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Theories and Conventions of Music Video's

We will need to decide which Theories and Conventions we are going to use in our Music Video
Here is the Sheet:

Distribution Of Similar Artists- Mumford & Sons.

Mumford & Sons are signed to 5 record labels; Gentlemen Of The Road, Island Records (UK), Glassnote Records (US), Dew Process (Australia & New Zealand) and Cooperative Music (Rest of World).

Gentlemen Of The Road is their own record label, through which they gained the record deals with the other labels before their debut album release in October 2009.

Island Records was founded in Jamaica, and primarily run in the UK before being sold out to Universal Records. Similar artists to Mumford & Sons, and our own who are signed to Island Records include; Bombay Bicycle Club, Brandon Flowers, The Fratellis, Keane, and The Killers.

Glassnote Records is an independent record label launched in 2007, based in the US and the majority of acts signed to it are of the Indie Rock and Alternative Rock genres, including; Two Door Cinema Club and  The Temper Trap.

Dew Process is another independent record label, based in Queensland, which distributes to Australia & New Zealand.

Kings of Leon

Kings of Leon is an American rock band that formed in Franklin, Tennessee, United States in 1999.The band's early music was an upbeat blend of southern rock and blues influences but the band has gradually expanded their sound to include a variety of genres and a more alternative rock or arena rock sound.

Source

Sex on Fire

"Sex on Fire" is the first single to be taken from Kings of Leon's fourth studio album Only by the Night and as of September 2009, the second most-downloaded digital single ever in the United Kingdom.The song gave Kings of Leon their first number-one single in Australia, Finland, Ireland and United Kingdom, charting at the top-spot in the UK Singles Chart on digital downloads alone, before its physical release. It has also gained significant popularity in the United States, reaching #1 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart and #56 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it their second highest charting song in their homeland on the former chart.

Source

Kings of Leon: Target Audience

Their target audience is for 16-32 year olds and on some of there albums there is parental advisory. 16-32 year olds would be apart of the indie scene but Kings of Leon have widened there target audience with the release of the album called 'Only by the night'. The target audience is still 16-32 year olds but it is not as obvious for the type of person it is for any more. The audience would be likely to be drinkers and into alcohol, and it would be likely they have some kind of music device with a flashy pair of earphones. It will be likely the audience will be part of social networking sites,like facebook and they are regulars at social places like the Cinema and Skate parks.

You Make It Real - James Morrison Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRxccy-zcJ8

At the start of the video, the camera is showing the view out of the back window of the car that the artist is sitting in. When the first note is played, the camera focuses on the artist looking out of the window of the car. The next shot is a close-up on the face of James Morrison The next shot him setting up or rehearsing for what looks like a gig. The first emphasis is on an acoustic guitar that he is playing and then the camera shows him singing  into a microphone and then changes shot to him sitting in a car again. It seems to be showing that he has to travel a lot to his concerts. A lot of the video focuses on the fact that he is singing, whilst playing the acoustic guitar and the camera shows this by regularly showing both, either separately or together in the shot. The main setting in the video is in an empty hall with the artist on stage perfoming. The main focuses of the video is on the music and the instrument (acousic guitar) used in the video. The lighting is very basic and consists of a few lights around the walls of the room. There are lots of close up shots of the instruments and band members singing, this again emphasises the fact that he is a skilled musician who wants the insruments and his own voice to be the main attention of the listeners and watchers of the video.


The setting is very much like the one in Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man, where the band also performs in an empty hall.

Setting in video 'Litlle Lion Man - Mumford & Sons'







The video seems to be showing a day in the life of the artist, giving the audience an insight to what he would normally do in a typical day.

