To speed up the process of asking person by person i found a website that would enable me to create an easy and simple online survey that people could take without any problems. My survey consisted of three simple questions: gender, age group and if they likes rock or not.
In order to "advertise" this survey and to get people to answer this i posted it on social websites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Once I had waited for a while i got back 31 responses, surprisingly it was gender balanced and i got back 15 results from females and 15 results from males. However the extra one was a response in which the respondent skipped the gender question therefore i decided that this would be an outlier as i wanted to know how gender based the audience is. To solve the problem of his/her response on age and if they liked that type of music or not i decided to delete this response to get a balanced result.
As mentioned previously, after i deleted the outlier response i had equal amounts of responses from males and females.
The results for age showed me that the people that most answered this survey were people between the age of 15 to 20, 36 to 40 and 31 to 35. The reason that these age groups were the most selected was because the people that i am friends with on my social websites. Therefore the majority of people were people my age and people with around the age of my parents.
28 out of the 30 people that answered this survey do like the rock genre. Therefore my survey showed that shows clearly that Rock genre is popular in all ages.
My conclusion will contain more about these results.
As i can see individual responses i can see which people's response was no to the rock genre. I found out that one of the people was a female within the age of 36 to 40. I reckon that this response could be a very common trait within this age group and specially older. As rock is very popular now, older people might not enjoy it as much as it isn't from their "day and age".
For the other response this was a Male between the age of 15 to 20. I think this response would be at a very low percentage if another survey would be made in just that age group due to this survey also concluding that almost everyone in this age group do like the rock genre.
Conclusion:
My survey concludes that my target audience will be from the ages of 15 up to 40. I do see that this is a wide target audience however i think that my survey shows that these are the best age groups to target and with the band i have in mind i think that it shouldn't be too difficult to cater to large amount of people.
I justify this because the age group of 15 to 20 has the largest amount of responses and although having one negative response i think that it is normal because not absolutely everyone has the same taste in music. As well as the age group of 36 to 40 i got the second largest amount of responses which does show me that this age group also likes rock, which again had one negative response but this would be normal as again, not everyone has the same taste in music.
I think that i will not be using my music video establish a link between the video and the lyrics
One think i hope to use in my music video is definitely "thought beats"
I don't think that iconography will be a big thing in my music video, however i hope that it will be very genre-related
I will hope to create a start image for the whole band however i think that i will end up using the stereotypical "focus on the main vocalist"
I will definitely not use voyeurism in my music video
And lastly my music video will not include intertextual references.
My reasoning:
I don't think that my chosen song "Tommy Gun" has any particular meaning in its lyrics that i want to focus on or enphasise in my music video. Therefore i don't think that there is any need for me to establish a relationship between the video and the lyrics.
"Tommy Gun" has strong beats that i hope i can capture and incorporate in the music video in order to bring some life on make it watchable as it adds a certain feeling to the music video which makes it more attractive to the audience.
As Sleeping Serenity is not a majorly known band yet, i don't find that iconography is really needed at this stage in terms of the band. However as this is a Rock band i hope to take typical genre-related features and incorporate them into my music video.
Star image will not be my main focus as i think that their star image will build itself with their popularity. However i will hope to focus at least a little bit on each band member to give them their own "spotlight moment".
In my music video voyeurism will absolutely not be used. Firstly because from my research into Railton and Watson's theory, voyeurism is mostly used in pop artists and females become sexual objects. And secondly, athough some Rock bands will occasionally use voyeurism, my reasearch into the Rock genre shows that Rock music/bands will dedicate their music video to the song itself and not just include certain things such as "a sexual object" in order to attract a different audience. I want to make my music video purely about just the Rock genre and the band.
Lastly, there is no necessity in my music video for thre to be intertextual references. The song does not reference to any other media text to my knowledge and therefor i see no need to include some reference which is not in the song itself.
The rock genre is one of the most popular genres after the "pop" genre.
It is mostly dominated by bands although solo rock music artists also contribute to its popularity. The rock genre at first sight seems mostly dominated by male solo artists and bands although woman have been ever more accepted into this genre and are becoming ever so popular in this day in time.
The rock music itself is mostly known for its sharp beats and drums, their electric guitar use and its eccentric performances.
Although the pop genre seems to be the most popular at first sight due to huge press and it is immensely talked about; the rock genre is the most listened to among the average music fanatic. Whereas the pop genre is all about 'showing off' in order to be known by everyone, the rock industry is about attracting attention too, however they attract attention to their music in a way that the audience doesn't look at them as some kind of super-empowered artist but the rock genre audience sees their idols as more approachable.
