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. 

Major record labels/ parent companies

Major record labels/Parent companies

Record label companies are the people and organisations that control the music industry and manage music artists across the world, both major ones and smaller ones. Record labels control the type and style of music that artist puts out, manages their every move and how they are presented in the media and often create the artists media products, for example the music video, songs and much more. There are two different types of record labels in the UK and in the world and they are major record labels and independent record labels. The major record labels consist of universal music group, Sony BMG, Warner music, and EMI group. They are all collectively known as 'the big four'. An independent record label, or otherwise known as a indie record label, is a record label that operates without funding and outside of the major record labels. Many big and mainstream music acts or bands begin their careers at independent record labels, particularly in the UK, and their are over 100 independent record labels operating in the UK alone.

One well known independent record label operating in the UK today is 'Hyperdub'. Hyperdub is a London based record label company and was founded by Kode9, Steve Goodman, in 2004. Its genre of artist and music it puts out includes dubstep, UK Grime, 2 step and 'uk funky'. Artists who have realeased music through Hyperdub include the founder Kode9, producers DJ Rashed, Laurel Helo, Scratcha DVA, Jessy Lanza, Cooly G and most notably, Burial. Hyperdub are only a small independent record label and don't tend to be popular or well known with the mainstream audience or music industry, therefore meaning besides their founder Kode9 who produces some of his own work through Hyperdub, they do not have any connections or artists signed to the big four and they tend to keep their label as a platform for talented grime or dubstep artists to produce their music and receive downloads from their online website, therefore it is a unique and very modern style of a independent record label.


Argubly the most popular and well known independent record label today in the UK is 'Rough Trade'. Rough Trade are known as 'the big daddy' of independent record labels and were founded in 1978 by Geoff Travis. Rough Trade is based in London and New York making it one of the only globalised independent record labels in the UK and has a number of different style of artists and genres signed to it to show its unique and creative style and reputation for being out there and allowing artists to be natural and themselves. There early work and artists followed a indie rock or punk style of genre and they successfully managed and sold records of artists such as the Buzzards, the desperate bicycles and most notably, The Smiths. The record label found itself having to shutdown in 1991 due to overtrading, shortages of cash flow and not being able to keep up with the demands of the industry and being overtaken and run by 'the big four' due to their substantial amounts of money and popularity in comparison to Rough Trade. However in 2000, the company was relaunced as an independently owned entity before it was bought out by BMG in 2002. It then went indepdenent again in 2007 when it was bought out by the Beggars Group and since its rebirth, they have reconfirmed their place in the market place by producing artists such as Warpaint, Howler, Dean Blunt and more.

I do not think it is right that 4 major record label companies dominate the music industry as it makes it a lot harder and competitive for smaller, independent record labels to sign talent and make a name for themselves. It proves difficult for both the record labels and artists to establish themselves and get recognised as the 'big 4' are buying and taking over these smaller record labels and not allowing them to compete in the market. In terms of music, the big 4 companies dominate and influence the type of music that is put out in the industry and this prevents artists and smaller record label companies to create their own work and find their own voice and style, with the big 4 changing the way we as the audience perceive the music and the different styles of music that are given to us. 

The effect this has on the music industry is that artists that are signed to the big 4 record label companies become more successful and bigger then those who are signed to smaller record label companies as they have more of a financial backing and a company behind them who have the ability to make a artist grow and create globalisation. With the money and power they have as well, they can also establish that artist in whatever way they like and change the way they market and promote that product depending on the preferences of the audience so that artist never loses it's demand and is always well recognised and perceived in the industry. An example of this would be Michael Jacksons rise to fame and success in the music industry as when Sony universal signed him to there record label, he became one of the biggest music artists to ever live and was able to change his style of music and his character as sony gave him that power and gave him a constant financial backing, whereas before when he was part of the Jackson 5 and was signed to an independent record label, he was not as well known and had a completely different reputation and character.

Personally, I do not feel independent record labels are as successful as the major record labels and in particular 'the big 4' as they do not have as much recognition, power or money in the music industry. Despite there constant success in supplying the major record labels with a constant supply of stars and 'the next big thing', they do not have the ability and power to make them artists as big as they can become with a major record label and this is why they will never be as successful as them, unless they can establish themselves as having the power and ability to cause drastic change in the industry and have an established star remain with them and not sign for a major record label. A way of determining whether an independent record label is as successful as a major record label is to determine how well an artist does once they have signed for a major record label and led there independent record label. As well at this, determine how much the artist has changed and whether the demand for them and there new character and image has changed. 

Independent record labels have many differences from a major record label and have give many positives for the artist and music industry that a major record label could not supply. The main difference being that when a artist is signed to his original independent record label, they have more of a say of who they want to be and who they want to come across to the public by determining the style of music they want to use, what genre they belong to and they are able to express their true and diverse talents and characters, whereas when they are then signed on to a major record label, the record label has more of a say and influence on the image and music they want to create and can change the way we perceive that artist by changing their music etc. Independent record labels also have artists who have less money and power behind them and they are more humble with talent and less star quality, as well as they are able to nurture and focus on that artist and help them develop and become as big as they possibly can at that independent record label. In contrast, major record labels once they have an artist signed to them can't focus primarily on that artist or have a strong relationship with them as there is a constant pressure for them to create good music in the industry and make changes depending on the demands of the public and audiences, rather then allowing the artist to be who they really are. 

