To fully analyse my target audience I have created a questionnaire which contains 10 questions. I have given these out to 20 people, age ranging from 14 - 21 years old.
Below is a copy of the questions I created and the results I have received.
I chose to ask 10 questions, each revolving around the candidates opinions on music artists and music videos to allow me to gain a greater insight into my target audience's likes and dislikes, which will help me when I create my own music video for my coursework. I collected answers from 20 students as my target audience will most likely be featuring in this age range, and this amount of people will allow me to analyse a wide range of answers.
In my results table below, overall I can see that the majority of students from the group I sampled are most attracted to the current pop genre and modern music, or genres that are multi-modal and can feature other genres within them. The most popular solo artist from my results was Beyoncé, who is a worldwide famous pop artist, who also features R&B and rap in a variety of her songs.
This is closely followed by Justin Bieber and Rihanna, who are also both very famous pop stars. Rihanna also branches out into R&B, reggae and hip hop with her newer releases as she channels her background and up-bringing by incorporating a Barbadian theme into her music. The most popular band that I gathered from my results was The 1975, which is an indie rock band, that also feature pop themes in their newer music. This was closely followed by Imagine Dragons whom are also a very popular alternative rock/pop rock band. These themes of pop and indie music are highlighted as popular with my target group throughout my results, which tells me that a song under these genres would be a good choice for my music video later on in my coursework.
The most popular music period with my target group was modern day music from the 2000s, so I will choose a single from the past decade.
My results also showed me that the majority of my target audience prefer music videos that follow a narrative rather than a video that is abstract or reflects the song lyrics, and they also prefer the artist of the song to be featured in the video. I will aim to make these requests present in my own music video, but rather than having the artist of the song Izzy and I will possibly feature in the video instead along with our friends.
To finish off my research into my target audience I decided to look on YouTube to find out which of their favourite artists received the highest viewership on their most recent music video. In Beyoncé's recent video Sorry, she received 110,743,434 views, Justin Bieber's video Company received 188,027,709 views, and The 1975's music video Change of Heart received 6,240,033 views. This highlights that pop artists like Beyoncé and Justin Bieber (which primarily stick to pop music) have the largest viewership as their music is commonly enjoyed by the masses, whereas a more alternative band like The 1975 are not as well known and therefore do not have the same mass audience.
To gather more information into creating my own music video, I have decided to look further into the director of the She Burns music video by Foy Vance. The music video was directed by Gus Black, and follows a young female around various locations as she goes about her daily routine. I particularly like the style of this music video as he uses a variety of different shots and locations to create a story-like effect, and uses a slightly grey-tinged lighting in a lot of his videos to create a softer aesthetic. As Gus Black also commonly focuses on couples or individuals he often creates a romantic effect to his videos, particularly in She Burns as he makes it look like Lucy Hale (the actress in the video) is being filmed by a loved one. Gus Black also tends to create a retro/vintage aesthetic to a lot of his music videos, by using different effects in his editing to make certain transitions slightly choppier to mimic a clapperboard. As the She Burns video is all in black and white this reinforces the vintage look. I may apply these features to my own music video, as I like the aesthetic it creates. Gus Black has also worked for musicians such as Goo Goo Dolls, Echosmith and Dodge, as well as companies such as Tiffany & Co., Budweiser and Warby Parker Eyewear.
I have also decided to look into Tim Mattia, as he has directed the Change of Heart music video by The 1975, whose music videos I enjoy to watch. This music video was also shot all in black and white, and follows an unusual narrative of a clown and a woman who slowly fall out of love. He uses a variety of different shots and angles throughout the video, and the concept of the whole video creates quite an abstract and unique aesthetic, which makes it interesting to watch. Tim Mattia has also directed the Wild music video for Troye Sivan's Blue Neighbourhood trilogy. The music video (similar to Gus Black's videos) uses grey-tinged lighting, which creates a softer aesthetic to the video, and revolves around a couple. The video is filmed throughout a wide variety of locations, and the narrative flows perfectly between each shot.
I will take inspiration from both these directors to try and create a flawless finish across my video, and also try to achieve the same soft aesthetic through my use of lighting and editing.
Teenage Dream is the third studio album by American singer Katy Perry. It was released on the 24th August 2010 through Capitol Records. Musically, it contains pop with influences of disco, electronic, house, and hip hop.
Lyrically the album revolves around teenage love, partying, self-empowerment,
and personal growth. The artist co-wrote every song on the album, and also
worked with a number of producers and writers, including Dr. Luke, Max Martin, Benny Blanco, Tricky Stewart, StarGate, Greg Kurstin, and Ester Dean.
Upon its release, Teenage Dream received a range of mixed reviews from music critics, who complimented its production and themes whilst criticising Katy Perry's songwriting. The album debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling 192,000 copies in its first week. It was later awarded three times platinum by the RIAA, selling more than 3 million copies in the United States and charting within the Top 40 of the Billboard 200 year-end chart three years in a row. As of July 2013, Teenage Dream has sold 6 million copies worldwide. The album and its singles earned Katy Perry seven Grammy Award nominations including Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Record of the Year, as well as winning International Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2011.
The front cover of the Teenage Dream digipak features Katy Perry lying on top of a pink cloud which resembles candyfloss, completely naked with a full face of makeup and her hair slicked into a retro, 1940's style. She has used a theme of sweets and candy throughout the design of the digipak, with the typography for her name resembling strawberry laces, and the title of the album resembles candycanes and she uses the red and white stripes which hold these connotations. Her name is the largest use of font on the digipak, which illustrates that she is the most important feature of the album and may also suggest that as she is the main focal point, the songs on this album may be very personal and revolve around her own experiences and life choices.
