Dance Rehearsal - Music Video

Digital Pack Analysis - Lloyd Banks

Above is a example of another digital pack from the R&B artist Lloyd Banks. The first thing I see is the hugh intertexual reference to money and the connotations of that. The dollar bill is iconic in the world for its gangster link and the fact that as a gangster you are constantly trying to get more money, legal or not. The idea that Lloyd Banks has chosen this style is to build a image for identify in which his fans of the him can look up to and aspire too. There are two ways of reading this pack. The first is the representations of youth and also in some cases black people and how they are shown in society, it is usually very negative relating to crime and violence that money could be the problem. The other way of reading the artwork is the fact that it could mean that it is for young people to have high dreams and could aspire to do as well as Lloyd and as the cover shows to make a lot of money. The colour scheme is very true to the gangster way of life and the dollar bill. Overall I like this digital pack due to it nature of building identities for the artist. With relation to my artist, we want to build a very light heart image and to show that the artist does not take himself too seriously.

Journal Three

This week have tried to focus on the final development before we start to shoot. We have chosen to do some rehearsals before we start to shoot to make sure that what is filmed is as high standard as the final video looks and sounds like. To do this we, as a group decided to meet every week and work on the dance routines that will be featured in our final music video. The dance we learnt this week were 'Macarena' and 'Cha Cha Side' because we plan to spoof theses throughout the video. I feel that theses rehearsal have been successful as we now have I primary idea of what the video will finally look like. Also from theses exercise we have found that we need to learn the dances to the beat of 'One More Time' as the beats are different for all the songs so we will have to speed up or slow down some of the dances. Also this week, I made sure that we had all the locations sorted before we started shooting. We have planned t soot at another school location, to accomplish a old more traditional feel to our video, and to make it more relatable.

Blog Feedback

Your posts are lacking labels

Calendar - Our Production Plan

Can’t see it

 

Locations

you should have pictures from a recce     How are you getting access to Woolwich Poly?

 

Potential Errors

Who wrote this cause I’ve read it 4 times now!

 

Progress, Ideas and Discussion

I can’t watch this video YouTube have blocked it for copyright – YOU SHOULD HAVE NOTICED THIS

 

Blog Feedback

Where are your comments on your feedback?

 

Digital Pack Analysis

Change the dimensions, it doesn’t fit

 

Capitalisum, creativity and the crisis in the music industry –

also spot the spelling mistake which Leanne DID MENTION IN YOUR FEEDBACK!

 

This serves no purpose as you have just copied and pasted you haven’t passed any comment on what you have understood from it or how this will impact on your artist in conjunction with the production of the digipak

 

Major Labels vs. Independent Labels

 

Copying and pasting from Wikipedia doesn’t constitute as research what it actual mean is that ‘I’m lazy’. You should be referencing where you are copying and pasting from and commenting on what knowledge you have gained and how this contribute to your project or even better read the research on the internet put it in your own words and reference whereyou got your knowledge from. You have actually got a really good video if you comment on it would be better.

 

As much as I love your visuals you also need to make relevant commentary on Big Four

Adorno and Horkheimers Theory some quotes in this would be good and also linking it to your artist

 

The Breif

SPELLING!

 

Paradise - Coldplay (Directed by Mat Whitecross)

This lacks detail and clearly you have NOT EVEN BOTHERED TO ACTION LEANNES FEEDBACK because she already mentioned this.

 

 

• I have now hopefully sorted the problem with the production plan and not being able to see it. 

• I have now changed the locations write up into my own words to avoid mix-up with copying fellow group mates.

•  I have now also added a post on Iconic Album Artworks with links to boosh.

Above is the feedback given by one of the course tutors. I feel that I still need to add a lot to my blog, I do understand the individual work load needed for the is high, but as a group we where told we can share the task of some the posts that are relate-able to our group work, such as location when that will be the same for all our groups. Id understand and will take on board the comments but the fact that I have been accused of copying all from other members is bit strong since there is no evidence to who did what task. This needs to be made clearer and we will discuss this as a group.

