Analysis of a pop rock Genre

The song we have analysed is That Girl by McFly - we chose this because it is similar to the track we have selected and fits into the same genre. It was a very popular single released in 2004, and utilises many conventions from the Pop Rock genre.

There is not a massive amount of editing in this promo, but whatever has been done has been done well. Whenever the musical focus on on a different band member, there are often straight cuts which are in line with the sound of the song. These are quick and efficient and allow the promo in general to flow well.

As well as this, there are various points in the video where the cinematics are faded either in or out. As in conventional with a pop rock promo, there is a fade in at the start and a fade out at the end. However, in the middle of the song, there is a short part of the video where the music stops briefly - at this time, there is a fade in the video. This is done to show the passing of time and a change in the narrative, and is probably the most effective way to do so.

The camerawork in this video is fairly conventional. As with nearly all music videos, there are establishing shots of the band on various occasions during the performance parts, as well as mid-shots or close-ups of individual band members when the focus is on them musically.

During the narrative parts of the video, high and low angle shots are quite common. When the well-dressed upper class character gets out of a car, there is a high angle shot which looks up to him. This is a good way of showing class and status in media. As well as this, there are serveal characters who are considered working class, this can be seen from their dress. When they are the subject of the shot, there is often a low angle shot looking down on them 0 this means that they are considered inferior.

As far as the sound goes, it is conventional and illustrated by the video. There is no disjuncture in this music promo.

This music video is very conventional, there is very little in there that does not follow the standards of the genre.

The performance aspect in this video is inside a garage. This is very typical of a pop rock video as they are mostly based inside garages. To work alongside this, all band members are wearing jeans and t-shirts, something which like the setting, gives a casual-off-the-cut feel to the pop promo. Later on, during the narrative part of the video, there is an upper class man featured. We can deduce that he is upper class given the way he is smartly dressed and the car he is getting out of looks very expensive.

Analysing two CD and two magazine covers

Mazagine adverts tend to have the same conventions as a digipak which include;

 

- the name of the arist or band

- album title

- lists of tracks on album

- a main brand image of the arist or band - elements relating to the promo

- information about the release date of the album, tour dates etc

- costs of tour dates ect

- informaion on type of genre that the single/album is being released into

 

 

 

Here are some examples of album resleases and magazine covers;

 

 

 

Due to the album released being called 'Future History' Jason Derulo wanted to make sure that the style of the cover related to the name so tried to create a 1920's vide towards it. This was due to the first song released on the album 'Don't Wanna Go Home' - this was a 1920s vibe shown in black and white and shows Jason in very high fasion so he's apperance is very 'dapper'. He wanted the audience to feel the vibe and make it different to any other album cover - he's making the ablum more personal.




Rita Ora wanted her album cover to send a message out to all her fans - she wanted everything on the album to be inspired basically by being bossy, by being independent and by taking your own. She made sure everything had character and wanted her pictures to be moments and something that you caught. Rita spoke of the title of the album and said 'the title represents more than my last time' (Ora) - 'it also means time in my country - Kosovo' It took her three years to get this album out and afterwards the offical deluxe version album cover was released with all the same features but a different colour to show the different between the colections addition.

This magazine cover immediately starts off with a large centred image of Jessie J which is significant as it shows the audience that she is the main focus. Her overall body language is shown as bold, fierce and not afraid to express herself which could signify to her song released called ‘Who you Are’ – she’s putting across who she is. Jessie’s pose suggests to the audience that she’s trying to break free from the advert and defy the normal conventions of a typical pop genre.

The colours used throughout the advert are black and gold which stand out more than the white text so your eyes are automatically drawn to that. The font used in her name gives us an idea that she has signed the advert which gives it a more personal feel towards it. It also suggests that she’s unique as it’s quite classy and a unique style – which could also analyse her as a person.

There are other additional information such as the NO 1 international featuring the artist B.O.B, this shows how successful her album has been and how successful she is as an artist. This is vital information for consumers to know as they are looking for an artist who has made their mark in the music industry. Also, the advert includes an artist official website which is important to her fans so they can find out about her and see if any tours are close due to them not being revealed on the advert itself.