As she is featured on the front cover not wearing any clothing, this will attract the 'male gaze' which is Laura Mulvey's theory relating to women in the film and music industry. She claims that audiences have to 'view' characters from the desired perspective of a
heterosexual male. The camera tends to linger on the curves of a
female's body, and the female body is often overly-sexualised in order
to attract large audiences. This is certainly present in this image as the singer is completely naked, with her curves partially covered by wisps of the cloud. This suggests that the singer is seductive and provocative, but as this album has previously implied that the tracks are personal to her, her lack of costume may be to imply that she is completely stripped back and vulnerable with her lyrics.
The back cover of the digipak continues the candyfloss and sweets theme, as the typography for the tracklist yet again resembles strawberry laces, and within the majority of the song titles the singer has included a candy sweet to replace letter O's. This theme illustrates the singer as having a fun and innocent side to her personality.
Inside the covers of the digipak, the singer has included two extra photos of herself to help sell her product and attract her audience. The first is a close-up shot of the singer as she is lying back in the clouds, and the other is the singer surrounded by various cakes. These two images reinforce her sweet aesthetic, and also the fun and innocent personality trait she is conveying. However, her seductive facial expression in the first photo also shows that she has another side to her personality which is much more provocative and sensual. Inside the digipak she has also featured two CDs that are layered with images to continue the theme of sweets and candy. The first disc resembles a donut, whilst the second resembles a stereotypical American candy sweet.
The 1975 is the self-titled debut studio album by English alternative rock band The 1975. It was released on the 2nd September 2013 through Dirty Hit and Polydor.It was recorded with Arctic Monkeys collaborator Mike Crossey.On the 8th September 2013, the album debuted at number 1 on the UK Albums Chart, and as of March 2016 it has sold 410,981 copies worldwide. The 1975 have previously produced other products like EPs and singles, however their debut album was the first of their material that was noticed globally.
The front cover of the digipak is very dark and mysterious, as the image doesn't give away much about the content of the album, or who the band members are. The image uses low-key lighting to enhance the shadows in the frame, and the small bursts of light from the spotlights around the band name help to emphasise the title of the album, which is also the band's name. As this was their first debut studio album, by drawing the audience's attention to the band's name this will allow the band to receive more publicity and exposure, and help them to reach a wider audience.
The simplicity of the front cover suggests that the songs written on this album reflect a similar nature, and are written surrounding their life and experiences that they have been through themselves as the main focus of the cover is their name. The inside cover uses a similar design, sticking to a very simple and sophisticated aesthetic.
As the main colour scheme of this digipak is black, this could imply that the lyrics to some of the songs featured in this album have a dark and foreboding theme as the colour black holds these connotations. The colour white is also used throughout the digipak, which holds connotations of purity and cleanliness, which could illustrate that the lyrics to the songs are truthful and hold a lot of emotion.
The back cover of this digipak follows a very similar design to the front cover, with the same low-key lighting and spotlights surrounding the large photo frame. The track list is written in bold, capitalised, white, sans-serif font which reflects the idea of simplicity and ambiguity which is present throughout the whole digipak. Yet again this area of the digipak does not reveal much about the themes which are present in the product, and creates a sophisticated and clean-cut aesthetic to the album.
Inside the digipak, the album CD continues the theme of black. The CD itself is matte black, with shiny black typography layered on top which states the band name and title of the album. Yet again the design is very simple and dark, which illustrates that the band itself don't require lots of bold imagery to sell their records, and that they rely on pure talent to attract their audience. As this album was also their first official release through a record label, they may have had a limited budget so decided to stick with a simple design, or possibly chosen a design that they believed would appeal to everybody.
Research - Task 9 (part 3) Born This Way is the second studio album by American singer Lady
Gaga, released by Interscope Records on the 23rd of May 2011. It is a follow-up
to her internationally successful album The Fame and EP The Fame Monster. As co-producer of every track on the album, Gaga collaborated with several producers, including RedOne and Fernando Garibay, who she has previously worked with on other albums. She also worked with artists such as E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons and Queen guitarist Brian May. The music of Born This Way stems from the dance-pop
styles of her previous material while incorporating different genres from her previous releases, such as electronic rock and techno. It features a broader range of genres such as opera, heavy metal, disco, house and rock and roll
while its lyrical topics feature sexuality, religion, freedom,
feminism, and individualism. Despite the divided opinions amongst religious
and conservative commentators, the album was well received by music
critics who praised the varying musical styles and Gaga's vocals. Born This Way received three Grammy Award nominations, including Gaga's third consecutive nomination for Album of the Year.
The front cover of the digipak is a close-up shot of Lady Gaga's face in black and white, with the exception of her red lipstick which is the only pop of colour across the whole digipak. The boldness of the red connotes a sense of danger and seductiveness, which suggests that themes of this may be present throughout the lyrics in this album. The pop of red also brings attention to the singer's mouth, implying that what she has to say is important, and that these messages will be featured in the lyrics of her songs.
The artist is also featured wearing very heavy eye-line, with the rest of her face very minimal in comparison. This brings the focus of the image to her eyes, and as the singer is also using direct address in this photograph, this helps to attract the audience and create a connection with them so that they will be more encouraged to purchase the album as she is staring directly at them.
