How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For this evaluation question I broke it up into micro questions so that I was able to answer the big question.  Here are the answers:

Website conventions by Isaac on GoAnimate

Animated Presentations - Powered by GoAnimate.

Website Conventions Part 2 by Isaac on GoAnimate

Video Maker - Powered by GoAnimate.

Continue by clicking here! Then you shall be directed back here afterwards.

Final Music Video

Here is my final music video!

Music Artist Website

After much research and planning of other artists websites who are in my artists genre, here is the outcome of my own.

http://caasi-619.wix.com/theslag101

Final Digipak design

After doing much work on my Digipak, here is the outcome of what I made.

Website Decisions

Here are some of the reasons I did certain things for my website.

Title font name:
I used this font and colour scheme to make it stand out as soon as someone enters the website. This is also to grab the audiences attention to the website so that they are likely to stay on the website and read on.

Tabs:
 On most other music website they would include; home, music, video, photo, news and contact tabs. By having these, they allow the audience to have a choice of what they would like to go onto. It also helps spectators to know more about the artist. For example, being able to hear the different types of music the artist plays.

Big slideshow:
I made this slideshow because it is another way for the spectators to know about the artist. I only added three pictures to the past, present and future of the artist and his music videos. This helps the audiences to have a better insight of the artist's history and what they could be looking forward to.

Small slideshow:
I made this slideshow just for images as I thought that images would be a more powerful tool to attract audiences as it has less to read and more to look at. For the images I had a mixture of the old music video, new music video and different CD covers.

News and other info:
I made this section on the website to allow audiences know the latest news and information straight away. This saves audiences time as they don't have to look this information else where. It also allows audiences to choose which information that is likely to interest them. I also made sure that they wasn't to much writing with each post as I didn't want to bore the reader.

Music:
By adding the music section to the homepage, it allows new visitors get a taste of the artists music. Another good thing about this is it allows the user to listen to the whole track instead of leaving the website.

Videos:
For this I added my first edit of the music video that I produced. By having this it adds more visual to the website as people can watch a video. This again allows easier access to content without having to leave the website.

Chat:
I added a chat room feature to the website as it is not something you usually see on a music website. By having this feature it allows users to be able to talk about the artists music and general music. Also with this feature people in the chat room can invite their friends to the conversation. From this conversations can be endless.

Social media:
I made sure that I added famous social sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, so that people can easily connect with the artist and to know what the artist is up to. An advantage of having this is that these website can be updated instantly giving the audience up-to-date information.

Music in the 80's

During another one of our lessons we learnt about music in the 80's.  The following information is what we learnt.

The 1980's saw the arrival of Pop, Dance music and New Wave. Disco music went out of fashion in the early 80's and genres such as post-disco, Italo disco, Euro disco and dance pop became more popular.

The use of synthesizers were commonly used in the 80's, therefore, synthpop music and other electronic genres featuring non-traditional instruments became very popular. Also, other electronic genres were developed including  electro, techno, house, freestyle, and Eurodance.

The major influences of the 80's were Michael Jackson and Madonna. 

Madonna
Madonna was the 'Queen of pop' who sold millions of records world wide and became the best-selling female artist in the 80's. She was known for campaigning for gay rights and for her rebellious behaviour and controversial songs. Her album "Like a Prayer" caused controversy, (some people thought that it was bad), as it had to do with Christianity. 'Like a Virgin' was also seen as bad for the same reasons.  During the 80's Madonna wore outrageous outfits which included the following.

Michael Jackson
Born on Aug 29, 1958, Michael Jackson was baptised in 1973 at a Californian Jehovah's Witness convention. Michael Jackson was a child entertainer with his brothers as part of the 'Jackson 5'. He was one of eight brothers and sisters.  He was the holder of the title for the best selling record of all times for Thriller (this is the long version), which spent 37 weeks at number one in the US Billboard chart.

