Blog 6 Andrew Goodwin Part 2

Blog 6 Andrew Goodwin Part 2

 Many people have their own ideas as to what a music video must include. People may believe that it consists of images of the artist surrounded by people perceived as the object of erotic desire. There are often music videos where girls where nothing or very little and the men are just focussing on the camera or they are not leaving the girls alone, it is very rarely one or the other as it is one extreme to the other.

 The idea that there must always be a link of some kind between the lyrics and the demonstration that is visual in the video is one that is widely believed to be true. This is an idea that mainly comes from Andrew Goodwin's belief that this was crucial and that there was always some link between the video and the lyrics.

 He strongly believed that they must either be illustrative, amplifying or contradictory. The video to the song "Fireflies" by Owl City shows the illustrative part of Andrew Goodwin's belief as he is singing about fireflies when they appear on the screen.  The video for the song "Homecoming" by Kanye West very much fits in with this belief in terms of the amplifying element as the video shows his home and him coming home. Finally, the music video to the song by Usher and Will.i.am called "OMG" represents the contradictory side as it is not a video that necessarily show the story of the lyrics.

Blog 12 Alex Southam Case Study 3

Blog 12 Alex Southam Case Study 3

 Alex Southam trained as a lawyer and studied law at University. He thought that it was tedious and so decided to start again and instead began a career in music video production. At first he wanted to start making music videos to learn the ply of the trade in order to make the change from law to film production.

 Alex Southam previously worked for "Agile Films" who, on their website, describe him as "an exciting new talent". Initially, he took on all aspects of music video production such as the camera, lighting, and editing. However, he has now made the decision to use a director of Photography.

 Alex likes the format of music videos. He feels there is real freedom and you can do anything you want. He does not like to shoot commercials because he feels there is more direction and no room for his own ideas. Occasionally Alex Southam uses Vimeo to advertise his projects and videos. He uses Vimeo as generally it is seen as more respectable than YouTube.

 Southam first made an impact with the video for "Tesselate" by Alt J which took only one day to shoot and cost £10,000. He used various special effects which earned him many plaudits.




Another video that Southam is credited for is the video for the Chase and status song "Lost and Not Found" which had a £50,000 budget. It was filmed in LA at 36 frames a second and then played slowly for a distinctive effect. This is partly because he wanted a 1990's VHS look. Interestingly, there are only three edits in the entire video. 

Blog 15: Digipak

Blog 15: Digipak

When an artist has a new album being released soon, the distributors create a digipak for the artist. A digipak is the CD case that the CD will be released in. They use these digipaks to keep a continuous theme that is noticeable to a fan. 

 This is the digipak in which Rihanna's CD was placed for the release of her album "Loud". We can see that there is a theme of red throughout the digipak. She has used the same theme for her poster for the tour which is also called "Loud" Her lipstick is a distinctive shade of red and it is almost the same colour as her hair. This is shown in two of the six panels. There is a picture spread out across the top three panels of Rihanna laying in a bed of red roses. Once again, these roses are the same colour red as her lipstick and also her hair. Also, the actual disc has a rose on it, following the theme from the digipak where there is a bed of roses. 

 In the poster for the tour "Loud" Rihanna has the same colour hair once again to continue the theme of Rihanna throughout so that her fans recognise the themes. The font used on her album is large, spaced out, and thin. Therefore, this theme has been carried over to the poster advertising her tour of the same name as her album title.

 This is something that is not only continued by Rihanna, it is used by music companies all over the world as it tells target audiences who it is advertising and it encourages them to buy their album and subsequently tickets for the tour. 

Blog 14: Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson

  Michael Jackson had a 44 year career as a popstar and first appeared as a member of the Jackson 5 at the age of 6 and he went on to be an all-round popstar in terms of entertainment and his voice. He was the lead singer of the Jackson 5 from a very young age and he was seen as a cute, young talent. They were managed by their dad and they were hugely successful. Their songs included Rockin' Robin, ABC, and later on Blame it on the Boogie.
  In his solo career, Michael Jackson began with the album Off the Wall and went on to make many more albums over the course of his life, with the hit Thriller arguably his most famous and the most successful album of the 20th century. This made was originally a 14 minute video that was shown in cinemas worldwide and was like a short-film with the 4 minute song in the middle of it. Vincent Price, a well known horror movie actor provided the voice over in an attempt to make the film more scary. There is a famously choreographed scene in the film and with Michael Jackson wearing his famous red leather jacket that is now remembered worldwide. It brought music videos to the next level in terms of how important they were to create or further enhance an artists image.
  The album Thriller is widely regarded as one of the most successful albums of the 20th century. After having released the album, Michael Jackson hit the headlines for many of the wrong reasons. There were rumours of him having a skin disease known as Vitiligo which made his dark skin colour turn white. However, after a short while without a song of his having been released, he returned on September 7th 1987 with the chart-topping single Bad. This was such big news to Michael Jackson fans, that the BBC even televised the release of his single at midnight. Many people stayed up to see his new look and hear his latest song. He was back with a bang and made headlines for all the right reasons. However, after the album Bad was released, he was once again on the spotlight, but this time, it was due to some serious allegations.
  In 1993, Evan Chandler accused Michael Jackson of sexually abusing his 13 year old son Jordan Chandler. It was soon found that Michael Jackson had children visit his private theme park "Neverland" and played with them before sometimes asking the children to stay in his bed for a sleepover. This obviously raised questions due to the suspicious nature of the situation, with Jackson being a grown man and Jordan Chandler being a young boy who had just entered his teenage years. 

