Marketing Lesson

At the start of the lesson, we discussed the many ways in which a record label can reach their audience when marketing an artist. Our list was incredibly long, and included marketing through social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram), the website, viral marketing, radio (playing the song and competitions), magazines (interviews, front covers, posters, adverts), posters (on the side of buses, tube stations, etc), on TV (promos, spots, songs featured on a show), public appearances (awards ceremonies, concerts, festivals, chat shows) and many more. There are many ways in which these marketing schemes can be categorised, for example:

• online vs. offline
• above the line (direct paid publicity) vs. below the line (incl. TV appearances, merchandise, reviews)
• by media platform/industry 
• by interactivity 

We also talked about how artist promotion is initially through the single, which promotes the music video, thus promoting the album, which promotes the tour, which promotes the 2nd single, and so on. Overall, the aim is to persuade audiences to spend their money, so each product in turn promotes another through a synergistic, time-limited campaign. The record label must also form symbiotic relationships with media platforms, such as magazines (the label need the marketing platform, and the magazines need the content). Unfortunately, however,  record label cannot control "bad publicity" - the artists' private lives are exposed, and the media are in control of whatever they found out about the artist. With bad publicity, the fans can get confused, as the assumed identity of the artist isn't what they thought it was, and is morphed. This occurred with the '"Harry Styles and Caroline Flack" scandal; in dating an older woman, Harry's "wholesome" identity which was established through One Direction singing about love and relationships with girls (not women) was effectively destroyed. In an attempt to regain control of their image, Syco (One Direction's record label) have reconstructed One Direction's image - they now appear more manly, rather than boyish, appealing to older audiences. They are keeping the image fresh.

Looking on One Direction's official website (which is the hub of the marketing campaign) revealed a lot about marketing an artist. We realised that it included an alarming number of spending opportunities (tour tickets, pre-ordering the album, merchandise - including clothing, accessories, jewelry, bedding, books and the fragrance). Their site was also incredibly interactive - with social media links, the ability to demand that they tour in your area, the 1D Day Challenge, 1D Day, voting for awards, and many more.  When we deconstructed the site, we could also see how they were targeting their audience; the general scrapbook feel of the site (with stickers, passport stamps, stars, maps and hearts - and other childlike/girly iconography) appeals to a younger audience, as do the many pictures of the band looking cute and happy. The site depicts the band's story from the beginning, immersing the audience into the One Direction world. Looking at their website enabled us to discover that the official artist website is the hub of the marketing campaign, and that the record label maximises their profit potential through providing as many spending opportunities as possible.  

Album Art Lesson

For our album art lesson, everyone had to bring in a minimum of one album to talk about, but most brought at least 3. Initially, we displayed all of them on the table, which allowed us to see the similarities and differences between them. This helped us to discover some album art conventions.

Some conventions:

- album name and artist name

- beauty shot of artist

- track-list

- logo/type face

- record label

- key iconography/visual motif

- copyright

- bar-code

- parental advisory

This, in turn, allowed us to figure out how we could categorise these albums, for example, by...

- genre

- format

- monochrome vs. colour

- solo vs. band

- gender

- concept vs realism

- decade

- audience

- compilation vs. one artist

After having this discussion, we each talked a little about the album we brought in. I brought in Eliza Doolittle's debut album, for example, and talked about how the London icongraphy, as well as the random, fun images, establishes her quirky identity and fun, not-serious ideology and music style. Overall, this exercise enabled us to establish the purpose of album and album art, some of the main reasons being to...

- connote artist identity

- establish genre/ the flavour of the album (acts as a visual representation of the music)

- attract new and old audiences/established fans (increasing fan base)

- make money (providing another platform to sell the brand)

- inform the audience (artist/album name, tracklist, record label, etc)

- stand out and attract attention

Finally, we discussed the role of the different sleeves of the digipack;

- Front sleeve = attracts

- Back sleeve = informs

- Middle panel = immerses the audience further 

 

Our Superstar

During this lesson, we discussed audience consumption and how much control we have over what we consume and how we consume it. We realised that we do not actually have much creative control, and we consume music like the labels expect us to consume it. This activity, however, allowed us to have control over what we are consuming; we had to create an artist from scratch, including the name, identity, ideology and type of music that the artist produces. Our artist was Willow - a 20 year old girl who produces music with "strong beats", but studies zoology at Sydney University in Australia when she is not touring around the world or campaigning for up-and-coming, young artists.

