Initial Notes on Music Magazine Advertisement

This Jessie J advertisement is promoting her new album 'Who You Are'. Unlike other adverts, this one is unique as it uses very dark colours. This could connote a darkness, potentially suggesting her songs have strong feeling and meaning to them. The white and gold text however stands out against the black background, making it easy to read and eye-catching. She uses an image of herself which makes it obvious to the audience who the advert is promoting, also helping drawer in her target markets attention.

This advert uses colour to help catch the attention of the audience. It is predominantly red in colour. The colour has connotations to love, passion and similar to the Cheryl advert below could suggest the music on the album is quite mellow, relaxing and passionate. It is promoting her new album that Rihanna is releasing called 'LOUD'. It also gives a date, allowing audiences to know when they can buy the album.

Cheryl Cole Magazine Advert. Uses an image of herself. The main color on the advert is red, which links her lips and the text together as they are all red. Also the color red has connotations to love and passion, suggesting the new album '3 Words' may be very relaxing, loving and quite passionate. 

Justin Timberlake 20/20 world tour magazine advertisement. This doesn't have particular dates on it, instead it is a way of getting his audience excited in anticipation of him releasing the tour dates and places. The advert is very simple, a black and white image of him, with text next to it. The text stands out as it is in gold, in a large font, making it obvious to the audience. 

Bastille Bad Blood Tour Dates Magazine Advertisement- This shows audiences dates throughout February and where the artist is performing. They have used the artwork from they're album, making it obvious to Bastille's target market what the magazine advertisement is promoting. 

In order to carry out this task successfully and to be able to understand the sort of things artists do in order to advertise themselves effectively in magazines, I had to do lots of research on many different music magazines, both well known ones and niche ones. This market research lead me to multiple main findings.

1) The first is that on the whole, most of the artists music magazine adverts use self endorsement to help attract audiences. By this I mean they use images of themselves to help catch the attention of the audience. By doing this it can help people see what the artist is advertising, in turn hopefully making the consumer buy whatever it is the artist is selling. From looking at some of the magazine advertisements, woman tend to use very airbrushed images which make them look 'perfect'. This can make audiences want to be like them and therefore find them inspirational and can be a way of making audiences buy whatever it is they are promoting. This is often a way of attracting a female audience. Also woman often use explicit images of themselves, often where they aren't wearing very much, as a way of appealing the male fan base. Male artists often use photos of themselves as well, sometimes they may use topless photos as a way of endorsing they're product, however usually use images of them looking smart in suits. However, from the research I carried out, I found this is very much dependent on the genre of music. This is because certain genres may advertise very differently.

2) The genre determines the way the artist is advertised/ promoted. For example I have found that rap artists have a tendency to where baggy clothing, snap backs and chains. These are all iconic things that you would expect from this genre, otherwise known as the stereotypical iconography of the genre. In contrast to this, in a pop song, you could expect to see very different things, such as more casual everyday clothes and trainers. This is because the way we perceive different genres of music is different, and usually this is also apparent with the sort of people who listen to the genre of music too.

Initial Notes on Music Artist Poster

Posters are used as a promotional tool, the idea is that they can inform audiences of something that the artist is doing, whether it be releasing a new song, new tour or just to get people aware of the band. They can be very effective if done well and are well thought out. Below are some examples..

Very simple yet effective. The poster is advertising Taylor Swift's tour called 'Red'. The color theme matches the name of the concert, which helps the audience remember the name of the concert. Also in the background we can see the rough outline of Taylor Swift and it is made to look as though she is performing, helping inform the audience that the poster is promoting her upcoming tour. 

This poster is very different to the one above. This particular poster is promoting a specific song of Kayne's, called 'Stronger'.  The image shows Kayne West showing his arm muscles with the speech bubble saying 'Stronger' in capital letters. This makes it clear to the audience the song and the artist and what it is they are promoting.  Some song lyrics can also be seen at the bottom. This is a more specific poster with is directed towards the promotion of a particular song, opposed to a tour or concert. 

