Genre Research

There are a number of different Music Genre's around now, ranging from Pop to Blues.

Here are some of the Music Genres I have come across: African, Brazilian, Blues,Country, Heavy Metal, Rock, Folk and Pop. (1)

African music is a traditional music that runs throughout African countries. Different regions within Africa have distinct musical traditions and most of the music that is used is not written but passed down from years before and will continue to be passed down. African music is usually quite upbeat and energetic so people are able to do the traditional dancing with it.

Brazilian music has many regional styles. You could go to several different places in Brazil and hear many different styles of music. Brazilian music is usually influenced from African , Amerindian and European sounds. Brazilian music tends to have a Spanish samba style sound to it, which can be upbeat as well as slow, depending on how you interpret it. Most Brazilian music has a specific audience of Portuguese and Brazilian as they are the ones who can understand what is being said and have been brought up around the specific tune that usually goes with the Brazilian music. Although the major audience will be those of Brazilian and Portuguese origin, there could still be an audience who aren't of that origin simply because they like the music, sound, artist and video. Here is an example of a Brazilian song:

Country music is a mixture between ballads and dance which is usually played on some sort of instrument, like a guitar, piano or a fiddle. (2) Country music is often quite jumpy but with a softer meaning. Country music is often sang by artists who grew up in the country as it is what they are used to hearing and what they like. Country music has a specific target audience so it is important to know the audience to create a good video and tune to go with it. Here is an example of an upbeat country song:

 

Pop music is another name for 'popular' meaning that things that are classed as pop music now are all songs that are popular in the charts or are going to become popular. Pop music includes styles from dance, urban, rock, country and Latin. (3) Pop music has a wide range of styles, however, most pop songs tend to follow the same path of all being upbeat and energetic.

Here are song examples of pop songs from January 2014 -August 2014:

 

 

  

From doing genre research I have been able to identify what is available for me to use if I chose to. I am able to pick a genre that I think will fit my target audience and will also allow me to create something that is good.

From what I have seen, I am going to stick to the pop genre as I think, for the audience I am aiming at pop suits them better. My target audience is 13-18 year old so to pick a country genre or blues genre wouldn't be right as they wouldn't be interested.

If you want to create a music video, it is important that the right genre is picked because if it's not, it won't work and people won't be interested.

Now that I know the age and genre I am aiming at, I can begin to think and plan exactly what song I was to do and start to thing up a plan of how I want things to go.

References
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_popular_music_genres
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_music
(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_music

Audience Research

There is a wide range of audiences that I could aim my music video at, however, I have chosen a specific audience as this will make it easier to make my video as I will know exactly who I want it to work for. If I started making my music video but had no idea as to who my target audience were going to be, It would be hard to create as I would be trying to make sure it is suitable for everyone and,  that is impossible to do.

I could chose to aim my music video at children, teenagers, young adults, middle aged adults or the elderly and I have chosen the teenagers as I think there is a wider range of what I can do to keep them interested in the video and like it.

If I was to pick children, I would have to make my video somewhat animated or very simple so they could understand it. The elderly are also another audience I didn't pick as I know that there aren't many elderly people on the internet, and even if there was, they are not interested in music or the videos to go with it.

I have also chosen to target a specific social class which is the ABC1. This means I am aiming my video at the upper middle class, middle class and lower middle class people as this allows me to do a video that doesn't have rapping in it or set in a specific location.

Last of all, there are many different types of audiences such as main-streamers. Main-streamers are an audience who are very big and make up around 40% of the population so to be able to have such a big range to aim at, it means I don't have to focus on a small audience. The bigger the audience, the more views there are and the more the video is spread,

Research Analysis Task 1 - Magazine Advert

Here is an album advert for Jessie J's album 'Who You Are'. The reason I have chosen to analyse this magazine advert is because Robbie Williams didn't have one. This advert doesn't specify that it is advertising Jessie J's digipak, however, it is advertising her album.

I also chose to analyse this poster because it has a bit more to it, in terms of colour, text and images.

The large image that takes up three quarters of the page shows the audience exactly who it is promoting as well as catching the audiences eye as it is very large and bold.

The 'Jessie J' text written in gold suggest that the album is is good, as gold represents something good and expensive. The colour and size of the text is also attention grabbing and easy to see.