Research into chosen music genres

Research into chosen music genres 

For our own music video, myself and my group have chosen to follow the 'indie genre' with Indie chart topper 'Panic Cord' by Gabrielle Aplin being the platform and inspiration for our video. We decided to choose the indie genre because it covers a wide range of artists and different styles of indie music including indie rock, indie art and indie music on the whole which is defined as being independent from the 'big four' music industries, Universal, Sony, Warner and EMI. Indie music and the genre is also very different from a lot of mainstream pop and rock music therefore it allows us to create something different that stands out and includes lots of narrative and concept elements, something a lot of indie artists tend to include in there videos. The indie genre is also a style of music that has become extremely popular in the modern era of music with lots of pop/rock artists changing the style of some of their songs and following an indie style such as Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, Oasis, Adele and Ed Sheeran therefore by watching some of these big artists we are able to gather an better understanding as to what is required to make a successful indie music video and the codes and conventions that go with the genre. I am also a fan of these artists music and by  already having a good understanding on their music and personalities, i will be able to create a successful video based on mine and those indie artist interests. It is important to establish a genre before choosing our artist and song as we are able to gather an understanding on the most successful indie videos and what goes in to them in order for us to follow the right codes and conventions. This helps us when creating our own indie music video as we then know what exactly we want to go into it in terms of cinematography, editing techniques and mise en scene elements, as well as particular narratives, concepts or performance aspects we may have in mind and by knowing all of this and the genre before choosing our song, we can find an indie song that is best suited to our ideas. This is what lead us to choosing Panic Cord by Gabrielle Aplin. 

Gabrielle Aplin is a british singer/songwriter who follows the indie genre with a pop/rock style of music. She is often compared to major a list music artists of the same genre, such as Ed Sheeran and Adele. An example of a similar indie song to Gabrielle Aplin's 'Panic Cord' is Ed Sheerans song 'Give me love'. Ed Sheerans video contains many elements of theories such as goodwins theory, codes and conventions off the indie genre and conventional camera and editing techniques throughout. 

The first conventional element of the indie genre identified in this video is the concept of love and the idea of the girl being a real life cupid. This is seen throughout the video as we see a blonde haired girl dressed in aoll white to represent an 'angel' sitting looking depressed in an unconventional dirty warehouse however we see her obsessions with love. This shows how the video is both unconventional and conventional as although we expect to see a concept and narrative surrounded by the theme of love, we would also expect the angel to be glamorous and happy about the idea of spreading love and happiness. Despite this, it adds to the mysterious and unique behaviour and character of indie artists and the actors in this video. The angel then grows wings from her bag and fly around the city spreading love and happiness to those in need to support the title 'give me love'. It is perceived as a rare concept for a music video and although it is unique, it is identically conventional the indie genre and the substance of Ed Sheeran as an artist. This is because it takes the same concept of an indie music video and adapts many real life, personal situations that people can relate to and those that are expected in indie music videos. This is seen where the angel adapts the concept that all sexual preferences and believes are ok and he makes everyone feel equal allowing him to relate the his audience and spread a positive message through his videos. 

Other codes and conventions that are seen throughout the video and also are included as miss en scene elements are that 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. All of there video is also shot during the night time in order to bring out the best of the setting by having the city lights of london pictured in the background and in order to add a mysterious feeling for the audience on the angel and to help capture her role in the narrative. This is also supported by the angels clothing and iconography in the video where we see her wearing an ordinary outfit to show her as an ordinary, conventional girl that the audience can relate to whereas her wings growing out of her and her bow and arrow makes the audience identify her as 'cupid' and shows the mysterious side to hurt and portrays her obsession with love. 

Music videos and the indie genre in particular tend to use many different camera shots and techniques to not only keep it interesting and productive, but to reflect different emotions and put emphasis on specific things within the frame. These shots include close ups, mid shots and other conventional camera techniques and movements such as pan, track, hand-held and crane. The director for Ed sheerans 'give me love' conventionally makes use of the hand held camera technique where we see the girl waiting for a train, with the night lights of London beaming down on her in the background. We can identify this camera technique as 'handheld' as the shot is slightly shaky and the artist wants the shot to be a point of view perspective as if the audience is there filming the girl themselves and interacting with her in a way by being able to see her emotions what she is getting up to. This shot also helps to deliver the concept of love and supports the narrative of the girl as cupid, travelling around the city spreading love and happiness as the shot makes out she in your ordinary retro looking, girl from next door when in reality she is depressed and makes others happy despite her own struggles and in her own misery. This shot is conventional to the indie genre as it is used to portray the realism and relatable side to indie genre as it makes the audience feel like they are part of the video and it is not shot that is often used in high budget videos and shows signs of low production and simplicity. Another camera technique used in this video is the crane view.

This is used when we see two of the angels (cupid) 'love' victims walking through the streets of London before being shot with the love arrow. This is conventional to the narrative of the video and the indie genre as it shows that lesbians are accepted in todays society and they don't have anything to hide by showing their openness and happiness and how the crane shot is used as the angels perspective before spreading love. We expect to see this technique in indie music videos as they are often used to add substance to videos and hidden messages that indie genres use such as an equal society. It is also a good and easy way of showing someones perspective. 

There is a split tone editing technique and effect throughout the whole video. This is where the colour scheme of the video and a tone is used throughout in oder to express different emotions or shots. The whole video is made in a dark tone in order to support the night time setting and to create cohesion throughout the video and give it a distinct look. These colours also have a symbolic meaning, with the pale blue and indigo type colour and tone giving it a cold, sad feeling signifying the theme of loneliness and sadness from the girl. The purple and red tones also give a feeling and meaning of love and romance, also helping to support the concept of the video. The use of slow motion also matches the pace of the song and in the crescendo parts of the footage speed up. for example, the footage speeds up when the arrow is being shot into the love victims adding to the emphasis and drama of the action. This is supported by the shot lengths of the video with them being quite long and dramatical and the cuts between clips are sped up depending on the part of the narrative of the video playing at the time. This is used in order to add emphasis and effect on the audiences emotions by spreading mixed emotions and relatable shots. It is also conventional to the indie genre as they tend to spread may different emotions have many different hidden messages. 

