The Music Industry & Record Labels

Band Name Logo Ideas

These are the three band name logo ideas that we made. They all feature different font styles that portray the indie genre. The font that we used in the beginning of our music video is the third option. This was because we decided the font style was more suited to the song we were using. We kept the colours of the band names to a monochrome theme as it suited well with the indie genre and kept the simplicity.

Overall, our decision to choose this idea was the best because it looks the most professional and 'indie like'. We will continue this onto our Digipak design to keep the consistency of our band.

Call Sheet

Call sheet-short-drama from bectansley

Story Board Animatic

Digipak Analysis - Ed Sheeran EPs

Below are some of Ed Sheeran's EP album covers from when he was starting out. This gives us an idea of what a new indie artist would produce as an album cover when possibly then don't yet have the funds to afford some of the more expensive techniques. These cases were made out of cardboard like the traditional digipaks between 2009-2011.

These are all very similar cases using bright colours other than the second one, 'No.5 Collaborations Project'. They are also all hand drawn giving the personal feel to the cases as Ed Sheeran is an indie artist. This is a good technique to use that will save money during the production process where they may have had someone design the album cover for them. The home-made look of the EP album covers makes the audience feel as if the album is more personal to them. However, because the case is made of cardboard it is more likely to tear and break unlike a plastic CD case. On the other hand it is much better for the environment as the cardboard could be recycled if it was to break as well as it being made typically from recycled items such as milk bottles and egg cartons.

Digipak Analysis - Lana Del Rey

The first digipak I am analysing is an album by Lana Del Rey called 'Born To Die'.

The entire digipak is quite simple and sticks to the same basic colour scheme throughout. The colours used are white, blue and red.

 

On the front cover we see a mid shot of the star, Lana Del Rey, in the centre with a blue sky behind her stood in front of what looks like a fence with a car parked just in front of it. This immediately lets the audience know who the album is by, firstly by seeing her and if they haven't seen her before then they are able to identify her by her name in large block letters above her in the sky. The picture looks as if it has been taken on an old film camera. This links with the type of music she produces and the style in which she dresses herself which is old fashioned. The picture of Lana could relate to Andrew Goodwin's theory of the star being seen often in close ups and focusing on the demands of the consumers and institutions.

 

This colour scheme is then continued onto the back of the case where it features the song names in the same blue that is used on the front cover. This gives the digipak a professional look as the colour scheme is continued to keep the consistency throughout the album cover. On the back of the case the names of the songs are featured allowing the audience to view them clearly and possibly check that a song they like is on the album prior to buying it.

 

As the case is opened the disk is shown inside. Again this has been kept quite plain but classy. The disk is a plain white colour with three red roses around the side coming off of the disk. This may connote the simplicity and naturalness of the music Lana makes.

 

The insert included in the digipak includes the song lyrics to each song featured on the album. This is a great extra for the audience to receive as it gives them something they probably wouldn't receive in a usual CD case. The font used is quite basic again in black with the names of the songs bigger and bolder than the actual lyrics. Around the edges of the paper there are areas where it looks like something has been dropped onto it and left stains around the edges. These featured on the paper makes it look used and links with the 'vintage' type of look Lana Del Rey goes for.

 

Overall, the digipak has been kept quite simple which is common of the indie genre as often they are not able to afford the type of quality items as that of a higher end artist such as a very popular pop band that is in the charts.

 

 

Indie Genre Digipaks

Digipaks are different to the typical CD covers. They are usually made from recycled materials such as milk bottles and egg cartons making them more eco-friendly and better for the environment. However, typical CD covers are stronger as they are made from a sturdier plastic that is less likely to be ripped and torn. On the other hand digipaks offer more to the consumer such as possibly a poster inside or more information on the band/artist as they have a minimum of 6 sides rather than the typical CD cover having a minimum of 2 sides.

 

Example of current indie genre digipaks:

Example of a current indie genre CD cover:

 

 

Prop List

This is my prop list for the music video we are creating.

Prop list from bectansley

Our Storyboard For The Music Video

This is our story board for the music video we are going to create. We created this on the website 'storyboard that'. We enjoyed using this software as it was something different to what we had done before.

Story board from bectansley

Intertextuality



This is a short Prezi presentation explaining about intertextuality within media and music videos.

