In our theory lessons we have began looking at post modernism contextuality in both music video’s and films. Postmodernism is a movement away from the viewpoint of modernism. It involves the belief that most apparent realities are only social constructs and are subject to change depending on the time and location.
The postmodernist musical attitude is supported by Jonathan Kramer created 16 characteristics of postmodern music which create a postmodern experience when listening to a song. Postmodern music id not simple a repudiation of modernism but had aspects if both and break in the industry and an extension. The music video productions have changed and are more dominantly well known today for the postmodernism approach combining imagery and sounds, buy doing this they incorporate many aspects of current cultures together inevitably creating postmodernism. Postmodern music is in many ways ironic and does not respect existing boundaries between past and current cultures. It also tend to take technology for granted not only using it to preserve music but deeply implicate the production and sound of the music to fit it into society.Postmodern music often has a large relevance or reference to political and social contexts, it presents multiple meanings whilst embracing contradictions.
I have decided to create a facebook page for Canute, simply because it is an effective way of reaching out to fans yet simple to create. With the ability to update fans on album info, tour dates and personal messages I think a facebook page is a successful way to market our band. It was a simple procedure, all I had to do was create a page in aid of our band. Fans can then write on the wall and 'like' the page in order to show their support.
As part of the course we are require to produce a website to market our band and connect them to their audience. Before doing this I am going to analyse an existing website that has been created as a way of marketing an already famous artist. Katy Perry is my chosen artist.
This is the home page of Katy Perry's official website, it has many conventions of a marketing website. Just under the tabs there is links to follow katy perry on twitter, facebook, bebo, youtube and itunes. This immediately draws the observers attention and encourages them to follow Katy perry, the social sites that she has chosen will increase her fan base because they are considered to be more personal than a normal website. We are then encouraged to join Katy-Perry.com, this is probably a way of making her fans feel 'more in touch' with her. By joining as an official member it gives Katy Perry her fans trust and loyalty which will probably improve her motivation and enthusiasm.
Directly below this is a photograph of Katy Perry, this puts a face to the name, a simple way of making her noticed by her audience. To the right of this we are given the opportunity to download her music. This is important for an artist or band, because it encourages the audience to purchase the music rather than illegally download. Having music to download on a website is a convention of music websites.
Websites usually consist of biography's, tour dates, photo's, video's, merchandise and forums for fans to connect with each other.
Further down the page there is a list of tour dates and the chance to buy tickets. Again this is another marketing strategy that encourages the audience to buy tickets. A video has been posted by the editor in relation to her recent tour, showing behind the scenes rehearsals featuring Katy Perry and her cast. This video will surely psych her audience who are attending her concert and again brings a sense of personality to the website which enables the fans to build a relationship with the artist.
This screen shot shows how Katy personally connects with her audience, she regularly updates her fans with tweets. Which is a social networking site that enables her fans to speak to her personally.
I like the colour's on Katy's website, I think they make a statement about her personality. Katy is usually recognised for her 'candy like' costumes and themes. However i think this colour scheme is completely opposite. The black background could be a code for her bold personality, but with the added pink (sweetness) so she is a bold person in the industry but is still girly and sweet. This is effective in promoting herself as a strong person with added personality.
This is my final Album cover, when designing my cover I ensured I had the typical conventions of a music video; Title, Song name, Image of the band.
This is the back cover of my album, I chose to keep it simple purely because time was running out. I have analysed an album cover that was simple but effective. My back page consists of typical conventions of an album back; title, song names producers and length, barcode, producing info and website.
This is the original picture I have taken my final Idea from for my album cover. I liked this because it shows all 3 of the artist' and supports the narrative of them being unaware of each other.
In order to make the album more professional I experimented around with the contrast and brightness, I was happy with the final version of the edited photograph.
Once I had chosen my font from a website i added it to the photo i had edited. However when i looked back at it i didn't like the contrast. I found the artist name didn't stand out much which could effect the ability to sell. So i changed the contrast and brightness of the photograph...
