Similar Media Products Avicii

Tim Bergling better known by his stage name Avicii is a Swedish DJ, remixer, and record producer. Avicii was ranked 3rd on DJ Magazine‍‍ '​‍s annual Top 100 DJs in 2012 and 2013 and has been nominated twice for a Grammy Award, once for his work on "Sunshine" with David Guetta in 2012 and once for his song "Levels" in 2013. Some of his most famous songs are "I Could Be the One" with Nicky Romero, "Wake Me Up", "You Make Me", "X You", "Hey Brother", "Addicted to You", "The Days", "The Nights", and "Waiting For Love".

1. Genre Characteristics- Wake me up includes shots of a festival style performance which is common to the electronic dance scene. This works particularly well as it is something the young target audience can relate to
2. Relationship between lyrics and visuals- There does not seem to be a reference between the lyrics and visuals
3. Relationship between music and visuals- There is a clear relationship between music and visuals, for a start, the editing matches the beat of the music.In addition to this; during the main ‘dance’ part of the song, the shots of Avicii playing the festival are shown with the crowd and lighting effects, this suggests that there is a serious link between music and visuals
4. Artist close ups- There appear to be a few shots of avicii at the festival. These are the only shots of him and so there clearly wasn’t a huge demand from the record label, suggesting that the music and narrative are more important.
5. Notion of looking- There is an obvious example of this when everybody is looking at the main female character and her daughter as they walk through the street. This appears to be due to the strange clothes the main character is wearing as a pose to voyeuristic reasons
6. Intertextual references- Yes-to popular culture.The festival shots are a clear reference to popular culture.

Similar Media Products Daft Punk

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Similar Media Products Research Skrillex

Similar Media Products Research from agentknight

Mood Board

The below are Mood Boards I created for the music artist Exödus. This is to suggest what will be related to my artists and the genre of my artist.

Brief of Exodus

I have been asked to devise and make a promotional music video for Exodus. As a new act, his record label is keen that this first release appeal to a wide audience and establish an image that is both recognisably unique and appealing  to his target audience.With this in mind, his first release will be a cover version and will be used as a platform for future original releases.

Brief of Exödus (Media Studies Artist) from agentknight

Music Video Research

In todays lesson I began to think about what genre of music my music video will be. I have come to some conclusion that my music video will be based on the EDM/Dance music genre. I have chosen this genre as it tends to pick a unique more artistic type of style as opposed to a more narrative based lip-sync music video related with genres such as Pop.


I have decided to look into the works of several artists including-

• Skrillex
• The Prodigy
• Calvin Harris
• David Guetta
• Daft Punk
• Martin Garrix
• Tiesto
• Diplo

I will use research these artists music and music videos for inspiration for both the song itself and the style of which I could create my music video on.

Conform & Oppose Adorno & Horkheimer

• Conform-

Katy Perry-
She is a pop artist who is very similar to many other pop artists releasing songs which sound nearly the same as her pop competitiors such as Taylor Swift. Her voice is in some what distinctive but not enough that she had created a brand new style of her own. She could be placed under standardisation category because of this.

• Oppose-

Matt Redman-
He is a contempory christian pop artist who has a very distinct style. His music is fra from the likes of other pop artists as he has a distinctive christian worship style to his music which makes him very distinguishable from other artists. He would then oppose A&H's theory for showing none of their characteristics.

One Direction's Up All Night Digipak Analysis

 

The above digipak is for One Direction's album Up All Night. Their logo "1D" is featured on both the front cover and tracklisting showing that this is very important. They are shown in a happy yet boyish manner on the front cover as they are establishing themselves as a boy band. The white on red logo is featured on the CD aswell but as the whole CD. This helps to install this in peoples minds. Their image is shown on all covers and while they are not close-ups they all show distinctively that it is them. The track listing compared to the image is very small showing image is more important than the songs.

Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze is featured on his digipak but as opposed to the other digipaks it is in the form of women or girls in this case would want to be with them whilst men would want to be them for he attention and female fans they have.