Blog 7 Brand Identity/Spice Girls

Spice Girls 

 During the mid 1990's, a family management team consisting of Bob Herbert, Chris Herbert, and Lindsey Casbon decided that they should create a girl group that could rightly compete with the boy bands that had previously dominated the pop music of the 1990's. February 1994 saw an advertisement placed in The Stage trade magazine by Heart Management and it read "WANTED: R.U. 18-23 with the ability sing/dance? R.U. streetwise, outgoing, ambitious, and dedicated?" This was the advertisement that sparked life into 5 girls who would go on to become arguably the most successful girl group of the last 30 years. 

 The Spice Girls were promptly formed and moulded into pop stars. Their clothes were chosen very carefully before they first appeared on American TV. Victoria appeared with a sophisticated slinky black number, Emma in a baby-pink dress, Mel B in her leopard-skin trousers, Geri in red hot pants, a top and bra, and Mel C in her favourite Liverpool shirt and tracksuit bottoms. 

 Although The Spice Girls were sold to us as a group of good friends having a laugh together and making top-selling singles together, they were in fact strangers and a very carefully selected group of girls who were seen as unique and had been the fortunate few to make it after a number of auditions where hundreds of girls were sent home disappointed. They had a number of companies hoping for an appearance on their TV adverts and Pepsi and Polaroid had the girls advertising their products. Also, there were Barbie-esque dolls made in the style of each of The Spice Girls in terms of the fashion and looks of each of the band members. Everything about the group was under the control of men or corporations even the names they were given (sporty, scary, posh, baby, and ginger). According to "Ginger Spice", she almost didn't make it into the group as she looked too old. She reportedly said "I'm as old as you want me to be. I'll be 10 with big boobs if you want."

 Artists are often sold as a brand and the music video acts as a product of the band, in the hope that the audience will be inspired to "buy into the band" and occasionally artists feel that the image is of the most importance as opposed to the quality of the product. The Spice Girls are a very good example of this. Other times it is the meaning of the song that is sold and the image of the artist is not important to them. For example,

Blog 13: Sexism in Pop Videos

Sexism in Pop Videos

 Laura Mulvey's theory can be applied to pop videos, where there are many examples of sexism, with recent examples including Nicki Minaj's Anaconda, Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea's song Booty, and Robin Thickes hugely controversial song Blurred Lines where there were two videos with fully clothed women and one with explicit content.

 Not only was this a controversial song because of the nudity, but also the way that the girls danced around or more paraded around with the three men staring at them in a lustful way as if they were pieces of meat.
 The video to the song Anaconda is also incredibly explicit and has received many reviews, positive and negative. The incredibly controversial video is just a video with women shaking their bums and dancing about wearing very little. Not only was the graphical content deemed explicit for audiences, but the lyrics are only about having a big behind. The song has very little purpose, other than gaining male attention and money. It is not a good enough song to win awards or to even be nominated, but it attracts a lot of attention, due to its explicit nature.
 There is a song that Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea sung together called Booty where the whole video is just backside rubbing up against each other and water running down women's bodies while they are wearing lycra swimsuits.
 In almost every music video where the song is written by a modern day artist, it is almost definitely going to be a sexist video.

Types of Bands (Organic and Synthetic)

Types of bands (Organic and Synthetic)

Organic bands are those that play music purely for the sake of playing their music and enjoying themselves. These are bands such as Radiohead, as they thoroughly enjoy showing their music to their fans. The Beatles fall into this category because they were school friends and eventually ended up being one of the most successful bands of the 20th century.


