Initial Ideas

This post is going to show and explain the thought process that my group used to get to the chosen artists and the chosen genre.


As a group we decided primarily to focus more on looking for artists that weren't very well known but also had creative lyrics that we could use as the basis for our own music video. We decided to start by looking through the new releases from Spotify and we managed to come up with a mind map showing all the artists we looked at. Our chosen artist is featured on this mind map however we did not discover them on Spotify, it was a suggestion from one of the group members.

We also wanted to look at artist that weren't very well know and one of the group members thought it would be interesting to look at a variety of different singers from the Eurovision song contest as we believed that these are generally unknown artists. Below is the list the we made as a group, it contains a couple of songs that we liked, what country it was representing and the year it was in the contest.   

Once we had chosen the artist we decided to look through a couple of different songs by that artist so we could look at the lyrics and see if we could both agree on one song. The tree songs we looked at were, 'We are the people', 'Alive' ,'Walking on a dream'. We started by finding and printing the lyrics of each song, afterwards we decided to make a list of the pros and cons of each song.

The first song that we looked at was Alive by Empire of the sun. we decided to start off by looking at the lyrics again and listening to the song and we commented on the speed and tempo and well as the way it sounds. As you can see from the photo above we found more pros than cons for this song, we liked the tempo and we thought that it was quite nice on the ear.     

The next song we looked into was 'Walking on a dream' also by Empire of the sun. We liked this song the lyrics were very creative but there was only one direction we could take the song, so it didn't offer much diversity. However, the song had a good tempo and a good rhythm.  

The last song we looked at was called 'We are the people' also by Empire of the sun. Again we liked the tempo and the rhythm to the song and the lyrics were very creative however, we were put off by the length of the song. this song was around 5 minutes long whereas the other two were around 3 minutes. 

In the end after considering all of the different pros and cons of the tree different songs we decided to go with the first song that we looked at - Alive. We believe that we could easily come up with a good narrative to this song and it has a good tempo and beat so it would be easier to edit. 

Analysis of magazine advert

This is the magazine advert for Lana Del Ray. It advertises the release of her album 'Born to die'. Analysing different magazine adverts will help when it come to designing and producing my own because i will learn what works together and what affect they have on the audience. They colours in this magazine are all very subtle and compliment each other this makes the advert easier to look at. 

Analysis of a digipak

This is my analysis of Katy Perry's Digipak for her album 'Teenage Dream'. Looking into and analysing different digipaks will help me when it comes to making my own digipak because it will give me an indication of what little details to consider within my digipak. For example I believe that the font style and colour are quite a big contributing factor to the over all appearance of the final product. The writing on the cover is one of the first things that you notice within the overall product so therefor the writing needs to be readable  

The purpose of magazines adverts and digipaks

Artists use magazine adverts to advertise and publicise their latest album, the advert could include a photo of the artist/band, reviews of the album, the record label, the name of the album, songs from the album and of course the release date and where you can purchase it from. Below is an example of a magazine advert for an artist and what it should include.

Digipaks are used for a similar purpose, they also help to promote the artist and they promote the album as well. having a good digipak will encourage people into buying that CD the difference between a person buying and not buying the album will be the way the album looks it has to be interesting and it has to grab the attention of the person in the shop. Below is an example of a Digipak and what it should include.

When it comes to making me own digipak and magazine advert I will need to consider all of the details that are included in the professional examples listed above because all of those different features bring the magazine advert/digipak together to promote the artist or band. 

The Importance of Lyrics

Song lyrics are very important to a song because they make up the main bulk of a song, without the lyrics there would be no song so therefore they are very important, however, they have a pretty big role as well.

• The help to convey the artists emotions/ and views of the world around them. 
• Its a way that the can express there emotions.
• It tells a story and helps to aid the narrative. 
• Helps to convey a message.
• Helps to set the scene.

These are some examples of music videos that are very literal within what happens in the music video in relation to the lyrics. This can be related to one of Goodwin's theories - 'there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visual' suggesting that the lyrics of the song should relate to the content in the music video.

Rebecca Black - Friday

This music video is quite literal, the lyrics on the first line read 'Seven a.m.' and in the music video the alarm clock reads 7:00 a.m. and cuts to an extreme close up of the artist face as she's waking up in bed. Next it cuts to where the artist has mad he way downstairs and she sings the words. However, there is both aspects or performance and narrative within the music video. This carries on throughout the song. Here are some examples from the first stanza.

