One of our ancillary tasks is to create a digipak. However, unlike many other genres of music, like Pop, Indie bands and artists tend to shy away from producing digipaks. Therefore, because of this it has been quite difficult for me to find digipaks that belong to the Indie music genre, which is why I have analysed Indie album covers instead. My analysis of existing Indie album covers is embedded below:
According to Wikipedia, a digipak is a patented style of compact disc or DVD. Digipaks typically consists of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD attached to the inside. They are also typically used for special edition albums for a band or artists greatest hits.
What are the common features of a digipak? From my research I found that most digipaks (album covers) include:
a barcode (back)
the record label's logo (back)
the band's website details (back) copyright details (back)
the band's name (front)
the album title (front)
the track listings of all of the songs in the album (back)
What are the advantages of digipaks?
Digipaks have a number of advantages; firstly, they are less vulnerable to cracking and breaking than a standard jewel case. Secondly, they allow for a higher level of graphic display, which makes them more appealing to audiences because they are more aesthetically pleasing. It should also be noted that they are more environomentally friendly than jewel cases, as they tend to be made from either recycled materials or card.
In preparation for our ancilliary tasks we had to analyse four magazine adverts that were advertising an album of our chosen genre. My research is embedded below:
Whilst analysing four magazine adverts I found that they all included the date that the album was released, the name of the band and the name of the album. Some also included the band's website and used phrases like 'including the hit single ____' in order to highlight the band's popularity and encourage people to buy the album. They also tended to use strong colours to grab their target audience's attention.
What do you notice about layout conventions?
In the majority of the magazine adverts that I have looked at the band's name was placed at the top of the advert with the album name written directly underneath in a smaller size font. The details about the release date and song's included within the album are often written at the bottom of the advert in quite small font, so that the audience's focus is on the album and band name. Moreover, if there is an image of the band or pack-shot included it is normally positioned in the centre of the advert. However, one advert that I analysed placed the image on the right-hand side rather than the centre.
I created a template of a magazine advert based upon the common features that I found when analysing the four adverts that are embedded above:
(click to enlarge)
What is the purpose of the advertisements? How do you know?
These adverts are primarily used as a marketing tool by the record label to sell the band's album and promote the band's image to a mass audience. This is highlighted by the information that is included in the magazine advertisements, as they contain details of when the product is available to be purchased and where to download it from. What genre of music do you think the advertisements are for? How do you know?
The magazine adverts that I have analysed, which are embedded in the slideshow above, are are clearly part of the Indie/Alternative music genre because they all contained anti-mainstream sentiments that would appeal to an Indie target audience. For example, some adverts had retro connotations (Manic Street Preachers and Kaiser Chiefs), others had unconventional layouts (The Enemy) and others had comical imagery and historical allusions (Stereophonics).
Moreover, in comparison the RnB advert on the left it is clear that the adverts that I have analysed belong to the Indie music genre. Unlike the adverts that I have examined, the advert on the left for Young Jeezy is quite aggressive, as his jaw is clenched. The artist dominates the advertisement and is looking directly at the camera, whereas, in the Indie magazine adverts that I analysed there was never an aggressive tone and the band member's rarely looked towards the camera - however, even when they did they did not convey the same amount of aggressiveness and dominance. Moreover, the mise-en-scene in this advert highlights that it is an RnB advert because Young Jeezy is wearing a baseball cap, black sunglasses and expensive looking jewelry, which are all items of clothing that are associated with RnB artists. Contrastingly, in the magazine adverts that I looked at the mise-en-scene all had connotations of the Indie music genre (e.g. skinny jeans). Therefore, it is clear that the adverts that I have analysed belong to the Indie music genre rather than any other genre like RnB.