Synthetic bands are those that are artificial-like and have been put together as a way of making money. One Direction are a band that fit very well into this category as they have been thrown together in an attempt to make money for the record label that they are contracted to. They have done a good job thus far as they are very much a successful group. However. their songs are written for them and they are an artificial group.

You can categorise them as a "boyband" whereas Radiohead are a band that are just a "band". This is because boybands try to tempt audiences into buying their music with their looks and their videos, whereas bands try to sell their records using how unique they are and how their lyrics reach their audiences.

History of Music Video (From Bing Crosby to The Beatles)

Bing Crosby used to be the biggest star in the world back in the 1940's and his fans were able to see him in films such as "White Christmas" in 1954. He was also in TV shows such as his own series "The Bing Crosby Show" that ran between 1964 & 1965.

Frank Sinatra replaced Bing Crosby as the worlds biggest star during the 1950's. His fans were able to see him in films and concerts. When he was in concert, girls would scream all the way through. He was the first artist to create this atmosphere among the audience.

Elvis Presley was the most popular musician on the planet for many years in the 1950's and 1960's and his fans were able to see him on TV and he was in films too.

The Beatles soon became the most popular musicians in Britain and found themselves leading the charts in America with the single "I want to hold your hand". This then sparked the tours of America for the Liverpudlian band and they were the first British singers to really make it in America. They were the first people to make a music video, when they had the idea of miming to a song in their studio in Hampstead Heath. They mimed to the song Paperback Writer, and Rain. These were hugely successful videos made because they were tired of going all over the world to be seen perform.

Blog 11: Emil Nava

Case Study 2: Emil Nava

 Emil Nava is a music producer responsible for many music videos from top arists in recent years, including Jessie J's first breakthrough song "Do It Like A Dude". He was originally a runner for film production companies. He worked for Blink productions and he now freelances for OB Managements. After working as a runner graduated to Assistant Director (A.D.) where he would manage the video shoots. He signed to Academy, who are the biggest music video production company around, before he worked for Between the Eyes and he now mainl works for Pulse.

•Emil’s first budget was for the band Kid British and the track Our House

•Budget - £20,000

•Location – Manchester

•Cast – local people

•1 day for filming

•2/3 days for editing

•10 days pre-production

•Demonstrates the very tight timescales involved

Some of the other songs that he has made a video for include Jessie J's very popular song "Wild".



He directed the music video for the Ed Sheeran's song "You Need Me I Don't Need You"

•At his busiest Emil has made 24 music videos in one year

•When he began shooting videos for independent labels the budget would be as low as £5,000 to £10,000
•His most expensive video to date has been for Jessie J and the budget was £160,000

•Has now begun to make adverts, which generally have a far higher budget and production values but which allow for less creative freedom.



•Paloma Faith ‘30 Minute Love Affair'
Client Sony - Director Emil Nava




•Paloma Faith 'Picking Up the Pieces. Client Sony - Director Emil Nava

•Cost - £80,000

•Ed Sheeran 'Lego House'

•Client Atlantic - Director Emil Nava

•Jessie J 'Do It Like A Dude'

•Client Island - Director Emil Nava

•Cost - £25,000

•Rita Ora 'RIP'

•Client RocNation - Director Emil Nava

• Jessie J 'Price Tag'
• Client Island
• Director Emil Nava

• Emil’s Top Tip
• Use Extreme Close Up on faces wherever possible
• Do not shoot whole of video in medium shot/long shot
• Example – Sinead O’Connor – Nothing Compares to U

Godley & Crème - Cry

• Some of the Production Companies that OB work with are:
• Pulse Films
• Rocket
• Agile Films
• Friends
• Wonda

• OB Management work as agents for music video directors. They describe themselves as, “ three straight up dudes who work out of Denmark Street London”.
• Their aim is to:
• Nurture talent
• Work with production companies
• Work with record labels
• Match the right director to the right artists

Blog 9: Katy Perry- How her pop videos appeal to her target audience and her private life

Katy Perry- How her pop videos appeal to her target audience and her private life

Blog 8 Star Theory Britney Spears

Star Theory- Britney Spears

 Richard Dyer has a theory that artists are created through artificial images such as music, films, advertising, and magazines. He says that consumers prefer the artist to show their true selves and not the groomed image created by their record labels who are attempting to create a false image of them. Dyer believes that the artist can use their "real" selves as a unique selling point. He thinks that stars are made purely to make more money for their record labels and that they do this by cleverly appealing to target audiences. This means that record labels have to market different artists to cater for the various target audiences as there are niche and mainstream markets.

 Dyer also believes that artists are responsible for setting trends like hairstyles and clothing styles, and if they portray their religious beliefs through their music then that can be picked up by their audiences. The internet has given fans the opportunity to follow their idols personal lives'. 