Ellie Goulding's The Writer Digipak Analysis

 

The above digipak is for Ellie Goulding's album The Writer. Her image is clearly important as like many pop genre digipaks she is seen on all covers. She is seen in a pure non-provocative way suggesting that she wants to go with gender conventions of the pop genre. The font suggests she is feminine and has her own style as this is featured on all sides of the digipak. The name suggests that she wrote the album.

Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze is featured on this digipak in an innocent yet slightly provocative way as we see her posing to the camera in the form of a close-up on the front cover. Men would want to be with her whilst women would want to be her.

Rihanna's Talk That Talk Digipak Analysis

The above digipak is for Rihanna's album Talk That Talk. This is a R&B album that incorporates other genre's such as pop, hip-hop and dance. The album revolves around romance. The cover suggests what music will be found on the album as she subverting from stereotypical female conventions by exhailing marijuana. Drugs are highly associated with the hip-hop genre. Her mouth is opened which is very suggestive. This sexualises her image. Rihanna's image features heavily on the digipak showing that her image is important to her.

Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze is featured heavily on this digipak as we see Rihanna in a variety of positions and shots, this is to show that she relies on her sexual image to sell her album. It opens a new audience as men would want to buy the digipak to se Rihanna as they would want to be with her whilst women may want to be her.

Katy Perry's Teenage Dream Digipak Analysis

The above digipak is for Katy Perry's album Teenage Dream. The cover is iconic as it features a full body image of Katy Perry which a pink cloud covering her private parts. The digipak follows a theme related to the music video for "California Gurls".
The CD's are meant to look like sweets which the video features heavily of. The pink cloud on which Katy is laying on is also featured in the music video.
Pink is a colour that Katy Perry is iconic for so this features heavily throughout. On every part of the digipak other than the track listing there is an image of Katy showing that her image is important to her.
Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze is featured heavily on this digipak as we see Katy Perry's face as a close-up and her body as a long shot showing the whole of Katy Perry. Men would want to be with her whilst women would want to be her.

Taylor Swift's 1989 Digipak Analysis

• A digipak is a 6 panel album cover designed to promote the artists USP.

• Many use-
• Iconic head shots 
• Iconic graphic design
• Logo's
• Iconic Image (No Artist)

• It may include-
• Front cover
• Track listing
• Lyrics
• CD's
• DVD's?
• Images

The above digipak is for Taylor Swift's album Red.Taylor's digipak doesnt follow usual conventions when it comes to the title because the title of the album is bigger than the artist name, and is more noticeable, which is different because the digipaks I have analysed so far, have the artist name larger than the album name. The album name is written in red, which is the same colour of the the lipsticks.

Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze is featured  on this digipak as we see Taylor Swift in the form of a mid-shot showing her face and body although of this she does not appear sexually provocative or revealing suggesting that she does not want eole to see her in that way.

 

Digipak Introduction

A digipak is a 6 panel album cover designed to promote the artists USP.

• Many use-
• Iconic head shots 
• Iconic graphic design
• Logo's
• Iconic Image (No Artist)

• It may include-
• Front cover
• Track listing
• Lyrics
• CD's
• DVD's?
• Images

De-commodification

• A commodity always depends for its status and its value on its relative scarcity; once the reproduction & distribution of that commodity become effectively free, then it necessarily loses that value& that status.

HMV vs iTunes

• HMV had to close many stores due to loss of sales.
• HMV is now moving away from CD's and focussing on other merchandise like T-shirts.
• HMV website couldn't compete with other sites such as amazon.

• iTunes is booming with more an more people deciding to buy albums and singles online as it is becoming easier to buy and cheaper.
• Less people are buying CD's so are turning to iTunes.