The advert includes two different record label logos (Lava and Universal Republic) - these are added to the magazine advert to advertise what label Jessie is signed to.

Wretch 32 is a popular R&B/rap artist who is on the mainstream charts with hits such as, ‘Don’t Go’ and ‘Traktor’ - his music album advertisement is completely different to indie style ancillary text. This album cover has many colours with his name across the top right corner and the album name on a banner across the image. The graphics throughout the advertisement use graffiti from his neck to his hands which could connote his lifestyle of where he has come from or grew up. This could suggest why there is a block of flats to his left – the advertisement could connote his importance for his own community. The advert contains strap lines which includes other artists that he has combined with. This is an important factor to his fans as it shows the variety of music he has done to be successful in the music industry.

The advertisement keeps to a colour scheme of white, black and blue – these colours are reasonably pure and cold which could mean he is going to sing about purity in his album. This is shown from the banner ‘Wretchropective’ which could connote to his view on life situations.

The advert uses synergy as companies are shown at the bottom right hand corner where the album can be brought unlike other advertisements which concentrate more on a social networking mark – this may connote that this particular artist is more in the industry for the market for money rather than quality music.

Wretch 32 has only chosen one social networking site to advertise which is in very small writing so not easily visible. This could suggest he is getting paid to have exclusivity to MySpace as Twitter and Facebook are far more popular online socialising sites.

The advert follows many conventions of an artist magazine advertisement by having a main image showing the main focus, a band name, album name, links to social networking sites and a release date. However, it has broken conventions by showing where you can buy the album and having various other names on his album to promote it – this could suggest he isn’t as skilled as big named artists such as Lady Gaga who doesn’t need to combine with other artists to make and sell good music.

Ground breaking music videos

1970’s

 

The most ground breaking song throughout the 1970’s was considered to be Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody due to it being the first ever music promo. Also, due to the many features it contained it stayed in the chars for nine weeks and sold over a million copies by January 1976.

1980’s

 

In this decade the most ground breaking song was considered ‘Thriller’ By Michael Jackson. This is because Michael Jackson was one of the first black people to feature on MTV while the channel was rising. Previously to this, the channel only showed promos by white artists/bands so this made more and more black artists/bands feature onto the channel which gained a more positive response from the audience. With this is mind, you can clearly see why this promo was the most ground breaking through this decade.

1990’s

 

In this decade the most ground breaking promo released was ‘Scream’ By Michael and Janet Jackson. It was voted one of the top 10 most expensive music video to make and is still voted that ay now. The music video cost around $7 million to make and back then was considered the most expensive video over made.

2000’s

In this decade music promos can be seen/shown on any internet device mainly from the website YouTube but still shown on many music channels now. For this reason, one of the biggest songs from this time was Madonna’s song ‘Die Another Day’. It had a production cost of $6 million and was released in October 2002. It made number three in the charts in the United Kingdom and sold over 170,000 copies.

 

Most recent song that will change future music videos

In 2009 Lady GaGa released her song 'Bad Romance' It was to be said that it was the highlight of her whole album and was included in the best of lists in serveral media outlets such as, Rolling Stones. In the United States 'Bad Romance' peaked at number two on the 'billboard top 100'. The song sold more than 5.2 million copies in June 2012 and achieved worldwide success by topping all of the charts. Due to this new artists/bands and even previous artists/bands will model themselves around Lady GaGa due to her success and aim themselves to be as big of a star as she is.

Detailed analysis of a music video

Mise-en-scene

The mise-en-scene in the video ‘Someone Like You’ by Adele is shown as a place which you would expect to be busy and full of people but instead Adele is isolated and alone. This could infer that no one is around to feel sorry for her and feel her suffering – she is alone. This would infer the type of song that is being played and the meaning behind the lyrics that the artist is singing.

As you can see this shot like all of the others in the music video is black and white which could signify that everything in her life is either black or white (good or bad) – there’s no middle ground to her life. This could be due to past memories in her life which have gone badly wrong and from the lyrics it’s clear she is upset and missing someone dearly.

