Central Learning Centre/ Garageband Training

Today, our media class had a trip to the Central Learning Centre in Enfield to learn how to use the Garage Band programme on the Apple Mac computers. As we are not allowed to use music from other artists for our music video due to copy write purposes, we have to try and produce a song of our own by using the Garage Band programme. The Central Enfield City Learning Centre gave us a comfortable atmosphere for us to be able to advance our portfolios by using the latest developments of the software that has been released. We learnt how to:

- Create new songs.
- Record our own instruments.
- Search through different loops and apply pre-recorded loops of different instruments.
- Arrange and mix songs and loops.
- Change certain characteristics of the loops.
- Apply, or record singing.

Here is an example of what the Garage Band programme looks like.

During the tutorial of Garage Band, my group learnt additional information of our chosen genre, ‘Pop’. The tutor gave us a few facts about the choruses and versus. He made it clear that the chorus is the ‘sing along’ part of the song whilst the verse is the ‘story’. The chorus usually repeats itself many times and the melody and the lyrics are exactly the same, however depending on the song they may change slightly. Whereas the verse tends to change all the time as it tells the story. With the verse, it changes every time and the melody stays the same as the story progresses. Relating this to Pop music, there are other parts to this genre of music for example: the intro, the bridge and the outro. The tutor also reinforced us that Pop music in particular usually has a strong beat and follows the 4/4 time signature.

Criteria of Advanced Portfolio

In today’s lesson we went over the criteria for our Advanced Portfolio’s. We already know that our portfolios are based on the production of a promotion package for the release of an album, however there are three main tasks which are:


1) Main task – Produce a music promo video
2) Ancillary task one – Produce a website homepage for the band
3) Ancillary task two – Produce a CD/DVD cover for the release of album as part of a digipak

We also discussed what the requirements for our blogs are. Our blogs must include the research, planning and evaluation of our promotion package; however the key evaluation questions need to be answered. The questions are:

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

2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

4) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Our Chosen Genre/ History of Pop

My group and I have come to the final decision that our chosen genre for our promotional music video would be Pop/Rock. We have researched the mainstream genres and we have all realised that our favourite genre was all the same, so it was an easy decision to choose the genre we wanted. We also came to realise that this genre was mainly aimed at a young target audience. We realised this by watching a number of music videos of this genre of music. We also realised that the specific age group for this genre of music was mainly teenagers; this gave us more motivation to find out what ideas we could gain from these music videos to use in our music video as we could relate to our audience relatively easily because we would be of a similar age. Also, since every group member enjoys this genre of music, it would motivate us to work hard on our coursework and we would all contribute to the project.

To get closer to our chosen genre of music, I thought it would be a good idea if I researched the history of Pop, and possibly how it has changed over time. So, by doing this I have researched a timeline of the events in Pop music which has obviously made an impact of how Pop music is today. The timeline consists of the 50 moments that shaped Pop history.


The 50s
1954Elvis Presley records 'That's All Right Mama' at Sun Studios, Memphis
Rock'n'roll's big bang. A 19-year-old truck driver fulfils producer Sam Phillips's dream of finding 'a white guy who sings like a negro'. There were rock'n'roll records before this one, nearly all of them by black artists, but this is the moment when the embryonic form found its perfect embodiment.

1955Chuck Berry's 'Maybellene' is released
'Maybellene' was Berry's first paean to cars and girls, two of the constants of American rock'n'roll. His guitar and songwriting style permeated the music of the Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys and Bruce Springsteen.

1958Elvis joins the army
When he was drafted at 23, Elvis's blatant sexual energy was still the cause of mass moral pandemonium. When he emerged from the army two years later, he sounded old-fashioned and emasculated. 1960's inflated tearjerker 'It's Now or Never' was the moment the first rock rebel turned MOR entertainer.

The 60s
1961 The miracles' 'Shop Around' is released
The first hit bearing the Tamla Motown imprint. The pop-soul label owned by Berry Gordy and operating from downtown Detroit produced more than 100 singles by the likes of Stevie Wonder, the Supremes and the Temptations. Dubbed the Hit Factory, it defined the pop decade more than any other label.

1962Phil Spector invents the Wall of Sound
Spector was the first producer as creative artist - and tyrant - treating his vocal groups as just another component in the production process. On multilayered 'wall of sound' songs such as the Crystals' 'He's a Rebel' and the Ronettes' 'Be My Baby', he was the first person to make pop sound epic.

