A background to the music industry and some basic theory

Genre is a classification of a text according to it style and content, and possibly its form and manner of production. All the different media, pop media is the one in which is the most depended on genre, which includes the most widely different genres of texts. Genres are continually being changed and new inventions and revisted. This is really important of the process of categorisation for the producers and fans of the music alike.

So for example Girls Aloud are in the category of epitomize the shiny trash aesthetic of pop music.  

 

Broadly speaking, most music falls into one of these categories: 

* Pop (inculding global categories                      

   like Europop, Arabic pop,                               

   Cantopop, J- Pop, and K- Pop)                            

* Dance                        

 * Country and western 

* Folk          

* R&B 

* Jazz 

Hip- Hop/ Rap 

* Rock 

* Latin 

* Punk 

* Blues 

All of these categories in which I have named above contain a myriad of sub- genres of hybrids and mash- up of different kind of genres. But on the other hand each of these genres has unique musical characteristics (rhythm, instruments used for melody, lyric and vocal style) All of these factors can also be joined in with clothing, hair and lifestyle. Genres also have there specific sites of institutional support, including performance space (eg: nightclubs, radio stations, specialist record shops, magazines and festivals). 

Genre and Artist image: 

Genre and artist image is a massive role in how the artist portrays there music and what category they fall in. So for an example 'Its difficult to distinguish between many hip hop videos, all featuring baggily dressed homeboys sitting on steps or porches outside houses in a generic 'hood' swinging their arms and smiling at the booty passing by. Or perhaps driving slowly in big old open- topped cars round a generic 'hood' swinging their arms and waving at the booty they pass by. Similarly, all-girl or all-boy groups tend to go for videos shot in some warehouse, or other self-consciously urban setting, featuring them dancing in formation. If the look fits, wear it'.

Here are two different artists who portray there audiences and fans. It is clear that Adele is in the genre of 'Pop' and then Rihanna falls under the category of R&B. 

As I come to a conclusion with the understanding of the background to the music industry and some basic theory, I understand now that there are lots of different genre categories out there to chose from. This has made me think on which genre I will choose at looking at for my music videos. I have also learnt that with choosing a artist from a category, it is also making sure that the mise en scene is correct from the artist and genre. 

Trent Reznor and the formula for future music Business models.

Mike Masnick is the CEO and the founder of the company 'Techdirt', in which is a weblog of concentrates on technology news and other technology related issues in which are happening around the world.

The presentation formula: 

Connect with fans (CwF) + Reason To Buy (RtB) = The Business Model ($$$) 

So in January 2012 in Cannes, France, Mike Masnick gave a very powerful speech on how artists can cash without being signed to a label. As using Trent Reznor as his case study in his speech he made a very valid point. 'What made Reznor so interesting as a case study was the fact that he's done it so many times in so many different ways that he, by himself, represents a great example of how you can approach this simple formula in an infinite variety of creative ways.

Trent Reznor is an American songwriter, composer and record producer in which is talented at both vocal and multi instrumental. Reznor was the leader of the industrial rock band project 'Nine Inch Nails' which was since 1988. Then in 2007 he left Interscope Records and he is now an independent recording artist.

The ways in which Trent Reznor connected with the audience and fans so well was let alone successes by other musicians who have executed differently, but all of whom connected with fans (CwF) and then gave them a real reason to buy (RtB).
Then the second point that needs to be discussed is that a true reason to buy (RtB) is a voluntary transaction. As we see very often that musicians or other content creators think that there is some sort of obligation to buy. And, so they put something out with a price tag, but without doing a very good job convincing fans why they should buy.
There are many artist and producers that could be used as examples but Trent was specially very easy to obvious one as he does both and uses many different was to (CwF) and give them (RtB). Trent was also new how to use the internet well to (CwF) as he did through the use of his website were he put music, pictures, chats, forums, ect.

As I come to conclusion on lots of interesting facts on how the future music business models and how to approach to right fans and audience in the right ways was really useful, as I believe when doing our music video, Dit-pack and website we need to make sure that we approach the right fans and audience in the right way to get the real reason to buy.

Creating a film poster

At the beginning of our A2 course, our whole year was given a task to create a film poster from our thriller which we had created in AS. This was a great opportunity to experiment on Photoshop. I was very lucky at this point as I had an advantage of doing photography as another A-Level, so I knew on how to use all the tools and the basic skills in which we needed to know to make a film poster.