Billie Jean was the first video by a black artist to air on MTV. With his fortune he built a fun fair and zoo called Neverland in his garden and Jackson’s most famous pet was Bubbles the chimpanzee. During the 80's he was awarded with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (one for himself and one as part of the Jackson Five). In 1984 he won eight Grammy’s – the joint highest amount ever won by a person in a single year.

In the 80's there were many other popular artists from different genres such as:

• Cyndi Lauper - Bubblegum Pop
• Whitney Houston - Soul
• Ozzy Osbourne - Def Metal
• Queen - Rock, opera
• Run-D.M.C.  - Hip Hop

MTV

MTV is a music channel, it became significant because it meant people had wide access to video. Song and video together was a better way to promote a single. Watching MTV was a visual look to a song, this enabled audiences to became emotionally engaged with song. MTV also had music awards which started in 1st August 1981. The first song which came on to MTV was 'Video Killed the Radio Star' this song was made by The Buggles.

Here is the music video (Video Killed the Radio Star)...



Did you know....

Music in the 70's

An additional presentation that we watched was about music in the 70's. This is what I learnt from the presentation:

In the 70's, North America, Europe and Oceania saw the rise of Disco. Euro Disco became more popular towards the end of the 1970's. Apart from Disco, Funk, Smooth Jazz, Jazz Fusion and Soul remained  popular for the decade. Rock Music played an important part in the Western musical scene. A new idea was introduced in the 1970's this was Reggae and from this it got a significant following. Experimental Music made a huge contribution to Electronic Music and became very popular.
Click here to read more...

An overall view of the 70's music scene would show us various interests at the time, such as:

• People engaged in drug use and promiscuous sex.
• Extravagant fashion sense.
• Disco was one of the biggest genres with gay disco going mainstream (Studio 54, 1977).

Audiences consumed music by radio, tapes, vinyl records and live concerts. In this time there was no one breaking copyrights and passing along music for free.

Disco
In the 70's was the rise of the disco, which became one of the biggest genres of the decade. This was especially in the mid to late 1970's. Disco first appeared in dance clubs by the middle of the decade. Hits such as Van McCoy - The Hustle were played during this time.

Popular songstresses...

In North America:

• Donna Summer
• Gloria Gaynor
• Anita Ward

In Europe:

• Dalida

With these singers they made the Disco genre popular. Decades later these women were described as the 'disco divas'.

The Bee Gees 

The Bee Gees were brothers: Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb and they were a musical group which was founded in 1958. They had a younger brother called Andy. Andy was also a singer, but dies of a drug overdose in the 80's. Maurice and Robin were twins who produced the soundtrack for 'Saturday Night Fever' which was the best film of 1977. In the early 70's the Bee Gees became a four piece band joined again by Australian drummer Geoff Bridgford became the last non-Gibb brother to be a member of the Bee Gees.

Here is part of the soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever - Night Fever.

Sex Pistols

The Sex Pistols were one of the biggest bands of the 1970's as they initiated the genre of punk. It attacked Britain's social conformity and disrespected the Monarchy (Queen). They were hailed as the 'Last and greatest outbreak of pop-based moral pandemonium'. The public described it as an assault, but the band denied this was their intention and insisted their true intention was to give sympathy to the working class as there was a rise in unemployment and a change in landscape.

Here is a music video by the Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen.

Music in the 60's and 90's

In media me and my partner had to create a presentation on the music in the 60's and music in the 90's.

In North America, Europe and Oceania, the 60's decade was particularly revolutionary in terms of popular music. It saw the formation and evolution of Rock. From the 1950's Pop and Rock and Roll trends continued at the beginning of the 1960's. By the 60's Rock and Roll became more international and by the mid 60's it was gradually overtaken by Pop Rock, Beat, Psychedelic Rock, Blues Rock and Folk Rock which had grown in popularity. Towards the decades end genres such as Baroque Pop, Sunshine Pop, Bubblegum Pop, Progressive Pop and Heavy Metal started to grow popular. Punk and Soul music also saw a rise in popularity. Latin American, Jamaican and Cuban music gained a degree of popularity with genres such as Bossa Nova and Calypso.
Click here to read on...

