The research is beginning to take shape, so keep going, it's looking good!
Carla - have you taken your post on downloads etc off while you work on it or have I just missed it here?
Jess - I think you could analyse your two videos in a little more detail - how do they link to the lyrics? how do they sell the artist/ create voyeurism etc?
Matt - you still need somewhere to identify elements of the indie genre in terms of clothing and location codes and conventions?
There is a lot here but I think you still need a few more videos featured, identifying what you find interesting about them and what you can learn from them. Look over the gaps in your research, then I think you need a section at the end that focuses on "What have We Learnt And How Will We Use It?"
Mrs Doggart
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Monday, 16 November 2009
Codes & Conventions of Music Videos.
A music video is a ‘distinctive art form which can allow really creative opportunities’ [1] and is of huge importance to any musician. They give the artists the chance to not only represent themselves, but their music, in a creative way not wholly provided by just the music itself. It takes a lot of meticulous planning to get the video right and therefore it is essential to first explore the main codes and conventions involved. To do so, I will look at Goodwin’s six main conventions of music videos;
1) Within a music video, there is a link between the lyrics being sung and the visuals displayed. For example if there is a storyline, the visuals will be either ‘illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics’.
2) There is also a link between the music and the visuals, for example if the musicians are talented with instruments, there must be at least several clips of these being played to demonstrate their musical personas.
3) It is highly likely that at some stage in the music video there will be intertextual references, whether it is another music video, a film or a television programme.
4) Therefore, it is also highly likely there will be reference to voyeurism, a different way of looking or gaining a perception, possibly on the way people are treated, i.e. ‘screens within screens’.
5) Usually, there will be a high demand of close ups on the artist or band and it is down to the record company to ensure this occurs. Following on from this, the musician may develop their own star iconography, thus over time they may develop icons that defines them in the media.
6) Finally, the main conventions of the music video hugely depend on the genre itself. Individual genres have individual ideologies and iconographies and therefore must be taken into consideration when developing your own music video and its genre.[2]
It is this last point that I will now develop in more detail through the brief analysis of two music videos from different genres. This first video is that of the number 1 in the download charts (week beginning 21st October)[3] and was a huge success almost automatically. It is ‘Bad Boys’ performed by Alexandra Burke featuring Flo Rida;
Alexandra herself rose to stardom from the television programme ‘The X Factor’ and therefore most of her music is mainstream and produced for her to sing thus making the genre of her music more so Pop. Looking at the mise en scene and costume, a link to the essence of the song is established as is with the lyrics, music and visuals, thus proving Goodwin’s conventions to be rather successful. Even just by looking at the video, the genre is established almost immediately. She sings throughout whilst dancing at the same time, always constant with the storyline of the song with no clips of instruments or performances, establishing she is a pop singer, rather than, for example, a guitar player. The easiest way of conveying the differences between genres and their music videos is to compare this to a rather different one. This next music video is Fairwell To The Fairground by a new upcoming Indie band called White Lies;
As you can see almost straight away, the genre is established through the mise en scene and costume chosen. The artists are independent, therefore for video has a much tighter budget consequently showing more clips of the musicians playing their own instruments, rather than ‘dancing’. The lead singer himself is pictured walking through a winter scene linking to the lyrics, this replaces the need for a main story line like most mainstream video productions. This particular music video is much more iconic, with shorter clips of breathtaking scenery, thus having a rather different emotional effect on the audience compared to the previous clip.
Therefore it is much easier to define a music video’s conventions based upon the genre’s individual demands. In conclusion, these six points made originally by Goodwin are good foundations for us to build upon when planning and producing our own music video. We can take into consideration the links between lyrics, visuals and music whilst also ensuring we please our genre’s audience with plenty of close ups and possibly hints of voyeurism and intertexuality.
[1] P. Fraser 2005
[2] Andrew Goodwin, Dancing to Distraction (2006)
[3] http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/downloads/
1) Within a music video, there is a link between the lyrics being sung and the visuals displayed. For example if there is a storyline, the visuals will be either ‘illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics’.
2) There is also a link between the music and the visuals, for example if the musicians are talented with instruments, there must be at least several clips of these being played to demonstrate their musical personas.
3) It is highly likely that at some stage in the music video there will be intertextual references, whether it is another music video, a film or a television programme.