Calendar - Our Production Plan

Locations

We have a lot of potential location's that we can use to film our music video.  It will be a challenge to avoid using the typical shots at tour school because it could make our music video look lazy.  We have also taken into consideration that we need enough room to use a green screen we had to decide on a big room so that we have space to dance and not damage any of the equipment. We have decided that one of the drama rooms would be an ideal location, this is because we will have enough room to set up the equipment we are going to use e.g. lighting, green screen and camera. In addition the drama room doesn't have any natural lighting, this will be play a major part when filming. By not having any natural lighting it means that it won't affect the green screen when filming, if there is any uneven light shone onto the green screen it could make it more difficult when editing the green screen out. Before we are able to use the room we have to be granted permission from the person who resides in the room, if we are then granted permission we have to negotiate a day and time we are able to use it.

Another location that we are looking to shoot our music video at is Woolwich Polytechnic school for boys. We have decided that we would like to use a different location other than Welling School; this is because we do not want to be predictable in our locations and we would like to think we have made an effort in finding locations other than our own school and as a group we decided that too many videos have been shot in this specific location. Woolwich Polytechnic would be a good location because people wouldn't be familiarized with this location. The location is the main part of the song as it is set in a school, before we can use it we have to obtain permission from the school itself. Again if we are granted with permission we have to see when we are able to shoot, we have to find a time and day that suits us all. The way in which we would get the access to woolwich poly, is to write a letter to the school asking permission to use there school two night after school hours to get the maximum amount of shots.

Potential Errors

There are several potential errors that could affect the shooting of our music video. The first and major problem is that our first choice location, Woolwich Polytechnic, may be unwilling to allow us to film there, we also have to get permission to use the rooms that we are going to be in use, we plan on using a drama room and we will have to get permission to use it from the teacher in the room. Both of these problems can be avoided by simply getting permission before we go there and getting a time slot as to when we can use the spaces that we want, and after we have got the permission then we will be good to go on with filming. Another potential problem is that we all have to learn the dance routines that we will be performing in the music video. We can eradicate this by making sure that we are all practising the dances prior to the filming and together so that we can all try to be in time when it actually comes to shooting the video.We will have to edit out the green-screen and make sure that the lighting is correct so that during editing this doesn't cause a problem a error with the lighting could lead to us having to re-shoot the whole video as the lighting was just wrong, and we have to make sure that the green-screen is set up properly to give us the best results. If we can avoid all of these errors then we will have made the best music video that we possibly could.

Green Screen Test

This is our testing of the green screen in order to ensure that our music video will work as the green screen will play a very important aspect in our music video. As you can see from the video and the crazy dancing you can tell that the green screen will be able to work perfectly and we shouldn't have any problems in using the chroma key effect in our music video. We used a new programme in order to make this test work and that is called 'Adobe After Effects CS6'. What this programme gives us is a better chroma key effect on the video making me look like I am almost on a beach scene. I am glad this has worked as it means that we can now focus on getting the other aspects of our music video up to scratch.

Green Screen Set Up

This is a video based on how to set up a green screen. What this video gives us information on is how to lay out the green screen, what you need to setup the green screen and where to light the green screen in order to make sure that it will work perfectly. This youtube video will give us tips on how to light and prepare a green screen to maximum effect so that our music video will look like the best of quality.

Animatic - One More Time

Once we had finished the storyboard, we decided to create a animatic to get a primary idea of what the final video would look like. We took photos of the storyboard and put them in to a movie with the music behind it. When then had to match the timings of each shot, to make sure it all works together.

The feedback we received form the course leader was very positive, with a few minor criticisms. The first piece of feedback was the music did to sound high quality and it did not match the storyboard exactly. This meant that the slow part of the song One More Time was out of sync with what we decide it would go with in our video. Despite this comment she believe that the video has a lot of potential and if the video is shot well it could be very successful. We are very happy with this feedback as it allows us to move on and start to shot the music video properly. 

Journal Two

For the last week we have been getting the necessary preparation needed before we start to shoot out music video. This meant we had to draw out a detailed storyboard and then create a animatic which will give the rest of the class and us a basic image for the final video. We started this process with a discussion (which is below) which allowed us as a collective to decide what we like/didn't like and comment /queries about the idea so far. Thus allowing us to move on and start to study our song and figure out exactly what each part the song would look like in the final video.  As a group we worked together to finish the story board in the fastest time so that we could move on to creating the animatic. This was a key part of the process so far as it is the first time we see our ideas come together. Overall I think we have a good idea so far but I still think we need to look at the video layout and also the length of the song (as it last 5 minutes) it is hard to fill the whole thing. The next stage is to so a few screen test to make sure the idea can definitely be accomplished.