Personal Progress Report

So far i have completed:
- A Sex Appeal Analysis
- Ideal Audience Member
- The Klaxons Analysis
- Brand Image and Target Audience Expectation
- Radio Station Listener Profiles
- Paolo nutini Analysis
- Last Request - Paolo Nutini Video Analysis
- Artist Image


What i need to do this weekend:
- Finish Video Analysis
- Type Up Notes From Class

Sex Appeal Analysis

Sex Appeal Analysis on Prezi

Progress Report

So far i have done:

• An analysis on One Night Only 'Say you don't want it'
• What is the Indie Genre?
• Dress code analysis 
• Radio station Listener profiles
• Brand Image and Target audience expectations
• The artist image we are hoping to achieve

Over the weekend i am going to do

• A couple more Analysis on music videos
• Ideal audience profile

One Night Only: Target Audience

One night only is a indie based band, which is based in London. they have a small fan base compared to other artist and are not known about on a global scale.

They target mostly older teens, the type which are likely to go to festivals and gigs, and appreciate music that is not in the mainstream. They are planning to release another album which is a clever marketing strategy as they played the new music in the new albums at the festivals, Reading and Leeds. This would have been good for there previous fans and this could also attract a new audience/fans.

There new album which they are planning to release is called 'One Night Only', they attracted attention to this really well by including Harry Potter star 'Emma Watson'. Her appearance in the video adds a touch of glamour to it. Her appearance has improved the publicity of the band and helped them to become a popular and a well known band. The song which 'Emma Watson' appears in is called 'Say you don't want it'.
I did an Analysis on 'Say you don't want it' , which can be found here

My Progress Diary

Karis's Progress Diary on Prezi

Karis's Progress Diary on Prezi

Ideal Audience Member for Paolo Nutini

His name is Alistair, who is twenty years of age. He works in the city as a sales assistant in Burton. He drives to work in a Clio and listens to music from his ipod that he has had connected to the sound system in his car. He regularly visits iTunes to buy music for his ipod. He attends gigs most Friday nights with other his friends. He also attends festivals when they are fairly near to his location. He plays at some gigs and bars occasionally, where he plays an acoustic guitar.


One of the other artists that he likes to listen to are James Morrison, because he likes the style of his music and the attitude that he presents when performing live at concerts. He also likes James Blunt, because of the songs that he sings. He particularly likes this because he writes his songs himself. On the other hand, he feels that it is too mainstream, so therefore listens to it secretly. His favourite artist, Paolo Nutini is an idol to  him and he particularly likes watching him live at concerts and the fact that he also writes his own songs. He goes to Glastonbury most years and when he was in his mid-teens, he attended V Festival.


He mainly shops in Topman, because he likes the styler of the clothing that they have. As a sales assistant in Burton, he takes advantage of his staff discount and occasionally buys clothing such as skinny jeans and polo shirts. When he plays at gigs, he will normally where skinny jeans, a checked shirt, a skinny tie and sometimes a cardigan.

Ideal Audience Member for Mumford & Sons.

This is a typical, ideal audience member for Mumford & Sons:

Joe is a 19 year old student who works part time in a pub during the evenings. He walks to work most nights as it is just around the corner from his student flat, which he shares with three of his male friends and one of their girlfriends. 

He often takes nights off work to attend local gigs and open mic nights at other pubs. He either walks there with his friends or gets a night bus as he never bothered learning to drive when he was at school. 

Joe attended both Glastonbury and Reading festival last year and lived off beans on toast for a good few weeks afterwards after spending his student loan on tickets (as well as a bit of extra funding from his mum).

After hearing some Mumford & Sons on the radio at work, and seeing them at Glastonbury, he decided to download their album from iTunes. He listens to his iPod often, on his way to lectures, work, and to his friends houses. His 'most listened to' playlist features Mumford & Sons, One Night Only and the Maccabees. Others include Bob Dylan, Jeff Buckley, Marc Bolan and Kings of Leon, despite thinking 'Sex on Fire' is overplayed, he still secretly listens to it. 