4) Therefore, it is also highly likely there will be reference to voyeurism, a different way of looking or gaining a perception, possibly on the way people are treated, i.e. ‘screens within screens’.
5) Usually, there will be a high demand of close ups on the artist or band and it is down to the record company to ensure this occurs. Following on from this, the musician may develop their own star iconography, thus over time they may develop icons that defines them in the media.
6) Finally, the main conventions of the music video hugely depend on the genre itself. Individual genres have individual ideologies and iconographies and therefore must be taken into consideration when developing your own music video and its genre.[2]
It is this last point that I will now develop in more detail through the brief analysis of two music videos from different genres. This first video is that of the number 1 in the download charts (week beginning 21st October)[3] and was a huge success almost automatically. It is ‘Bad Boys’ performed by Alexandra Burke featuring Flo Rida;
Alexandra herself rose to stardom from the television programme ‘The X Factor’ and therefore most of her music is mainstream and produced for her to sing thus making the genre of her music more so Pop. Looking at the mise en scene and costume, a link to the essence of the song is established as is with the lyrics, music and visuals, thus proving Goodwin’s conventions to be rather successful. Even just by looking at the video, the genre is established almost immediately. She sings throughout whilst dancing at the same time, always constant with the storyline of the song with no clips of instruments or performances, establishing she is a pop singer, rather than, for example, a guitar player. The easiest way of conveying the differences between genres and their music videos is to compare this to a rather different one. This next music video is Fairwell To The Fairground by a new upcoming Indie band called White Lies;
As you can see almost straight away, the genre is established through the mise en scene and costume chosen. The artists are independent, therefore for video has a much tighter budget consequently showing more clips of the musicians playing their own instruments, rather than ‘dancing’. The lead singer himself is pictured walking through a winter scene linking to the lyrics, this replaces the need for a main story line like most mainstream video productions. This particular music video is much more iconic, with shorter clips of breathtaking scenery, thus having a rather different emotional effect on the audience compared to the previous clip.
Therefore it is much easier to define a music video’s conventions based upon the genre’s individual demands. In conclusion, these six points made originally by Goodwin are good foundations for us to build upon when planning and producing our own music video. We can take into consideration the links between lyrics, visuals and music whilst also ensuring we please our genre’s audience with plenty of close ups and possibly hints of voyeurism and intertexuality.
[1] P. Fraser 2005
[2] Andrew Goodwin, Dancing to Distraction (2006)
[3] http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/downloads/
Statistics Of Music Videos
Technology for downloading music has change dramatically over the past few years making it easier for the public to access music files illegally and legally.
Downloading Music Illegally
By accessing certain music websites we are able to download copyright contents without permission. This is lowering shop sales and LEGAL download sales. From this statistic we can already see how easily illegal downloading is.
Also by downloading music illegally means the downloading process could take much longer than legal downloading. Illegal downloads also have the risk of running a virus within your computer leaving you with any unexpected consequences such as the computer running slowly, phishing, hacking, which could destroy any documentation or important products saved/ stored on your computer.
Downloading Music Legally
Again by accessing certain websites we are able to download copyright music legally, with permission. Websites who have authorisation to do this are iTunes, Napster, iMESH, eMusic, and many more. Downloading legally means you have to pay for the music product but everyone who have been involved in the music production of the music chosen gets a cut of the money made on it, whereas in illegal downloading you can get the music free and the people involved in the production don't get their fair share of money that should of been made on the music product.
To prevent the illegal statistics music videos need to become more recognised, for example, if the background music and the lyrics are catchy there’s obviously going to be lot of interest in the song, in order to get the attention on the music video it needs to be an amazing production, this will lower the statistic on downloading and increase positives, such as hits on YouTube and MTV viewers etc.
This will then lead into more profits and success as the band or solo could go on tours, sell merchandise and up their reputation, all this could happen from a music video that is well produced.
Downloading Music Illegally
By accessing certain music websites we are able to download copyright contents without permission. This is lowering shop sales and LEGAL download sales. From this statistic we can already see how easily illegal downloading is.
Also by downloading music illegally means the downloading process could take much longer than legal downloading. Illegal downloads also have the risk of running a virus within your computer leaving you with any unexpected consequences such as the computer running slowly, phishing, hacking, which could destroy any documentation or important products saved/ stored on your computer.