The audience that Ed Sheeran intends to buy and listen to this song is both girls and boys, aged 16-25 with an interest in the indie genre. The financial statistics for this song shows that most of its profits and views on YouTube, ITunes and other multimedia platforms came from both genders within this age gap however with more girls then boys. This is because most of Ed Sheerans audience is girls within this age gap as they are able to relate to the narratives and concepts he includes in his videos and writes about in his lyrics, particularly the video give 'Give me Love'. Ed Sheeran also has a wide range of fans and mainstream audiences as he is one not only the biggest names in the indie genre but the music industry and his sheer creativity and talent attracts people of all ages to listen to his music, but its the concepts of love and emotion that draw girls aged 16-25 to this particular video.

Goodiwns theory is identified throughout the video in a numb of different elements. This is seen where the lyrics and directly and illustratively conventional to the actions on shot. This is seen where the girl is walking through the streets spreading love and happiness, despite her own misery, the lyrics state 'give me love'. This is directly coherent to the actions on screen as the angels facial expressions as she is stood loping depressed and lonely and wanting to find love and happiness herself as well as spreading love for others. She is almost tired with her own work and wants to find something or someone to love and give motivation to make other happy as seeing others in love and not her adds to there depression element on the narrative and her character. The audience are able to relate to these lyrics and the angel as it brings up a deep and meaningful topic that those who can relate to it and Ed Sheerans music might find happiness or motivation from it and it sends a message out to be happy and find love, adding substance and purpose to the video and Ed Sheerans lyrics. It is also conventional to the indie genre as we often expect indie music videos to have strong topics that are personal to the artist and that can relate to the audience. Goodwins theory is also identified as the artist uses as concept and narrative element throughout the video, as mentioned earlier on in the blog. The concept of love is used throughout the video in order to support the 'cupid', 'love angel' narrative that audiences are hooked on and want to find from Ed Sheerans videos. 

My research into my chosen music genre and artists of the indie genre has helped me and will assist me with planning my own music video as I can now clearly see the similarities of the different indie videos and what is used and included to make it conventional, which I will be able to add into my own video and the idea that indie artists often portray heartbreak as a concept for the video, a key aspect of our planning for our own one. I can also see what camera shots and editing techniques I will need to include In my own video to make it conventional such as a blur filter and long shots. It gives me an idea as to what narratives and concepts to include in my own video and whether performance needs to be included and when it does to make it engaging and conventional. Some of the ideas I will take from these videos and use on to mine or the colour tones of different shot and the blur filter as it creates a good message that the artist is getting rid of a part of their bad experiences and life and the idea of a narrative leading up to a heartbreak or relationship problems. This will be conventional and easy to create. I will also use lots of close ups to show the artists facial expressions by making them look both sad and happy/quirky so the audience can relate to their mixed emotions and understand the concept and narrative of my video. It Is also a good way of portraying my artists personality.

Analysis of a star and Dyer's theory- Mrs Miller

Analysis of a star and Dyer's theory 

Many artists may feel to need to reinvent themselves in the music industry and the way they are perceived as an artist. This can include their personalities, the way they portray themselves in the media and the style and genre of their music. There are many reasons why artists may feel the need to reinvent themselves and for many artists such as Madonna, Miley Cyrus and Michael Jackson, they have reinvented themselves for both the right and wrong reasons. They may feel that they have done something bad that has gotten them bad press and they wish to change this and their personalities to become 'good again'. They may also want to break away from their image and reputation, a prime example of this being Miley Cyrus who broke away from her childlike, Disney channel good girl Hannah Montana image to becoming one of the most controversial artists on the planet with a streak of bad press and mindless moments. Artists may also want to mature as a person and grow up along with their target audience in order to reach out to a larger target audience and reinvent their music careers and publicity. Other artists such as Michael Jackson not only reinvented themselves for their own personal preferences but with it came a lot more publicity with 'There King of Pop' becoming arguably the biggest and most respected yet controversial artist on the planet. Other artists may reinvent themselves purely on music and feel they want to gain a new audience or target audience that may now suit them best or to their liking. One key music figure who has made this significant change is Justin Bieber.                                   

At the age of just 16 when Justin Bieber broke on to the scene with his song 'one time' in 2009, he was known as an innocent, baby face pop artist who's songs and music videos generally demonstrated scenes and themes about love, girls, him as a teenager and the general conventions of pop music. His debut song 'one time' demonstrates him as a pop artist and is the song that is affiliated with him during this stage of his career. It includes many genre conventions and forms of goodwins theory. This is evident where we seen a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.The lyrics illustratively match JB's (Justin Bieber) hand actions and dance moves as he sings 'my one love, my one heart for sure' as he shows a finger to the camera and dances side to side with his friends at a party. This shows us that Justin Bieber is currently just a sweet, innocent 16 year old pop artist whois focused on treating girls right and having a good time with his friends. This is backed up with the fact him and his friends have thrown a house party and are looking for girls with the focus of the song and lyrics being on impressing these girls and claiming her world is 'his world'. This is also conventional to JB as a baby face pop artist and to the pop genre as we expect him and artists to treat girls with respect and have fun,loving videos with people having a good time. There are also other genre conventions of this video including the arrival of Usher, JB's mentor and huge pop/R&B artist, to the party at his house. This is conventional to the pop genre as we often expect cameo appearances from major stars in order to boost stars reputation and in attempt to make the song/video more popular. We also see celebrity endorsement and signs of luxury in the video with JB and Usher showing off their possessions and home in the video showing that they are respectful, successful artists; something conventional to the genre and what we expect to see. Dyers theory is also relevant throughout the video with the video for 'one time' revealing a lot about him as an artist, product and leaves fans with an image of star quality about Justin Bieber. This is evident where he shows early signs youthfulness, creativity and talent as he is a fresh faced pop artist writing and signing his own songs. At this early stage of his career, Justin Bieber is summed up by the parodex 1 of Dyers theory of being an ordinary person who is seen as a role model yet already  an extroadniary talent as he is yet to show signs of rebellious behaviour. Audiences are already seeing Justin Bieber as a star, striving to complete and make sense of his image, early music career. This is evident as the song reached high success rates, including 417 million YouTube views, reaching number one in the charts and being a platform for him to become one of the biggest artists of the modern era. Justin Biebers target audience for this video is young teenagers, particularly girls, who have an interest in pop music. Although Justin Bieber has a large following from people in this age bracket (beliebers) his target audience has expanded since his pop days and he now has audiances of all different ages including young adults, ages 18-25 and so on with his switch to R&B and dance music.  

