Thursday, 28 January 2010
Friday, 16 October 2009
The artist I have chosen to textually analyse is the internationally known signer, song-writer, composer and pianist, Elton John. He has won five Grammy awards, an academy award, a golden globe and a Tony award, also he has sold over 200 million records, making him one of the most successful artists of all time. He specialises in the rock, pop and glam rock genre, he was inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame in 1994. He send out positive messages as he has been heavily involved in the fight against AIDS since the late 1980s.
Elton John had emerged as a primarily piano based rock and roll artist, which already was completely subverting from the conventions of the rock and roll genre, which is more typically associated with electric guitars and dense bass and drum sounds. Also his song lyrics were more emotional, which also was unique and somewhat unheard of in the rock and roll world. Songs like this include “Take Me to the Pilot”, “Madman Across the Water”, “Tiny Dancer” and more. This was non-conventional of the genre as it was more typically known for loud, vigorous vocals less romantic and emotional than Eltons' songs are.
Elton John has a very distinct, individual, noticeable fashion sense and star image. He is known for his outlandish dress sense. His colourful and flamboyant clothes makes him instantly detectable to the public
Monday, 28 September 2009
Jagged Edge Digipak
A digipak is a type of dvd or CD packaging.
The Jagged Edge digipak I will analyse is a 2 cd of their album “Hard”. The pack includes a booklet of the band members and information about their songs including lyrics and the producers and writers of it. With additional information such as make up artists and direct messages from the band members. There is a long shot of the group, showing all their faces with a message from each of them thanking people for buying the album and thanking people such as their family or people they have worked with for helping get them this far. This lets the audience know more about the artists as individual people.
It's a double sided booklet that folds out 7 times. On the other side there are close ups and mid shots of each member with their name in bold chrome typography. Showing each band member as an individual. The chrome matched the overall theme of the CD and artists. On the front cover they are shown in suits and hats shot from a low angle long shot, showing superiority. It is night time and they appear to be in the back streets somewhere. They are posed alongside a classic car in all chrome, including the rims. This justifies the typography style.
The digipak helps to establish the artist and their star persona and image. Jagged Edge are presenting themselves as mature men and their songs shown through their costume and body language shown in the CD cover. They all have at least one hand in their suit pocket. Their individual close up and mid shot pictures shown on the inside show conventions of their R&B genre. Their shown wearing baggy clothes. Typical American long t-shirts and long jewellery also known as “bling”. One of the band members “Brian” particularly stand out as he is shown closest to the camera and we as the audience see more of his face than any of the others, provoking the thought that h is the lead vocalist. He is shown in a black vest and tattoos down both of his arms, which is a typical aspect of the R&B genre. All of the jewellery they are wearing is silver/chrome, which carries the mature image from the front cover.
The inside of the booklet is a list of the sings and the lyrics to them. Also including information about the individual song such as who produced it, mixed it, the companies involved in the creation of the track and copyright information. The continuous theme throughout the digipak and CD itself is dark, mature yet conventional. The typography and background on the inside of the pack showing the lyrics is a strict black, grey and white/chrome theme. The contrast between black and chrome could mean the conflict between presenting themselves as mature adults whilst maintaining their current music feel and conventions of the R&B genre. Or the difficulty to break though with an older image.
The digipak itself is a good way for an artist or group to promote themselves as a group or individuals shown thought their own “thank you” messages and individual pictures. The lyrics posted on the inside are good promotion for the songs themselves as it would provoke audience members to sing a long with the song.
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Image - Britney Spears
The artist I have chosen to textually analyse is the american singer and entertainer, Britney Spears. She specialises in the pop genre and has evolved and changed her image over the years. She more recently has been known for her outlandish random acts such as shaving off all her hair and getting married for less than a week and has earned herself the title of “One of the most controversial and successful female vocalists of the 21st century.”.
She has had very distinct images and the transformations between them have been clear and almost immediate provoking a controversial response conerning her target audience. When she had released her first album “baby one more time” she had a destinct innocent, school girl image. In her first video she was in a school daydreaming about a boy. She had emerged from the Mickey Mouse Club, an orginisation designed to discover new young talent. She had worked with the childrens channel Disney and appealed to a young audience.
Although she had shown signs of a less innocent image in this video as she was over exaggerating the typical school girl image with pig-tails and pink hairbands. She also wore her school shirt tied up as a belly top, which was misleading to her audience. She originally appeared to be appealing to young children with her time in the Mickey Mouse Club however her controversial outfit worn in her video suggested her target audience were males of their late teens.
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Her audience has become more obvious as she got older and has directed her attention primarily at males. She has developed her image in a controversial way. The image she presents to her audience on her album covers are deceptive to the image she has in her videos or performances. In her videos and performances she comes off as being promiscuous with her provocative clothing and dance moves, however on her album covers she seems to continuously present herself as innocent or respectable although very feminine and somewhat suggestive.
