RESEARCH: Trends

Trends in Music History...

1950s- Rock and Roll Genre
1960s- Swinging sixties - Motown primarily featuring African American artists
1970s- Rock Genre with bands such as Kiss
1980s- MTV generation
1990s- Hard Rock and Heavy Metal with Bon Jovi and RUN DMC
2000's- Several diverse music genres Nirvana, Oasis, Blur, Spice Girls

Today in 2012 we have been seeing the particular music trends:

Young Hollywood Stars such as Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepson and One Direction are central in the music industry.

- This music is often orientated to a young audience with the artists being teen idols. The promotion of pop music was greatly effected due to the rise in music television channels such as MTV. The lyrics and subject matter of their songs often are about love and relationships and tend to be simplistic. Pop music is popular today since the beats of the music often encourage dancing which is reflected in the upbeat and choreographed music videos.

- The music videos often consist of fast paced editing, straight forward narrative and related situations and scenairos that teenagers would find themselves in, making it relatable to their audience.


This is what my group is trying to achieve in our music video "Our Song". We want to present the daily activities of a group of friends which other young audiences will relate too making the song relevant to them.

RESEARCH: Stardom

The Star Image: 

The Music Business relies on big named stars to fund its activities however only about one in ten acts put out by the industry actually makes any money. 

Therefore what is described as the “meta-narrative star image” has an important role to play in the music video making process. Meta-narrative star image describes the development of a stars image over a period of time and the stories that surround a particular artist.

CASE STUDY: 

For example the Red Hot Chili Peppers illustrate their star image through their music video “ Can’t Stop”.  The video builds a picture of the performers as a group of friends larking around, having fun, play fighting at times, experimenting and getting things wrong. There is a laddish feel to the video, which compliments their unconventional star image. 

The Red Hot Chili Peppers promote themselves through social media by having- An official website, Twitter and Facebook which allows their fan base to keep up to date with their activities. This accessibility is liked by the fans and contributes to their "stardom. 

Their website consists of upcoming tours, music, videos and photos of the band not only from performances but also from the press. 

The information that the band provides for their fans on their website gives an opportunity for the fans to understand and learn more about them as a band, again contributing to their stardom.

Social Media is a significant platform and creates "word of mouth" for the band. The more people the know the bigger the stardom the band will get.

RESEARCH: Music Television Channels

Music television is a type of television programmes which focuses predominantly on playing music videos from bands or artists.
Music Television programmes may also host their own charts.

Examples are MTV, Kerrang TV and VH1. MTV is an American cable television channel based in New York City that launched in 1981.

MTV significantly influence popular culture and succeeded earning $7 million in advertising revenue in the first 18 months. 

It remained a critical part of the music industry by leveraging music videos to help the image of artists such as Michael Jackson, Guns n’ Roses and 2Pac. The digital revolution in the 90s really put the pressure on the music industry with music videos, which became the one of the primary way of enjoying music. The industry was worried about declining CD sales. Music Television serves as platform for music videos to be accessible and watched by wide audiences. 

RESEARCH: Studying Music Videos Prezi

Click here to view my Prezi

Here you can view my Prezi on the form and conventions of Music Videos

PLANNING: First Draft Story Board

Some of the ideas on our story board are:
-Lip Syncing
-Cut Backs to the suitcase slowly filling up along with the calendar
-Panning shot of boys room and each time a poster leaves his wall until he is looking at a bare room
-Photoshoot with friends- pictures then being packed
-Skateboarding and Football shot for their activities

PLANNING: First Initial Brainstorm

One More Year Lyrics

We got one more year till we disappear, there'll be no more days just sitting here, in the nights narcotically pupeteered, try so hard but I can't supress the fear. So many people that I'd call my friend, one or two more that it's fun to pretend, well I've done a bit wrong but I try to ammend, and I'm so, so sorry if I hurt you but; this life is a life of ecstasy, I know that they're always next to me, say what you like, it brings out the best in me, 1234 sing the rest with me.