Also in the video Adele is wearing black which fits in with the genre of the video. For example, black has connotations of negativity and depression which is shown throughout her music video; everything is notably darker around her.

Narrative and performance

The music video ‘Someone Like You’ is mainly narrative as the only performance is Adele singing in different locations such as the pub or down the street.

The main reason for this is because the song itself is quite depressing and sad so a lot of performance in the video would lose the main reason behind the lyrics and what the songs about. Also, the song focuses on her – she is the main purpose and sole behind the video as the songs about her life so keeping the video simple and plain signifies her as a person.

For example, the lyrics;

‘I heard that you’re settled down

That you found a girl and you’re married now

I heard that your dreams came true

Guess she gave you things I didn’t give to you’

 

‘Never mind, I’ll find someone like you

I was nothing but the best for you, too’

When focusing and analysing these lyrics you can see that she has been left for another women - she still respects the man but there isn’t respect in return. She clearly thought that he was her ‘everything’ and when left alone she thought her whole world had been tipped upside down with no one there to take sympathy on her.

During the chorus of the song you can just hear it in her voice – it’s like she’s lying to herself (denial). It’s like she’s trying to convince herself that there’s someone just as good as her.

Also, the lyrics can be interpreted in how she’s seeing the man she used to love married or falling in love with someone else instead of her and realising she has to move on and find someone to fall in love with that makes her happy.

Genre (cinematic) 

This music video fits into the romance genre due to the love story behind the lyrics and how Adele is singing about a broken relationship

Typical romance conventions contain emotional feelings and this is shown through Adele’s lyrics as it shows she is suffering from the loss of the love of her life.

Also, her face expressions show how emotional she is and how much the lyrics mean to her sue to the song being based on her life.

Romantic genres are mainly aimed at a female audience and this is shown throughout due to a female artist singing and giving her opinion on her romantic drams falling apart.

Shot type and composition

There are many different shot types in the music video ‘Someone Like You’ by Adele such as a lot a close ups like the image below.

This is referred as a close up as it shows the emotion of the artist and what is her mind. This shot is shown at the end of the song where little music is played so her voice really stands out showing the emotion behind her voice.

Also, as you can see half her face is black due to the lighting and the way she is standing. This is effective as it could be shown to the audience that half of her you can see and the other half you can’t so could suggest she is a mystery person.

Also, the man in the background could infer to who she is singing about in her song. This could show him walking away from her and she is then left alone with no one.

There is also a pan shot used in the video showing the inside of a pub panning all the way round where you see Adele standing (the shot above).

This shot is used as a pan to show the location to where Adele is. You would normally suspect a pub to be full and packed with loads of people drinking or just having a laugh but when the pan is used the pub is empty – this is suggested she is alone and has no one to turn to.

Also, a pub is a typical location to where people go and drown their sorrows so could be a way of getting him off her mind – forgetting all the happy memories with him.

On the other hand, this could be the place the couple first met so she is going back there to remember that day as it made her happy and try to put it behind her.

This shot is an establishing shot as it establishes the setting in which Adele is.

For this shot it seems unconventional as it’s a setting in which you would normally see loads of people and hear lots of noise passing by but it seems quite and no one is around which could refer to her and she believes she is alone and isolated in an area where no one is there to comfort her.

As said before, it’s in black and white so would show how dull her life is now without the man she used to love.

History of music videos

History of music videos

TV music videos – chart based, live or mimed performances, short films filled bands appearance (‘Ready Steady Go’ and ‘Top of the Pops’

Audience – 17-18 or younger

Channel – BBC 1

The development on the music promo

Conventions:

Camera shot/shot type:

Editing:

Mise-en-scene:

Genre:

Representation:

Narrative:

Bob Dylan – only one continuous shot throughout the whole song - mid shot of Bob Dylan for the whole time. No editing at all. The song has no meaning- instead of having a video which created meaning; he wanted it to focus on the meaning of the words.

The Beatles – blue editing (use of filters) – mixed message through the song – breaking things and trying to fix them for example, using a tree.