Analysis:One night only

One Night Only formed in summer 2003, consisting initially of Mark “Mittens” Hayton, Daniel “POB” Parkin, Sam “Gunner” Ford and Kai Smith. The band did not have a vocalist until George Craig, a friend of Ford's brother, joined in a practice. He was asked to be the vocalist, but insisted on playing guitar as well. Smith then left the band.Contrary to some reports, they did not start out as a Beatles cover band — they initially played songs by bands such as Blink-182, New Found Glory and the Beatles, as well as some of their own material.
Source
The genre of this band is seen as Alternative rock, pop punk and Indie rock

Say You Don't Want It

Say you don't want it is based in New York, the video has another plot in it and it flickers between this and the band playing throughout the video.

When the camera is focused on the band we mainly see close ups of the instruments, this tell us that the band  wants the audience to be focused on there music and their talent. This is different to other artists in the Indie genre like Paolo Nutini-Last Request as the siteline is looking into the camera as it is more about the sex appeal than the technical side.


The band members stand out when they are walking on the streets compared to other people, this is done through clothing as they are wearing a different type of clothes. An over the shoulder shot is used from the girl looking over the road and we can see that they stand out. This is done to show that they are unique and that they are a serious group.

The Video looks like a low cost one as they are filming through a city and there are no special effects, this is a popular attribute in the Indie genre. This is done as the artist wants the audience to focus on there technical ability (Instruments) and their music. There is a haze used through the video and this makes it quite dull, this also helps to make it look life it did not cost allot to make.

The Klaxons

The Klaxons are a London-based band who first appeared on Later with Jools Holland (BBC TV) in late 2006. They recently re-appeared on the show to promote 'Surfing The Void', their new album. 2007 was the year they made their major breakthrough on the music scene, and this was only helped by their appearance on the show and their return to it, to promote their new album suggests their gratitude towards the show in helping in their original success. This is relevant to us as Jools Holland is a popular launching pad for well skilled musicians in the Indie genre, and could be a possibility for our artist if he decided to progress into the professional music industry.

Klaxons. 'Golden Skans'. Live on Later with Jools Holland (01.12.2006)

Brand Image & Target Audience Expectations

The target audience for our artist is 16-32 year olds of both sexes, who enjoy going to music festivals and local gigs, they are often students or people who work in the creative industry, the music appeals to female members of the audience due to the image and sex appeal of the artist, and to the male members as they appreciate the technical side to the music and its sound. They discover new music and bands on the radio, at festivals, on tv shows such as Jools Holland, as opposed to MTV, iTunes and through word of mouth from friends. 


To appeal to our target audience we plan to use an artist with subtle sex appeal for the female audience members, who is also a particularly skilled musician which attracts to the male members as they appreciate the music itself. The artist will also be similar to those famous for playing at festivals, such as Mumford & Sons who in the two years since their discovery, have played at Glastonbury, Reading and Hop Farm and Kings of Leon who played at V Festival this year. The artist would be discovered by the audience through playing at lots of local gigs and open mic nights, but would not sound out of place on a 'new discovery' music section on Jools Holland's late night music show, or on local or national radio stations. 

Radio Station Listener Profiles

Heart 
Heart's core audience are aged between 25-44. The Heart Network now consists of 18 stations across the UK, reaching more than 7.3 million people every week.

XFM

Positioned at the leading edge of mainstream taste, Xfm’s 11-year heritage gives it a unique place in music culture.
Reaching well over 800,000 listeners every week across the UK, Xfm is a music-centric national brand, delivered locally.

Galaxy 
Galaxy is an accessible, credible and aspirational brand for people who love music.

Reaching over 3.9 million listeners every week, Galaxy is a consistent national proposition, delivered locally.

The Galaxy and Choice product consists of evolving mainstream music supported by entertaining, real and relatable presenters.

Source: This Is Global

Paolo Nutini

Paolo Nutini is a Scottish singer-songwriter from Paisle. His debut album 'These Streets' was released in the United Kingdom and included singles such as 'Last Request, Rewind' and 'New Shoes' 'Last Request' being the most successful, reaching number five on the UK Singles Chart. It has been in the album charts for a record-breaking 196 weeks. His style of music is Indie, mixed with pop rock and folk.