Downloading Music Legally
Again by accessing certain websites we are able to download copyright music legally, with permission. Websites who have authorisation to do this are iTunes, Napster, iMESH, eMusic, and many more. Downloading legally means you have to pay for the music product but everyone who have been involved in the music production of the music chosen gets a cut of the money made on it, whereas in illegal downloading you can get the music free and the people involved in the production don't get their fair share of money that should of been made on the music product.
- 95% of music downloads are unauthorised, with no payment to artists and producers
- One credible analysis by the Institute for Policy Innovation concludes that global music piracy causes $12.5 billion of economic losses every year, 71,060 U.S. jobs lost, a loss of $2.7 billion in workers' earnings, and a loss of $422 million in tax revenues, $291 million in personal income tax and $131 million in lost corporate income and production taxes.
To prevent the illegal statistics music videos need to become more recognised, for example, if the background music and the lyrics are catchy there’s obviously going to be lot of interest in the song, in order to get the attention on the music video it needs to be an amazing production, this will lower the statistic on downloading and increase positives, such as hits on YouTube and MTV viewers etc.
This will then lead into more profits and success as the band or solo could go on tours, sell merchandise and up their reputation, all this could happen from a music video that is well produced.
Saturday, 14 November 2009
The importance of music videos
Music videos are considered very important in the music industry as majority of artists careers are due to the success of their music videos. Music videos are a way in which artists can express themselves in a visual way rather than just through their lyrics and their voices. They are able to show that they have the ability to impress the public not only through their amazing vocal skill but also through their performance skills and their image overall. Many people are intrigued by certain music videos rather than the actual lyrics. It is what they see that attracts them and leads them to purchasing the song or album. Music videos aim to give the song a meaning and a story. People can now relate to song by its visuals as they are aware what the story is behind the song. By knowing the true meaning behind the song it allows the audience to interact and in some way feel that the song was especially written for them.
Back in the days music videos were very rare. Simply because television and film production was not very advanced, in which case music was often heard through radios. Now music videos have taken over. MTV started broadcasting around the 1980s, at first only in the United States. Gradually MTV spread around the world. This was considered as a new era of the music industry where people were able to present to the public their talent besides singing. Now music television holds the power of music videos.
In the modern world today music
videos are just as important as the song itself as it leads a path to their great success. Audiences tend to know of a song or new release through artists music videos, by watching MTV or even YouTube. Artists become so popular because of their music videos not only with the audience but in the music industry itself. For example in MTV annual music awards, artists are given awards for the best music video. This bringing greater success to their career.
Many fans enjoy watching music videos because of its artistic graphics and uniqueness. I for one tend to watch music channels on a regular basis and that is one of the main ways I get to know of new releases as well as new artists. Music videos is what gives an image to the artists; it allows us to know what the artist is like and for many viewers it allows them to create expectations on further releases and albums. When we are presented with this image through music videos, we want to be like the artist. We want to live their glamorous way and look like them. This allowing further interaction between the audience and the artist and promoting the artist not only for their music but for the way they look and act.
Back in the days music videos were very rare. Simply because television and film production was not very advanced, in which case music was often heard through radios. Now music videos have taken over. MTV started broadcasting around the 1980s, at first only in the United States. Gradually MTV spread around the world. This was considered as a new era of the music industry where people were able to present to the public their talent besides singing. Now music television holds the power of music videos.
In the modern world today music
videos are just as important as the song itself as it leads a path to their great success. Audiences tend to know of a song or new release through artists music videos, by watching MTV or even YouTube. Artists become so popular because of their music videos not only with the audience but in the music industry itself. For example in MTV annual music awards, artists are given awards for the best music video. This bringing greater success to their career.Many fans enjoy watching music videos because of its artistic graphics and uniqueness. I for one tend to watch music channels on a regular basis and that is one of the main ways I get to know of new releases as well as new artists. Music videos is what gives an image to the artists; it allows us to know what the artist is like and for many viewers it allows them to create expectations on further releases and albums. When we are presented with this image through music videos, we want to be like the artist. We want to live their glamorous way and look like them. This allowing further interaction between the audience and the artist and promoting the artist not only for their music but for the way they look and act.
