Monday 24 September 2012

Andrew Goodwin’s Theory

Luke Bryan – Drunk on you


Genre characteristics: (Country Genre) Countryside, horses, fields, pick up trucks, casual wear, natural looking, acoustic guitars, checked shirts. This music videos conforms to all of those stereotypes. For example the girl Luke Bryan is singing about is wearing a checked shirt when she is dancing on the pickup truck, which is set in the countryside. There are mid shots and close ups of the same girl in the crowd sitting on someone shoulders in the same checked shirt. There is another scene where Luke Bryan and his lover are in a horse stables petting/riding a horse, so that also conveys the country genre. His lover is very natural looking, with blonde hair, no excessive makeup and plain clothes, which matches the countryside stereotype. On stage Luke Bryan is playing a plugged in acoustic guitar whilst singing. His clothes are very casual, he is wearing dark jeans, a dark t-shirt and a baseball cap, this conveys the laid back style of the country genre. 
 


Relationship between lyrics and visuals: During the first verse he speaks about a four wheel drive and then there is a straight cut straight after he says that to a long shot of a truck. He sings about summer time, being in love and he sings about the girl he loves who is wearing blue jeans ‘you’re lookin’ so good in what’s left of those blue jeans’, and in the video there are clips of his lover in blue jeans, it looks sunny and he says ‘dancin’ on the tailgate in a full moon’ which in some scenes the girl is dancing on the back on a pickup truck. I think it’s always important that there is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals because it shows the audience what the artists perspective is of the song and conveys how they feel.


Relationship between music and visuals: It is full of regular straight cuts which connotes the genre of country as most country singers are casual and not all about their image. This makes the video easy to follow but is not very exciting. I think the relationship between the image and the music is important, as this music video is 50% performance based there are several shots of the artist singing and playing his guitar on stage showing off his talent. For example the first verse shows him playing his guitar and singing along, also it shows his band playing their instruments as well, this is important for the audience to see as it is almost like they are experiencing the concert themselves, but by having a narrative in this video it allows the audience to see his talent and his personality of him trying to be a romantic and finding the girl he loves.  So this is vital for his target audience and fans that he already has, as it shows off everything good about himself. 


Are there close ups of the artist and star image motifs: There are close ups of the singer looking into the audience and midshots of the audience looking at him, so it shows a connection between his fans and himself. The close ups show expression in his face so the audience can see how he feels, because he’s singing about love and is quite emotional. This is important because it shows he sings with meaning and he may connect to his audience more if he shows his feelings.




Reference to the notion of looking: There is notion of looking because we can see the singer’s lover in the crowd watching him but he doesn’t realise that she is there. So the audience are happy knowing that the girl he wanted to find is at his concert and they will meet and it will have a happy and romantic outcome. Also it keeps the audience enthralled as they will want to know how it ends.  


Intertextual references: It promotes his concerts because we can see everyone screaming and singing along. At the beginning Luke Bryans manager has an apple mac computer but the apple logo is covered by a sticker so they aren’t advertising it. Throughout most of the video especially when Luke Bryan is on stage, he is wearing a baseball cap by the brand 'New Era' as there are several mid shots of him which show the side of his cap and the logo for 'New Era'.  


















Performance based, narrative based or concept based? 
50% Performance- A large amount of the music video shows concert footage, with Luke Bryan singing and playing his guitar, his band playing their instruments and there are shots of the audience singing along and dancing..
50% Narrative–The first shot of the music videos starts with a long shot of Luke Bryan performing on stage but there is a blurred affect and there is bold white writing which says ‘...TWO MONTHS LATER’ so straight away we can tell that the video has a narrative, but the audience does not know the plot yet. Also throughout the video there are straight cuts between Luke Bryan performing and his lover dancing. It also shows shots of him signing merchandise for his fans and taking pictures with them at the concert meet and greets. I think showing the footage of him meeting fans will appeal to his target audience and increase his fan base, as it shows he takes time out for them. 

