Research into chosen Music Artist

Research into chosen Music Artist 

Gabrielle Aplin is a british singer/songwriter who follows the music genres of folk music, indie folk and indie rock. Some of my interests in Gabrielle Aplin are that she first broke on to the scene and gained herself attention and an online following after posting covers of songs of bands such as Paramore and You me at six  on Youtube. She has a real passion and interest in music and in particular the indie genre with artists such as Joni Mitchell and Bruce Springsteen influencing her in the industry and helping her start making her own music and youtube channel. Another thing unique and interesting about her is her rise and handwork to fame with people realising her potential on the internet of both covers of big indie stars or her own original songs making her an independent singer/songwriter, before singing for her first record label with british independent label parlophone, after local radio appearances. She is also open to a wide target audience as she describes her music as 'very family orientated and very personnel' showing how she is very loving and willing to take risks and leave her private life behind. She as an artist has inspired us to create our own mdic video based on her song 'panic cord' as her songs and videos are very unique and often contain hooking narratives or concepts about her personnel life that give us a good platform for what to include in our videos and what the song is really about. She is also an extremely talented and genuine artist who's songs and genre of music are something that a wide range of audiences, in particular our group, can relate to and be interested in making our own version of her music whilst enjoying the whole process at the same time. 

Gabrielle Aplin is an indie artist from Sutton, England and has been present in the music industry since she created her own YouTube channel in 2008. On this channel, she covered songs from major artists such as Katy Perry, Ce Lo Green and many more giving her a huge online following and recognition for her unique talents and handwork. Her early life and career beginnings saw her attend music schools and universities near where she lived in Sutton, purchasing her first guitar, writing her first songs which she would go on to cover on YouTube and attending university at Bath College to study Music and signing for the College's in house record label, BA1 Records. In July 2010, Aplin got her first real break away from YouTube and expanded her target audience from YouTube viewers to a mainstream indie audience as she preformed on local radio show BBC Wiltshire. From this came her first release, a 5 track acoustic EP which was released on iTunes during September 2010. Her album reached the top 25 in the UK iTunes album chart and featured songs such as 'Reverse. which was used on E4 for TV show 'Made in Chelsea', her first publicised piece of music. She then went on to expand her range of music in 2011, releasing her second EP called 'Never Fade', where she now showcased a more folk rock sound whilst playing all of the instruments herself. She was later invited to preform for BBC introducing in 2011 and her covers on Coldplay 'Fix you' and over songs from her 'Reverse' EP are the most viewed videos on the companies website. She released her third EP 'home' in January 2012 and featured in on her YouTube channel which at this time was increasing popularity rapidly with over 200,000 subscribers. Her single 'Home' was made single of the week on iTunes and this lead to her signing her first record label with Parlophone in 2013. She began recording her debut album in March which included her first major label single 'Please don't say you love me' in early 2013, recording with major record producers such as Mike Spencer. Her most popular piece of music to date and piece of work came during the christmas period of 2012 as she was confirmed as the voice of the cover of John Lewis christmas advert which saw Aplin cover 'the power of love' and reach her first UK number one single and reach sales of u[p to 400,000 in the UK. She then went on to release further EP's such as current album 'Light up the dark' and English rain, whilst partnering with record label company Never Fade Records to sign over upcoming british artists such as Saint Raymond and major record label company, Warner Bro's. Her second album 'English rain' sold over 100,000 copies and was certified as a gold album in the UK. Her hit song, please don't say you love me' reached over 200,000 domestic sales in and over 70,000 global sales, reaching new found hights for Aplin in the charts by making it a top 10 single in the UK and reaching as high as the 3rd in the charts in Australia. 

Figures for her single 'Power of Love' 

Her single, 'Please don't say you love me' was released as her second single for her album 'English Rain' in 2013 with it available to download in the UK 

in February 2013. 'Please don't say you love me' is one of Aplins most popular and significant singles when talking about her music and defining her as an artist and her indie genre. The music video for please don't say you love me has been downloaded over 100,000 times in the UK and has been viewed over 13,000,000 times on YouTube making it one of her most popular pieces of work. It also includes many aspects of Dyers star and Goodiwns theory and elements of media that help to define her video, her as an artist and her genre. The term star refers to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience. Gabrille Aplin shows elements of the star theory in her music video for please don't say you love me as we see her creativity in the narrative and concept aspects of the video and the talent she possesses through her performance of the music and her voice. This is seen where we see a story about her and her boyfriend going on a journey together through the countryside before falling out, as defined in the lyrics, and later making up again showing happiness and that indie, country vibe. This shows the creativity of Aplin as she is able to construct a narrative and concept of 'love' and represent it in the video so it matches the lyrics of the song and relate to the audience. It is also conventional to the indie genre and a true representation of her character as we expect indie videos to focus on the theme of love and happiness. This is also shown through her talent of preforming the song in her video and how she possesses a great voice. The video includes a number of close ups and mid shots capturing Aplin singing alone with not a lot going on in the shots in order for the audience to focus on her talents and really listen to the lyrics. This is also defined by paradox 2 of Richard Dyers star theory where the incoherence of the star image means audiences continually strive to complete or to make sense of the image the artist has as audiences become engaged with Aplin. Goodwins theory is also seen in the video for 'Please don't say you love me' as we conventionally and illustratively see a constant relationship between the music and visuals of the song throughout the video. This is seen where during the narrative of the video, Gabrielle Aplin and her boyfriend repeatedly show signs of happiness and love before falling out and becoming upset and annoyed with each other. This is evident of Goodwin's theory and illustratively matches the song lyrics 'please don't say you love me' as Aplin is scared  to fall 'in love' with this person and confused as to where she stands with him and doesn't want to rush a relationship and rush falling in love with him.