1962 James Brown: Live at the Apollo
The first million-selling r'n'b album, and a dynamic snapshot of the greatest soul act ever to tread the boards. Brown's influence on modern music is immeasurable, beginning with his impact on Sixties Mod groups and continuing apace with his presence in contemporary urban music.

1964The Beatles take America
Already the most popular pop group in Europe, the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan's television show in early 1964. The following month, 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' shot to the top of the US charts, swiftly followed by their four previous singles. In March 1964, they occupied the top five chart positions in America. Beatlemania was born.

1964 Bob Dylan turns the Beatles on
The Beatles met Dylan at the Hotel Delmonico in New York on 28 August. He offered to roll a joint, and the Fab Four had to admit they had never partaken before. 'Until then we'd been scotch and Coke men,' McCartney would say later. 'It sort of changed that evening.'

1965 LSD hits the streets
Errant chemist Augustus Stanley Owsley III, completed his first batch of home-made LSD in May 1965. The hallucinogen would dramatically transform pop culture over the following two years, making San Francisco the centre of hippydom and begetting Sgt. Pepper's, Pet Sounds and an entire genre called acid rock.

1965Bob Dylan releases 'Like a Rolling Stone'
As momentous in its way as Presley's first single, Dylan's great stream-of-consciousness song clocked in at six minutes and singlehandedly ended the era of the formulaic sub-three-minute pop single. Dense, elliptical and caustic, it marked the high point of Dylan's most intensely creative period - January 1965 to July 1966. The birth of the modern rock song as we know it.

July 1965 Dylan plays the Newport Folk Festival
In leather jacket and shades, Dylan walked on stage clutching an electric guitar, and all hell broke loose. As a statement of intent, it was direct and provocative and, while the audience jeered and Pete Seeger tried to chop though the power cables, Dylan blasted the protest-folk era into pop prehistory.

1965 The Who: 'My Generation'
The Who were the most aggressive - and the artiest - British pop group of the mid-Sixties. Pete Townshend dressed in Union Jack suits, smashed his guitar and wrote songs that perfectly caught the rising tide of teen frustration. The stuttered teen snarl of 'My Generation' remains one of the key moments in British pop, and the most potent evocation of Mod elitism and amphetamine-fuelled aggression ever committed to vinyl.

1965 The Rolling Stones' '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' is released
Keith Richards creates the most famous riff in rock and a still youthful Jagger sounds suddenly bored and petulant. The moment the group transcended their American influences and broke America. In retrospect, an omen of all the indulgence and dissolution that was to come.
1966The Beatles record 'Tomorrow Never Knows'

Forget the inflated period piece that is Sgt. Pepper's - this was the moment when the Beatles went psychedelic. Tucked at the end of Revolver , 'Tomorrow Never Knows' was an acid trip turned into a pop song. It still sounds startling in its sonic invention.

1966 Brian Wilson makes Pet Sounds
While the rest of the Beach Boys toured their greatest hits, Brian Wilson stayed at home in his studio and created pop's enduring masterpiece - and his swansong. Sad songs tied to the most intricate arrangements, it baffled the rest of the band though their vocal harmonising has never sounded so sublime. It was followed by 'Good Vibrations' which still sounds as close to perfection as a pop single has ever come.

February 1967 The Redlands drug bust
The Rolling Stones enshrined their reputation as rock'n'roll outlaws when Mick and Keith were arrested in the latter's Surrey mansion for possession of hash and amphetamines. In court, Richards was given a one-year jail sentence and Jagger three months, prompting the famous Times editorial, 'Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?' On appeal, they were both acquitted.

1967 The Velvet Underground and Nico LP is released
Recorded in new York in 1966 but released the following year, the Velvet Underground's debut album was the antithesis of the LSD-fuelled optimism that characterised West Coast rock. Musically, it merged avant-garde experimentalism with pummelling, repetitive rock, while the often graphic songs touched on outré subjects such as heroin use and sadomasochism. Produced by Andy Warhol and wrapped in his now famous banana sleeve, the album was reviled on initial release, but is now regarded by many as the most influential rock record ever made.

1969 Jimi Hendrix Plays 'The Star Spangled Banner' at the Woodstock Festival
Woodstock, which attracted half-a-million rock fans, was the most dramatic mass flowering of the hippy ideal and, as with all defining moments, the beginning of the end of that same ideal. Hendrix's startling assault on the American national anthem was interpreted at the time as a political statement against the Vietnam war but in retrospect can be read as a swan song for the era of peace and love, and for Hendrix himself. He died in his sleep the following year.