Popular music in the 1990's saw the continuation of teen pop and dance pop trends which had come from 70`s and the 80`s. Hip hop continued to be successful with the continuation of the genres 'golden age'. Contemporary R&B and urban music remained extremely popular. Like 1980`s rock music was also popular in the 1990`s. Electronic music risen in the 1980`s, grew highly popular in the 1990`s. House and techno from the 1980`s rose to international success in the 1990`s. Euro-dance and Euro-pop music were highly successful gaining international success. In the 1990`s it also featured the rise of contemporary country music as a major genre.

Since we did both era's together they are both put into the same presentation. Here is the presentation that we created (underneath the Prezi presentation are some extra notes that I said during my presentation I did to the class):

Music Decades on Prezi

Here is the extra information which we said during the presentation.

 

Rights for Artists

Artists have a choice whether or not to grant a licence to anyone interested in synchronizing his or her song to a visual (synchronized rights). Three Six Zero a record label help insure that all releases are supported at the level necessary.

"A group of high-profile rock and pop artists battle for music rights". Copyright on sound recordings currently lasts for 50 years in the UK.

Companies such as Three Six Zero protects artists as they have the right to sue people who copy their work/music. These people who copy their work may put it onto websites such as YouTube, so that audiences can view it  for free rather than paying for it. By having it this way, it is quicker for the audiences to listen to music.

How do new artists get started?

1. One way of doing this is by promoting music on websites without having problem with record people.
2. Another way is by doing talent shows such as The X Factor, American Idols and The Voice.  These talent shows are shown to the public, where the public enter and help build a name for themselves.
3. SB.TV (Smokey Bar Television) this helps people noticed by there talent online.

Example 1:
Lady Leshurr a female rapper who promoted herself on YouTube.

SB.TV spotted her and promoted her work on there YouTube channel.

From this she collaborated with other singers to become more famous. The song that she collaborated in was Game Over - Female Takeover.

Example 2:
In 2007 Carly Rae Jepsen was a contestant on Canadian Idol.

From this she has gone on to become No. 1 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 chart from her lead single 'Call Me Maybe' which also rapidly became a pop-culture sensation.

Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe

How do record labels make new artists a 'Star'?
They find new talent and market then promote that new talent. However some underground artists believe that they have do more work i.e. creating the songs, promoting their own music etc.

"Your label doesn't really kick in until you got something going on" - Scooter Braun

Once you are signed with a record label you still have to work by this it means creating and promoting.

Here is what the hierarchy of a record label would look like...

Example - Roc Nation

This is a record label for people in the music industry / media industry. This place allows you to contact artists to pay them for performance or the use of there song. The artists may already have a Facebook page or newsletter. 

Within the music industry; most recording artists have become increasingly reliant upon record labels.

How is it affecting audiences?

Singers / rappers who wish to become famous can follow in the footsteps of someone that has already become famous.  Tori Kelly a fan of Justin Beiber posted her music on YouTube to get the same attention / status as he does.

Tori Kelly - Inspirational Melody

The changing role of radio and the music charts

"It is time that radio stations adapt to the new media technologies."

Radio companies are losing regular listeners rapidly due to new technologies such as the internet and smart devices. From this Institutions are expanding online using websites such as iTunes. Mostly all radio stations need to be prepared to be taken over by the internet and its accessibility. From this radio stations may need to expand and begin to have a music channel of their own.

Radio Stations

Capital FM - This radio station is the biggest commercial radio station in London. However, it has lost 8.7% of it's listeners in the past few months. This is because of Capital launching  a new music channel which now allows audiences to access the music and the video at the same time.

Heart FM - In the past year Heart has lost 9.6% of their listeners. Heart FM has also launched a new music channel which lets audiences know about celeb gossip and music. 

Smooth FM - This radio station has lost 20.8% of it's listeners in the last year and 38.5%  in the previous quarter. 

