Understanding Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
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- Опубликовано: 16 окт 2024
- The 2004 release of American Idiot marked a huge change for Green Day. They were already a big deal, but American Idiot transformed them into superstars. A concept album about coming of age in the America of the early 2000s, it was both more ambitious and more complex than anything they'd done up to that point. It was a controversial choice, but the album was a critical darling, and it still holds up well to this day, in no small part due to the beautifully poignant Boulevard Of Broken Dreams. It's a timeless, powerful ode to emptiness, and it's built on some really clever musical ideas.
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Also, thanks to Jareth Arnold for proofreading the script to make sure this all makes sense hopefully!
![Green Day - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Soa3gO7tL-c/mqdefault.jpg)
I'd love to hear an analysis of "Jesus of Suburbia" and its five movements.
Amen
thank you!! to me that's the best song on the album
Definitely more important to the overall narrative of the opera. Boulevard describes one particular feeling, and it's very vague and evocative and that's why people love it. Jesus of Suburbia is like the exposition (Fall in love or fall in debt...), setting the scene (At the center of the earth there's a parking lot...) and the characters (I'm the son of Rage and Love...) for the rest of the album, and expanding on the central tension of feeling left behind by society.
This would be an absolute essay of a video and I'm 100% down for that
Yes
"it just keeps happening"
*Draws zubat*
Nice.
scrolled down to find this comment the very second it happened. It was the second one, I'm not disappointed.
I personally expected stairs.
IT KEEPS HAPPENING! I WARNED YOU ABOUT THE STAIRS, BRO
Could you explain the allusion? I know what a Zubat is, but i'm not deep into Pokémon lore...
@@richardmetzler7909 In early generations you went through a lot of caves, and caves are almost always filled with a *lot* of Zubat, so you get used to tripping over a zubat every 3 steps. It was the worst.
@@KurosakiYukigo okay, so it's a symbol for unavoidable, repetitive, pointless, annoying encounters. Thanks.
"You passed go but there's no $200, just another trip around the board."
Oh god. I think my existentialism is flaring up again.
I can’t go to far into existentialism. It’s bad for my mental health. Have you ever experienced a sense of dread or like you’ll be completely forgotten while going into a bout of existentialism? That’s what I go through… idk maybe I’m just weak minded
@@carna-9501 I follow existentialist philosophy, the whole “there is no meaning in life except what you make of it.” It actually makes my mental health stuff better, TBH
@@Munchkin.Of.Pern09 my issue is that I dont feel worthy of being remembered. My life already has meaning to it, but will that meaning be remembered? That is what messes with my head
@@fredh5414 All words are made up.
@@fredh5414 what
"We have extra chords getting in the way"- this man draws a SNORLAX HAHAHAHAHA
😂
snorlax sleeping on the bridge
As someone who was twelve when this song came out, I gotta say it's the perfect soundtrack to feelings of adolescent isolation, and now I get why it stuck with me despite my best efforts to avoid anything the people who hated me liked.
(Also I had Good Riddance stuck in my head for weeks before high school graduation. Green Day is good at what they do.)
Yes. I was 13 and feeling lost with all of the life changes and stuff that even now hasn't changed at all. Great tune.
Dude, those two songs along with Know Your Enemy literally DEFINED my high school experience.
Maybe if I know nothing about Green Day, I would say "Whoa they are so intense in music theory!" but then, I'm a massive Green Day fan and I watched Heart Like A Heart Grenade (American Idiot behind the scenes) so many times. and they were just like: "Yeah dude this sounds so cool" and they love to goof around in the whole album writing process. I guess, Billie, Mike, and Tré are just natural geniuses
Many musicians in the past wasn’t taught music theory, they just learned things by instinct. If you play for long enough, sooner or later you’ll pick up on things.
@@rasmusthunberg8967 pretty much, i figured out keys dispite knowing nothing about theory simply because the tonal shifts.
im probably not perfect at it but its good enough people know what im saying
Creating music takes a different set of skills from writing articulately about music. People can have both kinds of skills, but they don't have to. And people who are geniuses at one thing tend to have spent most of their lives on that one thing, and not much on other things.
The tempo of the chords at the end also makes me think he's no longer walking down the road, but now he's running down it.
