My finished music video:

My front digipak panel:

My front digipak panel:
Right-click the image and open it in a new tab for a bigger version.

My inside digipak panels:

My inside digipak panels:
Right-click the image and open it in a new tab for a bigger version.

My back digipak panel (with album spine:)

My back digipak panel (with album spine:)
Right-click the image and open it in a new tab for a bigger version.

Click the image below to open my website in a new tab:

Sunday 15 October 2017

R+P Post 17: My Chosen Track

Our chosen track is “Sweet Dream” by Black Cat Zoot, from their 2011 album Mutable Transformer Act.
"Sweet Dream" from Mutable Transformer Act by Black Cat Zoot. Click to play

Black Cat Zoot formed in Munich in 2005. They are an indie pop band who, according to their website, play music with "a ludicrous shake of funk, big beat, and everything that rattles, clatters, and rolls." They assert that "everything is Pop!" and want to break the mold of current pop music with their indie stylings. They are a good fit for our target audience as they are an indie pop band appealing to the new generation, with a female lead to boot.

Their second and as of writing latest album, Mutable Transformer Act, was issued by the record label Hazelwood Vinyl Plastics in 2011. Written by the band, it is an album that seeks to use elements of post-modernism to blend the old with the new and re-define music, and "Sweet Dream" is the album's 8th song. We think it'll be a great fit for our band because of reasons discussed earlier on this blog, such as in Post 8, as well as its unique style and its 'old and new' themes. The only real downside is we have to work with the song's strong sense of style, and can't really stray to much outside of its atmosphere like we could with simpler songs- however, it suits our band's aesthetic and so this hopefully won't be a problem.
The logo for Black Cat Zoot's current (as of writing) record label, Hazelwood Vinyl Plastics.
The whole album is free to download from the band's website.

R+P Post 16: My Band or Artist

Our indie pop artist is a band called The Acrylics, made up of lead singer Casey Tyler, her brother Hugh Tyler on guitar, and their close friends Guy Chapman and Terence Kitchener on drums and keyboard respectively.

Casey is the most important member of the band, being the lead singer and "face" of the group, and thus she has the biggest public-facing personality. She is a young woman, university age, and while she has had some boyfriends in the past, she recently came out as a lesbian, and thus is a staunch supporter of LGBT causes. She is upbeat and quirky, and has a good relationship with all the other band members, and loves performing with them all. However, her best relationship is with her brother Hugh, who is a similar age. He is a bit more mature than Casey, and generally acts a bit "cooler," but he still loves to mess around with his sister and bandmates while performing, and is a good showman. Guy Chapman is a childhood friend of the siblings, who is often considered the cheeky one (although Casey still has a generally bigger personality when it comes to this,) but while performing he is quieter and he likes to get lost in the music. Terence is the oldest and most mature of the band, and considers himself "too cool for school," but nevertheless he still enjoys performing with his bandmates.

The band as a whole generally subscribes to the conventional hipster indie style, albeit with an emphasis on pastel colours- while pastel colours are also conventional, they are sometimes dropped in favour of brighter or more subdued colours. They try to look stylish while remaining informal, by using formal clothes such as jackets and shirts and wearing them casually, and they often wear matching clothes. Hats, skirts, jewellery, and quite a lot of denim are some more of their preferred fashion choices. This casual yet smart design aesthetic also extend to their performance and poses for promo shots and so on- they like to pose dramatically and perform quirky gestures to show off their fashion and style, but in a less serious and formal manner than some artists.
As mentioned previously on this blog, Echosmith has been an inspiration. They have the same line-up as our band in terms of gender and number, and a very similar style of casually wearing smart or formal clothing, often with pastel colours as opposed to very bright ones. The lead singer, Sydney, particularly inspired us as she is the face of the band with the biggest personality and most prominent position in the band's videos and promotional images. Click to enlarge.
A promotional shot of the band Sheppard. They are another indie pop band who influenced our band, as they share the bright pastel colour scheme and interesting clothing, including denim jackets, hats, patterned clothes, hats, and more. They also influenced our band's personalities- as you can see, they are all very friendly and have good chemistry, playfully leaning into the camera while they laugh and put their arms around one another. Click to enlarge.
Paperdoll, another influential band with a similar line-up to our band. They have a similar clothing style to what we are planning, and a similar but slightly more subdued colour scheme. We like how they look cool but casual, with the lead singer putting her arm behind her back, and one of the guitarists putting his thumb in his pocket, and we seek to emulate this to some degree. Click to enlarge.
When planning and constructing our band, we also looked to media theory to help us. The ideas of David Gauntlett were of particular help- as our audience research and knowledge of audience theory pointed us towards creating a relatable and aspirational lead singer, to help gratify our target audience, we decided to look at his ideas on role models and identity. He says identity is fluid, and role models serve as navigation points to guide people in steering their ever-changing identity. Casey herself has a fluid personality, as more and more about her is revealed as you watch the video, see her on the website, and read her social media. She provides a role model for our target audience, many of whom are in their teens- they see a successful female fighting for LGBT rights, and thus she creates aspiration, especially amongst female and LGBT audience members. Following this same route, we looked at Richard Dyer's 'star' theory. It claims there is a difference between a performer and a star, in that the star has a public-facing image constructed through what is essentially a marketing campaign with them at the centre. All of Casey's clothing, gestures, social media posts and so on build her up as a star as well as a role model. People agree with her ideals and opinions and thus like her more. Her real personality becomes larger than life through all this, and makes people want to buy the products associated with her as well as simply aspire to be like her- this allows the label to sell music and merchandise through her, which is necessary for our band to be successful.

Overall we have planned the band with Casey as the figurehead, with an associated aesthetic, set of ideals, and so on tailored to the target audience, that all make the target audience like them more.