Rock music videos, will almost always be performance-based, which correlates into them not being as much interested about how they look (personally) to the audience but they want them to focus mainly on their music. Although most Rock music videos will NOT include a narrative, they might have a story line (although usually left out and just focused on their performance, as said before). If a story line is present it is usually very simplistic and easy to follow by the audience because most of the time it illustrates the lyrics (which goes with Andrew Goodwin's theory about music videos).
The most used camera angles for this genre would have to be: high angled, hand held shots, group shot/long shot and constant close ups. High angled shots are used to establish the setting of the video, the hand held shots give a more realistic feeling to the audience as if they were the ones filming it, the group and long shots are used in order to showcase the whole band and to capture an overall image of the narrative (if there is any) of the video.
The editing in rock music videos usually correlates directly to the pace of the song. The editing basically goes at the same speed ad the beat of the song. Therefore, if someone is angry the editing pace is very quick, whereas if someone is sad the editing speed is slow accordingly. It is all kept very simplistic in the stage of editing for Rock music videos, and special effects are rarely used in this genre showing its simplicity.
My aim is to produce a around two and a half minute, Rock genre music video. This will also be including two ancilliary tasks, a CD digipack and a webpage. My music video will appeal to the right target audience (which i will still have to research) and all this should be completed by the 28th of February 2014. I want my music video to be perfected as much as i can in order for it grasping and interesting, i aim to achieve this by doing as much research as i can. Specially i will see what convention of editing are used for rock music videos in order for mine to portray exactly what i want. I want my audience to feel that the band is down to earth and approachable, i want them to enjoy the music video and feel like the digipack and webpage are well related to the band.
Structure:
In this music video there should be a clear focus on the band members. The music video's narrative (if any will be included) shouldn't overtake the amount of time that the band should appear on screen. As it is a Rock music video, performance should be included, as well as more Rock genre conventions if there are any (as i will find out more in future research).
Style and technical features:
Influences on my music video will come from all my research. This includes research on general music videos and specific videos related to my chosen genre. From this research i should gather what conventions there are in rock music videos and how the bands portray themselves. I will also find out if rock music videos do also have conventions when it comes to editing features. As well as i want to find out how to correctly promote the band through my digipack and website.
Locations:
As a rough idea for the music video i want there to be performance. Therefore the appropriate location for this should be the school's theater. However issues may occur with this as there are always performances and rehearsals after school times, therefore i might not be able to use this place, if this is the case i will have to make arrangement to film in the music department.
If narrative is included it will most likely not be within school facilities. Therefore i will have to make sure to plan precisely (if i actually want a narrative) where it would be, when it will happen and what we would need at that location.
This theory claims that in popular music videos black women are portrayed in an animalistic way. Usually their buttocks is the most accentuated part, followed by wild, loose hair and clothing sometimes resembling animal skin. And regarding the dancing, usually the choreography can be similar to tribal dancing.
Videos that agree with it:
Nicki Minaj - Stupid Hoe
Rihanna - Pour it up
Lady - Twerk
Rihanna - Where have you been
Video that disagree with it:
Shakira - She wolf
Miley Cyrus - Can't be tamed
My opinion: I think that i do
mostly agree with this article. Obviously there is gonna be the odd example of a Caucasian woman that is represented in a primitive or animalistic way, however i
think that the primitive and animalistic ways are all features to solemnly represent sexuality which for some case tend to be mostly in black women (the animalistic features).
Though, to represent sexuality in these new and 'modern' artists (be it black, caucasian or latino artists) nudity has overruled the industry, and rather than only portraying themselves as "animals", they tend to go crazy and only seek for who has the most popularity. Therefore crazy outfits, makeup, settings and nudity is what one is most likely things to come across in women's music videos in this day and age.
For example:
Iggy Azelea - Change your life
Christina Aquilera - Dirty
Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball
Lady gaga feat. Beyonce - Telephone
As said before, these videos above show that these artists portray themselves very sexually, however not by necessarily using animalistic-like features.
Goodwin's theory consists of key conventions that you would find in most music videos. All music videos have most certainly got at least one of these conventions if not more than one.
1) The relationship between the lyric and visuals
Goodwin said that when music videos contain this aspect, they are likely to do either of three present in the video: they illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics in the song.
Illustrate: it basically just shows/literraly represents, what the singer is actually singing about. For example in Pink's music video for her song "Fun House".
" I dance around this empty house" - You can clearly see the outline of what's supposed to be a house. The pool being the garden, right in front of her the small cupboard and further away a toilet. And obviously "empty" because there are no walls around.
" Pictures framing up the past ; Your taunting smirk behind the glass" - Another pretty obvious explanation. Picture frames showing her and presumably her partner.
