Website

For our ancillary texts we have to do an album cover and website. We have discussed this as a group and decided that we would like to do Myspace, as after conducting some research we can see that they are very popular with musicians. They are especially popular with indie musicians which is our genre, as Chick Habit is indie/retro pop.
Here are some links so some that we found very inspiring:
Lily Allen:  http://www.myspace.com/lilymusic
Katy Perry: http://www.myspace.com/katyperry
Madonna: http://www.myspace.com/madonna

4Ps

1. Summarising in your own words what the 4Ps of music marketing are. Use the following categories:
a) What band/artist related products can audiences buy?
You can buy CDs of the band.artists songs, as well as DVDs of them performing. You can also get a lot of merchandise from band websites such as posters
b) Where can audiences buy/listen to music/merchandise/hardware?
Band Websites, concerts and gigs, festivals, tv, radio, myspace or facebook pages, download sites such as iTunes.

c) Give 2 or 3 examples of paid-for/subscription based and free products.
Paid-for/Subscription products: CD's bought in shops, singles, albums or music videos bought online (iTunes), band or artist merchandise from sites or stores and magazines which specialise for music.
Free products: music downloads (limewire), free concert tickets

d) List between 5 and 10 examples of creative music marketing strategies (including at least 3 internet based examples).

The Streets: a crop circle was made of Mike Skinners face to promote the new album. He also gave away free songs to his fans via Twitter.

VV Brown: There is a banner on the internet where is climbs inside a white box and performs in it.

Britney: Had a free give-away of tickets to her Circus Tour, which also helps promote and create a buzz around her album. She did this via her website.

Pink: She turned up to sing in the big Tmobile karaoke in Trafalgar square, which helped create a buzz around her right around the time where she had a enw album coming out.

Lily Allen: She had an internet game called 'Lily Allen in Escape the Fear' to promote her single 'The Fear'

2. Who is frukt uk and what is their mission statement/company ethos<
Frukt UK are amusic marketing agency. They create and develop ideas that use music as a means of marketing.

Mission Statement:
“We’re all about music and are really very fond of it. Music colours people’s everyday lives…We help brands access the passion and the communities, the lifestyle and the artists.”

Our Treatment

Pitch 1

The Streets - Case Study

1) Summarise the changing image of the band/artist as it has developed over time. It might also be useful to summarise the music genre also.

From 200-2003, The Streets were a group and their genre was more UK garage/house/hip-hop. They set out to push garage in a new direction.
2004+ Mike Skinner is now solo, still called the Streets, and his music has become much more mainstream, as it has a more indie feel, however it does still maintain a garage beat.


2) Who are the fans? Do you have any sense of how the music companies have segmented the audiences? To what extent has the branding of a band been linked to target audience?

The core audience are young males, more working class, this is because of the strong garage feel, and also because front man Mike Skinner grew up in working class Birmingham (despite performing in a cockney, London accent).

The branding of the band is linked to the target audience because the album covers show very ordinary pictures of council estates, bus stops and cigarette lighter, very mundane everyday scenes that the target audience can relate to. Nevertheless as The Streets became more popular his album covers reflect a wealthier lifestyle ie- a posh car, but he is still dressed in scruffy jeans and a t-shirt, to indicate to his fans that fame hasn’t changed him.


3) What marketing strategies can you identify? What kinds of strategies can you list? (above/below-the line? unexpected promo stunts? etc). List any examples of the use of synergy with other industries to promote other media/products in connection with a band/artist.

• Website: skinnermike.com – it’s the official website and blog of The Streets
• Myspace.com/thestreets - he posts new music and up and coming gigs etc.
• Twitter – Mike Skinner gave away 3 free songs to fans
• Youtube – all his songs are up there.
• He faked his house being re-possessed as a publicity stunt for an album launch
• There was a crop circle made of his face, again to promote an album launch.


4) Add any relevant links to your blog, especially Myspace page/music vids/official websites etc. A couple of illustrations (e.g key web design graphics/album cover photography) would also be useful to add to your blogs

See above (Q3)

Moodswings - Video Referenceing

Below is the video for Charlotte Church - Moodswings. We discussed doing something along these lines where our main girl is dancing and her outfit changes as she does so. We think if this is done well it could look really coool. We also like the close up shots in this video and we think we could do something inspired by this as well as the main girl could be singing and her hair and make up could change.