Great video, thank you!
The tempo stays 84 bpm the whole song. It just gets more intense at the end but doesn't speed up
That’s not really how tempo works. Billie plays the power chords as quarter notes for a majority of the song, then plays quarter notes and eighth notes during the interlude, simultaneously adding tension and intensifying the tone of the song.
@@zacharycremen7545 you talking to me or Canadian?
Bagenius I was referring to the original comment
@@zacharycremen7545 oh ok
If billie saw this “Did i do that?”
Hahaha so true
I've been to Gilman quite a few times. This is actually the kind of stuff they teach all the people who volunteer clean up to get in for free. After all the punx leave, of course.
Matthew Mitchell What?
@@Arwindor joke
HAHA!
Every time you analyze the same song as Rick Beato, I just have to remember that your patrons pick your songs
I just wish i could see something less mainstream once in a while, if i could say so. I like his analysis, i wish he could tackle something trickier once in a while
@@lucianodebenedictis6014 his videos apparently get blocked a lot, so he has to make sure to pick a mainstream song. Also, his choices are always from the 80's 'cock-rock' genre, which I'm not really a fan of.
@@owlofathena1247 i don't get how those two things are related. Also, not always 80s but yeah, roughly that wave of music
@@lucianodebenedictis6014 they're not related, I'm just saying. I'd rather watch his videos about more technical and proggy song analyses from bands like Yes or Soundgarden who actually knew a bit of music theory than from a band like ac/dc, who are the musical equivalent of fast food: quick, easy, lacks any depth, but still appealing to the masses.
Wish he would tackle Lithium from Nirvana
This song's outro is one of my favourite outros. From that sudden unresolved finish, to the weird chords which kind of aggressively deny being in any particular key: F5 (F major or minor); Db5 (okay, that's F minor?); Eb5 (definitely F minor!); D(natural)5 (fooled you, punk!); Ab5 (nah, just kidding it's minor); E5 (OR IS IT?!?!?!).
That said, I - unlike 12tone - definitely found F felt like home all the way through, but the chords felt - to me - like the narrator was blundering around aimlessly, unsure of where to go, picking a direction and just hoping it feels right when they get there - the weird Db-Eb-D feeling kind of like someone someone trying to pick the right direction to go, but finding one road feels too low, one road feels too low, and the last feels like the wrong direction altogether - D not being a part of F minor.
With F definitely feeling like home (or at least - like the starting point - there's never a sense of resolution strong enough to make F feel like home - just somewhere eerily familiar) the three-bar loop had a very different affect on me. It felt like it was getting back to where it started too early. A more naive writer might have tried to force four-bar feel by adding two more chords: F5 Db5 / Eb5 D(nat)5 / Ab5 E5 / ***C5 Bb5*** (etc...for example, keeping the theme of resolving from the 4th). But instead it hits the familiar F5 way earlier than expected. It has the feeling that you sometimes get when you're lost, and realise you're going around in circles. You're somewhere familiar, but it's not where you wanted to be, and you realise that not only are you even more lost than you thought, you don't even have the means to navigate out.
I'm nowhere near as qualified in this sort of thing as 12tone, but if his explanation of the outro didn't land right with you I'd be really curious if this one lands better.
(Also, did anyone else notice the parallel between this song never really resolves and the way Sweet Child Of Mine hunts for resolution?)
In other words, you're saying that, since the outro represents "being lost and not knowing what to do", the chords just go chromatically without any sense?
Because that has always been my interpretation, the outro of the song doesn't have AT ALL any theoretical meaning: it's just chromatic notes to make you feel disoriented and lost in this Boulevard of broken dreams
@@thepoweroftheweed2215 I haven't been able to find it but Billie Joe once did an interview where he talked about that outro and how a goal in American Idiot was smoothly connecting all the songs. The various twin songs and the two 9 minute giants are obvious examples but each out song also was built to segue into the next including BoBD to "Are We The Waiting" he talked about how this was one of the trickier resolutions since getting from Fm to A Major is pretty far. Thats why the intro is the way it is. To lead convincingly into A Major.
This man wrote a short essay in a youtube comments section.
