Song Research

 This part of my blog will examine our song choice: Catch Me in the Air by Rina Sawayama. This was done by me and my teammate, Regine.

Catch me in the air by Rina Sawayama does not currently have an official music video but does have an official visualiser. A visualiser differs from a music video by being less focused on storytelling and instead simply being an abstract representations of music that enhances the experience through dynamic visuals. 

 

1. Song Background;
Genius.com, a lyrical database and digital media company, has provided a small description of the song
“ 'Catch Me In The Air' is the second single from Rina Sawayama’s Hold the Girl album. The song details Sawayama’s relationship with her single mother, and how they have supported each other through difficult times."

Rina also introduced the song on her Dynasty Tour with "I wrote a very special song and it's about my relationship with my mom who's a single mom. [...] I just wanted to write the fact that we have caught each other when we're falling, and so this song is called 'Catch Me in the Air'." (information found on a website called the Rina Sawayama Wiki)

 

We can conclude that this song is about the relationship between a single mother and her child as each other’s support system and how their relationship has evolved now that they’re both on their own.

 

2. Why we choose it

The song was suggested by a friend who's a fan of the artist. We liked the song as it had consisted of a narrative that we can easily follow and develop upon. The song is also really heartwarming which will allow us to more easily invoke an emotional response from our audience, making it easier for us to keep our audience engaged as they will have a stronger attachment to our music video. These reasons are why this song in particular stuck out to us among all our other options

3. How your music video will be different

Genius contributors mentioned the first verse of the song is written in the perspective of Rina's mother but we plan to subvert this idea by exclusively sticking to the artists' point of view. This way, it will put the audience in the artist's point of view which would create a stronger emotional reaction more effectively. 

Additionally, we choose to subvert from Rina Sawayama's usual style. In the music video she is seen wearing more modern chic clothes, which is a convention more strongly associated with pop artists, whereas we choose simpler rural-like clothing which is more frequent in indie pop artists. This is because our star's persona conveys her more as a simpler girl, keen on keeping close to her roots

Reflection:

• Doing this song research was really helpful as it helped me gain a better understanding of the song. This lets us create a better narrative and gain an emotional connection to the song that can act as a motivator.
• It was a bit hard as this song is lesser known and by a small artist so finding information (by the artist or fan interpretations) has been quite hard. However, we can twist this to our advantage as this would allow us more creative freedom and, by doing that, offer a new perspective to the audience