Sunday 23 September 2012

Music Channels

Music channels

List of music channels:
·         4 music
·         Bliss
·         The Box
·         Buzmuzik
·         Channel AKA
·         Chart shot TV
·         Clubland TV
·         Dance nation TV
·         Flava
·         Greatest Hits TV
·         Heat
·         Karrang
·         Kiss
·         Magic
·         Massive R&B
·         MTV bass
·         MTV classic
·         MTV dance
·         MTV Hits
·         MTV live
·         MTV music
·         MTV rocks
·         Scuzz
·         Smash Hits
·         Starz TV
·         The Vault
·         VH1
·         Vintage TV
·         VIVA



MTV
MTV started off as a music channel airing in 1st August 1981. Their target audience is from 12-24, and to ensure they can reach a wide audience as possible they have many subsidiary labels including base, hits, dance, rock and classic. Especially in today's society teenagers have strong beliefs and opinions, which is shown through their taste in music, as they like various different genres by MTV having subsidiary labels they will appeal to their target audience very well. Having several subsidiary labels will make them more established and liked worldwide because they will have something that appeals to everyone. It is important for MTV to appeal to as many people as possible since having different channels for different genres. For MTV dance the target audience is around 13-24 and aimed at teenagers and young adults because they are the ones going to clubs or even do dance themselves. So having specific channels creates several different target audiences for each one and that way MTV as a whole appeals to everyone. Also as each different channel has its own target audience they can aim to reach their demands much more easily than if there was one channel which played every type of music. The MTV logo appeals to the target audience as its bold, black and white and simple so it appeals to more than one age group. The simple use of black and white conveys a sense of endless fashion so it will never be unappealing as they are colours which we will always use. The funky use of font for the word 'tv' relates to the young, hip target audience as it resembles a look which seems like someone has graffitied on the perfect bold 'M'.  The black writing in capital letters underneath the big 'M' tells people what their channel is and I think this is good to attract new viewers in. Also because there target audience age range is so wide using black and white on the logo will appeal to everyone and can be looked at as a music channel easily by consumers across the world.




VH1

VH1 is a mainstream music channel, which first aired on 1st Jan 1985 based in New York City. Their slogan is ‘watch and discuss’ which suit their target audience which is 25-35 because discuss is a word related more to older people rather than teenagers. VH1 is a subsidiary label of MTV and when VH1 first started off they played smooth jazz, classical and new age bands all of these genres have an older target audience which was the idea MTV had for VH1 but it has progressed since then to now play more modern pop artists. They play a various amount of music from lots of different eras, including 80’s 90’s as well as modern artists such as Ed Sheeran, Nicki Minaj, Flo rida and Pink. They have ‘100 greatest women singers of the 90’s’ and ‘Top 100 hits from 80’s’ which will appeal to the older target audience. But although they play music from different eras it is all soft pop music. The logo for VH1 appeals to their target demographic as it is colourful, using bright pink and orange. These colours connote the 70’s because it was the fashion then to wear bright colours and stand out, which also relates to the target audience who are 25-35 and would have been born around the 80s. It conveys a different groovy style, as the letter V sticks out slightly and the cube conveys the different genres. The use of bright colours attracts attention instantly and I think it makes people want to find out more if they don't know what it is already. 



BOX
Box is a music channel in United Kingdom and Ireland, but originated from Miami when it was originally called the Juxebox network. Box is a subsidiary label of channel 4, kiss, kerrang, heat, smash hits and magic, which are all listed as links at the bottom of the box website. Their target audience is teenagers from about 13-20. Box play mainstream music which is perfect for their target audience but it does includes a variety of music genres including pop, rap, indie and dance. Some of the artist box play include Rihanna, Rita Ora, Plan B, Tinchy Stryder, Kayne West and David Guetta. Box were noticeably recognised as the force of making spice girls ‘wannabe’ as they played their song before the release date. The logo is in black and white and is the word BOX and each letter is in a square shape which connotes a box, similarly to the MTV logo with the use of black and white it will appeal to all ages. Also the use of neutral colours allow the logo to appeal to both genders equally. I think it is a quirky logo, which conveys the music they play which are various genres yet still all mainstream.  The main colours used on the box website are pink, grey, white and blue. The box logo is at the top with black lines coming down from the letters making them look like lollipops. There are pink cherries in the top background heading, conveying a sense of freshness, innocence and youth.  On the home page of the website there is a box which says ‘leave messages for your mates on the wall’ this is written in a graffiti looking font and the background of it is a wall, this clearly shows the age Box’s target demographic is teenagers. Also the simplicity of the use of black and white and the font which box has been written in convey their target audience are teenagers because they like things to be simple.