The bottom quarter of the poster is the section that is a little bit more boring as it in just jet black with little bits of text on with the name of the album. There isn't much that can be done on this section in order to make it eye catching as if anything changed, it wouldn't look right, nor would it be clear as to what the text is as the patterns or other images would crowd over and take the attention off the big, bold picture which is suppose to be seen.

On this magazine advert, there is no date telling us when the album is being released.  This could be because is is an advert that has been released after the album is already out, however, I would still have put a date on it so people knew when it came out or when it comes out depending on when the advert was released.

Th image itself is a close up shot as it shows her full face and slightly shows the top half of her shoulders. This is a good shot to use as it means everything is focused on her, not the outfit or anything else.
The colouring has a theme throughout which is black which the hint of white which suggests that the artist is trying to put out a specific image which also links to the songs that are on her album.
The artist doesn't have a specific 'facial expression', like smiling or laughing. This artist has chosen to have her mouth open, suggesting that she wants to draw peoples attention to her face and maybe lips, which could have something to do with the colour of her lips.
We cannot see what the artists full costume is due to the shot that is given, however, we can see that she is dressed in black with a lace style costume on the top half of her body, We can also see that she has silver jewellery on which again, matches the black and white colour scheme. Lastly, we can see that her makeup is neutral and black, like the nails have been painted black, her lips are black and her eyes show a light black colouring around them.

Magazine ads are adverts that are out into a magazine to promote an artist and their new songs or album. They are used as another way of promoting, like adverts. Magazine ads are used as they are a good way of catching someones attention, for example, if you are reading a magazine, you go through all the pages, even if your flicking through, you would still notice it, however, a TV advert is a little bit different, you could take your eyes of the screen or switch channel to avoid adverts.
Magazine ads work for artists or bands as they are a large scale promotion technique that is big and bold and catches peoples attention. They market the artist by usually, displaying a large image of them on the advert, whether it covers the whole page or half a page, they are big enough for anyone to see and draw them to it to read whatever other information is on the page.

Research Analysis Task 1 - Digipak

 Above is a Prezi online presentation showing my analysis of a digipak. This digipak is from the same artist as I analysed the music video from.

Research Analysis Task 1 - Music Video

Above is my analysis on the Music Video Angels, by Robbie Williams. I chose to analyse this music video as I had a digipak for the the artist and this song was on the digipak and I like the artist so thought it would be a good idea to analyse it. I also like the black and white concept which I am looking at doing for my own music video.

Director Research Task

David Fincher

David Fincher directed Justin Timberlake's music video 'Suit & Tie'. I like how Fincher has directed this video in black and white. The black and white video makes it seem 'posh'. I also like the creativeness of the video, like how it starts in one place and follows as a journey to a stage of some kind and then to Justin himself playing the piano.

There are certain styles withing the video that I find are impressive and look good. I like how the editing starts of quite slow an then gets faster as the song becomes faster. I also like how when Justin is on the stage, the camera work changes from behind and then to the front and so on. The lighting looks good so when the camera is behind the artist, we can still see he is the artist and main focus of the video. This gives off a good affect to the audience.

The black and white video is a good way of making a video in my view as I think it gives a different image to what normal videos give off. The black and white is different from most music videos out there and it doesn't follow what other videos tend to have, like the girl and romance throughout it.

When I make my music video, I will be looking at what Fincher has done with his camera movements and camera angles as there are a variety in this specific video which are good that I could probably use too.

Jake Nava

Jake Nave is a British film and music video director who directed Beyonce's song, 'If I Were A Boy'. I like the way Nava has directed this video in a number of ways, ranging from the colour, lighting and background story.

I like how Nava had directed the video in black and white as I believe it makes the video and story powerful. I like how he displays Beyonce as the 'man' and the man as the 'women', as in the terms, a women can do exactly what a man can do.
Nava shows this video as a women being independent and strong and doing things, like a job that is typically looked at as a mans job.

I also like the camera shots that Nava has used throughout this video, such as the extreme close ups of the both faces. The extreme close ups show the audience the facial expressions and emotions of both the characters in the video which makes us feel connected.

 The editing matches the timing of the song and fits perfectly with every camera shot that is used.

Overall, I like how this video is presented and I like the background story of what Beyonce is trying to tell. When I come to make my music video, I will go back to this and see how everything fits together and how I can get my music video to be like this is the concept of background story and the power that comes from it.