R+P Post 12: Artists/bands that have influenced my ideas

Amy: Soul

Amy Whinehouse is a legendary figure in the music industry and was known for her unique and soulful voice. Amy's voice had the ability to captivate an audience without the need for any extravagant productions. We would also like our artist to concentrate on their singing and the meaning behind their words rather than dancing or anything that may distract from their message.

Beyonce: Political messages

Beyonce is an international figure which means that her music and therefore her feelings/ opinions reach many. Recently, Beyonce has used this platform to bring awareness to important issues such as the Black Lives Matter movement and feminism. To the left I have included a video containing the feminist message that Beyonce played during her Mrs Carter world tour. We thought that this was very admirable and would also like our artist to speak out on important issues such as police brutality.

A still from Beyonce's video 'Formation'

Erykah Badu: Style

One of Erykah's unique looks

As well as her music, Erykah Badu is also known for her extraordinary style and is considered a fashion icon by many. Her unusual clothing and make up ideas have created an image for her which stands out from anyone else in the music industry. She is able to express herself through her clothing which is a trait that I would also like for my own artist. I would also like to experiment with the make up of my artist with elements of Badu's look.

Examples of Erykah's tribal like make up

R+P Post 11: Artists websites that have inspired and influenced my ideas

A website is very important for an artists as it acts a hub for all of their information. These sites create a feeling of connectivity as they include links to all of an artist's other platforms such as social media. They also give other important details such as the dates of a singer's tour and allow you to buy tickets via the site.

Rihanna's website inspired me by how interactive it was. For example, when the pictures above were hovered over, a link to an article giving more details about the picture would appear (as circled). To the right is the article concerning the circled picture above. I though that this element of the website was very effective as it allows anyone who uses the website to engage with Rihanna more by finding out all of the events that she participates in. I would also like to include this element within my own artist's website as I think that it is an effective way of giving information about the artist in an interactive and tidy manner.  

Another website that has influenced my ideas is the website for the singer MNEK. I was first draw to this website by its bold colour scheme. I think that this was extremely effective as its simple layout is aesthetically pleasing and means that information is clearly presented on the site. For example, all social media accounts for the artist are put together in the bottom corner of the page. This makes it very easy for anyone using the site to find any information. I thought that this was a very good example of a website acting as a hub for different elements of an artist's online presence and is something that I would like to include on my own website.  

Drake's website stood out to me due to its use of cross media convergence. As soon as the website is clicked on, a video advertising Drake's latest album plays automatically. I thought that this was an innovative way of advertising as this ensures that everyone who clicks on the website will see the video, maximising its reach. It also makes his website very interactive as anyone using the site is immediately presented with different media texts. 

Katy B's website was also influential to me due to its incorporation of live tweets (as circled). By doing this, the audience is able to get up to date information about the artists that they love. It creates another element of interaction for the fans and allows them to stay in the loop of what events may be going on. This simultaneously advertises the artist's social media site, making audience more likely to follow the artist. This is very important for an artist in order to make their fan base grow. Because of this, I would also like to make my artist's tweets and statuses available through their website. 

Justin Bieber's website inspired me due to the large array of activities available...

These are just 3 of the activity options on the home page. Users have the option to watch the music video for the song 'I'll show you', download the album 'Purpose' and play the 'Purpose Pro' game and more. By offering different types of activities, the website is able to appeal to different areas of the artist's TA. For example, the video game would appeal to the younger part of Justin Bieber's TA, whilst the link to buy his album on Itunes would appeal more to the elder end of his TA who are more likely to have money to spend on luxuries such as music. Although I would not necessarily include a video game on my own artist's website as I do not think that this would be appropriate for my TA, I would like to create different media texts for the user to explore such as behind the scene videos and links to music videos.