SCUZZ
Scuzz is a British music television channel owned by CSC media group and was launched on the 17th April 2003. It is the highest-rated rock television station in the UK. The channel plays a range of rock music e.g. heavy metal, soft-rock, punk-rock. Some of the artists and bands Scuzz play are Linkin park, green day, Enter shikari, deaf havana, slipknot and korn. Rock is definitely not everybodys type of music and it usually isn’t a genre of music a teenager or child would listen to if they hadn’t heard somebody else listen to it or tell them about it so I think that Scuzz have a niche audience who tend to be 25+ but is still spread across a wide range of ages. I think that it's important that Scuzz know what their target audience want and like because as rock is such a niche genre anyway if they lose some of their audience they may have to shut down completely. Scuzz broadcast live performances from bands like slipknot and 36 crazyfists, which possibly appeal more to the younger audience as the concerts usually have mosh pits and they might not be old enough to attend so they can still watch their favourite band from home. 
Scuzz have several subsidiary labels such as tiny pop, bliss, flava, buzmuzik and the vault, but unlike all of these channels Scuzz is the only one which plays rock music. Also in the evenings Scuzz play traditional heavy metal, hard rock, punk, deathcore and death metal which no other music channel in the UK currently plays. The Scuzz logo fits into the codes and conventions as the colour is a silver/metallic which represents the heavy metal and rock genre they play. This relates well to their target audience who are predominantly people who would dress daringly in dark, dull clothing with spikes and thick soled boots. Also the font is edgy which conveys metal fence wires and knifes. I think this sign does appeal to the target audience and looks completely different to a lot of other music television logos, which goes well because they play completely different music to most other music television channels.



KISS
Kiss is a subsidiary music channel from Box television and was first launched in 1985. Kiss have other subsidiary channels which are heart, kerrang and magic. They mainly play mainstream music consisting of hip-hop, pop, dance and R&B. They play artists such as David Guetta, Calvin Harris, Chris Brown and Rihanna. The target audience of kiss is about 16-25 year olds, as they play a lot of party and clubbing music which appeals to the target audience. It is important for Kiss to keep up to date with the music their target audience like. Especially as the target audience are young,pop/R&B/dance music is mainstream so there are tons of well known and smaller upcoming artists that 16-25 year olds like to listen to so it is important that kiss keep there music fresh. The logo for Kiss represent youth and ironically the light blue colour represents calmness even though the music they play is the opposite of that, although I think the blue also represents the up to date, fresh music they play. The K has been stretched into a funny shape, which follows the dance, hip-hop and urban culture and the sharp edges appeal to boys. Whereas the word 'kiss 100' is written in a slightly curly font which appeals to girls so equally the logo is very unisex. Also the K represents the side of an open mouth shape 



Why do you think MTV is broken down into different channels (base, dance, hits, rock, classic)?
I think MTV is broken down into different channels because they can attract a wider target audience, show a wider range of music and that way they can become more well known and make more money. Also as an overall company they will appeal to everyone as they have so many music channels for different genres and each channel can focus and appeal to their specific target audience. This way I believe they will get more viewers overall rather than having just one channel which plays several different genres of music as it is less likely for people to watch a music channel when they don't like the majority of what it plays rather than watching a music channel full of the genre they like.

Why do you think music channels are important in appealing to a target audience?
I think it’s important because they can create a fan base for their channel and can promote other artists similar to the ones they already play. If a certain genre or music channel appeals to a bunch of people they will watch the music videos and can buy into their lifestyles e.g. Rihanna and Jessie J wear Boy London in their videos and a lot of people have bought Boy London merchandise so they have given that company a lot of promotion. If the music channels do competitions it is important to know which artists there audience are interested to meet or where to go on holiday e.g. the target audience of VH1 are less likely to want to go to Ibiza than the target audience of kiss, so marketing specifically for your own target audience is very important. Also nowadays a lot of pop artists are quite young e.g. Justin Bieber(18), Cody Simpson(17), Jessie J(24), Conor Maynard(19) so their fans will continue to grow with them, therefore it is important that the music channels know their target audience well and know what they want to hear. Especially as there are so many music channels now audiences can be easily put off or on certain channels so to gain the maximum audience the music channels have to be careful what they play.