Mike Nesmith – idea for promo based cable TV programme, fill in an entire network with music promos, 24 hours a day, channel – MTV

Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ – considered to be the first ever pop promo, non-linear, stage performance, matching costumes, smoke, lighting (idea of being at a live gig), made out to be a huge audience there but there isn’t – diegetic audience

Rise of MTV – established in 1981, grew rapidly in US, potential of medium quickly realised by artists, early audience demographics led to dominance of white acts/male rock

1980’s – production budgets soared

Self-reflexivity – research into

Diversity – MTV became more lifestyle orientated – covered popular culture in general for example, film, TV etc.

The present – convergence: availability of music videos on YouTube (copyright) iTunes, mobiles etc.

Controversy – as with the rest of cinema there will always be music promos that riffle a few feathers. For example, ‘Call On Me’ – Eric Prydz, ‘Like a Prayer’ – Madonna

Key Questions

What is a music promo?

A music promo is a cinematic form of advertising by the band and their music.

What purpose does it serve?

The purpose it serves is creating a meaning to the music and the lyrics being used throughout the promo.

Who are the audience for promos?

The audience to promos would vary depending on the genre of the music and artist – they would reach out to a specific audience.

All female artists aimed their promo at men – they flaunt what they’ve got – a selling technique

Same for male artists – they attract more female audiences to sale their music

Where is it exhibited (viewed) by the audience?

It can be viewed by the audience on the popular choice of platforms such as computers (Online -YouTube) or the TV (popular music channels – 4Music, Viva etc.)

What are the conventions of a music promo (lesson 2)?

How have these conventions developed over time (lesson 2)?

 

Advanced production – 14^th September 2012

Conventions of a music promo

Band shots, whole band shots and performance clips

Shadows, mise-en-scene, equal division of shots upon band members or focus on key members

High lighting – highlight the features of the band member/members

Bright lighting – emotional expression

High angle/low angle – special lighting effects

Close ups/extreme close ups

Animation and video special effects (e.g. CGI, Green Screen, etc.)

Colour effects – black and white/often monochrome

Montage – main features of a story/narrative

Narrative – how is it used? Does it amplify the lyrics? Does it contradict the lyrics?

Intertextuality – this refers to the process where one media text may take ideas from another exiting text – it may be a carbon copy, a pastiche, a parody or homage for example, a music video may borrow elements from a well-known film. (‘Thriller’ By Michael Jackson)

This ‘borrowing’ of images, narratives, etc. and reconstructing them can be seen as ‘post-modern’

Effects – draw the audience into the text – they recognise elements

Representations

Pop – glamour, playing out ‘pop star’, mean and moody men, seductive pose from female artists, anti-establishment activity, deserted locations and straight forward narratives, guitar solos, playing to the audience, short skirts, cleavage, urban locations, dancing, crowd shots.

Conventions of CD and DVD Digipak

In this lesson we learnt about the differentces between a digipak and a jewel. As you can see from the examples below a CD jewel case is a hard, platic tray which keeps the CD safe in one side and contains suitle information on the other. However, a digipak is more common for bands to use due to them having serval trays for holding the CD, maybe a DVD and more information about the band itself. A new band/artist would prefer using a digipak as it would publish their names out to the public more and th audience have more useful information about who they are about.




The advantages of a digipak

• eye-catching
• shatterproof
• cheap to produce (in bulk)
• good for display
• more design options
• more visuals/info on disply
• environmentally friendly
• more room for disply

The disadvantages of a digipak

• they are prone to tearing or ripping
• plastic teeth - CD holders can easily break
• more expensive
• trays can break - come away from other packaging
• CD falls out if anything breaks
• look old

Conventions of a CD/DVD Digipak

Digipaks have their own unique style and can vary from what artist it has been made for for example, Paramore and Mika would have to different styles as their two completly different artists. However, some of the main conventions of a digipak are;

• album title
• band or artist name
• list of tracts by aritst or band
• information - background information on artist or band, information on influences, themes and genre of music etc
• visual - tends to be images of the artist or band, shots from their every day life or concerts, images relating to their genre or album theme
• reviews - reviews from adverts or magazines - used for the increase of sales