I just made the background picture slightly lighter in order to make the title bolder.
A typical convention of a music video is the song title appearing somewhere, I thought it would be good to put the title directly underneath the artist name to make an instant connection.
My main aim for this coursework title it to create a music video, artists album cover and artist website. However I think it will be a good idea to discuss an issue that is pretty big in the music industry right now. There has been a lot of accusation regarding the outcome of Rihanna's S&M music video claiming that she has plagiarised the work of David LaChapelle. Having already analysed this video with my own perceptions of the messages I think it is important to understand and accept the issue that it has caused. David LaChapelle is a fashion photographer suing Rihanna for using images in her video that are"directly derived" from his own works. LaChepelle claims that the star has copied eight of his images. the photographer asserts that the video copies the "composition, total concept, feel, tone, mood, theme, colours, props, settings, decors, wardrobe and lighting" of his work.
Much controversy has occurred over Rhianna's new music video S&M promoting sadismandmasochism which implies sexual gratification gained through pain or the degradation of others. The video Rhianna has produced is a post modern parody of other music videos consisting of many typical conventions. The video takes editing to the the extreme almost mocking the extent of previous video's by making the edits so insanely quick it is almost vertiginous. The director has also adapted the typical convention of camera shots using different angles and de-focusing effects which makes the audience aware that they are watching a music video. The vibrant colours used within the mise en scene is emphasized to reduce the realism of the location in doing this it also increases the hyper realism. The first shot of Rhianna singing is a close up using the effect of a fish bowl, it is a close up shot which is a convention of many music videos. Throughout the video many effects are used, a very successful shot is the pulsing of the camera and the tilting in sync with the beat of the music. Within the music industry the costumes used signify a huge part of the video. In this video the director has taken costumes to extremes making them hyper real almost as if she is mocking other extremely creative artists such as Lady Gaga. Although Rhianna has subjectively mocked the music industry and videos, along with Lady Gaga she has taken expectations to a new height creating a new boundary for other artists to enter.
Thursday 17 March 2011
Costume and star image plays an extremely important role in an artists success. The way they dress, perform, act and market themselves creates their success. The genre we was interested in was indie/alternative, because of this I decided to raid my wardrobe and the internet to gain inspiration. It wasn't to hard for me however to find outfits, I generally dress different from the social trends and tend to deviate myself from society in order to make a statement. I thought it would be a good idea to think about my costumes, and the way and reason I like dressing how I do.
In this particular video the situation is 3 girls dating the same boy, it would be silly for us all to dress similar. So I thought if I was to dress slightly edgy and experiment it would help create my character, I will be deviating from the trends the other girls are following which will make me stand out. However this can be said about all of us....
I was at home ant thought it would be useful to gather a few ideas together on album art work. I will be able to refer back to these sketches when creating my album covers for ideas.
Although our filming went to plan and we have all the footage we need we still came across some problems along the way.
As a group we struggled with making arrangements, we tended to let time slip past although we was soon put on track when we got filming. I think this may be simply because as first the tasked seemed impossible with the only free time being after school when it would be dark and therefore not light enough to film. This was overcome when we began getting move active and saw that the road wasn't too long and gained both motivation and enthusiasm.
The main problem was finding a date we could all film, although this date was never found until last minute we still managed extremely well as a group in communicating to ensure we was all aware of what was happening.
I think the fact that we are friends has helped us a lot because we understand each other and didn't have to get to know each other before hand which gave us an advantage. It also meant we had already mastered communication between each of us, and despite someone not being at the shoot they had a constant update via facebook, text or school on what was happening with the filming and how things were going.
So it's now March and with time running out and so much to do we set out to film again. This time the focus was to ensure that we had enough footage from a range of distances (long, middle, close up, extreme close up), and also a range of angles (point of view, over the shoulder, etc) This day was just as successful as previous days however due to one member of the group being missing it was difficult for us to get all the shots needed. This however was not a problem and was something that we worked around.
