initially, rock artists could record their pieces and performance to their audiences without displaying a movie of the same. The emergence of rock films helped in promoting the rock culture through visual display. While the performance of rock music centred on recording as means of promoting the rock culture, film performance promoted the visual display of the live performance. This paper will compare the differences and similarities in music and film performance of the Pink Floyd and Quadrophenia. The film Pink Floyd-The Wall (1982:1) is an adaption of the musical album The Wall. The writer of the film used the lyrics in the music to portray various themes. The film illustrates the sad mood of the music. The author of the music shared his experience by illustrating his feelings through poetry. In the film, the writer portrays the same through characters who are in the sombre mood. Pink, the main character, leads a life that revolved around emotional troubles. While the lines of the music illustrated the above through metaphorical remarks, the film projected the character in the real emotional situation (Karki, 2002:184). The emotions as illustrated in the film occur from the portrayal of the fatherless childhood, through education system that fails to impress the main character, estranged marriage, poor government policies, drugs abuse among other social malpractices, which undermine the dignity of men. The performance of the film does not only demonstrate the writer’s architecture in describing the moods in the song, but it also evokes the emotions of the viewer. In music performance, the viewers do observe the relevance of the music through evaluating the harmony in performance. Conversely, the viewers of the film are able to relate the themes of the music and the film. In the film, the author successfully matches the music to the performance of the film. Critics have observed that the lifestyle described in the song suits the performance of the film (Auslander, 1998:78). However, it is important to note that the hyperbolic remarks in the music lyrics appear conspicuously as if they were real. The actual events sang in the music are the events played in the film. For instance, the film portrays the early life of Pink, where he had no joy because of the painful death of his father who was a soldier. The costumes used in the film performance resemble the description in the music. For instance, the graphics used in the production of the movie resembles the Nazi style costume, which the author of the music uses to describe the war that led to the loss of Pink’s father (Auslander, 1998:66). The pictures are tormenting because they cement the lines of the music. The film pictures are tormenting in the same way as the lines of the music. The hairstyle of the characters in the film bears a real description of the music version. The music uses metaphorical phrases to describe the feelings of the narrator while the film uses the description to build the imaginable pictures. The walls described in the music does not appear as literally as one would think, instead, the movie portrays the wall at different instances cementing the theme of obstacles in human life. For instance, in the music the narrator built several walls such as fatherless childhood, harsh conditions imposed by the mother, unstable marriage, abuse of drugs, as well as tough rules by the government. While the above walls are metaphorically conceivable in music, the film projected instances where the narrator faced the walls. Another notable difference in performance of the film in relation to the music is the use of flashback that does not appear in the music (1982:1). Pink disappears from one stage of life into another stage: sometimes he appears as a child illustrating childhood experiences that led him to build walls in life then jumps to the real content of his life. For instance, the music voices the character of Pink’s mother which the movie portrays when Pink is out of terms with his wife. The childhood incidences appear in the film through the flashbacks as opposed to the continuous music flow. This relationship enables the narrator in the film to explain the reality or the mood that the music description portrays in real life. The film performance does not incorporate all lyrics in the music, however, it captures on the most instrumental verses that evoke emotions of the viewer (Auslander, 1998:88). For instance, the instance the music has some long lyrical passes that do not appear in the performance of the film. Instead, each episode illustrates an event that was critical to the life of the narrator. The heavy tunes appear at certain intervals that help in changing the mood as well as the theme of the film. In addition to the heavy tunes, the film has pictorial illustrations that cement the theme while the music does not illustrate the same. Critics believe that the pictures make the style of the performance appear lively as opposed to the recorded performance (Huq, 2006:53). Colour combination in the film is another feature that the film producer used to illustrate various themes while in the music, the themes occur through the analysis of the words (Huq, 2006:52). The changing colours respond to the changing views of the narrator. At some instance, the narrator imagined of a situation where he was subject to atrocities by the government. Later, he describes his situation under the hands of the uncaring wife. The relationship between various episodes in the film occurs through the changing colours, while in the music, the end of each peace marks the change in event. The music and the film performance differ in the diction and tune of expression. The characters in the film illustrate instances of disillusionment through the body language, cemented by the described costume whereas the musical performance follows musical rules as opposed to drama. Critics believe that music flow comes out clearly, when the performance avoids dramatising the events (Huq, 2006:52). These features are not applicable to the film performance because the later relies on dramatic features in stressing various episodes. Repetition which is a devise observed in the music appears in the film through repetition of events which appears through foreshadows. This occurs due to the difference created in illustrating a given theme. However, the culture of rock, i.e. noise and rhythm characterise the film performance and the live music performance. This culture is critical in identifying the theme of the song as well as the mood of the song. Ideally, as the performance moves towards the climax, the noise and the rhythmic movement increase. These features are observable in the performance of the music and the film. Another common feature between the film and the music is the ending mood. In both cases, the ending mood appears to be painful leaving the viewer pondering over the kind of life that Pink had led. It is observable that at some points in the film, the characters could