Charlotte Church - Moodswings

Group Meeting 3

18/09/09
Lat Friday the 18th we had a meeting with Ms Blackborow and i am very pleased because she liked our song choice. The only thing we were concerned about was how short it was becuase it is only 2 minutes 7 seconds. However we discussed over coming this with a short narrative at the beginning and the end to the song to add about 20 seconds to it. This is also good as we weren't planning on having narrative during the song, we want it to be more about performance so this gives us a bit of narrative to keep it interesting at the beginning and end. The video we referenced for this was Rihanna's - 'Unfaithful' as this video has about 15 seconds of narrative either side of the song, as we think this works really well.
Ms B then showed us a video that was made in 2003, 'i believe' - joGo, the whole video wasn't really about the lyirs of the song but the style and performance was the main feature this is exactly what we want.

Mind- Map

For our first group meeting having a final song in mind, me and Danni decided to jot down a few of our initial ideas for the video. Here are the Mind-maps we made showing our first thought as to the look and content of the video. These helped a lot in the meeting as it ment it was easier for us to describe our throughts to Tom and Ms Blackborow, as they could clearly see the direction we were thinknig of.

April March - Chick Habit

We think we are porbably going to use April March - Chick Habit as our final idea. We think it could be really fun to do as it is quite kooky, retro and upbeat despite the lyrics. This will also give us great styling opportunities as although it was released in the early 90s, we all think that it has a very 60s feel about it so we will try and use 60s influences in the styling. We have discussed taking inspiration from 60s icons such as Twiggy.

Song Choice

LYRICS
hang up the chick habit
hang it up, daddy,
or you'll be alone in a quick
hang up the chick habit
hang it up, daddy,
or you'll never get another fix

i'm telling you it's not a trick
pay attention, don't be thick
or you're liable to get licked

you're gonna see the reason why
when they're spitting in your eye
they'll be spitting in your eye

hang up the chick habit
hang it up, daddy,
a girl's not a tonic or a pill
hang up the chick habit
hang it up, daddy,
you're just jonesing for a spill

oh, how your bubble's gonna burst
when you meet another nurse
she'll be driving in a hearse

you're gonna need a heap of glue
when they all catch up with you
and they cut you up in two

now your ears are ringing
the birds have stopped their singing
everything is turning grey

no candy in your till
no cutie left to thrill
you're alone on a tuesday

hang up the chick habit
hang it up, daddy,
or you'll be alone in a quick
hang up the chick habit
hang it up, daddy,
or you'll never get another fix

i'm telling you it's not a trick
pay attention, don't be thick
or you're liable to get licked

you're gonna see the reason why
when they're spitting in your eye
they'll be spitting in your eye

Group Meeting 2

17/09/09
This group meeting went a lot better as Tom showed us a song that we all liked and we could all see a vison for - the song is called 'Chick Habit' by April March. We are going to have a meeting With Ms Blackborow tomorrow to see what she thinks about the song, but we all like it and hope she does too. Then we can start to make treatments for it, and begin work for our pitch...
x

Group Meeting 1

16/09/09
This meeting did not go very well as we did not decided a lot of things. We were hoping to have some really strong inital ideas that we are all passionate about by now, but none of us are that excited by anything we have found so far. We did however beging to narrow our search down by deciding on a genre. We definitely need a song by next meeting, as we need to start planning our pitch for next thrusday...
x

BLK feedback

A great looking blog Hannah, keep up the good work - well done!

Stan Music Video Analysis

Stan Analysis

I really like this video by Eminem, and it’s definitely one that you want to watch over and over again. We get a strong sense that it is going to be quite a scary video right from the beginning as the opening shot is a quick zoom into a window, outside it is night and stormy. It’s raining heavily and we can hear claps of thunder. This creates an eerie, depressing mood even before the song has even started. The next thing we see is a tough looking man wearing a plain white vest, with lots of tattoos on his arms, bleaching his hair over the sink – this is slightly strange behaviour in the middle of the night, made even stranger when he stares at himself in the mirror creepily, seemingly pleased. We then see a pregnant woman walking down a poorly lit corridor. A strong colour theme that has emerged is black –very gloomy and connotes death, so it is implied right from the beginning that this could have a scary, even fatal outcome. As Stanley opens the door to the woman we see a birds-eye-view extreme HA shot, and now we can see the run down bath room he is in, showing that he is lower class, and possibly suggest that life is a struggle. Stanley shouts and grabs the woman who we can now assume is his girlfriend showing his angry erratic behaviour, as he slams the door shut behind him the music begins. This long build up to the song started is very cinematic and not like a music video at all and they are all quite long slow shots. This beginning helps to establish their volatile relationship, and we can assume that Stanley is an erratic, obsessive person as the woman says ‘you’re taking this too far’, which is quite frightening.