The first stanza reads;

Seven a.m., waking up in the morning
Gotta be fresh, gotta go downstairs
Gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal
Seein' everything, the time is goin'
Tickin' on and on, everybody's rushin'
Gotta get down to the bus stop
Gotta catch my bus, I see my friends (My friends)

Vance Joy - Riptide 

Compared to the last music video this is a lot more literal in terms of how the lyrics aid the narrative of the video. However this music video compared to Friday by Rebecca Black has a lot less performance, so it begins to become more about the lyrics than the artist. During the first line when the artist sings the word dark the screen gets darker and during the third line when the artist sings the word green the viewer is shown a photo of a green doller bill. There are some more examples below. 

The first stanza reads;

I was scared of dentists and the dark
I was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations
Oh, all my friends are turning green
You're the magician's assistant in their dreams

By looking a different literal music videos it will help me to work out the barrier between what works and what's too much visual interpretation to have in a music video.   

Video analysis according to Goodwin's theories

Textual analysis – Titanium

Titanium was a song by David Guetta featuring Sia. It falls into the genre of house music or Dance/electric. The song was released in 2011 and appears in the album ‘Nothing but a beat’ – this album sold more than 4 million copies in the UK alone. David Guetta is a French DJ and has composed many different songs all featuring different artists.

Narrative

The music video is completely narrative based, there is no performance element.  The artist does not appear in the music video and there is no lip syncing throughout the duration of the video. The music video is primarily about a teen how has supernatural powers and he is being tracked down because people believe him to be dangerous but in fact he’s just scared and all alone. To begin with the editing is quite slow and there are a lot of continuous shots where the camera tracks the young person. But as it gets to the chorus the beat starts to get faster and so does the editing, the editing is now cut to the beat of the chorus, it then slows down again when the chorus finishes. Two of Goodwin’s theories are used within the music video. The first is screens within screens; half way through the music video the young person enters his empty house the TV is on and we as the audience has a clear view of what its showing. It shows a bird’s eye view shot of the school with the caption ‘Supernatural occurrence at a local school’ this helps the audience to understand what happened to the school before the start of the music video.  

Settings

The music video itself is not realistic as people don’t have supernatural powers in everyday life. However, there is an element of intertextuality, the whole music video has links to the 1980s film E.T. directed by Stephen Spielberg. The Boys supernatural powers resemble the powers from the alien in the film. In the film E.T.’s finger glows whereas in the music video the teen’s whole body glows.  We start off in a school that appears to have been trashed, at this point we as the audience have no idea what’s happened all we see is a young person alone and scared so instantly we begin to feel sorry for him – this is before we find out that he was the one that caused it.

Representations

The music video shows quite a negative representation of teenagers, the teenage boy is portrayed as being reckless. He wears a red hat throughout the duration of the music video; the colour red has connotations of danger this suggests that the teenage boy is to be feared this is also suggested at the end of the music video where we can see a fully grown man pointing a gun at the boy as if he was scared of him. When the teenage boy reaches his house it’s empty, no other people are in the house. It appears that he is all on his own, almost like he’s alienated from the rest of society, this links to E.T. because E.T. is very much alienated within earth, because he’s on a planet that doesn’t understand him and he doesn’t fit in.  The teddies that are spinning around in the air in his bedroom like he’s just left them there and forgot about them, this could connote the disregard for his inner child as he begins to grow.  

Target Audiences 

I think that the target audience for this particular music video would be teenagers because the main character in the video is of this age category. The music video is also based around supernatural powers this also attracts the younger generations. Also the fact that the gender of the main character is not clear it also expands the target audience to male and females.  

What makes a good student music video?

I have been looking into what makes a good student music video because when it comes to my own music video I will need to consider all of these contributing factor to make my music video the best it possibly could be. Below it is what I believe a good music video should include and an example of the work shown in a students music video;

• Lip syncing is a major part of the performance section of a music video, it makes the music video flow better and seem more realistic. If the lip syncing is done well it can really bring the music video together.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

• It is also good to make sure that your editing mimics or matches the beat/tempo of the song, stereotypically a more up beat song will have faster editing and a lot more shots compared to a slower song with have slower editing and maybe less cuts between shots. This can be seen from the examples below, the first example is more upbeat compared to the second. 

