I am in group 1 with Pru Carter-Phillips (8128) and Ella Budgett (8120). To view my portfolio evidence please click on the following three labels, on the right, named; A2 Research and Planning; A2 Construction and A2 Evaluation.
Please view our music video for MiraJax - Best Be Believing
Please view our music video for MiraJax - Best Be Believing
Front and Back Digipak
Above shows the front and back panels of our digipak
Inside Digipak
Above you can see our inside panels of our digipak
focal image, often of the band/artist or of an identifiable symbol for the band/artist
barcode
track list (on back)
release dat/period
copyright small print
Parental Advisory?
visual motif
colour theme
institutional information
general credits
booklet/extra content
website and/or contact info
promo stickers
The purpose of an album cover is, primarily, to sell the product but also to INFORM and ENTERTAIN. It needs to be visually pleasing and attractive enough that it will stand out to the consumer and make them want to either pick it up or click on it. to find out more.
We will be creating a debut album so it is important we also sell the artist/band as a new product on the market; we need to create an identity for them which is attractive for our particular TA. Our cover needs to have visual links to the musical content in our album-it can't tell a different story to the music.
I gathered together a variety of albums but with the same concept in the back of my mind:colour. I found the following...
Acid Rap - Chance the Rapper
Kanye West - Graduation
FKA Twigs - LP1
The colours in all three albums are incredibly striking and beautiful which we will take influence from. However, the FKA Twigs album does not follow the usual conventions of an album cover; it has no wording etc on it. We will not be going in that same direction as we feel it is very important to have this key info visible for the audience.
I personally studied Mika's debut album Life In Cartoon Motion.
Here are some pages from our project notebook where we shared some ideas on paper.
In conclusion, on our album cover we definitely want to include:
A bold album title
A bold artist name, perhaps bigger font than the album title
All the typical conventions of a debut cover as explained in this post
A focal image of our artist/band which creates their identity
A clear link between the visuals on our cover with the music
As a group, we were all very influenced by the music video for Chase and Status - Blk&Blu. We love the iconic London city feel to it which we feel makes the music more relatable and enjoyable, as we can recognise locations.
This music video has a clear and interesting but simple storyline; a group of four friends (2 girls and 2 boys) who know each other from school win some money beating an older man at a game of pool. They decide to go out clubbing to spend the money where, unfortunately, the main boy bumps into the man he beat at pool...who isn't very happy. The video closes with a wide shot of Alexandra Palace, a North London location.
Aspects we would like to take from this video to inspire our ideas:
beginning, middle and end storyline
end on a positive note
use of London locations, or at least create the atmosphere which can only be London
montage editing style - choppy and random (to an extent)
handheld camera-more gritty and realistic
Aspects we don't want to influence our ideas:
although this video features only narrative and it works, we want to include performance aspects as we won't be able to create a storyline as substancial as the one they've created
we don't want to attempt to create a club/party scene like theirs as it won't look as believable with our limited resources/budget
Other music videos that influenced our ideas include...
BBHMM - Rihanna (directed by Megaforce) - we loved the use of vibrant/rich colour and how it gave a retro style to it
American Boy - Kanye West and Estelle (directed by Syndrome) - we love to use of split screens and want to use this in our video to show the unity between our two band members
In our first group project meeting we sat down and went through lots of songs on YouTube which I noted down in my media folder. We really wanted to pick a song from a non-mainstream genre and ideally the artist would be London based.
We started by looking at Mura Masa - What If I Go :
Positives:
Feel good/upbeat and light-hearted
Use of Electronic sounds-genre is 'Dance/Electronic'
Musical sounds with potential to cut shots to (cutaways can be incorporated)
Song builds up with a start, middle and bridge
Lasts exactly 3 minutes
Negatives:
Same kind of beat the whole way through the song-could be restrictive
Lyrics could be restrictive-about relationships
Repetitive
When listening to the song without the video we didn't like it as much-a bit boring
Chase and Status Blk&Blu :
Positives:
Electronic sounds-urban feel (genre is Dance/Electronic)
Lyrics open for interpretation
We all like the song and are familiar with it
Negatives:
Song doesn't really build up
Being very familiar with the music video might make it hard to keep it out of mind when making our own video
Too long-would have to cut it down
AlunaGeorge - I Remember
Positives:
Electronica of genre
AlunaGeorge is a more niche artist so won't seem like a parody video
Negatives:
Repetitive
Too long (4.50) - would have to cut it down
We want a more happy/uplifting song - this one's quite depressing
The record label an artist is signed to is hugely important in terms of choosing one which possesses the correct style and image that the artist wants to promote through their music. It is also important in the sense that they will be funding the artist's projects so one with sufficient funds and one which is established is also hugely beneficial.