In order to deepen my knowledge and understanding of the music video industry I decided to do a bit of research into famous music video directors in order to see what made their videos stand out from the rest. Overall, I found that some of the most successful music videos tended to be the ones in which the directors took risks and challenged conventions of typical music videos, e.g. Lady Gaga's music video for her song Telephone that was directed by Jonas Akerlund. My research is embedded below:
Music videos were introduced in 1894 when George Thomas created the first ‘illustrated song’, which later became known as the first music video. However, music videos only really came into their own in the 1980s. The birth of MTV and the later launch of VH1 catapulted music videos into the public eye and increased their popularity rapidly. In 1981 MTV launched in the USA airing ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ and thus, began the era of 24-hours-a-day music on television. This new outlet for music videos became a central role in popular music marketing and by 1983 the most successful and influential music video of all time was released – Michael Jackson’s 14 minute long music video for ‘Thriller’.
Who controlled the development of music videos in the past? Who now has control of the development of music videos?
In the past the development of music videos was largely controlled by directors and record labels. This is proven by Goodwin's theory on music video as he states that record labels demand lots of close ups of the artist; therefore, this shows that record labels have a significant amount of influence over the development of music videos.
Contrastingly, in recent years artists have been given an increasing amount of control. For example, Indie bands like Vampire Weekend can now come up with their own ideas for their music videos, which is shown by their music video for Giving Up The Gun, as they came up with the concept behind it. However, the amount of control that an artist/band has over the development of their music video largely depends on their genre music. Boy bands that belong to the Pop genre (e.g. JLS and The Wanted) conventionally have to include dance routinesin their music videos and therefore, have a limited amount of control over their videos in comparison to the record label who would have a large amount of control over it. Whereas, Indie boy bands would have a larger amount of control over the development of their music video as generally, Indie bands have a lot more control of the products that they produce because Indie music is based on a DIY ethos.
How have new technologies impacted on the relevance and importance of music videos?
Initially, two key innovations in the development of modern music videos were the development of relatively inexpensive and easy-to-use recording and editing equipment. However, more recently the introduction of the Internet, especially websites such as YouTube, and video-friendly iPods have had a huge impact on the relevance and importance of music videos.
By the mid-2000s, MTV had largely abandoned showing music videos in favour of reality
television shows (e.g. The Hills) - essentially, music videos were becoming a dying medium. But, the introduction of YouTube in 2005 largely helped to save the music video and make them more relevant audiences today, as they can now pick what music videos that they want to watch whenever they want and comment on the videos that they like or dislike.
Video-friendly iPods and iTunes have also affected the relevance and importance of music videos drastically because now audiences have the option to download their favourite music videos so that they can watch them on the go. This has had an impact because it means that music videos now push the boundaries even more in order to make people want to the extra mile and pay for them e.g. Lady Gaga's music videos are extremely popular because of their extravagance and short-film like structure.
Razorlight are an English-Swedish Indie Rock band that formed in 2002, although they are primarily known in the UK. Their music video for I Can't Stop This Feeling I've Gotis a pure performance video that is in black and white. This simple, black and white, music video helps to sell the band through its use of close ups as it portrays Razorlight as being an unpretentious, simplistic, cool Indie band that, ultimately, cares about the music that they are making. The music video is embedded below:
The View are a Scottish Indie Rock band from Dundee that formed in 2005. Their music video for Same Jeans is a performance based video with a subtle hint of narrative. This type of video was probably chosen so that main focus of the video is the song, and therefore, the promotion of the song. By highlighting the importance of the song this music video reinforces one of the key principles of Indie music – that the music is the most significant element of any band.
Unfortunately, YouTube has disabled the embedding option for this music video 'by request' so I cannot embed it onto my blog, but the link to the video on YouTube is below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpF51y8udgY&ob=av2e
Demands of the record label...
Goodwin’s theory states that within a music video the record label demands lots of close ups of the artist or band in order to establish the image of the band or artist. The music video for The View’s single Same Jeans follows this convention as it contains close ups of the band members throughout the video. However, similarly to One Night Only’s music video for Say You Don’t Want It, the main focus of the close ups in the video is the lead singer, Kyle Falconer.
By including lots of close ups the band’s record label encourage The View’s potential target audience to connect with the individual band members, particularly Kyle Falconer, and simultaneously establish a cool Indie image for the band.