After his change from pop music, Justin Bieber began to produce Pop/R&B music in the years 2013, 14. His change in music brought a change in character for Bieber as he began to become more rebellious and express signs of sexual magnetism and more creativity in to his videos. This is seen through goodwins theory in his video and how he shows a performance/narrative element in his video for song 'all that matters'. This is seen where he it's standing up by the wall with a girl singing along to the song whilst holding the girls face, with a guitar in the background in a dark isolated room so the focus is captured on the musical features in the back to demonstrate his musical talents and with him and the girl

Justin Bieber eventually changed his whole image, his personality and most importantly his genre and style of music which saw him produce dance and R&B songs such as 'What do u mean' in 2015, taking him away from his early stage pop songs and baby face moments. In Justin Biebers video for what do u mean, he uses many aspects of Goodwins theory including the demands of the record label having included lots of close ups of JB himself and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work. This is evident as we see many close ups of him sitting down on the bed gazing into the camera and close ups of him in bed with the girl creating a sexual and visual style in order for the audience to build a relationship with the artist. The record label and JB have also included these shots and visual images so that they stand out to the audience and similar shots can be used in other videos so he can keep that perception of him that he is now rebellion and showing sexual magnetism. It also however takes him away from his pop music target audience who idolised him more for his sweetness, talent and baby face charm whereas newer and older audiences, males and females aged between 16-mid 20's, would prefer more of an edgy side towards him and his bigger star image. Justin Bieber also uses many dance genre conventions in his videos, including stereotypical mise en scene with the strobe, colourful lighting in the background. This is seen as he is in the party scene at the end of the video and throughout as it follows the narrative of him and the girl. It is used in order to create a energetic vibe for the audience throughout the song and to express JB's new exciting character and sexual relationship with the girl and to also accompany the dance audio and sense of liveliness. This is conventional to the Dance genre as we expect fast paced lighting and dashes of lots of colour to add to the fast tempo and create that excitement. Another genre convention JB follows is the conventional fast paced camera shots, particularly seen with close ups. This is used in the end party scene and to change the visual image of when he is in bed with the girl. This is used in order to create a fast paced video to match the audio and to in order to have the audience engaged and hooked on the visual images they are seeing. It is conventional to the dance genre as we expect to see fast paced imagery in order to create that cohesion between the audiences demands as it s very popular and the artist. In terms of Justin Biebers 'star image' as a dance artist, he has enhanced his star quality and personality massively and for the better according to Richard Dyers theory. His video for what do u mean represents that artist in the way that he now defines his new rebellious and sexual character with scenes in the video showing him getting intimate with a girl and playing with fire. It also shows his originality with his ability to change genres and personality so much and so well and still be labelled as successful and a star. Justin Biebers new genre of music and changed character also brands him as a product with the way he is still defined a star through his continued success and consumption of his products and personality such as the promotion of his calvin klien boxers and everyone in the video surrounding him as the centre of attention. He is also both ordinary and extraordinary as the development of his videos and the things included in them show his massive star quality as he shows aggression, sexual magnetism, social values, youthfulness and his creativity yet he is still ordinary in the way he is simultaneously present and absent for the consumer.

Some of the main points summarizing Justin Biebers star quality is that on the whole as an artist he began his career as an innocent pop artist full of youthfulness before becoming highly successful and deemed as a star and changing his image, personality and music as he become older and bigger in the industry over time. With his growing success came the expectation that his growing fan base and target audience would go away determined to continue consuming JB in order to carry on attempting to complete his image and personality and his songs, videos had an impact on audiances social values showing hegemony feeling he felt a change in music genre and character to reinvent himself in the industry. Justins management team also supported the change and also told him to calm down on some of his rebellious behaviour or he would lose everything! His behaviour had become 'ridicoulous' and he was in danger of being dropped by his record label, despite his huge success. He also only reveals new music once its 100% perfect and ready, again showing his star quality of Richard dyers paradox 2 theory.

My research on Justin Bieber has given me an insight as to what artist to choose once we make our own music videos as to what genres I am going to follow and the conventions that come with it, the drastic changes of characters and music therefore meaning we need to stick to one genre and artist and anlyse the particular character we want closely and their target audience and how important it is to focus on this. This is because many target audiances expect different things and elements and have different demands therefore we need to stick to a particular audience and ensure we meet the star quality and image requirements and the genre requirements.

