R+P Post 15: My Record Label

We have decided to name our record label Intrepid Records. Intrepid will be an independent record label that looks for young, upcoming artists who specialise in the alt. rock/indie rock genres.

There were a number of reasons we chose this name and logo design:

• The word intrepid means 'fearless' or 'adventurous', which we believed supported our band's image. Similarly, intrepid is sometimes used for comedic effect which makes it perfect for our band, which takes a more satirical approach to their expression than most bands or artists.
• The logo was designed around a compass due to the implications of the word 'intrepid'.
• Our primary influence for our record label was Rough Trade Records as we were all quite fond of an independent label with a specialisation in a specific genre. We believe that we can replicate the success of Rough Trade Records with our own record label and further it by focusing on upcoming talent.

Below are some examples of the kinds of alt. rock bands our record label would promote:

R+P Post 14: My Target Audience

Our research revealed to us that Rock is one of, if not the most popular genre of music. Even so, we decided to categorise our target audience in order to decide on our primary, secondary and tertiary markets.

Primary audience:

• Aged between 16 and 30 years old
• Both male and female
• Specifically fans of the genre and it's other forms (indie rock, alt rock etc.)

The biggest thing we wanted to focus on with our audience was that our band's image and music should be accessible. Therefore our band has been constructed to denote a range of relatable characters and connote an equal representation of gender.

Secondary audience:

• Aged between 30-55, but not excluding those above 55
• Both male and female
• Fans of the Rock genre, but more nostalgic. Avid fans of the genre who still follow and are interested in upcoming bands.

Tertiary audience:

• Fans of popular music
• Not necessarily confined to the Rock genre
• Whilst this audience follows the mainstream music scene, they often look for artists a little bit beyond the popular scope.

We decided to ask members of our target audience information about their music preference to validate our research:

R+P Post 13: Influences and inspiration from art, fashion and culture

Though most of our influences have been from products within the music industry, there are some references from beyond this industry that have been quite inspirational.

Wes Anderson - Cinematography

Cinematography is something that interests me a great deal, as I find it fascinating how manipulating the smallest of details can have such a subtle, yet huge impact. Wes Anderson is a director whose cinematography is especially relevant to my ideas.

As can be seen from the picture above, there are many instances during his films in which a shot has a remarkable degree of symmetry. The effect is quite uncanny and has become a recognisable feature of his film-making. In regards to my own ideas, I would like to use a technique like this in my music video, as it could be used to add a greater level of depth to an otherwise normal shot.

Andy Warhol - Pop Art

Andy Warhol's distinctive 'pop-art' style has had an influence on my ideas for our band's album. Specifically, one of our ideas for the album was to have a portrait of each of our band members in a grid similar to the pop-art style. A similar idea to this has been used with reasonable success by Blur and this style has inspired the development of my ideas regarding the album cover.

Rock Culture - Classic Rock and Modern Rock

The development in Rock culture is important for me to consider when producing my own music video, as the genre has evolved over the last few decades.

Classic Rock bands have a very bold, often extreme appearance. This ranges from the more aggressive appearances like that of Metallica to the more radical expressions in the case of Kiss.

More recently, 'Modern Rock' has been the more standard style in the music industry. As this is more current, this will be the more influential of these two cultures to my own video. An example of an influential Modern Rock band would be Bring Me The Horizon.

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

There are a number of successful artists and bands who have influenced my ideas for this project:

Paramore

Paramore is a Rock/Alt. Rock band who are very well known for a number of reason. Their music is often quite deep and reflective, which has made me realise just how important it is for the music video to draw on the song's lyrics. Furthermore, their lead singer Hayley Williams is recognised for both her bold style and personality as well as a soft, melodic voice. I would like to construct the image of our lead singer in a similar way.

Catfish and the Bottlemen

This band have a clear 'post-indie' connotation through their image, especially through the consistent use of a black and white colour scheme. Their lead singer Van McCann (second from the left) subtly draws on the Beatles through his hairstyle whereas the other band members have more distinct hair-styles. This band's image is especially strong, and have had a large influence on the vision I have for my own band's image.

Amber Run

This band is another example of a typical indie-rock band, but Amber Run display their British nationality moreso in their image than other bands. This is made clear in their hairstyles and clothing, as well as their consistent use of a lion in their band's logo. This band has illustrated the effectiveness of nationality in the band's image, something I will likely utilise in the image of my own band.