So as our thriller groups we all brainstormed ideas in which we could use, we then all came up with several ideas in which were based around having a city scape and involving the robbers and policemen.
I started my poster with getting a London cityscape image in which is suitable
from were our thriller sequence is based. So with searching the net I found a image which in the distance were the skyscrapers. It was a great image in which I could then work with and adjustments of vibrance, levels, brightness, ect..  When finishing the adjustments I wanted to add images of guys in balaclavas, guns and then text. This process was using the tools on photoshop which include all the cutting tools (lasso tool, polygonal lasso tool, magnetic lasso tool) all of these tools are all very useful for cutting out selective parts of images and then you can adjust them from there. I then played around on were I wanted my balaclavas, guns and text to be placed on the city scape background. I did adjust the contrasts as they looked a bit to harsh together. This really did make the whole poster much better and really pulled it all together. I then add some text to finish it off, I didn't want to add to much text, as I feel that the audience doesn't want to be looking at much text. As they are more appealed to what the images are to make them attracted to go and watch it.

Grassrooting Goatwilliams

This task we were given was to create a mash up of a music video, in which I chose to do Robbie Williams - 'Rock this DJ' and then got clips of goats 'baaaaaaing'. This was a great oppounity to use moviemaker in which I have never done, it was very easy and quick to use, which made the process much easier.

We then placed the mash up video up on 'Youtube', in which had different approaches to the music companies. So the rights to the music videos didn't like us copyrighting there rights to the music label and posting it online. 
So with all our groups posting our mash up music videos in which we had created, lots of groups videos had been asked to take down the video from 'Youtube', there were also places around the world in which the video was not available to watch. This was due to different copyright companies having different rules with copyrighting. But our video was very lucky, and had a good response, as the music label thought that the idea in which we had done was great activity for people to watch the video. 

Lip Synch Task

In today's lesson we spent a whole morning in the TV studio as a class learning about lip synching a song, and putting it together as a music video. So from learning the basic skills from AS, with using the camera and editing. As a group we knew what we were doing, which was a advantage for us all.

So before starting anything practical we had a briefing from the media teachers on what the tasks were, which inculdes the green screen, the uses of a location with a sofa in and then a tracking shot. All of these's were all different uses of the camera to have a variety of different shots. As the groups were divided up in to three's to the different locations, are group started with the tracking shot, in which took time to get the hang of using the tracking and dolly. But once working as a group we were getting some really good fottage in which we could use when coming to editing.


As the morning unfolded we moved around to each of the locations and using a vareity of shots, different moves, different actors in front of the camera, and different people being in charge of the camera. Each and everyone of us really enjoyed doing each of these tasks, as they were all a real laugh doing, and of course we learnt lots from doing this task for when we actually do our music video in the Autumn. I think the two biggest things I've leanrt from doing this task was making the the actor feel confindent in front of the camera, and making sure they sing out aloud with the music, which should be quite loud. I did also learn that to have lots of fottage, if you want to have a fast pace as it will help when you come to editing.


Throughout this morning I have really enjoyed doing this task, as it really pointed out the mistakes in which you don't want to make when making the music video. But then of course it also pointed out in which worked really well.

Keith Negus- Organic vs. Synthetic

Keith Negus is a producing pop artist, who identifies two distinct way of thinking about potential artist from within the music industry. So the ideology of organic artists are 'naturalistic' approach to artist. They are seeds of success, in which they have 'nurtured' by a recording company.  But then on the other hand the ideology of synthetic artists are the image was constructed by the recording company. It is often aimed at a younger, less sophisticated audience, in which the emphasis is given to single sales and to promote their first albums.

During this week in class, we have been looking in to different music products in which are seen to be organic vs. synthetic. The difference between this two are that organic products are the artist who music is around today and people listen to it, even though it was released many years or decades ago. But on the other hand the synthetic artists are the ones in which they release a single in which there is lots of excitement over, but then the hype dies down after people move on to another single.



I decided to look at some artists in who are very organic and are still to this day know for there fantastic singles and albums. So I looked at Michael Jackson who is very talented, simple and well known all over the world. Even though he is dead, his music is still played and there is still lots of hype for the singles, there probably still people who buy his singles or album in a shop or online.

I then looked at Justin Beiber who has only been around for a couple of years, so he is a fairly new artist in the music industry. Why I chose Justin Beiber is because there are many people in who love his

music and then others can't stand it. But I believe the people who like the music are targeted at teenager girls who are going through a phase of liking his music, and then move on to other artist. I do also believe that the comparison between Michael Jackson to Justin Beiber  are huge, as in my opinion that Michael Jackson is a star image in which his music is great, not like Justin Beiber who is an artist who isn't that great.

I have learnt lots about this task and how looking at artists which are organic vs. synthetic. It has made me realised that to research in to an artist in who you believe is a organic artist and will make an album and then hopefully in years to come fans will still like the music they produced.

Star Image

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