Pop Genre

I also chose to look at a very stereotypical pop music video (California Girls- Katy Perry ft Snoop Dogg) with analysis below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F57P9C4SAW4

The music video is a hybrid of narrative and performance as she is lip singing the song, I like that the narrative and performance are all in one because it helps the video flow better, however as I am having a band instead of an artist it may be slightly more difficult to portray this as clear as this video meaning it may be easier to make and for my audience to watch if my group and I were to have the narrative and performance separate.

After watching this video I believe that the pop genre has become quite ‘samey’ as they have the same beat to them, but different artists. The California girls video has a very clear narrative and the audience can easily see how it all relates, however the narrative has a hidden meaning behind it that I believe to be quite sexual and unnecessary. This has been shown mostly through the costume as she isn’t wearing very much. This gives the impression that Katy Perry is quite a revealing person, however this seems to meet the typical conventions of a pop music video as other artists such as Rihanna wear little clothing within her music videos. Therefore when deciding what my band shall wear I will make sure it is something that will fit the conventions of a indie rock band and music video as then my target audience will not be ‘put off’ by the band. Her costume may be revealing but it relates well to the lyrics as in the lyrics is talks about sweets and therefore the audience are not shocked to see this kind of imagery in the video, when making my own music video I will have to look at making sure the imagery used in my video links with my lyrics as then the audience will understand them more and the meaning behind them.

Something I specifically like about this music video is the colours, as they are bright and draw the audience in, this would also link to her target audience whom I believe to be of quite a young age, as this means they will find the song and the video fun and exciting (many radio DJ’s called it ‘the worlds summer anthem’). From this I will have to think about the colours used within my music video as that may change what my target audience think of it, for example if I were to use dull and dark colours my audience might think that my song and music video is quite boring. Thinking about Synaesthesia from listening to the song I also think the colours work well with the lyrics because the beat it quite fun and jumpy therefore I imagine bright and fun colours with it as then it will all link together. 

The shots and editing used in this music video are quite simple which I like because it means the video is easy to understand and watch. However I notice that shots have been specifically used generally to show off her body rather than more of the narrative, for example when she is on the cloud moth mid and long shots have been used to show that she is not wearing much rather than helping the audience know more about what is going on. This may mean that she as an artist cares more about her look than the music, this can be very stereotypical of pop and generally bands who produce to the mass constantly produce new music that they don't believe in.

For my own music video I think it will be best if my band and I were to look at a different genre as the pop one looks too much into star image, I want my bands star image to come across as being the type of people who care more about their music than their look, meaning they will not necessarily meet the female gaze, but also that the target audience will be much more niche.

By Laura Thorpe

Evaluation- Laura Thorpe

Conventions and how my media products link.

We decided to stick to many of the conventions of a normal indie rock music video then steer away from them because this then meant that our audience would recognise it for that genre and it would appeal to them because they are used to the typical conventions. For example, as our song is quite fast paste we chose to have fast cuts in our video, much like Loverboy by You Me At Six as this meant our video would flow better with the song. Another convention which we chose to follow was having performance in the video as many indie rock music videos chose to have this, from this is meant that the audience knew what the band looked like which is essential for a new band as this then became a promotional aspect for the band as well as helping them appeal to our target audience. Although we had performance we noticed in our research that many music videos were hybrids of performance and narrative, therefore we chose to have narrative because this made the video more interesting for our audience. Our narrative related to our lyrics well as it is about a boys life and with the lyrics ‘you stole the sunshine out of my life’ it reminded me of good days and bad days therefore when discussing with my group what the narrative could be we came to a decision that this would be appropriate because it can also give the message that everyone has a bad day. After looking through our research we also decided to keep to the conventions of camera shots (generally mid/long and close-ups) because the audience will recognise them and we didn’t want the audience to get confused or feel like they had to think during the video, we mostly just wanted them to watch it and enjoy what they had seen. When deciding what image we were going to have for the band, we chose to have them all be individual because then our audience were able to relate to each one differently. To create the impression of different personalities we showed this through positioning of each band member (I.e. the order), the clothes they wore and they way they looked in the digi-pak with the separate images. This then meant the audience knew what each band member looked like and would be able to pin- point each one out. However there were some conventions in our video which we did not follow such as adding in camera movement. Although there was very little in our video we mostly had it in the narrative because this meant the audience could clearly see the different between the performance and the narrative; however the final clip for our music video is performance with a zoom out, this did not meet the conventions, but we chose to do this because then the final shot is of the whole band and the audience would be able to see exactly where they all were and what they looked like, meaning the image would be more memorable. For our digi-pak and magazine advert we too chose to still have many conventions included into it, for example the individual images of the band members was inspired by The Killers digi-pak, we liked this idea because it meant that the audience can see all the band members. Another convention which we followed was shown in our research was not to have the band on the cover, we chose to do this because it gives the impression that our band cares more about the music rather than their image and as their audience is of an age where school is an important time we thought this would mean the audience would want to relate to the lyrics and the music more than the image of the band, although that would still be important as we want people to recognise the band. There were also conventions of the digi-pak which we didn’t stick to such as the font type used; this seems to be quite ‘feminine’ however we chose to use it because it is the typical font type found of guitar heads and therefore when placing it onto the front cover it didn’t seem out of place. The font could also be seen as the bands usp as it will be something no other indie rock band has meaning even people who are not necessarily part of our target audience will recognise it. Our magazine advert is fairly conventional compared to our other media products as it has the least information on it and when trying to add more information we decided it made the advert look too crowded and therefore little was more in this case. We chose to have just general information on there that is the most important e.g. band name, price etc because the audience would look at it in much detail or for very long because it is just an advert therefore we wanted to make sure only the key information was included so the audience are aware of the band.