 

Prey Lyrics

As long as you notice
I'm hoping that you'll keep your heart open
I'll keep mine open too
If you don't ask, I won't tell
Just know that, just know that
It all hurts, it all hurts just the same

Something is wrong, I can't explain
Everything changed when the birds came
You'll never know what they might do if they catch you too early
We need to fly ourselves before someone else tells us how
Something is off, I feel like prey, I feel like praying

As long as you notice
I'm hoping that you'll keep your heart open
I'll keep mine open too
So, so, I'll probably take you aside
And tell you what's on my mind
But you, you'll just keep it inside
Probably tell me that you're alright

Something is wrong, I can't explain
Everything changed when the birds came
You'll never know what they might do if they catch you too early
We need to fly ourselves before someone else tells us how
Something is off, I feel like prey, I feel like praying

(If I run) If I run away I'll never know
(What you want) And if you go then I'll never grow
(I'm undone) Let me slip, let me slide
(If you run) I'll be sure to let you fly

Something is off, I can't explain
You know what I mean, don't you?
Something I saw, or something I did that made me like this
Could you help me?
We need to fly ourselves before someone else tells us how
Something is off, I feel like prey, I feel like praying
Something is off, I feel like prey, I feel like praying

So, so, I'll probably take you aside
And tell you what's on my mind
But you, you'll just keep it inside
Probably tell me that you're alright

So, so, I'll probably take you aside
And tell you what's on my mind
But you, you'll just keep it inside
Probably tell me that you're alright

I don't want to fight
I don't want to fight
I don't want to fight
I don't want to fight

Our Focus Group

This is the video footage filmed whilst we presented our ideas to our focus group aged between 15-18. They participated well and gave us a clear indication of the ideas they liked best. This allowed us to choose; our location to be a quiet urban area, the opening scene to be inside a car, the clothing to be items such as a black leather jacket and jeans, the effect of the video to be black and white, the band name to be 'The California Strippers' and finally, to use stop motion throughout the narrative.

Indie Genre Mood Board

I made a mood board with images relating to the indie genre. This will help us to make decisions on the types of props and art to involve within our own music genre.

Request To Columbia Records For The Use Of The Song 'Prey' by The Neighbourhood

Results For The Questionnaire

Here are the results from the 12 people that answered our questionnaire. The results are displayed in the pie charts below.

Questionnaires Given To Our Target Audience

In order to get a better idea of what audiences expect and want from the Indie genre we decided to create a questionnaire and hand them out to determine: the sex, age, interests and disinterests of our audience, therefore giving us more knowledge of what to include within our own music video.

The questions we asked were:

1- What is your gender?
2- What is your age?
3- What is your favourite genre of music?
4- What is the band you first think of when you hear 'indie'?
5- What is your favourite music video of all time, why?
6- What location would you associate with an indie music video?
7- What props would you associate with the indie genre?


We gave options that could be ticked for questions 1, 2 , 3 and 6. Questions 4, 5 and 7 were open answer questions to provide us with some qualitative data.

Research of The Indie Genre

The indie genre powerpoint from bectansley

Demographics Of The Indie Genre

Analysis Of Music Videos - The Neighourhood - R.I.P To My Youth

The video starts with the frontman (Jesse Rutherford) lay in what looks like a wooden coffin in order to relate the video to the title of the song R.I.P to my youth. The bands logo then appears on the screen to tell the audience that that symbol represents the band. The camera then cuts to the frontman from a birds eye view to confirm that he is lay in a coffin, also the name of an artist (Hype Williams) who is also in the video appears on the screen to show that he will make an appearance within the video. At 0:18 the bands name finally appears on the screen, before cutting to a bass drum to create thought beats this continues from 0:22 and continues to appear throughout the entire video.

 

At 0:32 the drummer of the Neighbourhood is fully shown on camera to create star image, this continues at 0:39 when a guitar is shown to be playing along with the music.

Both band members have also been shown on camera topless and are both covered in tattoos, this could be to try and show the audience that tattoos are seen as being 'cool'.


At 0:59 the bassist is finally shown playing along to the song. At this point all of the band members have been shown during the video in order of importance, showing the frontman first then the drummer, guitarist and finally bassist. Vevo can also be seen in the bottom right hand corner, this is shown as the video was made by the well known music company showing that The Neighbourhood are a well established band.

Finally the whole band is shown together at 1:54 to bring the video together for the audience. From 1:55-3:30 the video transitions more towards a live video of them playing rather than a video with a story.

Analysis Of Music Videos - R U Crazy

For the first 32 seconds of the 'R U Crazy' music video Conor is seen with a band behind him looking like a typical music video. It allows the audience to understand who the main star is as well as promoting his star image. As well as this it gives the music video a different kind of genre included as the instruments that are used wouldn't usually be used in a 'pop' type of video. This makes it overall more of an 'indie' type song. At 0:18 Conor faces the camera with a red light shining over him. The red connotes love which also links with the video. After that we see lights on the ceiling which helps to set the scene and see the contrast between the two places.

Thought beats are shown in the first part of the video. When the beat first drops and Conor says 'R U Crazy' the camera shakes as if there has been a real drop.

