Saturday, 13 December 2014

Pinterest Mood board/ Music Video Inspiration




Creating a Pinterest board allowed me to visualise our video and also consider how we're going to represent our characters in the video and our audience. We wanted to represent the female protagonist as edgy and fun (much like the band itself), which may also be considered a stereotypical representation of our audience. 

Thursday, 27 November 2014

Research into the Music Industry



Michael Jackson - Thriller 




One Direction - Night Changes (Promos/ Trailers)




Justin Timberlake - Suit and Tie 

Lady Gaga - Paparazzi



Taylor Swift - Blank Space 

Friday, 21 November 2014

Conventions of music videos



Ariana Grande - Problem (includes many 
close ups)


Ed Sheeran - Sing


One Direction - Kiss You includes jump cuts 
as an editing technique




One Direction - Live While We're Young (bright, colorful
and a fun music video)

Katy Perry- California Gurls (bright and colorful 
with close ups)

When we conducted this research it allowed us to think more about our genre conventions and forms and our audience. We had to know about the conventions and forms of the pop/ rock genre to create a successful video that appeals to our audience.

Friday, 14 November 2014

History of Music Videos



Bessie Smith- St. Louis Blue's












Michael Jackson - Thriller





PSY- Gangnam Style



Popular Music Videos Now: 

One Direction - Steal My Girl 

Ariana Grande - Break Free ft. Zedd

Olly Murs - Wrapped Up

Friday, 7 November 2014

Media Broadcast Platform

The medium that we will use in order for our music video to be broadcast is YouTube. We will use YouTube as this is an international media platform for people to find and watch videos on. As a teen ourselves we know that our target audience, teenagers, use YouTube often to watch and share videos on other social networking sites which will helps to gain a wider audience for the artist and video.




We had to consider our audience and what they regularly use to watch and share music videos. 

Ideas/ Inspiration for our music video


Description of our Target Audience


Friday, 17 October 2014

Youth and Subcultures

Youth and Subcultures

There are many different types of youth subcultures in today's society. Youth subcultures are used to identify people in a particular group. Youths are usually identified in different subcultures from they way they dress, act and what kind of music they listen to. Society and mainstream culture is constantly changing so it's hard to keep track of today's popular culture. However on of the top three popular music subcultures include:

  • Pop
  • R&B/ Hip- Hop
  • Rock
Pop

Those who are identified in the pop subculture usually listen to mainstream music and are identified as 'fangirls'. Those who are part of the pop subculture are mainly teenage girls who often listen to popular music by One Direction, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Ed Sheeran. Pop subculture is growing constantly as there are new pop artists introduced to us almost everyday. Social media makes it easier for new pop artists to gain attention for example 5 Seconds of Summer (although they do have some punk/ rock element in them) and The Vamps.

Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud 

R&B/ Hip- Hop

R&B/ hip- hop is also a popular subculture. Popular R&B/ hip- hop artists include Beyonce, Drake, Niki Minaj and Eminem. Those who are apart of this subculture are mainly males with a secondary female audience. R&B/ Hip- Hop usually include videos that identify women as sex objects as they wear revealing clothes and they are usually explicit (the music usually includes swearing). The fans identified within the genre are familiar with slang as they use it in their everyday life.


Beyonce feat. Jay Z - Drunk in Love

Rock

Popular rock artist/ bands include Fall Out Boy, Coldplay and Bastille. Those who listen to rock music are usually identified and stereotyped as emo's and punks. A stereotypical image of punks/ emos (those who listen to rock music) would be people with coloured hair, tattoos, piercings and usually wear dark clothing.

Fall Out Boy- Light 'Em Up

Researching into 'Youth and Subcultures' allowed us to consider who our audience may be and how they are represented in the media. Because our video is based on a '5 Seconds of Summer' song our audience will be those who are established in the pop genre and perhaps even the rock genre, as 5 Seconds of Summer are a pop/ rock bad. 

Monday, 13 October 2014

Music Album Cover: Design Brief

Creative Brief
Renaissance: Future Club Classics

Where are they now?
5 seconds of Summer is a pop/ rock band. Their most recent release was of a live album called 'Live SOS'.