R+P Post 15: My Record Label

Our record label is TNT Records, a sister company to Harvest Records in that it is also part of the Capitol Music Group, owned by the Universal Music Group. We like how Harvest Records operated, in that it is a UK label focused on a small subsection of the music world, mainly indie and progressive rock artists. Capitol Music Group has many other record labels working under it, all focusing on different areas while benefitting from being part of an umbrella label owned by a larger corporation. By being like Harvest, TNT Records can support indie artists yet still allow them to break into the mainstream through their connections. However, whereas Harvest focused on indie rock while representing only a few indie pop artists, TNT will focus solely on indie pop artists and may represent a few indie rock artists, and/or other indie subgenre artists.
The logo we created for our record label, TNT Records. It is so named because we are following the convention of short and catchy label names, like Harvest, Wichita, and 4AD, and because the label represents explosive and fun indie pop artists. Click to enlarge.

R+P Post 14: My Target Audience

After sending out a more specific survey with our more developed ideas, we have decided that our chosen target audience is young people aged twelve to twenty-five, with a skew towards girls, with a secondary audience of anyone who is a fan of the Indie Pop genre, no matter who they are. This audiences wants artists they relate to in terms of ideals and beliefs and so on, but who are still aspirational, as they are still young and forming their opinions and making their way in the world- they want affirmation and role models. They want to see themselves represented, in age and gender and sexuality and similar, in the music world, especially if they are traditionally unrepresented. They like the genre for the fashion and atmosphere, and around a quarter of the age group listens to Indie Pop a lot, whereas another quarter listens to it occasionally, according to our survey.
A picture from a few years ago of my cousins, Elaina and Madeleine, who are part of our target audience and who took the survey. They both listen to Indie Pop and take fashion inspiration from young female artists they admire. Click to enlarge.
A graph from our survey that shows why people like Indie Pop. A lot of them like the genre itself, for the music and aesthetic, and a large part of this group also answered in the affirmative to things like mood/atmosphere, fashion/style, and relatability. Click to enlarge.
Another graph from our survey, showing reasons besides the music itself that people in our target audience like their favourite artists, many of which were Indie Pop artists. Sharing political beliefs is very important, as is fashion, regional identity, age, sexuality, and gender. Click to enlarge.

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

We have taken quite a few cues from certain aspects of culture when deciding on how to create our band. We noticed the popularity of "hipster" clothing- clothing designed to be outside of the mainstream yet still conventionally attractive, often through casual takes on formal clothing. The same artists who used this clothing style also use a certain pastel aesthetic, so we looked into it more, and discovered an otherwise unrelated movement that has a lot older roots but is still popular today- Bubblegum Pop.

We thus looked at the Bubblegum Pop movement from the '60s and '70s, some themes of which have come back recently. One typical example of Bubblegum Pop is "Sugar Sugar" by The Archies from 1969- it is very upbeat both in terms of the music itself and the lyrics and themes, and the video going along with it also contains a lot of positive imagery and pastel colours. Even from these roots Bubblegum Pop has been associated with intertextuality, as The Archies are a virtual band made up of characters from the popular Archie comic series predating the movement. Nowadays, the pastel colour scheme and upbeat style has been mirrored once more in popular music, for example Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass." This ever present and popular Bubblegum Pop aesthetic is something we would like to tap into, as it represents the upbeat nature we are attempting to capture, as well as the colour scheme we are looking at, and it even allows for references to popular culture.

"Sugar Sugar" by The Archies. As you can see, the video and song oozes positivity, and we would like to tap into this positivity by appropriating some of the conventions of the Bubblegum Pop movement. Click to play.
"All About That Bass" by Meghan Trainor. A modern song that follows on from the Bubblegum Pop movement of the mid-to-late 1900s, it contains much of what constitutes Bubblegum Pop but updated to fit a modern audience, in that the video uses the pastel colours and the song uses upbeat themes, but the video has been updated from the older animation style and the lyrics focus on a contemporary issue, i.e. body positivity. Click to play.

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

We have looked at a lot of artists that fit our criteria in order to get ideas- we are likely to create an independent pop artist, so we have been looking at bands and solo musicians that perform music in related genres and sub-genres.

One such band is Echosmith. We looked to them for quite a few ideas, partially because we already know a bit about them and their music from a previous project, but mostly because they have a female lead singer and three male instrumentalists, as we are planning to, and because they are all siblings, and we are intending to have familial ties within our band also. They tend to work off of each other a lot while performing, playing off their sibling relationships in their music videos and social media, and generally have an air of lightheartedness both while performing and beyond. These are two things that we could easily incorporate into our video and social media. They are quite typical of the indie "hipster" style, with lots of pastel colours, wearing shirts, ties, dresses, jackets, skirts, and hats. However, they can sometimes be a bit more subdued in terms of colour scheme than we are planning to be, as they like to match their black and white clothing- however, matching colour schemes in itself is something we would like to do. As described in the last paragraph of this article by Phoebe Reilly, they try to avoid politics but their shared Christian faith influences their music, identity, and the overall direction of the band. We have also been looking at constructing identity and including representation through the beliefs and ideas of the band members.
Echosmith in one of their more colourful sets of outfits. Note how all of them are wearing jackets and pastel colours, as well as the presence of a hat, and the prominence of the lead singer in the front. Click to enlarge.
Another picture of Echosmith, with a similar clothing style but in a different colour scheme. The same person is wearing a hat, and the lead singer is still the most prominent, but this time all the shirts are neat and done up and one of them is wearing a tie. Artists in the genres we are looking at have quite varied fashion styles, as you can see. Click to enlarge.
Another artist we looked at was Lucy Spraggan. She is a British solo singer who progressed quite far on the singing competition TV show X-Factor, and then got signed up to a record label afterwards. She thus has had more chance than most to show off her personality and attract a fanbase, but still goes through all the regular channels to maintain this presence, such as social media and interviews. She also has quite a hipster style clothing-wise, and is quite passionate about her music and performance, once crying on X-Factor when the audience cheered for one of her original songs. Our lead singer's character has thus been inspired by her to some degree, in terms of clothing and passion for the music, as well as her aforementioned British nationality. Another way she has inspired our lead singer is through the fact that she is an openly gay woman, who is for LGBT rights and who attracts young LGBT people to her fanbase. We will likely also make our lead singer a member of the LGBT community, to further construct an identity through her sexual orientation and associated ideals, and to represent a wider part of our targeted age group as well as society at large.
Lucy Spraggan in a typical outfit. She has a warm coloured top offset by a denim jacket with the sleeves rolled up (denim jackets being quite conventional of independent pop artists,) as well as a nice watch. She has a strong sense of style despite not being "dressed up" or in formal clothing. Click to enlarge.
Once more she looks quite smart and stylish in a colourful shirt, despite wearing a bobble-hat, a rather eccentric piece of clothing, especially considering the photo is taken indoors. Once more her sleeves are rolled up and overall she looks casual and smart while not being messy or formal. Click to enlarge.
A third band that we looked at in more detail than others would be New Young Pony Club. They are an English band with quite an eccentric style, who "marry the dance ethic with the pop ethic, and make something that you can dance to and sing along to," as the lead singer once said. This style extends to their music and videos, which are quite packed with interesting sounds and graphics, as well as their actual clothing style. While they and Echosmith both use pastel colours, where Echosmith could be said to be more on the subdued end sometimes, NYPC could be said to be on the brighter end when compared to our plans- although they have still influenced our colour scheme. They are an indie pop artist, but lean more towards the indie side due to their style, while still remaining popular. This niche but popular style is something we could use to great effect with our band.
New Young Pony Club showing off their style. This is one of their more standard sets of outfits, but it nevertheless shows off their range of pastel and even non-pastel colours, and wide variety of clothing, a lot of which can be attributed to conventional indie fashion such as denim jackets, open shirts, and interesting dresses. Click to enlarge.
New Young Pony Club once more showing off a large range of colours. Bright pinks, pastel purples, both light and dark blues can all be seen here, amidst many other hues. They taught us that we have quite a wide variety of colours and clothes to choose from. Click to enlarge.

