Choices of Style

Throughout the construction of our promotional music video, the production team and I kept analysing the various elements in music videos to relate to ours so that we are using the conventions for music videos in our pop/rock music genre. I personally, noticed that in Avril Lavigne's music video ''Sk8er Boi", she uses various aspects which were used in the creation and development of my music video, which also helped us to make final decisions:

- There is the use of an urban area which is made apparent in outside shots to establish the setting.

- There is a narrative throughout the music video, which is to do with boyfriends/girlfriends/relationships.

- Characters are of the same age (teenage)

- There is the use of teenage stereotypes such as the ''grunger/goth/skater boy'' and the fashionable and popular girl, who could also be stereotyped into the group of ''cliques''

- The ''skater boy'' wore dull, black clothing, which helped us to come to a final decision that black would be the best colour for the ''goth'' in our music video. This was made apparent in society within the stereotypes, and this particular music video reconfirmed this.

- This music video shows youth like behaviour such as messing around with cars and acting animal like in the street, we related the theme of showing youthful behaviour in our music video by releasing it through the youthful and fun side to relationships instead since that was what our narrative was based on

- The lyrics during the music video syncronize with the narrative through having scenes which reflect the lyrics narrative, for example ''he was a punk, she did ballet, what more can I say?''. During these lyrics scenes consisting of the ''punk'' and the ''clique girl'' were present, we also did the construction of our music video in order to make the storyline as unambiguous as possible.

Album Magazine Advertisement's Analysis

After looking at the conventions of magazine advertisement's, I thought it would be useful to do some analyses of three different magazine advertisements that advertise albums to look at their presentation, and the ways in which certain artists decide to make synergy between their album cover and their magazine advertisement.

Here at the few I chose to analyse.

Analysis of a Digipak

It is most commonly known that the majority of digipaks have six panels, and it is rarely seen that digipaks have any less than that, however I have possession of a digipak which happens to have only two panels consisting of the front cover and the back. I would have originally chosen to have made a thorough analysis of a digipak consisting of more however I am unable to access one at this moment in time. Evanescence is a Pop/Rock band which is the same genre to our chosen song despite the fact that this particular band has more of a Rock vibe to their music compared to mine.


Front Cover

- The image of the woman on this front cover is the most eye catching point of the digipak cover because it appears that everything in this image is evolving around her even though she is not situated directly in the centre of the composition of the album cover. Her image could possibly give away connotations as to the band members identities, such as the long white/cream dress suggesting connotations of innocence and maybe purity. This could be symbolic of the bands main female singer. Also her pose appears relatively vulnerable with the way in which she looks back over her shoulder. This could be to connotate, again, the lead female singer of the band and how she might possibly be in a vulnerable position as she is in the spotlight compared to the rest of the band because of her status. ( This could be classified as main convention on a CD front cover: an eye catching image that is representative of a band/band member.)

- The colour-scheme of the front cover is literally half black and half gold. The image of the female is of her looking over her shoulder into the darkness of the black side. Some people could perceive this as having some meaning behind it, or maybe even some kind of narrative. Nonetheless, linking this to genre of music, this could be symbolising the two faces of music this band has for example, the softer rock songs that this band sometimes produces compared to the heavier rock songs. Moreover, this black could depict the sense of mystery the band still wishes to hold from their audience.

- The female in the picture is very pale with dark eyes and is not smiling which could be seen as a somewhat ghoulist, dead feel towards this certain character. It could possibly go against the conventions of which the band is wishing to perceive, if this image of the woman was to smile? The image is definitely not stereotypical in terms of sex appeal in some peoples opinions which attracts a predominantly female audience.

- The font is very noticably printed in the colour of gold against the black background of the right side of the album cover. The font type is not stereotypically gothic, but in some ways considered to be because of the elongated ends of specific letters which are clear to see once viewed. The font type contradicts the colour it is printed in which could again, symbolise the two phases of rock the band goes through: soft to heavy. However, the pattern around the name of the band is "swirly", this could just be the bands logo as a way of helping to promote the name of their band by presenting it in a more eye catching way, instead of just having the band name written with nothing to compliment it.

- The low angle shot helps to make the long door look even more elongated than what it already is, this might help the audience relate to all the images in which this shot appears to emphasize and then it will help them again, relate this back to the gothic theme in which this band alot of the time in their music videos portray.