Progress, Ideas and Discussion

Blog Feedback

Pitch Feedback

Things that need developing are;

• Who will we have dancing for our videos. For this development we will need to find 4 people who are going to be the main dancers and that is already sort within the group as each of us group members will be the 4 main dancers.
• Randomness of our video. Now that we have sat down and talked about it as a group, our music video will still be random in way that we do not know what music dance routine is coming next but it won't be so random that it does not make any sense.
• Make sure the idea of spoofing actually gets across. We as a group are going to make sure that we get the idea of spoofing across as none of us are professional dancers so we cannot recreate the music videos perfectly so there will be some sort of bad dancing element within the video. Also we are all boys so when it comes to the girl music videos then you will be able to tell that we are spoofing the video.
• We need a theme and it needs to flow. Now we as a group have made sure to deal with this head on as if the music video doesn't flow then it wont work. So what we have decided to do is use a corridor in order to link all the dance routines together and what will happen is our main dancer out of the four will walk into different rooms and there we will find the different dance routines in each room. This theme of having the corridor and the rooms will keep our music video flowing.
• The target audience of our music video. At the moment our target audience is aimed at males aged 16-25 (our primary audience) however this needs to change as i think that it is both genders who we should be aiming at and it also should be aimed at a more 'clubbers' profiled audience so we are also changing the age from 16-25 to 18-25 in order for it to be a more adult specific gender that is not primarily based on one gender but that is aimed at both genders.
• Our record label. What needs developing about this aspect of our music video is the fact that the record label we have chosen for our music video is too mainstream and we have been questioned on this but based on the artists that sony BMG already have we have decided that we are going to stick with them.

The Things That Work Are;

• The intertextual references with regards to Goodwins theory.
• The logo  and branding for our artist is also very good.
• The idea of spoofing pop/dance music videos.
• Our audience profile and mood board are also very bold and detailed. 

Things that need developing are;

• Who will we have dancing for our videos. For this development we will need to find 4 people who are going to be the main dancers and that is already sort within the group as each of us group members will be the 4 main dancers.
• Randomness of our video. Now that we have sat down and talked about it as a group, our music video will still be random in way that we do not know what music dance routine is coming next but it won't be so random that it does not make any sense.
• Make sure the idea of spoofing actually gets across. We as a group are going to make sure that we get the idea of spoofing across as none of us are professional dancers so we cannot recreate the music videos perfectly so there will be some sort of bad dancing element within the video. Also we are all boys so when it comes to the girl music videos then you will be able to tell that we are spoofing the video.
• We need a theme and it needs to flow. Now we as a group have made sure to deal with this head on as if the music video doesn't flow then it wont work. So what we have decided to do is use a corridor in order to link all the dance routines together and what will happen is our main dancer out of the four will walk into different rooms and there we will find the different dance routines in each room. This theme of having the corridor and the rooms will keep our music video flowing.
• The target audience of our music video. At the moment our target audience is aimed at males aged 16-25 (our primary audience) however this needs to change as i think that it is both genders who we should be aiming at and it also should be aimed at a more 'clubbers' profiled audience so we are also changing the age from 16-25 to 18-25 in order for it to be a more adult specific gender that is not primarily based on one gender but that is aimed at both genders.
• Our record label. What needs developing about this aspect of our music video is the fact that the record label we have chosen for our music video is too mainstream and we have been questioned on this but based on the artists that sony BMG already have we have decided that we are going to stick with them.

The Things That Work Are;

• The intertextual references with regards to Goodwins theory.
• The logo  and branding for our artist is also very good.
• The idea of spoofing pop/dance music videos.
• Our audience profile and mood board are also very bold and detailed. 

Above are the feedback sheets we received after delivering our pitch. Overall I am happy with all the comments made and I will definitely think about the points that do not work.  For example our target audience could be worked on, i.e. changing it from teens to clubbers 20 - 35 yea old.