1969 The Rolling Stones play Altamont
It seems somehow fitting that the Rolling Stones, by then the self-styled Satanic Majesties of rock indulgence and excess, should hold the wake for the death of the Sixties. Altamont was the antithesis of Woodstock, culminating with the murder of Meredith Hunter, a young black man who was bludgeoned to death by members of the Californian Hell's Angels who had been hired to provide security. The end of the hippy era.

1969 The Stooges' first album is released
The greatest and most influential garage band ever, Detroit's the Stooges made stripped-down, dumb and dirty rock'n'roll like no one else. Fronted by Iggy Pop, the most outrageously self-destructive showman rock has yet thrown up, their debut album, though dismissed in its day, remains the template for punk rock in all its manifestations, from the Sex Pistols to the White Stripes.

The 70s
1970Black Sabbath release their first album
Though rock critics pinpoint the Kinks' 'You Really Got Me' from 1964 as the first proto-heavy metal single, this is the moment the form was defined in all its loud, lumpen, pounding glory. Four hairy lads from Brum sing improbable songs about Satan, death and apocalypse over mind-numbingly repetitive riffs. A genre is born.

1971 Marvin Gaye: What's Going On?
One of the few instances of an artist having total creative control and producing a masterpiece. Dismissed by Berry Gordy, Gaye's boss at Motown, as commercial suicide, the first soul concept album tackled Vietnam, racism and inner-city strife. A huge hit, it paved the way for the radical Seventies soul of Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield and Stevie Wonder.

1971 King Tubby and Lee Perry create the template for modern dance music
Osbourne Ruddock, aka King Tubby, was an engineer who experimented with echo and tape delay as far back as the mid-Sixties when he ran one of Jamaica's many mobile sound systems. His innovation was to strip a song down just to the bass pulse, then fade the vocals and instrumentation in and out at will, leaving space for the toasters - or DJs - to extemporise over the top. Dub was born and found its most innovative producer in Lee Perry, who is as influential in his way as Brian Wilson or Phil Spector. Modern dance music as we know it begins here.

1972 David Bowie creates Ziggy Stardust
In January, Bowie told an interviewer: 'I'm gay, and always have been.' Whatever the truth of the statement, it announced the imminent arrival of his androgynous alter ego, unveiled the following June on Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars . The first of Bowie s many exotic personae, and the moment that launched glam rock. Perhaps the most influential album of the decade.

1973 Gram Parsons dies at the Joshua Tree Inn
It is debatable whether Parsons invented country rock, but he remains its most visionary exponent. Only 26 when he died from a heroin overdose, he left his stamp on three classic albums: Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968), The Gilded Palace of Sin (1969), and Grievous Angel (1973). Thirty years on, he remains the defining presence in America's thriving alternative country scene.

1974 Kraftwerk release 'Autobahn'
Kraftwerk signalled the coming of the machine age, creating sleek computerised pop in their state-of-the-art Düsseldorf studio. This 22-minute opus to the monotony of the German motorway system reached the US and British charts in an edited version, and subsequently became a huge influence on hip hop, house and techno.

1975 Bob Marley & the Wailers: 'No Woman, No Cry' released
Bob Marley & the Wailers' first hit single, and the beginning of Marley s reign as an international reggae star. As important a catalyst as Dylan or Lennon, he remains the only reggae artist to achieve iconic status. His death in 1981 robbed the music of its one and only global icon.

1975 Patti Smith: Horses
Bearing one of rock's most iconic images - Robert Mapplethorpe's stark portrait of Smith in an oversized white shirt - Horses merged mysticism, beat poetry and proto-punk rock, transcending the sum of its influences by sheer force of will. It remains remarkable in its lyrical ambition and raw musical simplicity, and signals the coming punk era even as it harks back to the Romantics. One of rock's great leaps of faith.

1977 Saturday Night Fever goes on general release
Travolta and the Bee Gees bring disco overground. The film, though cack-handed and corny in its evocation of New York s downtown disco scene, propelled a struggling white actor and an unhip vocal group into the forefront of a global dance phenomenon. The biggest-selling soundtrack ever.

