Our Music Video

Our Band Website

Our Band Website
Click on the image to get to the website

Our Album Digipak- Back and Front

Our Album Digipak- Back and Front

Our Album Digipak- Middle

Our Album Digipak- Middle

Wednesday 17 September 2014

Influences- album covers, websites, styles, bands

Album Covers


Play on word/ artist name









Websites

- white
- simplistic
- one main image/video
- page bar at the top



Aesthetics


YouTube Channel

Majestic Casual is a music channel on YouTube representing electronic music, deep house, experimental, hip-hop, indie, pop and many more.




I like their use of images and text that they use as a background picture for their videos on YouTube.

Videos 

I think this has a strong visual impact- I like the silhouetted figure against the colour background and it works well emphasizing the shapes he is making. I also think they get very creative and clever with their shapes especially when involving other people. 


I think this is a very clever idea and visually amusing and effective.




Artist
Antony Gormley, Blind Light


I think the idea of half seeing people through the smoke has an interesting effect and could work well with dancing.

Inspirational Music Videos & possible genre and song choice

I like the idea of using old ideas and aesthetics and modernising them as done in Lana Del Rays' National Anthem with 50's America and Alt J's Tesselate with Italian Renaissance.


Modernisation of Raphael's "The School of Athens"


JFK and Jackie O

Lana Del Rey & ASAP Rocky

However this is quite a specific idea. Another idea that I'm interested in, is doing a video that is based on speed up and rewind effects





For this a fast song would be good, so something in the dance genre.

When looking into this genre I found that I liked music videos directed by Ryan Staake...





I like how his videos have a fairly straight forward performance style concept, but his use of colour and effects make them different and visually interesting.

Possible ideas
A paint fight- involves colour, slo mo would look good, everyone wearing white, white studio/room.





Videos that show that music accompanied with paint exploding works well.





Possible song (colour theme):
- dreamlike
- summer feel
- feel good

suitable lyrics:

"you got me going, like fireworks exploding" - paint exploding
"flashing moments"
"I can feel my universe open up" -Imagination/fantasy


I also like the use of colour in this video 



Audiences

Research into audiences, in particular how people of different ages and genders consume music and the different genres of music and artists listened to.

Age: 17
Gender: Female
Favourite genres: Acoustic/Indie
Artists: Lewis Watson, Dan Croll, George Ezra
How do you acquire music: Legal and illegal downloads


Age: 16
Gender: male
Favourite genres: rap
Artists: Joey Bada$$, Chance the rapper, MF Doom
How do you acquire music: Soundcloud, spotify
Favourite music videos: Tesselate Alt J

Age: 48
Gender: Male
Favourite music genres: non typical, non classified music
Artists: Nike Cave, Pixies, The Clash
How do you acquire your music: Buying CD's
Favourite music videos: Devo- Whip It

From this research I learnt that I would probably be targeting my music video at a young adult age group as they use the internet to acquire their music and are therefore more likely to watch a music video. My research would suggest choosing either a Acoustic, Indie or Rap genre, as I am part of this age group I also know that the dance genre is popular within peers and a possible genre to choose.

However I realise I only did research into one adult, many adults use the internet to acquire music. I asked my dad what would make him and his peers enjoy/watch a music video and he said something that went the the genre, themes and moods of the song, since if they like the music then they will enjoy a video that accompanies it well.

Monday 15 September 2014

Record Labels Research

"A Record Label is a brand or trademark associated with the production of music recordings and music videos." They are often behind the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion of music, signing deals between artist and their managers.

The traditional relationship between the record label and artist would consist of a contract in which they claimed royalties on records sold for a certain amount of time. For a new upcoming artist signing a record deal used to be vital, however now with the proliferation of web 2.0 and digital media, record deals are no longer necessary for distribution and marketing stages as they can do it themselves with direct fan contact. For already established artists this has enabled them to self distribute. For example Radiohead released their album In Rainbows on their website by making it downloadable where audiences could pay what they wanted. This proved very successful- a suggested 1.2 million downloads sold on the day of release, and then when the album was released on CD it went straight to number 1.

Major Record Labels


The main record labels in the UK were Sony Music, EMI, Warner music and Universal Music Group, however due to finacial reasons Universal bought EMI in 2011 making them the largest of the three. Here is an updated chart:


source: http://www.thismustbepop.com/2014/01/04/major-record-label-map/ 

Artists signed to major record labels usually agree that they will earn 10-15% of the royalties, which can only be claimed once they have paid back their debts to the Record label for CD artwork/packaging, tour support and video production fares etc.

Independent Labels

Independent labels follow a similar format to major record labels, however they take less advances, have lower studio costs, lower royalties but due to financial constraints they spend less on marketing and promotion and rely heavily on word of mouth. Also independent labels differ from major labels in that they often give artists more control over their music, as the quality is the priority rather then making something that is easily marketed.