I appreciate you drawing a zubat when you said “it keeps happening”
So... This song helped pull me from suicide. The reason was because the song helped me come to terms with being lost in life. The lyrics helped me realise that waiting for someone to rescue me will just leave me walking alone without any resolution. I thought the deep feeling of loneliness would only end with my death, but this song pushed me to reach out for help on my own terms. The next week, I contacted my closest friends, asked them to hang out, and after hours of talking while gathering courage, I told them about my struggles. This was 4 years ago. Green Day, the American Idiot album, and this song have a special place in my tiny black heart because of how it saved this dumbass from death.
I’m super proud of you! Keep kicking depression’s ass!
Similarly but with "geek stink breath" and really the whole insomniac album
I had never gotton help with ADHD due to anti drug family then getting them as a dysfunctional adult and not really having a reference for how people are supposed to function "everyone else seems to have such an easy time, i still dont, hay doc dont think this is working" leading to increasing dosages and unintentionally walking around absolutely spun thinking things where better because collage grades got good then having horrific depression episodes because when i was not high out of my damn mind i would realize my life was still fucked up.
That song and the entire insomniac album really is the "Hay! this is what desperate, depressed amphetamine use looks like!" and made me realize "oh god, i relate to all of this its time to cut back" Obviously the ADHD aint going anywhere so some drug use is required. but I set up symptom management strategies to work with it and now its "use what you need to do what you need to do" and not "I have no idea what the hell is going on but im sure the drug will tell me"
It's an anthem of empathy for people on the fringe. Like me. Like you.
American Idiot was the very first album I bought with my own pocket money. I remember sticking into my PC and being blown away by the loudness. The bold statement of the title track.
It was the first album I imported into my orange iPod Nano.
It's cliche but, this album means a lot to me. It reminds me of entering secondary school, my first girlfriend, first battling depression and starting to play the drums.
Boulevard of Broken Dreams was the first song I ever confidently said I could play on drums.
Thank you 12Tone for another trip down memory lane.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the aggressive echo pedal in the main riff. To me that's just as important as the chords. Not only are they not leading anywhere, but they're also jarring and disorienting, further cementing the sense that the narrator has no idea where he is or where he's going. It's like the internal score of a nervous breakdown.
It's not actually an echo/delay, it's just a really choppy tremolo.
Yeah, and whether or not you find narrative meaning in it, at the very least it's pretty much *the* signature sound of song. Seems like a bit of an oversight not to bring it up
I have always loved that outro section, it feels like an evergrowing stairway that keeps moving its center of gravity but balances on itself
I love how at 3:13 he deliberately avoids saying "for lack of a better word and that's my best excuse"
M H oooooo, ooo oooo ooooo
Nice one!
If you’re still riding that nostalgiacoaster, take a closer look at “Face Down” by RJA
5:29 "It just keeps happening" *A wild Zubat appears*
I love it!
I don't hear the skip in melody as an accent during the verse. More of a hop landing on the beat. As if hopping over a crack in the street.
I lack the music theory background, but the outro chord progressions always seemed to me like a guitar-y kind of move.
Whole song could be played with a capo on the first fret (and the acoustic guitar actually is playing with a capo, at least live). This sets up F as a “floor”: we can’t go any lower,
tonally and metaphorically. It may be just because we never do go below F, or may be playing F with open strings subtly influences the sound and the listener, idk.
The unexpected third bar and the angry and raw low E always make me feel like I fell through that floor.
ahhhh, my green day phase happened to coincide with a gregorian chant phase - so i got real attached to the boulevard cover and still have it to this day XD
In "lonely road", the reason it works is because the leap upward happens on a weak beat. If you speak the line in time, you still have strong beats aligning with accented syllables.
I'd love to see a reaction video of some of the bands whose songs you've covered in these analyzations, like "Wait- did WE do that?".
I’d love to see some System of a Down analyzed - like BYOB
'Suggestions' or 'P.L.U.C.K.'
I was just watching the killing in the name of
I really love this album
Please do some rust in peace.
Love all the songs and the songs have always felt so complex
Something that I've said many times in recent years, and will probably keep saying for a long time to come: American Idiot is one of the greatest rock albums of all time. The composition of the music throughout the album is incredible. The lyrics not only tell a story, but also cry out in protest against what American culture has become and against the Bush Administration (just look up the lyrics of Holiday). And the music videos apparently tell an entirely different story that is even MORE of a middle finger to the Bush Administration and to American imperialism. This is a heavily layered album that is an absolute masterpiece.