However, TV is not the only way artists release their music videos; due to the development of web 2.0 music is able to be promoted through the internet. Web 2.0 allows its users to interact and collaborate at a world wide basis. Enabling people to add content to websites and update this has allowed new and upcoming artists to use the internet in a promotional context. Artists are able to add their music, video, and information of events on socialising networks and distribution channels. As well as gaining a fan base and enabling people all over the world access their music it allows them to gain direct feedback from audiences; this may help them improve their work and work to a higher level. Web 2.0 is found to be an incredible promotional tool for independent artists. It has allowed artists to grow a fan base, manufacture their music and sell CD's. This leads to music downloading as over the years the increase of music downloads risen.
Websites such as MySpace and YouTube enable artists to put their music videos up for the whole world to view at no cost at all. YouTube has 1000's of viewers every minute of everyday. By placing a music video on YouTube you are guaranteed to easily get viewers and create a fan base. Unless you are a major music band or artist that is financially stable, it is practically impossible to get your music directly on TV channels such as MTV. This is because directors of big music channels would not be convinced to place a unknown artist on their channel that would make them no money what so ever.
In conclusion, music videos have allowed the music industry to create a new way to generate publicity and make additional income from selling music video collections. Music videos are not only watched but many people like to buy them on DVD. Audiences are so fixated with their artists that they like to collect all merchandise including music videos. This is a great advantage to the music industry as a whole and also to the artists individually. Not to forget, also an advantage to the public as it is a form of entertainment.
Many of the biggest artists such as Jennifer Lopez and Michael Jackson have released DVD's of their hit music videos. This acts as a great way to promote themselves and to make larger profits. As mentioned before fans love to collect merchandise of their artists, from DVD's to posters, no matter what they may be. For this reason we feel that making a music video for our artist will help promote the artist to a larger scale, vocally and visually.
Our music video
In order to promote our artist and his music video we would most likely use web 2.0. As he is a fairly new artist that isnt very well known, it will be considerably hard to get him on channels such as MTV etc. Also, with the low budgets it will not be possibe to immediatly get him to that scale. It would be a reasonable step to begin by making a MySpace account on which he can promote himself and his music. He could add his music videos to this allowing people all over the world view his videos. He could also add his videos to other websites such as YouTube. These websites have large audiences and will be an easy and effecient way to create a fan base.
Feedback
A lot of work here and some really nice illustrative material! However, I have a few suggestions to make that would make this even better!
Mrs Doggart
- Matt - in your first entry on indie videos, you could comment on the ideology that low-tech videos convey to audiences and how this fits the whole indie ethos. You could also analyse the video using Goodwin's categories to see how indie bands both fit and alter the conventions?
- Matt - history of Indie bands entry - I like the Velvet Underground video but what features identify it as a proto Indie group? The last bit also needs a little more work I think - possibly a few more modern examples of recent big indie acts and evidence of their commercial success? Could also do with identifying the key iconography that we currently link to the indie band.
- Zuleikha - Music Genre section - I know you have added some material here but you still need to explore the implications of this for your project - why are music videos possibly more important now than ever before?
- Carla - a lot of digging about for material has gone into this but I am not sure how it is relevant, as it is all about downloading rather than music videos as the title suggests? You need to get the rest of the group to look at this and decide if it helps your project and, if so, how? If you decide to keep it, I think it needs cutting down to the bare essentials as it is easy to get lost in the info and you also need to add some comment of your own telling us what this suggests or implies for your product.
- Jess - I know you have been working on things but I need to see some posts!
- Also, you may want to add a short section on the history of the modern music video - when and why it arose and why they are so prevalent still?
Mrs Doggart
Friday, 13 November 2009
Branding
The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a "name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.
A brand is particular name or trademark that is associated with a particular product. It may refer to more than one product made by the same company than just one individual product. Branding is all about creating an image that consumers like that people can link to a particular line of products.
Over the years brands have become increasingly more important, as culture and economy has advanced and as a result of mass production the need for distinct brands has increased. They are now considered ‘cultural accessories’.
Consumers come across so many similar products that it is practically impossible to choose a product without its branding. Once people are engaged to a certain brand they begin to have set expectations that is an impression created by all the associated products. It is the brand special qualities and characteristics that make it unique. Hence the reason branding is one of the most important factors in advertising. It shows what the brand is able to offer in the market and what is it that makes it so different compared to other rivaling products.