"But now it's full of evil clowns" - Some sort of figure, that looks similar to a clown but in a "evil" more dark way, just like the lyrics say.
"Drag my mattress to the yard" - Again, really obvious representation, she is being dragged on "her" mattress.
Amplify: This is to reeinforce the meaning of the lyrics or make the audience feel more touched by what the song is about. For example, in Avril Lavigne's video "When you're gone" it is not about representing the lyrics literally, but to reeinforce the meaning of missing someone.
"And the clothes you left; They lie on the floor ;And they smell just like you" - he is not actually smelling the clothes here, he is holding them and hugging them and later on he displays his decieced wife's clothes on the bed. This is all about missing a person, therefore this part of the music video's story has its own way to show why you would miss someone.
"When you're gone; The pieces of my heart are missing you!" - She is watching the news about the war where her husband/ partner is serving. She is missing him too, but because of a different situation.
Contradict: This is where the visial completely contradict the lyrics. Such as in this music video by Jessie J, "Price Tag".
This being a very obvious contradiction, when she sing "I'ts not about the money" she is dancing around and standing in front of a "money tree"
2) Thought beats: seeing the sound
For this Goodwin identified that the editing of a music video often correlated with the beats of the music. So the editing, in relation to the song changes pace too.
A great example is in this video at 0:53 where the video is edited so that those sharp and prominent beats are in time with the music video itself.
(Olly Murs - Heart Skips a Beat ft. Rizzle Kicks)
3) Genre-related style and iconography
In this point Goodwin suggest that within a certain genre or artist(s) there is a specific element which is repeated in various music videos as part of their image. This will turn iconic and as a result into a trademark to which the band or artist will be remembered by, sometimes even decades later.
For the band "LMFAO", for example, they are mostly known by their bold choices of outfits. Glasses and big chains are one of the main accessories which they include every time and are very known for. Furthermore, another of their "iconography tricks" so to speak, is that they have a robot.. They call it the "Shuffle Bot" and it appears in almost all of their music videos that i have seen so far.
4) The creation of a star image
This point here is, that to reinforce the artist's star image, the music video will include multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist. This is one of the most used conventions that enable the artist to show themselves throughout the video in order to being linked back to that song.
In this example we can see Goodwin's point. Although Queen is a band, there are a lot of close ups to show the main vocalist. And thus, for Queens music videos, they all follow this pattern of having a lot of close ups of the main vocalist.
5) Voyeurism
Goodwin's point in Voyeurism focuses more on the female aspect. In music videos females tend to be sexualised in order to attract male audience too. This is achieved with different type of shots (from behind, for example), in order to accentuate the female body.
In this music video we can clearly see that she is ultimately portrayed sexually. Not only her "lack" of clothing contribute to this, but she clearly accentuates her buttocks in this video. Camera shots in this music video make it very obvious that although it might be a longshot at her whole body is showing, our main focus is still certain parts of her body (chest, legs, buttocks).
6) Intertextual references
Specially in humorous music Goodwin recognized that some music video reference other media texts directly. This engages the audience and rewards them by being able to understand that certain reference.
However nowadays, intertextual references are quite common since music artists are often involved with the sountrack in films (and occasionally games, which nowadays is becoming more popular), their music videos for that soundtrack often include either subtil references that relate to the film it supported or (in the majority of cases) inclute clips and snippets of scenes of that film.
The video I analyse will be “Can't Stop” by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers (RHCP).
The RHCP are in the Rock based genre, they include funk, rap and alternative rock in this particular song. The lyrics were written by the band's musicians themselves and the video was directed by Mark Romanek.
Rock based music videos tend to have the recurring theme of not interpreting the lyrics with direct images in the video, making them less literal than expected, as such, this video follows this. Keith Negus (theorist) observed in 1996 that “punk rock finally changed, deconstructed and exposed the mythologies of rock”. As well as In this video it also follows Negus's point, of rock music videos in general would include the ways of “generational rebellion, sexual liberation and social concerning”. This chosen video includes all these points.
Firstly, it doesn't interpret the lyrical meaning into the video because it consists of many different abstract actions which don't go along with the lyrics at all. Eg. Holding the water bottles or balancing bins has nothing to do with any of the lyrics. Therefore, this video opposes to Goodwin's theory that lyrics go along with the visuals of the video. Instead they challenge this theory and make their own out of it.