Notes from the lesso - 6/9/12

Mise-en-scene

‘Madonna – Like A Prayer’ – set in church

Metal – seen as she’s been in prison – so been involved in crime

Red lighting – colours of hell and love (sexual rock)

Dark picture – shown as fear

Fire shots – shown as she’s going to burn and regrets what she’s done

God is stereotypically shown as white from our religion so confused to why he is shown as black through the video

 

Narrative/performance

Rock videos would relate mainly to a performance – shows a concert feel to it

Rock bands show the energy in their performance – connotes actually being there

 

Shot composition

‘November Rain’

High angle shot – narrative shot – everyone is facing away from the subject

Each shot represents a different narrative of the music video

Strange location – closed in the location/isolated from everyone else due to the fencing around

Range of shots – extreme shots – little ground used

Different shots show the different emotions – happy to depressed

 

Our finished music promo - 'We Are Young' By Fun

This is the finished promo that Jack and I created covering  the song 'We Are Young' by Fun. Overall, I believe it was a successful promo as we added different conventions that fitted in with that specific genre. Also, as we've gained more experience over the last year in Media we were able to try out new camera angles, positions etc to create a more effective promo.

Both Jack and I put a lot of thought of how we were going to set it out. First we both chose a track which we both liked so it was easier to work with. We then looked at inspirations from different music videos including the official Fun promo to create a storyboard to how we wanted our promo to look like.

We knew we had to have more than one person in the promo as there were various band members playing on the official video so we had to ask musicians in the school for their help. With them saying yes made our promo seem more realistic and came together well while filming. With Jack knowing the song he kindly volunteered to be the main performer with me (Hayley) filming, which I had no problem with.

We thought of an effective way to make our promo different to the original. Once we analysed the lyrics we found a meaning of the song which we could work around to create a narrative of the song as well as performance. The meaning of the song was that the man had made mistakes but it was too late to change anything. Due to this we came up with a narrative of the man 'beating' up a girl (his girlfriend) and he only realised what he had done wrong when she was gone. With this is mind and due to the movement of the lyrics we made this part of the promo into slow motion so it was easy to analysis when breaking down the video. We thought this was effective and different to other music promos and due to it being in black and white it was shown to be in the past.

Also, while editing out video we made sure that we had straight cuts from scene to scene as it has sections where to song was upbeat and the official promo did this as we thought this was effective as well. We also had to make sure all the lyrics were synched to the song as this would effective the whole aspect of the promo.

Shots we want/will use for our promo

 From looking at Tiffany Alvord's cover of 'We Are Young' by Fun gave us a starting point of what shots we could use in our music promo. We also looked at the actual music video for 'We Are Young' but didn't want to copy it completely so we could show what we could come up with.

These are the shots from Tiffany's cover which we considered using..

A music video by 'Tiffany Alvord' that inspired us for our promo

This is a music promo from a girl called Tiffany Avord, who is a talented singer who uploads covers of songs onto youtube. I first saw her video's a few years ago and really like her style and the way she put a music video together.

When looking through her channel I came across the song 'Fun' which she had done a cover on and thought this would be a good inspiration for use to use. When looking at her video I could see that we had got a completly different idea to the song that she had as we put a more 'love story' behind it. however, we were still able to use some of the shots she used as they looked successfull and appropriate for the song.

The storyboard for our music video

As Jack and I decided to have both narrative and performance in our music promo, we came up wth two storyboards to give the idea of both. This way it was easier see which bit went with what lyrics etc

This is the storyboard for the performance side of the promo,

 

As you can see from the storyboard there are a lot of different camera angles that we want to show in our music promo. for example, the second and fith picture are close-ups of the band members playing their instruments. This is somethingh we've have to get right with the music if we want it to work well.

 

This is the storyboard for the narrative side of th promo,

 

 



As you can see from this storybaord there are two characters that we believe fit well with the lyrics to make a narrative around. From the lyrics of the song, we thouht that he had made a mistake in the past and he can't do anything about it and from the original video of the song, they was a fight scene. This is why we thought having flashbacks of a fighting sene with a 'girl' would be good, as throuhout the song we can show what he did to her to make her leave him. As it would be shown as flashbacks, a black and white effect would be the best edit to use.