The Album Concept: 

What is it? 
Good Girls is an album featuring 20 tracks. The album contains the single CD and an exciting poster themed around the music video. The cover will have a photograph of a female posing in a mugshot style. The image will contrast with the title. The colours will be bold contrasting black, red and white to connote the rock genre of the song.

Why are we doing it?
We are creating the brief to sell the CD and to promote the music video. The poster inside the CD will attract more consumers of the young female target audience, as it makes the CD a special edition.

Who is our consumer?
Our consumer is young females from the ages of 13- 19.

What is the consumer reaction we want?
We want the consumer to be excited and intrigued about the release of the CD and the music video.

How will we know it worked?
The amount of money that is made through the release of the album in stores/ downloads from iTunes and the amount of views of YouTube. Two other songs from the album will be available for download on iTunes so that it can promote the product and reach a further audience. After a person downloads the song a poll will come up asking if they will purchase the whole album.

Key launch dates
5th of May 2015: Release of sneak peek of music video on the band's website and YouTube.
23rd of May 2015: Release full music video onto YouTube.
30th of May 2015: Release of music video on to TV music channels (Bliss, Chart Show, MTV). Release of song on international radio.
1st of June 2015: Release of CD in international stores (HMV, Walmart etc).

Album Inspiration




To identify our album cover within the pop genre we're going to use bright colours on the album artwork. The originals artwork consists of 
black, white and red. We are going to make our cover more vibrant. To fit the theme of the song the models are going to wear edgy clothes (like the band) the image will look like a mugshot and they will be holding up chalkboard with the name of the song written on it. We'll also have the tape behind them to make it seem believable. We've taken inspiration from the original artwork and the bands 'mugshot' for the song. 






The Album Sleeve

Description:
The album sleeve will attract the audience and it will refer to the music video. It will feature the actress from the music video on the front cover posing in a mugshot, holding a board that says 'Good Girls'.

Example of a band CD from the same pop/ rock genre:

Deadlines:
Planning- January 2015
Draft 1- Start of February
Draft 2- End of February
Complete- March
Editing- End of March

Objective:
The objective is to create an album sleeve that will appeal to the target audience and follow the genre conventions.

Tone of voice/ brand/ image:
Lively
Exciting
Bold
Intriguing
Edgy

Restrictions/ Limitations:
A budget of £0 is a limitation we cannot afford expensive pieces for mise- en- scene.We would have to use what we can find. Time is crucial. We must have time to plan, film and edit.

Thursday, 9 October 2014

Popular Culture: Adorno and Hebdige theory

Popular Culture: Adorno and Hebdige theory.

The idea of popular culture originated from 'The Frankfurt School' who were a collection of Marxist Philosophers based in Germany in mid- 20th century. Among their many writings, they were concerned with the role of popular culture in exploiting the masses and maintaining the power of bourgeoisie. Their work represents the first attempt to write about popular music.






Theodor Adorno (1903- 69) was a German sociologist, philosopher, musicologist and critique of society who was a leading member of the 'Frankfurt School of Critical Theory.' He was known for his views of society. He believed there were two kinds of people in society, those who liked classical music and those who liked popular music. He refereed to classical music as 'true art'. He believed that those who listened to 'true art' were educated and cultured and that most of these people were middle and upper class. He believed that everyone else who listened to popular music were easily influenced and absorbed by it, that they were lower class which he looked dow at and he also felt that popular music was all the same and repetitive which is why people listened to it.










Dick Hebdige is a British media theorist who has a more modern take on Adorno's theory and he believes that it is too negative. Hebdige's theory contradicts Adorno's theory on popular music. Adorno believed that the mass audience listen to popular music and consume it without thinking. Hebdige believed that mass audience can choose from different genre of musics of what they want to consume. He believed that a mass audience isn't easily manipulated as Adorno makes them out to be.






An example of this in today's society would be iTunes. iTunes is a popular website and app that people can use to see what's in the charts, they're most likely to download/ buy the popular music that's on the charts. This supports Adorno's theory however it can be argued that people can choose what they want to consume, they have a mind of their own and are not manipulated easily. This supports Hebdige's theory.