Planning: Digipak information

As a group we have we have come up with this information for our digipak.

Artist name: SINEAD
Album name: Lucid dreaming

Track list: 

1. Intro
2. Sweet tornado
3. Babylon ft loren$o
4. mislead
5. Hippie lettuce
6. Lucid dreaming
7. Hope 
8. Remember me ft Hazel E
9. Memoirs 
10. outro 

Music institution: Sony
Production company: Notorious Productionz

Research: Analysing advert conventions

Purpose:

• Album promotion
• Artist exposure
• Build relationship with audience
• More synergy to take place
• Key info promoted

What are the generic conventions

• Bold font (clear)
• Artist
•  Artist name
• Album name

Analysis of 2 examples that are similar to my artist/genre: 

How has this information helped your idea

This has helped with my idea because I know what relevant information needs to be included within my advert. I need to insure that all key information stands out by using the correct font.

Research:Popular music theory

 

It is important to understand theory because its good to understand how artists can become successful and what elements I may need to make my music video successful. This post will be about different theories of the music industry and theorists and their thoughts.

 

Popular culture
- popular culture is a chosen culture based on the taste of ordinary people rather than the bourgeoisie elites. popular culture is everywhere such as the internet, music, TV or concert. Today anything with a buzz is deemed pop culture as it is a collection of thoughts, beliefs, ideas, actions or attitudes. A mass audience is influenced by pop culture because its what's popular to a mainstream audience. In the music industry pop music is the main focus of pop culture and is considered mainstream because there is a wide audience for that genre as its typical, reliable and accepted by lots of people.

Antonio Gramsci

Hegemony
-  Gramsci introduces the concept of hegemony. This occurs when ruling class values and ideas are dominates the society this effects every institutions including music.- Capitalist societies, with the ruling – class relying heavily bourgeoisie. With Gramsci he believes that they are able to do this due to the control they have over the influential institutions, such as popular media like magazines, TV, music and different media platforms.



Hegemony:
-  This is a media texts represented to the world usually in order to support a dominant ideology.
- With the hegemony is the way the people with the power keep and maintain their control of the ruling class.
-   Most/all ideologies are pretty much considered hegemonic; with the power in the society is maintained by constructing ideologies which usually are promoted by the mass media.
-  With them allowing it be promoted by the mass media it allows the young audience, what it does is allow them to follow it as that is what they would want so that their wouldn’t be any riots to the bourgeoisie.

- Hegemony is when the dominance if one social group over another such as the ruling class over all the other classes below them.
- With this theory what is claims is that the ideas of the ruling class come to be seen to the people as normal. As they are being seen as universal ideologies, with it being perceived to benefit everyone whilst it actually only benefiting the ruling class.
- Cultural hegemony is the sociological concept that the culturally diverse society can be ruled or be dominated by one of is social classes which is the ruling class.


Frankfurt School

- Popular music is the end product of a production line where everything sounds similar.

- This is an industry that exploits the mass population for profit and social control, in hope that they accept a certain ideology about the world they are living in.

- The music industry promotes absorption. Everything about these pop stars becomes a commodity (product). These includes their clothes, image, like and dislikes etc.

Theodor Adorno
- Theodor W. Adorno was a German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for his critical theory of society. He was also one of the most important philosophers and social critics in Germany after World War II
-   He was a leading member of the Frankfurt School of critical theory, whose work has come to be associated with thinkers such as Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer and Herbert Marcuse, for whom the work of Freud, Marx and Hegel were essential to a critique of modern society.
-  Adorno argued that capitalism fed people with the products of a ‘’culture industry’’ – the opposite of ‘true’ art – to keep the passively satisfied and politically apathetic (no interest).
-  Adorno adopted the term ‘culture industry’ to argue that the way in which cultural items were produced was analogous (comparable) to how other industries manufactured vast quantities of consumer goods. Also, culture industry exhibited an ‘assembly-line character’ which could be observed in the synthetic, planned method of turning out its products. The metaphor of the ‘assembly-line’ was used to stress the repetitive and routine character of cultural production.- These features are particularly true in the popular music industry. All popular music products are commodities to be sold to an audience who believe that they are consuming ‘true’ emotion.
- Popular music products are characterised by ‘standardization’ (they are basically formulaic and similar) and ‘pseudo-individualization’ (incidental differences make them seem distinctive, but they’re really not).
- Products of the culture industry maybe emotional or apparently moving, but Adorno sees this as cathartic – we might seek some comfort in a sad film or song, have a bit of a cry, and then feel restored again.- Pseudo individuality: (meaning fake) - Adorno was critical of what they referred to as pseudo individuality. By this they meant that artists within the cultural industry, when examined, had very little differences whose uniqueness lies only in very minor modifications e.g. trade marks - Adorno believed that the culture industry allows people to become ‘masses’ and be easily manipulated by capitalist corporations and authoritarian governments. And due to control of capitalist production: music becomes merely standardized, formulaic and repetitive. It has no value whatsoever and leads to a very specific type of consumption that is passive, obedient and easily manipulated for the purpose of propaganda or advertising.


