Target Audience

The next thing to do after deciding on the song was to start thinking of our target audience. This is an important part of creating all music videos, films and TV programmes otherwise you wont get the viewings. The artist of the song, Noel Gallagher - according to Wikipedia - is considered as a Rock, BritPop, Alternative Rock and Psychedelic Rock artist.

• Rock Music: developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the US and UK. Musically, rock has centered around the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with bass guitar and drums. 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. An example of a rock band is The Beetles, on the right hand side.

• Alternative Rock: a genre of rock music that emerged in the 1980s and became popular in the 1990s. Alternative rock consists of various sub-genres that have emerged from independent music - shortened to indie music - scene since the 1980s, such as grunge, BritPop, Gothic rock, Indie pop, and Indie rock. These genres are unified by their collective debt to the style or ethos of punk rock, which laid he groundwork for alternative music in the 1970s. An example of an alternative rock band, is The Goo Goo Dolls, shown on the left hand side.

• BritPop Music: a sub-genre of alternative rock that originated in the UK. BritPop emerged from the British independent music scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar pop music of the 1960s and 1970s. An example of a BritPop music band, is Blur. a picture of their album cover is shown on the right.

• Psychedelic Rock: a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in the US and the UK. An example of a psychedelic rock band is that of Pink Floyd, as shown in the picture to the left.

After establishing the genre of music that we had chosen to produce a music video to, it was time to research who our video would be aimed at. To do this I went onto the UK Tribes website that allows you to see what 'group' different people in society fit in to. Upon visiting the website, I found a group called 'Alternative'. After reading the description of this, it is clear that the people that are categorized into this group is who I need to be aiming my music video at. Below is the description given, straight from the UK Tribes website.

Members of the Alternative tribes are vaguely rebellious but don’t yet have a specific focus to rally against (their parents may well have helped shape their Alternative views, in fact). However, they are likely to conform with peers. While open-minded about music and fashion they are wary of the Mainstream tribes and determined to be different – together.

Alternative Tribes are predominantly made up of white working and middle class kids. It seems a huge proportion of teens in the UK have a hankering for something a bit different, and Alternative brands that have achieved massive traction include Converse and Vans. Kufiyas also feature heavily.

All Tribes within the Alternative segment are passionate about music, and their friendship groups, tastes and activities are largely defined online. Peer influence is a huge part of the Alternative scene, though new trends usually emerge outside the segment. The best way to reach these kids is through niche magazines and social media.

Young Alts is the gateway Tribe to the Alternative and Leading Edge scenes and is a massive group who snap up all kinds of media and accessories as they ape their elders. Metalheads and Skaters are much more rigid Tribes, adopting teens early and keeping them until their mid-twenties in small, fiercely loyal friendship groups. Both scenes are fluid about fashion but fanatical about their core preoccupations: rock music and skating. Emos and Scene Kids are heavily over-lapping tribes with Goth-derived fashion sense and US-led rock music tastes, although Emo kids are interested in angst while Scene Kids are more concerned with socialising and building massive online presences. Apart from Gamers, Scene Kids are the Tribe most glued to their computers, making the Alternative market the most-web facing of the segments.

The final category, Gamers, are truly unusual in that their online profiles and pastimes have assumed more importance than real-world socialising. They are a globalised Tribe with eclectic and influential taste in games, music and film, but no real need for fashion.

Below are a couple of mood boards illustrating the types of brands and media that people of the alternative culture are in to.














Below is a small table showing the media consumption for the average person in the alternative group.

As you can see, the average Alternative 'member' relies quite heavily on the media for entertainment. The table clearly shows how Alternative people enjoy heavy usage of Internet, TV, Magazines and Radio. If people were not interested in Radio, TV or the Internet, then there would be no point in creating the video. Obviously all music videos are filmed to accompany a particular song, and this is then played out to the public via certain TV channels. So what would be the point in making a music video to people who barely watch TV? As well as this, music videos appear all over the internet and compete to get the most amount of 'hits' - most views - so again, making a music video to someone who does not use the internet often would also, to me, seem non-beneficial.


