Genre

The genre of music, me and Taylor are most interested in exploring is Future Garage/electronic, that's why we've chosen a song by Jamie XX, an electronic garage influenced DJ. Girl creates a very surreal and euphoric atmosphere; experimenting with colour, lighting, dynamics and general creativity will fit the song perfectly, as well as our genre characteristics. 

Conventions of Electronic Music Videos

Camerawork - Lots of mid shots to show the artist performing the music; DJ's make music through electronic instruments i.e the Synthesiser, which involves upper body movement and this instrument is positioned mid torso/ hips so this shot is most complimentary.

Editing - The shots are cut to the beat, and Girl has a fair amount of beats so there will be a lot of different shots to make the video coherent. Around the 3rd into the music video there is some kind of change, and the song changes slightly, so the pace of the cuts will alternate and something new will be added/change.

Setting - Dependent on what the narrative is, or what the lyrics connote. Girl doesn't have many lyrics, but begins with the dialect "Most beautiful girl in Hackney" so according to Goodwin, we should have the setting in Hackney to begin with in order to make the video make sense to the song. Electronic is generally aimed at a 'younger' audience, so urban settings would compliment the genre.

Performance - A mash up of the artist and the actress/actor. There could be a somewhat narrative as electronic music doesn't usually have much lyrics and mayb

e a voice over instead, so the performance could literally be anything upbeat.

Music Questionnaire Results

Here is a screenshot of the results from the questionnaire I posted online.

First ideas and concepts for my music video

For my music video this year, I want to represent the stereotypes and ideologies of the younger generation - aged 17-20. The ideas that they're reckless, wild and fun will be my most portrayed factors, since as I have most experience of this demographic, I could easily depict this to the best of my ability.

Narratively, although I haven't picked a song yet, I have an idea of a girl who embodies the portrait of a realistic representation of the typical British urban/rave girl from South London.  For example for costuming ideas so far which I believe best represents a carefree, effortless attitude -

Dr Marten

Ripped fish nets, "careless" 

Moreover, I like the concept of drug-taking and the rave environment as this community is often looked down upon, so I want to show the vulnerability of these girls as they put themselves in very dangerous situations. Create empathy with the audience, which will create quite a buzz for teenage girls on social media like - tumblr, twitter and pinterest. As girls often aspire to be cool, rocky and careless, a perfect example of this will be Effy from Skins (kaya scodelario) as she has a very natural and effortless beauty about her. 

Effy, Skins.

Aesthetically, I want to achieve a VHS effect that I could attain in post-production. With inspiration from the movie Trainspotting, that's 90's set, grainy and gritty feel I think this would be the perfect interxual reference that the audience will easily pick up. Although this movie was released almost 20 years ago, it's still very popular with the urban/grungy teenagers on tumblr etc. What I like about this movie is the closeness of the characters, again the rave scene is a strong community and also the rave / drug setting. 

Toxic relationship / carefree girl

The effect I want to achieve. Muted colours, softness.

Overall, to sum up the ideas I currently have in this early stage is:

• A careless girl, showing her tough facade but seems very vulnerable.
• Urban setting, to tie in with her gritty attitude. Perhaps wandering the streets?
• Music ideas - I want a dreamy, upbeat type of song. 

Cross-Media Case Study

The target demographic for Wolf Alice fans are predominantly teenage fans as the band themselves are very reflective and nostalgic of their teenage life. The glitter, reflective gold and upbeat music also makes me instantly think of the younger generation (14+)

First song ideas

For the music, I want it to be dreamy and very atmospheric, with not a lot of lyrics. Although, if I want to include lyrics, I want them to relate to the portrait I want to create of this girl - youthful and carefree.

1. Ben Khan - Savage.

What I like about this song is the technotic beat, the bass guitar that creates the jarring refrain and then the crazy sound effects. I also love the lyrics to this song:

"We’ll feed them acid

But we’re dancing dancing"

"Stabbing stabbing

A hole in the very fabric

Of

Society

Well it’s eternally"

The idea of drugs and dancing instantly reminds me of the rave culture in the movie, Trainspotting. Also the idea of society’s actions are self destructive, people’s violent nature results in the destruction of the entire society/community. 