This poster is promoting Led Zeppelin. The first thing I noticed about the poster is the British theme that it had too it, having connotations to the fact they may be targeting a British audience. Other than this it could connote that they are proud to be British and like to show off the fact they originated in London, England in 1968. This particular poster isn't that clear and as an audience viewing it, it isn't clear exactly what they are promoting. Instead it could just be a poster promoting the band as a whole. 

Similar to the first poster of Taylor Swift, although it isn't as clear, this Eminem poster is advertising either an up and coming tour date of his or a release date of a song called 'Not Afraid'. The poster uses two images of Eminem himself so it is clear in that respect of who it is that the poster is promoting. The typography is good too however it doesn't tell the audience exactly what it is the poster is actually promoting. Overall the poster is okay, but could be improved. 

Notes on what a digipack and magazine advertisement are and their importance

Digipacks:

A digipack is a type of packaging for CD's or DVDs, typically made from cardboard with an internal plastic holder for one or more discs'

They are important as they often have artists artwork on them and/or credits, song titles and sometimes images of the artist.

Some examples of digipack's can be found below:

Arctic Monkeys Digipack

Magazine Advertisement:

Magazine adverts are designed to promote a product. In terms of music, a magazine advert may be used to advertise and promote the release of a new single or album, or even just marketing the artist, and make people aware of them or up and coming tours. Overall the main objective of a magazine advert is to promote something that the artist has produced, and in turn motivate and make people want to go out and purchase the product. The main aim is to then sell the product, which makes money for the artist.

Magazine adverts are important as they are a way of marketing there music and products, which is what makes the artist money. Without magazine advertisement, the artist wouldn't be able to present there products to there target audiences, which would mean the audience would never be aware of the artists new product.

Recently however, it has increased in popularity for artists to market there products in different ways. With social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter being the main one, as they can specifically target certain people. Other ways of marketing music products are billboards, posters, websites and TV. These are all other ways that artists can use, however TV can be expensive so only mainstream artists use this as they can afford to do so. This means in recent, the dependence on magazine adverts has decreased, however is still a key way of artists showing the world there music.

NME Music Magazine

Q Music Magazine

Above are two examples of mainstream music magazines that artists use to have there adverts in to promote there products.

This is an example of a magazine advert. This was taken from the online edition of the Q magazine. It is a prime example of how music artists, in this case Devlin, has used Q magazine to promote his music.

 The advert above was taken from Q magazine. It is very simple and to the point, including the artists name, name of the single and release date. It also includes the album name and official website address. Overall, this is an effective advert as not only does it inform the audience that they can listen and download his new single on the 8th August, but it also informs them that at a later date, he will be releasing an album but keeps the audience in suspense by not revealing an exact date.

Carrying out this research was very important as it allowed me to get an insight into what the uses and main aims and objectives are of using digipacks and magazine adverts. It helped me understand how these two items should work in harmony with each other, and in turn should help to sell the music/music video. It is important that both these products are effective in order to catch the audiences eye and make them want to go out and buy the album or watch the music video. Overall, it has made me see why producing professional standard digipacks and magazine adverts are so important and how they can help to influence they way the audience perceives my product.

Notes on Cultural Effects Model

The media is very powerful and can influence the ways that people interpret media texts. However audiences are very diverse and initially all interpret information very differently because of past experiences and different backgrounds, and this is based on factors such as their class, gender and ethnicity.

In this theory, the media does not see the audience as passive. When people watch media products, they consume the information in very different ways. However, the producers of the media products expect people to interpret the information in a certain way.

The cultural effects model is a long term process, meaning that audiences don't feel the effects straight away, instead it is over time as they consume more. It can be seen as mesmerising the audience to believe something.

How is it used in Music Videos?

In music videos the media can portray there view on things, making the audience feel this is how they should be. A good example of this would be that in order to be happy and confident, woman must have a body like a model. This would then be backed up in a music video by seeing lots of woman being shown in this same way, making them look good and making others wants to be like them. 