In the video the RHCP are indeed portrayed as rebellious which is a stereotype of this genre, e.g. whipping hair around, very fast actions (air kicking), knocking over a chair with the guitar and throwing a guitar in the air. Also they are portrayed in a sexual way, the lead singer having his shirt off or him “dry humping” the drum set. And the biggest feature in my opinion is that they are portrayed in a “social concerning” way. They achieved this with all these abstract actions. Wearing a hippo head whilst playing guitar (they dont conform to normality), being dressed up/in a tent, playing with rubber balls, boxers, buckets, “flying” through the air or having lights strapped on their backs would not be considered “normal” in today's society which again portrays rebelliousness.
The target audience for the RHCP ranges from age 5 and up. This is a very large brackets of target audience that starting bands would never even consider trying at first, but as the RHCP are so established already, we can really see how much they cater to everyone.
This music video has no narrative, it is instead concept based, very abstracts and it includes contrived performance. Therefore this video does not follow Propp's theory that the characters within this music video have the narrative function to provide a structure for the text, in this case the lyrics.
In the music video of R.E.M. “Everybody Hurts” there is a illustrative but also disjunctured relationship between the lyrics and visuals. It has a illustrative relationship because we can denote from the lyrics that obviously it is about emotional pain (for the most part) and it shows people's pain with subtitles of what they are thinking, however it can be classified as disjunctured relationship because it is not a direct link. For example when the lyrics say “everybody hurts” it could have been more literal because they could have simply shown someone bleeding, this would have been a stranger way to portray those lyrics.
Camera shots are shown of different people who are stuck in traffic with their respective thoughts in the form of subtitles, however the lead singer of R.E.M. Is the predominant character (shown over and over) in this music video.
Plenty of long shots are shown to bring him together with his surroundings, as in he feels the same pain or has been through the same pain) as the people around him in the cars.
Also close ups are used on the lead singer to show his “true emotion” (his pain). As the song focuses on emotion so do the visuals by showing close ups (the detail) of actual emotion. Therefore tying the video's meaning together in this video.
In this music video Goodwin's theory of the notion of looking also has its role. Firstly non of the “background” characters look at the camera and nor does the lead singer (principal character), they all indirectly address the audience of this music video. This technique achieves and created the feeling of distance, which in this video would be considered as solitude “fighting alone against this pain”.
Diegetic sound is used in this video. Shortly at the beginning and then in the news report in the end. Music videos usually are based around non-diegetic sounds (the actual music), however the sound of the diegetic music in this particular video gives the video a more realistic feeling in my opinion. As in you can genuinely feel the emotions and the audience is able to relate to it quicker.
This video is conceptual and it also has a mix of a contrived performance. There is only very little contrived performance as opposed to this video being conceptual. This video has a specific concept/theme in the lyrics (love hurts), which goes along with the video not showing it literally but having the same concept incorporated, e.g. showing their “hurtful” thoughts.
The main features in this music video are live performance and the use of stocked footage. Not many music videos feature actual live performances, instead they opt for a contrived performance, that's why this is one of the videos that stands out to me. As this song has political meaning and it is something that others can relate to (not the usual "its about my life" songs) the footage of her actual concert were used which makes this particular song more genuine and relatable.
The use of the stocked footage we see in in background of the music video was also used at her concert is there in order to reinforce some of her points. To show both the music video and this stocked footage, it was edited in a way so that one could see both (pink and the stocked footage) at the same time. This editing technique was very useful in the music video because not only did it show Pink's genuine emotions towards what she was singing but the stocked footage really reinforced what she was singing about.
Michael Bublé - Hollywood
In this particular music video, intertextuality, is the main feature. However in this particular one, they are very explicit because Michael dresses up in different very popular characters which every person could at least name one of them. Some of the characters include Justin Bieber, Mick Jagger, George Michel and Clint Eastwood. Music videos that include popular artist can usually be parodies and as such this video is one. One other example that include intertextuality which is made as a parody is the music video "We made you" by Eminem which makes fun of artists such as Ashley Simpson and Britney Spears.
Katy Perry feat. Kanye West - E.T.
This music video has the feature of artist as Shaman. Artist as Shaman is when the artists represent themselves as "magical"/ "out of this world"/"powerful". In this video Katy Perry is dressed up as an alien, she has the ability to fly and to revive some robot and change it into a man/alien. Whereas Kanye looks normal however he is also portrayed with Shaman as he is also flying. Shaman is used in this way because the artists often want to contemplate their own greatness or either to represent their unfulfilled dreams.
Royal Republic - Tommy Gun
This music video is more of an abstract/conceptual video as it is a bunch of random actions that are done to the lead singer
This will have the emphasis of further showing and accentuate the lead singer. The other members of the band playing the part of almost hazing him by doing all these different (maybe considered some weird actions). Although this being a abstract video it shows the great bond between all the members and overall making it a fun video to go with the upbeat music.