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

We approached the research for the third construction task in the same way as the other two- looking at a lot of influences and getting a general idea of conventions and ideas, and then focusing on a few particularly influential ones. We noticed there was almost always some kind of navigation bar, with an integrated or separate bar for social medias such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, etc. as well as ways to consume and buy the music, such as SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play Music, etc. Certain pages such as 'tour' and 'store' were almost always present, with ones like 'contact' and 'news' and 'gallery' also appearing a lot. The sites invariably had a lot of options for interactivity, such as clicking around pages, playing videos etc. as well as many ways to give money to the band through tours, purchasing music and merchandise, and so on. A few other conventions we noticed on a few websites that we are quite interested in would be the inclusion of a charity link on sites like Modest Mouse's official site, and a welcome screen that informs of a new album that must be clicked past to get to the main site, such as on Los Campesinos' website.

The first is the website of the band Echosmith. This website is quite simplistic and conventional- the homepage is one long scroll, with a navigation bar on the top that scrolls down with you and allows you to always access the other pages on the site. We found it particularly interesting because of this feature, but also because the scrolling homepage contained every section of the website. While clicking the page names in the navigation bar does take you to a separate page, scrolling down on the homepage gives you an overview of each section of the website- this makes it easier for users to engage with the band, as they don't have to spend much time to see what they and their website's pages offer. Scrolling to the very top shows a contact bar, and the header image for the website is actually one of Echosmith's recent videos- these two things provide interactivity, synergy with the band's social media and music, as well various ways to buy. Not to mention the ever-present (until you click the 'X') pop-up that asks you to sign up to the band's newsletter. It also has a simple colour scheme that reflects the colour scheme of the band's latest album, while not getting in the way of all the links and information which provide crucial ways to interact. Overall it is a very well-designed website that presents everything quickly, effectively, and in an eye-catching way, which we could take many cues from.
Echosmith's website. Note the video taking up the top part of the website, as well as the clear navigation bar with links to other pages as well as a store. Also seen is the topmost contact bar with ways to view social media and buy music, as well as the pop-up in the corner for the newsletter, all following the same colour scheme. Click to enlarge.
Another section of Echosmith's website. Note how the navigation bar and pop-up have moved with the scroll, as well as how 'tour' and 'news' have their own sections on the main page ('music' has been scrolled by.) The colour scheme continues, inspired by the band's recent album cover. Click to enlarge.
Another website we looked at is the site of Alvvays. It is also mostly focused on a single page, with links on a navigation bar that provide ways to buy and interact upon entry of the site. The rest of the site is in blog format, showing news about the band, and it scrolls endlessly until you reach the first post from 2012. The image that greets you when you first open it is a huge stylised image with a small but very eye-catching animation around the order button- we were interested in this because the style seems similar to what we are already considering, plus it is a convention and a good idea to put such an obvious way to interact and buy in the first page of the website. Other conventions are present, such as a newsletter sign-up and tour page, with smaller versions of these things appearing on the side-bar, and social media links are given prominence in the navigation bar. Overall it is a more unique website than many we looked at, with an inspirational visual style, but it still follows quite a lot of conventions.
The first page of Alvvays' website. The navigation bar is quite small, but still eye-catching, because the black-and-white colours make it very easy to read and contrast with the rest of the website. Thus the eye is drawn to both the interesting image that references the band's new album and has an opportunity to buy, but also to the bar with even more ways to interact through social media and buy through the 'store' and 'tour' pages. Click to enlarge.
The beginning of the rest of the site. It is in blog format, and the navigation bar doesn't follow, but the newsletter sign-up and tour dates are present in the sidebar, and the blog itself serves to promote the band further as it is effectively a news feed telling of said tours as well as album releases and such. Click to enlarge.
Chvrches' website is another one we looked at. It is another one that is focused on a single page that contains everything, with a few other pages, rather than a traditional website with a homepage and then separate pages for each section. It opens on a pop-up informing people of the new album, showing its album art, and providing various different platforms to buy it on (with one option including a t-shirt.) Pop-ups seem to be a convention that is used to engage viewers and try to entice them to buy. Past the pop-up, the website has a very strong visual style, mimicking the front of the aforementioned new album. A grey box on the side opens up what would the navigation bar on other sites, and a pink box under it opens a contact bar, that contains many social media platforms to interact with as well as yet another chance to go to one of the various online stores and buy Chvrches' music.
The opening screen of Chvrches' website, showing the pop-up. It gives a brief overview of the album as well as many ways to purchase it, and serves a similar purpose to the welcome screens we saw on other sites. Click to enlarge.
The main page of the website with the sidebar open. As you can see all the social media and buying options are presented when you click the pink box, in a dark black to stand out against the plain pink, providing interactivity, synergy, and ways to buy.