1977 n 'God Save the Queen' goes to 'Number One'
The last and greatest outbreak of pop-based moral pandemonium, and punk's crowning glory. Released at the height of the Queen's Jubilee celebrations, the Sex Pistols' single was deemed so unspeakable that workers in a record plant refused to press it and official chart compilers refused to acknowledge its chart-topping position. It sounds gloriously irreverent now; back then it was nothing short of incendiary.

1978 Brian Eno releases Ambient 1: Music for Airports
The moment when texture rather than song becomes an essential element in modern pop. Music for Airports is Eno's first experiment with the notion of ambience - modern mood music. His influence, like the music he produced, was slow and pervasive, but is detectable in everyone from U2 to Massive Attack.

The 80s
8 December 1980The murder of John Lennon
Mark Chapman's shooting of John Lennon on the doorstep of the star's New York home shocked the world. That Chapman was a fan, and someone who craved celebrity himself, only added to the chilling unreality of the moment. 'The world is not like the Sixties,' Lennon said in the last interview before his death. 'The world has changed.' The first, and most chilling, manifestation of the dark side of our obsession with celebrity.

1981'Ghost Town' goes to Number One
The Specials were the last and greatest flowering of the socially conscious pop that emerged in Britain in the immediate wake of punk. They invented the short-lived but vibrant Two Tone movement, whose merging of reggae rhythms and punk lyricism reflected the multiculturalism of urban Britain. 'Ghost Town' was a lament for their beleaguered home town, Coventry, an anti-Thatcherist song that topped the pop charts at the very moment the country was torn by inner-city riots. Pop as on-the-spot reportage.

1981Grandmaster Flash's 'Adventures on the Wheels of Steel' is released
Rap's first landmark single, and the first record to use samples. Snippets of songs by Queen, Blondie and Chic were collaged into one long seamless groove by DJ Flash. 'The Message', released the following year, was a chart hit on both sides of the Atlantic, and broke new ground by replacing the usual lyrical boasting with trenchant social commentary.

1981The launch of MTV
The pivotal moment when the pop video became as important as the pop single. The first television channel devoted totally to music, MTV has grown into a global brand as all-pervasive as Coca-Cola or Nike, colonising and dulling the collective pop consciousness with the tyranny of the rotation play.

1982Michael Jackson: Thriller released
The biggest-selling pop record of all time, Thriller made Michael Jackson a global icon. Then only 25, he had made his debut at the age of four and had his first hit at 12 sharing the charts with the likes of Jimi Hendrix and the Doors, and was already the subject of much media speculation concerning his eternal childhood. In the light of all that has happened since, it is worth remembering that he was once a pop genius.

1983The Smiths: 'This Charming Man'
Their second single and first hit, 'This Charming Man' had a signature sound that would establish the Smiths as the most important British group of the Eighties. Johnny Marr's chiming guitar and Morrissey's odd, genderless lyrics combined to give a new spin to what was essentially a classic rock sound. Quintessentially English, they singlehandedly reclaimed guitar pop in a decade when it had almost been consigned to the dustbin of history.

1983New Order: 'Blue Monday'
A pivotal moment in British pop, and the bestselling British 12-inch single ever. New Order were the first indie band to absorb the technical innovations of American dance music. 'Blue Monday' merged their trademark detached vocals with a futuristic, computer-driven beat that harked back to disco, and had a huge influence on the sample-driven hip hop and house music that would emerge from New York, Chicago and Detroit later in the decade.

1984 Ronald Reagan co-opts Bruce Springsteen's 'Born in the USA'
Generally regarded as the world's greatest living rock'n'roll star, Springsteen's most successful song was also his most bombastic. The lyrics are about a Vietnam veteran on the poverty line, but it was the rousing, anthemic chorus that attracted Ronald Reagan, who used it during his 1984 re-election campaign. Springsteen was appalled. His music, thankfully, has never sounded so strident since.

1985Madonnna's 'Material Girl' is released
The single that propelled Madonna beyond the mainstream and made her the most successful pop brand of modern times. Tied to a video in which she mimicked Monroe, it was the first and most audacious of her various self-inventions, a song that caught the consumerist thrust of the Eighties, even as it supposedly parodied the same.

1985Live Aid
A great moment for charity, a dreadful moment for pop. Two all-star concerts organised by Saint Bob Geldof and beamed live into millions of homes worldwide, the event raised £50 million for charity. One of the greatest philanthropic events of all time, but the moment when pop became enshrined as pure showbiz entertainment.