The music video seems to be done in only one take which most likely took extreme precision and time planning, however there might have been two takes due there being one cut.
Joan Jett - I love Rock n' Roll
Joan Jett's music video for "I love Rock n' Roll"starts in a bar as you hear a snippet of her other hit "Bad Reputation". This follows up by us seeing Joan walk into a bar, and to her first line "I saw him dancin' there by the record machine " visual representation is immediately used as it cuts to her with the talked about record machine with a boy dancing next to it in the background. For the chorus all people in the bar start singing and clapping to it too giving it a much bigger emphasis on the rithm of the song.
This all follows by Joan giving a performance presumably in the same bar on a stage. This performance looks quite real giving that there is an audience in front of her and shots are shown of the audience singing/clapping/dancing to it however it feels and it is a contrived performance as this was not an actual live concert of Joan.
However the main feature of course in the video is that all the way through it is in black and white. This actually had no specific meaning in this video, other than Joan Jett apparently did not like how the colour of her jumpsuit looked on her, therefore they changed the whole video to black and white.
And in 1993 the band re-filmed the music video of "I Love Rock n' Roll" for "Wayne's World 2" (movie) as part of the soundtrack.
Queen - Don't Stop me now
This music video by Queen has the major feature of contrived performance. However this music video was very well made to look like an actual live performance. The main contributor for it to be made look like a live performance is lighting. The first shot being a close up of the lead singer, the light seems to only be shining at him which makes the background dark. I find that this is sometimes very common in live performances. At the beginning the lighting tends to be dimmed down and possibly only shining the performer's face and as the music will start to pick up, the light increases too, making the whole stage light up in order to "reveal" the other members of the band or just the stage itself if it is a solo performer.
Another, very obvious feature, is that it is obviously performed on a stage, the thing making it a contrived performance however, is the fact that there is in fact no audience in sight. Thereby playing the instruments and having a microphone in front of every member of the band also gave the impression of a live performance because when it is a "normal" contrived performance the great example is that the guitarists of the band are usually very freely walking around the stage or whatever setting the music video happens to be in.
Paramore - Decode
The actual song for this music video was specifically released to be a soundtrack for the movie Twilight. Therefore the main feature in this video consists of intertextuality to further reference Twilight throughout. The setting in this music video is very striking as the band performs and walks through this forest, this is a good feature of intertextuality because this forest is supposed to represent Forks (the town which most of the film is set) although it was filmed in Nashville. Furthermore, throughout the video small clip and scenes are shown as the band is almost acting out some of the scenes of the film acting as some of the vampires that are seeking through the woods. Together with the bad being filmed in a not so bright setting, in order to set the mood that the film, intertextuality is directly shown as clips from the actual film are edited into this music video in order to further relate the song to be the soundtrack of this movie.
Linkin Park - New Divide
Linkin Park's song "New Divide" was a specifically recorder for the movie "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". As a result, the music video also related to this film, intertextuality is therefore the main feature of this music video.
This music video is heavily edited, containing shots of the band performing but through thermal cameras which along with some kind of digital/mechanical reality sets a fine line between also using a style of the artist as Shaman (the artist has a unnatural power) for it to relate to the Transformers movie.
In the music video it merges and fades from their performance (which its setting is in some kind of cave that was in the movie too, therefore the music video was filmed at paramount studious) into scenes and parts of the film. Merging and fading in this video gave the desired impression of the link between the band and the film.
Mika feat. Ariana Grande - Popular Song
This music video is based around a narrative. The music features Mika and Ariana in the story line as the kids in high school that were bullied. And in this video they get revenge on the "popular" kids who used to bully them. To show the story line, hard cuts are shown from the acts of bullying (the girl "stealing" a boy from Ariana, another kid shoving Mika's books on the floor and another one putting his head in the toilet and at the end the hard cut to where they (Mika and Ariana) were kids when Mika stomped on her toys). They are cut from those acts of bullying to them brewing a potion. As the mise-en-scene for this video does look a bit gory and dark the audience can assume that they are planning something for revenge. And as such, at the end we see all the bullies turn into stone and breaking, leaving only Ariana at the end.
This music video does have a reference to the Adams Family due to the setting of the high school and the outfits of the kids. It also promotes products such as the Sony Experia Z mobile phone (in which Mika texts the others) and the Mini Cooper.
The brief is to create a promotion package for the release of an album. This should include a promo video, together with two of the following three options:
A website homepage for the band;
A cover for its release as part of a digipack (CD/DVD package);
A magazine advertisement for the digipack (CD/DVD package).