Last Request - Paolo Nutini Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkA4xcIAvuw
(embedding disabled by request)

When watching this video, the opening shotd show an extreme close-up of Paolo Nutini's face. When the camera zooms out, it becomes clear that he is at a party due to the costumes being worn by the people around him. When the camera is zooming out, he looks straight into it, as if he is singing to the audience watching the video. When watching other music videos, we have noticed that this is common in many of them, because it makes the audience feel as if they were the ones being sang to. There is always something happening in the background when he is singing, may it be a camera shot of him singing, or the people at the party. In the video, he comes across as showing individuality, because he is wearing different clothes to everyone else at the party. For example he is wearing  a smart shirt and trousers, whereas everyone else seems to be wearing masks and party wear. When he begins to walk outside, he seems to be in his own world, as he walks through everyone as if they were not there. When he walks, he is mostly looking straight into the camera. It seems that evryone at the party is enjoying themselves, however he seems to be oblivious to everything and everyone at the party. After leaving the party, he walks into a pub and the people in there are all similarly dressed and there is a complete contrast to what was happening at the party, because everyone in there are sat talking and there are some people having a game of pool, whereas at the party, people were dancing and jumping around. In the pub, he starts to become aware of everyone around him and people start to have a party again. He appears to be looking for a girl. During the video, there were many different camera shots, where it gave a different prospective of what was happening around the singer, aswell as the facial expressions and body languade of the artist himself.

Typical Indie Dress Code

Here is a list of Items Indie Artist's are likely to wear:


Tops:
Cardigans, ironic indie tees, flannel shirts, plain fitted t-shirts, vintage hoodies

Bottoms:
Skinny jeans, corduroys, skirts, fitted jeans, etc.

Shoes:
Converse, Vans, Nike Dunks, Moccasins, Boat/Deck shoes, "Vintage" Adidas and Puma

Outerwear:
Corduroy jackets, Members jackets, vintage leather, peacoats

Accessories: 
Bracelets, necklaces, pins, headphones, interesting bags

This Clothing gives the audience the impression the artists are 'normal' people as people in the everyday world would be seen wearing these type of clothes. Also this clothing gives the audience the impression that they are people who do not take themselves to seriously.

Source

Jeff Buckley.

Jeff Buckley (1966-1997) was an American Singer Song-Writer, and is often seen as an inspiration to modern day artists of the Indie Genre. It is easy to see why these connections are made due to the individuality, creativity and uniqueness he epitomised, along with being an extremely skilled Song-Writer and Guitarist, which nowadays are conventions of the Indie genre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3-_DbEYe7A&ob=av2n
Jeff Buckley- Hallelujah.
(embedding disabled by request)

This video is not disimilar in ways to Mumford & Sons- Little Lion Man, which I looked at previously. The main focus of the video is the artist himself, in the recording studio, performing the song to what appears to be just himself. The colours are limited sepia hues, with no distractions of any props, special costume, or busy lighting. There is no sub-plot or seperate storyline to the video other than him recording the song. All of these aspects, like in the Mumford & Sons video add up to create and portray the message that this artist is "all about the music". This means there is no need for any distractions as it would take focus away from the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAAuBkLAYMQ&feature=channel
Jeff Buckley- Grace.
(embedding disabled by request)

This video is similar to that of Hallelujah, but is not quite as basic. There are shots of the setting, and what is surrounding the artist and his band, but the majority are still close up shots of them playing the instruments and singing. Once again, the colours used are dark, muted tones, the costumes are very casual, and natural looking, and lighting is low-key. This emphasizes the music, and the song which is being performed to enable the audience to not become distracted in what is going on in the video, so that they focus on the music and lyrics.