The colour scheme of black and white is present throughout the whole digipak, as the spine of the digipak and the back cover are also lacking any bright colours, which suggests that this album is much more serious and sophisticated than her previous work. The colour black commonly connotes danger and mystery, whereas white is the binary opposite and portrays purity and innocence. This suggests that the singer has two sides to her personality, and can often be conflicted between the two.
The CD inside the digipak also follows this colour scheme, and is covered in white, serif typography. The font used is very spiky and clustered together. The spikiness of the font suggests a dangerous and edgy connotation, suggesting that these are personality traits that the artist portrays through her music. Lady Gaga is the largest piece of text throughout the whole product, which implies that she is the most important aspect, and that the album will revolve around her own life and personal experiences. The graphology used throughout the digipak is quite plain and serious looking, which illustrates that Lady Gaga does not require lots of bold, bright imagery to sell her products as she is hugely famous all by herself.
Loud is the fifth studio album released by pop-artist Rihanna. It was
released on November 12th 2010, by Def Jam Recordings and SRP Records. Rihanna was the executive producer of Loud and worked with various record producers including StarGate, Sandy Vee, The Runners, Tricky Stewart and Alex da Kid. The record features several guest artists, including rappers Drake, Nicki Minaj and Eminem.
The album is starkly diverse from Rihanna's 2009 album, Rated R, which revolves around a foreboding, angry tone and dark themes. Loud features up-beat pop genres, ranging from R&B and dance-pop to electro music. It also incorporates rock in "California King Bed" and reggae in the Caribbean inspired "Man Down". Loud received generally positive reviews from music critics,
who complimented its upbeat material and Rihanna's vocal performances. The album was a commercial success
internationally; it debuted at number 3 on the US Billboard 200 chart, with first week sales of 207,000 copies, the highest first week sales of her career at the time. As of November 2011, it had sold over 8 million copies worldwide.
The front cover for Rihanna's digipak is an extreme close-up shot of the artist's face, looking down away from the camera. This is unconventional for a pop-artists's front cover, as they usually are featured using direct address so that they can directly target their audience through eye contact. This therefore encourages the audience to purchase the artist's products as the artists has made a connection with them and creates the impression that the artist is pursuing their audience personally.
Rihanna is also featured wearing a full face of makeup, which is quite minimal except her bold rep lip which attracts her audience's attention. The bold lipstick colour matches her brightly dyed hair, and the colour red commonly connotes danger and love, implying that these themes may be heavily present throughout her album. This colour also connotes femininity, which suggests that this album will be more conventional of a pop-artist and revolve around feminine themes such as romance and love.
This idea is reinforced by the graphology used on her CD, and the images included within the digipak. On the CD itself, Rihanna has covered the disc with an image of a yellowy-pink coloured rose, which holds connotations of love and romance. This will help to market her product to her audiences as Saussure's research into semiotics states that signifiers, such as the image of a rose used on the CD, create connotations (known as signified) such as love and passion which help to draw out emotions from the audience and create a connection with them.
In the inside images, Rihanna is featured in a spread of 3 photos lying across a bed of red roses. This reinforces the feminine and loving theme that is running throughout this digipak, suggesting that the infamous 'bad girl' image Rihanna has previously portrayed herself as is now long forgotten.
This aesthetic is continued onto the back cover of Rihanna's digipak, as the main colour scheme is cream, light yellow and peachy-pink tones which holds connotations of positivity, innocence and purity, which is then contrasted with her bright red hair, symbolising that this album may still contain hints of danger and her previous 'bad girl' themes. The small hint of red continues in the typography used on the back cover, as the tracklist is written in red, sans-serif font which stands out against the cream background.
One of the photos contained within
the front cover
The self-titled album , Beyoncé was released on the 13th of December in 2013 and is the 5th studio album that the American singer and songwriter Beyoncé Knowles has produced. This album was simultaneously released as a visual album, where each song was accompanied by a music video that portray the message and emotions each song conveys. This album communicates themes of feminism, sex, love and relationship issues which many listeners would be able to relate to, which helped this album succeed massively worldwide. Beyoncé is well renowned for her strong, independent character which encourages her mainly female demographic audience to think independently themselves. Therefore, by portraying these messages throughout her album this will be an incentive for young girls to buy the album and listen to it as they will be able to relate to the lyrics and the messages she is conveying. This particular album was released digitally worldwide without any prior marketing, promotion or announcement, and debuted at number 1 on the U.S Billboard 200 granting Beyoncé her 5th consecutive number one album in the country. The record sold 617,000 copies in the United States, and 828,773 copies worldwide in its first 3 days of availability, becoming the fastest-selling album in the history of the iTunes Store. It was released again in November 2014 as part of a platinum edition, along with an extended version of new songs. This album received universal approval from critics who praised its exploration of sexuality, production and Beyoncé's vocals. It has sold 5 million copies worldwide as of November 2014,and has also created the singles "XO", "Drunk in Love", "Partition", "Pretty Hurts" and "Flawless".
The front cover of the album is incredibly simplistic, as it purely consists of a black background and the singer's name in pink, large, bold, sans-serif font. The sheer simplicity of this album cover shows that Beyoncé does not require an eye-catching album cover to enable her to sell millions of copies, as she is universally famous and has fans all over the world. As the album was also released unannounced this further reinforces that she doesn't need to market her products in a conventional style. An artist named Tourso designed the cover for the album, and revealed that he chose such a simplistic design as he was inspired by the cover of Metallica's 1991 fifth album to create a bold statement, and specifically to diverge from a stereotypical "beauty shot" of Beyoncé which he felt would be expected from the majority of audiences. Tourso used a font similar to boxing-match placards to represent abrasive masculinity which he then contrasted with the pink font which he described as "a subversion of femininity".
