Indie Artist Feedback

• Need to expand some of the points into full paragraphs
• Could take our own photos and videos (maybe by concept sketches)
• Good photo editing
• Good use of links to our inspirations
• Lots of detail, very specific
• Strong, effective name
• Good collection of ideas
• The blog background distracts the eye
• The album cover is strange, but very Indie
• Like the links to artists at the end
• Good photoshop skills
• Good idea
• Good target audience
• Very detailed
• Could be more detailed instead of bullet points
• Need examples of music videos
• idea is good
• could make own press release photos

Create an Indie Band Task

Pride & Joy

General Information

• They are a Brother and Sister Band - Success shown this way groups like Mumford & Sons
• They play primarily indie folk music
• They are called John Harte and Robin Harte
• Often portrayed in the sense of a loving brother and sister, often seen together
• As an indie band, they will have their own facebook and twitter pages with which they personally had before their music was released.

Target Audience

• People aged 20 to 35 for the main target audience, however they will play at music festivals like croprody which appeal to people from early teens to late 60s
• Not based in big cities.
• People who are middle class, who are raised in similar circumstances to them
• Mainly English fans, not in other countries.
• We are going for the same sort of target audiences as similar bands which appeal to a wide range of people as they are folk musicians
• appeal to younger members of society (late teens) by their style of both clothes and hair

Costume

• Robin wears a hat (different ones for each show)
• Guy has thick rimmed glasses as these are more indie than thin rimmed ones
• Have matching wristbands, one in blue, one in red. These were given by the parents for their first performance which was in the local pub  
• simple jewelry for Robin and none (except wrist band) for John
• John often seen in a scarf
• John wears beige, dark brown, maroon and grey.
• Robin wears more mature clothes than other musicians her age as the band want to focus on their music not their looks
• No brands shown as this is seen as “selling out”

Props

• acoustic guitar for Robin
• small banjo for the John (banjolele)
• guy plays cajon for percussion themed songs   
• No headsets but conventional microphones
• harmonica is played by Robin
• These instruments are often played by other indie folk bands like Mumford and Sons

Hair

• John has a beard (see photo below)
• Messy light brown curly hair for both as they are siblings
• Robin always has a hat with curly brown hair. She rarely changes her hairstyle as this is her “image”
• The hair for artists of this genre are nearly always unextraordinary for example, bands like fleet foxes
• Beards seem to be a running theme as well, this is why John has facial hair as well

Music Video Concept

The duo are performing the song in a suburban area of a town. (the scene is the same as the album cover). They walk across a tattered sofa with instruments on it. They sit down and begin to play. The scene cuts to another couple (who the narrative is based on). This couple are shown in a car driving around a busy city. cut to an over shoulder shot of a man looking at the couple when the line “see you driving round town” comes on. We see continuous shots of the band then him until the chorus where he sits on the sofa in between the two musicians (but as if they aren't there) a similar effect to the opening scene of “Tomorrow” by Boris Cezek & Dean Muscat. Throughout the rest of the song there are more shots of him in this scene but he is in different places (like the album artwork). We then see the musicians follow him around the scenes, they are obviously not part of the narrative though as they break the fourth wall. at the end we see the man bump into another girl and they walk off together leaving the band behind, symbolising he has (like the title of the song) forgotten her.

Press Release Photos

similar to this showing they play their music everywhere and are obsessed with it. Always photographed with instruments.

Press Release Stories

Stories of their life before music are brother and sister revealing that they are brother and sister and good pals. Saying they have an unprivileged upbringing. Story of him defending sis.

They used to be buskers on the street to get any money they could to help their mum and dad

The singer from the folk indie band, John Harte has been attacked in a pub in North Yorkshire.  An eyewitness report, says that john was defending his fellow band member and sister, after an alleged sexual harassment claim. According to eyewitnesses, John went over to the harasser and began a heated argument. The man (who is yet to be named) was highly intoxicated and began shouting at the singer. This lead to violent shoving and eventually a serious fight.  Police were quickly on the scene and both men were arrested. After a night in custody and eyewitness reports, John was allowed to leave and was greeted at the police station by his sister. The harasser has yet to be given a sentence. If nothing else, this fight has shown how close these two siblings are and how even their advancing careers can not affect that.