This shows the sharp decline in people regularly listening to radio stations.

Radio Roles

Switch-Off / Switch-over 
This is the switching of consumers from getting their entertainment from an analogue platform to a digital one. Analogue radio switch-off plan would cost £21 million to do, a source said it would be 'a waste of time'. Digital radio currently accounts for 29.2% of all radio listeners.

Audience Expectations
Past Expectations

1. Being able to listen to the news at given times.
2. To have the current hits on a loop.
3. To no not know much experience of a hosts personality.

Current Expectations

1. Being able to constantly be updated with new music and latest news.
2. Accessible music on the go.
3. A solid programming schedule.
4. Radio hosts must maintain high standard. 

How to attract new audiences
Radio stations need to start using online streaming and pod-casts in order to attract the growing online generations. They should also look into developing desktop and mobile applications to help them to retain audiences. By using these applications listeners will be able to access additional information when they need it by visiting their website pages.This could be considered cross media synergy thus allowing a much more media rich experience and allowing user engagement.

Relationships between the Radio stations and Artists
Radio stations are not PAID by record companies for anything unless they are buying paid commercials. Due to radio stations not getting paid, record labels and artists aren't either meaning that they are trying to get radio stations to pay them.  In the past artists have been more than happy for the promotional power of having their records played; this resulting in having a very good relationship  Now they are getting greedy.

How are up and coming artists found?
It first starts with A&R scouts. Their job is to listen to demos, go to shows and find new artists from their contacts and the press. If the scout finds someone who fits the label they will pass them to an A&R Manager. From this the Manager will make the decision on whether or not to sign the artist and negotiate the deal. After striking a deal with the artist it is the Managers job to get the rest of the department at the label interested in the artist, presenting them to PR and promotions people.

Types of Advertising
National - Generally big cities get this type of advertising such as airlines and consumer products.
Regional - This type of advertising are for bigger radio stations where it is more expensive to place an advert which be heard over a large area.
Local - This a much cheaper way of advertising as it broadcasts in a smaller area.

Feedback for First Edit

In this post is the feedback that I received for my first edit of my music video.  Firstly here is my music video that I showed to my class and my media teacher.

Music Video Feedback

Good Points:

• Good use of continuous shots
• Good repetition
• Good density 
• Good adding of other visuals
• Good foreground/background
• Good that all characters did not show their own identity by using masks

Constructive Feedback

• Green Screen - could of had something projected onto it
• The use of the Muppet's could be seen as copyright as it belongs to Disney

I will into consideration these points for my next edit.

Consumer Habits

In class we learnt a few consumer habits which happen in society. Here they are.

14 - 24 year olds - 26% listen to music recommended by friends on social networks (marketing).

BMI - 22% only listen to music via social media (distribution).

From this I now know the best way of marketing and distributing my music/music video.

Music Video Concept Planning

In media we had the chance to give our music video ideas to our peers to give us feedback.This was my first/second idea that I shared.  Here is the concept that I showed to my peers.

My Concept:
My music video would be a first person view of someone going to a club. The surroundings will be sped up and the person will be walking normally. In certain parts of the video it will switch over. In the club people will be dancing and having a good time. At the bar people will be served what looks like potions in experimental bottles.

The questions that were asked to gain feedback were; What would you add? What would you change? And Why? Here are the different types of feedback I received.

Feedback 1
Maybe include a narrative/storyline? There could be scenes before and after the club as well as cutaway shots of a narrative which includes the 'potions'? By doing this it could make the video more visually interesting and give the viewer more to think about. If you have a message you want them to go away with then this will help strengthen it.

Feedback 2
Will the someone be a male or female? Why would the surrounding be sped up? Is this to make the audience feel as if the person is drunk? Also try and add a narrative so that the music has purpose.

Feedback 3
If it's just set in a club, would you consider to have some scenes like before arriving and leaving the club outside so it's like reality is outside and you see him walking into a different dimension/world. I feel one location for a whole music video would be boring and not very inventive to be honest. But I love the whole idea.