From watching these videos of Jeff Buckley, and previously of Mumford & Sons, it is apparent that they  are focussed on their music and their talent, as their videos feature lots of close-up shots of them playing their instruments, singing and making the music. It appears obvious that the muted tones, casual costumes, low key lighting and focus on the artist are strong conventions used in these videos. I think that these could inspire us to use conventions such as these in our coursework as we are looking into how artists of this genre typically portray to the audience the message that they "are all about the music" and these conventions help to emphasize this.

Jeff Buckley. 

Dress Code Analysis.

Artists of the Indie genre typically are seen in smart-casual clothing with individual twists. This gives the audience the impression the artists are 'normal' people, who do not take themselves too seriously. Inspiration for the clothing choices often comes from vintage styles as opposed to mainstream fashion. For example, the members of Mumford & Sons dress in styles not disimilar to what ne would expect from English Country Gentlemen, including Tweed blazers, braces and leather brogues. Their image is constructed in this way to emphasize their individuality and creativity, which mirrors their music. Stereotypically, members of Indie bands, such as The Kooks, take inspiration in fashion from bands such as The Kinks, and their style of clothing comes from designer brands such as Ralph Lauren, Paul Smith, and Rayban sunglasses, high street stores like Topman and vintage stores, like the famous Rokit and Beyond Retro in London.

The Kinks

The Kooks in Buenos Aires

Paul Smith Collection Autumn/Winter 2010

Mumford & Sons- Little Lion Man

The entire video is set in an empty auditorium with the band on stage, perfoming to themselves. The main focuses of the video are the lighting and the music itself. The lighting is simple strings of bulbs hanging across the room. There are lots of close up shots of the instruments and band members singing. The whole thing is very simple including the colour scheme and decor it appears to be very muted and dull looking. All of these things add together to create and portray the message to the audience that the band is very serious about and interested in their music and what they can do. There are no distractions away from them performing and the close up shots of them producing the music emphasizes the sound and the fact they are there for the music and no other reason. This would appeal to the audience as they typically appreciate the technical side and sound of the music, as opposed to being fixated on the artists themselves and their look.

Mumford & Sons.

Mumford & Sons are a 4 piece all male band from West London who are famous for their individual style which mixes indie, rock & folk. They pride themselves on creating a "sound that marries the magic of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young with the might of Kings Of Leon". Their members, Marcus Mumford, Country Winston, Ben Lovett, and Ted Dwane became friends whilst perfoming in various bands, and whilst doing so discovered their mutual interests for bluegrass, country & folk, and began perfoming together at undergroud folk nights across London. After atonishing success with their album "Sigh No More" and single "Little Lion Man" they went on to perform at Glastonbury Festival, V Festival, support Bob Dylan at Hop Farm Festival and have played countless sold out gigs across the UK, Europe & America.

Similar Artists & Inspiration

We have decided to focus on the Indie Genre for our Coursework Music Video project as it is a genre which all 3 members of our group have knowledge of and are interested in. We are planning on using a friend of ours, Gavin Templeton as the artist in our video & during out Research and Planning we shall focus on artists similar to him in genre, and style as well as the artists which inspire him and them. Similar Artists in the Indie Genre include Paolo Nutini, Mumford & Sons, One Night Only, James Morrison, The Maccabees, Kings of Leon and John Mayer. The artists which these form their inspiration from (will blog more in detail about this) include The Beatles, Jeff Buckley, Paul Simon, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Bob Dylan, Marc Bolan and Jimi Hendrix. This is useful to us because we can research into the older artists which inspire modern day ones to see where the conventions originated and how they developed.

What is the 'Indie' genre?

In popular music, independent music, often shortened to indie music or "indie", is a term used to describe independence from major commercial record labels and an autonomous, Do-It-Yourself approach to recording and publishing.

Internet technology allows artists to introduce their music to a potentially enormous audience at low cost without necessarily affiliating with a major recording label. The design of digital music software encourages the discovery of new music. Sites with larger libraries of songs are the most successful. This, in turn, creates many opportunities for independent bands.

Source

Artist Image

Class Work on the Artist image we are going to use