Choice of Existing Song Cover

• Forget you (Folk Version)
• This song was originally performed by cee lo green
• A ukulele version was made by the band The Ukuleles
• It from the Ukuleles version that the song is developed, except the additional use of a guitar and a cajon

Our Album Cover

Links to similar Artists:

Mumford and sons http://www.mumfordandsons.com/

The Decemberists http://www.decemberists.com/

Fleet Foxes http://fleetfoxes.com/

The Ukuleles http://theukuleles.com/

Lana Del Rey

·         Some textual analysis of her music videos

Born to Die- (Brief Notes)

There are three main themes that run through this music video, each involve their own version of Lana's character.

• church styled building symbolizing her in heaven. 
• This is also suggested by the use of a hat of flowers ( a more gentle and feminine version of Jesus' crown of thorns)
• All whites to show the purity of the place
• she's sat on a throne that's central to the scene, a mainstream technique used to show power and status (see "power" by Kayne west)
• The use of gold props around her and in the background shows that she is wealthy and in a place of higher status
• Her clothing is extremely different to her other clothing in the narrative, it is a long elegant dress which shows more class and a higher demeanour than her previous shots, thus symbolising she's matured since then
• She uses movements that are a lot less flamboyant than her previous shots yet again showing her maturity and elegance
• All other scenes have the boy she is dating with in them, this doesn't as she has died (so he isn't there physically) and matured (so he isn't there mentally)

• Narrative is her life on the day before she died
• We see her as a rebellious, uncouth teenager who is in a relationship with a stereotypical "bad boy". This means that compared to the other visions of her we see, this is the undesirable image
• this is emphasised by her choice of clothing, short shorts and a revealing top. Whereas in other music videos this effect would be used primarily to attract the male audience, in this one it is used to contrast against the other images of her 
• Most of her clothes in the other scenes are white for purity, but in this scene her top and shoes are red to show not only her oncoming death, but sexuality as well. 
• Her physical positioning is more sexual as well. She is now seen in various hinted sexual positions. for example her boyfriend is leaning over her on a car bonnet.
• The car that the narrative takes place in is white, which can symbolize this as the transport to the white themed heaven. yet again hinting to her death later on.
• Her rebellious side is shown yet again through the smoking of drugs on the line "let's go get high" 
• We also see the idea of the guy being the one who kills her in the car accident by the frequent images of him being dominant and aggressive. For example when he points an imagined gun at her head.
• This particular character is seen as submissive and lesser than her boyfriend as she is seen being forced by him and the use of sexual imaging. 
• Before her death we see them in a car with red lights in the rear window showing the death is soon

• dark rooms, her after death but before heaven 
• The main proof of this is at the end when she opens the door to a white light (heaven)
• the use of costume is very effective here, as it is white (showing purity) but also shorter than her dress in the heaven scene showing that it is not quite as pure or elegant as then.
• The frequent use of the boy flashing in and out of the scene shows her memory of him and that he is in her mind but not there physically. 
• The use of flowers as props also hints that she is in between the two stages of death and life as there are none whilst alive but a hat made of flowers when in heaven
• The long corridor shot at the end is her forgetting the boy and moving on to heaven 

·         The identification of recurring themes / images in her music videos and lyrics

• the use of black and white or sepia effects 
• the use of white clothing showing purity
• using religious metaphors, (especially "Born to Die") for example, doing the position of the cross. 
• use of blurry footage and unsteady camera
•  the use of the same guy from other music videos
• Use of the same pose and facial look.
• the use of props relating to smoking and drugs 
• The theme of her being hurt or dying (being in danger)
• breaking the fourth wall

·         Some analysis of the effect of media “hype” on the construction / representation of Del Rey

There seems to be two very different views from the media on Lana Del Rey. The one that i personally agree with is the negative views of her. These views mainly come from people who are offended by her being called an indie artist. This wasn't a problem when she first came out and people saw her as a (almost) self-made artist. However this caused a large amount of "Haters" to be present when her past as Elizabeth Grant was released. This appalled the indie followers as she practically paid to get into the industry. 


·         Links / quotes / images from articles, interviews, reviews etc.



"i was always an unusual girl"
"I have a personal ambition to live my life honestly and honor the true love that I've had and also the people I've had around me."
"I don't really have any gimmicks. I don't actually do anything that's strange. I don't even wear weird things."

