Kings of Leon is an American rock band, which was formed in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee in 1999. The band is composed of brothers Anthony Caleb Followill, Ivan Nathan Followill and Michael Jared Followill with their cousin Cameron Matthew Followill. The band's early music was a blend of Southern rock and blues influences, but over the years they have included more of an alternative, arena rock sound.
In Kings of Leon’s earliest videos they were showcased as being scruffy, southern boys with their flared jeans and long hair. All of their early videos are performance based and cheap budget, which contributes to their deep southern image. In ‘Molly’s Chamber’ and ‘Red Morning Light’ they are all looking scruffy and showing the conventions of deep southern boys with their actions and appearance.
The image they have developed later on in their career is that they are now clean-cut, wiser and older which is a huge difference from earlier on in their career. The later videos I analysed both were concept based and performance based which is also different from earlier on in their career as all their earlier videos were only performance based. The videos show the conventions of a traditional rock band, which shows how far they have come in the industry. The videos are also much more high definition than the earlier ones which were grainy and blatantly cheap budget.
In their earlier videos, there were close ups of all of the band but in their latest videos the camera more focuses on the lead singer, Caleb. Although there is close ups on all of the other band members the lead singer is the main focus. Their hairstyles are modern but still a little bit messy as they were in earlier videos, their costumes consist of a typical rock band’s outfits; T-shirt, tight jeans and boots. The prop that is frequently used in their videos is a guitar and drums as many of their videos are performance-based; also they frequently use beer, which connects to the typical rock star image. All of these things contribute to their rock star image, which includes girls, beer and tight jeans.
The camerawork used in ‘Red Morning Light’ contributed to their rock star image as the music video was low quality and quite grainy. It also uses angles such as worm’s eye view to create the grungy image they had in their earlier days.
Kings of Leon have always been quite macho with their image; this made them popular at the time, as they were different from other rock bands around such as U2 and Coldplay who weren’t showcased as macho.
To conclude, Kings of Leon were showcased as grungy, southern rock and rollers in their early years but as time has gone by they have developed into a modern rock band, not losing their southern rock image but it has become a lot more commercial.