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

Like with our music video research, we looked at a lot of different album covers, that all influenced us in some way. However, we did end up focusing on a few albums that were especially useful for informing our ideas. We noted the presence of the artist on the front of many of the albums, as well as the relative plainness of the inside and back so that important information isn't lost amongst clutter.

One of these is the album Fantastic Playroom by New Young Pony Club. It is bold and simple, with a plain white background, pink title, and line-up of the band members. It serves to showcase the band, as it is their debut album, but also has a striking style that draws the eye. The back of the album carries on this style, with a pink background and white text, flipping the colours but keeping the same scheme. It conveys all the information it needs to- practical things like the album and band names on the front, song names and legal information on the back, but also things that should draw the target audience to the band, such as showcasing a small part of the band's personality by showing each member performing a gesture.
Fantastic Playroom by New Young Pony Club- the front and back of the album. You can see the strong colour scheme carried on throughout the album cover, as well as how simplistic yet readable the whole thing is. It makes an impact but also conveys all the information it needs to. Click to enlarge.
Another one would be California Nights by Best Coast. We noticed it was very typical of album covers of its genre, which would be indie pop, a genre we are heavily considering as our song's genre- for example, it has a border that is just a flipped part of the image, a feature we saw on many albums, most notably Talking Dreams by Echosmith, another top inspiration. It has the band members on the front, as many albums do, and clearly states the name of the album, while also clearly stating all the songs on the back. The colour scheme is continued throughout- either the background image is used repeatedly, or the gradient from the background image is used instead. The inner sleeve has lyrics to the songs, as well as a lot of pictures of the band and various other things, which all have the same atmosphere and a similar visual style to the album itself. While we are potentially looking at doing a lighter colour scheme, this album is otherwise very influential.
California Nights by Best Coast- the front and back of the album (the top left and bottom right images) as well as portions of the inner sleeve. As you can see, despite the changing colours throughout, the same gradient is used, and elements of the same image is repeated. The band is shown on the front, and further expanded on personality-wise through the pictures inside. Click to enlarge.
A third album cover we looked into is Sistrionix by Deap Vally. It has a very strong sense of style, with contrasting colours dominating the otherwise plain colour image, but still has a lot of detail in the painting despite the simplicity of the colour scheme. The album title and band name are given extra prominence by positioning them in the centre focal point. The back of the album is more stylised than some of the others we have looked at- there is a photograph of the painting used on the front, and some smaller stylised text below to inform the viewer of the song names. It has all the necessary information, but is more focused on form than function. Overall it was quite a different album cover than others we had looked at, and its relative uniqueness should help us when it comes to designing our cover.
Sistrionix by Deap Vally. The front image is very simple in terms of colour, with the yellow and red hair dominating while the rest of the picture makes do with a pale pink and grey scheme. The back of the album goes even further, by making the surroundings of the painting greyscale. Click to enlarge.

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

We looked at quite a few music videos to inform and inspire our own ideas. We tried to stay within the genres we were considering at that time- mostly the indie and pop genres and subgenres. While we took inspiration from all of the videos we looked at that fitted our criteria, a few in particular stood out.

The first one we felt particularly inspired by was "You've Changed" by Sia. It has a very interesting visual style, full of mise-en-scene like DIY props and eccentric costumes in order to create this style. The whole video is presented as a video game featuring various young people as the playable characters- the on-screen graphics are simply cardboard pieces held up physically by people's hands, which are sometimes shown in shot. The colour scheme also work towards this simple, playful style, as it is simple and pastel coloured, and the various gestures by Sia and the actors also convey this. The video also swaps between performance and narrative with a bit of crossover- some shots show Sia singing, and some show the characters in the game, but they all share the aesthetic as if they are all part of the same game.We decided we could incorporate the use of young people, i.e. people from our target audience, into our video, as well as the idea of referencing pieces of media such as video games. We also assimilated the pastel-coloured, DIY aesthetic of the video into our overall video ideas- besides the fact that we can easily create props and costume that looks like this ourselves, it also provides a fairly unique visual style, that we can tweak and put our own spin on.
"You've Changed" by Sia. A very unique music video, which doesn't really move the camera around or change shot types (as is conventional, and as we are planning to do,) but that still manages to provide a varied experience through its constant switching of cardboard background and foreground elements. We really like its style. Click to play.

Another video quite instrumental to our ideas is that of the song "Ghengis Khan" by Miike Snow. It has references to popular culture and pieces of media like the Sia song- in fact, the whole video is a parody of spy movies in general, and James Bond movies in particular. We really liked the direction it took- once more, performance and narrative are mixed, with the characters who are acting out the narrative also singing as performers. The contrast between normal home life and the James Bond-esque over-the-top villain's lair was also quite interesting, as was the constant movement between extreme long shots and close-ups and everything in between. Filters have been used to make the video look like an older movie, and there is a strong colour scheme of bold colours like the red laser against plainer colours like the grey stone. The romance theme is also interesting to us, as we are leaning towards the idea of having a love-based storyline- the lyrics reflect the actions of the characters as well as the storyline, as the villain is torn between acting out his role or giving in to his feelings and admitting he wants the secret agent to be with "nobody else but [him.]" Finally, the video ends on a small outro scene without music or singing, which is an idea we were already toying with.
"Ghengis Khan" by Miike Snow. Elements of post-modernism are found throughout, with the references to pieces of media such as classic James Bond films, as well as the positive portrayal of a homosexual relationship, which you would be unlikely to find in said older movies. Click to play.

The third and final video we decided to research in more depth is "When I'm With You" by Best Coast. Another video that deals with love through exploration of a popular culture icon, "When I'm With You" depicts a relationship between the singer of Best Coast and a slightly edited version of Ronald McDonald, the clown mascot of large fast food chain McDonald's. Once more there is a strong visual effect on the video, achieved in this case through warm lighting and filters. The camera jumps between a variety of shots, as well as quite a lot of movements, and the camera follows the characters through the events of the video. The intertextuality of Ronald McDonald appearing in this video was very interesting, especially as he has been put in the real world in a normal relationship with a person not originating from a piece of media. Aside from love, another big theme of the video is "remembering good times," which works quite well in tandem with love, so we may well end up using this theme too.
"When I'm With You" by Best Coast. An inspirational video from one of our top inspirational bands, which contains a lot of the themes and camera shots, movements, etc. that we are considering using. Click to play.