Analysis of music video genres- Mrs Georgiou

Analysis of music video genres

All music videos belong to a particular genre of music that has different ways of illustrating aspects of the video such as mis en scene, camerawork, editing and what is conventional to that genre of music. Music videos also tend to be conventional to the artist and tell a narrative or concept about that particular artist and the genre they represent. R&B rapper/singer Drake uses many aspects of mis en scene, camerawork and editing for the music video of his song 'Over' that are conventional to both Drake himself and his R&B, rap/hip hop genre. Drake is able to build a relationship with his audience through his camera shots, editing etc as being one of the most successful R&B artists in the industry he is able to follow and set many genre conventions and concepts that are seen in music videos. Many of these aspects and conventions are seen in his video with R&B singer Rita Ora for 'Over'. 'Over' is seen as one of Drakes most conventional and successful videos which features many camera, editing and mis en scene techniques that relate back to the genre. 

In this shot, we see a conventional low angle shot of Drake sitting on the end of the bed with imagery energetically moving around the walls whilst Drake raps the lyrics. The pictures on the wall show long shots of the city Drake was born in Toronto which has been fast forwarded to show the live action and chaos of the city buildings and cars in order to show the relevance of Drakes crazy and action packed lifestyle. It also matches with the lyrics and purpose of the song and how Drake hasn't changed and is enjoying his life as a superstar artist and always will do. This is also relevant and conventional with the low angle shot of Drake as we see the camera looking up at him to show how he is the centre of attention and how he is independent by the fact he hasn't changed and doesn't need anyone new around him, also explaining why he is sat alone. This shot is conventional to the rap/r&b genre as artists in this genre like to show how they are still down to earth, normal people who remember where they come from and like to focus them sleeves as the centre of attention. 

This editing technique shows Drake standing alone in a grey, empty room with a hologram of himself positioned behind him enlarging a different photo of him a number of times. In these pictures, Drake is preforming to the camera and showing different actions and movements to portray his attitude in relation to the song and genre conventions. The purpose of this editing technique is to show off Drake and how he is an successful and independent artist at the top of the genre. This is evident where we see him pointing to suggest how he is number 1 and the editing helps to demonstrate this by enlarging it a number of times to make it clear to the audience. The editing technique also shows Drake moving side to side, shrugging to the camera and showing a modest attitude to portray his personality and help get his lyrics and points across to his audiences. This is conventional to the music genre as we expect rap artists to be modest and think they are the best rapper in the game and show signs of attitude

Another editing technique Drake uses in his video for 'over' is special effects where text is displayed over the moving imagery of fire in the background and Drake preforming. We see the lyrics of the song flashing up on the screen with Drake rapping along to them whilst the fire blazes in the background to give it that extra conventional and dangerous effect. The purpose of these special effects is to try and get the lyrics stuck in the audiences head and to make Drake look powerful and talented in the way he is delivering them. The fire is all there to add emphasis on the lyrics and show how it is an upbeat and important moment of the song and what drake is rapping is important and 'fire' (relatable and good in the rap industry). This editing technique is conventional to the rap/r&b genre as 'fire' lyrics are known to audiences as good ones and it is something they look for and expect in a rap song. It is also conventional as we see Drake preforming the lyrics, another important aspect in rap videos to show the artist is independent and can deliver the song himself. 
Drake also demonstrates over camera shot techniques in his video by showing a conventional 'two-shot' and 'close up' of Drake. This is evident as we see Drake in his element rapping close up and showing different facial expressions whilst Rita Ora is dancing in the background, showing two separate people preforming different actions to back up the two different shots. The shot of Drake is conventional to the rap genre as we see him preforming his rap in a cool, intimidating manner and not focusing on the girl behind him, whereas the shot of Rita Ora in the background grabs the attention of the viewer and gives it an extra sexual magnetism element that we often associate with rap videos. This is conventional to the rap genre as we often expect controversial and sexual imagery of girls attempting to impress the artist. It is also conventional as it shows Drake as acting calm, preforming the song rather then getting caught up in the heat of the moment and expressing his emotions, something most rappers tend to do in their videos to keep their hard man image. 



Another music video genre I have chosen to analyse is the indie genre and the artist Ed Sheeran. An example of an conventional indie music video is  Ed Sheerans song 'Give me love'. Ed Sheerans video contains many elements of theories such as goodwins theory, codes and conventions off the indie genre and conventional camera and editing techniques throughout. 

The first conventional element of the indie genre identified in this video is the concept of love and the idea of the girl being a real life cupid. This is seen throughout the video as we see a blonde haired girl dressed in aoll white to represent an 'angel' sitting looking depressed in an unconventional dirty warehouse however we see her obsessions with love. This shows how the video is both unconventional and conventional as although we expect to see a concept and narrative surrounded by the theme of love, we would also expect the angel to be glamorous and happy about the idea of spreading love and happiness. Despite this, it adds to the mysterious and unique behaviour and character of indie artists and the actors in this video. The angel then grows wings from her bag and fly around the city spreading love and happiness to those in need to support the title 'give me love'. It is perceived as a rare concept for a music video and although it is unique, it is identically conventional the indie genre and the substance of Ed Sheeran as an artist. This is because it takes the same concept of an indie music video and adapts many real life, personal situations that people can relate to and those that are expected in indie music videos. This is seen where the angel adapts the concept that all sexual preferences and believes are ok and he makes everyone feel equal allowing him to relate the his audience and spread a positive message through his videos. 

Other codes and conventions that are seen throughout the video and also are included as miss en scene elements are that 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. All of there video is also shot during the night time in order to bring out the best of the setting by having the city lights of london pictured in the background and in order to add a mysterious feeling for the audience on the angel and to help capture her role in the narrative. This is also supported by the angels clothing and iconography in the video where we see her wearing an ordinary outfit to show her as an ordinary, conventional girl that the audience can relate to whereas her wings growing out of her and her bow and arrow makes the audience identify her as 'cupid' and shows the mysterious side to hurt and portrays her obsession with love. 