Pitch Delievered!!!!

BooSH - One More Time Pitch

Jack Mitchell AKA BooSH is a 25 year old DJ named after his love the TV ‘The Mighty BOOSH’. Originally from Milton Keynes, he begun working in local clubs making demo tapes. He moved to London at 19 where he made a name for himself on the decks and featured on various compilation albums. He then went to Ibiza where he work with various artists to produce his new album. Now back in London he decided to make a music video for his new single.

BooSH states that he has many influences who play a large part in the music that he creates, these influences include Fat Boy Slim, Basement Jaxx, The Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy.The club music in Ibiza is a large influence within his music he says that Ibiza is his favorite place on the earth it has the things that he likes more than anything else in the world these things are sun, clubbing and keeping things chill, Mitchell was quoted as saying once that his ideology in life was “Party all night and sleep all day” and Ibiza is one of the only places on earth that this was possible.  

The influences behind our music video, were similar dance videos such as Gangnam Style and the original video for One More Time. We realized that dance songs videos very rarely have a narrative to them and they are quite random however these types of videos usually have some kind of dance routine, conventions that we will also try to stick to. Also in the brief BooSH stated that he disliked ‘cheesy pop videos’ so we are looking at the possibility of spoofing certain videos.

The audience profile above is the primary target audience that we have identified but with regards our secondary target audience it would be females within the same age bracket and similar tastes in music. The main way that the song would be heard by both audiences is in clubs, because clubs are unisex and the people within the age range listed above.

On our mood board we put plenty of pictures of acts similar to ourselves or acts that have inspired us. Also the words that we put around the mood board are either song lyrics or things that we are going to try and incorporate into our videos. 

We decided that BooSH should be signed to Sony as there are several similar artists signed to them including:

•Calvin Harris

•Skrillex

•Mike Posner

Also Sony have the ability to get him a lot of media coverage.

1)The one of our ideas for the One More Time video will consist of a select spoofed iconic pop videos. We wanted to do this as we wanted to take the mickey out of videos such as Gangnam style in a similar way to of Eminem’s ‘Without Me’ video. The idea of playing with intertextual references and mocking the mainstream pop industry.

2)For the costumes we feel that because we are spoofing videos we should try and make it look as close to the real one as possible, so we will try and get outfit similar to ones worn in the original videos, for example morph suits for the around the world video and drag for the queen’s video I want to break free, again another iconic pop video. The location that we are considering is public places with flash mob feel with a lot of people dancing, we could also use the green screen to get to locations that are not realistic to get to. 

3)Because there are not many conventions for dance videos we can go crazy with the ideas that we have and can make the video as random as we like, because we don’t have the constraints of a normal music genre with usual codes and conventions demonstrated by Goodwin

4)In the video we are trying to imitate iconic dances from the YMCA to Party Rock Anthem. The reason that we feel that spoofing videos is such a good idea is that in our artist brief he said that he disliked cheesy pop videos, and from there with the lack of codes and conventions that we had that we were going to spoof videos.Drag is intertextual reference to Queens ‘I want to break free’.

Iconic Album Artwork

Digital Pack Analysis - Linkin Park & Jay Z

Target Audience Profile

Party Rock Athem - LMFAO

 

Here is another example of a music video that has infulenced our decisions when creating our own music video. As soon has the music video starts, the first thing the viewer sees is a very bold intertexual reference to Danny Boyle's 28 Day Later, with that exact title appearing at the beginning. This may have been used to relate to the world of iconic dance routines and how they can turn into big pandemics, much like this years Gangnam style. As the video proceeds, the outfits become very wacky and colourful contrasting the abanded setting which the video sets up which is used to twist or mock the seriousness of apococlpse movies, giving the video a much lighter hearted feel. they also intertuexualise the 80's dress sense and gives people who lived in the era something to relate to. I think the reason that the director chose to film the video on a street, is for one it is a chep set, and two, it is relatable to audiences. Throughout the video, the shots are styles to look like movies, but as the song develops there is a long shot dance routine where we see the two lead singers plus dancer performing the routine of the music. This is a import convention of all dance songs as it creates the inconic moves which people can what and try to imitate. Essciatially I would like to create the same sort of tyle in my music video.