When the music starts it is quite quiet especially compared to the rain and thunder outside which makes it seem like it is being in their house. When we first see Eminem he is sitting on a tour bus, when a man hands him mail. We can still hear the rain on his tour bus which implies that he is fairly close by, and also indicates that he is part of the narrative not just doing the performance part of the video. Eminem and Dido both being in the narrative creates a synergy between narrative and performance.

As the video continues it shows the isolation of the 3 characters. Dido is shown singing alone in her room, and the divide between her and Stan are shown by the shots of Eminem on his wall and him looking up, idolising him, ignoring his girlfriend. There are a lot of fades to black and flashes between shots which I think represents time passing, and Stan sending lots of letters. But I think it also shows Stan’s confused, scrambled state of mind. In my opinion one of the eeriest scariest parts of the video is when Stan sticks a photo of Eminem over a photo of his girlfriend. I think that this shows that he really has gone a bit crazy, as he thinks he knows Eminem, he thinks they’re friends. This is a great example of how a music video completely enhances a song, as just by listening to the song, while you may realise that it is about a fan, you would not be able to imagine in such detail the story that has been built up from it, and eerie details such as sticking Eminem’s picture next to him. Although this video seems to indicate the passing of time, and shows flash backs to other locations, all of it is at night so that the depressing, dark feeling continues through out. Further more the lightning flashes and thunder claps seem to get more violent and the song goes on, representing Stan’s growing anger and impatience at Eminem,

The fact that Stan is the main character in this video and Eminem is playing himself make it seem more real, which I think enhances the scariness of it, as for those 6 minutes you really start to think that he is a really person, obsessed with Eminem. Additionally when Stan and his brother are at the concert it does look like a real concert, again enhancing the realism of this video. And I think that is what makes it so successful, the fact that the narrative is quite epic and complex compared to most videos, and that you start to believe it’s real. And of course the performances (especially from Stan) are all very moving, making the entire thing more believable and effective.

Carol Vernalis

Carol Vernallis says the camera in music video seems to mimic the way we view sonic space... do you agree? Do you think we are conditioned by music video to read sonic space in particular ways?

She suggests that the jumping camera focus is like the camera in place of our eyes, doing what we do when we listen. However, this is predefined for us by the Director - we have even less choice to look away/outside of the Director's choice than we do in film - do you agree?

Yes I agree when we listen we do jump around and focus on different sounds. Because music videos usually have such fast paced editing, and jump around so much, we don’t have time to register the image in our mind, and start to look outside of the directors choice because it’s already cut to another image. However when a music video is done well this jumpy style will hold our attention right through until the end.

She says music video experience is more like listening than viewing - do you agree?

I have to disagree with this, because although the viewing of a music video is designed to enhance the listening experience, many music videos are so intriguing and captivating that watching them is far more about the viewing experience. Also even if you don’t particularly like the song, if the music video is good you may still want to watch it over and over again, whereas you wouldn’t want to just listen to the song over and over. Additionally you watch music videos to see how a singer/group have presented themselves and what their visual interpretation of the song is compared to yours – therefore I think that the enjoyable experience of watching a music video is definitely far more about viewing.

"We compensate imaginatively for what we do not see in the frame" - Agreed?

Yes I agree, we definitely fill in the blanks using our imagination, and create in our heads what we want to see, or what we think fits.The constant motion in a music video and the variances it shows mean that a strong CU is a stable point.

The music video "brings us towards these peaks, holds us against them, and then releases us" - do you agree?

Yes the CU is the stable point as it is usually of the lead singer (the money shot/beauty shot), therefore providing us with familiarity in amongst the fast, montage that we see in most music videos.

Is the viewer "sutured (stitched) into the diegesis of the film world through the editing"?

Yes because it is the editing which completely creates the meaning. This is because the same set of shots, if re-arranged, can mean something completely different. The editing process is what forms the narrative of the video

Music video is freer in terms of viewer identification and perspective - agreed?