The back-cover of the album followed the same simplicity, consisting only of a black background and the song titles written in pink, sans-serif font which matches the title.
The singer did not release any other products relating to the album, so there are no official adverts or posters that helped to market the album, which I assume is because she released the album without any prior announcement.
For my fifth music video analysis I have chosen The Sound by The 1975. It was released as a radio single on the 19th February 2016, and is currently the band's highest charting single in the UK, peaking at number 15 on the UK charts. The music video for the single was released on the 25th February 2015 on the band's YouTube channel. This particular single comes under the genre of synthpop and indie pop, which is present throughout the majority of their new album whereas in their previous album it was much more rock influenced.
The group are shown dressed in black and playing in a large glass cube in a dark room throughout. The cube's lighting intersects between black and white to pink as they play, and at one point fills with smoke. They are observed from outside and spoke about by well-groomed strangers all dressed in white lab coats, with pink cards showing throughout the video which highlight negative comments from real-life critics about the band as they play such as: 'terrible high-pitched vocals over soulless robo beats', 'totally lacking the wow factor', and 'this band thinks it has a charismatic singer... they are mistaken'. As the song progresses the band begin to seem more and more tense, until eventually they switch places with the critics and observe them from outside the box.
Throughout the video there are a variety of close-up shots of the lead singer, Matty Healy, to draw attention to the fact that he is the front-man of the band and that he receives the most attention as he performs the vocals to all of the songs. The close up shots highlight his unusual costume for a male vocalist, as he is featured wearing relatively heavy eye make-up, and black nail varnish amongst his all-black outfit. This is the binary opposite aesthetic which most conventional, male artists abide by which highlights that this band is not afraid to go against the regular social conventions and push their boundaries in music through their costumes as well as their lyrics. This aesthetic is present throughout the music video, as the narrative of the video itself is diverse and unusual in comparison to many other current artist's products. This video is relatively similar to their previous videos, as they all tend to use similar, low-key lighting and revolve primarily around the lead-singer.
There are also a wide variety of long shots shown whilst they are performing in the box, which captures the whole band together. This helps to symbolise unity and togetherness, showing that they have a strong connection and work well together.
The music and beats of the song work well with the visuals in the music video, as the thumping beat in the background is featured in time with the lead-singer's body movements, and also in time with the changing light colours and the critics' comments.
The video's narrative does not reflect the song's lyrics, and instead is more conceptual and performance based. The video portrays a concept of feeling trapped as the band is stuck inside the glass box as critics' comments are flashing up around them, and only when they stop listening to the comments are they free. This suggests that you are never truly at peace until you stop caring about negative criticisms. The video is also performance based as the band are shown to be playing their instruments and displaying their vocal talent throughout the majority of the video.
For my fourth music video analysis I have chosen the single What Do You Mean by Justin Bieber.
The music video, directed by Brad Furman and starring John Leguizamo and Xenia Deli, premiered on the 30th August 2015 following the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards. As of July 2016, the video has amassed over 1.12 billion views on YouTube, making it the 22nd most viewed video on the website. This song is a stereotypical pop song, which primarily revolves around a complicated relationship between himself and a his girlfriend. The video is also quite stereotypical for a pop song, as the video features multiple pop genre conventions, as it primarily revolves around the couple and their relationship, uses a wide variety of close-up shots of the male protagonist (Justin Bieber), and he is also featured topless throughout many shots in the video which helps to attract his female demographic audience.
The
video starts off with a man waiting at a stop sign
in front of a motel in the rain. A dark hooded figure (revealed to be Justin
Bieber) walks towards the man. It is revealed that Bieber is in debt to him,
and then gives him money and is promised to do one job: to protect a girl,
who later plays his love interest. As the song starts,
it cuts to a neon-lighted hotel room where the girl that was mentioned
earlier is hiding. As Bieber sings the second verse of the song, a group of
masked men burst in to the room. They tie them up and kidnap both of them. It then cuts to the
pair tied up in an abandoned warehouse and they later use a lighter to
burn the rope and escape. When the masked men discover they've escaped
they chase after them. They open a door, only to find themselves peering
down at the road below. With the men nearing the couple jump out of the window, and land safely on an inflatable mat. They move on to an underground skating party, as Bieber sings the
rest of the song. The video ends with Bieber standing alone in the
dark, in the skatepark.
Throughout the video, Justin Bieber is featured in a large variety of close-up shots and mid shots, which highlight that he is still the main focus of the music video even though there are other characters involved. This establishes that he is the most important factor, as he is highly famous globally. The mid shots also establish that he is featured wearing ordinary, every day clothing which reflects Dyer's theory of stardom. Dyer states that to be a star you have to maintain two key paradoxes; one of them being that you have to appear both ordinary and extraordinary. Bieber is present as ordinary through his choice of costume in this video as he is wearing a white t-shirt with blue jeans and trainers, which creates the image of a normal teenage boy. However, he is also portrayed as extraordinary through his vocals, and his heroic tendabilities in the music video as he protects the female character from danger. As you can see in the photo above, he helps her to escape the male antagonists in the video, by encouraging her to jump to safety onto the inflatable mat below the motel window, portraying his character as brave.