Track List

Here is my list of potential tracks for my group's music video:













My main idea is a 60's/50's style music video, which I think could work with the majority of the tracks I have selected. The video focuses on the performance of a 3 piece girl band, perhaps a lead singer with backing singers. Below are some photos and screenshots acting as a visual representation of my idea.

What Music Means to Me

My childhood



I chose this song because when I was in primary school, Avril Lavigne was my idol, and this was my favourite of her songs. Her punky brand/identity is evident in this video through her clothing and antics, and her identity influenced my fashion choices as I used to wear combat trousers and t-shirts. Avril Lavigne's album 'Let Go', featuring this song, was the first album I bought. I didn't have an iPod at the time, so I mostly listened to the CD on my radio in my room or in the car. Although she wasn't incredibly popular among my friends, everyone knew of this song, and so sometimes we would listen to it together at parties.

Early Teens


Ed Sheeran's 'The A Team' still remains one of my favourite songs, but I first discovered it when I was 14. Although I started writing songs at a young age, it was after listening to this song and discovering Ed Sheeran as an artist that my song-writing skills seemed to improve, as his lyrics, interesting rhyming and sensitive song topics inspired me. I purchased his album and put it on my iPod, and I often listen to it when I'm travelling or doing homework.

Today



I discovered Kodaline earlier this year, and although 'Love Like This' isn't the first song I heard by them, it is definitely one of my favourites today as it is so uplifting and always puts me in a good mood. My closest friends are also fans of the band as one of us liked them first, and told the rest - this means that we often listen and dance to the song together when at each other's houses. I saw them perform live this year, and a couple of friends and I are also seeing them live in November. I have the song on my iPod and listen to it regularly, and I listened to it a lot over the summer holidays because it has a real summery feel.

Music Video Preliminary Task Evaluation

Our workshop day on Friday 12th June involved us remaking Little Mix's music video 'Wings'. Our cast and crew was made up of Year 12 media students, the media teachers and media professionals, most of whom have gone to Latymer.

1. Did you enjoy the workshop day? What were your best bits and why?


Moving the camera on the track

The workshop day was really enjoyable because even though it was a very long day, I was always doing something, including performing and helping out behind the scenes, meaning there was never a dull moment. I was a principle dancer and Jade's dance double, which involved learning all of Jade's moves in the actual video, and ensuring that Arianna (playing Jade) did them on the workshop day. I particularly enjoyed performing as a principle dancer in the video because it really helped build up my confidence, especially as
the cast and crew were incredibly supportive throughout the day. What I found really interesting was just being on a set similar to what a real music video set would be - I helped move some set pieces, and had the opportunity to move the camera on the track to get the tracking shots of the band. This was a good experience because we may use tracks and other equipment in our music video, and now we have some knowledge on how to use them.


2. What have you learnt from participating in each of the prelim tasks?
Our first task was to analyse a performance music video, and so I decided to analyse OneRepublic's 'Counting Stars' video. This analysis allowed me to explore the conventions of a performance music video, and how you can follow but also challenge them. The 'Counting Stars' video also included some narrative, highlighting how some music videos are hybrids; they can be performance, narrative and concept. I found this interesting as I was considering doing a performance/narrative hybrid for the music video next year. We were then instructed to create an audition video on finding out that we were going to remake Little Mix's 'Wings'. We had to lipsynch and dance in the video, which helped to build up our confidence and to learn the song in preparation for the workshop day. Ultimately, the workshop day was the most informative prelim task as it allowed us to get a feel for a real music video set, perhaps similar to one we will be creating next  year. I also learnt about how allocating roles is very important when it comes to a group project - as we had a large cast and crew, we were able to share the jobs between us, depending on poeple's strengths. Hopefully next year we will do this when creating our music video in order to work more productively. Editing the rushes for the music video helped me to better understand the idea of sound/vision editing and discontinuous editing, which is essential in a performance music video. What made the editing a little easier was the fact that the original video was on a video track on Adobe Premiere Pro, and we edited to the video, enabling us to see where the cuts were.


3. Are you pleased with the footage and your edit?

A screenshot from our edit

I am very happy with our finished music video remake. Our shots are incredibly similar to the ones in the video, and in some cases, ours look a little better, especially as our sets looked more authentic. I am particularly pleased with our edit, however, as we had a more prominent role in this stage. We worked in large groups for the edit, meaning that we could split a lot of jobs between us, making it easier to complete the edit in a rather short period of time. The part of the edit I was most responsible
for was Leigh-Anne's solo and grading. The real music video has shots of very short duration, and lots of cuts, which is quite hard to edit, so I am very happy with the finished results as ours looks very similar to the original.