 

 

Moodboard!!!!

Boosh Moodboard on Prezi

Above is the moodboard we created to express the overall style and look of our artist and music video. It expresses the club scene dance music theme in which we would like to make our music video based on. It includes artist like Daft Punk, Swedish House Mafia and OK Go, which either have the same genre or the same sort of video that we would like to respond to.The shape we chose gives it a space feel and hence calling it planet BOOSH!!!! As a group it helped get an understanding of what exactly we want to do in the next stage... THE BRIEF!

Chosing A Logo

  Here is the first logo idea for Boosh. I have tried to make this logo very comic to correspond with the identity we want to create for the artist. The fist is a intentexual reference to to superhero comic books as they are very light hearted and typically very camp and funny. They also have reference of the 'pow' and 'bang' which is used to show violence in comics. We thought that Boosh sounded similar to on of these action words, so we decided to link it in our logo.  

Here is the second logo design for Boosh. I have attempted to make it a bit more stylised and simple with references to Calvin Harris. I don't feel that this logo give our artist the right identity we want a more light hearted feel to him. I don't think we want to use this idea for our final logo. 

This our third logo idea in which I have tried to give a electronic feel, corresponding to the nature of the genre of music. This logo will also allow audiences who lived in the 80s a relation as there is a reference to space invaders. Because of the time period we have chosen to include in this logo, it not aimed for the right demographic we want to aim our artist at.

This is my final logo design for our artist 'Boosh'. Here I have added a lighting bolt behind the text. There is only one problem with this logo and that is that it connotes a rock and mental reference that we really don't want for our dance and house artist. his is the reason we will not use this for our final logo.

Gangnam Style - PSY

 

The reason I chose to analysis this video is the contraversal natural of it, and how famous the dance has. In realation to the style of our video, the cheesy and comicical nature, is something we want to use as it will almost contridict the genre, but also spoof cheesy pop music. The video is accentially a montage of scenes focusing on the famous horse riding dance. As a typical convention of a dance video, a dance is key as it draws audinece in as they can recognise the style and respond in there own way. The colour image make the video very light hearted and make very easy to watch. the intertexual references that could be shown in this could be other famous dances including the Macerana, Party Rock Anthem and all the work by Micheal Jackson. I think that in our video we would take the dance aspect, as we want a comical style to our video. 

Capitalisum, creativity and the crisis in the music industry

It will not come as news to any of us that the music industry is changing rapidly, and that there seem to be some very obvious losers and winners from these changes. The big changes, of course, are all largely the consequence of the development of the internet and of digital media formats which can be reproduced and distributed by anyone, effectively cost-free. The losers are those musicians and corporations who have traditionally made their living through selling various types of musical commodity: most obviously recordings in physical formats such as vinyl records, cassettes, CDs, etc. The winners, it would seem, are those at the extreme ends of the distribution chain: consumers or users at the bottom, and the large-scale aggregators and distributors of media content - such as the Apple iTunes store, Google (through youtube), etc - at the top. What I’m going to do for the next few minutes is to think about the implications of some of these changes and how we can conceptualise them.

 

One of the central features of this transformation in the music industry is the effective de-commodification of music. In the 19th century, with the development of a market for sheet music, and the spread of public concerts, music became something which could be bought and sold for profit. This situation was obviously given a huge boost by the invention of sound recording at the end of the nineteenth century and the consequent growth of a world market for musical recordings. One of the key effects of the technological changes which I have already mentioned has been severely to weaken the commodity status of these recordings. A commodity always depends for its status and its value on its relative scarcity; once the reproduction and distribution of that commodity become effectively free, then it necessarily loses that value and that status. This is great news for consumers of music, but for producers, it means, quite simply, that they suddenly have nothing of value to sell. I think the question which then emerges for 21st century societies is: if we want to have professional musicians at all (and of course there are those who say we don’t need them), then how are we going to pay for them? How will their work be compensated, if not through selling their wares in an open marketplace?

