Ideal Audience Member

Name: George

Age: 22

Interests: Rock/Indie music and playing the drums

Location: London

Education: Westminster University taking a degree in Music

Outside of school: Partying, is the drummer of his own band

Other: Uses internet to download music, socializing on networking sites such as Facebook and doesn't watch much TV.

Lifestyle:

George gets up at 7.00 am at his campus in London and starts to get ready for his day at Westminster university. Between his free periods, break and lunch he checks up on the latest updates on new albums/songs  relating around various genres he enjoys and then dowmloads or purchases them via the internet either through ITunes, Spotify etc.  When the day is over he meets up with his band members and enjoys practicing for small gigs that come along from time to time while having laughs with others and discuss their favorite bands, songs etc and the latest related music news feed. He also enjoys socializing on Facebook with old friends outside of university and likes to know how they are and doing etc when he gets some spare time to himself. Around dinner time he then meets up with his fellow piers at a local bar to get a bite to eat and partying.

Demographics of Comparable Artists

Red Hot Chili Peppers-

Nirvana-

Nickleback-

Characteristics of Rock

Some characteristics of Rock music are :

- Strong rhythm

- Singable melodies

- Simple accompaniment

- Guitar riffs/ostinatos

-Guitar/Drum Solos

Basic Instruments are :

- 3 guitars

- lead, rhythm and bass
- Vocals - Keyboard
- Drum kit

Target Audience Plan

As we have to make a digipack and a music video for our artist, it is key for us to know our target audience. Therefore we need to plan how we will research our audience:

I plan to look at YouTube's comments and statistics for our song and include the information gained in our project. I beleive it is a good site for information as people can comment and give feedback etc so we can make improvements to our product.

Survey Monkey allows you to create an online questionnaire which can then used on other social media platforms. We will use this to create a survey asking various questions such as "Which of this social networking sites do you reguarly use?". This will give us the feedback we need in order to find out who our target audience is.

Twitter is another good site for researching into our target audience as we can create pages or send direct or public messages. This allows us to get a variety of opinions into what our target audience for our genre is.

Rock History and Trends

Rock music is a genre of popular music that originated as rock and roll in 1950s America and developed into a range of different styles in the 1960s and later, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It was heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of other genres such as blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz, classical and other musical sources. Musically, rock has centered around the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with bass guitar and drums. Typically, rock is song-based music usually with a 4/4 time signature utilizing a verse-chorus form, but the genre has become extremely diverse and common musical characteristics are difficult to define. Like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political in emphasis. The dominance of rock by white, male musicians has been seen as one of the key factors shaping the themes explored in rock music. Also rock is well known for live performances as the intruments invloved create an electric atmosphere. The hand gesture below is a very common rock gesture, everybody is pretty much familiar with the infamous “devils horns” hand signal as it is very popular amongst heavy metal fans. 

Nicki Minaj- I Am Your Leader

Nicki Minaj- I Am Your Leader

The opening shot is  of a post box, it opens then the camera goes through the post box into a long shot of Nicki stood in the middle of an empty room which is pink and green and in the centre of there is a zebra rug. There are green window frames and green antlors on both walls, as well as a pink fireplace. She is wearing all black, however, her clothes are very revealing. Her clothes are designed to reveal her bum which is her trademark. The next shot displays her in a erotic pose and has quick cuts of her using rapper gestures and also shots of the skull of the wall. There are frequent close ups of her face and her eyes. Her eyes have been made to look big using makeup to give the look of a doll.. She is acting very confident and looking straight at the camera and singing most the words.

There is a shot of Nicki sat in a pink and green chair which is designed to look like a human hand, this applies to the song as she is saying that she is the leader and it as if she is sat on a throne. However, there is also a shot of her peeking through the window so i could symbolise that she feels trapped and small. Next it cuts to Nicki stood with two men in a dark room (still singing) and she is still wearing revealing clothes however they are more authoritive than before as she is trying to imitate a type of military uniform. The men she is stood with have assertive looks as one of them is dressed in steriotypical gangster clothes with a gold chain and the other is dressed like a chav with a snapback.