We chose to have several continuous themes between our video and ancillary texts such as always having the fonts the same as this meant that the audience would always know the fonts and know who the band is from these. Also to make sure our target audience were appealed to our digi-pak we decided to post all the images were had taken of the band onto social networking sites such as face book and got people to comment and like their favourite ones, from this we were able to learn what they liked the most and therefore knew that our digi-pak would appeal to them because the images were chosen by them instead of by us. To establish our brands identity we used the guitar head within our video, magazine advert and digi-pak. We did this by having the same image on both our digi-pak and magazine advert but also by having the image of the guitar head actually being the same as the heads of the guitar on the lead singer and lead guitarists guitar. We chose to do this because it meant the audience can identify with it and link it to future products of the band. From our questionnaire many of our target audience said that they would like to see images of the artist/ band inside the digi-pak and that they would like to see a smashed guitar or a drunk kit on the front cover. Therefore we chose to listen to them and this is why we have an image of the guitar head as the front cover however it is not smashed because we didn’t want to give the idea that our band is reckless because although they are a boy band who appeal to a youthful audience we still wanted them to be respectable and therefore had images which linked to the band and genre but not ruin our bands star image at the same time.

Feedback from Target audience.

Technologies used

Storyboard

 For our opening few shots we decided to almost have an introduction to introduce the band members and our main narrative character as they are a new band and therefore they need to be seen and recognised to their target audience so make them more memorable. We chose to have the drummer as the first band member to be shown as it is just the drums being played at this moment during the music and therefore makes the music diagetic and understandable for the audience. Also from our research we found that when there are musical solos just that individual band member is shown so the audience can link that moment with which band member, this is specifically important in our video as we have 2 guitarists and therefore the audience will want to know who is playing what part.- Laura

For our next few shots we chose to introduce the whole band together as the audience will then learn their formation. Although this was not always present in our research of indie rock video we decided that it was best to still have a certain formation as the audience will recognise it and furthermore associate that formation with the band. We also chose the show a 'behind the scenes' shot of the lights going up as it gives the illusion that the performance is live and also gives the audience more knowledge as we found from our research of an Arctic Monkeys we saw shows of the crew sorting out the music and lights whilst performing and thought this was good for the music video as it gives the audience a greater insight to what went into this performance.- Laura

This part of our video is all narrative as there has been nothing of great interest at this moment and therefore wanted the audience to be shown more of what is happening. We decided to have everyday things happening in the shots e.g. having breakfast and going to school because the audience are then able to relate to this and feel like the band understand this type of situation e.g. being late for school. This creates the idea that the band are down to earth and 'real people' which can relate to the star image theory as we have manufactured this image meaning that the way they act is fake but portrayed to be real. These shots will be all short and fast to meet the pace of the music as having long shots with little going on wouldn't fit the music and therefore have the video not flow as weel and as we specifically just want the audience to be entertained by the video having shots which don't meet the same pace would make it less entertaining and therefore make it have little purpose.- Laura