This is why music videos are so powerful, because they can influence the way people behave and the way people want to be. They can sway the way the audience see certain things and therefore play a big role in society and he way the world is today.

This post is beneficial to me because it allows me to understand how the Cultural Effects model is used within the media, and the roles it plays on the audience. Therefore, it is important that if you are trying to connote something either within the narrative of the music video or just at certain times in the music video, that this is very clearly planned out and carried out, and that it is either going with or against the general stereotypes or conventions of this type of music video. If it isn't clear, it can cause the audience to not understand the music video, or not be able to relate to the music video. 

Lip Synching- What is it? Why is it important?

Lip syncing is a technical term for matching lip movements with music. The idea is that it looks as though you are singing the lyrics in a song. It is otherwise known as miming.

Lip synching first came around during the 1980's, when MTV first started playing music videos. The idea is that then artists could just use a pre-recorded version of the song and then just edit the music video to fit in time with the accompanying images and with the lip synching.

Also it is sometimes used when artists have live performances that are based around heavy dance routines. This allows for the artist to be able to focus on the dancing. Other than this, sometimes a pre-recorded version of the song will be in the background at live shows, and then they will sing certain parts of the song over the top, whilst some may still be mimed.

This has both positives and negatives:

Positives:

- It means the artists can concentrate solely on the music video rather than having to sing at the same time.

- It can allow the artist to have full on, extreme dance routines in music videos.

- It allows for the song to always sound how it should- regardless of whether its a live performance or music video.

Negatives:

- If editing is poor quality, it can stand out and look very obvious to the audience that they are pretending and in fact have lip synched.

- At live shows, it means audiences may not get a live performance.

This is an example of where lip synching has gone wrong, it was in 2009 during Britney Spears live show. Fans were walking out on the performance before the end of the concert and therefore meant that she has left fans unsatisfied.



This is another example, this time using a previous students media work. They tried to reproduce a One Direction song and attempted to lip synch over it. However, due to poor editing it is very obvious and meant the end result was it looking poor quality and not very professional.



Therefore it is important, if lip synching that it is done with great care and ensure that it actually looks realistic. Otherwise, it can make a music video look very poor quality and lose the validity and verisimilitude of a piece.

Analysis of Music Video using Goodwin’s Theory: Miley Cyrus Wrecking Ball

This music video is from the pop genre. It was released in August 2013 and was the second single from the album 'Bangerz' to be released.

This music video initially led to a lot of controversy, as the media compared Mileys new video to Sinead O'Connor's music video 'Nothing Compares2U'. Cyrus said that this reference of intertextuality was inspired by O'Connor's video which led to O'Connor's sending Cyrus an open letter regarding how she thinks Cyrus has been 'pimped' and exploited by the music industry.



This is Miley Cyrus's music video for Wrecking Ball, which starts very similarly too Sinead O'Connor's scene at around 15 seconds in.



As you can see, there is an obvious comparison to O'Connor's music video close ups as there is to Cyrus's close ups at the beginning of her song.

As I found out from a previous blog, Goodwin's theory suggests that there are certain things that can be found in music videos that are used in order to sell a song or music video. Nowadays, record labels purposefully use this in order to sell an artists song or music video as they know its been tried, tested and has been successful and therefore there is no reason to go against the generic conventions, not to say some music videos don't go against this.

Goodwin’s Theory suggests that in music videos, lyrics will match the visuals that we as an audience can see. This is visible in this music video. The music video is a performance piece in a variety of locations. It has a simple narrative to it, although this isn’t consistent throughout. The visuals often match the lyrics of the piece and this therefore allows the audience to be able to understand the music video better. By doing this it means it is very simple to follow and makes the audience link the lyrics with the images they can see, helping engage the audience better. An example of this in the music video is where we see Miley swinging on a ‘wrecking ball’ and at this time we hear her sing the lines ‘I came in like a wrecking ball’. This therefore shows an obvious link between visuals and lyrics and makes it obvious to the audience what it is she is singing about.