Her hair style here is very popular for women in the 50's and 60's and so she must have been influenced by that style. Also she said herself she was a "gangster Nancy Sinatra" showing she is following another style, both gangster and 50's women. This goes against when she said  

"my look hasn't been influenced by any female style icons from the past." 

This photo also shows how she can be seen as more of a mainstream artist than a indie artist as she chooses to wear clothes that are at the height of style to make herself seem richer and higher in status. 

In this interview, Lana is asked where she personally "escapes" to. As in a place to get away from all the stress of the job. A mainstream artist may say a place expensive like a private beach in Florida, but Lana differs completely  She says that she goes to Glasgow. This supports the idea of her being an individual artist as she differs from the normal celebrity escape. However, the fact she's wearing an obviously sponsored coat changes this. The sponsored coat makes her seem more like a indie sellout. This effect is also given by the expensive dress placed by the side of her to show her wealth. However the interview also shows that she has a knowledge of the media and musical skills (whether learnt or developed later) which thus shows her talent like and indie artist. 

There are still others though who support her career. These people like the idea of her original style of singing and her very individual style. They also seem to comment often on her recuring themes in music videos.

·         A personal opinion on the success of Lana Del Rey

I personally dislike Lana Del Rey due to several reasons. For one i dislike her music style, this is not a judgement universally, i just personally dont like the music. i also dislike her music videos in general as they tend to be the same thing done over different layouts ( instead of a car its a pool etc). This is the same except for National Anthem, which may break the rules but compensates that with having a terrible narrative and meaning. The only reason i liked her at all was because of where she had come from and how she got to be famous. But then that was said to be a lie and all of the respect i had for her was gone. To top it all off, when she performes live, her voice is still good, but nowhere near the proffesional standered of other musicians. all this together leads to a dislike of the musician (if one could even call her that) and a negative view of her songs.

Feedback from the No Limits band task

For our task (create a mainstream band), we created a boy band called No Limits. We then presented the idea of our yo band to the rest of the class, and this is the response we received.

• Good in depth explanations and stories for the individual band members and characters.
• Good album artwork and poster.
• Impressive, appropriate release story for your artist/genre and good background story.
• Poster is really detailed and shows really well the characters behind each member. Very skilfully edited.
• Band name & album name are well thought out and appropriate. 
• Identities are successful.
• Great research.
• Too many band members?
• Don't think Jake belongs in the band.
• Could be a bit more consistent with clothes.
• Album cover is professional and fits well.
• Press release story is really good.
• Clothes and hair show good research and understanding
• Good to show social media (Twitter).
• More detail and explanation on appearance.
• Lots of thought and effort gone in.
• Good professional images but the band don't seem to fit well with each other.
• Colours look a bit reggae.
• Too much variety in the group.
• Good font and background on image.
• Band members don't fit together.
• Good album cover and idea.
• Twitter page inventive and good.
• Great scandal and top notch music video concept.
• Great picture!
• Good how you personalise each member.
• Generally fab!

Presentation/Blogs

• Could use more terminology.
• Could include a few more pictures, as some parts of the blog are too text heavy.
• Good info and depth but could be better if there were a few images to break it up.
• More text needed. Although visuals are good, the detail is a little thin in places.
• Good terminology

I believe in some cases that these evaluations are unfair or not required, for example, the comment Jake doesn't belong in the band. This comment was decided by his style, which was intentionally different to the other members, as all the styles were. 

However, I believe that the vast majority of comments are indeed correct and are something we can use in the future to achieve higher marks on other tasks.

No Limits

This is the boyband that we have created, No Limits. They are a pop rock genre band, however they do dip into other genres from time to time.

Target Audience:

From UK, America and Australia (english speaking countries) and western european countries as other similar boybands have been successful in these countries

More popular in the big cities

Have a large fan base. Talked about often on social media sites with several fan groups

Have a reputation of being disliked by teenage boys, an almost, anti audience. These work to spread word via insults and jokes. Evidence of the phrase "any publicity is good publicity"

Costume:
mainstream in fashion, advertise brands for extra money

From shops such as Topman as these companies are known to advertise their clothing by sponsoring boybands to wear their brand.

