Miley Cyrus Image and Digipak

Miley Cyrus has evolved over the years with her music and her public image. She started out on as a Disney character as Hannah Montana and she did this from a very young age until the shows ended.

During this time her music very upbeat and catchy which was suitable for the target audience for the show which was young girls. After the show she wanted to change her image so she was no long only thought of as Hannah Montana. She brought out her Album 'Can't be tamed' which came out in 2010.

You can see a significant difference with her image just by looking at her, she has changed her hair, she looks more mature and has changed to a more seductive image without being over the top which will persuade people to buy her CD. The colours on the CD also say a lot about the drastic change. The Hannah Montana front cover, its bright colours which appeals to a younger age group. This front cover however is limited with its colour and she stands out in all black leather, making her look more mature and grown up.

 Her latest album shows a significant difference with everything to do with her image. The most noticeable change is her hair, which she cut short and bleached blonde. Her style of music went from young pop music to RnB, she used the 'shock factor' to the public to get everyone talking about her and her music, which a lot of artists do to promote their album.
Her Digipak shows a narrative to it, she is presented covered on the front cover but inside she is shown with an open jacket and with less clothing. Her digipak shows lots of images of her new style and it shows a leaflet which can be pulled out into a poster. She is showing off the 'new her' and because she is main recognised for being Hannah Montana so people will see this revelation which will make the public want to buy the album and discover more about her. Her music became more Rap/RnB, showing a completely new artist.

Music posters

Rock

This music of 'The Rolling Stones' a very well known rock band, they grew in success from the 60's through to the 80's, this was their prime time but they continued to make music for years afterwards and they band are still together today.

This is a poster the band used for their 'Vibration' album. The conventions of the Rock genre are shown with its use of colour and font. They use, Black, white, yellow and red. With the font as well it makes the colours and bold font stand out to the audience. The band have used a black and white images of the band which is a classic trait for a rock band. The dark, bold font represents the band in the same way that the rock band is bold, dark and stands out which shows their style as a band, which is effective when promoting Tours or other events the band may have organised. Its displays key information for the public like key dates, the place where it is held, websites etc.

Pop

Taylor Swift is a classic example for a Pop Artist. She promotes her music in a different style, as each album comes out. Her image has a huge fan base because her music is aimed mainly at teenagers and young adults. She does a lot of music relating to relationships and is also very catchy and upbeat. Which are all popular attributes as they are very popular with the public.

This is a poster of Taylor Swift's Red tour promotion poster. She has used key conventions of her album in the poster. The album is called 'Red' so she has some of the writing in red, its simple but its still effective. There isn't too much going on in the poster, its simplicity makes the poster look sophisticated which is appealing to the audience as it makes the audience feel the sma eway when listening to her music.

 

Here shows another example of Katy Perry's 'Prizm' Tour poster. This shows a more stereo typical image of Pop music. The bright colours of the poster make it very eye catching to the public links well to her music as it is quick and catchy, the bright colours of the poster, make the audience remember it more. And it also helps promote the poster because the bright colours on the poster give an idea to the public as to what the tour will be like.

Alternative/Indie

Artic Monkeys are a very stereo typical Indie band. Their music appeals to many members of the public, to men and women. Its particularly popular to see live because they use acoustic songs on their as additions or as an original part of the album. Which is appealing to many members of the public because shows what they are more likely to sound like live.

 The conventions of their genre are the music it diegetic a lot of the time because it often sounds realistic and is often illustrative in their music videos because the narrative of their songs tells a story. This appeals the audience a lot because they can relate to it. Their performance is often displayed to the public with the main singer in the middle at the front, with guitarists either side with and drummer or a DJ behind the main singer. This shows each member of the band has a part which shows how they are all involved.

Hip Hop

Nicki Manaj is a stereo typical artist for the Hip Hop genre because she represents the rap genre but also shows part of pop which also occurs in this genre.

The conventions of this genre in music videos show low angled shots which imply they are powerful  and the audience are looking up to  them. Also a lot of time in Hip Hop music videos there is a crowd of people dancing to the song which shows people having s good time listening to the song which make it easier for the audience to enjoy the song. Also this genre shows a lot of props linking to wealth such as jewellery and  cars which is appealing to the audience.

Cutting to the beat (Mallory Knox)

Presentation2 Mallory Knox

Cutting to the beat (mallory knox)

Cuttting to the Beat (Mallory Knox)

Purpose, conventions and styles of music videos

What are the purposes of music videos?

 

-          To sell the song and invoke a reaction it make the audience remember the song.

-          To give the audience a better understanding of the song.

-          To entertain the audience, they might do this by dancing or some form of talent they may have.

-          To help cell the CD or single or DVD, it helps create a visual memory of the song which persuades people to buy the song or DVD.

-          The music video will help the expansion of the artists profile, to build up his/her/their success.

What are the conventions of music videos?

-          Camera shot- music videos often include many different shot types; they do this because it helps express the meaning of the song, using shots like close-ups and longs shots etc. This helps create more meaning behind the song.

-          Mise-en-scene- The use of mise-en-scene in the music video helps create a more interesting approach to the video and helps emphasize the emotions of the song. They do this by the clothes they wear, with the lighting in the video, this helps set the mood of the song.

-          Editing- Jump cut are often the most used shots in music videos, it allows shots to go from one to the other quickly and it can change from scene to scene effectively. Cuts such a fade cuts are often used too because they help the scenes all merge together to make it look good.

What are the styles of music videos?

-          Narrative

-          Visual story so it is easy for the audience to follow

-          The story is an idea, a ‘concept’ hence conceptual.

-          The narrative usually relates to the song in some way.

-          Intertextuality

-          References to other films programmes or other events.

-          Illustration

-          The video illustrates the narrative of the song.