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

It was important for us to consider how the websites of various bands and artists are used, whilst thinking about how we could shape our own website. With this in mind, we looked at and compared a number of different artist websites and formats before targeting artist websites more specific to our ideas.

The Killers:
We looked at this website as The Killers is a well-known indie rock band. As our band shares this genre, we hoped to generate some ideas.

The website for Ellie Goulding
does little other than push products
at the audience.

The first thing which is immediately clear is that there is a big emphasis on their recent music. By placing the band's latest music video on the front page like this, it pushes the view that music is the real passion of this band. When we compared this to the websites of mainstream bands and artists such as Ellie Goulding, it became clear that many popular music artists are branded to sell products rather than for a love of music.

Nothing But Thieves
As we are considering one of their songs for our music video, we decided to observe how this band presents themselves. Many of the music videos for Nothing But Thieves' songs have multiple conceptual aspects, so it wasn't too surprising to find a similarly unique home page on their website. 

Clicking on the name of each song will cause it to play, with the waves in the center moving in time with the song. Whilst this may not be feasible from a technical stance, it would help to signify our genre if we could find a less mainstream style for our website similar to this.

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

Not only does our album cover have to clearly express our band's image, but it also has to work with our brief. With that said, we were able to recognise some trends that will influence our own album cover design.


Many classic and contemporary rock album covers will display conceptual themes on the album cover. This ranges from striking and eye-catching art styles to minimalist designs of art or text. Some of the most famous and iconic album covers use conceptual artwork to represent their band image. As shown by Nevermind by Nirvana, conceptual album covers can also be used to make comments or critiques on various topics, which could allow us to explore some very sophisticated ideas. Whilst a concept would fit with the image of our band that we want to display in our music video, our brief means that we have to have our band in the cover. Therefore concept will probably not be the most notable feature of our album cover.

It is common for a debut album to showcase the band or artist in the album's cover. This is also the case with rock music album covers: the debut albums of The Ramones and The Beatles are some classic examples of this. This will be an important feature of our album cover as it is both a successful and recognisable trend, but is also required as part of our brief. The debut album cover of The Ramones in particular is one that has heavily inspired our ideas for the cover, as the band image we want to express is that our band is a simple group of friends who love music. With that said, we can include small details in the costume, pose and expression of our band members to sculpt a unique persona for each of them. We feel as though a straight-forward simplistic approach like that of Ramones is the best way to connote this.

With all of that said, it is also possible for us to combine both of these styles: not only has this been done with a reasonable amount of success, but it allows us to anchor the image created through our music video. The album Elephant by The White Stripes uses an impactful juxtaposition in colour which catches the audience's eye. As well as this, there are a number of signifiers in the album, including the rope tied around the left woman's leg and the ceiling light. The rope has connotations of imprisonment, whereas the ceiling light stands out on its own; therefore suggesting isolation. It would be interesting to experiment with this idea of multi-layered signifiers, especially when constructing the persona of our band members.

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

There are several music videos which have influenced my initial ideas, though each has impacted the development of my ideas in a different way.

The Killers - When You Were Young

This music video uses a hybrid of
performance and narrative structures. I would
like to use a hybrid structure in my own video.

This is a music video which supports Simon Frith's theory of music video structure as it incorporates a performance and narrative element. What I especially like about this video however is that these two elements converge towards the end of the song, which adds a unique level of surrealism. This is something I can definitely see myself utilising in my own video.

Tove Lo - Not on Drugs

There are two things in particular that are influential to me ideas. The first is the editing style; which incorporates a lot of unique effects. The editing means that these effects can be quite jarring, but considering the lyrics and meaning of the song makes the editing very effective. I plan to do something similar with my own video; in regards to the intense, yet meaningful editing.

The inclusion of a 'pandemonium
scene' is something I am
quite eager to experiment with.

The second influential feature of this music video is the state of pandemonium that develops throughout the first and second verse before breaking out during the chorus. I would very much like to include a scene of pandemonium in my video as it provides some really unique and interesting options for camerawork and editing. In this music video, the state of pandemonium is displayed primarily through close-ups and the manipulation of pace, even reversing the footage in some cases. This is something I would like to do with my own ideas.