2. Jamie XX, Girl.

This seems as a strong contender for my final choice, ultimately being called "Girl" it's already perfect for us. It's the perfect mix between barely any lyrics and dream-dance beat. I love the recurring beats as it kinda shows a routine in life i.e. a girl falling for the same type of boy or a girl living in the same area who can't escape it. The only lyrics, firstly starting with "She's the most beautiful girl in Hackney you know" immediately sets the setting idea as Hackney is in London and is slightly run down and urban which is exactly what I wanted to have for the feel of the music video. As well as the other lyrics:  "Give me your love / I want your love" sets the mood of the video, that this girl is idyllic for some (the man at the start) who's chasing for her love. As well as love being very important in teenager's life as it's when they first experience the concept of love in all forms.

I love the atmospheric feel, the tempo and the pauses in the beats. It really makes me think of drug abuse and the effect it would have on the brain - we could even use slow-motion effect to help exaggerate the lasting effect of drug use.

3. Swim Deep, She Changes The Weather. 


The long intro is the favourite of mine, it also has the dreamy tone to it. The soft talking in the background could be implemented into the music video very well as it could act as the people around her. What's also good is the late start of the drums which uplifts the mood a little bit, just before the singing comes in. Even by the use of the pronoun in the title, "she" works in our favour as we want the idea of focusing on a girl. "She changes the weather" proves the impact this girl has on this boy, she's able to change the weather, in other words the mood / emotion of this boy. The lyrics "She makes me trip" the use of the term "trip" has annotations of the effect of drugs, again perfect for our idea.

Goodwin's Music Video Analysis

Andrew Goodwin came up with a theory based around the idea of music videos, what he demonstrated is that music videos mostly include key iconography of genre characteristics and conventions. For example, a rap music video will mostly likely include weapons, money and drugs; whereas a pop video tend to include dance choreographies, multiple costume changes and also green screen effects in post-production.

What Goodwin also revised, is that some genres link to other popular cultural mediums - such as film or books. This is what you call "Intertextuality" where two or more mediums reference each other. For example, heavy metal tend to include horror film links - they do this because they know their target demographic will pick up this cross referencing.

Here is a few more key points Goodwin included in his book, "Dancing In The Distraction Factory".

1. There is a relationship between lyric and visuals. Which will be obvious as some music videos may include a narrative, if the song said, "He's got his gun" the visuals will most likely show him picking up the gun. This is a way of gaining an understanding of the song/narrative for the audience. 
2. There is a relationship between music and visuals. So for example, a dubstep song that includes a lot of escalating beats that tend to lead to a "drop" may include unique special effects that exaggerate the jar in the music, as it adds to the entertainment factor.
3. The demands of the record label. Some record labels will really focus on the main selling points of their artist, with any pop superstar from Miley Cyrus to One Direction, the record label intelligently knows their fans are obsessed with their looks; consequently leaving them to demand for more close ups of the artist. What else the label will look out for is any key iconography of that artist, that they can stress upon and make a motif. In other words, keeping the audience engaged and wanting more. A relevant example is Lady Gaga in her crazier era, where she wore a lot of creative and quirky costumes that brought her to the center of attention. It's what gets the people talking and is one way of obtaining a buzz.
4. There is frequent uses of notion of looking and voyeuristic treatment of the female body. Similar to point 3, the notion of looking portrays the artist - male or female - as very alluring and seductive, as if there is direct eye-contact to the audience by breaking the fourth wall. The use of props such as mirrors, cameras and computer screens, can all be references of the notion of looking. Moreover, voyeurism is predominantly used to sell the artist's sex appeal, presently it's mostly done by female artists as they're considered more "sexy". Or perhaps, the only male artists that rely on their good looks over musical content (One Direction, Justin Bieber and The Wanted) their audience are made up of young teenage girls and their parent's wouldn't appreciate crotch shots and sexual camera movements. 