R+P Post 10: Album covers that have inspired and influenced my ideas

We were inspired by the strong pose on Dua Lipa's album cover. Her look directly at the camera created a feeling of confidence for us and emphasised her status as a pop star. Her positioning is simple yet potent as it creates a feeling of effortlessness that we felt drawn to. The colour scheme is aesthetically pleasing and creates a sense of uniformity. Her costume appears casual, yet  star pieces such as the bold Choker and the pink Culottes with the lace trim help the artist to stand out and highlight her modern fashion sense. Overall, this created a feeling of freshness that we would also like to create in our own album.






We were drawn to this album cover because of the silhouette. This was a technique that we had not seen used by any other artist and therefore made it stand out. As well as looking very dramatic, we also felt that it gave a real sense of the narrative within the album.


This album is from the artist Pell. We were instantly engaged by his mid air pose. We felt
this created a great sense of energy and made the album appear extremely unique. This mid air movement is also something that we would like to experiment with as we think that this would be a great way to make our album art to stand out.





This is another example of movement within an album cover. Here, the 'candid' feel of the image creates the idea of capturing a moment in time. This was something that appealed to us as we felt that it would make our artist appear more 'human', rather than just a construct. It would also help to give audience members an insight into the personality of our artist as they would appear to be frozen in their everyday life.









Researching these different album covers has been a beneficial process as it allowed us to see all of the different manners in which artists choose to present themselves and their work. Each album cover created a different portrayal of their artist in order to create a piece of art that was unique and would stand out.

R+P Post 9: Music videos that have inspired and influenced my ideas

Shadows
Jaden Smith - Scarface
We felt that the use of shadows were extremely effective in this video. We felt that this would be a good element to bring into our own music video as it means that we could include images which are relevant to the song such as gun violence, without explicitly including such graphic images in our video. We also think that its use will be aesthetically pleasing and lead to interesting choices in shot types.


Lighting
Seinabo Sey - Hard Time
The large array of colours and patterns used to light the artist Seinabo Sey were very effective and aesthetically pleasing. This has inspired us to make bold decisions with lighting as it is a simple way to give a video a professional feel.





Running sequence
Clean Bandit - Rather Be
We felt that this sequence showed the narrative of the song in an energetic and engaging manner. Rather than simply having repetitious shot of the main character running away, the location of the shot changes with each step in order to create a sense of immediacy. As well as looking very effective, this also prevents the narrative from becoming boring.




Word projections
Kwabs - Fight For Love
We would also like to use this technique in our video as we were inspired by its ability to emphasise the lyrics and their meaning. This would be very useful for a song like our which has such hard hitting lyrics.

R+P Post 8: Possible tracks for the single

As a group, we have had a large range of ideas as to which track we would like to create a video to. Below are some of the suggestions made...
1) Jorja Smith - Blue Lights

Pros of this track:

• Strong solo female vocalist - Means that I will be able to showcase my performance skills 
• Meaningful lyrics and important themes 
• Strong beat - Doesn't limit visuals or their pace, will help make decisions e.g when to cut during the editing process
• Isn't a mainstream song, only has 458,388 views

Cons of this track:

• Song is too long 
• Music video has visuals which we also thought of e.g black and white grading - fears of creating a similar looking video 
• Must be careful about what visuals are used to represent such strong themes

2) Seinabo Sey - Younger

Pros of this track:

• Strong solo female vocalist - My lip syncing would look more authentic 
• Lyrics have a lot of potential for related visuals

Cons of this track:

• There is no dramatic beat drop - we really wanted some dramatic variation in the pace of our chosen song so that we could experiment with different shot lengths 
• Any ideas we had for visuals were not plausible i.e we wanted a large cast which would have been difficult to organise

3) Flume - Tennis Courts (remix)

Pros of this track:

• Lots of variation in pace throughout the song- potential for different editing techniques 
• Strong female vocals 

Cons of this track:

• Is a very well known song with over 40 million views 
• Fast pace of song would make cutting to beat very difficult

4) Daughter - Youth

Pros of this track:

• Is not a mainstream song
• Strong female vocals 

Cons of this track:

• Pace of song was too slow 
• Is a well known song- over 94 million views on Youtube

It was very hard narrowing down our list of possible tracks as we had to consider all of the factors within the criteria. We listened to many songs, however, rules such as the song not being allowed to have any swearing or be a mainstream hit meant that our possible tracks were limited. Despite this, we were still able to find a wide range of songs that appealed to us. 