Weezer - Buddy Holly

This music video is very effective as it utilises the theory of Andrew Goodwin in which he proposes that music videos often make intertextual references so that the audience can recognise and involve themselves more easily in the product. This song utilises intertextuality very well: the band Weezer are made to appear as a typical American boyband in a style reminiscent of Happy Days. This juxtaposes with the 90s style of Rock music that the band plays, which creates a surreal experience for the audience. As mentioned previously, surrealism is something I would like to utilise in my own video. The only concern that I have with the inclusion of intertextuality is that it is very difficult to include it a meaningful way: without a clear connection between the referenced text and the song, the use of intertextuality can easily appear to be tagged on. Nevertheless, this concept has had an impact on the consideration of my ideas.

The 1975 - Chocolate

This song utilises a strong black and white colour scheme. The reason that I find this so influential is that this colour scheme is an exceptionally powerful signifier of the band's image and genre. As such, I believe that using a defined colour scheme in my own music video would help to create an especially clear identity for my band. Additionally, this music video is a good demonstration of Andrew Goodwin's theory of genre characteristics: this music video contains many features of the indie genre. Chocolate has influenced my approach to denoting and connoting my genre's characteristics.

(add gif - caption identifies genre. Mention genre characteristics)

R+P Post 8: Possible tracks for the single

Picking which song we should create a music video for was an interesting process, as our group's music taste was centered around rock music and all of its sub genres. My primary role in the selection process was determining how suitable the song would be and whether the ideas we were generating were feasible.

The Foals - Mountain at my Gates

This is one of the first songs suggested for our music video. The indie rock genre makes it reasonably accessible and the beat gives us a lot of options for our music video. The only inhibition we have about this song is that it may be a little too repetitive, which would make it more difficult to create and sustain an exciting concept. Furthermore there isn't a natural end to the song before three minutes, so we would have to make a compromise.

Kings of Leon - Be Somebody

The lyrics in this song have helped us to come up with a lot of good ideas and there are a couple of instrumental parts which would work well in our video. However, there are a number of similar issues: the song is over three minutes long and it is a little bit repetitive. As well as this, the song was quite popular when it was released, which goes against our brief.

The Neighbourhood - Sweater Weather

The beat and of this song makes it a particularly appealing option for our video, although it could be argued that the tempo is not very dynamic. Whilst the lyrics are very good signifiers of themes and ideas which could be used well in a conceptual video, they may not be suitable for the music video project.

Nothing But Thieves - Trip Switch

This track is currently our favourite and most likely candidate for the music video. Not only does the pace of the song provide options for interesting editing techniques, but the lyrics have a strong theme of technology. We have already been able to come up with an interesting concept to display this theme, whereas we didn't have as clear an idea for the other tracks. Unlike our other tracks the song is exactly three minutes long, meaning it falls in line with the brief. But most importantly, the song is exciting and enjoyable to listen to.

R+P Post 7: Record labels of interest

Our group decided to research a number of record labels that work with bands of a similar nature to what we have in mind for our own band. As the record label manages the link between the band and the audience, it was important to have a strong idea of how to construct our record label.

The "Big Three"
During my research, I found out that over two-thirds of the world's music market is controlled by three record labels: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group. This discovery allowed me to fully understand just how important a competitive record label is, as an independent record label that fails to stand out will really suffer in the music industry. Therefore I directed my research towards successful independent labels.

Rough Trade Records:

Rough Trade Records has established a strong reputation for the release of rock bands such as The Smiths and The Strokes. Specialising in the indie and punk rock scenes allowed them to establish a strong brand identity, which has had a consistent place in the market with the exception of some financial troubles in the 1990s. This label caught my eye, as some of their artists such as Howler and Warpaint share a number of similarities with our ideas for our own band. 

Both Marshall Teller Records
and Rough Trade Records
targeted a specific marke

Marshall Teller Records
This record label was founded by a single man who would release music created by friends and family, but the label quickly became prominent in the alt-rock genre. Similarly to Rough Trade Records, Marshall Teller chose to specialise in a specific area; this time in 90s rock and American youth culture. Considering the impact of both Marshall Teller Records and Rough Trade Records suggested that constructing a record label around a single theme or genre would be the best way to create a clear brand identity.