It then cuts to a new scene where Nicki is in a bath in a low lit room that only has beams of sunlight coming through the windows. The walls are painted pink and black and the floor is black and white checkers as well as the bath being purple. Her hair is now green and she is wearing long sparlky silver boot.The bubbles are covering the main parts of her body which is sexual appeal to the audience. There are bubbles floating round the entire room which fits the scene and Nicki Minajj's character. Then there are frequent cuts between the bath scene and the scene with the two other men.

Next it cuts to a long shot of a topless man sat at the head of a table, he has tattoos all over his body and is wearing gold chains which gives us the impression of being gangster or dangerous. The entire room is gold, including a gold chandlier, gold fruit in a glass bowl and gold candle sticks with gold candles in. This links with his gold chains. He is also wearing sunglasses which gives the effect on the audience of, 'I can see you but you cant see me'. There is then a shot of a woman behind the man on the mantle piece, she is painted all gold in a gold bikini acting as a statue on this mans mantlepiece. This gives the man authority as it gives the audience the impresssion that he can metaphorically control people. The video then cuts to the next scene of the same man stood with Nicki and another man however he is stood in the middle of them as he is still the one rapping as the other two just dance.

The third man is introduced with an extreme high shot looking down at him stood half way down a set of green and purple stairs which are flashing. On the wall behind him are photo frames going down the stairs with moving green and purple animations in them as well as cartoon pictures of all the people involved in the video such as Nicki. As the man is walking down the stairs his shirt is changing colour from dark blue to pink and all the colours in between, this follows the bright colours theme. He is wearing a smart shirt with jeans, a snapback, sunglasses and fashionable shoes, also he has a necklace around his neck with his first initial on which is steriotypically a rappers icon. The camara work has a lot of tilting from side to side very quickly to give the impression of chaos and madness. The camara shot of all three people stood in the hall swings from a long shot to a close up shot. The video ends with an animation of a broken TV in a bath then zooms out and come out the back of the post box and it shuts to show the end of the song. I beleive that the multi coloured rooms and animation make this music video out to be set in a dream land inside of nicki's mind.

Andrew Goodwin Research

Andrew Goodwin has identified a number of key features in music videos. They are:

• A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.
•  A relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music.
• Genre-related style and iconography present.
• Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist.
• Voyeurism often plays a major part, especially in relation to females.
• Intertextual references to other media texts may be present.

He says that music videos are often constructed by the link between the visuals and the song plus the artist. Relationships are built between these in the video, and the close-ups of the artists gives them the representation and publicity they require. Voyeurism is used to increase the video’s attractiveness, particularly to males. Many of these features are present in all music videos, depending on the genre of the song and the aim of the record company/artist.

MTV studio location

We have managed to acquire permission from MTV to film our music video in one of their studios, we have researched the location. The address is as follows:

17-29 hawley cresent 
Camden
London
NW1 8TT

Kanye West- Homecoming- Hip Hop

Kanye West- Homecoming- Hip Hop

Set in New York- Usual location
Camera focused on Kanye West, centre of attention
Black clothing to enhance the black and white effect- old school
Low angle shots showing power and authority- typical scene
Slow motion walking in groups
Fashionable clothing
Silhouette effect
Black and white piano carries on colour scheme
Balaclava- gangster
God like pose, arms out- authority
Poverty, going back to his roots, home country- life story
Vagersim
Piano- contrast, dont expect it in hip hop video
Conventional
Hand gestures
"reach for the stars", make your way to the top

Active Audiences 1960-80

Interview 1

Dad, 54

What was your favourite genre?

New Romantic/Punk

Who were your favourite artists?

Elton John
Queen
Heatwave
Earth, Wind and Fire
Depeche Mode
The Rolling Stones
The Beatles

Did you fit into any sub-culture?

Punk-
Tight Jeans
Skinny Ties
Collarless Shirts
Platform Shoes
Spiky hair stuck up using Bryl cream
Hairspray

How did you listen to the music?

Radio
TV
Magazines (NME, Melody Maker)

What radio channels did you listen to?

Radio 1
Radio Luxumburg

What TV channels did you watch?