Music Industry Crisis

• For most of 20th century record companies made money by selling a tangible product- a vinyl disc or CD. You owned music by having a CD collection.
• With the internet, the music industry had to adapt as CD sales are falling each year. The 'product' is now bought online as a single song or album, and exists only as an item or on iPod, mobile or computer.
• Majority now use iTunes,Google Play, Spotify and other online music services.

• in 2009, 4 men were sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay £2.5million for creating piracy site "Pirate Bay".

Adorno & Horkheimer Theory

• A&H adopted the term culture industry to argue that the way in which cultural items were produced was analgous to how other industries manufactured vast quantities of consumer goods.
• A&H argued that the cultural industry exhibited an assembly-line character which could be observed in the synthetics, planned method of turning out its products.
• A&H linked the idea of the culture industry to a model of mass culture in which cultural productions had become a routine; standard repetitive operation that produced understanding cultural commodities which in turn resulted in a type of consumption that was also standard, distracted & passive.
• A&H's view of cultural production has, with some justification, often been portrayed as the pessimistic lament of cultural elitists who were dismayed at what they perceived to be the homogeneity and vulgarity of 'mass' taste, and who were concerned that the potential for artistic creativity in music, literature & painting had been co-opted & corrupted by the production methods & administrative regimes of industrial capitalism.
• The capitalist corporation seems to enjoy an almost omnipotent form of domination & both the consumers & the creative artists vs our separate form but are directly connected to this system of production.
• A&H argued that CI operated in some way as either manufacturing industries.
• A&H argued that all products produced by the culture industry exhibited standardised features.
• A noted that songs which became successful over time were often referred to as standards, a category that clearly drew attention to their formulaic character from the plan to the details, songs were based around repetitive sequences and frequently recurring refrains. This was done for quite calculculated commercial reasons, so that the song would imprint itself on the mind of the listener and then provoke a purchase. For Adorno, the production of bit songs had become a mechanical and manipulative operation motivated purely by commercial gain.
• A&H were also critical of what they referrred to as pseudo individuality. By this they meant the way that the culture industry assembled products that made claims to originality but which when examined more critically exhibited little more than superficial differences.
• A&H thus present us with a powerful argument about what happens to culture when it is subject to the structural control and organisation of industrial capitalist production: it becomes merely a standardised, formulaic and representitive element  of mass culture. It has no aesthetic value whatsoever and leads to a very specific type of consumption that is passive, obedient and easily manipulated for the purpose of propaganda of advertising.

Taylor Swift 1989 Cross Media Case Study

Taylor Swift 1989 Cross Media Case Study 

99 Problems -Jay Z Analysis

I am going to analyse the video with accompanying help from Goodwin's Music Video Theory.

• Genre Characteristics

In the music video there were many things which show the characteristics of the genre, Hip-Hop. The fact that the music video is mainly set in the 'ghetto' communities of Brooklyn show its hip-hop relevance. Brooklyn, being a predominantly African-American area, has a theme with what the lyrics are portraying. The music video gives a sympathetical feel to black people and shows how society sees them in a twisted way. This has a link with the prison references as Jay-Z sings about how black people are sent to prison and treated worse by NY police officers. He is alighting an issue with the treatment on black people in the USA. Black people are also stereotypically religious and to show this there are scenes in a church where a choir is singing to portray this. The fact that Jay-Z is wearing chains and mink clothing is very stereotypical with the hip-hop genre itself.

• Lyric and Visual Relationship

Many parts of the MV show a correlation which Jay-Z is singing about and what is on screen. There are shots of a prison and prisoners when he sings about prison and the police. There are shots of sexually provocative women when he sings about women. This is also repeated on other topics. The lyrics base around women and love as many songs do and this is portrayed in the visual aspects of the MV.

• Music and Visual Relationship

The genre of hip-hop shows a relationship to what is happening on screen. Hip-hop is seen as a predominantly black genre where many artists began in rough areas and were very poor like Jay-Z.The editing such as transitions follow the beat of the music to show the correlation. The black and white tone of the visuals relate to the mood of the music.