In the video there is an intertextual reference to an underwear campaign that Justin Bieber had recently released at the time of the music video release, as he is featured wearing Calvin Klein boxers which is highlighted in a mid-shot as he climbs onto the bed. This product placement will encourage his audience to look at the campaign he released, and also encourage them to purchase some of the Calvin Klein products as he endorses them in his videos. As he is featured with his underwear on show, and topless throughout this scene in the video this can relate to Laura Mulvey's theory of the 'male gaze' and Freud's theory of voyeurism in music videos. Laura Mulvey argues that females are often featured in revealing costumes and are objectified to attract male attention in order to sell their products, whilst Freud argues that sexual themes and ideas are often used in music videos in order to sell their products as certain individuals gain enjoyment from watching other people interact intimately. Bieber uses both of these ideas within his video as both the female character and him are featured half naked, and they are featured also shown to be kissing.
The lyrics work well with the footage at towards the beginning of the video when he first meets the female character, as he sings 'When you don't want me to move, but you tell me to go, what do you mean?', and in the footage she is shown to be kissing him but then suddenly pushes him away with no warning before beginning to kiss him again.
The music and beat of the song also go well with the visuals of the music video, as the tempo of the track matches the speed of the narrative and the editing.
For my third music video analysis I have chosen the song Dance For You by Beyoncé, which was released for the deluxe edition of her fourth studio album. It was written by Beyoncé, Terius "The-Dream" Nash and Christopher "Tricky" Stewart. Dance for You is a mid-tempo R&B and synthpop song, in which Beyoncé adopts sensual vocals. In Dance for You, Beyoncé, as the female protagonist, speaks of the love she has for her partner and about all the things she will do to show him her appreciation.
The video is shot in black and white throughout to create an air of sophistication and also an old-fashioned aesthetic, which is also present in her costume and the location. Beyoncé is featured in the music video entering a man's office, and then continuing to remove her jacket and dance provocatively for him throughout the whole video. Half-way through the video she is joined by 4 back-up dancers, who follow her choreographed routine.
Beyoncé is featured wearing a silk, very short dress with black pantyhose, suspenders and heels. She is also wearing a full face of makeup and large diamond earrings. This costume is very glamourous and Hollywood-esque which creates the impression that this music video is portraying a time in the past, and that she is illustrated as sophisticated and seductive. This costume helps to attract the 'male gaze' as her revealing outfit portrays the artist as a sex symbol, which is enhanced by her provocative dance moves. This will widen Beyoncé's demographic audience, as more males will be encouraged to watch the video and purchase her music if the music video contains sexual and provocative scenes.
Low-key lighting is used throughout the video to enhance the shadows in the dark office room, which also creates a mysterious and dark effect, implying that the narrative has an element of secrecy and danger.
There are a number of close-up shots and long shots throughout the video, which are primarily focused on Beyoncé as she is the focal point of the music video as she's a solo artist, and focus on her dance moves as well as her facial expressions. The long-shots also commonly feature the back-up dancers alongside the artist, as they help to emphasise the seductive nature of the music video which emphasises the message of the lyrics.
This music video follows a clear narrative that amplifies the message within the song, as the chorus of the song states 'tonight I'm gonna dance for you' which she is featured doing in the video.
As part of my research into the music industry, I have chosen to analyse a variety of music videos in order to gain some key knowledge into how they promote certain themes and ideas, and how they are constructed through a variety of camera shots, editing techniques, mise-en-scene and sound.
For my second music video analysis I have chosen Something Big by Shawn Mendes. Something Big is a song from his debut studio album Handwritten, which was released in 2015. This particular song was released on the 6th November 2014 as the second official single from the album. The music video for Something Big was released on the 11th November 2014 on Vevo and YouTube. This song belongs to the pop genre, and is a good example for a teenage pop-star's music video as it primarily revolves around him and illustrates the artist as a fun and lively male star.
The video begins with Shawn Mendes waking up in the morning, and leads on through his morning routine before he meets his friends and continues on to walk down the street until a lively crowd is following him. This portrays the star as a normal popular teenage boy, which relates to Dyer's theory of stardom. He states that the star must appear both ordinary and extraordinary, which Shawn portrays perfectly throughout this music video as the narrative follows him living ordinary, every-day lifestyle however his singing and instrumental ability shows that he has lots of talent which sets him apart from the rest.
This music video contains a wide range of close-up shots on Shawn Mendes throughout the music video, which emphasises that he is the main focus of attention and that the audience should pay all of their attention to him. The video also contains a few long shots to show the large crowds that are attracted to him and follow him through the video, and a few mid-shots which show of his costume which consists of a grey t-shirt, a green plaid shirt, black jeans and trainers. This costume helps to reinforce that he is an ordinary teenage boy, as he is not featured in particularly eye-catching or majorly fashionable clothes unlike many other male artists, for example like Justin Bieber.
The lyrics in the song state that 'something big' is going to happen, which is then emphasised in the music video as the video builds and builds, reflecting the music and tempo of the song. As the song climaxes, the video mirrors this as Shawn Mendes is featured singing with a guitar to a large crowd of people, which implies that this is the big event that he's singing about in the song.
This music video is both performance and narrative based, as the video follows a story of Shawn's life in a stereotypical American neighbourhood, however his performance at the end with his guitar in front of a large crowd highlights his talent and ability.
As part of my research into the music industry, I have chosen to analyse a variety of music videos in order to gain some key knowledge into how they promote certain themes and ideas, and how they are constructed through a variety of camera shots, editing techniques, mise-en-scene and sound.
For my first music video analysis, I have chosen Fifth Harmony's new single, All In My Head (Flex) which is directed by Director X, as this video is a good example of a conventional girl band's music video. The song primarily belongs to the pop genre, however as Fetty Wap is featured towards the end of the song this adds a Hip-Hop/R&B vibe.
