It has always been argued that nature, nurture, or both affect human development. In Flobots’ “Handlebars”, the lead singer answers the question of whether nature, nurture, or both affect human development by showing two best friends who went their separate paths and turned into two completely different people. The music video and song shows and tells the experiences that shaped both friends and ultimately caused the demise of one, if not, both of them. However, within this song and video the power of the government, namely the American government and politics is criticized; also power plays a big role in what occurs within the video. In Flobots’ “Handlebars,” the use of illustrative lyrics, reflective instrumentals; and detailed images helps show how your surroundings and your choices could effect human development.
Flobots is an American rock/ hip-hop band that was created by Jamie Laurie in 2000 in Denver, Colorado. Before the group was really known worldwide they had already produced “Handlebars”; they became very successful in 2007 after their major label debut Fight with Tools (2007), which had the song “Handlebars” which was originally produced in 2005. Flobots is a group that really combines to different genres to make a more influential tone. They combine alternative rock with hip-hop to create songs that make the listeners think in ways they have not thought in before. This is really exhibited in their song “Handlebars”. The lead singer said he created the song based off of being able to learn how to ride a bicycle without using the handlebars; he felt so accomplished, but at the same time sad because he realized while he was doing this America was in a war and was bombing countries killing people (MTV). This shines th...
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...t of people around you. The images are really helped clarify what the singer really wants to talk about. Without the images in the video some many things could have been interpreted from the song itself. Before I watched the video I just thought the author was talking about war, and specially the wars America was fighting at the time of the song’s release. The music in combination with the instrumentals and video create a piece of art that enlightens the soul.
Works Cited
Flobots. "Handlebars." YouTube. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
"How the Bush Administration Sold the Iraq War." Msnbc.com. NBC News Digital, 14 Oct. 2013. Web. 25 Apr. 2014.
Montgomery, James. "Flobots Fight To Make The World, And Your Cubicle, A Better Place." New Music Videos, Reality TV Shows, Celebrity News, Pop Culture. MTV, 15 May 2008. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
Moss, Olly. Behance. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
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Although the song was written in response to Billie Joe Armstrong’s father’s death, the music video preached a different message. It became a “Sympathy for the Soldiers” campaign. The video follows a young man and girl in love. At the beginning, they sit in a field where the boy promises the girl that he will never leave her. Their relationship evolves and the video shows the young couple getting married, still very much in love with each other. However, the boy sees very little future at home and decides to enlist. He deceives his bride and joins the marines. His wife finds out and confronts him, hysterical, where he admits that he did enlist and defends his decision shouting, “I did this for us! I did this for us! This was supposed to make it easier! I thought you’d be proud of me!” However, the girl sees it as him breaking his promise to never leave her. Subsequently, he is shipped off the Iraq and after that, the music video continues, flashing back between the young man as a soldier and his wife waiting for him to return home. The boy and his unit stand before two children and their mother. The unit walks through a destroyed town where they undergo fire, a bomb being fired at the soldiers. Gunfire is exchanged with more bombs going off, and soldiers drag other wounded soldiers to cover. The video ends with a final close-up shot of the young man, under fire and terrified, clutching his gun and then flashes to his wife, at home, waiting for her husband. It presumed that he never returns home to his wife. The message of the video was so serious that it “commits the cardinal sin of interrupting the song midway through for more dialogue”. The question to enlist was a common conflict amongst many of Green Day’s college fans at that time and Green Day really hit home with that message. However, the video itself “hedges its bets politically; saying nothing explicitly for or against the
Spingola, Deanna “Bush’s War of Terror, Cover Up” Oct. 11 2005 Web. Oct. 29 2013
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Alternative rock music of the nineties successfully captured the distress of a young generation afflicted by multiple struggles. First and foremost, this music genre accurately voiced the concerns of those who could not imagine a thriving future as prosperous members of society, and for whom the American dream was nothing but a distant notion. For instance, in his song “Loser”, Beck Hansen skillfully described the apathy that overtakes an individual’s being when he is faced with life´s unavoidable grim prospects. Similarly, this kind of music resonated with all those individuals who were struggling to feel comfortable in their own skin. To illustrate, in one of its most popular songs, “Creep”, the alternative rock band Radiohead managed to convey the excruciating angst experienced ...
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Mazzetti, Mark, Julian E. Barnes, Edward T. Pound, David E. Kaplan, and Linda Robinson. "Inside the Iraq Prison Scandal. (cover story)" EbscoHost. N.p., 24 Oct. 2004. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.
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