 Stars support the idea of hegemony as they think it shows them as "real" human beings and that it makes glorified versions of themselves. Within the music industry, it is seen as necessary to create and promote artists within a clearly defined genre and these genres show signifiers that relate to genders and races.

 Britney Spears raises various intriguing issues surrounding her personal life and her image regarding her female identity in female pop music. She was first seen as a teenage girls role model with her single Hit Me Baby One More Time. However, she is very much placed within a male-dominated industry that creates few stereotypes of femininity. She has very much changed over the years as she was first shown with "girlie iconography" and she is very much remembered with pigtails, a hairstyle that tends to be for younger females. The carefully choreographed dance routines give the impression that makes people think they are welcome into "her gang". 

 Laura Mulvey is responsible for the male gaze theory within classical Hollywood cinema, but it can certainly be applied to pop videos, in particular, Britney Spears. In many of her videos she is very much the object of male erotic desire and she is in a patriarchal society. However, she challenges the idea that women do not have agency as she often comes out on top in confrontational moments with men. A good example of this is her video for the song Toxic, and the video for the song Womaniser. In her song Hit Me Baby One More Time, there seems to be an underlying naughtiness within her sexuality. The video seems to imply an innocence with her wearing a school uniform and being in a school, therefore young and innocent. However, just listening to the lyrics immediately changes your perception on the song and question the extent of this "innocence". The title first and foremost cannot possibly be innocent can it? It implies a sexual reference that the male audience will enjoy hearing and can then imagine.
 In the video From the bottom of my broken heart, you can see dolls and childish, girlie things in her bedroom. This very much shows the "innocence" of Britney Spears. Her song I'm not a girl, not yet a woman shows tensions of growing up and moving from childish innocence to the realities of adult life.

Blog 10 Case Study 1: Jamie Thraves

We are studying Jamie Thraves, the director of many music videos. I know that:
•Made short films at University
•Used award-winning short film as a ‘calling card’ to get a ‘foot in the door’ with the video production company Factory Films
•Began by shooting three very low budget music videos – cost about £5,000 each

• As can be seen for many directors in the business it is a precarious existence where their livelihood is dependent on each commission
• Jamie Thraves submitted treatments for his two best known videos and each was accepted
  
  

Charmless Man- Blur


Just- Radiohead
•£100,000 budget
•Shot in three days


Toes Across The Floor- Blind Melon


Money On My Mind- Sam Smith



Somewhere Else- Razorlight



9 Crimes- Damien Rice


The Scientist- Coldplay
•£200,000 budget
•Shot in three days


Dirtee Disco- Dizzee Rascal

• Jamie has used the music videos to get into the film business
• Has so far shot three features:
• The Low Down
• The Cry of the Owl
• Treacle Jr
  
  
  • Jamie’s Tips
  • Use the lyrics but try not to be too literal
  Most importantly – go with the emotion of the lyrics
  
  

Blog 5 Andrew Goodwin Part 1

Blog 5 Andrew Goodwin Part 1

 Andrew Goodwin identified 5 key aspects of music videos that the audience should look out for. These are things such as: thought beats which means seeing the sound and the idea that the voice of the artist may demonstrate the meaning of the song lyrics in a different way depending on how the sing them, and narrative and performance, which means that people understand the gist of the song but often interpret the meaning in our own way and this is assisted with the indirect association of the music video.
 Another of Goodwin's five key aspects is the star image which he described as the progression of the artist over time and how they play an important role in the production process. Goodwin also said that the relation of visuals to song is important. This is how music videos use images to relay the meanings of the song and lyrics. His final key aspect was the technical aspects by which he meant the effect and the uses of the camera angles and shots as well as the lighting and mise-en-scene of the music video. 

Andrew Goodwin said that pop videos consist of dance routines or stories whereas rock videos show performances. This is true as can be seen in the videos of the "Foo Fighters" compared to "Ariana Grande".

Laura Mulvey's Triple Gaze Theory

Triple Gaze Theory

 Laura Mulvey's theory is that there is a triple gaze that takes place in the media. This is where a woman of erotic desire is on screen, there is a man looking at her, the camera is looking at the man, and the audience is looking through the camera. This is showing that all eyes are on the object of erotic desire, on this occasion, it's the woman who is more often than not wearing very little. This is done to gain more of an audience and this will mostly apply to males who buy or download the song or film. For example, in the film "Dr No", there is a famous scene where Ursula Andress comes from the sea and we see Sean Connery staring at her. This is a classic example of the triple gaze theory as it is Ursula Andress being looked at by Sean Connery, being looked at by the camera, being looked though by the audience.

