800 word research evaluation

So far my research in a2 has gone well. I have been researching many different elements of music videos, my chosen genre, popular artists and songs that are typical of the chosen genre and factors that are convenient of that, iconography of pop, all the different elements that add up to a successful video in the pop genre.

I have learnt a lot of things about the iconography of the pop genre. For example the way the artist looks on camera in music videos, their clothing for females it can be short items of clothing, fashionable and in trend clothing that not only makes the artist look good, but in a lot of music videos today there is also a lot of advertisement done within the styling of popular artists. For example in Cheryl Cole’s Fight For This Love music video, one of her outfits have been very popular amongst female teenagers and you see that style of clothing imitated in popular retailers. In a band the clothing is well thought through, often there is something matching like a certain colour, or a certain kind of clothing e.g. dresses that all band members where throughout the video.

I’ve learnt the importance of other aspects of styling, such as make – up, hair, personal image how important it is for this to all be picked up on from the public, creating popularity for the individual artist, getting interested in their appearance and personal life creates fan bases and initially more interests into their music.

I have also picked up on iconography colours of the pop genre, which are mostly light colours like light blue, creams, whites, red’s etc.  Because I am doing pop – electro sometimes the colours can be more diverse and darker, for example in some of the music video’s I have researched of pop electro, there are a lot of whites but there are often bright colours to contract, e.g. bright blue against a white background.

In my research I’ve also found out a lot more information than before about the genre pop.  What it means, where it has come from and how long it has been about. I have recognised its popularity in western countries and all the different kinds of pop you can have, there are many sub genres to pop such as pop – electro, pop – rock, acoustic pop,  pop dance etc.

I have not only found out background information about the pop genre and where it has come from I have also found out important information about typical things that the pop videos include. Such as a valuable location e.g. a beach, in a street, on a field. Sometimes pop videos can all be on a green screen and the background to be not real, e.g. in Katy Perry’s California girls video there must have been green screen used, and a lot of technically edited elements from the computer. Many of the video of pop electro use short cuts, text, bright colours, main people featuring in the video, and in recent videos there is a lot of technological elements added such as green screening, editing with the computer, bright lighting and deeply consider all kinds of elements to make sure it is a successful video that people in this day and age would be interested in watching. I’ve found that as technology has grown and been changing more and more videos now are using technological elements and a lot more videos are deeply edited because the technology is now available and it’s what modern audiences are interested in.  I want to try and use this in my music video as I feel that I am really drawn to some of the videos I have researched because I am very impressed by all the technology and skills they have put into it, it’s becoming more and more common to my chosen genre, especially pop – electro as the videos are upbeat and always changing with short cuts and different locations to keep up with the beat, rhythm and fast speed that the music is.

I have improved from last year’s research because I have gone into more depth and have more understanding of the genre. Because this year we are doing digi – packs and we are really trying to make it a believable product of the pop genre I feel I need to go into a lot of detail to understand how it works, a lot of different elements are all vital to creating that iconography of pop, so colours, text, style, photos, the way the artist projects themselves and the way we promote our music video all need to be the best we can be to make it a believable product. I have improved my research from last year because I am looking deeply into not only the genre but the individual artists such as Rihanna, Katy Perry, Katy B and how they promote their music videos, this includes magazine articles, interviews, what they say about their videos show what they are aiming to portray, I am towards trying to portray a similar image and promoting my music video in the same way because I have to do cd covers etc. that sell the video.

What I have left to do now is just to keep looking at all the different kinds of artists in my pop – electro genre and work on how I individually can also portray this image successfully.

Music Video Planning

Narrative: The narrative of our music video is going to be mainly performance with some narrative such as lip syncing, this is simular to the actual video that we are doing and it goes really well with the upbeat type of music.

Visual style: 

Mise - en - scene: To match the kind of music and the kind of videos the artists of this genre does and its originality, and match its upbeat music such as static revenge video's. We want this to be very original and have a very unique and strong style.  This goes back to our research about static revenge and how well this works with their videos.  We want big headphones for the style, big sunglasses, big jewelry, bright lighting and well thought - through outfits which represent what our genre represents, such as colours, and uniqueness. 

Camera angles: To create what we want to create to match the type of music, its sharp, edgy we want a lot of different camera angles to keep it interesting and keep it up to date with the type of music and the rhythm of the song. High angled shots, low angled shots, over the shoulder shots, medium shots, long shots, panning shots and 2/3 frame shots. Cutting between all these shots to keep it fresh.