Young Turks
Unlike the previous two record labels, Young Turks is an imprint label: the company is not a legal organisation, but more of a group of artists under a mutually beneficial agreement. Their identity as an imprint label acts a selling point for their artists, and as such many conceptual music artists such as FKA Twigs and SBTRKT. The symbiosis of Young Turks is interesting to see, especially considering that a record label identifying themselves in this less conventional way can achieve a great level of success.

R+P Post 6: Current trends in popular music

To broaden the reach and appeal of our music video, we decided to investigate the current trends in the music industry to see which genres of music are having the most success.

On the UK music charts, half of the songs in the top 10 were pop songs or sub genres of pop. There were no rock songs on the top 10, which made me question how suitable a rock song would be for our music video. However, further research led me to discover this article which suggests that rock music has stronger album sales rather than single sales: rock music holds a third (33.2%) of all album sales, just behind the sales for pop music at 34.5%. 

The BFI also states that George Ezra's song "Budapest" helped rock music to claim "its biggest share of the singles market in four years." This is important as the music video for Budapest is a hybrid of concept and performance. As we are planning to make a video in a similar style, it is reassuring to see that this structure has had recent success.

My research into the music industry eventually led me to the BPI, where I found some information regarding their Music Market guide. Over 13% of music consumed worldwide is produced by British artists: a considerable amount when you look at it comparatively. Furthermore, British music has a respectable marketshare in several different countries including the US, Canada and Australia. This has made us consider how far we shall present our band with its British identity in order to take advantage of these trends in music consumption.

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

When I first started to think about what kind of music video I wanted to make, the only thing I knew for certain was that I wanted it to be unique. The resources we have available at Latymer means that we can create a very conceptual music video, although there are still limitations. Not only that, but it can be difficult to sustain a concept for a long period of time, whilst adding too many different concepts can also have a negative effect.

This is a conceptual music video with a very heavy theme: the concept is closely linked to the lyrics and has a real sense of gravity. With that said, it can be argued that the concept struggles to maintain the audience's attention for the whole duration of the song. Additionally, the way in which this concept is displayed may be a bit out of our grasp, but this song did illuminate the importance of keeping a close connection between the lyrics and the concept.

Getting a good balance between
performance, narrative and
concept is vital.

This music video is a little bit closer to what I would like to make. By breaking up the conceptual narrative with performance scenes, the video never loses its pace or becomes dull. The only concern I have with creating a music video with performance, concept and narrative is that it can easily become cluttered: crowding the video with too many different elements can be dangerous unless they all work together as a whole. Specifically, combining the performance with a concept or narrative will be important to remember for our own video.

Green screen should definitely
be considered for our own video.

Finally, this is a music video with a more technical aspect. A variety of filters and effects are used to give the video a more rustic style. We do have a green screen available to us, but the major issue with this is that green screen done poorly is more of a detriment rather than an asset. Whilst it would be a great experience to make a more technically impressive video, it may not be worth the risk. Moreover, it is still possible to make a visually impressive video without using tech such as green screen.

R+P Post 4: Audience groups of interest

Though I am not an obsessive consumer of music, there are two audience groups that I take an interest in. Furthermore, I feel as though I would be reasonably confident in targeting these audience groups if we were to choose them as targets for our own music video.

Fans of Rock Music

What makes Rock music so interesting is that it is able to transcend the typical boundaries of age and gender more than any other genre. Rock music is one of the most universal genres of music, which means that targeting fans of Rock music would attract a large audience.

Therefore I decided to do some more research into the audience with a specific focus on their listening and purchasing habits. I discovered that Rock music has the largest fanbase; controlling about 33.8% of the market in 2013 over the 31% of Pop music. Rock music was also more popularly consumed than Pop music via streaming services, with Rock representing 34.6% of streamed songs to the 27.7% of Pop. Remarkably enough, the only instance in which Rock was not the dominant genre was in sales of singles, in which Pop music was top. This means that targeting fans of Rock music would be useful for our campaign, as we are making an album alongside our video, not a single.