(click image to enlarge)
Genre characteristics...
Like the majority of the music videos that I have analysed Same Jeans by The View contains many of the conventional genre characteristics that you find in most Indie Rock and Indie Pop music videos. For example, stereotypically Indie music videos include a performance element and lots of close ups of the artist that not only establish the band’s image but also show that they can play their own instruments. Moreover, many music videos, for example, Vampire Weekend’sGiving Up The Gun, include cameos. However, The View’s music video does not include any cameos, perhaps so that the audience focuses more on the song than the video.
Apart from the inclusion of cameos, all of these conventions can be found within The View’s music video. For example, for the majority of the video the band is shown performing at a gig, in which the band members are often shown playing their own instruments. This is important as one of the main principles of Indie music is the DIY ethos, so by being depicted as being able to play their own instruments The View automatically establish themselves as an Indie band. Furthermore, by incorporating lots of close ups of the band members the record label is able to reinforce their image as being an authentic Indie band through clever use of mise-en-scene.
Relationship between lyrics and visuals...
In this music video there is an illustrative relationship between the lyrics and visuals. The lyrics to Same Jeans are about an individual who has been wearing 'the same jeans for four days now' that is about to go to 'a disco in the middle of town'. These lyrics are illustrated throughout both the narrative and performance elements of the video as it is these lyrics that the whole video is based upon. For example, one of the first shots that the audience see is one of the lead singer waking up and getting out of bed already dressed in his skinny jeans, which suggests that he has been wearing his jeans for at least a couple of days and is therefore, illustrative of the lyrics. Moreover, he is also shown leaving his hotel room and walking into the middle of a 'disco' (gig) that he performs in, which is again illustrative of the lyrics.
Furthermore, he is shown wearing skinny jeans rather than any other type of jeans because skinny jeans are a distinctive fashion staple for Indie music fans and by wearing them he is reinforcing his casual, laid back, Indie band member image.
Another example of the illustrative relationship between the lyrics and visuals comes towards the end of the song when the lyrics say 'everybody's dressing up, I'm dressing down'. Whilst these lyrics are being played the visuals illustrate and amplify them because the lead singer is shown sitting in between two men in business suits whilst he is wearing his skinny jeans in the middle of what appears to be a train station.
Relationship between music and visuals...
There is an amplifying and illustrative relationship between the music and the visuals in The View's music video for Same Jeans. At the beginning of the music video the cutting pace is relatively slow in order to be illustrative of the pace of the introduction of the song; however, it steadily increases in tempo to keep up with the beat of the song. This is indicative of the editing pace for the majority of the song as it is usually illustrative of music.
Towards the end of the song the beat gets a lot more staccato and the visuals amplify this change in beat through the sudden change in the cutting pace. By changing the editing pace when the beat of the song changes it creates a sense of fludity between the music and the visuals, which makes it more enjoyable to watch. Moreover, the illustrative relationship that exists between the music and the visuals is important because it makes the storyline of the video easier to follow.
Intertextual references...
This music video does not include any intertextual references and therefore, contradicts Goodwin's theory. Like with The Kook's music video for Shine On, this could have been done so that their target audience focuses more on the song and the band rather than a distractive narrative or concept. Moreover, it also reinforces The View's anti-mainstream image because they are challenging the conventional rules of music videos.
Notion of looking/voyeurism...
As with most of the music videos that I have analysed, this music video does not contain any elements of voyeurism, as it would alienate and upset a large amount of their target audience if they were to have included it. However, it does include the notion of looking as the music video contains lots of point of view shots in which we can see the audience’s, in the music video, reaction to The View’s stage performance. By including point of view shots of the audience it creates the impression that the audience’s reaction is of vital importance to the band, which is something that their potential target audience would appreciate. Furthermore, being at a engergentic gig is something that a lot of The View's target audience can relate too.