Editing: We want a lot of editing  as the main factors of the music video is editing, we dont want to do exactly the same as static revenger so we will probably do less editing than them, as they have more equipment etc. But to get a simular sort of reaction as their video we do need a lot of editing. We want a lot of time using the green screen, using objects in the same way the green screen would be  used, split the screen into quarters like in the video, cuts and cross - cuts, neon colours, slow motion cuts, blended overlapping shots, as well as a lot of text.

Cast: the cast is going to consist of Tara Smout, Amber Quigley, Amie Farrell and Jessica Allen. 

Locations: Green screen, brick walls, by a graffiti filled wall, walking down a high street, on a field, places in town park, in a bed etc. Usually we want to film in day time for brightness and good lighting.

This all links back into the pop genre for the bright colouring, the different camera angles, the lighting similar to other videos, we are going to have a lot of cuts and relations to the genre.

Richard Dyer (1997) Representation theory comes into how we plan our music video.
He came up with four different notions of representation, this is how music videos, films, adverts etc. Are being represented. Researching into the pop genre i think the semitonic, codes and conventions, media language, ideology and overt messages are being sent through the music video. This is through important self image, being highly edited, bright colours, over strong " girly" images being associated with the pop genre.

Typical representations of groups in society such as gender, age and other stereotypes are not statistically correct. For example a lot of the artists are females, like girl bands but there are also some male bands. The age is most the time young, especially in girl bands. For example there are the saturdays, girls aloud, sugar babes. Stereotypically the girls are addressed as very girly, interested in girly subjects and pinks etc. Not all these stereotypes are true as many artists act differently to promote their music on what will be popular.

White middle class males usually are controlling the industry, their ideas of what will promote different artists are passed in through production process encouraging the artists to portray themselves a certain what which is proven popular.

Practise digi - pack for our chosen genre

Target audience for music video

The target audience for the music video which we are creating, is for the age range of 12 years old- 22 years old. This is because the music is energetic and upbeat, therefore is typical for this age range. This genre of music is generally used in venues such as nightclubs, parties and general interest for this age range. Also it is simular to other songs and other pop - electro Genre's that is popular for the age range of teenagers. All the other artists and songs i have listed below all appeal to this age range, its very unique, original, fast and upbeat and all this appeals to the teen range.


I think that Blumer & Katz(1974) ' uses and gratifications' theory is relevant to the target audience.
There is 3 main categories this falls into:


Diversion: A form of escapism from everyday pressures and emotions. Diversion connects with our genre because it is a fun escapism, our video is different and fun, it is not taken too seriously and allows the artists to enjoy themselves, which allows the audience to enjoy themselves while watching. They can escape from the pressures of life and can relax watching a video that is fun and is not taken seriously. 


Personal identity: for example their music can be exactly how the artist is feeling, they may be able to relate to the lyrics and feel a special connection with the artist, allowing their song to help them through an upsetting time in their life, for example there have been songs related to alcoholics, helping them recover and to help someone deal with death, e.g. The Drugs Dont Work by The Verve. 


Personal relationships: Is when a comparison via television personalities and characters, and sociability through discussion about television with other people.Many audiences that watch pop music feel a connection to the artists, that they are simular people or can connect in
some way

Also I think that Hypodermic Theory Lasswell (1927) relates to the target audience of who is watching music videos. This is that the media has a direct affect on the audience that is watching and that the media could directly influence audiences opinions. I think this is very relevant within the Genre of our group, as it is usually young girls, who are pretty and have worked their way onto television by pop shows and bands, that the audience opinion is swayed and they judge that the women are unintelligent or vain and tend to judge them on their appearance rather than personality.

Brief History Of Chosen Genre

 The term pop music means popular music, it has erythematic elements and melodies and often has an electronic sound to it, the term was first used in 1926 but it emerged out of rock and roll music in the 1950’s in the USA and UK and can often be categorized with a verse and repeated chorus. Often the pop music conventions are things such as a lot of colour, stylists as they are very in particular about clothes they wear to create the right look, this can be anything from simple clothing to more formal, for example most females in a pop Genre wear skirts or dresses, and a lot of people in bands wear matching colours. Sometimes pop music can have very complex music videos to make it popular, so people get interested and enjoy watching them, making their fan base grow. Some of the main artists of this genre are: Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears, Rihanna, Katy B, Katy Perry, Cheryl Cole, Duffy, James Morrison, Kesha, Lady GaGa, Lily Allen, Pink, Shakira, The Fray etc. Some key songs are: Ego, On a Night like This, Cry Me Out, Please Don’t Leave Me, Coming up Easy, Oh My God, and Telephone etc. All this is key as it is reliant on their popularity and appealing to their target audience, which is around the teen age although many out of this age range favour pop. 