Why do you think there are a variety of music channels?
I think there is a variety of music channels because everybody has different taste in music, so different channels have to supply for different people. Also if there was only one music channel it would either have to stick to playing certain genres of music or play all genres which may end up in loss of audience.

What have you learnt from analysing music channels and how will it help you with your own protection?
I have learnt that music videos generally stick to the conventions of their own genre to ensure that their fans don’t lose interest. Also an artist like Chris Brown makes pop/dance music and he dances in all his videos as he’s very good at it, so if he made a video to one of his songs but didn’t dance it would go against his usual conventions and it wouldn’t show all of his talent. Although I think it can be good to fade away from the codes and conventions and try something different, as the artist may gain new fans but it is a big risk.




Tuesday 18 September 2012

Music Video Analysis

Foo Fighters - These Days

The music video I am analysing is called 'these days' by The Foo Fighters. The Foo Fighters target audience range from 14-50 years old, so they have a big range but as rock is has more of a niche audience compared to pop or R&B the age range of their target audience varies a lot more. I think the Foo Fighters have a wide target demographic because rock is a genre which I believe any age can like but because its not mainstream it doesn't have a certain age limit on who likes it.

At the beginning of the video there is a fade in to the crowd at the Foo Fighters concert, showing everyones hands in the air holding their phones or different sources of light. It then fades out slightly to show a cross over of that image mixed with an image from the crowds point of view looking towards the stage and the third image that is mixed with both of them is a long shot showing the lead singer on stage. All of these three shots show the bands of point of view and the audiences point of view, which I think is important to this video as it is 50% performance based and 50% narrative based. Also it shows star image/artist which is very common in the rock genre.
The music relates to the visuals because on the heavy beats when the guitars and drums are playing it shows the band playing their instruments with bright lights shinning down and on the quite beats when there are no drums playing it shows low key lighting of the crowd. This creates a contrast and suits the rock genre well as it emphasises the louder parts of the song.
The purpose of this music video is to entertain the audience and promote their concerts, which relates to the style of the music video as it is mainly all concert footage and performance based. This is a stereotypical convention of the rock genre, as most rock music videos are 100% performance based. The majority of the video shows live footage from the Foo Fighters concerts in Australia and New Zealand. It is also narrative because at the beginning it shows the lead singer leaving his family and it shows the band practising behind the stage getting ready for the show. So it gives the audience a taste of their lifestyle whilst touring, which I think is important to include because it doesn't just show the fun they have on stage but it also shows a sad side for them as they have to leave their family and friends for a while. It also shows various clips from when they're in the car travelling, then in the hotel room and on stage when they're practising, this gives an insight of how much they do before the concert, which some people may not realise.
Also the close ups in the video show there facial expressions which don't look very cheerful, they look more grumpy and serious which may convey the rock genre and this applies to the codes and conventions of rock as they usually appear aggressive and angry. They do show aggression when performing, towards the end of the music video they smash their guitars, do a lot of head banging and throughout their music video they are playing guitars with broken strings, which conveys how much power they put into their music. The lead singer, guitarist and drummer all have long messy hair, all of the band members are wearing dark, dull clothing which conforms to the scruffy rock style and at some points the drummer doesn't even have a t-shirt on, conveying how they don't care about their image or what people think of them.
There are close ups of their fans singing the lyrics to their songs I think the close ups help portray the passion and emotion the fans have connecting to the band and the song.
During the video they show a birds eye view of one of the venues Foo Fighters performed at which is called AAMI park in Melbourne and on the night that they performed there were 30,000 people. This birds eye view shot is important to the video as it shows how successful the Foo Fighters are as a rock band to be able to sell out the AAMI park and shows the degree of just how big it is.
At 4.16 the crowd sing 'but its alright' and then we hear them cheer and see a mid shot of the lead singer Dave looking into the camera but pointing towards the fans, this is a sign that this video is dedicated to their fans and I think it shows their appreciation towards them.
The final image is a long shot of the drum kits silhouette and the audience, showing that the show, the song and the music video has ended.