The video begins with a wipe effect that has been created in the post production editing, and then leads on throughout the rest of the music video with continuous straight cuts, before finally ending with the same wipe effect. This creates an aesthetic that portrays a story-like effect, or a short insight into their ideal lifestyle as it begins and ends like a musical would, with the wiping screen acting like curtains. This attracts their audience, as it creates the feeling of wanting to know and see more from the artists, so therefore the
audience will feel obliged to watch more of their music videos and eventually purchase their products.
The girl-band continue to entice their audience through their use of camera shots and costume. Each member of the band is featured wearing a revealing bikini and a full face of makeup as their costume, which is slightly altered towards the end of the song when the location changes - so they cover up slightly more by adding a sarong to each of the girl's costumes. The very minimal costume helps the girl-band to attract a male demographic audience, as they are portrayed as sex-symbols which attracts the 'male gaze'. The 'male gaze' relates to Laura Mulvey's theory of female sexualisation in the film and music industry, as audiences have to 'view' characters from the desired perspective of a
heterosexual male. The camera tends to linger on the curves of a
female's body, and the female body is often overly-sexualised in order
to attract large audiences. This theory is present throughout the All In My Head (Flex) music video, as the female singers are sexualised by their costumes and the dance routines featured in the video, which the camera focuses on heavily through a succession of close up shots during each girl's solo, and various long shots and mid shots in the chorus.
The music video is shot in an unknown, exotic location on the beach, where the girl-band is featured dancing and partying. The girl's are often shot in the ocean, or with the ocean in the background which creates a relaxed, carefree environment, which helps to attract the audience. This relates to Richard Dyer's theory in 1992, as he proposed that media texts (music videos) help to make up for some of the deficiencies in modern life through 5 uptopian solutions: community, energy, abun
dance, transparency and intensity. The use of the exotic location in this particular music video fits in with Dyer's theory, as the beach and ocean create a glamourous location and lifestyle which comes under the abundance utopian solution. As the girl-band and actors in the video are also shown to be partying and drinking, this will appeal to their teenage target audience as these are common themes of teenage life.
Throughout the video, a slow motion effect has been used strategically in the post production to reinforce the sexual themes and the sex appeal of the artists to attract their audience, particularly their male demographic audience. Throughout the dance routines and during seductive shots on the beach, the post production have altered the speed of the footage so that the girl's movements are in slow motion which creates the effect that the camera is lingering on them for longer. This captures the 'male gaze' as previously mentioned.
The music video does not reflect the lyrics to the song, however themes that are present throughout the video do reflect the nature of the lyrics. The lyrics in the song reflect sex and relationships, and the girls in the video are dressed in revealing costumes and are portrayed as seductive and lively. However, the beat and pace of the music is reflected in the editing as the shots are fast-paced and flow together smoothly which matches the tempo of the song perfectly. When the lyrics of the song are slower, the switch between camera shots becomes less frequent, and when the lyrics are faster the switch between shots is more frequent.
Male model in the Work From Home music video
This video is quite similar to the previous music videos produced by this girl-band, as the themes present within this music video has been previously featured in their other videos too. In each of the music videos the artists are portrayed as seductive and sexual, as a lot of their songs are about relationships and intimacy. For example, in their Work From Home music video the artists are dressed as construction workers, whilst still keeping their sex-symbol aesthetic. The Work From Home music video also features multiple male actors who are topless, which is also a key element in the All In My Head (Flex) video.
Overall, this music video is a mix of narrative-based and performance-based, as the video follows the girl-band around an exotic beach location, where they meet some friends and then continue onto a party later in the evening, however the video also highlights the girl-band's choreography ability as they are featured dancing in multiple parts of the video in sequence with each other. The video is mildly sexualised to attract a male demographic, and revolves around themes of partying, a carefree and glamourous lifestyle and having fun which appeals to teenagers and encourages them to buy their products.
Theordor Adorno argued that capitalism fed people with the products of a
'culture industry' - the opposite of 'true' art in order to keep them passively
satisfied. He suggested that culture industries
(such as the music industry) produce a large mass of unsophisticated, sentimental products which
have replaced the more 'difficult' and critical art forms which might
lead people to actually question social life and society.
False needs
are cultivated in people by the culture industries. These are needs
which can be both created and satisfied by the capitalist system, and
which replace people's 'true' needs - freedom, full expression of human
potential and creativity, genuine creative happiness. 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.
Products
of the culture industry may be emotional or seemingly moving, but
Adorno sees this as cathartic. For example, we might seek some comfort in a sad film
or song and cry, and then feel restored and refreshed again afterwards.
Hebdige - Subcultures
Dick Hebdige views Adorno's ideas as overly pessimistic and dismissive of mass audiences as passive and easily manipulated, when they are actually capable of seeing through the illusion of the culture industry. Hebdige
argues that consumption is an active process in which differences in
audiences' social and ideological construction lead to different
readings of the same cultural products.As
such, the audience are free to resist the power of large companies by
ignoring, undermining or finding alternative products to consume.Often this takes the form of the audience constructing themselves as distinct and individual from mainstream culture - as subcultures.
Major
companies will inevitably attempt to overtake this resistance by
attempting to provide products which these audiences or subcultures will consume. These audiences must then decide whether to accept these products or whether to resist further.