1987Prince's 'Sign 'O' the Times'
Prince was the most prodigiously gifted singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist to emerge in the Eighties. Momentarily ditching the sexual thrust of his earlier music, he created the most perfect merging of dancefloor funk and social commentary since the heyday of politically conscious Seventies soul.

1988Madchester and the second summer of love
The moment that dance culture moved from the clubs of Chicago and Detroit into the heart of British pop culture and the beginning of the era of the superstar DJ. Clubs such as London's Shoom and Manchester's Hacienda became the new temples of ecstasy-fuelled hedonism, and by the summer illegal raves were attracting druggy revellers in their thousands. Manchester became the centre of post-rave British pop, producing the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays, two of the most crucial bands to emerge from the post-acid house scene.

1988NWA: 'Fuck tha Police'
The birth of gangsta rap. A record so extreme it was banned by radio and MTV and brought the record company, Ruthless, a warning from the FBI. It kickstarted the career of Dr Dre, the most successful rap producer ever, and made Los Angeles rather than New York the centre of hip hop. The machismo and nihilism that fed this record reached an apogee of sorts with the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.

The 90s
1992 Nirvana: 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'
The single that catapulted Nirvana into the mainstream. A heady mix of metal and punk, with a structural dynamic that alternated Cobain's whisper with his guttural scream, it said all there was to say about America's lost 'Generation X', defining a strain of solipsistic angst that continues to echo through white American rock music.

1995Blur v Oasis
Britpop's big stand-off. Orchestrated by their respective record labels - and hyped by the pop and mainstream media - Blur and Oasis went head to head, releasing singles on the same day. Neither were any good, but Blur's 'Country House' was spectacularly bad. It went straight in at Number One.A couple of years later, when Oasis had eclipsed Blur as the biggest band in Britain, Noel Gallagher would be summoned to a New Labour victory party in Downing Street. The beginning of the end of Britpop and the hype that was Cool Britannia.

MAY 1995 The Spice Girls meet Simon Fuller
The Spice Girls were the most unlikely teen-pop phenomenon of the Nineties, not least because they were the first all-girl band in an era dominated by manufactured boy bands. They fused pop, rap and a strident, if inconsistent, 'girl power' message, and their meteoric rise was overseen by Simon Fuller, perhaps the most influential player in modern British pop. In retrospect, their first single, 'Wannabe', was a harbinger of all that followed, from Posh to Pop Idol .

The 00s
2000 The birth of Napster
A word that still strikes fear into the heart of music business fat cats. Launched by 19-year-old Shawn Fanning from his uncle's garage, Napster was the download service that provided free music to an estimated 100 million users in 2000.Now legal, downloading marks the end of traditional music formats as we know them.

2001George Bush declares Eminem 'The biggest threat to American youth since Polio'
At the height of his notoriety Eminem, who had singlehandedly made rap a medium for the kind of solipsistic whining usually expressed by pampered white guys with guitars, received the kind of endorsement even the biggest promo budget could not buy. Two years later, a poll of American parents found that 53 per cent agreed that 'America's youth find more truth in Eminem than George Bush'.

October 2003Beyonc&#149 and the triumpth of R&B
Last October, for the first time since the dawn of rock'n'roll 50 years ago, none of the artists in the official Billboard American Top 10 was white. The ascendancy of rap and contemporary R&B as the music of choice for young Americans, black and white, was total and irrefutable (most notably Alicia Keyes, 50 Cent and OutKast). If the music has a figurehead, it is Beyoncé Knowles, the only woman in that Top 10 and currently the biggest pop star of the new century.

Mainstream Genres

There are many different genres of music which range from Classical music to Modern Rap. Music genres have different cultures so therefore each different genre will be created in its own particular way. As you may have noticed different genres consist of various characteristics which differentiate from one another. I will focus on looking at the characteristics of Pop, R'n'B, Rock and Classical.

Pop

Pop music is a music genre that developed from the mid-1950's as a softer alternative to rock 'n' roll and later to rock music. Pop music is generally described as very commercially friendly, marketable and memorable, with either vocals, lyrics, instruments, or a combination of all three creating catchy choruses or verses, this usually helps it to attract a youth market. Pop music is also known for its ability to attract listeners through its versatile sound since it pulls from a plethora of musical influences. It can be also fair to say that pop music is predominantly image driven, especially through the subject matter of the lyrics, live performances, music videos, and other forms of exposure which makes it favourable and unfavourable to whoever is the listener. This genre of music usually contains short and simple love songs. Although pop music is often seen as oriented towards the singles charts, as a genre it is not the sum of all chart music, which have always contained songs from a variety of sources, including classical, jazz, rock and novelty songs, while pop music as a genre is usually seen as existing and developing separately. While these basic elements of the genre have remained fairly constant, pop music has absorbed influences from most other forms of popular music, particularly borrowing from the development of rock music, and utilizing key technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.