R+P Post 7: Record labels of interest

Labels are important to an artist, especially a new artist as they create a platform for the artist to distribute their music. If they are behind a reputable record label, industry professionals and listeners may trust in the quality of an artist's music due to the labels track record. As well as helping an artist's image, record labels also manage an artist's branding through methods such as marketing. Record labels give artist's somewhere to produce their music which is then also released and copyrighted by the label. Most importantly, record labels have money which they invest into an artist. This can then be spent in areas such as marketing in an attempt to reach and appeal to fans of a particular genre.

For our artists we would aim to be signed by the record label Virgin EMI Records. This label appealed to me as despite being an international record label, they have also signed small British artists who are similar to our act. For example, Virgin EMI have signed artists such as Loyle Carner, MNEK and Katy B. This made me confident that our act would fit in at this record label. Artists such as MNEK give a unique twist to R&B, incorporating elements of other music types such as electronic beats.





This freedom to experiment with different sounds proved to me that my artist would be able to expand their musical identity whilst under this label. Another factor that appealed to me was the great reputation that the record label has as Virgin is a very well known and respected brand. Virgin EMI is a brand knew label, founded in 2013 which means that the management style will be modern, allowing our artist to be handled in a fresh and current way. More importantly, as Virgin EMI is a very well established record label, they will have a lot of funding which can be invested into my artist's branding and music.Money is power in the music industry, so having a sufficient amount would make it easier for my artist to get effective marketing and music production.

R+P Post 6: Current trends in Popular Music

Official albums chart 

Official singles chart

These official charts are compiled by ranking music in terms of the sales of CDs, downloads, vinyls and weighted audio stream. This makes it easy to see the current trends in music sales in terms of genre and artist. The range of genres represented in these charts reflects the large variety of music tastes in the modern day. However, there is a clear presence of pop artists in the chart as this is a very mainstream music genre. However the fact that Passenger, a British folk artist, is number 1 in the album charts proves that there is room for indie genres in the music industry. This made me confident for our chosen genre of Neo-Soul/R&B as there is an apparent gap in the charts for a new R&B artist.

R+P Post 5: The kind of video I would like to make

During our research, my group agreed that we wanted to create a music video that was partly studio based and partly set on site. We were interested in this layout of video as we thought that it would give us the best of both worlds and allow us to experiment with different shot types and settings, rather than being limited to just a studio. We found that other songs such as Sorry by Beyonce have taken this approach. I felt that this was very aesthetically pleasing as the drastic changes in setting keep the video very interesting visually.

We wanted our music video to have a narrative and whilst researching I came across the music video for the song Fool To Love by NAO. This video has a similar idea to our own as it depicts a man running away. I think that this will be a very helpful reference for us in the future as the composition of shots makes this narrative run seamlessly. I hope that we will learn from this and be able to add these continuous elements to our own video.

In order to layer our music video with different performance types, we also want to include elements of sign language in our project. We were inspired by videos such as You need me, I don't need you by Ed Sheeran. 

We also though that it would look very effective to project some sort of video or images on my face at some point during the studio shots. I had seen this done in music videos such as Station by Lapsley and thought it was very effective. I thought that this technique would be a good opportunity to play footage of the London riots in our video as it would link well to our lyrics and acts as intertextuality to the song.

 

R+P Post 4: Audience groups of interest

R+P Post 3: Music genres that interest me

Genre is very important to an artist as it determines their image and how they will be marketed to their audience.
Different genres have different uses and gratifications for an audience. For example, I would listen to Rap if I wanted to heighten my mood due to its strong beat and impactful lyrics. However, if I wanted to relax I would listen to R&B as it is soothing.
I listen to a large range of music genres, however, the top 3 that interest me would be:

• R&B
• Grime
• Alternative

Grime
Grime is one of my favourite genres as I think that rap is such a good method of self expression, whilst also being extremely entertaining. This fast paced genre is able to heighten my mood. It also interests me as it is a British based art form. This means that I can personally relate to the music as it has themes that I am familiar with.