Independent labels have recently grown in popularity and success.

I looked into London based record label Moshi Moshi




They have helped release music by bands such as Bloc Party, Hot Chip, Kate Nash, Disclosure, Florence and the Machine and many more successful artists.

One method they rely upon in order to raise awareness is live events, hosting a monthly live event at the Servent Jazz Headquarters in Dalston, London, and hosted a stage at Iceland Airwaves Festival.

Many artist often feel restricted by their record label, and now some artists are leaving their labels and making their own enabling total artistic control. For example White Stripes, left Warner Bros and set up Third Man Records, which is now home to other artists, such as Laura Marling.





Semiotic Analysis

At this stage of Research and Planning I had not yet decided what particular genre I wanted to do, but I was interested in this video and wanted to analyse it.




This video references the JF Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Marilyn Monroe love triangle.


reference: Marilyn Monroe Happy Birthday


This is evident in the opening where Lana Del Ray is singing "Happy Birthday Mr President" which Marilyn famously did. JFK is played by ASAP Rocky, a black rapper, this turns it into a modern love story. It also emphasises how attitudes have changed- when JFK was president racism was an issue in American and the Civil Rights Movement was emerging.


The bright colours throughout and the image portrayed of "the perfect life" such as the big house in the Hamptons, family and parties all suggest a positive story. However this is very over the top and could be seen as a criticism of this lavish lifestyle. This is most obvious when the narrative is interrupted by performance shots of Lana signing directly at the camera. In these she is saying "Money is the reason we exist everyone knows it its a fact kiss kiss".


Furthermore the ending gives the story a sad and bitter twist. The video ends in a re-enactment of Kennedy's' death with a voice over of Lana Del Rey saying


"When I first met him, I knew I loved him straight away, and then as the years went on things got more difficult and we were faced with more challenges, I begged him to stay, try to remember what we had at the beginning" "I got the sense he was torn between being a good person and missing out on all the opportunities that life could offer a man as magnificent as him" "And I still love him, I love him".


In this she is speaking as Jacqueline Onassis, giving her a voice that is often forgotten as she was largely overshadowed by her husband. In this I sympathise for her, I think we can infer she is referring to his suspected affair with Marilyn Monroe and that she still loves him.

This video fits in with the artist persona, Lana Del Rey often references aspects of American history and many of her music videos have a similar retro aesthetic

The video is directed by Anthony Mandler. He has directed Lana Del Reys' short film Tropico and other music videos such as Ride. He has directed music videos for many other big artist from a range of different genres such as Rhiana, Drake, Jay Z, Taylor Swift, The Killers, Muse and Fun. He has a recognisable sleek, stylised aesthetic which can be seen throughout his photography and films as well.


Anthony Mandler photography


From this research I learnt....

That a music video with political and social issues might be something that I am interested in.

I liked the use and aesthetic of old archive footage

That both narrative and performance can work together in one video.

Tuesday 9 September 2014

Current trends in popular music


The best selling songs of 2014 (www.officialcharts.com)

The best selling songs of 2014 chart, tell us that pop and dance music is currently the most sold/downloaded genre of music.

I looked at the genders of the artist in this chart:

Male: 75%
Mixed (groups): 20%
Female: 5%

The genres covered in this list are: Pop, Dance, Rap, Soul

Although it might not seem like it when looking at these statistics, the rock genre is also very successful every year making a large number of album sales.

Gaps in the market

Throughout all genres there seems to be less female artist/bands compared to male.

Friday 5 September 2014

Initial Influences- Music Video

At this stage I had not yet decided what genre I wanted to particularly focus on, and is a very general collection of ideas from music videos that I liked.

- Narrative style video 

 

I also like that it also had some performance clips and a specific decade that influenced the aesthetic.

 - Video influenced by song/ Stop Start/ Sped Up effects



I like how the content and timing of the clips are influenced by the song in both lyrics and instrumental.






Based on Italian Renaissance painter Raphael's 'The School of Athens', but modernised.
Diretor : Alex Southam

I like the use of fast forwarding and rewinding in this video...

Myself as a Consumer

How/Where/When do I consume music?

How? Computer (YouTube) , Phone (Spotify), TV music channels (in the ad breaks)


Where? Bedroom, Bus, Living room


When? I have time e.g. on the bus to school. Don't have a regular routine of listening to music.


Why? Something to do


3 Tracks that mean something to me



Choose a song from your...



- Childhood

When I was young I listened to my dads music...


...and then when I was 10 I discovered Lily Allen

 


- Early Teens

After coming out of the pop pre-teen music stage, my favorite genre was indie rock and I would often go to gigs where I found that I discovered more new bands that played as support acts.




-Today

I now listen to a range of music from different genres unlike previously. My current favorite artists are: Kate Tempest, Alex Turner, Pete Doherty, The Pouges, Jimmy Cliff, Bob Dylan, Beans On Toast.