99 problems - 

Jay-Z 99 Problems Analysis

By using Godwin's Music Video Theory we analysed 'Hip-Hop/Rap' artists Jay Z's music video for his single '99 Problems'

• The setting was in an abandoned run down environment in Brooklyn New York, Jay Z's hometown, which enforces Rap Culture and is recognised as highly black community. New York is a very iconic city and it's clear Jay Z wants to represent his hometown in his music video.
• There are  numerous close ups of Jay-Z lip syncing to the lyrics and of his chains and clothing to represent how rich he is. He of course wants to make himself represented positively in his own music video, so materialistic things that make him look better will be shown on camera.
• Glamorous half naked women where shown in the video which brings in a lyrics and visual relationship as the hook of the song is 'Got 99 Problems but a bitch and aint 1' This is a way of voyeuristic / scopophilia as it's representing women in a sexual manner.  
• He also shows racial discrimination by police by showing prison brutality towards black people. This is a sensitive topic, especially for people of colour because of the history of police brutality, especially in a place / ghetto like brookyln.
• The editing was synced with the song, fast paced and a lot of jump cuts. This goes with the genre characteristics that rap music is all fast etc.

Moodboard

Our mood board ultimately portrays the atmosphere we want to represent in our music video. As you can see, the bright colours are still prominent as we want to keep this a recurring theme. The purpose of the photos of Trainspotting is inspiration for our music video, where lighting, iconography and camera movement is sophisticated to reflect the life of the teen boy, of which he tries to get out the drug scene. Intertextuality will be evident by the use of similar lighting and setting to Trainspotting that our target demographic will understand.

The mood we want to achieve are explained by the words: "dreamy" "careless" "teen love". 

Goodwins analysis: The 1975

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics 
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals 
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style)
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body
6. There is often inter-textual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc)

The City 

1. Indie and contains live performance of the band playing the instruments. Black and white filter represent indie / alternative rock genre.

2. "Know where the city is" when this is sung, a projected visual of the city is shown against a girl's body. When talking about "love" the visuals on screen shot two people hugging / kissing.

3. The beat of the music is shown by them playing the instruments. The heavy drums at the beginning, the camera is a close up of the drums being played. This music video is mostly of a live performance.

4. There are close ups of the band, this may be because this is one of their first music videos therefore the record label will want the audience to see what this band looks like and represents. Their visual style is black and white and is shown on a variety of their music videos. 

5. Since it is about love, there are a lot of close ups of the female body in a voyeuristic way.

Target Demographic

 

• Record Collectors - People that collect vinyls, as our artist is a DJ and therefore uses vinyl to play, the targeted audience will also be interested in this.

• Festival / Show goers - Ultimately, the target for this demographic is people over 16 who enjoy having a good time and like creating fun memories. People of similar genre like Jamie XX, M83 and SBTRKT all perform live and the fans would want that from us.

• People that use drugs / alcohol - this demographic is derived from the last point, not addicts, just people that use these during festivals and gigs.

• Social Media users - It's inevitable that everyone between 16-28 use some form of social media, be it instagram to pinterest. That's why we're targeting people who like to use these social media platforms. One, as it'll work in our favour with marketing and promotion as with Twitter you can retweet, repost etc. and also get an immediate response from out fans. Hashtags that could lead us to trend world-wide will influence more people to listen to us as we will be exposed to a larger group of people.

 

The age range is specific as, from experience from attending festivals and seeing people around me, it's mostly between this range. As teenagers are very loyal when they're around 16+ with their music, consistently buying their music and merch, to travelling the country just to see them. As well, the references in the lyrics such as "love" is a mature topic where people under 16 won't be able to grasp fully. We won't be targeting a specific audience as we feel, in 2015, this is almost pointless especially with the ages we're targeting. People from 16 are far more open minded and aren't restricted to only liking music targeted to their gender, for One Direction for example. Finally with the location, we'll mostly be targeting people from not-so-great areas, like Hackney, places of South London and overall urban areas, not just in London.

Music Questionnaire

I created an online questionnaire and posted it online, under five minutes I got over fifty responses. From my followers online, I mostly have a similar age of followers from 15-20 year olds which is extremely helpful as that's my target demographic for my artist.

These are the sort of questions that I asked, the results will enable me to shape the ideal target demographic for my artist.