We bring performance back into the video at this point as the lyrics begin, thus we are introducing the lead singer who will always be in the middle of every performance and every band shot for our video and digi-pak as when researching videos and albums we found that the lead singer was always to more prominante of all the band members and therefore we predict that he will be the most recognisable in comparison to the other band members, thus having the lead singer in the different clothes in comparison to the other band members i.e. other band members in plain clothes and the lead in patterened clothes. However this was not in our research and may cretae the illusion that the band is not a band but rather just an artist therefore we must make sure when using mise-en-scene that our band looks like a whole band and not just an artist.- Laura

In these shots we show that the main character is having a 'bad' day as he has been given a detention and introduce the rest of the band members and the band together so that the audience are now fully aware of who the members are and what they look like etc.- Laura

The narrative shots have been used to show the argument between the main character and his teacher as this adds to the bad day because he will lose control, thus frustrating him. After looking at a video by the Arctic Monkeys we chose to have a shot of the band from side on as this gives the performance another dimention because the shot will make the room look deeper and therefore the audience will feel like they are actually there.- Laura

There is mostly performance in these shots because we have had chunks of narrative previously to make it flow, however as we are advitising a new band we must make sure they are the main attraction in the video and therefore show several shots of all the band members and the lead singer as there are lyrics during this moment.- Laura

'Out of my life' is repeated several times from around 1:29minutes into the song therefore we decided this would be a key moment to once again have individual shots of each band member singing the lyrics as this creates the illusion that the band are a unit because they are all singing together and therefore I think they will come across as a more respectful band.- Laura

We chose to have several shots of narrative during this part of the video because when listening to the music this is the bridge to the chorus being repeated and therefore we felt that it would be good and also meet the conventions of a music video with narrative to make this the big build up to the most dramatic part of the music video a the audience will still be interested in the video and the narrative. We used mostly close-ups because then the audience will understand what is going on and know what the main character is doing.- Laura

This is still narrative in our video with the end shot being of the argument of the main character with whom will be his girlfriend making the build up to be quite long, this may not meet the conventions of all the music video we've researched however we wanted the narrative to be like a tv show thus from making my thriller last year I know that to build the story up well it must be done gradually as then the audience ill constantly want to know more. Although the build up is long we still wanted the narrative to suit the video therefore the shots will still be quick and the transitions fast as we want a continuous pace for our video because then the music won't look so out of place to what is happening.- Laura

Pitch

Digi-pak Analysis- Laura Thorpe

Target Audience- Laura Thorpe

http://www.nme.com/

2nd Music Video Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SxTyvOixJA 

This music video also comes under the indie rock genre and therefore I have chosen to analyse it because I can draw upon certain aspects that may be relevant to my music video.

I think that the narrative has been used cleverly in this music video. Because the audience are looking at the video from the boys point of view- and only his point of view, it makes it easier for them to relate to him. Whereas if there were to be several main characters the focus would have been taken off of him. For this reason I will make sure we have one actor for the narrative, and have all the other characters centred around him.

In terms of the type of this music video, you can see that it is clearly a hybrid of narrative and performance. I believe the reason behind this is because it makes the video more interesting than having just the band playing for the entire time, and it also splits the narrative up a bit keeping the audiences attention peaked. Although it will be a challenge I believe that this hybrid will be an sufficient choice in my music video.

Again in this music video there are many close ups of the lead singer. This backs up the idea that this is a conventional aspect of indie rock music videos; so I will ensure my music video includes multiple close ups on the lead singer.

In addition I noticed that there are many close and mid shots of the drummer performing. This implies that the drumming is a crucial part to an indie rock band therefore it has to be shown. Personally I think that the mid shots are ideal as they give the audience a good view of the drummer, yet they are close enough to see the emotions in the drummer's body language. Mid shots of the drummer will most definitely be seen in my music video as the drumming is more dominant than the guitar in particular moments in the song. I also believe that by adding these shots in our music video will begin to look more like an indie rock music video, therefore the target audience will be seeing what they want to and will be able to recognise the band in greater depth.

Bradley Norris