Characteristics

- A focus on the individual song or singles, rather than on extended works or albums.

- An aim of appealing to a general audience, rather than to a particular sub-culture or ideology.

- An emphasis on craftsmanship rather than formal "artistic" qualities.

- An emphasis on recording, production, and technology, over live performance. - A tendency to reflect existing trends rather than progressive developments.


Here is an example of a typical Pop song, Taylor Swift - Love Story.

R'n'B

Contemporary R&B (also known as R&B) is a music genre of wester popular music. Although the acronym “R&B” originates from its association with traditional rhythm and blues music, the term R&B is today most often used to define a style of African American music originating after the demise of disco in the 1980s. This newer style combines elements of soul, funkk, dance, and, from 1986 on with the advent of New Jack Swing branded R&B, hip hop.
The abbreviation R&B is almost always used instead of the full rhythm and blues term, although some sources refer to the style as urban contemporary (the name of the radio format that plays hip hop and contemporary R&B).Contemporary R&B has a slick record production style, drum machine-backed rhythms, the occasional saxophone laced beat to give a jazz feel (mostly common in R&B songs prior to the year 1993), and a smooth, lush style of vocal arrangement. Uses of hip hop-inspired beats are typical, although the roughness and grit inherent in hip hop is may be reduced and smoothed out. R&B vocalists are often known for their use of melisma, popularized by vocalists such as Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey.

Characteristics

- Rhythm and blues bands usually consisted of piano, one or two guitars, bass, drums and the saxophone.

- However, contemporary R’n’B does not use as many instruments due to modern technology.
- Simple repetitive versus are common to help create mellow, individual sounds.

- Singers are emotionally engaged with the lyrics, often intensely so, they remain cool, relaxed and in control.

-Lyrics are usually relaxed.

Here is an example of a typical R'n'B song, The way I are - Timbaland.

Rock

Rock music is a genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the 1960s. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country music and also drew on folk music, jazz and classical music.
The sound of rock often revolves around the guitar back beat laid down by a rhythm section of electric bass guitar, drums, and keyboard instruments such as organ, piano, or, since the 1970s, synthesizers. Along with the guitar or keyboards, saxophone and blues-style harmonica are sometimes used as soloing instruments. In its "purest form", it "has three chords, a strong, insistent back beat, and a catchy melody.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, rock music developed different subgenres. When it was blended with folk music it created folk rock, with blues to create blues-rock and with jazz, to create jazz-rock fusion. In the 1970s, rock incorporated influences from soul, funk, and Latin music. Also in the 1970s, rock developed a number of subgenres, such as soft rock, glam rock, heavy metal, hard rock, progressive rock, and punk rock. Rock subgenres that emerged in the 1980s included new wave, hardcore punk and alternative rock. In the 1990s, rock subgenres included grunge, Britpop, indie rock, and nu metal.
A group of musicians specializing in rock music is called a rock band or rock group. Many rock groups consist of an electric guitarist, lead singer, bass guitarist, and a drummer, forming a quartet. Some groups omit one or more of these roles and/or utilize a lead singer who plays an instrument while singing, sometimes forming a trio or duo; others include additional musicians such as one or two rhythm guitarists and/or a keyboardist. More rarely, groups also utilize stringed instruments such as violins or cellos, woodwind instruments such as saxophones, and brass instruments such as trumpets or trombones.

Characteristics

- Rock music is commonly identified by its strong rhythms, singable melodies, and fast tempo.

- A typical rock band consists of three guitars which are usually the lead, rhythm and bass. A rock band also has vocals, a keyboard and a drum kit.

- A typical rock song would follow this pattern:

Introduction

Verse 1

Chorus

Verse 2

Chorus

Solo Instrumental Section (middle 8/bridge)

Verse 3

Chorus

Coda (Outro)

Here is an example of a typical rock song, Papa Roach - Last Resort.