Our Artist: SPCTRM

The name of our artist is called SPCTRM, abbreviated for "Spectrum" as in a spectrum of colours.
It's a one man band who creates alternative music that doesn't stick to one genre; he's in his own game producing electrionic, garage, indie and R&B music. Being from London, he's heavily influenced by the underground and urban culture London has to offer. The reasoning behind the name SPCTRM is very simple as you can apply a sepctrum to almost everything; let's look at London for example, it has a spectrum of cultures, ethnicities, races and stories behind everybody's life. So the name is like a symbolic representation that anybody can interpret themselves, tailoring it to their own life. My artist has music for all emotions - again, a spectrum of colours / a range of emotions, the connotations and semiotics of these colours depict certain emotions; so blue portrays sadness, green is jealousy, red is love or danger.

Overral, I like the idea of a spectrum that could be apply to anything, almost like a measurment. It's similar to how I see music, there's an immense range or spectrum of genres that fits so many different emotions and that's what influenced me to choose this name.

We want to achieve an 80's feel with this album as our artist is heavily influenced by this era as it was the decade he was born in. I like the first experiences with the technological advances like the computer, game consoles and even things like lava lamps. It seems like the 80's was a time of no light and being immersed into the digital world, to different era's coming together, two ends of the spectrum coming together. But the reasoning for the missing of some letters, I feel it gives a space-age like alternative feel to it; it could be said that our artist's emotions and experiencs are put into the album, which they are and that represents SPCTRM but the missal for the letters proves you don't know everything about this artist, leaving SPCTRM ambigious.





Planning

Genre

audience

As the genre is Future Garage, we need an innovative name for out artist to reflect this. When playing the song Girl, we can imagine fluorescent lights being used throughout the video, in conclusion we came up with a few ideas for names of ourartist. Although our artist fits in with the DJ genre, we didn't want a 'normal' name for him, and wanted to go with the theme of colour. We came up with the above names, SPCTRM (Abbreviated - Spectrum) got the most likes from our audience of 17/18 yearolds (I will discuss our target audience later on). The name SPCTRM is based on the theme of colour, as spectrum is a variety of colour, as well as reflecting the genre Future garage being experimental and metaphorically colourful.

Adorno & Horkeimer

Adorno and Horkheimer are two men that come up with a theory about the popular culture industry. They said that popular artists are almost apart of a production line - or a formula - that proves that some artists can be easily put together to gain popularity.

A prime example of this assembly line is:

One Direction

One Direction are easily proven to be the most formulaic boyband as they're made up of five, fairly attractive boys who portray five different types of boys in order to cater to each young girl's taste. With little talent and all songs and production done exactly for them, they're just a face and personality to be sold as merchandise. Their record label know for sure they're talentless but the music industry is probably the most invested industry of them all; so by making them stand in front of cameras for their music videos or mime live for their fans, their label want to earn the most money possible. To practically rinse them until the girls grow up.

A person that doesn't follow the psuedo-individuality set by Adorno and Horkheimer is Jamie XX:

Jamie XX

He doesn't rely on his looks to obtain success, in fact, he has his talent to do so. He wasn't produced synthetically like One Direction were, he was discovered solely on his talent. None of his merchandise include any appearance of him, only his album cover. Instantly proving the music is more important to him than what he looks like: 

Jamie XX merchandise

Timeline of the music video

The invention of film and cinema brought about the possibility of combining music and moving images together to create the music video. Presently, we are so used to a variety of music videos from abstract, lyric-only or even live performance music videos but this trend had to start somewhere. Notably, the commencement of music videos started around 1920's, during the "roaring twenties" entertainment in America was at its epitome, creation and innovation - especially in the art of moving images - was at its peak. Musicians like the Jazz star, Bessie Smith, used the idea of short films for her music as that genre was most popular in the twenties. My interpretation of Smith's usage of a short movie for her music video is the idea of being idyllic for her audience, since in the twenties the cinema was a place of escaping reality, she chose this as the catalyst for her audience to see a new lease of life.