 

Now, before coming back to this particular issue, I want to elucidate some of the conceptual issues raised by these questions. Firstly, I want to make a distinction between the two sets of ‘losers’ from this process whom I have already mentioned: musicians, and traditional record companies. In the terms that I’ve described them, both of these sets of actors are trying, ultimately, to sell musical commodities at a relative profit. However, there is a fundamental difference between them in terms of what the aimof generating those profits is. In the case of musicians, apart from a handful of very greedy and ambitious individuals, the aim is generally to generate enough income for a decent standard of living which will enable them to keep making their music. We might say the same about those independent record companies which have never generated large profits above those which are reinvested in support for new music. In the case of large record companies, however, the aim is not simply the generation of acceptable income for their employees, but the long-term, uninhibited, and unlimited accumulation of capital. The difference I am positing here, is therefore a fundamental, but surprisingly unusual one: between commerce on the one hand, and capitalism on the other.

 

This text was taken from a talk given at the Berlin Music Week.

Journal One

This week has been essential for learning the primary knowledge of the music industry and the video that are produced within in. The first task in which I had to complete was a case study on a famous recording artist that has built a style and image through the way in which they dress, perform and shown through their videos. I decided to look at Coldplay as they have a unique placement in the music industry and have not change that much from their first album to the last. This made it very interesting to look at as it twist what is commonly stereotyped within the industry of manufactured artists. When then had to research a music video director Melina Mestruka within the industry. This helped me understand that all directors bring a new style to the genre of the music they are creating videos for. This hat I need to consider when I start to create my own videos. The range of help theorist that talk about this industry is amazing and looking at some of the greats like Goodwin and Adorno and Horkheimer and there influences on the music world. Goodwin helped me understand the key elements that are featured in music videos. This is something that I want to apply to my music video or in another case go against it. The theory by Adorno and Horkheimer was very interest for me as it helped my understanding of the music industry and how a lot of the time the music and artist that are produced are all manufactured by record labels but also us as a public. This is something I want to apply my work as it will help it become a better video.

Record Labels

Major Labels vs. Independent Labels

Owen Husney is a musician, artist manager, and concert promoter based in Minneapolis. He was Prince's first manager, and the person who arranged the famous contract with Warner Brothers which allowed Prince nearly unprecedented creative control over his music. This is him speaking about the relationship between major record labels and independent/indie labels.

The common perception of a record label is the top four major labels. These labels are brands and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion, and enforcement of copyright protection of sound recordings and music videos; conducts talent scouting and development of new artists; and maintains contracts with recording artists and their managers. The term "record label" derives from the circular label in the centre of a vinyl record which prominently displays the manufacturer's name, along with other information. In comparison with this, independent labels are small, local or a part of a bigger companies. These companies hunt for new artist including talent scouting which is the tradition way in the industry. The contrast of the two different types of labels is the cycle in which they go under to find talent, for example independent labels look at scouting at local gigs, whereas the big four use new medias like talent shows and youtube to create the idea of mass production. For artist like Boosh, scouting is the only way to get noticed as it is a very niche market of music and will need to be found through their talent and not by the ease of the major record label factory.

The Top Four Major Labels 

1. Universal Music Group

The Universal Music Group sells more music than any other major label. They accounted for 25.5% of the market in 2005, according to IFPI. The group's well-known label imprints include Geffen, Interscope, Island, Motown, and Universal. Key artists are:

• Black Eyed Peas
• Mariah Carey
• 50 Cent
• Gwen Stefani
• Kanye West

Subsidiaries: 

• Interscope Geffen A&M
• The Island Of Def Jam Music
• Decca
• Show Dog

 2. Sony BMG Music Entertainment

Sony BMG Music Entertainment is the second biggest major record label in music sales. They accounted for 21.5% of the market in 2005. The company's well-known label imprints include Arista, Columbia, Epic, J, Jive, and RCA. Key artists are:

• Kelly Clarkson
• Alicia Keys
• Outkast
• Shakira
• Britney Spears

Subsidiaries:

• Columbia Records
• Epic Records
• RCA
• Roc Nation 

3. EMI Group

The EMI Group is the third biggest major record label in music sales. They accounted for 13.4% of the market in 2005. The group's well-known label imprints include Astralwerks, Capitol, EMI, Mute, and Virgin. Key artists are:

• The Beatles
• Coldplay
• Gorillaz
• Rolling Stones
• Robbie Williams

Subsidiaries:

• Blue Note
• Capitol Music
• Caroline Distribution
• Virgin Music

4. Warner Music Group

The Warner Music Group is the fourth major record label in music sales. They accounted for 11.3% of the market in 2005. The group's well-known label imprints include Asylum, Atlantic, Lava, Reprise, Rhino, and Warner Bros. Key artists are:

• Green Day
• Madonna
• Alanis Morissette
• My Chemical Romance
• Rob Thomas

Subsidiaries:

• Atlantic Records
• Warner Bros. Records
• Rhino Entertainment
• Fearless Recorde

Adorno and Horkheimers Theory

Madonna

The popular pop singer Madonna is a prime example of the theory of Adorno and Horkheimers. She started in the industry as a product of her label and she was marketed for a worldwide audience. There image is marketed for a mass audience the same as many other boy bands this is what Adorno and Horkheimer described as 'mass culture'. Adorno and Horkheimer stated that the capitalist corporation was almost unstoppable, and don't allow the artist to be creative they are just aloud to make what sells. Adorno and Horkheimer said that the creation of artists that were remarkably similar was the 'cultural industry' that operated in the same way as manufacturing industries. The way in which they do this is by creating a song with catchy lyrics and hope that audiences will go out and spend money on the singles and the albums.

 

Adele:

In a contrast to the singing talent of Madonna, Adele is a unique artist in which goes against all of the stereotypical conventions of an artist but also Adorno and Horkheimers theory of capitalistic views within the industry. The idea that Adele is part of the mass culture is silly as she follows her own style style and is not fussed  about how she is shown in the media. She has a unique style that she use to be successful and is amongst her fans. She is part of one of the top four record labels, but the fact that she is so unique is the reason she is so successful, and this is what the labels know and use to make the money the want. In a way she is a part of the theory but in a completely different way.

 

The Brief

 Today in lesson, it was time to make the important decisions, what genre of music to chose, what group I was going to work with and what song I was going to make a video. We decided as a group that I was going to be working with Jason, Aaron and Luke. This was a decision that we all felt that would work the best. We then had the task to chose the genre of music we where going to do, which evidently was dance/techno which was because it has very lose convention which would allow us to develop our own ideas freely. Below is the brief we chose to follow within our group, the only thing that we have decided to change is the name of the artist which we have changed from 'Magma' to 'Boosh'. We have created the backstory as to how he got his name. The backstory is that whilst at a party he met co-writer of The Mighty Boosh' Noel Fielding, at this point Jack Mitchell became 'Boosh'. 

 

Paradise - Coldplay (Directed by Mat Whitecross)

From looking at the video as a whole there is a huge intertexual reference when they show the lines of the song on pieces of cardboard. Although that this is commonly use in videos now, it still relates back to one of the first ever music videos. The fact that the video is shot like a movie is another intertexual reference which is shown strongly by the use of opening credits. The fact that the story is of a a elephant escaping from a zoo to get back to his family in the wild (paradise) could mean that the band could feel the same way about playing music together, therefore paradise. The whole video is very light hearted and could be Coldplay's way of saying they take there music seriously, but not themselves. 

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin has identified a number of key features in music videos. They are:

- A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.

- A relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music.

- Genre-related style and iconography present.

- Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist.

- Voyeurism often plays a major part, especially in relation to females.

- Intertextual references to other media texts may be present.

He says that music videos are often constructed by the link between the visuals and the song plus the artist. Relationships are built between these in the video, and the close-ups of the artists gives them the representation and publicity they require. Voyeurism is used to increase the video’s attractiveness, particularly to males, whilst intertextuality is often employed in humorous videos. Many of these features are present in all music videos, depending on the genre of the song and the aim of the record company/artist.

