This is a magazine advert for the female
artist of the alternative genre; Kate Nash. The imagery of the poster has a “do
it yourself” vibe to it, which very much suits the alternative genre. The
background of the shot has a gradation of blue that connotes early morning or
late afternoon; sunset/sunrise, which could also be a connotation for being
youthful and staying out late again a connotation frequently used in the
alternative genre, or it could be seen a tranquil which would challenge
audience expectations of this genre.
The audience is also presented with a dolls
house in the background, along with some garden sculptures in the shape of
horses. Which could connote a fantasy/ dream like effect, possibly representing
to the audience that Kate Nash the artist has a dream to be a successful artist
and through the house being a dolls house the audience could understand that
the dream has been since she was a young girl-when she would have played with
doll’s houses.
In the foreground we can see the artist in
a red dress. This can be seen to be following Dyer’s theory as it is sowing the
artist as a product, in order for the product to be consumed. Also, the fantasy
feel to the poster adds to Dyer’s theory as Dyer also suggests that no artist
is real, but creating upon what the audience will buy into.
The red dress, whilst being a prime color
in order to attract the audience’s attention as it stands out also has many
connotations. One connotation of the color red could be that Kate has passion
for her music and fans, which would have been used to create a relationship
between the two, in order to give the product the best chance for success in
the industry.
The text of this advert is simple and short, allowing for the
message to be conveyed within the magazine very easy, as magazine advert don’t tend
to be examined and therefore would need to be able to be consumed almost
instantly. The text includes the artist’s name, the album title t is promoting
and the date of release, as well as a few extra comments.
As a group we decided
that my digipak was more conventional to the genre, however in order to provide
a more complete product we replaced two of my slides with a dual image slide
from Adam Taylor’s this made the product fit for industry.
The front cover of our
digipak was a slide that has 3 sections to it; top, middle, bottom. The top
segment is white, with a black font stating the artist’s first name; the bottom
segment is the same except it has the second name of our artist. This enabled
us to promote the artist’s name to create a relationship between the audience
and the artist. The middle of the slide has an image in the foreground with
greenery in the background. The background connotes the freedom of our artist,
which adds to our image of the artist.
The second slide is a
thank you slide. The purpose of this slide is to show the fans that they are
appreciated in their support for the artist. It is an attempt to improve the
relationship from the audience to our artist. The image of this slide is the hollowing
of a guitar; a piece of iconography for the music industry, there is also an
image of the artist intended to reinforce our artist’s image.
The dual slide is a
picture of the houses of parliament. This was used because it is a stereotype
for London, in which we believe, is important in the representation of our
artist. We wanted the representation of our artist to be British, as we believe
there is a gap in the market for this type of artist.
The CD image of the
hollowing of the guitar continues the theme of instruments and music. This image
was used to strengthen the connotations of our artist being talented in playing
an instrument. It also gives the audience some continuity throughout the digipak
to increase the cohesion of the product.
The back page is an
image of a guitar body. The main colours of this slide are orange to connote
happiness of the artist and his music. The bottom of the page includes the CD’s
track list, with the record labels logo. Again the guitar image was used for
the same reason as it has been throughout to strengthen the fluidity of the
digipak and to display the artist’s talent with a guitar.
Upon completion of the magazine tasks, the group compared each other's work. We all agreed that Olivia's magazine advert was more conventional to our genre i.e including images of our Artist and also images of the product, we also agreed that Olivia's was best because it displayed the best understanding of using Photoshop; increased opacity, the application of effects such as outer glow and also desaturation of the colours.
Jason Mraz’s songs I’m yours and Wordplay
both belong to the alternative genre of music. I decided to use them as
research into the genre as I believe that they achieve the purpose of a music
video. They both include many shots that relate back to the artist, which
ultimately links the artist and the music together and allows for a
relationship to be formed between the audience and artist. The music videos are
a mixture of Performance, concept and Narrative; with little to none concept in
the song I’m yours- I judged the ratio to be 60:40 in the favor of narrative.
The song I’m yours connotes Jason to be a
free and fun loving person, he spends a lot of time in the video out and about
exploring nature connoting that he is a peaceful person that doesn’t believe in
violence.
The cinematography of the song has a large
range of shots, the most common shots used were mid shots and long shots which
are conventional to the genre and especially music videos as it can draw focus
to detail of the video. A low to high shot of an airplane is used as the
establishing shot, this connotes that the artist has a jet set lifestyle. Other shots that are used re extreme close
ups, a pan shot and a point of view shot. The point of view shot is the main
shot I think is significant, the reason for this is that a camera shot like
this places the audience in position with the artist, which then could allow
for a relationship to be formed.