Old Grey Whiste Test
The Tube
Top Of The Pops (Every Wednesday at 8)

Characteristics of artist idols?

'Cool'
'Wicked'
'Magic'




Interview 2

Brother, 23
What was your favourite genre?

Drum n Bass
Jungle


Who were your favourite artists?

Kenny Ken
Nicki Blackmarket
DJ Zinc
Stevie Hyper D
Rai Keith
Ex-Man

Did you fit into any sub-culture?

Skater-
Baggy Jeans
Casual Wear
Skate Wear
Skate Branded Tops
Skating Shoes
All had Individual/Original Hair styles


How did you listen to the music?

Friends
Raves
Vinyl
Illegal Free Partys
CD/Tapes

Characteristics of artist idols?

'Safe'
Acted rebellious due to artist behaviour on stage, etc

Music Choice Ideas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNTWokU7woo&feature=share&list=UUr8oc-LOaApCXWLjL7vdsgw

Progression from AS to A2

Media Studies is a subject I have always had great interest in. My brother took it when he was in school and I was always wanted to help him with his work and I was taught how to use programs such as Final Cut Pro/Express along the way. From the very moment we had to start thinking about our A level options, Media Studies was the only subject I was one hundred percent certain I wanted to take. I carried this out as I wanted to enhance my knowledge the the entire media world.

AS

The first practical  task we had was to create a video including basic shots and it also had to include at least one use of a matched cut and the 180 degree rule, the purpose of this was to prepare us and give us practice for our thriller opening we had to make for our main task. The clip had to be of a person walking through a door, sitting down and having a two person conversation. We included basic shots such as high and low angle shots, close ups, establishing shots and a matched cut, despite these being basic shots they re also very common in the media worl for films or television programmes. It was good practice for us as we would be using the shots in our thriller opening.



I learnt a lot from this task as i realised its not just about the indivual shots but the positioning of them, taking the background into acount, how much you show of the actor/actress, the mise en scene (costume, props, etc). Without each of these being taken into account, the shots would be low quality
look unprofessional. The use of purposefully not showing a characters face of even body worked very well in our preliminary task and we carried it out in our proper opening to a thriller. Overall I believe that our main task of creating theopening to a thriller would not have been as good without the experience and knowledge learn from the preliminary task as it made us realise how much effort needed to be put in for the main task. Below is our finished version of our main A2 task.

A2

For our A2 practical task we have to create our own music video. For the preliminary task we had to recreate a famous music video. My group decided we were going to recreate Eminem's music video 'Lose Yourself'. Since our last preliminary task I have learnt a lot of new skills and knowledge of the subject and used them in the planning and creation of the video. For our task we used a plan of each of our indivual shots and this helped us a lot when it came to the filming as we knew exactly what shots to do and when to do them. We thought about the location, lighting, tinting, clothing and different shots and together agreed on which were the most like the video.

  

I believe that in the short amount of time we had to film and put the video together the final product was very good. We chose Eminem's video as the location wasnt too hard to film in and we could recreate his imagine using costumes and props. The tinting of the video gave it more character, the slight green tint over the dark light gave a gloomy depressing feel however the slight orangey red tint gave a slight anger feel. The tinting was a skill i had only learnt during A2 and wouldve struggled to use in my AS coursework. Overall I beleive that our shots from our A2 preliminary were a lot more clear, steady and suitable compared to our AS preliminary, this was down to our experience of the subject compared to last year. Also this year we did not waste any time with the editing as we knew how to use the editing software and what we needed to do with it. Although the lip syncing was something that was new to us so that slowed us down a little.

My Good and Bad points
I believe that my strongest quality is definatly editing, I have been in charge of editing for each of the videos we have created and was happy with the overall outcome of all of them. I like to take charge of the group and try and make sure everybody is doing something to contribute towards the group, e.g. research or planning. I also listen and try to intertwine my ideas with others from the group however can become a little to attched to an idea and be reluctant to change it despite knowing the difficulty of the task. Also I believe that i do not use as many technical terms as i should do and it is something i need to improve on if I am to get a good grade in our A2 coursework.