The Birmingham School
- In the inaugural lecture that followed his appointment as Professor of English at the University of Birmingham in 1962, Richard Hoggart announced his intention to conduct research into ‘mass’ culture. Two years later, Hoggart had founded the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies.
- Under the directorship of first Hoggart and then Stuart Hall and Richard Johnson, and with the commitment of Michael Green throughout, the Centre operated at the intersections of literary criticism, sociology, history and anthropology. Rather than focus on ‘high’ culture, the intention was to carry out group research on areas of popular culture such as chart music, television programmes and advertising. 
-Work produced at the Centre showed that popular culture was not only worthy of academic study but often also politically significant. It showed, for example, the importance to young people of subcultures based around style and music, the ideological influence of girls’ magazines over their young readership.

Dick Hebdige
- Consumption is an active process in which different audiences have different readings into the same cultural products.
- Adorno's ideas are very pessimistic and dismissive of mass audiences as passive and easily manipulated. (Challenges Adorno)
- Audiences are active and not passive. Through resistance of pop culture creates sub-culture.

Conclusion

- I have gained so much more knowledge whilst learning about all the ideologies of all the theories we have studied. As a spectator, I do strongly believe that the audience should be active and have their own rights whilst listening to a song or watch a music video rather than being passive about it. In my music video, I plan to represent my artist in an appropriate way that is appealing to the audience and also my audiences will rather be active.



        

 

Research:Hebdiges subcultures



- Subcultures are when a group of people become together and form an identity because they share similar ideas and belief. In other words, they are groups who are united through common values systems and tastes such as clothes, music, politics etc.

- Subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the larger culture to which it belongs.

- A group who are also positioned outside of the mainstream culture.

 

 

How are they evident in the music industry ?

 

These are some of the examples of sub-cultures:

 

- Skinheads

 

 

 

- Nerds

 

 

 

- Hippy

 

 

 

- Bikers

 

 

 

 

- Queer

 

 

 

Hebdige and pop music:

 

- Bands are able to go independent and be successful away from mainstream culture.This was most significant during the punk area.

- Consuming music is a process that differs from person to person.

- For example, social background can lead to different readings of the same song = people are not part of the ''mass-culture''.

- This theory suggests subcultures, in which people with similar tastes and interests have a different tastes in music due to their social background etc.

 

 

Subcultures and historical times in relation to music

- Many argue that cultural music tastes depended on the historical time and structure of social, economic and political change.

 

- 1950s rock 'n' rollers, beatniks and Teddy boys.

- 1960s surfers, rudeboys, mods, hippies and bikers,

- 1970s skinheads, soul boys, rastas, glam rockers, funksters and punks.

- 1980s heavy metal, hip-hop, casual, goth, rave and clubber styles.

- 90s, noughties and beyond. Distinctive blends of fashion and music love have become a defining feature of the cultural landscape.

 

 

 

 

How does the industry now target audiences ?

- The industry in the modern day target their audiences in numerous way where it is appropriate and appealing towards the audience making them passive. An example of this is 'The X Factor''.

 

'' There are two rival views of the relationship between pop music and youth ''

 

1) Pop stars are constructed to appeal to specific markets with specific valves.

 

2) The audience are so unpredicted in their like and dislikes that record companies can never truly know how to target them.

 

 

 

 

Current day in relation to Hebdige

- Consuming music is a process that differs from person to person. This is a very clear evident in today's society. An example of this is ''The X Factor''.

- Social background can lead to different readings of the same song. This means people are not part of one '' mass-culture'' - can all like one thing, but for different reasons.

- This theory suggests subcultures, in which people with similar tastes and interests have a different tastes ain music due to their social background etc. This is true, however it is clearly starting to change.

 

 

 

Current day in relation to Dyer's ''Star Theory''

- Stars represent shared cultural values and attitudes, and will promote a certain ideology.

- Fans who agree with that set of values will support the star.

- Fans will imitate stars in an aspirational effort to get 'closer' to the glamorous, fantasy lifestyle they appear to have. This may take the form of 'dressing up', imitating performances, adopting behaviour etc.