• Mise is a big contributing factor to making a good music video, the mise helps to bring the scene together and it can also be the difference between and good and a bad music video. Mise covers things like costume, location, makeup, lighting, colour - every single one of these things are essential to making a realistic music video. 

After considering all of the different contributing factors to what makes a good student music video it will encourage my decisions when it comes to making my own music video, it will also help me to realise the level of detail that I need to include in my own video.  

Music video audiences

Different music genres are aimed at different age groups, music videos for pop songs are typically aimed for the younger generation because they are the generation that are in to that type of music. However, the people that are interested in pop music may not be interested in rock or metal. Generally you'll find that these two genres have two different audiences, Metal and Rock tend to have an older audience (late 20's - to mid 30's). Artists can promote themselves to that specific demographic by including people in their music video that are of the same demographic as the target audience. By looking at the different music video audiences and how they are different it will help me understand the demographic group that my music video is aimed at and what I would need to include to target my music video at them.   

Why we are re-making a music video

We decided to re-make Justin Timberlake's music video 'Can't stop the feeling' the class was split into different groups and each group was given about 30 seconds of the music video and we as a group had to recreate that section to the nearest degree of accuracy. When we were creating the music video I realised just how much time and effort went into finding and shooting in all the different locations that would resemble the music video. I also learnt that each different shot is about 1 - 2 seconds long and therefore there is a lot of shots needed to make a music video. This would help when making my own music video because I have learned how long each shot is and how many different positions and different locations we will have to source and film in in order to make an music video to a good enough standard.

Below is a copy of the original music video by Justin Timberlake and underneath is a copy of the section of the music video that my groups re-made.

Mock Digipak

This is the mock digipak that I created. We were given a maximum of two hours to create a digipak for a group called The Hobgoblins. The Hobgoblins are a made up folk band. For this I took a photo of a group of guys from google images and pasted it into Photoshop. There I cut the image out of the background and inserted it onto the background in the digipak. I think that the hardest part about making the mock digipak was making sure everything was up the right way. For this to happen one of the sides would need to be upside down (e.g. the photo of the horses), we also got two template of CDs to show that the digipak would include two CDs instead of just one. On the back of the digipak we included the different songs that the digipak would include, the record label the artists are signed by and the bar code. The centre includes a quote by the artists, this make it more personal fro the artists.       

Making a mock digipak will help me when it comes to making my own because i have figured out the basic of what it has to include, figuring out that one side has to be reversed is very helpful because it was better to learn from that mistake now rather than later when I'm making the actual digipak. 

Mock Magazine Advert

This is my mock Magazine advert, I was given the genre pop and the Boy-band Eversix (a made up band), we had two hours to design a magazine advert for the group. I started by looking at different magazine adverts for pop bands to see the similarities between the different adverts. The photo of the group was taken from a photo of some guys from the programme Geordie Shore. I then photoshopped the image and took the guys out of the background. We decided that the theme around the advert and for the album would be airports. We named the album Take off and placed the guys on an airport runway. We included some of the popular songs from the album, the record label, reviews and where you can purchase/listen to the music.

Doing this mock version of a magazine advert will help me when it comes to make my own because I have been able to practices the different Photoshop skills needed to make the advert, and I have also learned about what needed to be included within the magazine advert.

Viral Music Videos

Watch me (whip/nae nae) - this was a viral video by Silento with its own set of unique moves. It was released in March 2015. The song reached no. 3 on the billboard hot 100 where it spent 6 consecutive weeks. The official music video has reached over 1 billion views on YouTube.

This music video went viral because it had a major boost from the famous singer Madonna. A company called Dance On was put together to try to create dance hits, coincidentally Madonna is listed as one of the co-founders. The company controls a bunch of digital content and helps influencers in the scene to get exposure through dance videos that feature certain music. 

The company approached Silento, and asked for his permission to make an unofficial dace video for the song. The music video was a hit and within the first few months it had over over 250 million views. This led to one of the latest dance crazes in the country. 

"Watch me" was originally recorded as a 15 second Instagram video to a "beat of someone tapping on the desk at school".