Music videos and the indie genre in particular tend to use many different camera shots and techniques to not only keep it interesting and productive, but to reflect different emotions and put emphasis on specific things within the frame. These shots include close ups, mid shots and other conventional camera techniques and movements such as pan, track, hand-held and crane. The director for Ed sheerans 'give me love' conventionally makes use of the hand held camera technique where we see the girl waiting for a train, with the night lights of London beaming down on her in the background. We can identify this camera technique as 'handheld' as the shot is slightly shaky and the artist wants the shot to be a point of view perspective as if the audience is there filming the girl themselves and interacting with her in a way by being able to see her emotions what she is getting up to. This shot also helps to deliver the concept of love and supports the narrative of the girl as cupid, travelling around the city spreading love and happiness as the shot makes out she in your ordinary retro looking, girl from next door when in reality she is depressed and makes others happy despite her own struggles and in her own misery. This shot is conventional to the indie genre as it is used to portray the realism and relatable side to indie genre as it makes the audience feel like they are part of the video and it is not shot that is often used in high budget videos and shows signs of low production and simplicity. Another camera technique used in this video is the crane view.

This is used when we see two of the angels (cupid) 'love' victims walking through the streets of London before being shot with the love arrow. This is conventional to the narrative of the video and the indie genre as it shows that lesbians are accepted in todays society and they don't have anything to hide by showing their openness and happiness and how the crane shot is used as the angels perspective before spreading love. We expect to see this technique in indie music videos as they are often used to add substance to videos and hidden messages that indie genres use such as an equal society. It is also a good and easy way of showing someones perspective. 

There is a split tone editing technique and effect throughout the whole video. This is where the colour scheme of the video and a tone is used throughout in oder to express different emotions or shots. The whole video is made in a dark tone in order to support the night time setting and to create cohesion throughout the video and give it a distinct look. These colours also have a symbolic meaning, with the pale blue and indigo type colour and tone giving it a cold, sad feeling signifying the theme of loneliness and sadness from the girl. The purple and red tones also give a feeling and meaning of love and romance, also helping to support the concept of the video. The use of slow motion also matches the pace of the song and in the crescendo parts of the footage speed up. for example, the footage speeds up when the arrow is being shot into the love victims adding to the emphasis and drama of the action. This is supported by the shot lengths of the video with them being quite long and dramatical and the cuts between clips are sped up depending on the part of the narrative of the video playing at the time. This is used in order to add emphasis and effect on the audiences emotions by spreading mixed emotions and relatable shots. It is also conventional to the indie genre as they tend to spread may different emotions have many different hidden messages. 

The audience that Ed Sheeran intends to buy and listen to this song is both girls and boys, aged 16-25 with an interest in the indie genre. The financial statistics for this song shows that most of its profits and views on YouTube, ITunes and other multimedia platforms came from both genders within this age gap however with more girls then boys. This is because most of Ed Sheerans audience is girls within this age gap as they are able to relate to the narratives and concepts he includes in his videos and writes about in his lyrics, particularly the video give 'Give me Love'. Ed Sheeran also has a wide range of fans and mainstream audiences as he is one not only the biggest names in the indie genre but the music industry and his sheer creativity and talent attracts people of all ages to listen to his music, but its the concepts of love and emotion that draw girls aged 16-25 to this particular video.

Goodiwns theory is identified throughout the video in a numb of different elements. This is seen where the lyrics and directly and illustratively conventional to the actions on shot. This is seen where the girl is walking through the streets spreading love and happiness, despite her own misery, the lyrics state 'give me love'. This is directly coherent to the actions on screen as the angels facial expressions as she is stood loping depressed and lonely and wanting to find love and happiness herself as well as spreading love for others. She is almost tired with her own work and wants to find something or someone to love and give motivation to make other happy as seeing others in love and not her adds to there depression element on the narrative and her character. The audience are able to relate to these lyrics and the angel as it brings up a deep and meaningful topic that those who can relate to it and Ed Sheerans music might find happiness or motivation from it and it sends a message out to be happy and find love, adding substance and purpose to the video and Ed Sheerans lyrics. It is also conventional to the indie genre as we often expect indie music videos to have strong topics that are personal to the artist and that can relate to the audience. Goodwins theory is also identified as the artist uses as concept and narrative element throughout the video, as mentioned earlier on in the blog. The concept of love is used throughout the video in order to support the 'cupid', 'love angel' narrative that audiences are hooked on and want to find from Ed Sheerans videos. 

The third video I have chosen to analyse is from the pop genre and is major pop artist Taylor Swifts, 'blank space'. Blank space is seen as one of Taylor Swifts most popular, successful and conventional music videos and songs in her transition into a pop artist and it includes many conventional micro elements of the pop genre that also help to portray her as an artist.

Firstly, cinematography is used in this video in the form of a variety of close ups and mid shots of both Taylor Swift and the male included in the narrative. In particular, we see a conventional mid shot of Taylor Swift sitting on her bed holding a white kitten and wearing a form of old-fashioned, black lingerie. This is conventional as it is visualised right at the beginning of the video, immediately setting the audiences attention on Taylor Swift and allowing them to get drawn into her appearance and the lyrics that illustrate the song. The shot is useful and conventional as it allows the artist to get everything that is necessary to the meaning of the video and shot, in the shot. The white kitten she is holding is also positioned in the middle of the shot and gets its own close up as a symbol of her pure, and innocent character and to match the theme and nature of the song. This is also supported by the old fashioned, luxury style of the room, bed and her clothing which makes her come across as having a split personality as she is innocent and talented yet revealing and quite mysterious at the same time as we as the audience don't yet know much about her character.This is all pictured and drawn from the medium shot which proves a conventional and popular shot for the remainder of the video. This shot is conventional to the pop genre as it is quite simple and pop videos tend to have less concept and meaning in comparison to indie/rock music videos which use a lot more in depth style of shots. However it is still conventional as it allows the audience to get a understanding on the artists character as well as there own perspective of the video.