Richard Dyer (1997) Representation of important self image, highly edited, bright colours and a strong girly image is being represented with the pop genre. Many artists that are in the pop genre relate to the stereotypical representation .

Research of chosen artist

Static Revenger

The artist named Static Revenger (Dennis White) is an American record producer, video director and a well-known DJ who is based in Los Angeles. He is a worldwide artist and is very well known within the music industry. He has worked with other well-known artists such as Swedish house mafia, Madonna and Shakira. I have chosen this artist, because I find his music very upbeat and interesting and enjoyable to listen to, as there are many different instruments and beats within the music. I also feel that because of the tempo and beat that I could create very interesting and creative music video that would enable me to do a lot of different things, and really try with the technology of editing, green screens etc to make my music video good and matching to the beat of the song. The target audience for this artist is 16-25 age range, as well as anyone that enjoys listening to upbeat music as the lyrics of the song are well understood by the age range, and the rhythm of the music is very popular amongst the age range. Static Revenger appeals to this age range because his music is the type of music that you would enjoy at a party, out and about etc. A lot of people in this age range listen to these types of songs as they are getting more and more popular in modern society.

Luciana Caporaso

In the song, which my group and I have chosen to create a music video for, Luciana caporaso is featured within. She is an English singer and songwriter, who has collaborated with many other artists, such as Taio Cruz and Bodyrox.

Richard Vission

This artist is also featured within the song, which my group has chosen. Richard Vission is also an American record producer, DJ and remixer; he helps create the upbeat sound that is vital for the music

Music Videos By Chosen Artist

Static Revenge: Skin Im In

This video is similar to others of static revenge, they always seem to do very individual videos, a lot different to most artists today because they do a lot of editing, special effects and create a very detailed, smart video untypical of the videos in the charts today which is a lot more simple, following artists doing dance moves, or on a beach and so on. It is a lot more complicated and interesting so that is why I have decided to use this video as an example

Mise – en – scene:
In this video they use a lot of props, but it is more subtly done which makes it unobvious, they use headphones for the electronic and “ cool” effect that the video portrays, sunglasses also adds to this, they also use a green screen for different backgrounds, they also use a small square green screen and put different images on it, then contrasting with what they put it against, for example

They also use have very clear backgrounds, like white, black etc. the lighting works very well and makes a cleaner, fresher image. They also have regular costume changes, constantly making it different and interesting, this is mainly casual wear.

Camera work:
The camera work is done very well, there are a lot of medium shots, so you can see some of the background and most of the person, there are also many zoomed in shots, close ups of the face and close ups of different objects such as the headphones. Green screen is used a lot during this video.

Sound:
The sound is very individual and has a lot of different beats and different rhythms to it which keeps it very interesting and doesn’t get boring, untypical of the pop genre it doesn’t seem to be very repetitive with different effects to it.


I also noticed a lot of bright colors and different camera angles, which is iconography of the genre.

Static Revenge: I Like That

I Like that. I’ve decided to analyze this video as we are doing this for our own video, it is very good and has lots and lots of different little details added to it, you can tell this video has had a lot of work done to it and has been very hard and long to produce.

Mise – en – scene:
Again this video has a lot of bright colors, contrasting with one another like whites, bright blues, bright greens all contrasting within the same scene. This makes it likely to appeal to the young generation, teen generation which their music is aimed to. Jewelry is used in this video to make a statement and to make it seem “cool” and to give a good, modern effect. Lighting is very bright, edited and there is a lot of different scenes and locations added to this video to keep it interesting and different.

Camerawork:
The camera work is a lot of different shots, long shots, medium shots, close ups, zooming of the camera, repeated images. This is to keep with the rhythm of the beat, which is very fast so they try and keep the video very fast too with changing effects, changing camera angles etc.

Sound:
There is a regular rhythm and base, topped off by vocals of mostly a woman, but also has vocals by a male which keeps it different, also every so often the rhythm slightly changes keeping it different again so regularities are kept to a minimum.

Editing:
There is again a lot of editing, often it is repeated images done in different colors and different camera angles to create different effects, and there are again a lot of green screens used for backgrounds, this makes it seem very modern and appeals to the target audience.

Static revenge happy people.