Chinos, skinny jeans

All members wear different styles of clothes to appeal to different genres and styles

Hair:

Dwayne has a afro to promote the laid back appeal

Peter has a quiff, to emphasize the movements of his head as he may sway to the music  

Short spiky rockstar look for Mike to show his particular style

Sean has a scruffy mop to show his "not caring" personality

Jake has a parting to show his similarity to posh target audience

Props:

Microphone headsets

Guitars

Backing dancers

Construction of the band:

Lead singer - Mr perfect- Jake Davies 

Rebellious one, joker, trouble maker- Mike Moretti 

The close best friends:

Cool, laid back black guy- Dwayne Philips

Cool, laid back white guy- Sean Simpson

The loner, distant from the rest of the group- Peter Hodgson

Press Release Photos/Stories:

Sean, part of the teen pop sensation No Limits,has once again been caught dealing drugs at a party at his apartment in Manchester. The alarm was raised after an emergency call, bringing paramedics and the police to the band member’s crib. After an investigation, it was found that Mr Simpson had been the supplier of cocaine to several B-List celebs who were in attendance, most of whom have not been named, bar Joe Swash, who was admitted to hospital as a result of the rock star styled night. The band has subsequently split and their country wide tour has been suspended. It seems that Sean just doesn't know his limits.

Song Covers:

Robbie Williams- Let Me Entertain You

A song that is popular to the target audience and will thus be picked up on by them. This song could easily be reinvented and made into a good boyband single.

Music Video Concepts:

At the beginning of the video in the  piano instrumental there are extreme close ups of each member

Piano played by Peter- further suggests he isn't too pally with the rest of the group, this is also shown by him being only shown in the piano shots and not the party shots.

On the chorus all the members are in a party setting with lots of close ups and a fast cutting speed

On the verse there is a low shot and each member sings into it, thus showing there higher status.

Driving scene in a sports car - showing the rockstar lifestyle

Album Artwork:
Here is the artwork for the bands first album, open for business which incorporates "Let Me Entertain You"

Evaluation of 1990's Music Videos

One Music video that shows a clear difference to the music videos of the previous decade is "Breakfast at Tiffany's". This video not only shows the new style of clothes from the 90's, but also the difference in teenagers overall.

 this is the link to the music video on YouTube; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ClCpfeIELw

The main difference that this video has to its predecessors is the movements of the camera. Unlike the stationary shots of the music videos from years before, there is seldom a stationary shot in this video. This gives the music video a whole new branch of life. It makes the video seem more active and exciting to watch. Also this matches a running theme in the music video, which is movement. when the band are playing instruments they are moving, the whole idea of how each band member move to this table is the key part of the video. Another example of how this is seen as the main feature is by the hair of the main singer. When they are stationary on the grass, his hair is gelled back and solid, whereas when on the move on the mobile stage his hair is loose and free to move.

One music video that i always link to the 1990's is "Things I Cannot Change" by the Mavericks. This music video uses a music video that relates to the song but has no particular narrative.

 this is the link to the music video on YouTube; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_AeLQJeTd0

This music video also uses a high amount of non stationary shots, however they are slow moving and in time with the music. This emphasizes the mood of the song. The frequent use of sleeping couples in this song is juxtaposed with the protagonist being awake, this connotes that he is alone if all the couples are sleeping. And the fact the couples have dust on them means that they have been asleep for a long time and thus he's been alone for a long time. The use of black suits and a black car shows that the protagonist is upset and depressed. At the end all of the couples wake up which could symbolize him either getting over his loneliness, or he has reunited with the one who made him lonely. Unfortunately the first one seems more likely because there is a rain which wakes up the sleeping people as if to symbolize a wave of something that removes his loneliness and he moves on.

Another music video that doesn't necessarily have a story line is "Angels" by Robbie Williams. This music video uses some very good effects, however they are very repeated throughout the music video.

 this is the link to the music video on YouTube;  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luwAMFcc2f8

One good technique used by this music video is the use of black and white to add a certain feel and mood to the music, it makes it seem more serious and emotional. The camera shots used are very effective as they have a slow panning speed and the cutting speed of them matches the music. There is one shot where we see him walking on a hill from far away, this makes his voice seem more powerful as we still hear it over the top of the shot. When we see him make eye contact with a supposed heroine of the video his gaze remains fixed even with a moving camera and people in the way, this makes the love stand out more