She has a consistent house style of displaying ideas of innocence but contradicts it in what she does in performances and videos. She continuously misleads her audience
Monday, 21 September 2009
Conventions of Rock
I will be discussing the conventions of the rock music genre. It is a popular mainstream genre and became mainstream in the 1960s, it has been around since the 1940s and 1950s with the rock and roll, rhythm and blue (R&B). The sound of rock often revolves around a guitar. This has become a conventional prop to have in a typical rock music video, whether it is being used or not it is part of the iconography. It is an iconic instrument of the genre and can include a electric guitar or acoustic guitar although acoustic guitars are more typically associated with the country music genre.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s rock music developed different sub genres such as folk rock, blues rock and jazz-fusion rock. In the 1970s sub genres such as soft rock, glam rock, heavy metal and hard rock had emerged. These sub genres changed the conventions of the rock genre and it became more about loud distorted guitars, dense bass and drum sounds and vigorous vocals.
Visual imagery played a big role in heavy metal, acts such as Alice Cooper, Kiss and Gwar became famous for outrageous performances and persona's. They brought new conventions into the genre such as long, down-the-back hair, which took the name “heavy mental hair” and “symbolised hate, angst and disenchantment of a generation that seemingly never felt at home”.
Conventional clothes for this genre include blue jeans, black t-shirts, boots and black leather or jeans jackets. Conventional accessories included chains, metal studs, skulls, headbands and jewellery, leather and crosses, influenced by punk and Goth music to horror films. Brightly coloured instruments randomly shaped were typically used by performers. Make up was also conventional, lipstick, eye-liner, gaudy clothing, leopard skin-printed shirts/vests and tight denim, leather or spandex pants.
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Other conventions of the genre include hand signs to make devil horns. Also stage diving where the performer would jump into the crowd from the stage. Also crown surfing in which a person is passed overhead by the audience, this is most commonly a person from the audience. Moshing or slamming is also typical of a rock concert, whit involves audience members push each other and is usually followed by other conventional acts such as instrument smashing.
Rock is largely associated with drugs. Psychedelic rock is a LSD inspired sub genre with such artists as Jimi Hendrix. Typical aspects of rock include outlandish acts for example Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off of a live chicken on stage, and artists sometime smash their instruments then light them on fire. Black clothing and heavy body piercing is conventional.
Sunday, 20 September 2009
Friday, 11 September 2009
Music Video Analysis
Mise-en-scene = Level 3
I gave this a level 3 because of their attention to detail in the use of costume, they wore clothes that were popular in that era, including bright colours and shaped sunglasses. Also the use of props such as a electric guitar, microphone on a stand and drumkit were appropriate and also applied to the era in which the song was made. They also had a good range of locations considering the actual video was only two.
Conventions = Level 4
This video conformed to the conventions of the medium and related what they did to the genre and typical expectations. For example the visual effect they used when dancing is iconic to the time the song was made.
Target Audience = Level 3
The bright colours and playfulness in the video makes it clear that the target audience is for a younger age group such as teenagers. Although the video has a sense of maturity to it suggesting the age group is more late teens - early 20s. There is no specific reference to and genger in the song lyrics and also both males and females star in this video, connoting it is aimed at both genders.
Creativity = Level 2
This video completely follows the conformities of the genre at the time it was made and basically copies the original video to the best of teir abilities. Therefore there was not much creativity or originality. Although the performance aspect was accurate and typically expected.
Technical = Level 2
All shots were heald steadily and the shot types (although there was not a range) were accurate. The original video by Jackson 5 is simple with limited shot types and angles therefore it would be a lot easier to make this video original because we now have better equiptment to experiment.
Narrative/ Representation = Level 2
The video was based off a basic, one outfit, one location, limited shot types & angled video and appeared to be an attempt of cloning that whereas logically it would have been a perfect opportunity to be original and creative with the video. The narrative was simple and typical and non imaginative considering the possibilities.
Overall = Level 3
Beyoncé - Single Ladies
This is a professional music video by the A-list celebrity, Beyoncé.
Star appeal is also important in a music video and can compensate where other typical aspects would lack, for example Beyoncé had one location and one outfit yet has won awards for this video because of who she is. Therefore, generally locations and outfit changes are not necessary in making a sucessful video.
Also this video was not very creative, there were no props except the metal glove on her hand, the lighting simply went from light to dark, the shot types and angles were limited and there was no narrative structure. It can be argued that because the video lacked all of this and simply had 3 women dancing that is what makes this original and creative.
The full dance rountine ha attracted many followers and a chain of youtube duplicates. Her video has repeatability, making viewers want to watch it over and over again to learn the dance rountine or simply because they like the song. A catchy tune or dance routine can also compensate for technical weaknesses.