I don’t fully agree with this because although the director may be freer, the audience can only see his/her perspective as it is usually too fast paced for us to have time to think anything else.

Carol Vernallis believes the image alone cannot tell the story - do you agree?

Yes I do agree with this, because images can only tell a story to an extent, but music is what creates the atmosphere and the mood of the sequence. For example if you ever watch a horror film with the music off, it wouldn’t be half as scary – music enhances images to a great extent and they definitely do not work to tell the story as well on their own.

Possible Songs - Initial Ideas

I do have a idea of what i want to do in our music video, although i think i'm going to find it quite hard to narrown it down to the right song. I definitely think something fast paced would be good as fast paced means we can do really fast, crazy editing which i think will look very effective and keep the audience engaged the whole time. I also think that narrative does often look good, but it is very easy for it to look really bad. I dont necesserily think that we shouldn't have any narrative on our video, but i definitely thin it should be more about performance. Here are some of my thoughts and ideas so far.


New Order - Blue Monday
I think that this would be a good song to do and its quite fast pace, so would be fun to edit. You could really go mad cuttting on the beat, where it is very fast (around 0.27) which i think could look very effective.
I really like the idea of breaking the conventions and producing the audience with something they wouldn't expect from the song choice. I was thinking we could possibly do something like an RnB tune, but our video could be competely the opposite from what you'd expect from an RnB video for example in terms to the costume, locations, and concept of the video. I think if done well this juxtaposition could look very effective.
I have also done some research and found a lot of songs on youtube recorded from radio 1s live lounge. Loads of these are of artists doing cover versions - this would be very good to do as there would be no copyright issues, as many of the artists didnt even properly record the cover version let alone make a video for it. Also a some of them are very good and would show audiences a different spin to reasonably current, popular songs. Similarly i plan to do some more research into remixes of song, particularly remixes of very old songs i think could work well and it brings them right up to date, and i think making a video for that would be very fun!
The Source ft Candi Staton - You've Got the Love (The Voyager Remix)

Barbie Girl - Lip Sync!

Barbie Girl Lip Sync

Above is the video which Danni, Tom and I made for our lip syncing task. We wanted to choose a song that had both boy and girl parts as although we thought it would be funny if me and Danni lip synced to a male voice or if Tom lip synced to a female voice we thought it would look more realistic if we found a song that had parts for both. We asked members of our class to help us think of songs with both parts and one of the first ones mentioned was Barbie Girl by Aqua. We thought this was a great idea as we knew a lot of the words anyway, and it is quite repetitive so easy to learn the bits we didn't. Additionally it gave us the chance to have fun and be cheesy with our performance.
Firstly Tom filmed me and Danni doing our dance together, then we all filmed each other seperatly. Although this was just a little task we still wanted it to look good and be interesting so when filming, each of us moved around a lot with the camera to get different distances, angles and movements. We knew from the Teenage Dirtbag workshop that we needed to actually sing to make it look as realistic as possible - so we shut the door and turned the music up loud so we wouldn't be embarrassed. When editing we simply synced all 4 takes (Me and Danni dancing, me solo, tom solo, danni solo) to the track which made the editing really quite quick and relatively easy. Overall I found it very fun and it was good as it was another practice towards our final project, which is going to be great!

BACK FROM SUMMER!

Ok so the summer holidays are over, and i am now back to blogging after the 6 week break. Let the project commence!

BLK feedback

Excellent research posts so far Hannah, a great start to your background work for this project. I really love your analysis posts on performance and narrative, and your moodboard particularly!

There are some missing bits of last term's classwork though and you need to catch up with that quickly, as it will be so busy when we get back to school.

We also need to get you using/applying advanced theory more explicitly when you analyse music videos, think Vernallis for now, although you will also need to get to grips with Goodwin in the new term.

For now, your short term targets are:
1.Link your lip sync and workshop video to your blog
2. Post your workshop and lip synch evaluations
3. Post the work you have done for Miss T on Vernallis; see the main music video blog for the details of what is needed
4. Post your track research/ideas – we need to see what tracks you have in mind for your own video
5. We need a photo please!

All instructions are on the main blog if you are not sure what you should have done. There will be a lot happening when term starts so the sooner this outstanding work is completed, the better.

Great effort so far, keep up the good work and see you soon!