Deconstruct the music for chosen track

This is the sound track Jack and I have chosen to create a music promo around. It did take us quite a while to find this tract but once we listened to it we already came us with several ideas that would work well with it. This is because as you listen to it you can create a sense that it isn't really a serious song, it has various lyrics such as 'the floor in the backroom, could do with a vaccum'. We could get a picture together that we could create a 'tongue in cheek' music promo for the entertainment of our audience. This is something that would work well if we obtain all the asects of a pop rock genre. We also had the idea of applying stop motion in the promo as it's somthing Jack and I thoughout would go when listening to the song. There are various ways in which this could happen for example, a clock speeding up throughout the day while the character is sat doing nothing - something that if worked well would be effective. We'd have to make sure enough audience research is obtained so we create a promo suitable for our audience.

When listening to the sound track you can pick out a males vocal voice which is frequent all troughout the song and an instrument of some kind (guitar or keyboard). This is something we'd have to plan as we'd have to make the actor/s and instruments realistic as possible. There is also a 30 second instrumentel near the end of the song which is something we'd have to plan as something creative or unique could go in this. As the males voice stays in the same tone througout the song, this could suggest that he is bored and is singing about his every day life. Also, various noises occur from the character also suggesting he's bored. This means we'd have to have various aspects of a character looking bored to fit with the song.

Deconstruct the lyrics for chosen track

Questionnaire & results

Questionnaire

 

 

 

 

1. Are you male or female?

 

 

 

2. How old are you?

 

 

 

3. Which style of music is your favouite?

 

 

 

4. Who is your favouite artist?

 

 

 

5. What is your favourite song?

 

 

 

(listen to track)

 

 

 

6. What would you expect to see in a music video for this song?

 

 

 

 

7. Are there any features you dislike when watching a music video?

 

 

 

 

8. Do you like the idea of a tongue-in-cheek video to match the tone of the song?

Results

As you can see from these results, Jack and I asked the same amount of males and females so we could get different results from different genders.

When asking the question 'How old are you?' we got most of the answers around 15-18. This is because these are our target market - who we are hoping to attract when our music promo is made. With this is mind, we would have to make sure the conventions used will suit their needs.

This response was to the question 'What's your favouite genre?'. We found that our answers matched mostly between pop and rock which we found useful as our chosen song fits into the pop rock genre. With this is mind, we would have to use the conventions suited for this genre to keep those who like that genre interested.

These answers were all to the question 'Whose your favouite artist?'. The results that were the highest were Rihanna and Fun - both pop rock artists. This is something we'd work towards as we can use the conventions they used in their promo to cover ours. This would hopefully keep our target audience interested in our promo.

The question these responses came from was 'What's your favouite song?'. This would give us an idea of what style artist they like listening to and watching. The main response came under other, but one of the favouite songs was 'We Found Love' a song by Rihanna. As Rihanna's songs are based around pop rock, we could look at her style and see how we can use that in our promo. This is because her target market obviously like what she first did, so she carried it on.

After those questions we gave the audience a chance to listening to our chosen track. With this is mind, we then came up with questions that might help us when planning and creating our promo.

This response was from the question 'what would you expect to see in a music video for this song?'. The best response we got was a mix of performance and narrative and something we'd look into doing when planning. We would have to analyise the lyrics to see if we could think of a successful storyline behind it, so the narrative would match the lyrics - if not then the promo wouldn't be successful. We would look into doing this as it's something our audience want.

This response was from the question 'Are they any features you don't like when watching a music video?'. The obvious results came up were a lack of variety of different shots, too much surrealism and complicated storyline. With this in mind, when planning, creating and editing our music promo we would ave to make sure we stick to keeping the storyline simple so our target market can understand the promo and how it links to the lyrics. Also, have a wide variety of shots shown for example, close ups to show emotion. This would show we have creative skills and we've thought about what shot types fit with a certain lyrics. This is something we'd have to work on throughout the whole process so it fits together perfectly at the end.

Finally, this the response from the question 'Do you like the idea of a tongue-in-cheek video to match the tone of the song?'. We asked this question as looking as certain promos we could see this element involved and wondered if we should use itin ours. The response gave us a possitive view of having it invovled as the song seems to be along that genre. Before we start filming we would possibly have to practice this technique to see if it's successful, if not we will not use it in our promo.

Presentation ideas

This is the presentation Jack and I created to show the different ideas of what we could do for our promo using Ryan Helman's track 'Fun'.

Analyse promos of same genre in detail

Rihanna's song 'Cheers (Drink To That) is also in the pop rock genre and something I've researched into to see what typical conventions are used which will hopefully help me create my music promo from the same genre.

The song contains characteristics of Goodwin's theory.

The song is called 'Cheers (Drink To That)' which is about Rihanna drinking to the weekend - it shows her having fun outside of her performance life. It also shows her enjoying life in different surroundings. It then also has the glamours side to it of her being half naked and performing on stage to thousands at her show and everyone singing along - showing a relationship between her and her fans.

Rihanna is a pop artist but in this video she uses characteristics of a hip hop video for example,  she has herself performing in front of a large crowd. It also follows the common characteristics of a mainstream video which is to have the artist  on screen most of the time which helps the record label sell the artist. This makes the video more mainstream as it easily recognisable  as a hip hop/RnB video even though Rihanna is a pop artist. Rihanna also looked glamours/rich which is shown in most hop hop/RnB videos to show the artists wealth. 