I love the 16 tons reference at 9:15 !subtle 👏 👏 👏
Tennessee Ernie Ford. How does a young'un like him know that song??
@@brianmiller1077 Tennessee Ernie Ford did a cover, it was not his song. Johnny Cash did a cover too, which is very famous.
“It keeps happening” *draws a zubat*
Can you analyse the Doors? They have a very distinct sound and I think an 'Understanding Riders on the Storm' would be a good addition to the channel.
Lmao
“Keeps happening”
**draws Zubat**
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
*draws a Zubat while saying "it keeps happening"*
i see what you did there lol
can you do a video on Cemetery Gates?
This song has been in my playlist since I was 10/11. I'm 17 now, I still love it. It doesn't lose the charm.
that was great, this album was a massive part of my highshool days, i would love a min series breaking the whole album down, considering certain songs become resolutions for earlier ones it could work thematically. newho, great job as usual
I always found the ending vamp interesting from the story-telling perspective. The first 4 songs on the album are in flat-keys and the ending on Boulevard both kinda prepares and disorients us to the next phase of the album and Jimmy's/JOS journey, which starts with Are We The Waiting in A major. Onwards, all of the songs are in non-accidental keys.
My favorite video so far. I love this song so much and understanding it's composition made me love it even more.
New-comer here. Love your deep analysis! More than that, love the Pokemon references on both videos that I have seen!
I know nothing about music, i dont know why i watch your videos, but they are entretaining and i like it :)
incredible job!!! great watching this right after listening to the album they just released today
I think the C resolving to the F is a small callback to Holiday which precedes this song and is connected to it, where there was a lot of C to F to signify most of the transitions
I always heard the outro as (if you fill up the powerchords with the 'right' notes) Fm, Db, Ebsus2, Bb/D, Fm/Ab, E
I'm so glad you mentioned the phantom key change! I was trying to figure out the other day what they were doing in Whatsername - and I think it's the same thing! Makes me feel much less crazy. In Whatsername though it's not a standard 4-chord progression, there's a secondary dominant of VI thrown in: IV-I-III-VI(-V).
I’ve been taking a music theory class in my high school this year, so more of this stuff in these videos makes sense!
i walk a lonely road
a lonely road i walk when i walk alone
on the road i walk
i walk it
when i walk alone
Read between the lines
Between the lines i read the lines I read between
I read the lines
The between between the lines.
the part about the four chord progression is really interesting because it's very easy to fall into the habit of analysing in major when in practice it isn't really what's happening. the four chord progression is a really good example for this as it's actually used very often in these rearranged versions but the standard I-V-vi-IV gets all the credit. IV-I-V-vi and vi-IV-I-V are very common progressions and it usually makes a lot more sense to analyse these in minor rather than major
This album kicked my musical journey. Thanks for an great analysis as always
My theory on why it works, it's both a contradiction (as pointed out by you) but the melody and lyrics also complement each other.
Here's my hypothesis:
I think the jump on the 5th sylable works because the 4th sylable is part of the same word, therefor jumping up, on the 5th sylable adds extra emphasis on the word "lonely" as a whole, not through poetry, but through melody.
I think about it like this: "walk", "lonely" and "road" are the 3 most important words from that line, but out of the three of them, the fact that this road is lonely is the most important, so it makes sence to emphasize it even more, and when you can't do that solely with words, you can achieve the hightened emphasis by melodically jumping up
A simpler explanation wouldn't just be syncopation? I don't get why 12tone makes such a big deal out of this... Maybe he's too emotionally invested in the song.
Biggest thing to realize about any of the formal analytics of creative mediums is that they are descriptive, not prescriptive. That's why there's so many instances of "this is exactly how it works, right until it isn't". They simply tell us what we've done that's worked so far.
“I walked to Burger King, then I walked back home from Burger King.”
I always thought this was a Dorian progression.....where did I thunk wrong?
Yeah me aswell
Yes.
Planepants Games me too, how can this be minor if it has a major 6?