So what does an 'Alternative' person look like?

The above picture shows the type of people that fit into the category of 'Alternative'. The picture was taken at Reading Music Festival, which is exactly the festival where Noel Gallagher would most likely play at. They normally dress in clothes such as skinny jeans and anything else that shops like TOPMAN or Urban Outfitters sell.

Song Decided

As you saw from the previous post, the song that my group have decided on using is called AKA... What A Life by ex Oasis band member Noel Gallagher. On the right hand side of the screen, you should see a video bar containing the song that we have chosen and related videos. The song can also be heard below.



Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Below is a rolling scroll bar of the lyrics to the song. They are simple lyrics and could be interpreted in a few different ways.


Lyrics | Noel Gallagher lyrics - AKA... What A Life lyrics

As a group, we listened to the song over and over again and took notes on paper of ideas that came into our head. The ideas a can be found below.

What Song?

Within my group there was a number of different songs that we looked at, both contemporary and fairly 'hidden' songs. By hidden I mean songs that are not really that well known. This was the type of song that we wanted to pick so as our audience would not be bored with the song due to it already being released, and also so as to introduce a 'new' song to their playlists.



Above is a slide-show containing the artists we looked at. After much discussion and deliberation with our teacher, it was agreed that the songs we looked at by these artists were far too contemporary and a few of the songs had only just been released! Because of this, we had to go back to the drawing board and really begin to think about the song that we wanted to create a video for. When online, a member of my group, Jay Wood, went onto the Soccer AM website, (click here for the page he later found) claiming that they post songs weekly. It was only when he found one that we all agreed on and all liked that we credited him for his finding. Below is a brief presentation of how we have done some of our research.

Media Research and Analysis on Prezi

Below is a file containing the songs we looked at by each of the artists.

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Group

After analysing music videos as individuals, it was time to get ourselves into groups. This was the hardest part of the course so far as with only a handful of people in the class, I wanted to pick a group with people that;

1. I would get on with and be able to work with for the rest of the year, and
2. Someone or people that share the same similar taste in music to myself.

After some discussion, it was decided and agreed that my group would be:

• Me
  
• Jay Wood
  
• Adam Ralph

The two in my group both share the same taste of music and are good friends and would feel comfortable working with each other in order to create the music video.

Further Video Analysis + Research

After analysing Eminem's Stan, I proceeded to look at further songs. I looked at the type of music and artists that I am interested in as that is the genre of music I would like to make a video to. The artists I looked at were Irish band, The Script, and Plan B. The Plan B video I chose to analyse and look at was one produced by a student form a previous year. The video was one that received a high mark and I wanted to see how they managed to do this by looking at different aspects of the video and compare it with the original. The video made by the students is below.




As you can see, the video is Chase & Status ft. Plan B End Credits. The original can be found here. I noticed a number of things with the video which could be useful for me to use in my own video in order to gain the high marks:

• The video was similar to the original
• Low key lighting has been used - lots of oranges and warmer colours
• Camera lens = fish eye. This gives a good effect rather than just using a standard lens
• Consistent cut on main guitar strum
• Consistent cutting to first shot (keeps cutting to him laying on the floor)
• Some narrative, some performance
  
• Filmed at night
• Lots of overlays used
• Same sort of setting throughout
• Cuts to the beat near the climax of the song.
• Mise-en-scene fits with genre of music

Another video I looked at was The Script's Breakeven (below)



Here are some things I took note of when looking at this video:

• Some narrative, some performance
  
• Desaturated
  
• Slow motion (under cranking)
• Main focal character is foregrounded and in focus, the background is out of focus
• A mixture of outside and inside settings
• Cuts are not consistent with the beat as it is more of a story like video
• Some parts are in colour - flashbacks? Look like they are filmed on home video camera

The next video I looked at was The Script's For The First Time (below)



Here are some of the things that I liked when looking at this video:

• Mini story. The video opens with a girl writing to her mum and dad - could easily be mistaken for a film?
• Desaturated bits of the artist
  