Again we travelled a little further to get a wider range of locations, we wont be using all of these locations because we have to remember the narrative and if we start using a lot of locations it may cause difficulty for the audience to connect and follow the narrative.
Again the weather was great and the day went just as planned, if not better.
Having reviewed the footage we already have we decided to take another day out to film more after realising that there was so much more potential for this video than we had thought. So we set out to London, Myself and 2 other group members. We was extremely lucky with the weather on this day, it was definitely shining to our advantage. We created the usual set up; bags done, tripod our, DSLR ready for when needed, camcorder ready to go & i-pod playing. We thought it would be a good idea to have an i-pod playing the song in order to make it easier when putting the lip sync and song together, it mad our singing more accurate and in time with the music.
This time however, instead of just staying in the current location we deviated from here and found ourselves filming in a park which added to the Bohemian style of the song.
. capture footage from a range of shots (long, mid, close up)
. take advantage of the lighting
. successfully reflect the genre we chose to focus our video on
. to capture the footage that will make up the quick edits of our video
Yesterday we began filming for our music video, we wasn't quite sure what to expect. As we approached Bond Street we immediately knew this was where we was going to film. It was an interesting day and we managed to successfully film a majority of the video, we experimented with camera angles, distances and motions to ensure that our video had a wide range.
We went up to london with a strong idea of what it was we wanted to create, but when we was up there we was hit with so many more ideas, which is a good thing.
Throughout the day we was lucky enough to use HD video camera's and DSLR still cameras. The fact that we was able to have access to a still camera as-well was very beneficial, it enabled us to capture photographs throughout the day of each of us using the equipment which will aid us when explaining the processes.
Following our video we will upload the footage we have captured onto apple mac's and begin editing.
This is a collage I have created, I have tried to include photograph's of each of us to show our equality in the filming process.
The camera work was shared out equally between group members, we ensured that everyone was capable of using the equipment that was required to continue with our filming. Jack was particularly keen with the camera and was happily able to aid the rest of the group if they found themselves having difficulties.
When we first began filming, although we recognised what conventions were needed to make a successful video we struggled in actually capturing these conventions. This wasn't because we was unaware, simply because we was so caught up in the moment and was enjoying the task that we just forget. Having filmed and watched our footage back however we did recognise this, and we was lucky enough to have noticed this so early on because we were then able to go back and film more footage to replace some of the old footage.
I am not angry nor annoyed that we made these simple mistakes, because we did as a group realise and it did then give up both the experience and ability to go back and correct the mistakes that we had made.
Having noticed VV Browns connection and love for London via other videos and photoshoot so we have decided the do the majority of our filming up London, however we would like to do some filming in rural area's also (taking inspiration from Ellie Goulding's video). An area we used for a large majority of our filming was Gilbert street, a road just left of Bond Street Station, from here we travelled the short distance to do more filming in Mayfair.
After several discussions we made this decision to call our band Canute, we have take the name from 'King Canute the Great' who was a viking warrior who became and English king. Stories say that he was in control of the tides and seas, he could command the waves to go no further out and come no further in. However he explained to men and proved that kings power might appear greater than all else but no one can stand in the way of God's powers. Because the song we chose had relevance to the ocean we decided to go with this as the name, as most bands/artists had meaning behind their name we thought this was a reasonable reason that could also have influenced the song choice.
We have decided to create a narrative for the lyrics because this makes the video more accepted and interesting to watch, we aim to create this narrative with the aid of camera, lighting & location.
Having listened to our chosen song numerous times we have gathered our idea's on what the storyline to our video will be. We have gained inspiration from the original video, other music videos, personal feelings & fashion. This is how we have interpretated the lyrics and this is what we want to create. The story line will be similar to VV Browns in a way that it will follow the relationship of a couple, however this time the main focus will be the boy (jack) who is cheating on each girl, therefore making it a love square. We will use a variety of conventional camera shots that appear in many music videos and hope to portray codes throughout the video that show and add deeper meaning to the song.
