Four Minute Warning (song)

Infobox Single |
Name = Four Minute Warning


Artist = Mark Owen
from Album = In Your Own Time
B-side = Live If You Try
Jaywalker
Released = August, 2003
Format = CD Single
Recorded = 2003
Genre = Pop
Length = 4:05
Label = Island
Writer = E. Kennedy/M. Owen
Producer = ???
Certification =
Last single = "I Am What I Am"
(1997)
This single = "Four Minute Warning"
(2003)
Next single = "Alone Without You"
(2003)

"Four Minute Warning" in a single by British Singer-songwriter Mark Owen, from his album "In Your Own Time". It was released in 2003 on Island Records, and peaked at number 4 in the UK Singles Chart.

ynopsis of lyrics and video

The song, based on the alert system conceived by the British government during the cold war whose lyrics, on one level, depict people in denial of their own demise and the political circumstances that cause it. On the other, it gives the listener the impression of the shattered dreams of a group of people caught up in a nuclear strike on an unnamed British city. They also give a snapshot of the society through the people Owen portrays, while at the same time narrating the period between the UKWMO issuing a warning and the impact in real time with a countdown in the lyrics akin to Crass's song "They've got a bomb" (The song is slighlty over four minutes long). The lyrics near the end of the song provocatively ask the listener what would they do if such a warning was given, provoking listeners to empathise with the characters.

Video

The video juxtaposes the characters actions of denial with subsequent mass panic as an attack is imminent, while Owen walks through a British city whose streets become deserted. It is littered with subtle references to British cold war propaganda films, such as the infamous Protect and Survive series.

The video sublty refers to the rising and falling note of the air attack sirens in the opening shots, which was the official warning of imminent attack since world war two (The Protect and Survive Public information films, "The Warnings" and "Action After Warnings" illustrate this). A discarded newspaper with the Headline "Four Minute Warning" being blown across the streets refers to Sound An Alarm (1971), a film comissioned by the Home Office's United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation to illustrate their role. In Sound an Alarm, we see a headline "War imminent?" on an advertisement for a newspaper being blown across the street, only for it to get stuck on the grille of a character's car.

While it refers to propaganda films, it could also be seen to refer to the concept of nuclear winter through the darkening skies over the city (though these could also be references to the BBC Drama Threads by implicitly suggesting mushroom clouds).

Formats and track listings

*UK Promo CD #1
#"Four Minute Warning"

*UK Promo CD #2
#"Four Minute Warning"
#"Four Minute Warning (Shanghai Surprise Mix)"

*UK CD
#"Four Minute Warning" 4:07
#"Live If You Try" 3:51
#"Jaywalker" 3:48
#"Four Minute Warning (CD-Rom Video)"

Charts

About the album

After winning Celebrity Big Brother, Mark Owen was given offers from Record Labels all offering the chance to release a highly-anticipated follow up to 1996's Green Man. Mark finally settled with Island Records and released his first single in 7 Years, 'Four Minute Warning'

See also

*Four minute warning
*nuclear weapons in popular culture

External links

* [http://www.markowenofficial.com/ Official artist website]
* [http://www.islandrecords.com/ Official record label website]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8H-QyxQ4Sk&feature=related Lyrics to the song]