R+P Post 8: Possible tracks for the single

We are looking at a wide variety of songs for our music video. Our biggest limiting factor is that the song should be under 3 minutes, although we can cut down songs that are slightly longer. Here are 5 of our best options.

The first is Scott Bradlee and Postmodern Jukebox's cover of "Umbrella" by Rihanna, sung by Casey Abrams. Postmodern Jukebox is a music collective started by Scott Bradlee, where he gets various different singers and instrumentalists and so on, and arranges various songs (mostly pop) into older music genres and styles, such as jazz and swing, for them to perform. It would be a great one to do, because it is upbeat and interesting, has a link to pop music but also more niche genres such as jazz, has no true music video (just a video of the band performing,) and is just under 3 minutes long. We could do a lot of interesting things with the meld of old and new that the song presents, as well as the relationship themes the lyrics convey. The downsides would be that it would be a bit tricky to get all the instruments required for the performance, plus we'd have to be very careful with our appeal to the audience since we don't want to alienate anyone while we aim both at the mainstream pop genre AND the more niche jazz genre and their fans.
"Umbrella" by Postmodern Jukebox. The video is longer than 3 minutes because Scott Bradlee gives an update on the collective's future at the 02:59 mark, which is where the song ends, so you may want to pause the video at this point. It is a very interesting blend of an older musical style with a newer and well-known song, and so we have a lot of scope to craft an interesting music video to go with it. Click to play.

The second is "Istanbul" by They Might Be Giants. They Might Be Giants has a huge discography, but this is one of their shorter songs, that still has a lot of energy and character. The song is themed around the city of Istanbul and how it used to be called Constantinople, and the history of the city. This gives us some clear themes and ideas for a music video, that could be history themed. The short running time might also be a disadvantage, however, as we have less time in which to craft a good video, and thus we might have to drop some ideas and the music video's quality could be compromised if we weren't careful- plus we'd have to be careful to be respectful of the culture of the city and country if we decided to go more that route rather than the historical route.
"Istanbul" by They Might Be Giants. It's only about 2 and a half minutes long, and has a fairly long instrumental intro. We could use the extra time, plus the instrumental time, to create some narrative for our video, but we'd have to be careful not to step outside the bounds of what can be considered a music video, as opposed to a short film with music. Click to play.

"Everywhere" by Ex Hex is the next option. It is slightly longer than 3 minutes at 03:18, so we would have to take that into account and cut it down somehow, but the lyrics are full of imagery and thus have a lot of scope for experimentation and an interesting music video. It has a long instrumental part which we could cut down, and use for even more experimentation. It is a catchy song with simple enough instrumentation, and all of these things combine for it to effectively be a blank canvas for all of our ideas. However, this strength could also be a weakness, as it may be harder to find meaning in the lyrics than in other songs, and we could lack a driving force in the music video that other songs with simpler/clearer messages and themes could provide.
"Everywhere" by Ex Hex. It would be quite a good choice for this project as we could tailor it to our audience very specifically, due to the freedom we have with making a music video out of it. We could adhere to the conventions of music videos and use as much theory as possible because it allows for that by being so abstract yet simple and catchy. Click to play.

The next one is "Sweet Dream" by Black Cat Zoot. This is another song with an interesting set of lyrics that we could adapt into whatever we want, and it is below the limit of 3 minutes too. It is very unknown and indie, and firmly part of the indie pop genre, which gives us an audience to target. It's catchy but also a little bit soft and dreamy, hence the name, which we could use when creating the video- possibly using filters or visual effects or some other kind of imagery to add a dreamlike quality to whatever we decide the video is going to be. It does come with its own set of challenges like any other song, however, such as the fact that it sounds like it might have some non-standard instruments in the backing, but luckily for us the main instruments are still easy things like guitar and drums, and a keyboard should cover the rest.
"Sweet Dream" by Black Cat Zoot. This would also be quite a good choice for this project, as it is catchy yet interesting sounding, with very imaginative and metaphorical lyrics that could be interpreted in many ways to allow for a wide variety of music video ideas. The timing is perfect as it is almost exactly 3 minutes. Click to play.

The final choice on this shortlist is "Halo" by Cage the Elephant. My groupmate Noa suggested it before she knew I liked the song (and band) too, and I think this shared appreciation of the song on a personal level could help us when crafting a music video for it, especially since Jack also really liked it when we played it for him. It is a bit more unorthodox musically than some of the other songs here, which means we are limited somewhat, but we could use its uniqueness to drive the music video if we so wished. It is under 3 minutes at about 02:57, and has a good standard structure of verses and choruses with instrumental breaks, that we could use to form a good structure of a music video.
"Halo" by Cage the Elephant. Noa and I will try to put our like for the song aside somewhat as part of the decision making process- another song might be better in every way, and we don't want to let our appreciation for this song get in the way of that, although later on in planning and construction it could be a boon. Click to play.

R+P Post 7: Record Labels of interest

We looked at quite a few record labels in our search for the perfect one. We had a few criteria that a label would have to fit no matter what other choices we make (genre etc.) These criteria include being based in London, and having a successful history, possibly tied to a large company or being a large company itself. We found out that in the UK record labels are responsible for marketing the artists signed up to them, as well as distributing their music. They are usually in the control of a larger company, which has many different record labels which each deal with different kinds of music and musicians, although sometimes they are independent.

We looked at many labels, such as Father Daughter Recods and 4AD for example, but looked at two labels in more depth than the others- Wichita Recordings and Harvest Records. Wichita is an example of a British independent label, whereas Harvest is also British but is part of the Capitol Music Group (other labels in this group include the famous Motown Records and Virgin Records) which is owned by the large and wealth Universal Music Group.