Throughout the video it changes between Conor singing the song in the hallway and the event he is singing about happening. This helps the audience to picture what he is singing about and connect with the lyrics. The cuts between the parts where the couple are arguing are much quicker to show the tension between them both as they argue.
As the video continues there are close up shots of Conor. This helps to portray his star image whilst keeping the attention on him. It allows the audience to see him singing the song, he also keeps eye contact with the camera keeping direct address with the audience. The use of the female throughout the video also links with the male gaze theory. She is seen in different outfits some of which are figure hugging and therefore will interest the male gender especially.

Analysis Of Music Videos - 'R U Mine' by The Arctic Monkeys

The First video I am going to analyse is 'R U Mine' by The Arctic Monkeys. As the video begins the first thing the audience see is a radio presenter introducing the station. We can tell this because of the mise en scene within this shot. For example, he is holding a microphone, wearing a set of headphones and has cables around the room creating a studio type setting. This then fades into seeing the view from the car window and then star inside a car with his fellow band members, his drummer Matt and bassist Nick. We can assume that this was shot on a handheld camera because of the quality and the movement within the video which is achieved when using this type of camera. Shortly after it fades back into the radio presenter introducing the song before showing the star again. This allows the audience to link the two things together, the song and artist, if they didn't know already. It also promotes their 'star image' because we see the star within the video as well as the radio presenter introducing them using their band name. As soon as the beat kicks in we see the two band members act as if they are drumming to the beat which creates thought beats and directly links the two together. The genre of The Arctic Monkeys is indie rock. Throughout the video there is a black and white effect which works together with the handheld camera work to create simplicity within the video. This is a common theme throughout the indie genre as often they do not have the funds to be able to afford technical equipment.

At 0:44 we see the main star, Alex Turner, stand up in the car showing his tattoo whilst doing so.

His tattoo is of the Yorkshire Rose. This helps to promote his star image as it shows the audience where he is from. In this case he is from the Sheffield area therefore allowing the audience to link him to the place. As well as this, throughout the music video they are seen to be wearing sunglasses which we associate with celebrities and a star image.

Thought beats are shown throughout the entire video at different points. A significant time this happens is at 1:43 shown in the screenshot. The drummer of the Arctic Monkeys Matt Helders taps the drum sticks onto his shoulder in time with the drum sound in the video. When this is done it links him directly to the music and shows the audience that he is not just the driver but also a band member and an important character in the music that has been made, if they didn't know so already.

At 2:08 two girls are seen in the back of the car with the bassist Nick O'Malley. The girls are seen to be wearing masks and hats as he sings the song facing into the camera. Female gaze is then created as the females are later seen at the band area. This is good as the main audience for the Arctic Monkeys is males. Therefore it will attract their attention to the video.

Finally, at the end of the video we see the band performing the song surrounded by smoke. As well as this there is a TV with a picture of Jamie Cooke the lead guitarist. He wasn't able to go to the video filming as it was his wedding day! The band still chose to include him in the video even though he wasn't able to make it. This allows the audience to see the entire band performing the song which we haven't yet seen throughout the video.

The Genre Of Our Music Video

I enjoy lots of different genres of music. My favourite artist is Beyoncé, I have recently been to see her in concert! Her genre is generally R&B. As well as this I enjoy listening to The Neighbourhood, The Arctic Monkeys and the 1975. The Genre of music video we have chosen to do is indie because the majority of our artist favourites fit into this genre. Our chosen song is Prey by The Neighbourhood. This song will be a great task for us to work on as we've already gathered some initial ideas of how we would like the video to be made. The Neighbourhood have also not released a video for Prey making it easier for us to put our own ideas into the video making process.

Analysis of Music Videos

 

 I will be analysing four music videos according to Goodwin and Archer's theory. With this I will be looking at the following aspects: thought beats, narrative and performance, the star image, relation of visuals to song and technical aspects of music videos.

 

 

Thought Beats are where the listeners are required to take into consideration the structure of the song. For example, the chorus, versus, interlude etc. This means that artists can be recognised for their unique identification within their songs. As well as this it is how artists use their songs to tell stories and the way they get the story across to them.

 

Narrative and Performance requires the audience to listen to a song and make up their own meaning of the song as well as possibly relating it to their own lives. This is important in order to keep people listening to the songs again and again.

 

The Star Image is how artists dress and act in a way which supports their target audience so that they wont lose fans or money for themselves.

 

Relations of Visuals to the Song 

Illustrate : Music videos can use images to portray the meaning of their lyrics and genre.

Amplify: The meaning and effects are manipulated and shown constantly throughout the video     therefore being drummed into the vision.

Disjuncture: The meaning of the song is ignored

Technical Aspects of Music Videos hold the music video together through the use of camera work,mise-en-scene, sound, movement and special effects.