Classical

Classical music is often distinguished by its wide use of instruments of varying tones and pitches to create a deep, rich sound. The different movements of classical music were affected largely by the invention and modification of instruments throughout time. While classical music has no "set" of instruments required to fulfill certain standards, composers wrote for orchestras, wind ensembles, or various combinations of instruments for chamber music. Not to be forgotten is the human voice, which has invented its own series of classical music, the Opera. It was not uncommon for classical composers to also write solo pieces for a specific instrument, accompanied by piano or whatever group the composer deemed fit.
The instruments used in most classical music were largely invented before the mid-19th century (often much earlier), and codified in the 18th and 19th centuries. They consist of the instruments found in an orchestra, together with a few other solo instruments (such as the piano, harpsichord, and organ).
Electric instruments such as the electric guitar appear occasionally in the classical music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Both classical and popular musicians have experimented in recent decades with electronic instruments such as the synthesizer, electric and digital techniques such as the use of sampled or computer-generated sounds, and the sounds of instruments from other cultures such as the gamelan.

Characteristics

- Usually, classic pieces of music go up to 8 minutes long.

- Classical music usually consists of instruments that would be part of the orchestra, most of the time the orchestra will consist of instruments such as the piano, harpsichord and the organ.

Here is an example of a typical classical piece, Ahn Trio - Butterfly Lovers.

Gender Representation in Hip Hop - Analysis of 50 Cent's 'P.I.M.P'

We were looking at different music videos and how male and females were represented differently. There is quite an obvious visibility of how males are represented a lot differently compared to women in many of 50 Cent’s videos, especially in this particular one.
- Women are represented as sexual objects as they are wearing skimpy, lacy white lingerie.
- In the beginning of the video, everyone is dressed in white, including the men. White is the colour of purity and to some extent angelic. However, what is happening in the video is not angelic; it is in fact indecent, therefore portraying something that is wrong as right.
- The women can be considered to be treated as pets.
- The women are presented as being property – commodified alongside luxury cars, Rolex etc.
- Eyes are averted from the camera allowing the viewer a ‘voyeuristic’ relationship.
- The women are presented as ‘vacuous’ – no signs of having intelligence, thought, humour, anger or emotion.
- Apparent sexual objectification and degradation.

When taking into consideration the masculinity and the mediation of 50 Cent, many aspects have been carefully thought of to give 50 Cent this image, such as:
- Carefully constructed image designed to sell records.
- Success relies heavily on stereotyped ideas about ‘blackness/the black male’.
- Occupies a universe of status symbols: Bentley’s, Bling etc.
- An outlaw; A survivor of the ‘ghetto’: shot at 9 times: a former crack dealer etc.
- Display of potentially explosive testosterone.

Overall, women were represented as:
- Objects/decorations
- Commodifies
- Passive
- Slaves
- Dressed in underwear
- Use of a voyeuristic ‘male gaze’
- Revealing low angle shots used
- Close ups of body parts in sexualised positions

Overall, a number of ways were used to help represent men in a certain light such as:
- Low angles used to signify power and intimidation.
- The colour ‘white’ used to connote 50 Cent as ‘God’.
- Close ups of status symbols used throughout alongside the setting of a luxurious mansion to signify power, wealth and ownership.

Patriarchal Society

A theory in which the illustrations of Kid Rock and P Diddy demonstrate is the theory of a patriarchal society, in which men hold the power and authority in society which results in women lacking status and being undermined. This idea is shown in society, for example, in government where men hold the most power over the country and are over represented in the House of Commons. Men also as a result of this gain better wages compared to women as they appear discredited to society. In the 1960’s and 70’s woman began to react to the way in which they were treated within the media. They were stereotyped as being either a mother whose private sphere was based around family and the home but if not that then immediately they were classed as a whore and a sexual object to men. However, in contemporary society nowadays, women are becoming gradually more equal to men by being able to gain an education and persue a career, which has resulted in them not only being represented in the media as a whore or a motherese figurine.

Coventry Patmore in his poem Angel in the house is referring to his wife as being the ideal wife of the Victorian times. In the poem the angel is seen to be passive, powerless, graceful, sympathetic and pure. The ideal wife is portrayed as being devoted and submissive.