• Some singing along with the song
• Some narrative, some performance
  
• Effective lens flares used/taken advantage of from the sun
• Close ups of the artist performing
• Warm colours in intimate scenes
• Overlays used consistently
• Some of the video cuts when a new line of the song is sung, and some to the beat
  

As you can see from the analysis above I have highlighted two attributes that kept popping up throughout the videos. The main bits highlighted which I would consider to include into my video is the desaturated parts, and also, how some bits are in narrative and some are in performance. These attributes look effective within the videos as they break up the video so as the narrative part does not get too boring, and the performance part is added to show the artist and further promote the song.

Stan Music Video

The music video that I am going to analyse is EMINEM's video Stan featuring Dido. The story of the song is a fictional story about a man named Stanley Mitchell who claims to be Eminem's biggest fan and throughout the song Stan becomes obsessed with Eminem. The first three verses are delivered by Eminem as Stan while the fourth verse is Eminem attempting to reply to Stan's letters, only to realise that he had already heard about Stan's death on the news. As already stated, the song features Dido who sings the chorus of the song, and she also appears in the video as Stan's pregnant girlfriend of which he abuses and later kills her. The song is from the genre of hip hop music. The rapping within the song performed by Eminem places it within this category. Rapping is a typical characteristic in hip hop music. The chorus of the song, or the main part that Dido is heard singing in the song is actually taken from one of Dido's own tracks called 'Thank You". A link to this video can be found here.

Below is the short version of Stan.



There have been two versions of the video for this song. A long version which is around 8 minutes long, and the version above which is just over 6. The video is more of a small film which has been remembered by many people. The lyrics are somewhat powerful as the character Stan explains his obsession for Eminem and also how he is going to kill his girlfriend. To see the lyrics to this song, click here. (Below is the analysis for the shorter version)

There are many ways within the video where the visuals and lyrics collaborate and 'make sense' when shown/heard together. This is apparent in the first couple of lines in the song when Dido is heard singing 'the morning raindrops on my window' and 'even if I could it would all be grey'. To coincide with these lyrics, there are indeed raindrops heard and seen through a window due to there being a storm outside the house in which Stan and Dido are in. The storm is evident through the thunder and lightning heard and seen as the room lights up with a flash. This use of pathetic fallacy has been done to show how dark and dingy the house is and also reflects the mood and persona of the lead character, Stan. The next line stated was 'even if I could it would all be grey'. Although the colour grey isn't specifically seen on the screen at this time, there are other dark neutral colours that present the audience with a creepy and dark house with little atmosphere. The movement of the camera at the beginning of the song shows the camera possible being on a crane as it goes from a low angle shot to eye line level with a window. This gives the audience a notion of looking into the lives of the people within the house. There is a lot of camera movement throughout the video that will be analysed later on.

The next most obvious visual that coincides with the lyrics is when Stan is writing a letter to Eminem. The sound of a pencil is heard against paper and Stan is in fact seen writing a letter with a pencil and paper. Another obvious link between the lyrics and the visuals is again, in the chorus when Dido sings 'but your picture on the wall'. This line is is usually always accompanied with either and establishing shot of the room in which Stan resides and writes his letters, revealing the hundreds of posters that he has up of Eminem, or the shot is a close up of the posters and the camera pans across the room's wall showing all of the posters at a closer view, as shown with the screen grab on the left hand side. These are just a few of the matching visuals and lyrics in the video. Generally because the video is a narrative, it is more than likely that what you hear within the music is what you are going to see should you watch the video.

In regards to the editing of the video, it does not appear that the cuts match the beat of the song as in the case of many other music videos. This may not be the case because the video could be seen as a mini film and cutting every few seconds to the beat would mean that the story line in would become dysfunctional and confusing with too many cuts and shots appearing. Because this video is more of a small film, the shots and cuts are more consistent and the editing is at a steady pace allowing the audience to take in what is happening. There are a variety of shots and editing techniques throughout the video that work well to establish the story line. One of the opening scenes sees Dido walking to the bathroom. When she is sitting on the toilet, the camera moves down by use of a crane (possible special effects) to show Stan underneath her in a different room. The movement into the dark room below reiterates to the audience that thought of something being wrong with the house or the people in side. The lack of colour throughout the video shows how dull the lead characters life is within the video.

