This is a link to our group blog. This blog has been set up to show the research that my group are completing directly relating to the song that we have chosen. On the blog we will have a questionnaire aimed towards various audiences so that we can find out what different people are looking for from a music video from that particular genre of music. We will include group discussions and mind maps on the blog to show our progress leading up to the filming and editing of our video, we will also post pictures from our filming sessions to show the progress that we are making on this project. The song that we as a group have chosen is Justin Bieber's "As Long As You Love Me" acoustic.
Friday, 27 September 2013
Music Video Directors
Michel Gondry
In class today we were looking at the different styles of music videos based around which director it was from. We looked at two videos at the start of the lesson, one from Kylie and one from Chemical Brothers. Both videos were from a director named Michel Gondry. We compared the two videos and looked at the how the particular style of the director had been used to represent the meaning of the songs.
This is the video for Kylie Minogue - Come Into My World
This is the video for The Chemical Brothers - Let Forever Be
Chris Cunningham
We then looked at Madonna - Frozen which was directed by Chris Cunningham who has also directed the videos Come To Daddy and Windowlicker by Aphex Twin. Although the videos are quite different, there are similarities that can relate them. This comes in the form of in the Madonna video, a crow is used to represent the song and the video is quite dark and sinister. The video for the song Come To Daddy is also quite dark and sinister with an aggressive dog being used in the video. This is the sort of style of this director and although the videos look noticeably different, the ideas behind the videos are very similar.
This is the video for Madonna - Frozen
This is the video for Aphex Twin - Frozen
In class today we were looking at the different styles of music videos based around which director it was from. We looked at two videos at the start of the lesson, one from Kylie and one from Chemical Brothers. Both videos were from a director named Michel Gondry. We compared the two videos and looked at the how the particular style of the director had been used to represent the meaning of the songs.
This is the video for Kylie Minogue - Come Into My World
This is the video for The Chemical Brothers - Let Forever Be
Chris Cunningham
We then looked at Madonna - Frozen which was directed by Chris Cunningham who has also directed the videos Come To Daddy and Windowlicker by Aphex Twin. Although the videos are quite different, there are similarities that can relate them. This comes in the form of in the Madonna video, a crow is used to represent the song and the video is quite dark and sinister. The video for the song Come To Daddy is also quite dark and sinister with an aggressive dog being used in the video. This is the sort of style of this director and although the videos look noticeably different, the ideas behind the videos are very similar.
This is the video for Madonna - Frozen
This is the video for Aphex Twin - Frozen
Semiotic Theory - Music Video
There are three stages of the semiotic theory:
Perception
The person becomes aware of a sign.
Manipulation
The person interprets the sign and decides how to respond to it.
Consummation
The person responds.
Album Covers
The semiotic theory can be represented in music through album covers and music videos. The connotation of an article is what the article would mean to a member of the audience, this makes music more personal whereas the denotation of an article is what it was intended to mean. This is the meaning that the musician has given a song. They often represent this through use of their music videos.
This is a Little Mix album cover, their target audience is young girls and I think that this album cover is appropriate for this target audience because it shows the artists on the cover and the fonts used are bold and clear so they stand out. The colours are also light and feminine which again relates well to the target audience. The way the cover has been put together makes it obvious who the target audience is. This is what semiotic theory is all about because it stands out to a target audience because of what they expect from this sort of artist.
Perception
The person becomes aware of a sign.
Manipulation
The person interprets the sign and decides how to respond to it.
Consummation
The person responds.
Album Covers
This is a Little Mix album cover, their target audience is young girls and I think that this album cover is appropriate for this target audience because it shows the artists on the cover and the fonts used are bold and clear so they stand out. The colours are also light and feminine which again relates well to the target audience. The way the cover has been put together makes it obvious who the target audience is. This is what semiotic theory is all about because it stands out to a target audience because of what they expect from this sort of artist.
Wednesday, 25 September 2013
Andrew Goodwin
Goodwin's music theory:
"Music videos ignore the common narrative as they are essentially advertisements. As consumers, we make up our own meanings of a song in our minds; a music video can anchor meaning and gives the record company/artist a method of anchoring meaning."
What he means by this is that everyone can look at the lyrics of a song in a different way, people often relate the lyrics of a song to situations they either they are in or have experienced. This gives people their own perspectives of a song, but companies use music videos often to show what the song means to the artist.
Goodwin has six different conventions within a music video.
1) A relationship between lyrics and visuals, which illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics.
2) Through beats, seeing the sounds (the relationship between the music and the visuals, which illustrate, amplify or contradict the music).
3) Genre-related style and iconography present.
4) Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist; the creation of a star image to promote a recognisable brand image.
5) Voyeurism often plays a major part, especially in relation to females.
6) Intertextual reference to other media texts may be present, especially in humorous videos.
Jessie J's "Price Tag" is a good representation of Goodwin's music theory because the video uses the contradictory text of the theory. This is shown when the lyrics are "It's not about the money" while the artist is dancing in front of a tree with dollar notes falling from it. This is contradictory because the song is about not needing money to have nice things and the visuals are constantly showing a lot of money.
"Music videos ignore the common narrative as they are essentially advertisements. As consumers, we make up our own meanings of a song in our minds; a music video can anchor meaning and gives the record company/artist a method of anchoring meaning."
What he means by this is that everyone can look at the lyrics of a song in a different way, people often relate the lyrics of a song to situations they either they are in or have experienced. This gives people their own perspectives of a song, but companies use music videos often to show what the song means to the artist.
Goodwin has six different conventions within a music video.
1) A relationship between lyrics and visuals, which illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics.
2) Through beats, seeing the sounds (the relationship between the music and the visuals, which illustrate, amplify or contradict the music).