The main type of edit in this music video
is a Jump cut; it also has no examples of Computer generated imagery within the
video. The editing style of this video follows the rules of continuity, which
breaks away from the norm of music videos of this genre. The 180-degree rule is
used throughout the video, allowing for the audience to understand what is
going on in the shot. A match on action shot is also used within the opening of
the video as Jason leaves his motel room. Other aspects of continuity that were
used are an eye-line match and a sequence of shot reverse shot.
The mise en scene of this music video is
very detailed and specific it is also high in verisimilitude .The settings
within the video consists of an American airport, a motel, on board a plane,
Hawaiian countryside, a forest and a waterfall. The three most significant of
these in my opinion are the airport, motel and waterfall. All three of these
can be linked to the connotation of travel, which represents the artist again
in a positive and cool way. The motel could suggest that he is only briefly
travelling, which could have a deeper meaning of Jason being confused by a
situation and is a way to settle his emotions and he wont be staying for to
long. The waterfall is an amazing image,
which could have been used to connote Jason’s extraordinary ability of music.
The costume that Jason wears remains the same / similar throughout the music
video; shorts, t-shirt, flip flops, trillby (hat) and sunglasses. The use of
limited costumes reinforces the idea that he is not staying for long as is
passing through. The lighting of this video fluctuates between low key and
natural lighting, with natural lighting being the most common, making the video
feel more authentic.
This video adheres to the theory suggested
my Andrew Goodwin, there is an aspect of voyeurism within this video, or the
notion of looking as it is also known. There are a sequence of shots of Jason
mainly focused on individual facial features like the eyes, nose and mouth.
Also there is a link between the lyrics and visuals when the line ‘open up your
eyes and see your free’ is sung Jason is sitting on the ledge of a skate bowl
with no shoes on looking like he has no worries.
Another song by Jason Mraz that I have
decided to research is the song ‘Wordplay’- which was released far earlier than
I’m yours. Jason is portrayed to be more
rebellious in this music video than he was in I’m yours, which suggests how he
has developed throughout the years as his audience changed, suggesting to me
that I need to thoroughly research the audience of the genre at the moment as
it is prone to changing. The ratio % for this music video is concept-30
performance-60 and narrative 10,
The cinematography is relatively basic in
this music video in comparison to the other. The range of camera shots within
this video is seven; establishing long shot, low to high shot, mid shot, track
/ zoom, high to low, long shot and close up. The three shots I focused my
attention to was the close ups, low to high and high to low. The close ups are
a good way to show emotion of characters within the video- especially as
further research has shown that the audience can relate better to an artist when
they express emotions within their product. The low to high and the high to low
shots represent the power Jason (as a character) has in the narrative of his
music video, when he is playing with his band and enjoying himself the low to
high gives him a higher status and suggests his importance. When the crowd of
people starts hassling him the shots are changed to high to low to connote his
character’s insignificance.
The editing style of this video is also
basic in comparison to I’m yours. Similarities that both videos have are that
they both use straight cuts as the main editing style. It difference to I’m
yours is that it has a filter placed on some of the footage. When the old man
is walking along the path toward Jason a time lapse is used- this is to speed
up time but still express the same point to the audience.
The Mise en scene of this video is the more
lenient of the two videos. The setting of the video is in a desert / savannah
environment- it looks slightly biblical. There are also more costumes used; a
band member is dressed as a wizard- it turns out to be Jason, Jason in the
video keeps the same outfit on jeans and a t-shirt which is similar to that in
I’m yours. There are also additional costumes for other actors; they looked to
be wearing peasantry clothing / robes
which continues the biblical theme. The lighting is also limited to only using
natural lighting. Props used in this video were the rocks being thrown to
connote the disagreement of what Jason was singing about connoting controversial
topics and different types of guitar, in which Jason plays- demonstrating his
talent an d encouraging the audience to support him.
Sony
Music Entertainment (SonyME) and Finders Keepers Records are two record labels
of different calibers as a result of their size. An argument could be made that
global institutions like Sony dominate the music industry, but smaller
companies often can cater to Niche audiences more effectively through the
better understanding of their audience than large global institutions have. I
will be examining how models of production, distribution and consumption have
changed from the past to the present and the implications of future
developments. I will argue that technological convergence has had an effect on
the music industry and how illegal downloading has put the industry into
decline.
Sony
ME is a large multinational global corporation, which is part of an
oligopoly. There are 3 other major labels that dominate the music industry
these being EMI, Universal and Warner. Song ME attaining 22% of the market
Share, placing them 2nd out of the 4. They are a castle industry and
a conglomerate with departments in Electronics, Films and Finance. They are an
example of a converged multinational media institution as they control the music
production and make the technology e.g. mobile phones, MP3 players and Blu-Ray
discs. The audiences that Sony appeal to have a broad commercial appeal thus
making Sony profit driven. Through the use of subsidiary labels Sony can appeal
to their audience, three examples of subsidiary labels RCA, Columbia and EPIC
Records. Each caters to a different target audience to the next. RCA appeals to
a young R&B/Urban audience with artists like Shakira and Beyonce. Columbia
Records appeal to a younger rock audience and have artist like Kings of Leon
and Kassabian, and EPIC Record appeals to an older audience with artists like
Michael Jackson.