Man must be pleased; but him to please
Is woman's pleasure; down the gulf
Of his condoled necessities
She casts her best, she flings herself.
How often flings for nought, and yokes
Her heart to an icicle or whim,
Whose each impatient word provokes
Another, not from her, but him;
While she, too gentle even to force
His penitence by kind replies,
Waits by, expecting his remorse,
With pardon in her pitying eyes;
And if he once, by shame oppress'd,
A comfortable word confers,
She leans and weeps against his breast,
And seems to think the sin was hers;
Or any eye to see her charms,
At any time, she's still his wife,
Dearly devoted to his arms;
She loves with love that cannot tire;
And when, ah woe, she loves alone,
Through passionate duty love springs higher,
As grass grows taller round a stone.

Gender Representation in Music

We decided to begin our research by analyzing the ways the two genders are represented in the music industry. We started this by looking at famous album and magazine covers which contain images of both males and females. It is noticeable at your first glance of the covers how the males and females are represented very differently.


Here is an example of how a magazine cover can represent males and females very noticeably different.

Rolling Stone Magazine Cover - Kid Rock

- The male is placed in front of the name of the magazine, however the text at the bottom of the cover is placed in front of the women – this could symbolise the male to have superiority.
- The male is in the centre showing that he is the centre of attention.
- Women are represented as sex objects.
- This magazine cover could be considered to be egotistical because it makes the man appear good in the eyes of other men.
- The male is wearing red – usually women wear that colour when trying to appear promiscuous as the colour red usually holds sexual connotations.
- The women are posing provocatively.
- Their legs are positioned upwards – possibly symbolising possessiveness.
- The man is the only person looking at the camera, his head is also tilted upwards slightly, making it appear that he is looking down at the camera – this helps to give him an arrogant appearance.
- One of the women has their hands on the woman in front of her; this could show that lesbian activity might be taking place between the women. This shows sexuality but it also catches the male gaze as men tend to sometimes like lesbians.
- Some of the women are looking at the women they are standing next to, this might show jealously between the females and could show that there is bitchiness between the females.

Here is one of P Diddy's album covers.

- The woman is always wearing fewer clothes than the man.
- The woman again, is portraying herself as a sexual object.
- The woman is clinging on to P.Diddy, however he is literally using her as a piece of furniture.
- This album cover could again, be considered as egotistical like the one above with Kid Rock, as P.Diddy could appear a role model to other men.
- P.Diddy is wearing a suit – this could represent elegance and also power, especially compared to the naked woman next to him.
- The woman’s hair is placed unnaturally over her face which helps to put the main focus on her body. This helps to portray her even more as a piece of furniture and as a sexual object.
- This album cover helps to promote promiscuity.
- The soft and subtle lighting could possibly be trying to represent what happens behind the scenes.
- The image of the close up of P.Diddy’s face is a way of focusing on only him as there is nothing else in the image to focus on apart from his face.

Having also analysing other music videos, album covers and magazine covers, it is clear that women are mainly represented as being sexual objects and it is very rare to see a woman next to a man without her being represented in this way. This helps women to be degraded compared to men, therefore showing that the society we live in consists of a lot of patriachy (an influence of practices and ideologies which favour the masculine over the feminine).

Introduction to Music

To introduce myself to the production of music videos and the music industry, I decided to make a decision as to what my favourite song was that had a striking music video that was able to draw the attention of many audiences. By doing this, I am able to make an analysis of the mise-en-scene, lighting, camera angles/movement and sound to come to a conclusion as to what various techniques the producers used to make the whole production of the song so addressing towards the audience. By doing this, I am then able to gain some kind of awakening for the presentation of my group’s promotional music video.

Here is the single cover to Michael Jackson's single 'Smooth Criminal'.

- The long shot image of Michael Jackson with his arm in the air is in front of all the other images on the front cover, showing he is dominating the cover making that specific image of him the centre of attention. Also, light is shining on him from above making him appear to be ‘in the spotlight’ as usual and possibly ‘godly’.

- The way that the rainbow is placed directly behind the leading image of him that is placed at the front, could possibly symbolise his creative and wild imagination but it could also be a technique to draw children’s attention as it is very colourful and playful looking.

- The way in which there is a spaceship and children looking up at it could be a way of signifying that there is some kind of storyline to the song, however it could also be to catch the children’s attention as it is something you would see on the front cover of a child’s storybook.

- The range of different angled shots such as a long shot, close up and other angled shots could be a way of representing the different perspectives that people may have towards the song and the video. It could also be a way of showing the different perspectives that Michael Jackson includes in the music video as well.

- The white font of writing used is effective in standing out against the black background, making the name catch your eye when placed on a shelf next to other CD covers.