This is conventional to the indie genre as most indie videos follow the concept of love in a narrative and often convey signs of artists having mixed emotions sharing personal experiences and moments. The audience are also able to relate to Aplin as an artist and her relationship between the lyrics and visuals as love is a common theme in society and the indie genre which tends to use realistic narratives that some audiences may have experienced. Another sign of goodwins theory in this video is the delivery of a concept and narrative in the video that is able to represent the artists character. Gabrielle Aplin is represented throughout the video as a loving, cheerful girl, full of youthfulness and talent. This is seen in parts of the video where she in dancing on the tables in the pub garden and making the most out of a bad situation of breaking down in her car but remaining happy and civil with her partner. The video also demonstrates her as a conventional indie artist who despite her happy and cheerful side has a mysterious and calm side to her which allows the audience to focus on her as a artist and her talents. This is seen through a series of close ups and mid shots of Aplin sitting down alone in the countryside with a sunset beaming down on her whilst she preforms the lyrics of the song directly to the camera, showing off her talents and her calm, peaceful aspect and character.

These types of elements of the video allows Aplin to find a suitable target audience of indie fans who identify her for her fun, loving character with the ability to turn serious and express her talents. Her target audience are both males and females, particularly females aged 16-25 as many girls within that age bracket can share the same character as Aplin or relate to some of the concepts or narratives in the video as Aplin is a similar age. By representing her character and ability as an artist in the video comes many elements of mise en scene identified to suit the indie genre. Indie music videos are known the be quite low budget and the main settings of the video are in the studios, cities, parks and tunnels. These and places that can accessed easily can they can create lots of mysteries. These settings are kept simple because it is typical of the indie rock genre and their music videos in order to focus more on the concept or narrative of the video or the artist performing, in this case the concept of love. Aplin is seen throughout the video in a typical, British countryside with her boyfriend or in a pub garden with a chilled, indie vibe with locals playing the guitar in the background or socializing in a decorated, candle lit area. The countryside setting creates a calm and relaxed manor for the audience and helps to portray Aplins character of happy yet mysterious. Another element of Mise- en scene identified in this music video is the costumes Aplin and her boyfriend wear throughout the video and the iconography seen in the video. Indie artists tend to follow a retro look and this is also seen in this music video where Aplin is wearing a 80's style summer dress and her boyfriend is wearing some chinos and  a jumper with a beanie giving them a very hippie and old fashioned look and feel for the audience. These costumes are conventional the indie genre as they appear very retro and basic and Aplin is able to create her own identity and show her own character and interests by wearing clothes she is comfortable in. These are the clothes audiences associate Aplin to wear as she has created her own image by wearing clothes like this that help to portray her character. The most typical camera shots used in indie genre music

videos and in particular 'please don't say you love me' are close up shots as it introduces the star and focuses on them. Throughout the video, close up shots and mid shots help to advertise Aplin and show her star quality. This is conventional to the indie genre as it helps to show off Aplins talents and youthfulness, showing she has star quality. Long and wide shots are also used throughout the video to help establish narratives and are used to help portray the concept and narrative of 'love' in this video. Common editing techniques are shot reverse shot between the two characters in the car as they are looking at each other and constantly smiling. This enables the audience to see the love, hate relationship between Aplin and the boy so they can relate to the narrative better as they can see the emotion of each character clearly as well being able to build a relationship with the characters because they want their relationship to do well as they clearly have passion and love for each other despite the fall outs. 

