To get some inspiration for our music video I searched some labels that we we're interested in and added these to a board, these we're things such as pictures of the band '5 Seconds of Summer' and examples of costume we were interested in using.
Planning: Creating a Pinterest board allowed me to visualise our music video a lot more in depth and also consider how we are going to represent our target audience through the characters used in our video. We also wanted to represent the female protagonist as edgy as well as fun (much like the band 5SOS itself), which may also be considered as a stereotypical representation of our audience to some people.
The genre of music that we have chosen to create a music video from is pop/rock. The chosen song for our music video is 'Good Girls' by 5Seconds of Summer (5SOS).
A very similar music video to this one by is 'Feeling This' by Blink-182.
The setting of a prison and the way that the shots have been set up are extremely similar, if not the same, to what we see in the music video for 'Good Girls' by 5Seconds of Summer. This music video contains similar narratives such as having badly behaved people causing riot in a prison and the performance of the band playing the song outside of the prison. Although this song is a lot more 'rocky' compared with 'Good Girls' certain shots such as the tilted angles show us the similarities and links between the two music videos. In interviews of 5SOS they also mention how they grew up listening to rock bands such as Blink-182 and have been hugely influenced by them in their own music. Another band that is similar to 5SOS is McBusted. They too have a pop/rock influence to their music and in this particular music video it also shows people who are normally 'good' have turned 'bad'.
Another music video that includes a similar narrative to 'Good Girls' is 'Blank Space' by Taylor Swift. At the beginning of the music video she is innocent, however, towards the end she is destructive and we see the true person that she is underneath.
The target audience for our
music video is teenage girls aged 13-20. The way in which we would like our
target audience to react would be in a positive way as our music video is going
to be created with a sense of escapism and purely for the audience’s
entertainment. The genre that our chosen song of 5 Seconds of Summer - ‘Good
Girls’ is pop/rock, therefore the way that the sense of escapism will come
across in our music video is mainly through the mise en scene, having the pop
feel conveyed through the song’s lyrics and upbeat tempo with a hint of rock reflected
through the costume and makeup. The reaction that we would like the audience to have is a positive one as our aim of our music video is mainly to build up the spirits of the audience and to allow them to have a sense of escapism. We would hope that there would be no negative reactions to our music video as we are not including any controversial ideas within the lyrics of the song nor in the visuals of the music video.
Music video directors undoubtedly hold a very important
role in music video production, but they arguably have a bigger role when it
comes to more artistic alternative music videos.
These videos tend to have a reaction very different to
mainstream ones due to how different they can be, and the audience they reach
out to.
A main difference between a mainstream
video and an alternative one is that the director's personal life can be
reflected in the video.
Chris
Cunningham is a British video Artist/ Director.
As a video artist his music videos are
viewed as very strange, and concept based. An example of this is shown in the
music video Bjork – ‘all is full of love’.
In this music video the visuals that we
see are all of a robot being manufactured but this is what is singing the
lyrics. This music video is very much concept based as there is not many other
music videos that include robots that are so technologically developed that
they are almost human like. The music video is also made as an art form to
invoke different feelings from different people unlike a regular mainstream
video that is there to create a connection between the artist and audience.
This video is also an example on how the
directors’ life gets reflected in a video since in an interview Chris stated
that his inspiration came from his childhood love of robots and machinery.
Another example of Cunningham’s work is Aphex
Twin – ‘Come to Daddy’.
This music video creates a creepy
feeling by not revealing a face with a definitive emotion so the audience cannot
make an emotional connection with the things in the song. This is very
different to what music videos in the mainstream would try to do since the
intention is very different hence why it's an alternative music video. This
'dark and disturbing' video only makes a visual link to the lyrics when the
people are seen moving towards the screen to the lyrics 'come to daddy'.
Chris Cunningham's work in general is not set to a specific style, but his
videos are usually viewed as weird to the public (most likely because a good
number of Goodwin’s theories do not apply to the videos). His approach to music
videos would not be very effective in pleasing or even attracting my target
audience. The lack of performance, attractive visuals, and close ups that
identify the artist would not be conventional in an everyday Pop/rock music and
the visuals seen in these alternative music videos would perhaps not be enjoyed
by my target audience.
Michel
Gondry is a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is noted for
his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scene.
Creator of the famous around the world
by Daft Punk video Michel Gondry is known for using innovative performances to
create impressive concept based videos.
Daft Punk – ‘Around the World’.
Chemical Brothers- ‘Let forever be’.