laugh or smile their way off, the music line did project limited instances of happy moments. However, it culminates the condition of life led by the narrator as strenuous. The metaphors used in the music lines occur once again at the end of the film. This is also evident in the last line of the music. Quadrophenia The film Quadrophenia (1979:1) is a direct adaption of the song with the same name. The lyrics of the songs describe social events that disillusioned the narrator from his teenage life. Most of the events described in the music tend to form the central play in the film. The music and the film have various instances of similarities as well as differences. The following are some of the similarities observed in the film and the music. The mood of the music and the film changes in response to the lyrics of the song. The narrator demonstrates frustration and depression because of the outcome events in which his parents bear the greatest responsibility. The music demonstrates the feeling through the tonal variation while the film demonstrates the same through changes in graphical pictures and colour. The combination of graphical colours helps in portraying various moods. For instance, the dark colours illustrate dreadful events in the narrator’s life. The music illustrates the dreadful events in narrator’s life through tonal variation. As the tone of the music changes, the viewer is able to memorise as well as building mental images about the events sang in the song. In the film, tonal variation illustrates the change in episode or change in mood whereas in the music the tonal variation illustrates the change of the mood (Wicke, 1990:80). This variation helps the narrator to evoke the emotion of the viewer by ushering instances where the viewer compares the lyrics of the song and the graphics of the film. A common feature in both music and the film is the rock culture that is evident through the style of performance in relation to the culture of the artist. The values of the rock and its art appear in both musical performance and the film performance. The film preserves this identity making the movie lively as if it was the real music performance. Critics have observed that the music and the film drew teenage fans, which shares a cultural relationship with the state of performance (Wicke, 1990:75). In most cases, the rock performance brings the teenagers from across cultures. During the music performance, it was common to see the teenagers in regalia that resemble the attire of the musicians. The music and the film narrate stories of a cultural context in which the live experience of the individual seems to form the central factor that links the styles of performance. A common thing both film and the music is the costume of the participants. In the music performance, the participants did not dress in the same way as the film. It is observable that the film could relate the childhood events, the previous and present events of the narrator (Mueller, 2008:93). On the contrary, the music could not bring the three stages together but managed to bring the mood of the three stages. As the song progresses, the mood of the music could change from one stage to the other. The participants managed to bring out the changes in mood and the atmosphere through varying the music tempo and loudness. The technology used in the performance of the music and the film differ. In most cases, the performance culture appears in the recorded pieces. Conversely, the film performance provides a visual view of the rock culture. The fans of the rock culture are able to relate their mental their mental pictures and the reception of the visual performance. Largely, the film performance engages the viewers more than the music because the viewer is able to observe the mental and metaphorical features in the lyrics of the song. Critics have observed that the music performance is not as consistence as the film performance (Auslander, 1998:77). The probable factors that promote this difference are the demands from the audience as well as the nature of the performing hall. The graphics in the film performance portrays a live performance as opposed to recorded music (Tetzlaff, 1994:102). This kind of rock representation has high influence to the viewers because they are able to mimic the activities observed through the film. However, the critics argue that recorded music performance promotes a false view of the music because it enables the viewer to build his or her own mental pictures in relation to the lyrics of the song. Further, the noise and the rhythm of the music do not cement the theme of the music in the same manner as the visual representation. Thus, film performance promotes live experience of the rock music as opposed to music performance. The rock culture appears conspicuously on the visual performance as opposed to the musical performance. In conclusion, the rock music performance and the film have both similar and different features. The music performance usually occurs through recoded beats as opposed to the visual presentation in observed in the film. The culture of rock music is quite evident in the film performance because it illustrate the evident described in the lyrics through graphic pictures. Stylistic devises such as the rhythm or rock music noise is a common feature that appears in both music performance and the film performance. However, authenticity of the music and film performance differs because of the features recorded in relation to the theme displayed to the audience. In music performance, rock culture occurs through the noise and rhythm while in the film above appears in noise and rhythm as well as the visual display. Largely, the film performance of rock music has in depth characterisation as well as explicit themes. On the contrary, the themes in the music performance are superficial. Bibliography Auslander, P., 1998. Seeing is believing: live performance and the discourse of authenticity in rock culture. Literature and Psychology, vol. 44, no. 4, pp. 1-26. Huq, R., 2006. Beyond Subculture: Pop, Youth And Identity In A Postcolonial World. London: Routledge, pp. 50-59. Karki, K., 2002. Daddy’s flown across the ocean, leaving just a memory–Pink Floyd’s the wall as an audiovisual (re)presentation of the past’, History in Words and Images: Proceeding of the Conference on Historical Representation, vol. 26-8, September, pp. 184-194. Mueller, A. C., 2008. The Music of the Goth Subculture: Postmodernism and Aesthetics. New York: ProQuest, pp. 92-102. Pink Floyd: the Wall. 1982. Director Alan Parker. MGM. Quadrophenia. 1979. UK/England. The Who films.Universal. Director FrancRoddam. Tetzlaff, D., 1994. Music for meaning: reading the discourse of authenticity in rock’, Journal of Communication Inquiry, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 95-117. Wicke, P., 1990. My generation: rock music and sub-culture, Rock Music: Culture, Aesthetics and Sociology, Cambridge University Press, pp. 73-90. Read More