This is Miley Cyrus on the Wrecking Ball, at this time we also see her lip synch the lyrics 'I came in like a wrecking ball' which is an example of when her lyrics match the visuals.

Also we can see lots of cuts throughout this music video that match the pace of the video. This helps the music video flow, and gives it a mellifluous feel.  

In order to sell the artist as a star, the record label uses lots of close ups on Miley. In order to do this, the record company include slots of shots of Mile partially dressed, or doing provocative poses. By showing off her body, Goodwin’s theory would suggest that this is voyeurism as the female body is on display. This is for the benefit of the male viewers, and therefore links with the male Gaze Theory by Laura Mulvey.

A prime example of the Male Gaze Theory. This suggests that the camera is the males eyes, and suggests that men objectify woman to be sex objects.

Intertextuality is the final point in Goodwin's theory, it suggests that music videos may have intertextual references that link them to other media products. As mentioned previously in this post, in Mileys video she has intertextual references to O'Connor's music video. This helps the audience link one media product to another, and should help promote a music video. Another good example of intertextual references in music videos is  Robbie Williams' 'Millennium' music video. We see Williams dressed like James Bond, which is an intertextual reference to the Bond films, also an example of cross media convergence.

Close up Shot from Mileys music video.

Close up Shot from O'Connor's music video, showing very similar shots and to an audience, this shows how Miley has used intertextuality in her music video to link it to O'Connor's.

This post has helped me to understand how music videos are all very similar, in terms of things that they actually have within them. It has helped me see that most music videos are very similar in terms of the process of producing them and ensuring that key generic conventions are within the video, however the narratives or storylines are all very different.

Research Into Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin was the creator of 'Goodwin's Theory'; which was named after himself. He said that music and music videos always include 6 main areas/stages. When creating my music videos I can use Goodwin's theory to help ensure that my music video fits and is in line with what Goodwin's theory suggest makes a good music video. The stages of Goodwin's theory can be seen below: 

1.            Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop). This is also known as iconography

This video shows the band AC/DC performing there song, demonstrating genre characteristics. In different genres we will be able to see different generic conventions as this is what makes a music video able to get categorised to a certain genre. 

 2.            There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images.

3.      There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music.

In this music video by Ed Sheeran to his song 'Give Me Love', the lyrics are very reflective of the images that we can see. This helps the audience to understand and feel the emption that is being portrayed in the music video. Also it helps connotes Sheeran's thoughts and feelings behind the song, maybe helping others relate, potentially also linking in with the Uses and Gratifications Theory which suggests people watch things for 4 reasons, however in this case it could be for Entertainment, which has links with emotional release, which could be reached here with this music video.



4.      The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).

 The main reason for this is because the record labels not only want to sell the music, they also need the artist to be sold as a 'star'.

5.      There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

In this video, we see the camera using very long distinctive close up shots of Miley Cyrus. This linking in with Goodwin's theory of the camera focusing on the female body. This is known as voyeurism. As the music video progresses, at around 34 seconds we see a long shot of Mileys legs, before cutting and going to a shot of her leaning against a wall with a mallet in her hand. As the music video continues, we see long shots of Miley wearing very little clothing, before seeing her swinging on a wrecking ball, wearing nothing, and then seeing her licking a mallet. All of this linking to the idea that Goodwin suggested, that the camera frequently shows off the female body, also linking in with the Male Gaze theory by Laura Mulvey.


6.      There are often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc)

As Goodwin suggested, in some music videos they may make references to other media products. In this music video by Robbie Williams we can see this. We see Robbie Williams in a rabbit costume, having intertextual references to 'Alice in Wonderland'. This is a good thing to do in music videos, as it can link two different media products together, helping either both have increased sales, or just involving/branching out to a new market that before hand may not have watched the music videos. It can increase your target audience.

 

This post is beneficial as it allowed me to understand Andrew Goodwin's theory, which I can then use to analyse music videos. The general idea of his theory is that there are different stages to every music video (as listed above).