Wichita has signed on a number of indie artists, such as indie pop duo Best Coast and indie rock band the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. We would thus be in good company were we to choose to be part of this label, or part of our own affiliated label. However, Wichita was only founded in 2000, which isn't very long for a label, and we wouldn't get the reach of a large label, such as Harvest. Harvest, in comparison, was founded in 1969, and has represented larger artists such as Pink Floyd and Deep Purple, as well as artists that are considered indie but are still popular, such as Death Grips and Morissey of The Smiths- they also represented Best Coast. Being part of the Capitol Music Group, and being affiliated with a label like Harvest, would benefit our artist greatly no matter who they are or what they play.

R+P Post 6: Current trends in Popular Music

In 2017, pop music is still the most popular form of music, which is unsurprising as that is what defines it. Other genres are starting to break into the main pop genre, and are thus becoming popular as well. I looked to awards to see what has been popular this year, and a song that I mentioned in a previous post as a quintessential pop song, "All About That Bass," contributed to Meghan Trainor winning the Vanguard Award at the ASCAP Pop Music Awards this year. Snoop Dogg was at the awards ceremony to help hand out awards, as even though he is a rapper and not a pop artist, he is an example of someone from outside the pop genre breaking into the mainstream. So any artist can become mainstream and successful, but helps if they are linked to the pop genre- this should be useful information later on.
A screenshot from the ASCAP website. The text describes Meghan Trainor's victory and the image shows Snoop Dogg presenting an award. Awards are a good way to see what is currently successful- the fact that pop music has its own awards, and that a rapper can be present at these awards, is quite revealing of certain trends. Click to enlarge.
Most genres have a thriving music scene even if it's a scene only comprised of fans of their niche. For example, another genre I have mentioned before, Electro Swing, is very niche- however, even genres like this have their own festivals such as Swingamajig, which fans attend dressed in genre (and thus period) appropriate clothing, to listen to and celebrate the music of the genre as well as do other festival activities like eat street food and watch magic shows. This means niche and/or indie genres can also do well outside of pop- hopefully this means that, even though pop is one of the biggest genres, we have a little bit of freedom to go outside of pop, maybe to one of its more niche subgenres, while remaining competitive.

We also did a bit of research into what is popular right now (as of writing.) The charts seem to line up with what we have already concluded- pop artists like Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith are still pulling in a large audience, but other genres like rap and electronic (seen through artists like 21 Savage and Marshmello respectively) are able to still do well. Current trends seem to be leading us towards a pop subgenre, and we could potentially find a gap in the market by making that subgenre something other than rap, electronic, or similar music that is doing well now.
The charts as of October 31st. Quite a large mix of genres, but pop still reigns supreme. The breakthrough of other genres is particularly interesting to us though, as they are popular music without being pop music. Click to enlarge.
To help us find a gap in the market, we referred to prediction articles such as this one by the BBC. A couple of things from this article were especially useful and interesting to us- short attention spans works well with the brief, as we have a maximum of 3 minutes for our song. Being political is a good idea too- our audience research at this time points to people wanting to connect with their favourite artists' ideas, and politics is another thing we can use to build up image alongside things like fashion and colour scheme discussed in previous posts. The phasing out of albums also suits us, as we are focusing on a hit single with a music video; we should be able to reach a huge audience with just one track, and due to evolving accessibility, everyone who likes it can buy just the one song without being put off by the larger price tag of a physical album or a whole digital album. Finally, the slowing of the emergence of new musical styles also bodes well for us, as it should mean we can aim for the current market and current trends, filling any gaps we see, yet still remain relevant for a while, as new gaps in the market won't appear as often.

Overall the current trends in popular music, as well as the current gaps, all seem to work in our favour, as long as we use this information to make informed choices on our genre, song, etc.

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

Currently our group is looking at a hybrid performance and narrative music video within our chosen genre- both parts will likely be of equal importance. We have not yet firmly chosen a genre as we are still in the research phase, but we have some idea of where we are heading as a group, as well as individual ideas of what we would like to see in the video regardless of decisions such as genre.

I looked to music videos I know and like for inspiration. I think visual effects and possibly even filters would be quite interesting and good-looking, even simple ones. "We Want To" by New Young Pony Club is a music video that inspired me on this matter- it is a mix of performance and narrative like we are planning to make, although rather than being interspersed throughout like we are planning, it has narrative at the start and performance at the end. It has a grainy filter applied throughout, and lots of effects such as cuts, animations, graphics, and more. I think many of these things could be present in our music video to give it an interesting edge, even if it was in a more simplified form.
"We Want To" by New Young Pony Club. Right from the get-go the different effects can be seen- the video remains narrative driven, as a mock TV advertisement, up until around 02:20, where it changes to performance. However, even when this change happens, the presence of effects remains constant. Click to play.

Another idea I had that we could incorporate into our music video would be references to pop culture and media. I think references like this, even ones to very specific things, can work within any genre, even ones outside of pop music. "Shrunk" by Aesop Rock is a rap song and music video that does this in quite an interesting way- it has performance sections broken up with narrative segments like we plan to have, but its narrative is animated. The live sections take place in an arcade, with various classic and recognisable video game machines all around and visible in the background. The animated parts reference video games as a whole by being done in a pixellated aesthetic and showing the singer playing a game version of himself to complete what would usually be everyday tasks, taking us through multiple kinds of games, and even referencing specific games such as Tetris at around 01:28. We do not have to reference video games in our video, although we could- but I think referencing recognisable and enjoyed pieces of media and/or pop culture could increase audience enjoyment no matter the genre, and make the video more interesting.
"Shrunk" by Aesop Rock. The video starts with the singer going to an arcade, and he begins to play a video game arcade cabinet that reflects what he is singing about. It contains a few different visual styles as well as other references to games, and overall makes for an interesting video that uses its references to link the performance and narrative parts of the video- the narrative game is accessed through the performance. Please be aware there are one or two instances of strong language, but nothing over the top, and some mild cartoon violence too. Click to play.

