Cancer Bats - Pneumonia Hawk

Band: Cancer Bats
Song Title: Pneumonia Hawk

A typical Canadian guzzling down maple syrup.

Release Date: September 5, 2006
Genre: Hardcore Punk
This video is a concept/performance. The video has lip synching in, this is a typical code and convention of nearlly all music videos. The video is a parody of how Canada is perceived by other countries... Big lumberjacks who feast on maple syrup all day. The video is a perfect example of regional identity and stereotyping in media. The video starts off with a diegetic introduction that uses sounds taken from a forest, this is also a very common convention of music videos, as it's used to 'set the scene'. The video looks at Canadians and their stereotypes, the band is outfitted with ripped and stained plaid shirts and jeans with boots, this links in with the Canadians typically being stereotyped as 'Lumberjacks' later on the band is joined by George from Alexisonfire (Alexis on fire, not alex is on fire) Alexisonfire are another big canadian band, so he also links in with the lumberjack stereotype. The editing of the video also refferences the famous canadian stereotype that canadians are slow and very laid back, the editing in the video is very slow and uses various transitions most of which consist of slow fades. This however also goes against the conventions of most hardcore punk video's, if you look at another Cancer Bats video from the same album 'French Immersion' you can see that the takes are extremely fast due to the tempo of the music, this song isn't as fast as some of CB's other tracks but it's still no where near slow. The video could also have links to social class and how hardcores members are perceived as the working class, nearlly all hardcore punk bands are from a working class background, the idea behind the genre was the working class (the proleteriates) lashing back out at the middle class (the borgeosie) and sticking it to the 'man'.