-          Amplification

-          Works around a subject or something specific and works around it.

-          Disjuncture

-          Where the music video has nothing to do with the lyrics of the song and doesn’t link in any way.

Analysis on three music videos

Sia- chandelier

 

This video is a disjuncture style as it had no relevance to the lyrics to the video it. The video takes place in three acts: a bedroom with mouldy walls, a kitchen where the girl talks to herself, and a living room where she 'entertains' invisible guests and dances-drinks to a party that's not there. It is also closed ended because it the little girl has finished her dance routine and the camera zooms out and blurs at the same time. It is singular stranded because there is no storyline or plot to it. The whole video is of the girl dancing but she dances in rhythm with the beat of the music. When Sia sings ‘1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3’ the girls dances the rhythm which makes the dancing more engaging to the audience. Her outfit makes her look almost naked with would resemble vulnerability in the character. There is also drawings and writing all over the girls hands. This is a rather childish thing to do so is therefore also showing the childish and vulnerable side of the character of the video.

 

Analysis on three music videos

Adele- rolling in the deep analysis

 

This video is also amplification style, it takes certain elements of the lyrics and uses then subtly for example ‘we could have had it all’ it presents a table of towers symbolising a city. This implies metaphorically that ‘they’ meaning her and her partner could have had everything together. In addition to this the lyrics also say ‘but you played it to the beat’ and in it were set on fire. This implies she is addressing and ex-partner that threw away everything they had. It is a circular technique again because it ends in a similar picture to the start of the video. It focuses on six main scenes in the video, the camera goes through each of them all of which are entirely different. One scene shows cup and pots being smashed and it’s all set in big house. This could also imply that when she sings ‘we could have had it all’ that they could have had this big house and everything in it but its all been destroyed due to a break up. 

Analysis on three music videos

Mallory Knox- Beggars analysis

 

The music video is an amplification style. It uses the title of the song to illustrate the video. The beggar is what the song links around and the narrative of the video bases around him. It’s an open ended storyline. They take a line out of the lyrics ‘I’m coming to get you’ which occurs in the video to the end when they find the beggar, and give him back the blanket he had on in the beginning of the video making it the music video circular because it ends similarly to where it started. The camera shots used are to create different moods to the video. A mid shot is used to show all members of the band, they’re all wearing the same costume, white jeans and shirt and white braces and black trilby hat this represent the band a team together. Their music style is more in the rock genre we can see this because the band members are wearing a small amount of black eye liner. Also the main singer is had straightened his hair. The music instrument that’s obvious is an electric guitar this is a stereotypical trait of the rock genre.

 

Technical requirments for video

Technical requirements for performance

 

-          Tracking shots are hard to achieve without a dolly

-          The singer must be miming in perfect synk with the music.

-          Musicians must be in sync, instruments in a realistic way.

-          You need a large number of shots and edits.

-          Shots need to be varied.

-          Edits need to follow the tempo

 

Narrative

-          A purely narrative based video, or one combining narrative with performance.

-          Use a member of the band or the singer as the main character or use somebody outside the band.

Pop culture

-          Taylor Swift- shake it off

-          Bruno Mars- uptown funk

-          Katy Perry-

Hip Hop

-          Jay-z- big pimpin

-          Migos- Versace

Boyband

-          One direction- story of my life

-          Take that

Rock

-          The strokes

-          Arctic monkeys

 

Illustrative

-          Naughty boy ft Sam Smith- la la la

-          Home coming- kanye west

Take an aspect of the lyrics and links it in the video in some way.

 

Disjuncture

-          Fatboy Slim- Please you

 

Intertextuality

References to other filmstv programmes or other events.

-          Katy perry- tgif

-          Taylor swift- bad blood

-          Iggy izalia- fancy

Promotional vidoes

Promotional videos

 

Music videos are compromised in two image types

-          Performance clips

-          Conceptual clips- narrative and artistic

-          Majority of the videos are a combination of the two

Performance clip

-          Is a video that shows the vocalist in one or more settings

Settings

-          Can take place in different setting, perhaps with more variety.

-          The singer could be in their bedroom singing out the window they could be walking down the street.

Narrative

-          Visual story so it is easy for the audience to follow

-          The story is an idea, a ‘concept’ hence conceptual.

-          The narrative usually relates to the song in some way.

-          E.g. Radiohead ‘karma police.’

Artistic clips

-          No obvious narrative

-          Just an art form

-          More of a concept video

Combine the three element to create an effective music video.

Music Promo

Lesson 2 Music Promo

 

Advert for the artist and song.

 

Beemer Advert:

-          Has a narrative (storyline)

-          Fits in with the music

-          Edits works well with the rhythm and the beat.

-          Lots of shots

Linear and non-linear narrative

Linear means chronological order ‘coldplay- scientist’

Non-linear means not in chronological

 

Open ended- have your own interpretation of the ending.

Close ended- you know the ending.

 

Circular- story starts where it ends.

Singular-stranded- it has one storyline.

Multi-strand- Love actually- it has lots of storylines.

 

Todorov’s theory of narrative

Stage 1- new equilibrium

Stage 2- Equilibrium

Stage 3- Dis-equilibrium

Stage 4- Repair

Stage 5- new equilibrium

 

Synaesthesia

Once sense triggers another sense. A condition in which one type of stimulation evokes another.

 

Andrew Goodwin theorist:

-           suggests movie promos can interpret meaning and lyrics in different ways.

-          Illustration- illustrates the ideas with the songs in the lyrics Eminem ‘stan’.

-          Amplification- uses a key image/image from the lyrics develop it into a concept into the promo.

-          Disjuncture- the promo bears no resemblance to the lyrics or its meaning- often seen as unconventional or arty videos creates  a range of meaning behind the songs. ‘Red hot chilli peppers- don’t stop’