 Another camera technique used in the video for blank space is the use of a low angle shot. The low angle shot Is used to show Taylor Swift walking down a black, pretigous staircase in the same black lingerie she has on in the start of the video, slowly capturing her sways and movements in a conventional manner. This shot is used in order to make the audience look up at Taylor Swift in all of her glory making them admire her and envy her. It is also used to bring out her star quality and her prestige and admirable character that she portrays throughout the video. Low angle shots are conventional to the pop genre as they are a good way of representing the artist character and attitude which is often a representation of their music genre, ecspesially major pop artists such as Taylor Swift who have such an influence on audiences and the change in demands in the music industry. Low angle shots are also able to tie into different editing techniques easily such as fade or cut away therefore giving the producers and artist more range and variety to work from to create a conventional music video.

One of the editing techniques used in this video is the substantial use of elliptical editing and slow motion transition. This is where shot transitions that omit parts of an event, causing ellipsis in plot and story duration. Slow motion shots and techniques are also when the shot is slowed down to create dramatical emphasis or effect on the shot. This is seen during the middle passage of the video where we see a number of different shots that effect the narrative slowed down in order to focus on the couples actions and reactions as to what the other is doing. We see Taylor Swift and the male riding horses through a garden mansion and driving around in a classic rolls Royce showing off their relationship. This editing technique makes it conventional as it  supports the narrative of Taylor Swifts luxury and high end lifestyle whilst showing how she has many lovers and is more committed to her work and the luxury shown in the video then her boyfriends. This is then later shown in slow motion at the end of the video where she is lying on the boy who appears to be passed out on the floor and she is smashing up his car with a golf club, showing the transition of the narrative of the video and the use of elliptical editing. These editing techniques also give a representation of Swifts character in this video as it shows her as being irresistible yet crazy and mysterious at the same time, who's not the same as these 'other girls' she refers to in her lyrics showing a performance element and visual representation of lyrics and the video within her editing technique. This editing technique is conventional to the pop genre as many pop aritists use lots of narratives in their videos as a way of expressing their conventions and characters and this editing technique allows them to do this and the audience to really focus on it with the slow moving shots. 

                                                                 

Censorship

 



Diversity- Mrs Miller

Diversity

A diverse music video is when a music video is perceived as controversial or often beyond the boundaries of a suitable or conventional music video of that artists particular genre. Diverse music videos are perceived as unique and tend to stand out from any ordinary video. In the past, the realm of music videos was a whole lot less democratic, however it has changed dramatically in recent years. Fans and audiences are now demanding a lot more out of the ordinary content from their favourite artists and the music industry, therefore creating a diverse and unique music video is am effective way to stand out and garner new fans and keep those who you already have loyal. One way of making a music video diverse and unique is by giving the video its own entity. The goal for artists is to create a video that enhances the song and can stand out on its own, a video that people are going to want to watch over and over again and having a video with its own entity and can stand out on his own means more views and more fans. Having a diverse and unique music video also takes a lot of fault and being frugal. This means being precise in making your video go far by thinking of every little convention and scene and having no limit in expense, promotion and distribution. Diverse and unique videos also know their target audiences and who to get their videos across to. This can depend on age, genre and other music related factors. With diverse and unique videos comes a lot of word from mouth advertising, when people spread their views and opinions on this video, telling people to go and watch it. This is ideal for artists as it gives them a lot of free advertising and views. 

Chris Cunningham is a british video artist and director of music videos, famous for creating diverse and unique content. His music is described as a 'perfect mix of mystery and adrenaline. His style has a lot of sexual ambiguity, violence, inclusive technology and a general sense of creepiness and strange behaviour. He is famous for working with artists such as Madonna, Apex Twin, Bjork and has been nominated for a number of awards for his music video creations including a grammy for 'breakthrough director' and 'best music video award' for Madonnas 'Frozen' at the 2000 Brit Awards  which became a international hit and won best special effects video at the 1998 MTV Music video awards. He is also famous and well known for creating video art, short films and commercials.

Madonna's video for 'Frozen' is widely recognised as one of the best music videos of it's generation for its diverse and unique style, winning a number of awards and being a good demonstration of pop culture and Chris Cunnighams work; one of his most famous videos. It follows many conventional factors that are expected of music videos, including genre conventions, goodwins theory, style and artist representation. The video demonstrates a number of both conventional and unconventional factors, including a dark, desolate location and setting of a desert. This is unconventional as we would expect a song of the pop genre and an artist like Madonna to follow the pop conventions more and have a conventional setting such as a beach or party scene. We would associate a dark, isolated setting with the rock genre. Cunningham also uses goodwins theory in his video where the visuals and music match. This is evident when the frames of the video change on beat, e.g the birds transformation at the start of the hook and chorus and a change on every beat. This demonstrates a good use of goodwins theory and a diverse music video as the changes and visuals are out of the ordinary and illustratively shows the micro elements, in a way that we would expect from an artist such as Madonna. Madonna and Cunningham also take a primarily performance and concept based theme towards their video as she is singing into the camera whilst preforming a number of actions during half the video and is showing a dark side to her as the concept  where she is acting mysterious and possessed. It creates the whole idea that love can be negative, possessive and time consuming which she demonstrates through her clothing, the setting and other micro elements. One of the artist representations that Cunningham gives Madonna in this video is to create the feeling of death throughout the video and  a dark side to the artist through this same representation.