Feedback 4
Maybe manipulating the general perception of what a club is meant to be like as you have mentioned potions, maybe make them of club science. I would change the first persons view as this is not generally a good start, maybe over the shoulder shot or just the back.

Third Idea

For my third idea I decided to base it around dreams.  I like the work of Christopher Nolan and his film 'Inception'.  The main plot is about dreams.  I am going to take the Symbol of the Totem used by Leonardo De'Caprio's character 'Dom Cobb' as a symbol in my video.  This symbol will indicate if the music video is a dream or if it is reality.

The reason why I chose 'Inception' is because I think it a very unique film as it creates enigmas about reality.  It also show everybody has a different perception of reality.

However, I wanted to base my idea around video games as the music genre is similar to the music from most video games, especially retro games.

From the Techno and the video games idea I decided that my main plot would be based on dreams which are set in the video game world.

For my music idea, I would start off with the totem used in Inception to bring in the idea about dreams. From there I will have a group of friends sitting around the table talking. A few seconds later things will start to get strange and the friends will have army hats on looking like they are going to war. While this is going on it will be in the first person view. As friends are leaving there will be a big shoot out, first person will get shot and fall to the ground and wake up in a car chase. I will use this as if the first person is in a video game so there is a lot to look at. However I will make sure that I will have the totem used in each scene to make the audiance think about if this is a dream or reality

Here is the beginning to the story board of this idea.

story board by Isaac Trophies Harvey

  

The feedback I received for this idea:

• Don't let the talking go on for too long
• Make sure there is a strong performance and it must show that it is a music video
• If you have problems with finding actors use animation
• Will you keep the idea of ' it is a dream'?
• Keep the motif going ' spinnig top'
• Use visual density
• Think about practical issues.

Music Video - Aiming for As (i.e. producing the 'wow' factor)

How to devlop ideas:
One way to develop ideas is intertextuality which gives it density - 'sampling' - snippets of drum beat orchestra etc - from films/TV/video games - assembling a text out of bits of other texts ('bricolage').

Why are videos that use 'intertextuailty' popular/successful?
This is because some people can relate to certain texts by recognising different texts from a TV show or game depending on the person. People can gain values and beliefs from it. Viewers can also gain familiarity with a specific text making them feel 'clever' and influence 'knowledge'. The reason why it's successful is because it is easy to create as you would be combing already successful elements.

Lady Gaga's 'Telephone' is a great example of intertextuality. Here is why:

Lady Gaga - Telephone ft Beyonce

Caged Heat

The ways this can be seen as intertextual is...

• Female Jungle - This relates to the women in the video - 'soft-porn' fantasy women's prison - licking prison bars. 
• Sexualised prisoners/guards - women in underwear.
• Lesbians
• Electric shock scene 'tape around head/face' - Gaga also wore tape around her face/head. 
• Phone queue - Prisoners 'facing off'.
• Fight scene.
• Main woman walking down isle with two guards - Gaga is also taken down the isle with two guards. 
• Prisoners fighting.

Kill Bill

In Kill Bill the bride steals the pussy wagon and uses it throughout the film. In Telephone Gaga and Beyonce use the pussy wagon to drive away. 

Natural Born Killers

This is intertextual because...

• Sexualised dancing in diner - Lady Gaga also danced in diner.
• Killing man in diner - Beyonce poisons her boyfriend and Gaga poisons the entire diner.
• Annoying sleazy man killed.
• Dance routine - Similar to Gaga's dance.
• Swapping between black and white to colour.

Cooking Mama 

Cooking Mama is seen in Telephone when Gaga is making the poison  This is also heard as the music sounds like a computer game. 

Thelma and Louise

The holding hands at the end in the car is similar to the ending as Gaga and Beyonce.

From this I have learnt that intertextuailty is a good way to attract audience, so I will make sure that I use it for my own production.