The video finds numerous ways to try and promote the track. The constant referral to the artist by use of images and lyrics gives the audience a strong visualization of the artist. In this instance, Eminem, or Slim, is referred to a lot throughout the video as the story behind it explores the main characters obsession with the artist. It should also be noted that the characters name in the video is Stan, one of many nicknames that has been given to Eminem over his performing years, further relating this song to the artist. The use of images has also been used effectively in order to sell the track.The image above is of Stan looking into a mirror in his room only to be greeted by the reflection of who he wants to be like, Eminem. The constant appearance of Eminem throughout the video shows how the deranged character is constantly thinking about his idol and how he has mentally replaced his girlfriend. Other visuals such as when Stan places the photograph of Eminem over his own girlfriend also helps sell the record as it shows to the audience who the artist is and possibly to show how popular they would like the song to become.
The video for Stan is similar to some of Eminem's other videos in regards to the colours and language used. For instance, his video 'When I'm Gone', found here is another famous track by the artist with an iconic video. The reason this video is so similar to Stan is due to the colour scheme used. The consistency of the colour green is a colour that appears throughout a few of Eminem's videos. The colour was also a recurring one in the film 8 Mile in which he starred. A snapshot from the 8 Mile film can be seen on the left hand side of the screen. As you can see, the picture has the same sort of colours in as the Stan video, further supporting that the colours used are popular ones that are iconic with the artist.

Music Video Conventions

Since the first music video was aired in 1981, they have continuously developed with more money being poured into their production with bigger effects and more exotic locations. As well as this, a number of key features can be identified. Music videos are commonly regarded as a promotional package that further promotes the artist. It is notable in a very high proportion of music videos how there are many close ups of the artist performing the song which is done to further present the artist and cause them to be an icon to fans. As well as this, there are many other conventions of music videos that a generally followed by all video directors:

• Lyrics: lyrics are important in every single song as they are used to establish a general feeling/mood/sense of subject rather than having an actual meaning behind them.

• Music: the tempo of the music often drives the editing of the video. More upbeat, club songs have quick editing in order to match the pace of the music, whereas a slower song, a more relaxing one, would have little cuts and transitions. An example of quick editing to a fast tempo is Scooter's The Logical Song, and an example of a slower, more relaxed song with few cuts and little editing would be a song by someone like Adele, such as her song Someone Like You. It is also apparent how the slower songs appear to have a lot of fades as a transition whereas the faster songs seem to maintain a quick cut to the different shots.

• Genre: this might be reflected in types of mise-en-scene, themes, performance, camera and editing styles. There would be no point in having a song that would play in clubs with a video that was of a man walking down the street. The video would be more of people in clubs and dancing. Before a video to a song is released, then someone should be able to identify a rough outline of a video by listening to a song and identifying its genre and relating it to other videos and songs out there.

• Editing: a common form of editing is known as a fast-cut montage. This is when many images and shots are rendered in quick succession making it near enough impossible to grasp the first time it is viewed. This would then cause someone to want to re-watch the video. Re-watching videos and re-listening to songs is a brilliant way to get people to enjoy songs even if they did not the first time round. A fantastic example of this now, is a song by X-Factor contestant Cher Lloyd. When she initially introduced her song and video Swagger Jagger, it was immediately put down, but after continuous plays on both the radio and music television channels, more and more people started to like it. The video can be found below.

The above are only rough conventions of a music video that have been identified. Andrew Goodwin also wrote about music videos in his book 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory'. Below are the conventions that he identified within music videos:

1. Music videos demonstrate genre charasteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band)
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)
3. There is a relationship between the music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style)
5. There is frequently a reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc)

IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT A MUSIC VIDEO MAY CONTAIN ALL OF THESE CONVENTIONS OR JUST A FEW OF THEM.