Fast Forward ahead to the "swinging sixties", artists like the immensely iconic Bob Dylan was among one of the first musicians to use a "modern" music video. His song, "Subterranean Homesick Blues" includes a performance from a young boy  flicking through the lyrics from the song written on some card. This was seen as "modern" in that era, looking at it now I can see the major influence this music video has had on musicians in the present time. For example, indie band Swim Deep has a very similar performance in their music video to Dylan's.


Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues 

In comparison to Swim Deep's, "One Great Song And I Can Change The World"

As you can see from watching both these music videos, Swim Deep imitate the lyric sheets, the black and white editing and a similar costuming.

The idea of a music video is to be seen as promotional, influential, memorable, iconic, creative and disruptive. The celebration of music videos is credited majorly in the present era, awards shows such as the Video Music Awards (VMAs) hosted by MTV award musicians based on their music videos.

In the 1970's and the rise of the game shows, record label seized this a perfect opportunity for their artists to get the best promo. This then acts a temporary music video for the song, then intelligently replacing the live music video with a fully produced one - in other words it's almost like releasing the song twice, maximising the potential buzz. I can see that it still happens presently as artists like Adele's iconic live performance at the Brit awards was the short-term music video for her single, "Someone like you" which then got a new music video.

Moving on five years, Queen's majorly iconic and influential music video for their song "Bohemian Rhapsody" is considered one of the best music videos. They perform in this video, playing their instruments as well as doing a unique and creative routine. There's a lot of clear editing such as fades and kaleidoscope effects which set the language for music videos from then on.

Independent v Mainstream record label

With an indie record label - they tend to solely rely on marketing to help them promote their artists. With unique ways they are able to earn more money. Dirty Hit is an example of an independent record label housing The 1975 and Wolf Alice. To promote The 1975's new album I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It they took so many different approaches in the campaign of this album. For example, when releasing the tracklisting of their new album, they didn't do it in one go. In fact, they took the time to create neon lights and place them around the world and take photos to announce them. This is not necessary to an album release, but it shows they take pride in their art and take the time to take advantage of it:

Although this band is very typical and mainstream pop, they take new and inventive ways of their artistry. This is what indie labels tend to do with their roster. They need to create a buzz. However, most labels put out deluxe/standard editions of their albums. Dirty Hit released this album in cassette, standard, deluxe, iTunes exclusive tracks, Amazon exclusive vinyl, Premium boxset that includes unreleased photos of the band, exclusive vinyl within it too. 

With a mainstream label, they have enough money to just place adverts on TV and billboards, also most major labels are owned by big conglomerates like Warner Brothers or Universal so they can implement their artist's music on their tv shows or movies even. 

What Is A Music Video?

What is a digipak?

A Digipak is a promotional platform some artists like to take advantage of as, in some cases, can be a unique selling point (USP) as it can offer exclusive content. For example, some artists like Nicki Minaj made her debut album, Pink Friday, digipak exclusive to iTunes; therefore, leaving fans to purchasing the album via iTunes. What a digipak can include is unseen footage of the artist, lyrics of the songs, explanations of the songs and also thank you's the artist wants to offer to people involved in the creation of the album. So it's main purpose is a promotional aspect to boost sales.

How does the camera work and editing effect the music video?

How does the camera work and editing effect the music video?

Camera movement, angle and shot distance all need to be analysed when it comes to music videos. Camera movement can be used to create a more dynamic feel to stage performance. When used a close up shot does predominate and it emphasises half of the commodity on sale which is usually the voice as it is what most viewers focus on. 

Editing:

Editing can be used in a variety of ways when making a music video. The use of fast cut montage is effective because if many images are being used in the video then it is impossible for the viewer to grasp on the first time they watch it. This then means the creator of the music video is ensuring that there is multiple viewing. Some music videos in the industry use slow pace and gentler transitions to establish mood. Often enhancing the editing are digital effects which play with the original images to offer different kinds of pleasure for the audience. 

Introduction To A2

With the second segment of my qualification, we will be looking at music rather than TV drama and films. This year: I will be updating this blog with how far I am with my projects and keeping a journal, creating a unique music video for an artist of my choosing, creating a digipak and also a poster too. With my exam, i'm mostly looking at the skills and techniques i've aquired over my course, evaluating what i've learned and what could've gone better.