Critical perspectives of Genre

For my preliminary project 2 our allocated genre was Gangster Rap. Here are a few artists that can be seen on CD covers, posters and videos in the Gangster Rap genre:

• 50 Cent
• Snoop Dogg
• Dr Dre
• Eminem
• Lil Wayne

Some conventions seen in the Gangster Rap genre on CD covers, posters and videos are (see in presentation below):

From this we now know what types of conventions we will need in our project. 

Is there too much sex in Music Videos?

Sexualised music videos are having a negative impact on individuals and society.

In one of our classes we had a debate on this topic. For this topic I was on the "For" side; here are some of the points that I wrote down for the argument:

• Copycat Theory - Young people/ children are influence by clothing and attitudes from music videos.
• Feminine - Sexualise females are seen as sex objects.
• Technology has a heavy influence because it is easy to access e.g. TV, Internet and Magazines.  
• Lyrics in the music influence our vocabulary.
• Cultivation - Over again and again we see the same videos.
• Young children may not understand what they are watching, can be naive.
• Most people have access to T.V and Internet etc.
• Mainly all music genres have sexual content in them either by lyrics or the visual.
• Women wear more sexual clothing to express themselves or not.
• As long as people buy and watch the music and the videos, sexualisation will exist and continue to be in music videos. 

By learning about sex in music videos I now have a better understanding of how women are portrayed in the media. This links to my production as my genre is techno music. This affects it as many techno music videos have women scantily clad, dancing in night clubs. Sometimes these women can be seen drunk and very vulnerable.

Email

I emailed my artist to try and gain permission to use his music and to gain more information about his values and beliefs.

He has not yet replied back to me, I am guessing he is okay with me using his music. In addition to this I am unable to find out what his values and beliefs are.

However I will still continue to send emails about my ideas about his music, so that is he does reply I will still be able to get feedback from him.

As you can tell from this email, I have knowledge of how to contact people within this industry.

Progression of Music Video Idea

These are some of the ideas I have thought of after working on my initial idea.

Getting to the club
For my music video, it will be a person and their friends going through the streets of London going to a nightclub. To make it different it will be in first person to create enigmas for the audience when they watch it.

When the person is travelling through London, surroundings will be going faster than normal.

When they arrive at the nightclub music shall stop. Then the audience will hear the nightclub entrance door creaking open and people talking. Music will fade in the background as the person gets closer  to the inside. The music will start again loudly.

I was thinking about a location similar to the picture below.



Club scene

Inside the club the person would look around seeing other people paroding/replicating other music videos. At the bar they will be serving drinks which look like experiments to fit in with the experimental genre. Also, I would be adding other scenes from films and video games. This will allow me to have intertextuality in my music video.

Initial Ideas for My Music Video

My artists style of music is targeted to an audience that like a mixture of different styles. I have chosen to use 'A Sunshine Paradigm' (when clicked on link it's the first track on the right). I was going to use the idea of the 'dance floor' setting for my video as the style in this song is slightly similar to dance music or music you would hear in a club. Here is a few first ideas I thought of for my music video:

Travelling to club

• First person view of someone in a car going to a club in London.
• View will be of the road and buildings - surroundings will be going faster than normal.
• When arrive at club music stops - hear door creaking and people talking.
• Music will start faint in background when approaching doors leading to inside of club.
• When inside the the club music will start loudly again.

Club scene

• Parody of dance moves from other music videos.
• First person view looks left - view of couple kissing.
• Looks right- view of a group dancing.
• Front view - dance floor, people doing the paraody of dance moves.
• Travelling through dancefloor - first person looking left and right - clubbers shouting - waving arms - drinks raised - clubbers hand looks as though patting first person's shoulder. 

Dance Parodies

• Thriller - Michael Jackson
• Gangnam Style (I would have babies dancing to this, I got this idea from the Evian Roller Babies advert)
• Carlton dance (one guy on his own)
• YMCA (costume idea)
• Macarena 
• Singin' in the Rain (outside the club)
• Dirty Dancing
• Cha Cha Slide
• MC Hammer- You can't touch this