Another music video that Cunningham is well known for and one and artist that created a lot of speculation and talk about his strange and unique style of video and genre of music is Aphex Twin and his video for 'Come to Daddy'. It is portrayed as highly diverse and does not demonstrate any genre conventions and only unusual, unconventional factors. These include the focus on an old women in a punk/rock, high tempo song and video and the little girls running around a block of flats rioting and torturing people. These are perceived as unconventional as we would expect the video to be male orientated with a more natural setting that does not take scenes that make very little sense in the world of music that suit the high tempo music and flashing images, an important factor in the video being highly diverse and unique. Cunningham and Aphex Twins also show Goodwins theory in the music video. This is evident when we see promotion of the artist on the girls face and logo on the walls and flats. This matches the demands of the record label and how they want close ups of the artist and their brand in a visual style to help create a relationship with the artist and audience. The style of the video takes aspects from narrative, performance and concept. It uses a narrative to show the man in the TV controlling the girls and the story of them terrorising the public while a the man in the TV is singing the lyrics on camera throughout the whole video for performance. Concept is also used to imply the idea that children are heavily influenced by TV and the media. Throughout the video, Cunningham gives Aphex a number of artist representations, the main ones being his creepy, unusual and rebellious character due to the actions on screen and to make the video diverse and unique.



Chris Cunningham also made another diverse and unique music video with Aphex Twin called 'Window Licker'. The genre conventions for this video are the heavy use of explicit language and sexual behaviour that you would expect from an highly controversial and unusual artist such as Aphex Twin when under the influence of Cunningham. The main purpose and concept of the video is also to show Aphex Twin as the alpha male compared to others and how he can appeal to women and influence them. Because of this, their is a lot of references of voyeuristic scenes to the female body to show Goodwins theory. This is evident when he is dancing vigorously to match the high tempo and in order to make himself sexually appealing to the women, making the audience and director look at the artist in a voyeuristic way, which the artist doesn't realise. The video is primarily narrative based with the opening 4-5 minutes of the video showing a short story about two gangsters trying to talk to two girls before Aphex is introduced in the video. This whole narrative helps to support the concept of the video that girls are gold diggers and the gangsters are voyeuristic to women. He also adds a performance element to the song by dancing throughout the video. These elements help to support Cunningham's representation of Aphex in the video, by portraying him as flashy and wealthy with his limo and talented and flirtatious when dancing  and trying to appeal to the girls.

Michael Gondry is a French film and music director, screenplay writer and producer of all media and video related content. Much like Chris Cunningham, he is famous for working with some on the biggest names in the music industry and creating diverse and unique videos and is considered as 'the mad scientist of cinema'. He has created some ground-breaking and famous videos for the likes of Kylie Minogue, Kanye West and The White Stripes and his fans knew that each of his new works and music videos would deliver a bold pop-art statement of baffling origin with diverse concepts and narratives, putting him in the same bracket at Cunningham but on a more global level.

One of Gondrys most famous music videos is when he partnered with 'The white stripes' and created 'the hardest button to push'. Well known in the rock genre and the music industry as whole as diverse and unique, it includes a number of unconventional and conventional genre representations, including the high number of instruments used in the video. However the urban areas of street subways is something you would not consider with the punk/rock genre. It includes factors of Goodwins theory, including how  there is a relationship between the music and visuals, as a new picture and visual appears on every beat in an illustrative way. There is no elements of narrative or concept in the video and it is all performance based with the tapping of his foot, the drums, guitar and his singing being seen and playing throughout the whole video. Gondry represents the artist in this video as very talented due to the constant music playing on different platforms and cool, laidback and relatable to fans of the rock genre.

Kylie Minogue is known as on of the faces of the pop genre and is one of the biggest artists that Gondry has worked with and her song 'Come into my world' is considered as one of the most unique music videos created of all time and is used as inspiration for many diverse and unique pop songs created today by some of the worlds biggest artists. There are many genre conventions of this video including the constant dancing in the background from the extras. This gives the whole video a performance based element and is conventional to the pop genre as audiences would expect the video to be fun, girly and laidback. It is a good example of Goodwins theory by using almost all of the 7 elements of his findings. An example of this is when the lyrics and visuals match when ever the chorus and hook begins and she sings 'come into my world' whilst skipping across the road with open arms to illustrate the high tempo and energy of the song. The video has a constant performance from Minogue as she is signing directly to the camera non stop and has a highly significant narrative which makes it diverse and unique. This is her walking through the streets in a repeat process, adding to the concept of her life and world being repetitive due to fame and this is her everyday life. Gondry gives Minogue an artist representation of being a stereotypical girly girl with her actions, costume and performance based video. We also perceive her as relatable with her doing everyday activities and confident by walking proudly.

Diverse music videos tend to be highly successful as they are able to be made by any artist if they wish to do so to create a particular image and character. This includes low key artists who are just starting up in order to stand out, become more memorable and gain more views and opportunities, proving why directors such as Cunningham and Gondry and artists such as Madonna and Kylie Minogue have been so successful. Creating a diverse and unique music video also appeals to a wider and different audience and gives artists a different perspective In the media and an intellectual appeal to newer, niche audiences. Despite this, diverse and unique music videos after all are not always perceived how the artist hoped and can flop considering they are not of a stereotypical song/video that is pictured and expected in the music industry. They can also come as a disadvantage as they can give the artist/director a bad reputation, controversy and a limited target audience. It Is also harder to maintain a certain level of expectancy as diverse music videos are harder to make and audiences and fans will constantly expect this and if they fail to deliver they could risk losing their unique fan base they created. I feel creating a diverse and unique music video will help me when creating my own music video as it gives me a lot more opportunities and ideas to work from, no matter what genre I am focusing on. It is also a good media platform to take inspiration from, ideas from Goodwins theory and both conventional and unconventional factors.