As a group of young student's myself and my group have decided to gain idea's for the target audience through the current artists. We would like to liken ourselves to the likes of VV Brown, Ellie Goulding, Lissie, Adele etc therefore putting our main focus towards the indie/pop/soul genre.
There will be no specific age limit but the audience would probably range from 17/18+.
We will aim to reach to all social classes and genders
Ellie Goulding has been another influence we wanted to keep in mind through this project. We particularly liked this video because it fits in with the ideas we have with personalising the the songs. The director has used a method that makes the viewer feel like it is a home made, this is something we hope to use in our video. I feel this convention would help improve our narrative.
It is clear from other music video by VV Brown that she fully appreciates British society. This is shown through the union jack flag appearing in her other videos. Because of this we have chosen to locate our music video in the heart of Britain, we are planning on filming in and around Bond street. This is because it a central location that is easy to get to and we are familiar with the surroundings. This therefore takes the stress away of not know where anything is.
Indie music is a sub-genre of alternative rock.
In society today 'indie' is probably the most popular genre of music, it has been taken from 'independent music' which is a term used to describe the independence from major commercial record labels.
The beginning...
When Indie music first appeared it was a genre of music that satisfied those independant of what was considered to be popular music, the dominating genres. Consequently so called 'indie bands' weren't signed to major record labels. Instead they controlled and managed themselves in the promotion, production and performing, like the Arctic Monkeys they often refused the help of any commercial record labels. A huge impact on the movement was Velvet Underground who were actually involved in the early part of the movement who achieved everything themselves from productions to albums, this created a dramatic deviation from the traditional styles of music. Although Velvet Underground wasn't as successful as they had hoped and could possibly have been had they accepted help from the record labels they are considered today to have been highly influential people in breaking the existing boundaries for future bands. Moving on form the 1960's in the 70's & 80's along with fashion music made another leap into independance gaining sub-genres such as "progressive-rock" and "alternative", which all upheld the ideology of indie music being different from what is regarded as "mainstream" by representing slight diversions from what was considered to be "popular music". This belief and ideology however was jeopardised in the 90's when so-called "indie bands" began signing to major record labels rather than staying true to the original ideology of independant music. This therefore affected the indie genre entering it into mainstream genres.
However like many things, over time this has changed. The relationship between music and ideology has been questions. What was originally known to be "indie" which was a representation of an ideology deviating from social trends couldn't have ended up more opposite. Indie music is now considered among other musical genres as simply a "style of music" rather than an ideology. This change is down to one main thing, the audience that Indie music attracted has grown significantly to a point whereby Indie bands can sign to commercial labels and become just as successful.
'Shark in the Water' is our song, VV Brown is the artist, Travelling Like The Light is the album.
It was released on the 6th July and it a metaphorical record about anxiety, VV Brown found inspiration from her own personal experience between her and a previous boyfriend who liked to stalk he in his free time.
The video produced by VV Brown holds a strong narrative, that has been inspired from a personal experience. It opens with a typical music video convention of the artist singing, something that I noticed when first watching this video is the amount of edits before Brown begins singing, there is 10 different shots from a variety of angles and distances within the first 12 seconds. This montage of edits is a convention of music videos, the purpose is to gain a brief understanding of the mise en scene and to establish the area that the narrative is in.
18 seconds into the song we enter the narrative that occurs alongside the song with no dialogue, this could change throughout the video but doesn't have too. I am also introduced to Brown who plays as both the narrative and artist. I like this idea because it reveals to the audience to relationship between the artist and the narrative and almost personalises the situation.
In the beginning Brown enters a new location, what seems to be a coffee shop, she is surrounded by 2 other men, who are playing the drums and guitar. There is no evidence that they are together, just happens to be at the same place at the same time. This is a interesting because there is no composition between the three to encourage that they are a band, instead it looks like 3 seperate people.
