Album Art Cover

 Photoshop Album Cover

 I took a random name from the Wikipedia link on the Robert Clack Media website where I had to choose the first name that came up and I had to use this as the band name. This happened to be "Montecastello". I used this name on my album cover and I also used the link on the Robert Clack Media website to find an album title. I had to choose the last few words of a quote and use them as the album title. I chose "The appearance of success" as my album title. I then chose a picture from a page of random pictures uploaded to Flickr in the last 7 days. The picture that caught my eye was a bear catching a fish in the river. I used this in Photoshop and I did various things to edit the picture. I used the contrast tool and changed both the brightness and contrast of the picture to make the photo look more enticing to the viewer and also to show the shadow on the bear and to show how majestic and beautiful the grizzly bear is. I then used the Filter tool and used the radial blur tool on the parts of the picture surrounding the bear to show that the only certainty of the picture was that the grizzly bear was the dominant and in control.

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