The three major record companies are Universal Music, Sony Music and Warner Music, however each of these organisations are 'parent' labels to smaller record labels which they own, such as Island Records whose 'parent' is Universal.
British Phonographic Industry tells us that there are a number of roles which need to be fulfilled in order to discover talent, produce a record, market and distribute that single/album and finally, deliver the music product to the fans.
This is a long process which requires tactical and creative strategies along with thinking outside of the box.
Firstly, I'm interested in Island Records, a record label originating from Jamaica, located in London, New York and Santa Monica. The label has signed artists from Ariana Grande and Drake to Kiko Bun and Rizzle Kicks. The label was founded by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall and Leslie Kong in Jamaica,1952 but has been based in the UK since 1962.Island had a major influence on the progressive UK music scene in the early 1970s.
Since AlunaGeorge is already in partnership with Island Records and her style is what we have taken a lot of inspiration for our artist from, this seems the best record label for us to choose. It is a UK based record label and has also signed artists such a Rizzle Kicks. The fact that Rizzle Kicks are in partnership with them also,
Two very different opinions from well established song-writers and producers, however I think both opinions are very true.
We can see how early 2000s and 90s influences are coming through not only with music, such as the garage scene, drum and bass/jungle and old hip-hop and R&B, but also through fashion.
At the same time, electronic music is definitely in-the-now with artists such as Calvin Harris, who's debut single "This is What You Came For" reached number 2 on the UK singles chart and number 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The single also won "Best Male Video" at the MTV music awards.
I had a look at some of the top charts and below are my findings:
The Singles Chart Top 100..
The number one single is of the genre Electronic Pop/Electronica so this really proves what Erik Hermanson had to say about the future of music.
Official Albums Chart Top 100..
The number one album, in contrast, is a British Indie Pop band followed by Alternative Rock artists, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Evidently, these genres are very different to those present in the top 100 singles. One theory is that the 'album-buying generation' are the older half of the population who are listening to more data genres/bands.
After a lot of research, I have gathered that, unless you have a complex, moving storyline, it is best to create a music video with both narrative and performance combined into one. Therefore, I would like to make our music video include both narrative and performance features, ideally with an equal mix of both.
I like how in DJ Snake's video for Middle, he is not actually acting in the video but he makes an appearance on the street as actor, Josh Hutcherson, walks down it.
However, I think it would be unrealistic for us to be able to create a narrative as professional, so we need to include a lot more performance with a more simple narrative.
I would also love to include a variety of different shots as cutaways, for example in Tinashe's video for 2 On she uses shots of herself dancing under coloured lights.
We also watched the music video for Stay High by Tove Love and would love to try and include some shots similar to the filming technique used in her video, where everything looks distorted behind her. You can really get a sense of the actress' emotions.
We were, from the start, particularly interested in the UK audience; in particular the London audience. We also decided to target our music video towards both males and females between the ages of 16-25, however, predominantly females.
Obviously we are able to relate to this audience group an have a lot of people we can use to get audience feedback which is a bonus, but we also believe this age group in particular reflects 'the now'; we think this age group are most likely to be the most in-sync with the latest trends in music, fashion and the media which makes them the perfect target audience for our genre. The stretch in ages from 16 to 25 is evidently big and often most 16 year olds' lives will be very different to that of a 25 year old, but we think this will be beneficial as we are able to create a reach to a diverse, yet similar group of young people.
Below is a video in which Flora Cox, a 17 year old female, tells us what sorts of music she listens to, how she listens to it and where.
From our audience feedback, we know synth pop and electronic sounds in music are widely popular within our audience group; even though sometimes audience members didn't know the genre name for the tracks they enjoyed.
Some name's of synth pop and contemporary r&b artists our audience enjoys:
As a group, Pru, Ella and I spent some time on youtube discovering and sharing songs we enjoyed and thought would be appropriate for our project.
The first genre which struck as all as a popular one amongst many people our age and older, was garage. We researched some familiar tracks which included "Crazy Cousins ft. Kyla-Do Ya Mind"...
and "Has It Come To This"- The Streets-Kry Wolf Rework...