Throughout the video there is a series of long shots showing the person Brown is spying on, these could be point of view shots, its is not clear. I like the use of still images throughout the video, they emphasise the realism of Brown and her stalking. Brown changes her actions regularly through the video which again is a convention of typical music videos, this is important to ensure that the audience do not get bored.
At one point in the video, when Brown 'defeats' the cheat, he appears behind railings in his house, this composition works fantasiticlly in hand with the striped shirt he is wearing, possibly a code and resemblance of being convicted of a crime.
This music video keeps a strong narrative with the song for the whole duration. The range of shots throughout the video create both a cinematic vibe for the audience without taking their interest away from the song. I hope that we can recreate this video with a slight difference but a good outcome.
As an individual I am happy with our choice of music video, I feel as a group we will work better together and there will be less conflict because we are all fans of this particular genre and this song. I look forward to working on this project with my group and hope that we work well and overcome any issues.
When we first came together as a group things seemed to flow nicely, with no tension between ideas. However this soon changed, we faced decisions on locations, song choices, and filming ideas difficult to put together. I think we forgot that we can use more than just one idea, instead we thought we had to focus on one idea and expand it. After numerous discussions and few minor disagreements we decided to use VV Brown's 'Shark in the water' song, we thought this was a good idea given the group circumstances (ratio of girls to boys). The song tells the story of a woman in a relationship who's boyfriend is having an affair. She is aware oWhen we heard the song and researched into the lyrics we instantly had ideas of what we could do. However we wasn't ready to let go of Ellie Goulding and her way of expressing her music. We particularly liked the video to her version of 'Your Song'. So instead of using this song we have to decided to incorporate some of the codes and conventions she has used into our music video.
As a student I am automatically placed in a group with other students for when we come to create our music video. My group consists of; Danielle, Madeline, Jack and myself.
Once we were put into our group we were faced with the difficult decision on choosing a song to 'recreate'.
We started off by talking about or preferred genre of music, what artists we enjoy and also a little about fashion and the way it is portrayed in the music industry.
Favoured bands:
Eliza Doolittle, VV Brown, Ellie Goulding, Mumford & Sons & Bob Marley.
Fashion:
Indie/alternative & Chic
Below is the Link to our group blog, this is an area that we can all connect to and update you on our progress as a group.
This is my first Album cover design, because this was only a practise I got the picture from the internet. I used photoshop to edit the original picture and ad the text. I used this picture because i felt the contrast and colour balance was a convention of indie genre. The dull but bright colours help achieve emotion for the film, they are dull and when i look at them i get this sad emotion. Putting the artists name and song title on this cover was obvious, titles are conventions of album covers and are seen on a majority I chose to use a fishbowl effect on the title, fishbowl photography is extremely popular in indie cultures, capturing an image from the eyes of a fish bowl adds originality to the photograph. I feel this has added originality for the cover. I liked that this picture wasn't of the ocean, or water instead it was completely the opposite, in the foreground appears to be a close up of a bush of some kind, and in the distance there seems to be a variety of buildings possibly suggesting a town may be there. I thought the bush could be a code for a separation between the artist who is on this side of the bush and the city in the distance being a place where she wants to be. However she can't get there because her life on this side of the separation hasn't finished yet or is too complicated to move on. This also connects with the narrative in the story. When the picture and the font are connected it could resemble her life now, pure and innocent in the freedom of the ocean opposed to the life she is entering of consumerism and wealth in the city. Again this is why i put the artist name and song title in different colours and fonts, her life may be pure now which is why i used white and she may be looking at a future that isn't pure. I chose to put the artists website on the cover because it is simply another marketing mechanism, if people don't buy her album they will still notice the website and may decide to check that out.