The Kooks are an Indie Pop/Rock boy band from Brighton, East Sussex that formed in 2004. Their much awaited music video for their song Shine On is a performance/concept music video that portrays the fragility of love/relationships. The music video is embedded below:
When you feel so weak And you scratch those stitches Reminding you of why you fell away at the off-set And you can't hold sleep And you've gambled more than enough You can't depend on them Still, I adore the taste of rain And the bounce of bone on ground It reminds me Make a wish tonight All the stars are out
It's out of your hands, but not out of reach It's not out of reach This is not out of reach You feel so weak You burst those stitches Reminding you just why you felt so cruel Still, I adore the taste of rain And the bounce of bone on ground It reminds meee that Still, I adore the taste of rain And the bounce of bone on ground You can't depend on them Make a wish tonight All the stars are out It's out of your hands, but not out of reach, just, Make a wish tonight All the stars are out It's out of your hands, but not out of reach cos (Its not out, it's not not out of reach) They build you up, they build you up Don't, don't run away dear x4 Still, I adore the taste of rain And the bounce of bone on ground And the crackle of water well in the mark of all your... Make a wish tonight All the stars are out It's out of your hand but not out of reach It's out of your hand but not out of reach
How would a concept/narrative/performance video meet the needs of this audience (males and females aged 15-24)?
In order to meet the needs of our target audience I think that we should do a performance/narrative music video. From my research into the psychographic profiling of our potential target audience I found that our target audience consists of individuals that like going to music festivals and gigs, so they basically enjoy watching live music. Therefore, by including bits of performance into our music video we will be satisfying our target audience's desire for live music. Furthermore, for most Indie bands portraying their image during their music video is important. For example in One Night Only's music video for 'You and Me' there are lots of close ups of the band member's faces and long shots to show their clothing to reinforce their image to their target audience so that they can identify with them.
(Please click to enlarge image)
(Please click to enlarge image)
As image and branding is important, to the record company and the target audience, we will need to establish our chosen band's image in our music video and by including the performance aspect into our music video we will be able to create an image and brand for our chosen band quite easily.
Furthermore, I think that it is important that we include a narrative aspect to our music video too, as conventionally most popular Indie music videos include both narrative and performance aspects to appeal to their target audience. By incorporating these two elements our music video will hopefully be more dynamic and interesting than if it were either just a pure narrative or a pure performance music video. This would therefore, meet the needs of our target audience by providing them with the entertainment and performance that they desire and have become accustomed to.
How do the song’s lyrics meet the needs and desires of your target audience?
The lyrics for 'Stitches' by The Dykeenies are about experiencing pain and suffering but still wanting to being able to appreciate the good things in life, which is something that a lot of people will be able relate to in one way or another. Whilst I was searching for the lyrics to the song, one website (http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858661970/) had a comment board about the lyrics of the song and below are two of the comments:
'Great song, the lyrics are making me teary by reading them, am full out crying when I hear them sing'
'Stunning. I can't stop listening to it. It's beautiful'
These comments clearly show that the lyrics of the song meet their needs and desires as not only do they love the lyrics but they are able to connect with them on an emotional level. These lyrics therefore, meet the needs and desires of our target audience (males and females aged 15-24) because they're strong, personal and easy for people to identify with on lots of different levels.
Vampire Weekend are an American Indie Rock band from New York City, formed in 2006, they released their debut ablum 'Vampire Weekend' in 2008. Their music video for'Giving Up The Gun'was directed by The Malloys and the music video features cameos from Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers, Jake Gyllenhaal, Lil' Jon and RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan. The music video for 'Giving Up The Gun' is a performance narrative video that depicts the story of a female tennis player who doesn't give up despite the fact that she isn't the best of players. As Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig put it, " The heroine of the video isn't an amazing tennis player, but she has heart." As well as this narrative, the music video also contains shots of the band performing the song throughout the music video.
Demands of the record label:
Goodwin's theory states that the demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups (CU) of the artist. This is clearly shown in Vampire Weekend's music video for"Giving Up The Gun"as within the performance sections of the video there are lots of CUs of the band members, in which they are either singing or playing their instruments. These CUs are incorporated into the music video so that the audience are able to identify and connect with the band members. Furthermore, the CUs also help to establish the band's image/brand as well as show how well the band can play their instruments.