Well, I don't think you were wrong. I mean, Rick Beato said it IS in dorian, idk
@@pinkraven4402 I think, Rick Beato is technically right, but dorian doesn't really fit in into the picture of hopelessness 12tone is painting here, so the latter didn't mention it.
“It still holds up today”
12T: Hmm... what should I draw for this? Their logo is a hand _holding_ a heart grenade... hmmm... Oh, I know! *star*
10 seconds in and his paper already looks like my doodles in math class
I will never forget the feeling of popping this CD into my radio after peeling that airtight plastic off and being taken on a magical musical journey. American Idiot is a legendary album.
Also can we get an analysis on Jesus of Suburbia?
man, i have to go back and listen to this again. i never realized how much depth was behind it!
in love with the style of this channel
One of your best videos so far! Nice work!
One thing that really stands out to me that you didn't really mention is the guitar effect at the beginning/during the verses; the delay effect just screams 'broken' to me, splitting the chords into repeating notes, for a lack of a better word, obviously emphasises the damaged nature of the boulevard we're walking down. When the chorus comes it, i.e. when we 'come home', the delay effect disappears, before we end up lost in the verse again as the delay effect restarts
8:17 that ramp up crescendo that kinda drops back down is the dream (that being lonely is not necessarily a bad thing) being broken, dropping you back into the grim reality. And the ending chord is so foreign, because while he's busy being in his head, he's walked himself to a new (ish) place, cue Are We The Waiting.
It would be really cool if you did a Deathgrips song. They have some interesting theory
Boy do they ever! The rhythms alone are worth in-depth examination.
The tritone power chord thing is really common in genres like black metal, I think because it simultaneously subverts conventional tonal logic and has the same dramatic sense of movement as the resolution of a more traditional tritone substitution or augmented sixth-in this case D-A-D simultaneously expanding and collapsing to Eb-Ab-Eb.
"four most fundamental" [draws Avatar Aang]
I like that.
You are the beginning and end of my knowledge of music theory, but this is one of the most interesting channels on RUclips. I loved this song in high school too.
I appreciate the craft put into these vids in many ways.
I’d like to see an analysis of Listen Up or Let’s All Make Believe by Oasis. Some really interesting chord progressions in these songs.
just in time for the new album drop! 😁 I was definitely expecting Jesus of Suburbia from the video title, but I’ll take it
edit: okay this analysis made me really emo 🥺
2:33 I think your analysis of why Plagal Cascade uses IV instead of iv is spot on, but also, this song isn’t in F minor, it’s in F Dorian.
6:23 there is a key change, but it’s from F Dorian to F Aolian.
These are so addicting
I love Green Day, I love this song, and I love music in general. I wish I understood more about music theory so I could understand this video more.
Could you make an ‘Understanding Foreplay / Long Time by Boston’ video? The beginning of that song is probably one of the most emotional stuff ever!
Fun fact , Billie took the that line from Gregg allman and wrote a tune around it . The allmans are a great rocknroll band everyone should know and really one of the true original acts to come from America.
I always enjoy your theory videos!
I can barely follow what you're talking about when I watch these analysis videos... But this one explained my life a little too well
I live this song and can’t wait to see how you analyze it!
I always viewed the final E chord as a V of the I of the next tune, which is in A major.
Nicely done. I love that album too. Now I understand this much of it a little better.
As always, I thoroughly enjoyed your video, while understanding less than half of it :D
You make knowing nothing SUPER interesting. Also, I am gradually picking up things here and there as I watch this channel.
Understanding lose yourself? Even my death metal head mind loves that fuckin song.
*nerdy sarcastic voice* The song actually starts with holiday
I’m over here, a fan of Green Day, watching this video and wishing I understood this video better. This guy is clearly a music genius; I honestly have no music background and wish I was this smart.