This is my second album cover. I have chosen to use an image of a girl standing in the ocean simply because it represents the title of the single 'Shark in The Water'. Once again i edited the original image to improve the contrast, shadows and highlights. Once I had finished editing this picture I thought it looked like a photo from a film camera opposed to a digital camera, the costume is also a resemblance of the 1960's tight and loose clothes being a typical convention within the time period. This therefore relates to the time this specific genre of the music was created.
Nevermind is the second studio album by the American rock band Nirvana, released in 1991, at the time of the release it was extremely original. It cooperates many codes and conventions that are seen throughout the industry.
CODES:
The simplicity of this cover is ironic because the message is sells in far from, the baby in the open water reaching for a US dollar has more meaning than appears to the eye. The fact that the director has used a completely naked baby could support the idea that the baby is new born and currently untouched from American consumerism therefore pure and innocent. However this is then argued against with the baby reaching towards a US dollar. This image has therefore managed to turn the baby into commodity, and focus his mind on money which ties in well with the representation of wealth, American consumerism and social status. Having the money attached to a fishing hook gives off the impression that the baby, like a fish is chasing the bait. However in this circumstance the bait is clearly the money. The open ocean is a clear representation of freedom, this baby is in an area of never ending water which could undoubtably be a representation of the extent to which you can reach in being famous, there are no boundaries.
The title, 'Nevermind' also seems to be underwater, the uneven letters although simple and elegant, tall and in somewhat 'standing their ground' could be a representation of their personal beliefs and how they feel being a part of such an extravagant industry. They sometimes feel frail and weak, but still stand strong. The black font has added yet more simplicity, which also represent death and horror in certain genres. Black is a cold colour that you may use against someone to show your emotions. Nirvana clearly have political ideology on American consumerism.
During the time this album was released it received an outstanding response from the audience, it was a revolution as far as album artwork goes; known well as 'a work of art'. It's image was entirely original and unique. The cover was created by Peter Blake who at the time was a Pop Artist which was emerging with high art in the 1960's. Before this album was released album covers were not considered to be 'artwork' but simply advertisement for the artist/band. Therefore this magnificent album from the Beatles created a huge movement and enhanced the importance album art had on both the artist's image and the audience.
. The flowers at the base of the cover are a well known code for the hippy scene along with peace and love. Having this on the cover of their album sells them to the audience in a way in which they want to be perceived.
.The drum in the centre of them image is an obvious code for music, but could also represent the band as a 'circus'. Circus' hold connotations of fun, cheerful, colourful, and lively. These connotations could also be how the band want to represent themselves to their audience as fun and lively.
. The main band members immediately behind the drum set are wearing extremely bright costumes which seem to be very militaryesc. This could be a parody of the military because of the already discovered circus theme within the cover. The thought of the circus theme is supported by the artists' standing directly behind the drum possibly as 'ringleaders'.
.The album cover also gives the band the arrogant stereotype. This is due to them standing centre front of an entourage of iconic legends within the industry. This could be because as of this album they have recognised that they are among the iconic legends in hollywood history. However this positioning is a significant code for their own significance in this album, seen as it is their album it would be weird to not have them centre stage.
.Freedom was a huge part of the hippy scene and this is supported by the blue sky that is a code for freedom, hope, happiness and summer. They seem to be isolated on an island with other legends within the industry, this immediately separates them from the british audience they appeal too which could imply that they are not involved in this glamourous life that only true legends can experience.
During the next period of my coursework I will be working towards creating album covers for my band/artists. In order to successfully do this I must carry out a selection of research methods. To begin with I have created a collage of a selected few of my personal favourite albums. I feel this has given me insight into the main codes and conventions of a typical album cover which will help influence and enhance my final design. Most album covers have conventions such as a title, barcode, album track list and artist/band name however this is not necessarily a must. The codes hidden within the cover are meaningful and often have some form of reference to the band. I think album covers are a significantly important part of advertising for current artists, providing a bright, or eye catching image that distinguishes the artists and sets them immediately apart from other artists and draws the audiences attention and creates mystery.
Below is an analysis of a current selling album cover.
