For my A2 media coursework, I had to create a music video, DigiPak and a music website for my chosen artist to promote my video and their image. The genre I chose is ‘Pop’ music. This genre has a huge audience as the music is ‘popular’ which is where it gets its more commonly known name from. The audience for this genre has a very secure idea and although there are many different types of ‘pop’ music, there is genre expectancy and viewers find predictability appealing.
One convention of a pop music video is that the artist is usually clothed in fashionable, stylish and mainstream outfits. In my music video I have followed this convention by dressing my artist in mainstream clothing. In my video my model has numerous clothe choices. In one section of my video she is wearing a plain t-shirt with a leather jacket. I decided for my model to wear a leather jacket, as currently this is a very popular in demand piece of clothing. This therefore makes my model relatable to the audience which is a way to gain popularity. Not only is she relatable but she can also be seen as someone to look up to. Her bold choice by having red sunglasses and lipstick will make her stand out and draw attention to herself. This can lead to girls rather than become a clone of other girls, make them feel more independent which can connect the artist to the audience. An example of this is the band Little Mix. Their whole band today is seen as fashion icons and they are constantly picked up on what they wear not only in videos but on their social media too. However, they aren’t just seen collectively as a whole band, each individual in the band have their own unique style. This makes them relatable to fans as they are looked up to by their fans to be unique in their own way.
Today there is a huge focus on narrative within music videos. However, pop music videos, rather than having narrative have a bigger focus upon the artist rather than focusing on a story within the video. I stuck to this convention rather than challenging it as audiences getting familiar with the artist in my video. The song I chose does not have a strong message therefore there is not a huge connection with the lyrics and audience, however the artist can still relate in some ways to the audience. For example, one convention of a pop song is usually relating to a boy and in some cases an ex. In this case this relates to my song. Having just the artist and no male, portrays my artist as a strong confident women rather than the typical break up songs where they are sand and upset. Therefore I am challenging a convention of a typical pop break up song.
A further convention of a pop music video is that there is some connection with teenagers whether it is partying, boys or dancing. A connection I chose to connect my artist to audiences is makeup. An important part when creating anything is to connect with audiences. This grows the interest in the artist and increases popularity. For my target audience makeup will be of some what an important factor in their life and also will be of huge interest to them. Furthermore now social media is becoming more and more popular as younger ages are using it, they start to pick up interest in typical ‘older’ teenagers. Therefore, using makeup as a key factor to connect with my audience will make them feel connected to my video. This convention of connecting with target audiences is clear is many already existing examples.
Technology recently has been used in a major part of pop music videos. Things such as animation are used to create an excitement about the video and also create a loud, lively atmosphere. For example, this is used in many existing videos by exaggerating lyrics next to the artist usually. As technology is now growing due to the postmodern world we now live in, I have gone along with this convention. A main part of the technology I have used is the animated backgrounds in a lot of my video. This especially takes part in the zigzag section of my video. The bright exaggerated colours create a lively and energetic atmosphere to my video which relates to the ages of my audience.
Links between lyrics and visuals is not just apparent in pop music videos but is also a convention in any music video taken from Andrew Goodwin’s theory. A clear link between lyrics and visuals is the numerous appearances of the lips. This links to the lyrics as the songs title is ‘lips are movin’ and the continuous reference to lips throughout the song. This theory is apparent in most songs usually, especially one without narrative. This is because the artist singing along to the song can be seen as a link to the lyrics as they are singing along to the song.
Another of Goodwin’s theory is a link between music and visuals. In my video, I edited some of the shots of my video purposely to coincide with the beat of the music. This is clear in the opening sequence where the jump of the glitter on the speaker corresponds to the strong bass of the opening intro. Furthermore there are many cuts throughout my video which also change when the beat of the music changes or when there is a strong drum beat sounded. This links to Beyonce's music video countdown where I got inspiration , as the majority of the visuals all correspond with the beat of the song. This makes the video a lot more interesting and more visually appealing to audiences as there eyes link to what they can hear
With a DigiPak there a basic conventions that not only pop music DigiPak’s should have but DigiPak’s in general. Unlike my website and music video, I feel that my DigiPak challenges more conventions then it meets. For my whole project the main theme is devoted around lips, therefore again with the DigiPak I have focused upon this theme. Unlike most images where they have an image of the artists’ face, I decided to have a focus on the lips again with the artists face hidden. I chose this image as it was intriguing towards audiences to what the artist looks like. The lips also pop out of the DigiPak making the audience be drawn towards it. However, I did follow the traditional convention of a DigiPak by having the artists name and the single too. This is present on almost every DigiPak, however for some exceptions where the name of the artist is not on the front. Like my DigiPak, many existing DigiPak’s have the artists name and song title centered and have them stand out so they can attract the audience’s attention.
I followed conventions of the back of the DigiPak unlike the front. As I have made a single, there is only one song unlike an album. However, I have still followed the convention of placing the name of the song on the back. A feature I placed on the back of my DigiPak includes standard conventions such as a barcode. Furthermore the back of the DigiPak includes the record label logo along with all the copyright details and information about the record label. These follow standard conventions of a DigiPak especially an authentic one as they are needed to ensure the customer that everything is legitimate. As this is a single rather than an album I feel there are fewer images on the back. However, for a standard album rather than a plain back, there is usually some kind of image or pattern, but as it is a single, I decided to focus solely on the song therefore making the back plain and simple.
For the inside of the DigiPak I have challenged many standard conventions, not just pop conventions when creating it. Usually the inside of the DigiPak consists of two panels and a disc. When researching many of the DigiPak’s has two images of the artist and a plain disc, however, I wanted to shy away from the standard convention. I took an image of the same lips that I used in the music video and bled it across the inside look of the DigiPak. This therefore created not only the inside image on the inside panels, but also the disc. I decided to make the disc the same picture as the panel behind to give a unique look to it. I also corresponded the colour contrast with the same on the front panel so again there was a common look within this DigiPak.
The conventions of a music website for any genre of music is that there is usually a home page where an artist will promote new things they have done. Furthermore there will be a type of website navigation that users can get from one page to another.
For the website, as I felt it was one of the more complex things, more than a DigiPak, I decided to stick to the majority of the conventions. One of these conventions is a menu bar on my home page. This allows easy navigation to my users to access the different elements to my website. Furthermore at first glance, it gives people the chance to see exactly what there is to see and use on my website. The menu bar is the main and only form of navigation across my website and is present on every subpage making it simple for users to access each page and go back if they wish to. After analysing previous websites I took this from Justin Bieber’s website as for my target audience which is very similar to his, it makes it the easiest for them to access 
A convention of a website is to promote new things for an artist, therefore I have placed the music video I created on the home page right in the centre. As this is in the centre, of the home page, this draws the most attention from audiences. This therefore raises the profile of the artist, as the song will be playing therefore drawing interest from the public. I also placed the single underneath the video. This therefore allows people to buy the single very easily rather than searching on iTunes or other platforms. This acts as a form of advertising for my artist as it gains interest from people who will be a stranger to her music.
Another convention of music websites which I have stuck to is the huge focus on social media on my website and home page. I felt that now, for the age of my audience I have targeted at, social media has a very big influence and is a major part of their lives therefore to include it is vital to my artists profile. As I have added a Spotfiy app, this raises her profile as audience can listen to her music from her website rather than going on to the Internet to find the specific artist. Also on the footnote of each page there is social media links again making the artist more connected with her fans and audience.
No comments:
Post a Comment