4 Key Decisions: Track

Track title: Shut Up and Dance
Owned by: RCA Records (subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment)
Genre: Indie pop
Original artist: Walk the Moon
Length of track: 3:17

We chose "Shut Up and Dance" by indie pop band Walk the Moon to be our track.
This was one of Juliette's original suggestions, and we all liked it and unanimously agreed on it. This is for several reasons:

Firstly we knew we wanted to do something within the indie rock or indie pop genre, and this definitely fit. Even before we had made clear decisions regarding our artist, we knew we wanted an indie band, and for that, this song definitely works.
Also we liked that the song is upbeat and catchy, catchiness increasing its chance of success with audiences, and its upbeat style allowing for something fun - with this track, we can create a music video that doesn't seem like it takes itself too seriously. We all wanted to include at least some studio-based band performance in our music video, and with this song more than many of our other possible tracks, we were able to visualise some kind of conceptual performance that could be enhanced with costume, props and set in a fun way, which is what we want to do.
The song also has a clear theme throughout - a couple viewing themselves as soulmates, destined to be together - "we were bound to be together" -  enabling us to have an obvious arc to the music video, but the theme is simple enough to not have to be illustrated completely literally and generically, so we can have an original and quirky idea to be the video's main concept.
We could also do something fun with a female character (the lead singer's love interest) lip-syncing his lines: "She said, "Shut up and dance with me"…", which would give our music video a fun, quirky and more original feel.
What is also good about this track is that it is made more interesting with different parts, such as the instrumental break between 1:47 to 2:04 - which gave us ideas for the music video, too, like a dance sequence - and the slightly more toned down part at 2:19. Variations within the track itself not only make it more interesting and less annoying to listen to but also allow for different parts to our music video.

Significantly, it's a song that we all like ourselves, and as we are a part of our audience - indie fans, and 16-25 year olds - we know that it is likely to appeal to them.

After confirming our decision, we emailed Sony Music Entertainment asking for permission to use the track:

We received no response to our email. This means that there may be copyright issues when publishing our video to YouTube.