Corey is great, but he spent a lot of time studying this stuff. So can you if you're so inclined. :)
I think the unresolved theme from boulevard of broken dreams runs through the album as a whole, with the last song of the album being ‘whastername’ a melancholy (but still good) song, as oppose to a big finish song. The whole story of the album has no resolution even when the Jesus of suburbia comes home during ‘homecoming’, he is left wondering what happened to that girl he cared about so much, and can’t even remember her name now. The unresolved chord progressions is just a reflection of the whole meta narrative of the album. I feel personally that overall the small sounds of the individual songs that then link to the general sounds of the counterpart songs of the album make it so much more powerful in delivering its message, and each song can still portray its piece of the story even outside of the context of the album. It’s a punk masterpiece
LMAO the zubat on “it’s just keeps happening”
Hey 12tone, First off I'd just like to say I love these music explanation videos, LOVE them. Secondly I was wondering if you could possibly PLEASE do one on Possum Kingdom by Toadies? I loved the Africa vid you did and this has that off beat thing going too. Would love to hear your take on the song! Thank you!
My Music Theory professor (at a reputable school!) had us analyse this song .... in 2006..(I think?) lol.
You seem to have names for all the chord progressions, so what's the name for the I, V, VI, III, IV, V progression like from Green Day's Basket Case? Also I would LOVE if you did more Green Day!
This made my mind explode. I thought we were talking about BOBD, American Idiot, and Green Day.
I really enjoyed this analysis but I found it kind of hard to understand the emotions you were describing without more of the song to listen to.
I think playing slightly larger portions of the song would help contextualize the more subtle bits (even if its just repeating the measure)
I feel like a majority of music in this genre isn't created melodically in order to fit with the themes of a song, they just write a cool sounding track that fits with what they wanted to say. These connections are probably the reasons we do enjoy the music and how it fits with a song's themes, but writing it that way was unintentional if not just inherent to all music we enjoy. Loved the vid anyways!
Great video! Loved it very much!
I got a question about the messed up 4 chord cliches of this song.
Do you think the chords are intentionally shuffled / shifted around so the progression feels familiar but a bit odd or would you say its just plain genius? There is no good answer to this question, I'm just curious about you opinion.
The intro to boulivard of broken dreams is played with the tremolo effect which gives it that echo sound u need a separate pedal for that. I was confused when he called it the ah ah effect but... ok
I think that the finale of the song is just something that the band improvised in the research of an ending and they've been happy with that, just like the single note along the bass scales on the refrain of Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin, or the high pitch guitar notes that you hear in the background of Clocks by Coldplay just once, the guitarist was just messing around during the recordings and decided to keep it in the final cut
I was 6 when it came out and it still is and always will be "THAT" album that always is part of my life
Really makes me want to listen to this again
I want to hear an analysis on Paranoid Android by Radiohead
Wittgensteinian reference at 09:58. Nice!
I don't know if he's doing rabbit-duck or if it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck .. it probably is a duck
There was a mashup album by "Dean Gray" called "American Edit" that took each song of American Idiot and mashed it up with something else. The mashup of this one, called "Boulevard of Broken Songs" with Wonderwall, was pretty good. According to Wikipedia, Billie Joe heard it and liked it even while Warner were issuing cease and desist orders.
But my favorite, and the reason for all this, is "Dr Who On Holiday", mashing up Holiday with Doctorin' The Tardis (which is itself a mashup of Rock and Roll Part 2 with the Dr Who theme) and opening with the Dalek's speech interspersed with George W Bush's "with us or with the terrorists" speech. Whenever I hear Holiday part of my brain wants to fill in the mashup version. Anyone reading this might want to give it a search & a listen.
And of course your also are immediately dropped from the previous song Holiday a very happy song.
Dont know if ane of your patreons asked for Tool analysis. Maybe some stuff from Lateralus or 10000 days or Fear Inoculum
omg my favorite album! ❤
Pointless nitpick, put the superscript for chords like Bb5 confused me because I thought it meant B with a flattened fifth.
Also plagal cascade is a fun name for it, 8-bit Music Theory called it an "extended plagal cadence" in his Pilotwings video but I like your name more.
It’s a holdover from the way guitar chords are sometimes written, because the strings are arranged in 4ths, the most basic 3-note chord on consecutive strings is like E-B-E instead of E-G-B writing it as E5 indicates a chord with no major or minor 3rd, just 1’s and 5’s, your basic power chord
What does the "5" mean?
@@noslowerdna It means a power chord, or open fifth. Like a major or minor chord with no third.
@@lettersnstuff No, I get that, it's just where the flats are written that I don't like.
This is amazing!!
That melancholy is what i love about it that happiness sprinkled with sadness... it makes me think about dorian for a bit.