One last thing I was thinking about that we could include in our video would be an intro and/or outro. It might be hard to do if we chose a song close to the time limit we have, as we wouldn't have much space before and/or after the song to experiment with without going over, but if our song was the right length I think it would be an interesting way to introduce the main bulk of the video. "Scatman's World" by Scatman John has a music video that uses this- it has an intro that lasts all the way up to about the 00:50 mark, which is where the actual song starts. The intro is narrative, and is a news reporter introducing the titular "Scatman's World," or 'Scat Land,' as an actual place that people are going to, like a theme park or something, which plays into the idea of the song which is trying to present a perfect or happy world. This bit of narrative thus not only transforms the mostly performance based video into one with a narrative, but also serves the meaning of the lyrics. This is a really clever way to add an interesting twist into the video, and I think using an intro (and/or outro) in this way could really aid both the narrative and performance parts of our video.
"Scatman's World" by Scatman John. The video itself is quite interesting despite simply being Scatman John and the boy from the intro performing, mixed in with some camera footage of different scenes, but the intro elevates it into an experienced, almost like a theme park ride, that the boy is experiencing, lead by Scatman John, who is taking him through all the places and events seen in the footage with lyrics to match. Click to play.

R+P Post 4: Audience groups of interest

We are considering a wide variety of audiences, that encompass a wide variety of people, although we are skewing towards an audience that we ourselves are part of, to make some of our decisions and influences and so on a bit easier. Thus, we decided to base our audience research at this stage on things other than age, such as genre, so that we could include our age group in the main target audience, and then skew towards other things later, such as gender, once we have finally figured out some more details of what we are going to construct.

To this end, we decided to create a survey that included some of the genres and other criteria we were considering, and sent it out to people who were part of our age group, to see what kinds of people were receptive to what things. In the end we discovered that an audience of people from 12-25 years old might be best, as we were receiving a lot of good feedback from this group in regards to our preliminary ideas for a band, song, and video. We discovered certain gender skews in some genres, but possibly the most interesting thing we discovered was that people tend to like and even copy the fashions of their favourite bands and genres, regardless of genre. Colour scheme was important to people too. This information will no doubt be very important to us later.

An extract from the SurveyMonkey survey, from the question dealing with artist image. People talked about fashion and colour above all when discussing the image of favoured artists, despite prompts to do with "style" and "persona" alongside clothing and colour. Also of note is that the two responses pictured here are from people within the 12-25 age group, and the artists they mention are from very different genres. Click to enlarge.
Overall the survey was a good tool for us, as we found out plenty of information to do with the audiences for our preliminary ideas. Once we make some of the key choices, we will have a good base for constructing and image for our target audience.

R+P Post 3: Music genres that interest me

One genre I would like to influence us would be Alternative Rock. As a subgenre of rock, it tends to have a lot of what made made rock so popular in the second part of the 20th century, in terms of the music's style and the way the artists present themselves, but also leans more towards deeper and more emotional or interesting themes, which would make for an interesting music video. This is the “alternative” part- the musicians set out to try and distance themselves from the ideas of rock overall, and changed their music slightly to work with this. You still get the guitar and drums and similar as with rock, but an alternative rock artist might incorporate a saxophone or other less common instrument into a song, or use a strange effect on one of the instruments for the whole duration of the song, and the whole song overall could be described as 'softer' than the average rock song.
Cage the Elephant's "Back Against The Wall" from their eponymous debut album. They are on of my favourite artists, and this is their most rock-leaning album- in this song you can hear the drums and fingers on the guitar strings and so on, very typical of rock. It already has a touch of the alternative rock that they eventually turn towards, especially in the slow start and fairly interesting lyrics, but overall it is very rock influenced, especially in comparison to the next song I will present. Click to play.


Cage the Elephant's "Telescope" from their third album "Melophobia." At this point, they have developed from a rock band which dabbles in garage and alternative rock to a full-blow alternative rock band. The album's title means fear of music, which they describe as the fear of making regular (and thus standard rock) music, and this song features lyrics inspired by the lead singer's depression. The instruments have evolved to accommodate this new direction, with a xylophone-sounding instrument at the beginning and a softer feel throughout. Click to play.

The look of alternative rock artists is also a bit different than regular rock artists. While both set out to be stylish and good-looking, an alternative rock performer might lean more towards a look that could be described as 'hipster,' whereas the regular rock performer would probably draw on mainstream fashion as well as rock history for their look. This opens up lots of opportunities for our artist's fashion sense, since 'hipster' is defined as being a bit more interesting and away from mainstream fashion while still looking conventionally stylish. The genre's look overall also tends more towards the strange, allowing alternative rock artists to do effectively whatever they want in their music videos- the only limit is that they tend to try and stay with the lyrics, using the music video as a way of amplifying or even just representing the lyrics' meaning, as Goodwin described in his theories.


Cage the Elephant from around the time of their debut. Note the long hair, typical of rock and also alternative rock, of the lead singer in the center, and the stylish but still fairly everyday clothes- even now they still have elements of the alternative rock look about them. Click to enlarge.
Cage the Elephant by the time of their fourth album. As they have developed more into an alternative rock band, so has their look, with the lead singer wearing a more interesting velvet jacket. Hats and glasses as well as more shirts rather than t-shirts can be seen. Click to enlarge.
A picture of Nirvana, one the most famous alternative rock bands. They are a lot older than Cage the Elephant, who debuted in 2006, but still have a similar fashion sense, with the long hair, strange sunglasses, hat, open jackets, and patterned clothing. Click to enlarge.
R.E.M., another older but popular alternative rock band. Once again there are sunglasses, a hat, and long hair, as well as patterned clothing and jackets, and even what appears to be a waistcoat on the band member on the far left. Click to enlarge.
Alternative rock took off the the 1980s, being influenced both by the counter-culture of punk and punk rock music of the 1970s and of course the ever-popular rock genre. As a result, alternative rock is really just a mish-mash of slightly different subgenres that all want to be somewhat distinct from the main genre of rock. By the end of the 1980s, different styles of alternative rock taking inspiration from all kinds of genres were popular, but in the 1990s Nirvana emerged as a huge success, taking influence from one of their more popular contemporaries/predecessors, R.E.M., and made alternative rock mainstream. Mostly alternative rock stayed somewhat independent however, leading to the subgenre's grouping with indie rock in the 2010s, despite a brief revival in the 2000s.