The main relationship between the lyrics and visuals was when Rihanna would sing 'Drink To That' and then the visual would be her or someone else with a glass filled with liquid (alcohol) and then drinking it. This would allow an audience member/viewer of the video what it is about. This also helped to amplify the fact that the song is called 'Drink To That' as you can see people drinking as she sings 'Drink To That'. The only other relationship between lyrics and visuals was when Rihanna says 'Got my ray bands on and I'm feeling 'hella cool tonight, yeah' and then on screen we has Rihanna and people in the crowd wearing them on screen at the same moment.

The link between the musical and visual isn't shown until the music starts around 00:30. At first we just have normal cuts from scenes of the crowd being loud and active, to Rihanna getting ready for the show, to Rihanna at different places (bar, back stage). During this time, what is shown on screen is being cut to natural sounds as the main song hasn't started yet.  This helps show the artist in her natural environment and helps show people who don't know the artist, gain an understanding of who the artist is. When the song starts at 00:28, we then get the visual being cut to the beat/tempo of the music and the cutting rhythm is fast as the drums in the beat of the song are fast.

Rihanna's notion of looking into the camera showed a relationship between Rihanna and her fans as she would look directly into the camera which made it feel as if she was looking directly as us, and this helps to build a relationship between audience and artist. 90% of the time Rihanna was constantly on screen whether is was her performing on stage or her behind stage having fun, or her on holiday having fun. Either way her face or body was always on screen, which helps to sell the artist as people watching this video can gain a better understanding of the artist and those who don't know about Rihanna, can now see what she is about and recognise her if they see another video of her.

There was no portrayal of voyeurism as Rihanna was wearing very short shorts, bras, doing sexual dances whilst on stage and showing a lot of 'flesh' most of the time on screen. This helps to sell the artist more as showing the female body attracts males (mentally/sexually) and as a mainstream video this would mean that she would gain a lot of attention in the male viewers eyes. By attracting males, this helps to sell the artist and let the artist become more known for what she does and her music.

There wasn't any intertextuality references as it was a performance video and all about Rihanna and her everyday life.

Our chosen song

The song that Jack and I have decided to create a music promo for is a song called 'Fun' by Ryan Helman.


This song is in the pop rock genre and fits into the many songs we have researched. For example, McFly - That Girl and Rihanna - Cheers (Drink To That). Being a pop rock song, the conventions used which are typically in a pop rock video are the instruments and the way the song is laid out such as narrative and performance. Also, how it uses both pop and rock conventions and mixes them into one.



This is just evidence that we contacted Ryan and asked his permission to use his song. His response was 'Good Luck, Ryan' and sent us both the lyrics and the track to work from.

From this we are now able to research and create plans of how to set out a music promo is this song.




















summarise groupings

Last year, when creating a thriler opening for AS Media Studies, one of the students with whom I worked with was Jack Coley.

This year, I am woking with Jack again, and we have simular ideas when it comes to brainstorming what could be in a music video, as well as all of the other tasks we have to complete together.

We have already decided on the song choice together and know what each of our roles with be within the music promo.

Throughout most of the song Jack will be performing as the main character and me (Hayley) will be filming. This is convenient for both the song and the video.

Music Promo: Music Video Theories

Three ways the music video relates visuals to the song

• Illistration: Everything in the music video is based on the source song
• Amplification: Enables the director to become an artists force in the construction of the music video as a whole. Retains a link with the song but contructs complementary layers of meaning - often through signs and symbols
• Disjuncture: Intentionally ignores the content of the song and genre of music and tries to create a whole new set of meanings. These videos don't usually make a great deal of sense and often use abstract imagery. Used by arty bands to assert independence &/or imply a rejection of conformity.

 

 

Andrew GOODWIN

• music promos demonstrate genre characteristics for example, stage performance in rock and metal videos and dance routines in boy/girl bands
• the demands of the record label will consist of a lot of close ups of the artist and the band
• there are often intertexual references to films, TV programmes and other music promos

Steve ARCHER

• there needs to be a strong relstionship between narrative and performance in the music promo
• music promos will cut between a narrative and the performance of the song by the band

John STEWART

• the music promo will have aesthetics of a TV commercial with various close ups of the artist - lighting is used to focus on he starts face
• visual references come from a range of sources such as, cinema, fashion, art etc
• mise-en-scene can be used to emphasise an aspirational lifestyle

Sigmund FREUD

• voyeurism - refers to the notion that erotic pleasure may be gained by looking at a sexual object - when the object is not aware of being watched. This is seen in a lot of music promos

Laura MULVEY

• the presence of women in films is often soley for the purpose of the display - the pupose of this display is to facilitate a voyeuristic response in spectators which is generally seen from a males point of view - one that is a powerful controlling gaze at the female on display

Male Gaze Theory

The Male Gaze theory is a feminist theory that was first developed by Laura Mulvey in 1975. This theory occurs when the audience/viewer sees things through the eyes of a heterosexual male – it’s developed to highlight the power imbalance between men and women analysing the way men see women.

The theory is suggested that the audience are forced to view the text from the perspective a heterosexual male – films constantly focus on women’s curves and events that happen to them.

Laura Mulvey stated that the dominant male gaze in mainstream Hollywood films reflects and satisfies the male mind. For example, most filmmakers are male so male characters in the films narrative make women the objective of their gaze (The gaze reflects the male gazes of the camera and the male actors)

In addition, she argues that sexism can also occur in the way the text is presented. People are encouraged to gaze at women in advertising that sexualizes a women’s body even when the women’s body in unrelated to the advertised product.

Mulvey suggests that the audience view the films in two ways voyeuristically and fetishistically. As an audience, you watch films without being watched by the characters they become onlookers on their lives. Therefore, they become voyeurs of the people on the screen.

This is something that we would not use in our music promo as it doesn't fit around the genre of our chosen song.