The camera ops filming the dance scene

4. How do you think your prelim experiences will impact on your approach to next term's music video coursework?
I think this prelim task really helped to underpin who is good at what, which will help a lot during the making of our own music videos next term, as it will make it easier to delegate roles in our music video groups. Some people, for example, were really good at performing in the Little Mix video, and so they may be the main performers in our music videos next year - and others were good at using the technical equipment. Personally, I thought I was quite good at directing Arianna when it came to her solo bits, so I would like to take more of a director role next year. We were given the opportunity to use lots of equipment on the workshop day, including lights and tracks, and so this will help if we decide to use some of this equipment in our music video next term as we will have more experience with it. We also had to do a lot of planning in the build up to the workshop, like learning the dance routine and Jade's moves in my case, to ensure that everything would go right on the day, and next year planning will be incredibly important for the success of our music video - especially as we shall be doing more directing and producing next year rather than just performing and helping out on set.


Here is the final cut of our remake:

Performance Music Video Analysis

The Top Key Features of a Performance Music Video Analysis
OneRepublic's video for counting stars follows most of the conventions (the top 15 key features) of an effective performance music video, however as they are a band who wish to focus more on their music rather than their image, some of the key features aren't as evident in this video as they would be in a more cheesy, pop video.

One key feature is that the music, lyrics and imagery work in collaboration in the video, which is definitely present in Counting Stars, as lead singer Ryan Tedder's dance moves work with the lyrics (for example, "swinging vine"). Some other imagery within the video also works with the lyrics, for example the flashing lights on the ceiling could represent stars. The imagery works well with the music, clapping to the beat of the music and hitting guitars, but there is also some seemingly random imagery, like the crocodile which features often in the video.
The performance drives the video, with many shots of the band miming effectively and playing instruments (or pretending to), but there are also some shots of other people dancing on the floor above the band, suggesting a slight narrative or conceptual idea, as well as the performance - it is quite typical for performance videos to contain some narrative or concept to keep the music video exciting. Sometimes a band or artist may switch between artist performance and artist in-character performance; in Counting Stars, most of it seems to be artist performance, however some shots, like the high angle on Ryan looking down, sat on the floor, with his hands clasped, could be more of an in-character performance.
One of the most important features of an effective performance music video is that the performance will be engaging, impactful and visually striking, and OneRepublic achieve this in their video through the whole concept of the collapsing building, with objects falling and everything rattling about, and the artist covered in dust which scatters whenever they move. The way in which the band perform, especially Ryan's performance, is very care free, and he often dances in an unstructured way, making it rather engaging, and this also allows the audience to get an idea of the identity of the band - care free attitude, fun, etc. A sense of their identity is therefore built up mostly through their movement and band relationships, and there is a lack of highly stylised costume and make-up and beauty shots, as again OneRepublic focus more on their music. They wear simple black clothing, and there are often CUs/MCUs of them singing/playing instruments, which could act as beauty shots respectively.
A strong sense of development is expected in a performance music video (things changing and moving on) and this is definitely seen in the Counting Stars video; initially the atmosphere is quite calm, with the slower pace of the editing and the music is actually calmer here, however as the song progresses, a beat kicks in and it becomes more energetic, and the video reflects this with the band performing erratically and the building collapsing, presumably because of their energetic dancing. Some binary opposites are used in the video, making it more interesting, for example, cutting from CUs of just one of the band members, to an LS establishing shot of the whole band. The flashing lights on the ceiling also create extreme lighting changes. Discontinuous editing is standard, and is seen in the video through the random shots of the band performing, intertwined with the other people dancing, etc.
Another key feature is that the video will be polysemic in nature, offering different layers of meaning, despite being a performance video. In Counting Stars, we are shown a rhapsody like congregation scene, which suggests religious connotations of the song, whereas the use of the crocodile and the collapsing building could imply danger and facing up to danger. Recently, animals have been appearing in OneRepublic's music videos, and so the use of the crocodile could be them continuing on with this running theme, which is presumably related to the fact that their new album is called 'Native'.
Audiences are very important when it comes to music videos - they will gain pleasure from popular culture references, the video will hopefully be aspirational to them, and overall, the video is likely to provoke a strong audience reaction. The congregation upstairs, the fashionable black clothing and the instruments are popular culture references, and the band's general attitude and cool style would be very aspirational for fans. In conclusion, the Counting Stars video provokes a strong audience interaction as it is a very fun video, easy to dance along with, the narrative congregation idea adds religious connotations, making it more impactful, and also the band's appearance and movements will appeal to fans and maybe even the ladies.