This close up of the lead singer of Vampire Weekend successfully highlights that they are anti-mainstream, which indicates to the audience that they are likely to be an Indie band. Interestingly, rather than framing the leader singer’s face in the centre of the shot like mainstream artists would do it is instead placed i in the left hand side of the frame. By doing so Vampire Weekend show that they are prepared to go against the conventions of the mainstream thus, reinforcing that they are an anti-mainstream group.
The CUs, together with other shots, of the band members clearly portray that Vampire Weekend are an American Indie band. For example, as shown by the first still above, the guitarist has a distinctive Indie haircut (side swept fringe with cropped sides), which immediately tells the audience that he is probably part of an Indie band. Moreover, it is easy to establish that they are an American band because all the members are wearing either red or white items of clothing, which are colours that are often attributed to the USA. This American image is reinforced by the drummer’s red t-shirt which says“NEW YORK NEW YORK".
Genre characteristics:
Vampire Weekend is an Indie Rock band so their music video will have to convey this by using the genre characteristics of an Indie Rock music video. Conventionally, Indie Rock (and Indie Pop) music videos tend to incorporate a performance element so that the artist or band is shown throughout the music video. Both of these conventions apply to this music video as there are plenty of clips of the band performing the song all the way through the video.
This music video also incorporates comical element, which according toXFMis a‘key’interest to their target potential target audience, such as when Jake Gyllenhaal is hit on the bum with a tennis ball. This comical element can also be seen as a convention of Indie music videos as many bands (such as the Mystery Jets) include comedy within their music videos.
Furthermore, throughout the video there is a futuristic and Japanese undercurrent, which is quite anti-mainstream and would therefore, appeal to Indie target audiences as although Indie music is arguably becoming more 'mainstream' and popular it is still based on the principles of being 'anti-mainstream'. These genre characteristics are used because they are known to appeal to the potential target audience of this genre and also to make Indie music videos readily identifiable to their audience.
Relationship between lyrics and visuals:
Within the music video there is a strong relationship between the lyrics and visuals. For example, the lyrics are based on the idea of having ‘heart’ (according to the lead singer of the band) and not giving up. The narrative within the music video brings these ideologies to life in the form of a determined tennis player. The lyrics say‘I see it in your eyes / That now you’re giving up the gun’and mid-way through the music video you can see that the tennis player is ready to give up because she sits on the bench looking defeated because she keeps on losing the matches but then the lyrics say‘I see you shine in your own way / Go on, go on, go on’and she suddenly gets the strength to carrying on fighting to win the tournament. Therefore, there is a direct correlation between the lyrics and visuals, as the visuals both illustrate and amplify the meaning behind the lyrics of not giving up at the first hurdle.
Moreover, the audience see the band seen performing the lyrics of the song and when the song lyrics say ‘Go on, go on, go on’ there is an unknown man that dances around the band with a huge black and white sign, which has ‘GO ON’ written across it, in order to hammer home the importance of not ‘giving up the gun’. As this is done in sync with the lyrics the visuals help to illustrate the lyrics.
Relationship between music and visuals:
Within this music video there is quite a subtle relationship between the music and visuals. For example, whenever there is a particularly important guitar part the guitar player will be shown. Also when the beat becomes more staccato the band members appear and disappear onscreen whenever it is them that is playing (around 1 min and 58 seconds into the music video).
Intertextual References:
At the end of the music video the umpire picks up a silver boom box and it starts to play one of Vampire Weekend’s other songs‘Holiday’for a couple of seconds. This is probably done in order to promote that song in particular and their album as a whole.