Inside Panels

- The left panel could be seen as proceeding on with the narrative. The image is of a moon, which could symbolise the other side of the door from the image of the front cover. By opening the front cover you could be classified as opening the door. The font is still consistent as on the front cover, again with the swirly pattern placed around the font. The colour-scheme is also similar however more gold is used to show that the inside is more angelic - again relating the bands dull image on the outside and how it is different to what it is on the inside. Moreover, the swirly pattern here is more dominant, this could be to show the bands individuality as it could be looked upon as something they created and generated into print - showing their unique style towards the audience.

CD Compartment

- The CD compartment is somewhat different as it consists of only a goldish colour-scheme which could represent that the CD is 'sacred' and the most important part of the digipak, which in fact it is. However the compartment which holds the CD is in jewel packaging which is very common in all digipaks as it is still lightweight and convenient for the environment. There is a pattern of swirls again underneath where the CD is placed which leaves remaining to the eye only the background of gold. This almost brings the main attention to the CD itself.

Back

- Again, the perspective of the back of the digipak is interesting as it reveals the bands creative point of views. The gold writing is superimposed on the black/brown background which tries to put across the fact that the song names are very important, however your eye view always seems to end up facing that of the picturesque view of the night sky on the right. This is a way of just trying to emphasize the narrative which goes throughout the digipak. Some may not even consider this to be a narrative but just simply different ways of viewing this particular scene which is taking place from different angles, which could relate back to the different audiences having different views towards this band.

- As it is the back of the digipak, it will obviously consist of the generic conventions of the back of an album cover for example: the bands website, the record producers, the record label, copywrite details and of course the bar code which is a main generic convention of the back of an album cover.

Overall, I do have a liking to this digipak, however I am not too fond which the amount of panels this consists of, therefore I would not necessarily choose to product a digipak consisting of only two panels. Generally, the colour-scheme of this digipak would not be something I would particularly choose use when in the creation of my own, however to gain some initial ideas as to what would be most suitable to include for my specific target audience, I would have to create a questionnaire and gain audience feedback before making any vast decisions.

Band or Solo Artist?

Whilst editing our music video, the production team and I were starting to think about the artist/s of our song due to the fact that this issue is relatively essential when designing an album cover. We are taking into consideration the image of the artist/s as we have specific target audience criteria to work in collaboration with for example the age group and gender we are trying to attract.

Ke$ha

Kesha is a contemporary American pop artist who began her solo career in early 2009. She was originally a backing singer for bands such as ‘The Veronicas’ and solo artists such as Britney Spears. Her fame mainly began when she appeared to be featuring in the debut song ‘Right Round’ with Flo Rida, then in late 2009 became even more popular amongst the youth when she released her single ‘Tik Tok’. In my opinion Kesha has the typical image of a pop/rock star. Her image would relate me back to the song to our music video ‘Superman’ as her individual style relates to our music genre. Also, she attracts the target audience which we are aiming to grab attention from as well.

Paramore

Paramore is an American rock band that is well known in many countries. The members consist of 3 boys and a girl who is the lead singer. This particular band had caught my attention when looking for rock bands which could have a similar genre to that of our production team due to their multi-coloured outfits and the lead singer. This is because in the song we are promoting, we also have a lead female vocalist. However, in the majority of their songs they have dominant beating of drums, this again reminded me of our song as we also have dominant beating of drums at the beginning and throughout the song. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that if the group and I decide that our song would be promoting a band, they would have a similar image to that of Paramore.

Even though the majority of my artist research is based on solo artists, for example Avril Lavigne, I feel that a band would be a more suitable way of promoting our song ‘Superman’ as bands are more adaptable to peoples personal taste compared to solo artists. Additionally, due to our song having many instruments being played that are immediately distinct, a band would get more acknowledgement and recognition from the audience for playing their own music instead of using the help of Garageband.

Album Covers

As part of one of our ancillary tasks, we have to produce an album cover for our music video production. Therefore, to make a start on album covers I thought it would be productive and constructive if I were to take three album covers from my music genre and analyse them. By doing this I will gain inspiration for the album cover I am hoping to produce as I am hoping to develop an album cover which will directly catch the attention of all audiences. The album covers I decided to analyse is Pink’s album ‘Funhouse’, Katy Perry’s album ‘One Of The Boys’ and lastly, the artist I am following – Avril Lavigne’s ‘The Best Damn Thing’.

Here are the analysis's I have made of the following album covers...

As Avril Lavigne is the artist I am following throughout my project, I have decided to compare her most recent album to one of her older ones. Firstly, here is an analysis of her album cover for the front of the album and the back also.