Freud - Voyeurism
Freud's theory on voyeurism also applies to the music industry, as he argues that record labels and artists will promote their videos to contain graphics and images that encourage voyeurism. Voyeurism relates to individuals who receive pleasure from watching sexual acts, or sexual themes. Therefore, artists will release sexual themed music videos, and sexual themed photos in their digipacks and marketing packages in order to attract a wider audience, as these individuals will then be more likely to purchase their products as the sexual themes will encourage them and catch their attention.
Laura Mulvey argues that in the film and music industry, audiences have to 'view' characters from the desired perspective of a heterosexual male. The camera tends to linger on the curves of a female's body, and the female body is often overly-sexualised in order to attract large audiences. She argues that this is due to males generally working behind the camera as directors, producers and cameramen whereas women tend to feature in the films and music videos being made, so therefore they are objectified to appeal to male audiences. This results in music videos being created to appeal to the 'male gaze'.
Ferdinand de Sausssure's theory on semiotics states that there are two features which influence audiences: signifiers and signified. A signifier is a literal object, for example a picture of a rose or a cartoon heart drawing. A signified, on the other hand, would be the feelings and thoughts an audience would connote with the signifier, for example romance and love in reference to the picture of a rose. Signifiers can be used to create meaning for the audiences, so are often used in music videos in order to interact with and influence the audience in a particular way.
For my fifth magazine advert analysis I have chosen another Rihanna advertisement, this time focusing on her release of Loud her fifth studio album released on the 12th November 2011 under Def Jam Recordings and SRP Records.
This album advertisement is much more feminine in comparison to her Rated R album advertisement, and has a feminine and floral theme.
In the image on the left a mid shot of Rihanna is used to advertise her new album. She is featured wearing large sunglasses, a fur coat, minimal jewellery and is holding a pink rose. This creates a very feminine and girly aesthetic to the advertisement, as the colour scheme of pink and red holds connotations of love and femininity. Her bright red hair also holds connotations of danger and edginess, showing that she is still not your stereotypical popstar as she is tough and feisty. Her costume is very minimal, and you cannot clearly see whether she is wearing any other item of clothing underneath the fur coat, suggesting that she is partially naked.
This will attract her audience as Freud's theory of voyeurism tells us that sexual themes and ideas are seen as pleasurable to lots of individuals, so the hint of nudity will attract the 'male gaze'.
The font and typography on this advertisement is fairly understated and minimal, as she uses quite a faint, simplistic font. The title Loud is written in white, sans-serif font as is her name. This suggests that this album is not as fierce and risque as her previous products. Her name is also featured towards the top of the album this time, whereas previously her name would be featured in the centre of the advert, symbolising that she is the most important aspect of the product. This suggests that the themes within the album are the most significant this time.
Underneath the title she has also included the names of two of her hit singles, which will entice her audience to purchase the album as these two songs were highly popular in the UK charts, so therefore will encourage her listeners to hear more of her work.
For my fourth advertisement analysis I have chosen Jessie J's debut studio album called Who You Are. The album was released on the 28th February 2011. Due to high demand and interest
from fans, the release advanced by a month from 28th March, as previously
planned.
The image on the advertisement is a close-up shot of Jessie J, with a serious facial expression and her mouth open. Her open mouth could be to imply that she is already singing, or that she has something important to say which she will portray through the lyrics in her album. The close up shot emphasises that she is the main focus of the advertisement, as the advert is promoting her world tour where fans will travel to arenas around the country to see her perform live. The artist is photographed wearing heavy, dark makeup that creates a stark contrast with her pale skin tone. She is wearing a full-face of makeup with a strong smoky eye, and black lipstick which creates the impression that she is tough and edgy, unlike the majority of popstars who are presented as much more feminine. Jessie J is featured looking directly into the camera lens, making a direct connection with her audience as it creates the impression that she is staring into your eyes.
Her hand positioning in the photo also helps to reinforce her edgy and tough exterior, as her body language suggests she is blocking herself and protecting herself, signifying strength and independence.
The font and typography she has used in her advertisement suggests an air of wealth and glamour as the large, bold, serif font is positioned in the centre of the page. The colour gold also holds connotation of richness and bling, suggesting that the artist also holds these connotations. The boldness of the font will also help to attract her target audience as it is bright and quite dominates the advert. Underneath, Jessie J has included her tour dates in bold white and gold font, and has also feautured contact numbers for the arenas and a link to her website so that her fans can easily access her merchandise and products.
For my third magazine advertisement analysis I have chosen Ed Sheeran's advertisement for his first studio album, named Plus which was released in September 2011 under Asylum Records and Atlantic Records.
For my second advertisement analysis I have chosen Beyoncé's I Am... Sasha Fierce album which was released in November 2008 as her third studio album by Music World Entertainment and Columbia Records. The first disc, I Am..., contains slow pop and R&B songs, while the second, Sasha Fierce (named after Beyoncé's on-stage alter ego), focuses on more up-tempo beats. In the advertisement on the left, we can see that Beyoncé has portrayed herself as two different versions: the left image as natural and simplistic and the right image as dramatic and feisty. This implies that she has two drastically different sides to her personality, her normal and natural side as Beyoncé and her dramatic and wild side as Sasha Fierce.
