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. 

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.

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.