Dyers theory  is illustrated throughout Aplins video for 'The power of love' as there is a constant performance element of her playing the piano and singing showing her creativity and talent amongst other things. This shows that Aplin has star quality as Richard Dyer claims that to be seen as a 'star', an artist must show signs of creativity and talent in there music and there videos as well as capturing the audiences attention and imagination by showing youthfulness etc, depending on the genre and age of the artist. Gabirelle Aplin does that in this video by staying relevant to the indie music genre and following many of the codes and conventions. She also does this by staying pure and simple yet expressing her creativity and strong character through a well thought out concept of love. This is seen through her power when playing the piano, capturing the audiences attention and emotions and when the music becomes a lot deeper and significant and changes occur in the settings with fairy lights turning on and petals lying across the room.
 This is all an illustrative representation of Aplins character throughout the video as it creates the idea of her being young, sweet and innocent and powerful in the way she sings about love. She is able to relate to the audience throughout her video as well as her lyrics give an conventional idea about love with relatable experiences of her past with love and how she and others have been treated. This is also conventional to the indie genre as indie artists are not afraid to open up about their personal life and share some of their experiences, particularly with the concept of love. Aplins target audience for this video is girls aged 15-25, all with an interest in love songs and the indie genre. This is because Aplin herself is in this age bracket and girls of that age relate to the pureness and innocence of the song and its lyrics and can also relate to the experiences in the song. Goodwins theory is used throughout the video and is evident where we see the demands of the record label by having lots of close ups of the artist and the artist develops motifs which recur across their work such as glancing into the camera or showing expressions that audiences with associate with Aplin and think off when talking about her as an artist. We see lots of close ups of her whilst she sits at her piano and really gets in to the emotion of the song and looks relatable to the lyrics. This is because the record label and Aplin herself want audiences to really capture the emotion of the song and they want to sell Aplin as a deep and meaningful artist who really dwells on the concept of love and power, in order to develop this in future work and give audiences this impression of her. goodwins theory is also seen where there is intertextual reference to company 'John Lewis' as the song is used in their Christmas advert for TV. This is used in order to promote both the artist and the companies products and services. It makes the song more popular as it enables it to be played more often on more platforms such as TV and radio and allows fans to associate the song with that company giving both a good and big reputation, depending on the success of that company's advertisement. Mise en scene is used throughout the video where we see particular lighting used in different and relevant shots in an conventional manor for the genre. This is seen where throughout the video, Gabirlle Aplin is sat in a well lit room which has strays of bright white lights beaming in on her leaving the room to look empty and pure. The purpose of this is to capture the audiences attention and focus on Gabrille Aplin and to define her as a pure, powerful artist and really focus on the concept of love with petals in the background, etc. The audience are able to relate to this and enjoy this as they are fans of the indie genre and know Gabrille Aplin as a happy and joyful indie artist therefore watch her videos for entertainment and want to stay happy and the lighting helps to portray this. It is also conventional to the indie genre as we expect indie artists to use bright lights as a symbolic symbol of happiness. Another element of mise en scene shown in this video is costume and iconography. This is shown where we see Aplin sitting at a piano for the whole video wearing a red, baggy jumper, black tights and brown boots. This costume is conventional to the indie genre as her as an artist as because the video is simple and includes no narrative, she is able to express herself by wearing clothing she is comfortable in and would wear normally showing she is down to earth and is not pretending she's someone she is not. The piano also expresses her musical talents showing her creativity and talent and is also a universal symbol or instrument recognised in indie music videos. The costumes and iconography is conventional to the indie genre as pianos are popular and iconic instruments used in indie music videos, paticulary in Gabrille Aplins videos as each of her songs has a instrument element. Her clothing is also simple and quite old fashioned with a indie and primitive feel towards it, helping to support the nature of the video and to represent the indie genre. Her facial and body expressions in the video remain the same throughout the whole video as there is no narrative element towards the video and just her preforming at the piano. Her body expressions remain neutral throughout showing her sitting at a piano and playing it however it is made conventional through a number of camera techniques such as close ups and mid shots showing the setting of the room and focusing the attention on Aplin to express her talents and to leave the audience curious as to how she is feeling throughout the video. This is then shown through her facial expressions as she shows signs of being sad, happy and neutral depending on the tempo and concept of the song. She gazes into the sunlight beaming through the window at times and often closes her eyes to give it that conventional feel as it shows that she is unsure of her emotions and is thinking things through a lot and pondering about her music and the theme of love. These facial and body expressions are conventional to the indie genre as indie artists often show a lot of emotion in their videos to add emphasis on their narratives, concepts or performances. The audience are also able to relate to this and this video as Gabrielle Aplin is portrayed as ordinary and relatable, who sings and shows emotion about a lot of real life events and themes such as love that her audience can relate with. 

My research into analysing Gabrielle Aplins music videos will help me when planning to create my own indie genre music video as it has helped me to gather an idea on Gabrielle Aplins style and the indie music genre style of videos. Some ideas and elements of Gabrille Aplins videos  I have taken and will use in my own way for my video are her insight into the concept  of love and ability to be herself in her videos and show different characters and signs of star quality. I will also take inspiration from the camera and editing techniques used in these videos such as the conventional lighting used to help portray her character and the concept of the videos and the series of close ups and long shots. I will also use a narrative of love as this is conventional to the indie genre and the little things like props and iconography such as the fairly lights in the 'power of love' video.