These two personalities are highlighted through her costume and makeup in the advertisement images. On the left, Beyoncé is featured with minimal, natural looking makeup which emphasises her natural beauty and glowing skin. Her hair is slicked back, and she is also seen wearing a bracelet on her wrist with a Christian cross charm on it which emphasises the innocent, pure look she is portraying for the I am... side of the album. Beyoncé's clothing is not visible which suggests she is wearing very minimal clothing or is naked. This will attract attention to the front cover of the album and encourage her audience to buy the album, as theorist, Laura Mulvey, states that men in the film and music industry are usually behind the camera, so when female artists are in front of the cameras they are objectified and encouraged to portray more sexual themes. As Beyoncé is not seen to be wearing any clothing, this attracts attention referred to as the 'male gaze'. This would also relate to Freud's theory of voyeurism, where individuals get pleasure from seeing sexual images or watching sexual interactions. However, her lack of clothing could also be used to reinforce her natural and stripped back aesthetic.
On the right, Sasha Fierce is photographed as the binary opposite. She is featured wearing a full face of heavy makeup, with an intense smoky eye which suggests that she has a seductive edge. Her hair is swept off of her face to bring the full attention to her looks, and is full of volume to portray her alter-ego as highly glamourous. Sasha Fierce is also shown to be wearing an elaborate piece of jewellery on her h
and, and is featured in a lacy costume which reinforces her glamour and sophistication.
In both photos, Beyoncé holds a fairly neutral facial expression, and maintains direct eye contact with the camera (also known as direct address). This creates the impression that she is staring directly at the audience, which will encourage them to buy the album as she is targeting them personally and making a connection with them through the photograph.
The font used in this advert helps to reinforce the glamourous and edgy aesthetic that Beyoncé is aiming for throughout the advertisement, as she uses a colour scheme of bronze and gold which could be to suggest sophistication and wealth as they hold connotations of jewellery and money, and the serif font suggests an air of traditionalism and class. The artist's name is also in large bold font, and is positioned in the centre of the advertisement to catch the audience's eye and draw them into the advert. The positioning and size of her name suggests that she is the main focus of the album, and that she is a selling point herself as she is very famous and people will often buy her products purely based on the fact they are made by her. The advert also includes the names of some of her previously released hit singles that feature on the album, which will attract her current fans and any individuals who may have heard these songs but may not have purchased them yet.
Conventions of a Digipack
- Made of card
- Constructed from 4-6 card panels
- Strong image on the front cover to promote the artist
- Bold titles
- Tracklist on the back
- Interesting font
- Direct address
- Extra photos of the artist are often included within
- Lyric book on the inside
- Credits also included in the lyric book
Research - Task 6 (part 1)
For my first magazine advert analysis I have decided to analyse an advert for Rihanna's fourth studio album, called Rated R in 2009.
For my preliminary photography I was put into a group with a boy in my class called Will, and we were assigned the theme trapped vs freedom. We did not have a very long time limit to capture all our photos so I will hopefully take some more within this week.
To the right you can see two of the photos Will and I captured for the trapped theme, where we positioned Will towards the left hand side of the frame against a black backdrop to represent darkness and loneliness, which are common connotations of being trapped. In the first photo we set the camera's aperture to f/10 as this allows less light into the lens, which created our dark and low-lit effect. We chose to not change the ISO setting on the camera as the aperture captured the effect we were hoping for, and we also left the shutter speed at the original level of 1/25 and used a tripod to ensure the photo didn't blur.
In our second photo we adjusted the aperture to f/3 to allow more light into the lens of the camera, and also adjusted the shutter speed to 1/125 and then changed the camera settings from a single photo to continuous shooting. During the continuous shooting we decided Will should move his head and arms around to create the appearance that he's trapped within himself. This worked out quite well, and although the overall photo is quite blurry we liked the aesthetic of having two versions of Will within the shot as it can suggest that he's mentally trapped rather than physically.
For both of these shots we attempted to follow the rule of thirds, however as we featured Will towards the left hand side of the camera frame rather than in the centre and his facial features are not clearly focused it does not quite match the rule of thirds.
In this photo on the left, we decided to try and capture another trapped photo but in a different location. We took the camera and tripod outside, and chose to position Will in the centre of this octagonal bench to show that he was physically trapped. We also decided to stick to the blurred theme to try and capture two versions of Will in one shot again, however this time it did not quite work as effectively as our first shot. The exposure on this photo was also too high, however we could not fix this no matter how many photos we took as the aperture didn't seem to have any effect no matter how many times we adjusted it. We left the shutter speed at the same level as the last photo (1/125) and set the camera into continuous shooting mode again.
In this photo we decided to capture a light hearted aspect of freedom in the form of an air jump, which symbolises that they're weightless and carefree. To ensure this shot came out as clearly as possible we set the camera into continuous shooting mode again, and set the shutter speed to 1/2000 to ensure the photo wouldn't blur.
We had to take this photo multiple times due to mistiming the jump, however after multiple attempts we achieved a shot that we were happy with.
Finally, we decided to capture 2 more shots for freedom and capture these by portraying this theme through nature. These wild flowers grow in the pond area which is now overgrown with grass and flowers, so we decided to photograph these as the flowers grow freely all across the drained pond.
We decided to adjust the depth of field to get a shallow focus in the first photograph, which highlighted the petals on the flower and the small insect crawling across it. This took a few attempts as the camera was slightly difficult to focus at first, however once we got the hang of it we were able to capture this photo on the right. Unfortunately, we forgot to note down the settings used for this last photograph as we were on a limited time schedule.
The most popular band that I gathered from my results was The 1975, which is an indie rock band, that also feature pop themes in their newer music. This was closely followed by Imagine Dragons whom are also a very popular alternative rock/pop rock band. These themes of pop and indie music are highlighted as popular with my target group throughout my results, which tells me that a song under these genres would be a good choice for my music video later on in my coursework.
