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

A key music video that has influenced my ideas is 'Miss Independent' by Ne-yo. This video was already a personal favourite of mine due to its fast tempo and catchy lyrics, however after taking a closer look at it for research I began to understand the secondary message of the song, which is female empowerment. This influenced me as it showed me that you can send of differing messages through one music video, i.e. the guy gets the girl whilst still respecting her position.

'Miss Independent' also showed me how Vernallis' music video theory can be incorporated into our music video successfully. The four main concepts which Vernallis eludes to are:

1. Narrative
2. Editing
3. Camera movement and framing
4. Diegesis

In regards to Narrative, Vernallis' ideas on the narrative of a music video being disjointed are certainly seen in this music video; Ne-yo, for example, is seen talking to different girls throughout the music video even though he seems to have entered a meeting at one point. As well as this, this video also takes on her idea of not matching the lyrics to the on-screen visuals, for example the lyrics are about Ne-yo praising one girl ans saying exactly why he loves her, however he is only seen talking to this girl at the end and once in the middle, apart from these occasions Ne-yo can be seen flirting with other women.

In terms of editing we could easily incorporate Vernallis' ideas of cutting to the beat as this is also a common convention for any R&B music video. This can make a music video more visually engaging as it stops the audience from becoming bored as they cannot become fixed on one shot for too long.

By changing the framing in the form of jump cuts you break normal continuity rules and therefore make your music video stand out and become more interesting. This concept was successfully used in 'Miss Independent' as in many of the dance breaks the camera will cut from a long shot to a close-up.

Diegesis, i.e. the 'made up world of the video' is a key element of 'Miss Independent' as in this video Ne-yo is seemingly the only man in his workplace- this could be considered to be the opposite of what it actually is like in real life so by having this stark contrast you immediately make the audience stand up and take notice of your video.

R&P Post 8: Possible tracks for the single

To help start this selection process, my group decided to meet up during a lunch break and brainstorm ideas. As at this point we had all semi-agreed that the genre of our music video would be some sort of R&B, we all began to chip in with our preferences. We used iPads to help communicate these ideas to each other and then we began to shortlist our favourites as a group. From this shortlist we list each tracks' pros and cons in order to see which music video would best suit our strengths and resources at our disposal.

Mario- Let Me Love You

Our first song idea was 'Let Me Love You' by Mario.

Pros:

• Strong male lead- I could take this on
• Contemporary R&B- our desired genre
• Good tempo to the beat- allows opportunity for dancing
• Positive artist image
• Availability to mix narrative and performance

Cons:

• May be difficult to find another male actor to play the 'cheating' guy
• Lyrics don't really allow for differing interpretations
• Song is currently too long- would need to be cut down

Justin Timberlake- Cry Me A River

Our second song idea was 'Cry Me A River' by Justin Timberlake.

Pros:

• Contemporary R&B- our desired genre
• Good tempo to the beat- allows opportunity for dancing
• Strong male lead- I could take this on
• Metaphorical song title- conceptual based music video?
• Allows for character development

Cons:

• Would require another male actor- hard to find
• Song is very well-known
• Song would need to be cut down

Destiny's Child- Survivor

Our third song idea was 'Survivor' by Destiny's Child.

Pros:

• Inspirational female group
• Contemporary R&B
• Good message behind the song
• Upbeat- allows dance opportunities

Cons:

• Difficult to find three female actors to fill the group
• Would need a lot of back-up dancers
• Rap lip-sync would be hard to pull off
• We couldn't think of many varied performance shots

R&P Post 7: Record Labels of interest

Record labels are essential to any artist wanting to sell record within the music industry, they provide the platform for an artist to publish their tracks into the eyes of the public.

Wikipedia definition:

"A record label or record company is a brand or trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing, promotion, and enforcement of copyright for sound recordings and music videos; also conducting talent scouting and development of new artists ; and maintains contracts with recording artists and their managers."

For our new artist my group decided that we would create a new record label as we really liked the idea of this artist coming from nothing and having to start from the bottom, i.e. an unknown source/record label. 

Some of our inspirations

Grand Hustle logo

Roc Nation logo

Grand Hustle Records was founded by hip-hop artist T.I. and has discovered/signed popular artists, such as B.O.B and Travis Scott.








Roc Nation was founded by Jay-Z and has artists such as J Cole, Big Sean and DJ Khaled on its books.

After conducting this research I believe that our new artist would benefit more by being signed to an independent record label as they are more likely to receive the resources they require as there will not be as many artists on their books.

R+P Post 6: Current Trends in Popular Music

Over the past decade the consumption of music has changed dramatically with the majority of people now choosing to listen to their favorite music on streaming services such as YouTube and Spotify rather than go out and physically buy an album. This is mainly due to the major development of technology within the music industry which has seen the format of music change to digital. I believe this shows that the obvious trend in terms of music consumption within the music industry currently is online. This is backed up by the graph below which shows that the sales of physical copies have dramatically decreased since 2005 whilst digital sales have increased by $5 billion.