Another genre I think would be interesting for our song selection is Electro Swing. It is quite a strange genre that nevertheless has a not insignificant following, that combines the style and even themes of early 20th century music with the technology of today. This results in quite an interesting and varied sound- some electro swing songs could not be told apart from a normal swing song from the 1920s or '30s (and even '40s,) excepting sound quality, and others incorporate instruments and effects seen in modern electronic music to set themselves apart from other songs. This mix of old and new, as well as the theme of the music itself, are common throughout the genre's music, both sound-wise as well as in the lyrics and ideas of the songs.
"It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing,)" written in 1931, played as a collaboration between two famous swing musicians, Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington. The brass instruments, wide variety of traditional instruments, lyrics talking about the music itself, instrumental solos, and scat are all pretty typical of the genre.


"Empires" by Electric Swing Circus, from their 2017 album "It Flew By." While the song doesn't reference swing music, the band's name does, as typical of the genre and seen in the previous song I referenced. The brass instrumentation is still present, as are the solos (especially trumpet, as before,) and scat, and as a modern twist drums are quite prominent.

The artists allow the fashions of the early 20th century to inspire them, but with a modern dress. Men could dress up in suits but adopt the more casual look of the modern day by losing the jacket, and women could wear the stereotypical 'flapper' dress and headband but modernise it by making the dress less restrictive, for example. Anything from the influential time period is fair game here, basically, and this would really benefit us when creating our own artist- we have a huge and obvious pool of inspiration, but it's open enough that we have a huge range or choices that we can put a modern spin on.
Louis Armstrong from the above song, wearing a formal suit (as was typical from the time) but quite casually with the buttons undone. The tie and collar being done up were popular in men's fashion in the swing era. Note him holding his instrument in this promotional picture. Click to enlarge.
Ella Fitzgerald, a popular female swing artist, wearing a feathery hat (as feathers were popular back then) and a dress with a V-neck, mostly plain but with a nice pattern. Click to enlarge.
Electric Swing Circus from the above song. The men have taken the casual suit look even further, dropping the ties entirely or for bowties, unbuttoning their collars, and not wearing the jackets- note the band member with braces on the right. The women have the typical V-necks and one has a feather boa. Click to enlarge.
Parov Stelar and his band, a popular electro swing act. Once more note the casual suits, with the band member on the right still wearing a tie but losing the jacket, while also holding his instrument and wearing braces. The female member of the band is wearing a plain dress with a simple but nice pattern. Click to enlarge.
As mentioned earlier, swing was popular in the early 20th century. It went through a brief revival in the 1960s and onward, before evolving into electro swing in the 1990s, alongside an aesthetic movement popularising clothing from the swing era- artists such as Parov Stelar emerged as popular, and into the 2000s and later other popular artists like Caravan Palace emerged, although the whole genre remains relatively niche and indie.


One final genre that we could choose is Indie Pop. As a subgenre of pop it has a large following, being a “popular” genre, and thus has an expansive history to draw on musically and otherwise. From older artists like The Smiths to modern artists like Bastille, indie pop has, musically and otherwise, evolved over time a fair amount, more so than other genres, probably owing to its link to pop music and the fact that what is popular is constantly changing, but it has always managed to remain in the mainstream- you may have noted the popularity of the two bands I used as examples in their respective time periods. The sound is similar to pop in that it is often fairly simple but always catchy, and similar to indie music in that it deals with deeper themes that are closer to the artists' hearts, that they can make music about as they are not as constrained by the industry.
A song popular even in the pop genre, "All About That Bass" by Meghan Trainor. Note the simple but catchy beats, frequent choruses, and upbeat but somewhat sexualised lyrics encouraging people to not worry about their bodies and body image in an entertaining way. It is quite a typical example of pop music that is designed for casual and enjoyable listening.

"Girlfriend in a Coma" by The Smiths. A much older song than the previous one, and this time indie pop. Once again the instrumentation is catchy and upbeat, and their are frequent choruses and repetitions of certain lines. However, unlike the positive body image themes of "All About That Bass," this song deals with someone who used to have fights with their girlfriend (implied to be violent in some places,) but still loves her, and now she is in a coma and could die soon. This change of tone while adhering to pop conventions is one of the markers of indie pop.

The look of indie pop could probably be summed up as 'quirky.' This is because it takes a lot of cues from what is fashionable in the mainstream, but strays a little bit out of the spotlight as the artists put their own spin on it. So you will see the artists in the popular brands and/or with a strong sense of style, but maybe with a scarf or a colour scheme that you wouldn't usually see. The genre overall also tends to follow this pattern, with indie pop music videos being generally more colourful and interesting than a standard pop video, but otherwise very similar. I think this would benefit us as we could look at the standard conventions of music videos and then just put our own unique spin on them.
Meghan Trainor, a pop artist, wearing makeup and a leather jacket with styled hair to look good in a promotional shot. Click to enlarge.
The Smiths, an indie pop band, in a promotional shot, where they are also trying to look stylish but in a way less adherent to common fashionable items like leather jackets, and instead wearing, for example, jumpers. Click to enlarge.
The popular indie pop band Bastille in a promotional shot. They are wearing shirts referencing popular culture, such as Back to the Future and Twin Peaks, while one member has a stylish leather jacket similar to mainstream pop artist Meghan Trainor, and another has a similar hairstyle to a member of The Smiths in the above picture. Click to enlarge.
A promotional shot of indie pop band Miike Snow. Once again leather jackets are present, as are traditionally stylish fashion choices such as sunglasses tucked into a shirt collar and styled hair, as well as watches and jeans.
Indie pop developed when music became more common and accessible in the second half of the 20th century. Early artists in the 1980s took inspiration from their contemporaries and what music had influenced them, and used it to carve their own path. In 1986, NME released a compilation cassette called C86, which became a huge part of pop culture, and which continues to inspire today, and various independent record labels, like 1987's Sarah Records, emerged to cater to this new crowd of independent artists. As indie pop is defined by indie artists that produce pop music and/or become popular, and pop music is constantly changing, it has had a less defined path of development compared to other genres. Nowadays, indie pop tends to refer to both those artists that developed through this traditional path as well as any artist that creates the established pop music sound but in an independent manner- as such influence has come and continues to come from anywhere, especially pop culture.