Comparing Avril Lavigne’s album ‘The Best Damn Thing’ to her first album ‘Let Go’, there is a difference in the use of generic album cover conventions. For example, Avril Lavigne’s name on the front of the album cover does not stand out against the name of the album. This could possibly be challenging the album cover conventions compared to ‘The Best Damn Thing’ as usually the artist’s name would be somewhat striking compared to the album name to immediately catch the attention of the audience when placed on a shelf next to a number of albums.

A similarity between both album covers in which Avril Lavigne has proposed is that she appears to relatively still have the same style of a punk/rock girl due to the colour scheme of her outfits. However, her use of fashion in more recent years tends to become more colourful but only slightly as she tends to where the colour white more often. This could possibly be illustrating that as time goes on she is growing up and becoming more of a woman who sees the world through a more clear perspective. Whereas on the album cover ‘Let Go’ she is wearing all black which could hold connotations of someone who is mischievous and gets into trouble? So, the slight colour change could be demonstrating the process of her maturing.

The background of the album ‘Let Go’ is blurred and gives the audience a sense of dizziness. This could possibly be a way of demonstrating the feeling of being drunk or possibly on drugs. Avril Lavigne’s sense of fashion and public image would link to the background and the audience would associate this with people of the same stereotype.

‘The Best Damn Thing’ does not particularly challenge the conventions as much as what ‘Let Go’ does because her older album does not necessarily appear to be an album cover at all as the artists name is not striking in any way, there is not the name of any well known songs which has the chance of catching the audiences eye and there is not the use of bold colours which are prominent. Whereas her most recent album ‘The Best Damn Thing’, commit more so to the generic album cover conventions due to the striking image of Avril Lavigne, her name is noticeable next to the album’s name and the album would generally stand out to the audience’s attention when placed on a shelf compared to her older one.

Avril Lavigne in the Public Eye

Avril Lavigne is well known in the public eye, especially with the teenage generation. She has been on the front covers of numerous magazine covers as well as appearing in television programmes and interviews. She is usually represented as a punky/rocky type of teenage character which likes to have 'fun', which helps her to appeal to mainly the teenage generation of today. She is also represented as out going, somewhat childish in some aspects and generally aspiring to always carry on producing music.

Here are a few magazines which she has appeared on:

Here is also an example of Avril Lavigne being interviewed by a puppit. This would most likely be aimed at the younger teenage generation. This also portrays Avril Lavigne to be on the same wavelength as her audience to show that she can relate to them.

Genre Related Artist - Avril Lavigne

Born: 27 September 1984
Birthplace: Napanee, Ontario, Canada
Best Known As: 'Skater punk' singer of "Complicated"

The Early Years

Avril Ramona Lavigne was born to a French-born father, Jean-Claude, and a Franco-Ontarian mother, Judy, in Belleville, Ontario, Canada. Her father named her Avril after the month "April" in French. She has an older brother, Matthew, and a younger sister, Michelle. Lavigne's mother was the first to spot young Lavigne's talent. A daughter of a regular working-class Catholic family, Lavigne, at the age of two, began singing church songs along with her mother. The family moved to Napanee, Ontario, when Lavigne was five years old.



In 1998, Lavigne won a competition to sing with fellow Canadian singer Shania Twain on her first major concert tour. She appeared alongside Twain at her concert in Ottawa, appearing on stage to sing "What Made You Say That". She was discovered by her first professional manager, Cliff Fabri, while singing country covers at a Chapters bookstore in Kingston, Ontario. During a performance with the Lennox Community Theatre, Lavigne was spotted by local folk singer Steve Medd, who invited her to contribute vocals on his song, "Touch the Sky", for his 1999 album, Quinte Spirit. She later sang on "Temple of Life" and "Two Rivers" for his follow up 2000 album.



Biography Information

Born into a devout Christian household in the small town of Napanee, Ontario, Lavigne sharpened her vocal talents in church choirs, local festivals, and county fairs. She began playing guitar and writing songs in her early teens, focusing her early efforts on country music and contributing vocals to several albums by local folk musician Steve Medd. Arista Records caught wind of the singer and brought her aboard at the age of 16, with CEO Antonio "L.A." Reid personally taking Lavigne under his wing. She quit high school, relocated to Manhattan, and set to work with a handful of prime songwriters and producers, but the partnerships only produced country songs -- not the rock music in which Lavigne had become increasingly interested. Arista relented and instead sent Lavigne to Los Angeles, where she fashioned her melodic, edgy debut alongside such writing teams as the Matrix. Released in 2002, Let Go was the polished product, and its four high-charting singles -- "Complicated," "Sk8er Boi," "I'm with You," and "Losing Grip" -- led the album to multi-platinum status within its second month of release. Lavigne became the youngest female musician ever to have a number one album in the U.K., and she supported the wildly popular disc (which eventually gained eight Grammy nominations) with a tour of Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia.