Sony
ME can also achieve Synergy to cross promote different products, the most
frequently known example of synergy for Sony is Foo Fighters, a band signed to
a subsidiary label of Sony ME, appearing on Guitar Hero, a video game designed
for the Sony PlayStation. Sony artists also appear in films created by Sony
pictures Will Smith, initially signed to Columbia records, was the star actor
of the Men in Black trilogy. In the past Sony ME have merged with other subsidiary
labels through horizontal integration A.K.A by buying them out.
A
negative side of this approach to growing a record label is that Sony ME were
recently sued by previously bought labels as a result have combine their
subsidiaries into RCA Records.
The
music industry as a whole is losing vast sums of money as a result of the
increased rates of illegal downloading
Finders
Keepers Records is the smaller record label I have learnt about. It has a staff
of 3 people based in Manchester, in comparison to Sony who has thousands.
Finders keepers have an advantage to Sony as they can cater to a small specific
Niche Market that Sony ME will find hard to as Sony mainly care about the
profits achieved, which is different to Finders keepers as their reason for
being in the music industry is that they have a penchant in music. They are a
re-issue label releasing obscure film soundtrack music, and other types of
world music. Record collectors and music producers seem to be their target
audience. Like Sony, Finders Keepers too have subsidiary labels and like Sony
it allows them to cater for different audiences, Twisted Nerve is their leading
subsidiary for local Manchurian bands in particular. Finder Keepers methods of
obtaining records as they record little themselves is by finding songs out of
the copyright laws, very old songs. Finders keepers often find themselves redesigning the album artwork to reinvent
artists to best suite their audience. They realize that their audience prefers
physical products (records and CD's) with detailed information of the artists
and the songs rather than digital downloads from sources like iTunes.
The first verse of the song
introduces the admiration the artist has for his partner, at first it seems as If
it is rawly about her beauty ‘When I look into your eyes, It's like watching the night sky, Or a
beautiful sunrise, There's so much they hold’ It’s not
until the lines ‘I
see that you've come so far
To
be right where you are’ that we can understand that his
admiration to his partner is derived from the journey she has overcome with all
the challenges that followed, maybe she had an issue such as a drug addiction
or a lack of confidence, but has overcome this through perseverance in which
the artist can relate to.
The chorus of the song introduces an
issue in the relationship ‘I won't give up on us, even if the skies get rough’ which shows his determination to love her. The issue is left to the
audience’s imagination to create through the use of the metaphor ‘even if the
skies get rough’ I perceived the issue to be either an argument that maybe got
heated, or that his partner was found to be seeing someone else. The latter
option would reinforce the magnitude of his love for her, as he would be
willing to forgive and forget to maintain their relationship.
The second verse, but the third stanza,
introduces a tolerance of the artist as it states that he will wait as long as
it takes for her to reengage in their relationship of which he is so fond.
The third verse shows the artist’s
understanding of the situation ‘even the stars they burn’ this is like saying
even the brightest of things have an end. In the third line of this stanza it
says ‘we’ve got a lot to learn’ which resorts back to his passion and
determination to hold together the relationship, but it also states how there
is still a chance to make amends and that their relationship isn’t too far
gone.
The fourth verse is the climax of the song;
again it is left open for the audience to fill in the blanks. I perceived the
verse to be his acceptance of the break up by saying, ‘And in the end, you're still my friend’
which leads me to see that he is of the mind set that despite the fact the love
may not be there anymore they can still maintain some kind of relationship even
if it isn’t romantic. This stanza is also my favorite stanza as it talks about
the journey and the lessons he has learnt from the woman he loves, ‘I had to
learn what I’ve got and what I’m not and who I am.’ With this verse he also
portrays the arguments and the break ups in a positive manor which adds to the
idea he is ever hopeful, ‘our differences they do a lot to teach us how to use
the tools and gifts we got’ and finally what makes this the most expressive
verse for me is the two lines ‘ I don’t wanna be someone who walks away so
easily I’m here to stay and make the differences that I can make.’ For me this
is nice because he outlines his intentions it is as if he is talking to her and
it is therefore inclusive for the audience.
After
this stanza the chorus is repeated three times in which suggests that his
pursuit of recovery is not over and that he will attempt to continue to try to
improve their relationship.
Lyrics of a music video in general can also be used as tools to improve or create relationships with the target audience. For instance in the song 'Rehab' from the artist Amy Winehouse she talks about her troubles referring to drug abuse and alcoholism