We enjoyed many songs from this genre but decided to keep our options open so carried on researching.
The next song we were all keen on listening to was Chase and Status's "Blk&Blu"...
We had all already seen the video and it had clearly had a big impact on us as we all loved it.
However, we had to take a step back and think whether we still liked the actual track as much as we thought we did when there was no video. And for us, it was the video that really made the song. So, we decided against this particular song because we suspected it would be impossible to keep the video out of mind when trying to brainstorm our own ideas for the video.
We still researched into the genre of the song and Chase and Status as an artist group.
We became very interested in the genre "Electronic Pop/Synth Pop" and decided to research more songs of this genre.
In doing so, we found the artists AlunaGeorge (Aluna and George) which were all already familiar with and fond on. Their music is part of the Electronica genre and Contemporary R&B. We listened to several of their songs from the album "Body Music"...
Having done lots of research, we finally decided to find a track in the electronic pop/synth pop genre and the contemporary R&B genre as we felt we could have a lot of fun with editing to the fast synth sounds and we wanted to choose a modern genre which wasn't too mainstream as this would prevent it looking like a parody video.
When? I think I listen to music just about every day; it is something which I thoroughly enjoy doing. I tend to listen to music on my journey to and from school everyday. When I am getting ready to go out I like to listen to feel-good music and up-beat songs which get me excited to go out. On early mornings on my way to school, however, I prefer to listen to quieter music; not necessarily slow songs but but ones which aren't so intense! Where? I listen to music...
in the car
in the bathroom
at clubs and parties
at concerts
in my bedroom
at my friend's houses
and on the bus
Who with? If I am making a journey I like to listen to music by myself...for example on the bus and in the car. However, if I am getting ready with friends, hanging out with friends, or at social events then I like to share my music experience.
How? I listen to music on my phone, laptop, iPad, and radio. When I am getting ready to go out in the evenings or in the daytime on weekends and while I'm in the shower I like to listen to music. When I'm cooking I listen to music in the background but I can't listen to music when doing work as I find it too distracting.
Why? I think music can really alter someones mood and create atmosphere. For example if someone was ready to go out and entered a club which was playing slow music that could flatten their mood and make them instantly want to leave. I also think that different genres of music can deter people from wanting to listen to or hang out with people or in an area which is playing genres of music which they dislike. It can create a bond between two people who enjoy the same type of music or cause a deterrence of two people who's music tastes disagree with one another. Music has no boundaries in terms of language and can be listened to and understood globally, even if someone doesn't understand the lyrics and certain songs and artists can have a huge impact on a person's lives to the point that when they pass away or something drastic happens to them, it impacts a whole load of emotions on the audience and consumers.
Childhood
This is "It's all about you" by the band McFly. I was a huge of this band along with Busted. I think it may have been the first CD I owned along with Mika's CD 'Lollipop'. I can distinctly remember making up dance routines to their songs with my friends and performing it for my mum!
Early Teens
Like many young girls, I had my Justin Bieber phase...I was obsessed with him for about 2 years and even made my mum buy 4 sets of tickets for me and my friend in order to get the best seats closest to Justin as possible! I remember being incredibly excited for this video to come out and repeatedly watching it 'fangirling' over the star.
Now
I found it difficult to find a song that "means a lot" to me today as I love lots of songs but not necessarily in a deep or emotional/meaningful way. However, I do think as I've got older and seen documentaries and the film 'Amy' I have learnt to appreciate and love Amy Winehouse's old songs, having been introduced to them by my mum when I was a lot younger. This is Cherry Wine by Nas featuring Amy Winehouse.
To conclude, I believe as a child, you are often very influenced by those around you when trying to determine your own individual music taste which often means it ends up not being your own taste at all! As you get older, you are able to be more confident and true to yourself in terms of what you do and don't like.
I will be working along-side Pru and Ella which I'm very pleased about as I know we won't have any clashing of ideas as we all get along well and are on the same page. I have previously worked with Ella, however working with Pru will be a new experience.
We have planned to meet 3/4 times a week, mostly in our free periods as we have a lot of the same slots free. However, when we have any questions or ideas we want to share with the group outside of school hours, there is a Whatsapp group we are able to communicate on. This is also useful for any last minute cancellations etc.
We also created a project notebook, in which we have recorded our idea development and will continue doing so until we have our finalised idea...