The two music videos by Michel Gondry
use an impressive combination of props, costume, and choreography to create
visually stunning effects. Even though the videos are not conventional to Pop/rock
music videos, due to the lack of artist identification, it is not too
unconventional that we would never view these types of visuals in music videos simply
due to the impressive use of mise-en-scene. Both of these artist within the
time that these music videos were released we quite popular and well known so
for them to come out and have music videos like these was a high risk as it may
off put some of their audience because of their weird use of camera shots and
mise en scene. However, as McCracken states ‘people
change with age and become part of different cultures’ I find applies well to
today’s society because as we grow up we form different friendship groups and
interests which highly influence what music we listen to and what types of
music videos we like to watch.
In terms of Dyer’s star theory in which
he believes that icons and celebrities are manufactured by institutions for financial
gain. He states “A star is an image, not a real person, which is constructed
out of a range of materials (media)”. This links with alternative music videos
because the directors and artists are taking huge risks by deciding to make a
concept based alternative music video because they may not be able to reach out
to all of their target audience if they experiment with different styles of
music video. As a result they may lose some of their audience by taking a risk
with this style of music videos.
5 Seconds of Summer, also known as 5sos, are a pop/rock band
(with punk elements) from Australia.
The band formed together when they met at school in Sydney
in 2011. The band is made up from four boys: Luke Hemmings (lead vocals and
guitar), Michael Clifford (guitar and vocals) Calum Hood (bass guitar and
vocals) and Ashton Irwin (drums and vocals). The group were originally YouTube
Celebrities where they posted videos of themselves covering songs from various
artists. This is how they got signed with ATV Music Publishing and released
their first EP called “Unplugged” which got to number 3 in the Australian iTunes
charts.(Ashton was not originally in the band until they decided they needed a drummer)
In 2012 they became
more popular and gained a small following of fans after posting a series of
cover versions of popular songs onto YouTube and getting onto the Australian
charts. After being invited by international
boy band One Direction to join them as a support act for the Take Me Home Tour in
the UK, US, Australia and New Zeeland, they raised to international fame. Whilst
on tour with One Direction in 2013 they released music videos for their songs “Heartbreak
Girl” and “Try Hard” which again allowed them to become better known in the
music industry. The connection between 5SOS and One Direction extends to both
artists being managed by London-based Modest Management. This led to 5SOS being
called a boy band in the media. Members of the band have said the group is not
a boy band. Unlike many boy bands, they write their own songs, play their own
instruments, and they are not primarily a dance group.
Since being on tour with One Direction in 2013 it allowed
them to gain much more of a following they released their first single “She
Looks So Perfect” on March the 4th 2014. The next day (5th
March 2014) it was announced that they were invited back to join One Direction
again on their UK leg of the Midnight Memories Tour. Soon after they also released singles “Don’t Stop”
and “Amnesia”.
On the 13th May 2014, the band announced that
their debut album, named 5 Seconds of Summer, to be released on 27 June 2014 in
Europe and Australia with other releases coming later. The album won a Kerrang!
Award. They have also recently announced tickets for their own world tour in
2015 and released their debut album.
2015 World Tour Poster
5SOS Debut Album
The band also have a lot of media convergence, most of which being on social networking sites. The have their own website which allows fans to keep up with news, latest photos of the band and even buy the bands merchandise. Social networking sites that they use are Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and Tumblr. This allows the band to keep in touch with their fans and also to gain new fans.
The medium that we will use in order for our music video to be broadcast is YouTube. We will use YouTube as this is an international base for people to find and watch videos on. Because of this our music video will be able to have a bigger amount of coverage and a lot of people will become aware of it. Our chosen target audience of teenagers are known for using YouTube quite often, if not everyday (we know this from being teenagers ourselves). Teenagers also can share videos from YouTube onto things such as social networking sites, again helping us to get more coverage and gain a wider audience for the band.
We conducted this research as it allowed us to think more in depth about our genre forms and conventions and our target audience. We had to know about the forms and conventions of the pop/rock genre first in oder to create our own music video which successfully appealed to our target audience.
Intertextuality is when a text's meaning (story, book, article, song, video, movie) is influenced by another text. intertextual references can be subtle or obvious. The key idea is that these intertextual references allow for a deeper understanding of the text. Intertectual thinking can also be looking at patterns of events across stories, or looking at how designers/directors/authors have chosen to convey ideas about the same topic in different ways. Saturday Night Fever and Mark's and Spencer's advertisement:
Saturday Night Fever
Mark's and Spencer's advertisement.
Both of theses videos use the same song "You Should be dancing" which was released in 1977. In both of these videos the people are dancing in slightly similar way which shows intertextuallity because the dancing crosses over in both of these videos. Also, in the Saturday Night Fever music video the famous actor of the time period, John Travolta stars in it, therefore when people of today's time (30+) see the Mark's and Spencer's advert they will be reminded of Saturday Night Fever, bringing back memories and taking them back to when they were younger.
Eye of the Tiger - Survivor, Roar - Katy Perry and We are the Champions - Queen.