Alternative
Alternative music interests me as it has such a unique sound. Alternative artists use their creativity in order to bring together different music types to create something new and exciting.

R&B
I love R&B because of its soulful nature. I also feel that this genre is relatable to the masses as it often talks of universal themes such as love and loss.

Modern day R&B is more experimental and includes aspects of many different music types. For example the British artist MNEK is a soulful R&B singer, however, he mixes his singing with house and electronic beats. My love of artists such as MNEK led me to explore the British R&B scene more. Here, our group came across the artist Jorja Smith. We felt that this particular genre would be ideal for our project as it is a new and fresh sub-genre of this music style. This would give us the freedom to experiment with our choice in visuals and take advantage of the genres growing fan base.

R+P Post 2: Myself as a music consumer

When do I listen to music?
I listen to music everyday, whether it is whilst I am in the shower or walking to school, I always have some sort of music playing in the background. I listen to it at any given opportunity as it is something that I really enjoy doing and helps to motivate me throughout the day.

Where do I listen to music?

• Around my house
• On the bus/ in the car
• At parties 
• In school

Who do I listen to music with?
I mostly listen to music by myself , however, when i'm with my friends we use our favourite music as a way for us to bond or get hype for a night out.

How do I listen to music?
I tend to listen to music via my iphone, however I also use my laptop and the radio, depending on where I am and whether I am with anyone.

Why do I listen to music?
Music has always been very important to me as I enjoy both listening to it and performing it. Listening to music acts as a form of escapism for me and allows me to get away from the world momentarily. As well as this, it just helps to get me in a good mood and acts as a source of entertainment for me whilst I engage in other activities. I think that music has the ability to change a persons mood or perspective, so by listening to particular types of music during certain situations I am able to cater to the emotions that I am feeling at that point.

Childhood 
I think that the song Soulja Boy is able to pretty much sum up my childhood. It brings back so many memories of school discos and desperately trying to perfect the dance moves in the video. From the terrible clothes and haircuts to the questionable graphics, this video seems to completely reflect the chaos that was the year 2010. Despite this, this song is incredibly catchy and still can be heard at some events today, making it a stand out track for me.
Early Teens
Listen by Beyonce was one of my favourite songs during my early teens as it came from one of my favourite musicals, 'Dreamgirls'. I remember being obsessed with this song and constantly belting it from the top of my lungs in an attempt to be just like Beyonce.

Now
It was pretty hard for me to pick a current song as my taste in music has developed so much and can now range from grime to pop music. I picked the song Car Radio by Twenty One Pilots as they are my favourite band and I found this song when I was going through a difficult period in my life and felt that I could relate to the lyrics. This song also has very positive memories for me as it reminds me of when I went to see the boys live which was hands down one of the greatest nights I've ever had.

To conclude, through this activity I have learnt the different reasons that people listen to music. For example, some people may use it as a way to relate to their current mood/ state of mind, whilst others may use it as a way to bond with those surrounding them. This exercise has proven the transformitive nature of music as it is able to express different emotions in different people. Moving forward, I will use what I have learnt to help me make decisions in my project. For example, as my chosen genre of music is upbeat, I have now learnt that people will most likely listen to this type of music for entertain or in order to heighten their mood. This factor will help me understand my TA(target audience) more and will therefore help me when I am marketing as it will help me to gratify their needs.

R+P Post 1: My A2 Group

In my group I will be working with Jerom Thambipillia (8692) and Matthew Davies (8511). I believe that we will work together as we have a skill set that compliments each other. For example, I am very creative and have performance skills, whilst Jerom is stronger in the technical side of media. Matthew is also very complimentary to our group as he is a music enthusiast, meaning he has a lot of knowledge in this area which he can pass on to the rest of our group.

As a group, we have decided to have in person meetings a minimum of three times a week. However, we have also created a Whatsapp group so that we can communicate with each other out of school with suggestions, inspirations and more.

Me and my group