Other areas in which Avril Lavigne has worked



- Film Career



Lavigne made a cameo in the film Going the Distance and also appeared in an episode of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, performing "Sk8er Boi" with her band. Lavigne made her film debut in the 2006 animated film Over the Hedge, which is based on the comic strip of same name. She voices the character Heather, a Virginia Opossum. In August 2006, Canadia Business magazine ranked her the seventh top Canadian actor dominating in Hollywood in their second-annual ranking Celebrity Power List. She is ranked second with the most web hits, and sixth in TV mention.


Lavigne acted in the Richard Gere film The Flock as the girlfriend of a crime suspect. Lavigne appears in the film Fast Food Nation, which is based on her favorite book, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal.


The British publication The London Paper reported that she recently landed a lead role in an upcoming film. Lavigne revealed, "I've got a film role coming up – something you wouldn't expect from me, something deep and dark.



- Entrepeneurship



Aside from musical and film career, Lavigne ventured into entrepreneurship. Lavigne launched the clothing line Abbey Dawn in July 2008, featuring back-to-school collection. It is produced by Kohl's, which is the brand's exclusive US retailer. Named after Lavigne's childhood nickname, Abbey, used as an alias when she started her recording career, Lavigne designs for the company and concepts emanate from her. Kohl's describe Abbey Dawn as a "juniors lifestyle brand", which includes apparel and jewelry with skull and zebra patterns similar to the artwork featured on The Best Damn Thing. Lavigne wore some of the clothes in her line at various concerts before the launch. The designs were also featured on the internet game Stardoll, where figures can be dressed up as Avril Lavigne.



On September 14, 2009 Lavigne took her latest collection for her clothing line 'Abbey Dawn' to be a part of the New York Fashion Week one of the most important fashion shows around the world, designer Tommy Hilfiger, olmypic gold medal gymnast Nastia Liukin and friend heiress Nicky Hilton were there to check out and support Avril's threads.



Lavigne released her first fragrance called Black Star, created by Procter & Gamble Prestige Products. The fragrance was announced via Lavigne's official website on March 7, 2009. Black Star, which contains notes of pink hibiscus, black plum and dark chocolate, will be released in summer 2009 in Europe, and later in America and Canada.It's expected to generate $50 million in sales.



How Avril Lavigne Represents Herself - Public Image



In Lavigne's official MySpace page, she affirms that her music genre includes pop and pop punk. According to Allmusic, her styles encompass adult alternative, pop rock, pop punk, post-grunge and teen pop. According to MusicMight she is alternative rock, alternative pop, pop punk, pop rock and post-grunge. Avril Lavigne considers that she is definitively really into rock music, where her heart is, and it's the music she is going to be creating.


Lavigne has been influenced by blink-182, The Distillers, Alanis Morissette, Goo Goo Dolls, The Cranberries, Marilyn Manson, Cumbawamba, The Beach Boys, Archies, The Beach Boys, Janis Joplin, Courtney Love, Green Day, and Sex Pistols. She has been followed by Busted, Tomoko Kawase, Hilary Duff, Brie Larson, Aly and Aj, Danielle McKee, Misono, Yui, Done with Dolls.


Lavigne has been featured in a comic series Avril Lavigne's Make 5 Wishes. She stars as herself, a rock star who is idolized by the protagonist of the story

Avril Lavigne's Record Label

RCA Records (originally The Victor Talking Machine Company, then RCA Victor) is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America (later renamed RCA Corporation), which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1983 and a partner from 1983 to 1986.

RCA is the name of three different co-owned record labels. RCA Records is the pop music, rock music and country music label. RCA Victor is the blues music, world music, jazz, musicals and other musical genres which do not fit the pop music mold label. RCA Red Seal is the renowned classical music label with a reissue sub-label called RCA Gold Seal.

Defunct labels include budget labels RCA Camden, RCA Victrola and RCA Custom, famed for issuing record compilations for The Reader's Digest Association as well as pressing records for other record companies.

Currently, Legacy Recordings, Sony Music's catalog division, reissues classic albums for RCA.

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.

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.