What's that, oh, I'll go, but you know, that I'll se you again soon.Missed the last train but it's not surprising, ain't no trains when the sun is rising, hoods up, checking each other's eyes and, pay a high price for this socialising. Jaw is aching while dawn is breaking, real life is overtaking, historical night in the making, here comes the comedown conversation. Well everybody knows, the highs are worth the lows, that's just the way it goes, guess that's the path we chose. Well let me take you back to half past 8, waiting at a station and the train is late, I'd allowed myself to anticipate, so bring on the drums and bring on the bass. A few hours later and the music was blaring out, man, there was nothing I cared about right then, I'll say it again, love my life and I love my friends.

RESEARCH: Consumer Profile

PLANNING: Treatment for ONE MORE YEAR by Fij

We have our central character leaving his school days behind for university. We illustrate the lyrics up to point however we also want to incorporate a series of montages of the student with friends doing the everyday things that represent aspects of his life that he is leaving behind.  

The overall structure will be formed with cutaway shot’s of the central figure and his firneds placing his belongins in the trunk. The trunk will be open and empty and the beginning of the song and shut by the end. Throughout the song the trunk gets progressively more packed until it is shut symbolizing the end of their year together and the song.

FINAL SONG CHOICE

We decided to do our music video to One More Year by Fij, an unsigned band composed of a singer/guitarist. The genre is indie / pop and has rhythmic and face paced beat, with several repetitions throughout the song. This particular track has a rap like quality.

We liked the idea of using an unsigned band since that allows us to create a fresh and original take on the song.

Equally, the lyrics of the song are about being about the last year with your friends before university. This is easy for our target audience to relate to as they are likely to be either just leaving for college or to have recently left.


Possible Visuals:

 Initial discussions have been on interpreting the music and how we would treat it visually. We considered the idea of representation of our year group and their daily activities. However we could also frame the story as these people doing these things for the last time, symbolised with the trunk being opened at the start and closed at the end of the video. Throughout the song the trunk gets progressively more packed until it is shut symbolising the end of their year together and the song.

Brainstorming for Song Choices

Hoodie Allen- No Interuption

Fast Beat- Catchy Lyrics-Young Voice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t431MAUQlQ

However... Already has a music video made by the artist and has over 4 million views on youtube.



Fij- One More Year

Fast Beat- Tells a story with the Lyrics- Band- Young Voice

One More Year is one of our top choices since the artist of the song is the older brother of a member of our group. This provides benefits since we can talk to the artist for advice on how to present the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdLZYCz-d1E&feature=related

Jack Johnson- Good People

Slower pace- Vocal song- Benefits provided by just the single artist
However... Jack Johnson is a high profile artist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxuCLopcEy4

Research and Planning

Describe and Evaluate your skills development over the course of your production work:

How I have improved after producing my Thriller?

By producing my Thriller " The Black Rose" in AS I have learned several skills that will help me in my A2 project of making a music video. Adobe Photoshop was a graphics editing program which allowed me to manipulate the key image of The Black Rose into a mock webpage for the movie. This program will also be useful this year for my music video. 

I have also improved in my skills with editing movies. Using programs such as iMovie and Adobe Premier Pro CS4, the quality of our production can be greatly increased. 

Having done the Thriller my actual filming technique has become more advanced with the numerous camera angles that I have learnt to include. However, both a thriller and a music video would require different angle shots in order to compliment the subject matter of each one.

How were you creative?

For my AS Thriller opening, my group was most creative in the subject matter of the movie having spent much time on producing a good story board. However, I believe there was more potential to improve the creativity in the characters props. The outfit of the leading character Natalie was very average and we could have built on her profile of a mentally ill woman with her clothing. For the Black Rose several different camera angles were incorporated in order to maximise the effect we were trying to create for the Thriller opening.