3) Genre-related style and iconography present.
4) Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist; the creation of a star image to promote a recognisable brand image.
5) Voyeurism often plays a major part, especially in relation to females.
6) Intertextual reference to other media texts may be present, especially in humorous videos.
Jessie J's "Price Tag" is a good representation of Goodwin's music theory because the video uses the contradictory text of the theory. This is shown when the lyrics are "It's not about the money" while the artist is dancing in front of a tree with dollar notes falling from it. This is contradictory because the song is about not needing money to have nice things and the visuals are constantly showing a lot of money.
Intertextuality
Intertextuality:
Intertextuality is recreating an original text in your own way in a new media.
Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers
This music video is a good example of intertextuality because the idea of the video is based around a video game. Throughout the video, the images are constantly switching from band performance to their perception of a video game. This is an original idea for a music video because it had not been done before and they used the idea well to create this video. However, as a group we will not be using this video for inspiration because it would not be suitable for the video style that we want to do.
Intertextuality is recreating an original text in your own way in a new media.
Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers
This music video is a good example of intertextuality because the idea of the video is based around a video game. Throughout the video, the images are constantly switching from band performance to their perception of a video game. This is an original idea for a music video because it had not been done before and they used the idea well to create this video. However, as a group we will not be using this video for inspiration because it would not be suitable for the video style that we want to do.
Sunday, 15 September 2013
Album Covers
Definition
An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album.
History
In the 1920's, music was sold in collections known as 'albums', this at the time was a vinyl in a clear sleeve which would have had the artist name and title of the album written on the front of it. In 1938, Columbia Records hired Alex Steinweiss as an art director, it was this that brought about the invention of album covers. After this being introduced, in the 1940s other companies began to follow the new trend of including album artwork. From the 1950s through 1960s, LPs were the most popular form of music, they were sold in a cardboard sleeve which was printed with an album cover to represent the band/album.In the 1980s CDs became popular and they were sold in plastic cases with the album cover inside, this is still hugely recognisable in stores. A huge amount of music sales in recent times though is online downloads, this means that people do not hold a physical copy of an album so therefore do not need the packaging. Album covers still come with the albums, but it is a digital version of it. As of 2008, CDs still sold more than album downloads, but figures are constantly changing and downloads are catching up, but I think that album covers are still important because they help fans to recognise their music and can add character to an album as opposed to just giving them a name.
Favourite Album Cover
An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album.
History
In the 1920's, music was sold in collections known as 'albums', this at the time was a vinyl in a clear sleeve which would have had the artist name and title of the album written on the front of it. In 1938, Columbia Records hired Alex Steinweiss as an art director, it was this that brought about the invention of album covers. After this being introduced, in the 1940s other companies began to follow the new trend of including album artwork. From the 1950s through 1960s, LPs were the most popular form of music, they were sold in a cardboard sleeve which was printed with an album cover to represent the band/album.In the 1980s CDs became popular and they were sold in plastic cases with the album cover inside, this is still hugely recognisable in stores. A huge amount of music sales in recent times though is online downloads, this means that people do not hold a physical copy of an album so therefore do not need the packaging. Album covers still come with the albums, but it is a digital version of it. As of 2008, CDs still sold more than album downloads, but figures are constantly changing and downloads are catching up, but I think that album covers are still important because they help fans to recognise their music and can add character to an album as opposed to just giving them a name.
Favourite Album Cover
Nirvana - Nevermind
This is an album that I have liked since I was only young, I have always been a fan of Nirvana and this album cover is completely unique and recognised straight away by the majority of people. The album cover shown is a circumcised baby boy that appears to be chasing after a US dollar note on a fishhook. The idea was brought about when Cobain was watching a program on water births with Dave Grohl. Cobain gave his idea to the art director Robert Fisher. He managed to find some footage of water birth he thought would be useful but they turned out to be too graphic to use for this purpose. The photo that they wanted to use was also owned by the stock house that wanted £7,500 for its use. Instead of this, Fisher sent a photographer to a baby pool to take some pictures, this left the band with five shots to choose from and they settled on the image of 3 month old Spencer Elden. Elden is the son of the photographer's friend, however, there was a lot of concern because Elden's penis is shown in the picture. An alternative cover was made for the album because they were worried that the current picture would offend people, but Cobain was reluctant to change the cover and his only compromise was to put a sticker over the penis saying "If you're offended by this, you must be a closet paedophile". This was not how the company wanted the album to look so they allowed the original idea to go on display. The album was released on September 24, 1991 and has sold over 30 million copies worldwide. This album cover defined Nirvana and members of the public recognise this album as one of their most successful albums because of the song "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
Wednesday, 4 September 2013
Summer Work Week 4
Plus 44 - When Your Heart Stops Beating
The music video for this song was directed by Liz Friedlander, the video consists of the band performing in an abandoned warehouse with crowds of people dancing and couples arguing. The video is quite chaotic which represents the style of the genre along with the style of the band. The camera work throughout the video is quite strange in the sense that the camera will zoom in on a subject and then zoom out and the environment has changed where the subject has remained the same. Director, Liz Friedlander is an American film, music video and TV director. She has worked with artists such as U2, Megadeth, Avril Lavigne, REM and 3 Doors Down.
The music video for this song was directed by Liz Friedlander, the video consists of the band performing in an abandoned warehouse with crowds of people dancing and couples arguing. The video is quite chaotic which represents the style of the genre along with the style of the band. The camera work throughout the video is quite strange in the sense that the camera will zoom in on a subject and then zoom out and the environment has changed where the subject has remained the same. Director, Liz Friedlander is an American film, music video and TV director. She has worked with artists such as U2, Megadeth, Avril Lavigne, REM and 3 Doors Down.
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