Notion of looking and voyeurism (particularly in the treatment of women):
In both Vampire Weekend's music video for 'Giving Up The Gun' and One Night Only's music video for 'Say You Don't Want It' neither of these aspects have appeared within their music videos. This is most likely due to the fact that Indie boy bands tend to have a large female following and voyeuristic treatment of women would be quite likely to offend a large amount of their potential target audience. However, although the two music videos mentioned above do not contain either the notion of looking (through telescopes or television screens) or voyeurism a few Indie boy bands do include this aspect of Goodwin's music video theory, however, the artists that tend to this are usually Indie Pop rather than Indie Rock boy bands. For example, Indie Pop boy band Scouting For Girls music video for 'Famous' includes lots of references to the notion of looking:
Additionally...
This music video contains cameos from both mainstream artists, such as Joe Jonas, and anti-mainstream actors, such as Jake Gyllenhall. This mixture of mainstream and anti-mainstream reflects the current state of Indie music, as although it was traditionally created for a anti-mainstream audience Indie Rock/Pop music now appeals to the masses and therefore, a more mainstream audience. By including cameos of both anti-mainstream and mainstream people Vampire Weekend have made their music video successfully appeal to both their traditional and contemporary potential target audience.
One Night Only are a British Indie Pop band. I decided to analyse their music video for their new single ‘Say You Don’t Want It’ in order to develop my understanding of Goodwin’s music video theory in practice and the codes and conventions of an Indie boy band music video. One Night Only’s music video for ‘Say You Don’t Want It’ contains elements of a concept, narrative and a performance music video. It is based on the concept of the lady and the tramp and depicts a short, puppy love, romance between the lead singer and Emma Watson. It also has occasional shots of the band performing the song on a rooftop with the iconic New York skyline visible behind them.
'Stitches' by The Dykeenies falls under the Indie/Alturnative music genre, particularly Indie Pop and Indie Rock subcultures. It falls under these two in particular because of the catchy beat and melodic lyrics. Also the lyrics, although positive, are not as up beat as a traditional 'Pop' song, instead they are quite emotional yet powerful. When you consider the lyrics together with the Rock-ish beat the song definately falls into the Indie Rock/Indie Pop genre.
Indie music, also known as Independent music, is often categorised into two main subcultures: Indie Rock and Indie Pop, although it is by no means limited to just these two subcultures. In recent years, indie music has become more and more popular, especially with teenagers and young adults, due to the growth in popularity of the internet and music festivals.
Although indie music didn’t establish itself properly until the 1980s, bands of the 1960s such as “The Kinks” and “The Who” made a big impression on indie culture. They influenced what were to become the established indie bands of later years. So it wasn’t really until the 1980s that indie artists and their associated music were well and truly born. This was also the same decade as the first indie charts appeared. The charts initially featured “indie pop” artists such as Aztec Camera and Orange Juice but the style gradually changed and during that decade the famous British indie bands The Smiths and Stone Roses emerged.
The Dykeenies - Stitches Tyler Ward - Live Like We're Dying (Kris Allen cover) Out Like A Lion - Jealousy is the Devil's Best Friend Acoustic Jim - Indecision Alan Powell - Chasing Time
We all rated the songs out of 10 and then added up the scores to pick the top three, which were: The Dykeenies - Stitches Tyler Ward - Live Like We're Dying (Kris Allen cover) Out Like A Lion - Jealousy is the Devil's Best Friend
We then came up with a list of pros and cons for each song:
After coming up with a list of pros and cons it became obvious that The Dykeenies would be our best option, as it gave us the creative freedom to create a really good performance/narrative. Also, as they are relatively unknown it should be easier for us to get copyright permission to use the song, whereas trying to obtain copyright permission for Kris Allen's 'Live Like We're Dying' would be very difficult as the rights of song belong to Sony Music Entertainment.
In order to prepare us for our A2 coursework, our teacher asked us to prepare a slideshow on a particular genre. My group and I got given Country and Western. Part of the task was to come up with a treatment for a music video for a popular Country and Western song 'The Gambler' by Kenny Rogers. This practice really helped us to understand the amount of detail that we would have to put into our research and helped us to identify what sort of information we would have to find out for our real G324 coursework.
According to Wikipedia, a digipak is a patented style of compact disc or DVD. Digipaks typically consists of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD attached to the inside. They are also typically used for special edition albums for a band or artists greatest hits.