99 Problem - Jay-Z (Directed by Mark Romanek)

Throughout the music video, the mise-en-scene represents Jay-Z to be a 'gangsta'. This includes clothing he is wearing including a baseball cap and a bomber jacket which is typically linked with a hip-hop/rapper life style. The video feature a primarily black cast which represent s the black culture of Brooklyn in New York. The fact that the video is shot in Brooklyn is to show the diversity of people who live within the community, for example the use of Jewish people and African Americans throughout the video. The whole of the video is shot in black and white which to me is an intertexual reference to old new york romantic films; which a dominantly white casts and the fact that this is almost contrasting it. Jay-Z throughout the video is shot using low angle hots. This may have been used by director Mark Romanek, to make Jay-Z look almost dominate in his environment and it also makes him look powerful and owe. Thoughout the video there is a strong sense of crime and rebellion. Various shot in the montage include prison, shootings, police and drugs which are typically associated with the criminal life style.

Coldplay: Case Study

Coldplay: Case Study from Luke Shelley

• 1. A Case Study
• 2. COLDPLAYColdplay are a British rock band formed in 1996 bylead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist JonnyBuckland at University College London. After theyformed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group asa bassist and they changed their name to StarfishWill Champion joined as a drummer, backingvocalist, and multi-instrumentalist, completing theline-up. Manager Phil Harvey is often considered anunofficial fifth member. The band renamedthemselves "Coldplay" in 1998, was their firstrelease on a major label, after signing toParlophone.SORUCED FROM WIKIPEDIA
• 3. THE BEGININGChris Martin, Jon Buckland, Will In 1998, Coldplay released their firstChampion and Guy Berryman, who EP, which they funded themselves.met whilst they were staying at the Only five hundred copies were made,same Halls of Residence at University, and after they had handed them out toformed Coldplay in 1996. family and friends, only fifty were left for distribution around London.All four members studied at UniversityCollege London – Chris was doing a Shortly afterwards, the band werecourse in Ancient History, Jon read spotted playing in Camden by the co-Maths and Astronomy, Will was an founder of Fierce Panda Records,Anthropologist, and Guy was training Simon Williams. He offered them ato be an engineer. one-off deal and they soon released the Brothers and Sisters EP on theBoth Chris and Jon had been playing Fierce Panda label.the guitar since their early teens, Guyis the band’s bass player, and Will took The band graduated from UCL in 1999the role of drummer, despite that fact and, in the same year, were tipped bythat he prefers to play the guitar. the NME as a band to watch. Later that year they signed to Parlophone Records.
• 4. PAROLAPHONE RECORDS & EMIParlophone is a record label that The EMI Group, also known as EMIwas founded in Germany in 1896 Music or simply EMI, is a Britishby the Carl Lindström Company as multinational music companyParlophon. The British branch was headquartered in London, Unitedformed in 1923 as "Parlophone" Kingdom. It is the fourth-largestwhich developed a reputation in business group and family of recordthe 1920s as a leading jazz label. labels in the recording industry and wasIt was acquired in 1927 by the one of the "big four" record companies.Columbia GraphophonE Company EMI Group also has a major publishingwhich later became EMI. arm, EMI Music Publishing – also based in London with offices globally.
• 5. DISCOGRAPHY
• 6. YELLOWWhen looking at the style of the music video, theimmediate thought is how low budget it is. Most lowbudget music videos are made for bands, most commonlyindie or rock. This videos usually are made to becomesuccessful in the industry and move from independent tomajor record label. The fact that the video was film all inone shot shows that the budget was low but the bandwanted to make a impact with the clever use of this.
• 7. PRINCESS OF CHINAColdplay are typically known for be a indie rock, but thisvideo has the characteristics of a mainstream pop video.This could be the result of the collaboration of Rihanna (apop singer). The video starts with a MPAA style banner atthe start. This is an intertextual reference of most filmtrailers but the video has a particular theme of Chinesemovies. The give away is the Chinese opening titlescommonly featured in the films. The overall purpose of thisvideo is to relate to movies .
• 8. STYLEFrom their all of Coldplays music and videos, the image thatthey broadcast to the audiences is very much of a cool rockband. They dress in slightly unique ways, but usually typicalrock band clothing, for example the Beatles with uniform styleclothing. There music genre is indie rock/pop which is thecorrect link between how they are marketed. The targetaudience of Coldplay is boys aged 15 to about 30, purelybecause they dress in a stylistic way in which these youngpeople look up to. There secondary audience could be girls ofthe same ages, because of there sex appeal.