‘’Advertising any given product Is only one part of branding grand plan.’’ (Naomi Klein, No Logos)
By carefully managing a brand and maintaining the image by cleverly designed advertising campaigns helps lead to a highly successful product that enable consumers to purchase products that are of extremely high prices. This manipulates the image that has been created and causes the consumer to see value and potential in the product. Consumers purchase products of brands that they expect to fulfill their desires. Modern branding campaigns have the ability to induce consumers into paying a lot more for what they are getting. For example £40 for a t-shirt that costs a mere £4 to make.
One of the key elements of creating a successful brand is consistency across the range of products promoted at any one time across the world. Over time the image that is created has to create loyalty so that consumers continue to buy the products establishing a unchangeable routine. Very rarely are products rebranded and the main reason of this would be that the current brand name/image has not been successful.
If a brand image is widely known in the market it is easily recognized to an extent that if this image is built up over the years the brand no longer has to be specific to what they are advertising. For example ‘Coca-Cola’ is known all over the world. Consumers can identify what the product is by just seeing its logo. If we look at ‘Cadburys Dairy Milk’ commercials, when the product first came on the market, the visuals of the commercials often showed the chocolate and people enjoying the taste of the chocolate etc.
However recent commercials by Cadburys show nothing in link to the chocolate apart from its logo.
This is because the brand and the product is so well known around the world that people only need the logo or consistent purple theme to identify it.
I feel that this research on branding will help us create an effective brand image for our product as it involves elements of advertising and creating a strong product. The three products that we are going to create (music video, Digipak cover & Digipak advertisement in magazine) will all be promoting the same product. It is therefore vital that we keep the image and theme consistent throughout so that audiences are able to identify the brand and link the products together. This consistent brand image is what helps distinguish quality and uniqueness from other products on the market.
Things that we will aim to keep consistent:
-Font and colour scheme for logo that portrays the correct indie image
-Brand image – the message we are trying to portray about the band/artist
-Indie theme
Gucci - A well known brand all over the world, and some of its range of products:
the brand has nothing to do with music, it is just to show the way in which brands operate. No matter what the brand whether it is to do with food, fashion or music they tend to hold a range of products that all give the same image of the brand. As we can see all the different advertisements of 'Gucci' Products they are given a very elegant, posh and expensive image. We can see the brand has quality and people are aware that the brand has quality and uniqueness no matter what the product.
The Indie Genre
The History:
Although the genre didn't take off until the 1980's he roots of the indie genre are traced back as far as Velvet Underground, who recorded and released their first album in 1967.
Velvet underground can be identified as a proto-indie band by a number of key facts:
1. The sound quality is very 'lo-fi' and raw, although this could be because of the age of the footage, most probably because they wanted it like that.
2. The music is very experimental, although the music in this video is not experimental nowadays - it could even be said that it is rather outdated by todays standards, but when this was released in the late 60's the music was very 'weird' and unheard of.
Although the origins are seen in velvet underground. Indie rock has a long history even though it has only just reached the height of popularity.
In the mid to late 70's punk took off in the United States. It was Underground, it was rebellious and orginated in new york city. It was inspired by bands such as the velvet underground (featured above), While here in England we had such bands as Sex pistols and the clash. Following closely behind this explosion in punk, was new wave, it started in the UK in the mid 80's and was a bit more experimental and polished than Punk was. Instead of the very simplistic lyrics that Punk music often had, New Wave was a bit more clever and complex. Notable artists from the earlier years of the scene include Elvis Costello and Tom Robinson. In America, New Wave was used to describe artists that were associated with the Punk scene but didn't have fast and raw Punk sound. These artists include Blondie and The Talking Heads. It would quickly hit the mainstream in both countries. In the 80s, the term New Wave would become generalized and became attached to all synthpop groups. Following this post-punk began to emerge in the UK, which gave scene to bands such as joy division and the cure.
Today:
Indie music has changed a lot since the seventies, and has become even more experimental than ever. Although the music is evolving the actual instruments are going back in time, back to the stages of folk music for example:
Although this video and band are not british it still backs up my point about using more unusual instruments. This does belong to the indie genre, although the costume and video may not seem like it.
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