Eye of the Tiger - Survivor
Roar - Katy Perry
We are the Champions
All three of these music videos contain intertextuality. The main way that intertextuality is found in this music video is by listening to the lyrics that all three of these videos have the element of singing about being 'winners of life' which makes the artists/bands in all three videos seem powerful and strong willed. Intertextuality can also be found by listening to the lyrics of Roar by Katy Perry and Eye of the Tiger by Survivor. Both of these videos contain lyrics that talk about having the 'Eye of the Tiger' again, which is an example of intertextuality as the lyrics cross over in both videos. Another example of intertextuality within these music video can be found in Eye of the Tiger and We are the Champions as these are both well known anthems.
Every so
often, music videos become the object of a bit of a moral panic, where various
writers and groups offer their opinion on how dangerous the form might be for
young people, usually citing a particular example as having ‘gone too far’ and
suggesting that the boundaries have been pushed just that bit further. Often
this leads to calls for new regulations, usually in the form of age
restrictions.
Within my
chosen genre of ‘Pop’ music there has been much controversy over music videos,
in recent years some of these include Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ and Miley
Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball’.
People have
named ‘Blurred Lines’ to be the most controversial song and music video of the
decade. When looking at the music video for Robin Thicke’s blurred line music video
the one thing that stands out to us are the half-naked girls that are strutting
around the men. This can be seen as highly sexual and the women being greatly
objectified. The University College London student union (UCLU) took the
unusual step of even banning this song and it joins around 20 other UK student
unions to do so. People argue that this song and music video promotes a very
worrying attitude towards sex and consent. One blogger branded it a "rape
song", and two months later Tricia Romano of the Daily Beast described it
as "rapey", a word that caught fire in other media outlets. Other
lyrics such as “You know you want it” stands out as it is suggesting that
consent is no longer needed when it comes to sex. This song and music video has
sparked much debate and has even led ‘anti- Robin Thicke protesters’ to the
streets in Chicago protesting to get this highly explicit song banned all
together. Even the most prominent model in the Blurred Lines video, Emily
Ratajkowski, has said: "I'm glad that people are criticising pop lyrics,
because I think that's an important thing to do."
Many people
who follow pop music closely, however, are surprised that Blurred Lines has
become such a lightning rod. "It really did boggle my mind when people
started freaking out about it," says US music critic Maura Johnston.
"This is just a cheesy pickup line song and everyone was like: 'No, it's
about forcing a woman against her will.' There are so many songs out there that
are worse about demeaning women. Thicke himself has been a woeful defender of
the song in interviews, recalling Spinal Tap's response to being called sexist:
"What's wrong with being sexy?”
This music
video is also joined by Miley Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball’ video as being one of the
most controversial songs of the decade. This music video includes visuals of a
naked Miley Cyrus swinging on a wrecking ball as she sings. People have
criticised this music video for being far too sexual especially because of the
young fans that Miley has from being a massive Disney star, perhaps suggesting
to young women that they should be more sexually available. Miley herself
however, argues that the message of the song is expressed more in the opening
of the song rather than the fast paced parts of the video. Miley explained: ‘I
think the video is much more, if people get past the point that I'm naked and
you actually look at me. ‘You can tell that I actually look more broken than
even the song sounds.’ 'I'm broken': The 20-year-old claims the
provocative imagery is indicative of how vulnerable she feels adding: ‘The song
is a pop ballad. It's one of these songs that everyone is gonna to relate to,
everyone's felt that feeling at some point.’
Whatever you
think of these songs it is hard to deny that they were huge hits, breaking
records for the number one views on Vevo and in chart tables.
In the past,
of course, pre-internet, it might have been possible to age restrict the
audience for a music video, either by banning it for TV or not playing it till
late at night, or even by cutting bits of it out to play a ‘safe’ version. With
the online age, that is not really feasible, as any kind of age restriction can
be by-passed relatively easily.
In my own
opinion that uproar based around these music videos should be present as both
of them highly objectify women and I disagree with this. I agree with Laura
Mulvey’s ‘Male Graze’ theory where she explains that camera movements and
visual highly sexualise and objectify women in music videos as they are filmed
to be in the view from the perspective of a heterosexual male. This can lead to
problems such as being seen as ‘rapey’ and even have effects on how women look
at themselves in a demoralising way.
Planning:
In our own
music video we plan not to make it include controversy or controversial ideas.
We are doing this so that all people in our target audience can enjoy the music
video and not have to be put off by it if it did include controversial ideas. I
think that it is very important to have a music video that ALL can enjoy and
this way it can reach out and gain a wider audience. To ensure that we do not
include any controversy in our music video we are going to make sure all people
that are seen in it are fully dress and are not seen as being purposefully objectified
or sexualised. The lyrics of our chosen may be seen as controversial but we
will make sure our visuals are not too extreme.