The music video and lyrics we chose

The music video Jack and I decided on is 'We Are Young' by Fun.

Here are the lyrics to the music video we have chosen to use while recording our version of the song. We have analysed the lyrics to show our thought of thinking.

Our preliminary idea

 

Our preliminary idea is to do a cover of the song 'We Are Young' by Fun.

Before we started planning we anaylised the actual music promo to get a better understanding of the lyrics and hoe the artist had put the promo together.

Throughout the promo the camerawork we could see were close ups which were used to show emotion, long shots/establishing shots which were used to show surroundings and how it focuuses on both performance and narrative.

This is something we'd use in ours (not all of the same shots as we want to make ours different), but so our music promo can be effective as possible. Also, the use of narrative and performance is important as we can to make sure the audience can tell the different between them.

Throughtout the promo the editing techniques used were that when the performance side of the song was playing it was at a normal speed but half way through the promo turns int slow motion - this could suggest time has slowed down and everyone is young (hint the song title). With this in mind the shots then are relatively long, sometimes up to 10 seconds.

In our promo to seperate narrative and performace we were going to have the narrative in slow motion and also blacka and white just to empathise the different between them. We would have just a long time for each shot and we want to express the different shot types that we can use in this promo.

Throughout the promo we could see that there was a balance between performance of band and narrative of the song. The narrative is done by those taking part having a riot and their facial expressions show many different emotions.

In our promo we would use various close ups to show the different emptions on each character, especially those in the past, just to show the emotion at that time. We were thinknig out having a final shot of the 'guy' looking right as the camera, while zooming in, to show his facial expression on what he's done and what he regrets.

Throughout the promo we could see that the mise-en-scene was set in a bar which was dimply lit. The performance side of the promo was set on a stage whereas the narrative part took place below it. Everyone was dressed and acted young - even if they are not. This is something that is simple but works effectively.

In our promo we were going to have our performance side of the performance set on a stage (like theres) or in a music room to show the music side of the promo. The narrative side of the promo would be set outside, where the 'girl' and 'boy' would be fighting. Just the actual artists promo, this would be simple yet effective.

Conventions of a music promo

• Purpose - for the song? Album? Artist/band? Record company

The purpose of a music promo is to give the audience something to picture when listening to the song - this will help create more of a story behind it. Music promos for the album would also help create an image of the artist as well as promoting the artist and album to the audience that will see it. A music promo for the record company will give them a chance to show any new, recent artists to the audience rather than them just being heard on the radio. This will also help advertise the record company and all the other people involved in it.

• How can a promo create a 'brand image' for a performer?

A promo will help create a ‘brand image’ for a performer in many ways. For example, it will show the audience the personality of the artist and some of their thoughts and feelings that are included in their music. It will help the audience see who the performer is and will help them create their own thoughts on them as their music.

• Conventions? Camera work? Editing? Sound? Mise-en-scene? Narrative? Representation?

A wide variety of shots are expected by the audience in a music promo including close ups to show the emotion of the person being shot, establishing shots to show the settings etc. This is to sell to the audience the skills being used. The energy throughout editing ad mise-on-scene is expected to be shown a lot and the shots have to be convenient with the style of the song. A lot of the shots are dependent on the genre of the song however; most shots are straight cuts to keep with the beat of the music. The only sound heard in the promo will be the song; every other sound would be cut out. Music promos tend to tell a story, depending on the genre and the lyrics the artist is trying to get across to the audience. This can be done with the artist just playing the song or part of a narrative can be shown with cuts of the artist. On the other hand, it can be completely acted out – just narrative, where the nand is not shown at all.

• Where can music promos be exhibited?

Music promos are generally shown on TV on music channels such as 4Music and viva – this all depends on what genre the music is to what channel it’s played on. They are repeated over periods of time on different shows to help advertise the song and artist and to create a popular view on the song. Internet sites such as Youtube are also an effect site for songs to be advertised and can be used to download for a small cost. ITunes is also an easy way for song to be downloaded.