• Record Label Relationship

The MV portrays Jay-Z as a strong, god-like figure. This is shown by the lyrics and the visuals. He sings about the events as if he is an important person looking over everything whilst many cinematography such as low angle shots make him seem larger showing importance. The fact there are many close-ups of Jay-Z also shows he is important to the MV.

• Voyuerism

This is prevalent in two ways in the MV. There is the scopophiliac way and the voyeuristic way. The sexaully provocative women represent scopophilia. The viewer is meant to get a sexual pleasure from them thus the main audience would be male. This is important for MV. The fact that we are being shown the 'ghetto' community is voyeuristic aswell as the viewer finds pleasure from seeing this visual.

• Intertextuality

Intertextual referencing surves a purpose for promotional issues towards the MV and shows recognisable features for the audience. This isn't shown as much in this MV as it was one of the first of its kind although in many future MV intertextual referencing from this MV can be seen.

Goodwin's Music Video Analysis

1 - Relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.
- Themes, mise-en-scene and events of the video match with lyrics of the song, to help to portray the message of the song.

2 - Relationship between the music and the visuals.

- The cuts and edits of the video are in sync with the rhythm and beat of the song matching cuts or effects to specific drum beats or notes.


3 - Music videos have genre characteristics

- Certain features are expected out of a video depending on the genre of the music, for example a girl bands/artists are expected to have dancers and close ups of the singers, whilst a Indi band are expected to have performance shots ofthe band and cut to a fast beat.


4 - Often due to the demands of the record label, artists videos will include many close ups of the artist and will often develop motifs that recur across multiple videos

- This allows the record label to promote a set image for the band, which will help target audiences empathise with the band.


5 - Emphasis on 'looking'

- The 'male gaze' is often used to attract a male audience. The male gaze is a focus on presenting things that appeal to men. This often means a voyeuristic view of, and an objectification, of women. The emphasis on looking also includes the artist looking directly into the camera helping the audience connect with the artist.


6 - Intertexual references.

- Music videos reference other forms of media, most commonly film, but can also be television and other music videos.

MTV research

MTV began in the UK in 1997 and was a large part of music videos and established pop culture. Back in its heyday its was the go to place of modern pop. It included many of the new pop acts promoting their new singles and the release of new singles. Now MTV has branched off the music side and mainly shows new TV shows but regularly it has music relations such as the VMA's.

Technical codes of Music Videos

1. Cinematography

• Dependant on genre & tone of the song.
• Accompany movement of performers walking, dancing...
• Close-ups predominate because of size of screen and partly because of desire to create a sense of intimacy.
• Artist lip syncing words.

      2.Editing

• Fast-cut montage
• Multiple viewing
• Transitions & pace establish mood
• Digital effects enhance original images to offer different types of pleasure.

      3. Development

• Chroma-key/Green/Blue Screen
• High quality colour videotape recorders.
• Portable video cameras
• 35mm film

Timeline of Music Videos

The invention of film & cinema brought about the possibility of combining music & moving images.

Advances in technology have turned music video into what you see today.

1920's-
Music video's began to emerge in the 20's. Artists such as Bessie Smith created short films to accompany their songs. These tended to be very basic and featured just teh artist singing.



1960's-
This saw the beginning of what we see as the modern music video. Although many were still basic the frames of what we see today can be seen in music videos such as Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan where we see a person put cards of lyrics on the screen.




1970's-
Due to the invention of new technologies such as special effects, new groundbreaking music videos were produced. Most famously was Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen which included an array of special effects which nobody had seen before.



1980's-
Music videos have become a standard with practically every single being produced having a music video accompanied.



1990's-
Music videos advanced significantly with many videos introducing what we see today such as fast cut montage, multiple viewing, split screen, colourisation, lack of edits, long takes & steadicam.

Introduction to A2 Media Studies

Today's lesson was an introduction into what tasks we would be doing throughout the year.

We are creating a:

• Blog
• Music Video
• Digipak
• Poster