 In music videos, there is practically always the object of erotic desire flaunting themselves around and more often than not, it is a woman. In the Rihanna video "Shut up and drive", there is the obvious reference to sex throughout and there is Rihanna, along with other scantily clad women, laying all over cars and bending over while the men in the cars look at them. Again, this is an example of the triple gaze theory as it is Rihanna, men, camera, and audience. 

An artist that I would use as an example of the triple gaze theory is Christina Aguilera. In her videos, she is always the centre of attention and is viewed as a sexual object. There is always at least one man looking at her while she's dancing around or not wearing much. In her video for the song "Candyman" she is either wearing an extremely short little pink dress, a navy outfit, or other old-fashioned clothes, all of which draw attention to herself.

Record Labels

Major Record Labels

The music industry is dominated by four multi-national corporations:

   Universal

·          Sony Music

·          Warner Brother
        EMI

These are referred to as “The Majors”. The majority of these are backed by conglomerates with stakes in other industries such as; Film, TV and Electronics.

Major-Independents

Most of these “Majors” own, or license, a series of smaller subsidiary companies in order to reach different kinds of audiences in different kinds of genres.

·          Columbia

·          Island

·          Syco

·          RCA

·          Virgin

These companies are known as “Major-independent”.

Independents

There are a huge number of small companies with little or no financial connection to the majors. These companies often concentrate on a small number of acts, within specialised niches in the industry.

These are called "independents". An example of a highly successful independent is "Domino Records".

 It is often the case that record labels begin as independents, but then are bought by a major and then becomes major-independents.

Styles of Music Video

Style of Music Video

 Animation is a style of music video occasionally used by artists for their songs. Some artists stick to the idea of animation throughout all of their videos. For example, "Gorillaz" use digital animation in the majority of their videos, for example in their song "Feel Good Inc.". An example of stop motion animation used in a music video is Peter Gabriel's video for "Sledgehammer".



Cinematic is a story based video used on a grand scale. This is a video such as the video for the song "Stan" by Eminem and Dido. This is also the in the style of a narrative based storyline, another style of music videos, something which the video for "Stan" also accounts for.



Parody is a type of video where the artist(s) take the mickey out of another video or artist in their video. A good example of this is the video for the song "Walks like Rihanna" by The Wanted



Studio based is a style of music video where the artist(s) perform the video for their song in a studio. An example of this is the song "Idiot Walk" by The Hives.



Pastiche is a style of music video where the artist(s) work within another artists genre. A good example of this is the song "Hey Ya" by Outkast.



A concert based video is a style of music video where the song is being performed at a concert in the video. An example of this is the video for the song "Snow" by The Red Hot Chili Peppers.



A surrealist video is a style of music video where the video appears to be very surreal. It is used in the song "Once in a lifetime" by the Talking Heads.



An impressionist video is a style of music video where it is left to interpretation as to what is happening. An example of this is the song by Gotye called "Somebody That I Used To Know".





A homage video is a style of music video that is paying tribute to a genre, for example Michael Jackson's song "Thriller" which pays tribute to the horror genre.

Blog 3: Purpose of a Music Promo video with special reference to synergy

Purpose of a Music Promo video with special reference to synergy

 The purpose of a music promo video is to promote a song and film or product and the song itself. It creates publicity as everyone will hear about either the song or the product and will therefore be more likely to want to buy it. Also, when it eventually sells and people buy tickets to the film or they buy the DVD, then the song and film combined will make a lot of money and it will increase the sale. The song will be well known for the film it is advertising and will then promote the artist, the single, and the album that the song is on. Persuading the audience means that they will buy CD's and download the song, and this will raise awareness of the artist and it will boost the singers' profile. This will lead to the song being showed on a music channel, on a CD, on websites such as YouTube, and it is available to download on apps such as iTunes. If there is a film in which the song is played as either the theme song or just in a scene, or in a TV programme, then it could raise awareness of the song and lead to audiences downloading the song or buying it.
 When the song is shown on TV (whether that be a programme or music channel) or in a film, it illustrates the song and potentially sticks in audiences minds and they will associate the song with the clip they have seen. Occasionally, audiences will really like what they hear and the popularity of the song will increase. When a song is played over the top of a clip of there is a clip to illustrate a song, then it can really pull on the preverbal heart strings. This means that audiences can experience different emotions when listening to the song as the audio is parallel to the images. This gives the song the ability to tell a story and show the audience what is happening. It also gives the artist an image and they will be known for that image and that will be partly how they're known. It creates a brand identity unique to the artist and this is a theme that will occur in posters, music videos, and public appearances.