Music consumers in the UK

The UK audience is particularly fascinating when it comes to music: though we only have the world's third largest music industry, we are the world's largest consumer of music, with an average sale of albums at 1.6 per head. This would not only suggest that the UK market would be quite lucrative, but that there is a lot of room for the UK's music industry to develop and grow.

I then decided to research the correlation between these two audience groups. 

Sure enough, Rock music and it's sub-genres are some of the most listened to songs on Spotify in the UK. Therefore these audience groups would be suitable as target audiences for our own product, especially so if we market our band with as an alt. rock band with a British identity.

In addition, I also did some research into the audience listening and purchasing habits. Firstly, in terms of album sales by genre, rock took up 33.8% of the market in 2013, beating pop music to the top spot by 2.8%. Secondly, in reference to streams by genre, rock beat pop once again (34.6% to 27.7%). In fact, the only time pop beat rock was in singles sales. From this I have learnt a lot about the audience for Rock music; specifically that they tend to consume their music through albums and use streaming as an alternative method of consumption. This information will be crucial to my project when deciding on the marketing strategies.

R+P Post 3: Music genres that interest me

Rock/Alt. Rock

Most likely influenced by my parents, I find that I listen to a lot of rock music. This ranges from older artists like Queen, Guns n' Roses and The Beatles to more modern artists like The Killers and Foster the People.

As rock is such an accessible genre of music, it is probably the best option for our own music video. Furthermore, many of the conventions rock music videos are easily achievable.

Conventions:

• Performance led
• Low-key lighting
• Edited to the pace of the music
• Lyrics often tell a story which is depicted in the video

In the music video for When You Were Young by The Killers the performance and narrative elements are combined towards the end of the song. We could replicate this to avoid making our music video wholly performance based.

Look & Style:
As the rock genre is so widespread, there are a number of different signifiers of genre. However, there are some which are quite typical:

Electro
I listen to a lot of music without lyrics, which applies to most electronic songs. However, the rhythmic beat of most electronic music is often very good, which is why i'm drawn to it. One of my favourite electro tracks is Surrender by Cash Cash.

Although this is a great song, I don't think it would be very suitable for our music video project as most music videos are heavily dependent on the lyrics. Electro songs tend to have fewer lyrics, or more repetitive lyrics, which would make it more tricky to sustain a three minute video with.


The other problem is that the identity of the artists of electronic music is often entirely absent. Most electronic music does not have a music video and the artists use stage names, which are rarely credited anyway. This would make it very difficult for us to sell our artist's image.

R+P Post 2: Myself as a music consumer

Although I wouldn't consider myself a very typical music consumer, the fact remains that music is completely ingrained in society. As such, there are a couple of tracks that have had a big impact on me.

The Police - Message in a Bottle

This is a song that my Dad would play quite often when I was a child, so it is quite nostalgic for me. I think it appealed to me as a child due to the repetition of the lyrics, but reflecting on the song today has made me much more aware of the themes of loneliness present in the song. I think I may have sub-consciously attached to this, as I was quite solitary growing up.

Gary Jules - Mad World

I first heard this song shortly after I started at Latymer. I was initially very anxious about secondary school, as I had gone through a number of issues with bullying during my time at primary school. It's for this reason that this song is so significant as it really resonated with me at the time. Even still, I find myself listening to this song to relax or unwind.

OneRepublic - Counting Stars

As a young adult, this is the song that means the most to me today. To me, the song represents an ambition to achieve success whilst doing what you love; which is exactly what I hope to achieve with a career in the media industry.

R+P Post 1: My A2 Group

For my A2 project, I will be working alongside Amber Mota and Shayam Utting.

A picture of our group: myself (left) Shayam (right)
and Amber (middle)

I believe every member of our group brings a number of valuable assets to the table. Whilst I excel in the more technical, production-oriented side of things, Amber and Shayam are very good at coming up with creative ideas for the video. With that said, we will all have a unique contribution to every part of the process as our own music consumption is so varied. We can all offer a different perspective to develop our ideas effectively.

In order to ensure that we progress with the project in good time, we have arranged two meetings every week. In these meetings, we will address any tasks we have to complete as well as update each other on  the status of the objectives set in the previous meeting.

We have also agreed on a number of working principles to adhere to:
- We will all arrive to the scheduled meetings on time, or let our group know if we fail to do so.
- We will all have an equal contribution to the development of our music video.