Graph comparing sales of physical and digital recorded music

The top 10 charts also give a great insight into the current trends in terms of the style and genre of music being consumed.

top 10 chart- Albums

top 10 chart- Singles

After taking a look at the singles chart I noticed that their is a demand for 'dance' music, such as Despacito and Reggaeton. These songs belong to the Latin Reggaeton genre which is mostly listened to by people at parties or by people who just want to enjoy the song and sing with it. As well as this, the album chart showed me that their may be a demand for throwback or more traditional songs through that placement of Elvis Presley's greatest hits at second.

From taking both these trends into consideration I thought that an R&B styled music video would have a place in this market as this genre is not only well known for producing good dance tracks, such as 'Yeah!' by Usher, but also albums which have had a lasting effect on the music industry.

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

I would like to make a music video which , as mentioned in Goodwin's theory on music videos, has both narrative and performance elements working together. I believe this would help to create an interesting music video which would appeal to our target audience.

I like how in the below clip of Ne-yo's music video, he constantly switches between performance shots of him dancing and then narrative shots of him trying to get the girl; it keeps the audience attached to the characters development whilst also entertaining them with well choreographed dance breaks.

What I also love from this particular music video, 'Miss Independent', is that the dance moves are relatively simple yet very effective. This would be important as it is unlikely we will find a group of professional dancers, so any simple moves which could be taught to amateurs makes dance breaks a more likely prospect.

I would also like to experiment with how the main singer/lead looks at or away from the camera; this will fit the common conventions of music videos which aim to break the fourth wall by using the notion of looking.

As you can see in the above clip from 'If I were a Boy', Beyoncé breaks the fourth wall by singing directly into the camera. This makes the audience feel a connection to the music and it is what made me love this song; I hope by incorporating something similar to this into my group's music video we will have the same effect on our audience.

R+P Post 4: Audience groups of interest

The Official top 10 singles chart

In order to find a potential audience group that would be interested in our new artist I thought it would be beneficial to look through the current music charts as this will show us the gaps in the industry which we could exploit. As you can see in the pictures below, only 1 song could identify with the R&B genre, thus showing me that their is a need for an artist from the genre to enter the industry. However, from this chart I can also see that POP and HIP-HOP are very prominent right now with every song on the chart being able to identify within the two genres; this shows me that as well as filling  gap in the market, our new artist must still meet the needs of this already existing mainstream audience who currently dominate the market.



In terms of gender, 9/10 of the singles on this chart have a male artist either featuring on being the main artist. To me, this shows that male artist are currently the trend within the music industry so maybe an upcoming male artist would find success due to the already existing demand for their music.

R+P Post 3: Music genres that interest me

Genre is very important to an artist's identity, the way in which an artist is marketed to an audience and how audiences categorise their music styles/taste. I therefore believe that researching genre will be key to constructing a successful music video to market our new artist. Below are some genres of music which I personally enjoy and decided to do more research into:

Grime

Grime is definitely one of my favourite music genres at this moment. This particular genre is growing within the industry due to the rise of some major British artists who identify within the genre, such as Stormzy, Giggs and J Hus. Grime emerged in London during the early 2000s and has taken influence from existing genres such as hip pop and ragga. Rapping is the significant element of the style of which lyrics often revolve around the gritty depictions of urban life. Artists within the genre usually produce music videos to promote their new singles and to introduce themselves as an up oncoming artist- NOT3S's music video 'Addison Lee' is a perfect example of this as it is what drove him to now winning the 2017:Best Breakthrough award, as seen below:

R&B

R&B has been one of my favourite genres over the years and I would certainly consider it to house some of the most successful artists within the music industry. R&B originated in the 1940's as a representation of all 'blues' records, however from the 1980's on wards it has become more mainstream due to the incorporation of hip-pop. Contemporary R&B is what this genre is now identifiable as, with artists such as Ne-yo and Usher taking prominence during the 00's.

Examples of R&B songs:

Above are two of my favourite R&B tracks, 'Miss Independent' by Ne-Yo and 'Yeah!' by Usher. From watching the music videos of the songs I felt a greater connection to the artist as I then had a visual image of their music whenever I thought of them or the genre. I believe that this effect is created by the music videos due to the entertaining and well choreographed dance breaks which are also accompanied by aspirational narrative shots, such as the guy getting the girl.

From this research of music genres, my group decided upon a music video which belong within the R&B genre primarily but would feature some conventions of other genres such as hip-hop as we believe this will give us more creative control to ensure our artist stands out whilst still conforming to R&B conventions