This video is quite different to their usual style, this is all cartoon effects and is a type of animation, all their other videos have also had a lot of different effects but usually have singers and main people in the video, although this is all done in a cartoon - like effect. That is why I have chosen to analyse it so I can analyse broadly of all their videos to have a full understanding of what they are like as artists, what their trying to portray by their videos/ music and so i can try and interpret this some how into my own video.

Mise - en - scene:
A lot of bright colours is again used, but i would say more so in this video than any other i have seen, a lot of contrasting colours, different background, black cartoon coloured figure, rainbows, flashes of different colours, stripes and so on.  This imitates the livelyness and fun of the music, that is successfuly done by the rythm and beat. Cartoon caracters are used, stars, no set location ( just random, changing, colourful backgrounds) headphones, text etc.

Camerawork:
A broad mix of different camera angles, meduim shots, close ups, full body shots, two frame, one frame, above shoulder shots, there are also many repeated shots, and two different camera shots being shown at one time, for example a close up of a womans face and then a long shot of someone dancing, this all keeps the video fun, interesting, unique, fast and snappy which is just like the music they produce and the kind of thing they want to portray, they are a fun, unique artist and this is shown in all of their work. Unlike most music videos, there isn't a directed story with an artist walking, lip syncing its very different that its in a cartoon - like effect and has lots of different things being added.

Sound:
The sound is very unique, with vocals being minimal, and rythm and beat continously present and changing, this is again another way to create upbeat original music that the target audience would enjoy listening to and puts them in a better mood.

Editting:
An extreme amount of editting is done in this  video, there is a cartoon - like effect throughout the video, a lot of cutting to different angles and different shots continously. Shot - reverse - shot is also done, as well as colours being edited, green screen.

Digipack research

Our group have decided to make a music video orientated around the Genre " pop". There are a few reasons we have decided to go with this Genre, firstly our group is made up of four girls, with many other Genre's such as rock, indie it is mainly all male, with a few female singers, so it is very hard to pull it off successfully as male vocalists and male images are essential to the image most indie/rock bands want to portray (which in some cases such as heavy metal its disruption, scary and dark).
Most members in our group favour this type of music, so we have knowledge of music videos we like and would like to add certain ideas to ours. We also had some ideas of song choices that we thought would work well in a video and things that we would enjoy doing together as a group. We researched pop artists so we could learn about how they portray themselves by clothing, make up, styling, advertisements, television appearances as all this builds up/promotes their music. We researched people such as Katy Perry, Rihanna, Beyonce, Nicki Minaj, Girs Aloud, The Saturdays, Cheryl Cole, Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears and so on.

We came to a conclusion that these people have bright colours in things like cd covers, and they put a lot of effort for the images displayed to match the album cover. For example in Rhianna's " only girl in the world" album her album cover is her alone, kneeled down in an empty field, this adds to the effect of her album cover by play on words and really getting the point of her songs across. Another example that in Katy Perry's " Teenage Dream" album, one of her main and most successful songs was " California Girls" which she had life - like candy and so on, in her cd cover it is a picture of her lay in candy floss, which goes with the video of her main song, so people get interested in the video.  We also came to the conclusion that the artist's image was very important, a lot of artists are airbrushed to get rid of any blemishes, skin tone abnormalities, and to look a lot nicer/presentable to the fans. Many female artists not only appeal to girls but have a large male fanbase, so publishers try and get males interested by having their make up properly done, hair styled etc and use provocative pictures to widen their popularity, resulting in larger cd sales. Also many artists have typically " girly" colours and themes, pinks, light blues, whites, creams, yellows, light colours. As well as nice clothes, make up etc.

I think doing all that is quite a successful way in making sure artists have a very wide fan base and hit high cd sales, it is suprising that nearly everything an artist does can effect their popularity, resulting in higher or lower cd sales, advertising and appearances is very important for an artist to have music in the charts because when peole that are interested in the celebrities style/ clothing / personality results in them becoming more and more interested, buying cd's, posters, concert tickets etc. For example Rihanna was on the cover of seventeen magazine, with a large article of her talking about her style, style tips etc which makes people become involved with her, eventually becoming envolved with her music.

We could do this in our project by portraying a clear image. With four females our video/ digipacks will show the female orientation that many pop artists/bands show. We will try and make our CD cover present our music video and the meaning of the song, this is typical for the many artists we researched. We will include bright colours, edit the pictures and deeply consider our hair styling, make up, clothes, props to ensure that the right image is being portrayed.