- Though Dyer was applying this theory to movie stars. It can also be applied to pop stars, who often have a far faster rise to stardom by promoting values.

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

- Throughout this post as well as all the information it provides, I have definitely gained a better understanding into different subcultures in contrast to the mainstream. Within my music video, I am planning to add some elements of diverse music video to make my music video unique and will be appealing to a niche audience instead of a mainstream audience. 

Planning: Lighting and Colour

While planning for lighting and colour we have decided to look at the use of lighting in these music videos bellow. Lighting and colour help set a mood or feel for the set of your music video.



Lighting:

In 'Fire Ball' music video by Willow Smith, the use of back lighting and low-key lighting is very efficient in the street which gives a underground vibe to the music video. This inspires my group to use similar lighting and effects for our music video especially for our college girl female actress.






Top lighting
In Jhene's music video there's great use of top lighting which looks very effective in terms of glamorising her image in a way to make her look unique yet innocent. I plan to use similar lighting to present my artist in the same way hoping to achieve the same effects.

Colour:

The use of black and white lighting in Rhianna's music video featuring Justin Timberlake is very affective in terms of representing their relationship as dark, miserable and negative. This would be very beneficial to our music video as we do have a couple that are in the same situation. Therefore, the use of black and white lighting would help to highlight this very well as well as highlighting the problems they face.

Conclusion

Through researching into various music videos to search for the best use of lighting that would help our music video.

Research:Star image

What is star image?

Its the way that an artist is presented to an audience through the way they look, act and perform on stage or in a music video.

 

music videos can help boost an artists career because its a chance for an artists to show who they are as people. This is good because they can connect with their fans and gain new ones which will enhance their career.

 

 

Case study: Rihanna 

Song: Pon di replay

Appearance: Showing some skin not too revealing just to have that summer look. she is known as the sweetheart from Barbados  

Dance: dancing mostly by herself.

Values: girls should have fun and enjoy themselves

Lyrics: "hey Mr dj come pon di replay, hey Mr dj why don't you turn the music up"

 

Song: SOS

Appearance: Very innocent look, Caribbean sweetheart, not much make up very beautiful and not so sexual at this stage in her career.

Dance: Having fun kind of dance enjoying herself

Values: girls should be loved, its ok to want male attention.

Lyrics: SOS please someone help me it's not healthy the way you make me feel. oh you are making this hard.

  

Song: Disturbia

Appearance: scary, intimidating, powerful 

Dance: choreographed dancing with a lot of touching from her dancers

Values: its ok to show your dark side, don't care about what people think, 

Lyrics: your minds in distubia its like the darkness is the light, distubia am I scaring you tonight, distubia isn't being used to what you like.

 

 

 

Song: We found love

Appearance: a lot of skin shown, fashionable clothing that young fans would want. 

Dance: at this stage of her career she is dancing alone in a very sexy attractive way.

Values: Don't care for anything which is shown through her using drugs, alcohol and other substances. If you like me ok If you don't so what, trying to show females need to be strong and independent.

Lyrics: we found love in a hopeless place

 

 

  Changes of star image is important in music videos because it show that an artist needs to grow in order to stay relevant and current. When Rihanna started her career she was creating music for younger teenage girls. By the disturbia video those teen fans will be around 16, 17 or 18 living wild and careless and fun life's. Therefore Rihanna has to portray that through not just the change of music, lyrics but star image.

 Artists before and after

Miley Cyrus:

 

 

Miley was a Disney channel star that with her own hit series show 'Hanna Montana' which attracted a young wide audience. She was a big role model to many young children across the globe that enjoyed her music and show. Once her career with Disney ended she was quickly signed to RCA because she had a big fan base to create a better career for herself. This was also the highlight of her career where she started to change her star image as well as her personality. She changed her image by cutting her hair, wearing less clothes, singing about adult themes such as sex and gyrating on stage. I feel that she may have lost her true self while being singed to Disney and now that she is free to be her she is shocking the world with her crazy lifestyle.

 

 

 

Chris Brown:

 

 

Chris Brown was know as a sweet boy from Virginia, California that made tracks to swoon young girls and females. he quickly grew up into a young gentle man singing about having a good time and partying, enjoying his young life. Chris Brown then dated Rihanna who is also a famous star so this enhanced his publicity and fame. However Chris Brown went to court for assaulting Rihanna after an altercation the couple had. This for me damaged Chris Browns career because he lost many fans for hitting a female and it was hard for him to focus on his career with all the drama.

 

 

Conclusion

I have gained a better understanding of star image and the impact of an artists appearance. Within my music video I will use star image to present my artist in a way where they can be appealing to the audience as well as being suitable to the genre.