Character profiles for music video (amended)

Character Profiles for Music Video 

Main actor: The main actor will be shown as two different ages. The first will be a young boy, around 8 or 9, who has had a challenging life due to his abusive mother. This will be portrayed during the first scene of the video as he gets slapped by his mother and then decides to leave his house. this exit is accompanied with his mother making gestures behind him which show that is what she wants which may connote that leaving may be the start of a new and better life for both of them. Therefore by showing his mother being abusive, we will encode this idea that he has never been wanted within the household and he belongs somewhere else. We are then shown him later on in life as a teenager, around 17 or 18, and he is still living on the streets. This character will be portrayed as a timid, dirty and socially unwanted person as he wanders throughout the streets looking for work. This image will be shown via his costume as it will be ragged dirty clothes which mirror his surroundings. By showing this portrayal of a young boy we are both conforming and challenging youth and gender stereotypes. For instance we are conforming as the natural idea of a young male is scrubby and troublesome, which may be true within certain scenes of the video (the fight scene). However, we are also challenging the norm as it shows that the young male has taken life in his stride and has taken responsibility for his actions, which is often looked over by the public as their views are shrouded by the bad coverage of teenagers via the media. The clothes that the actor is wearing are also challenging the typical representation of these categories as the normal idea of a young male would be rather chavvy yet clean appearance which is the binary opposite of our character as the clothes that he is wearing are smelly, filthy and ripped.

Parent: The mother will be aged around 40/50 and will live in a normal house. Within the video she will be shown shouting and hurting the son who has obviously seen it all before. This behaviour connotes her un-parental characteristics and proves that she does not deserve to have this child. As the child leaves the house  it shows that she does not have any true feelings towards the child as they have not realised that their 8 year old child is leaving their house. We will show their true feelings via their facial and body expressions during the argument. As she is not seen throughout the rest of the video we need to make an impact straight away therefore she will be shown with sheer anger and frustration which will automatically create an image within the audience’s mind as it’s not right to fuel this anger on a child.

Young lad in fight scene: At one point of the video the main actor is beaten up by one lad around the same age for no reason. We have chosen one person to be involved as it will be much more realistic when it comes to the main actor getting up and getting revenge. We thought that having this negative image will have two main effects; first it will conform to the negative stereotype associated with youths through the media thus allowing for the audience to easily accept this behaviour. Secondly he will majorly contrast (Binary Opposites) to the main actor due to his difference in background and appearance. We will give him typical chavvy clothing i.e. a hoodie and tracksuit. This image will be easy to acknowledge as this is the normal iconography associated with modern youths. 

'Whores on seventh avenue': There will be a girl who will all be dressed in provocative clothing as she will be the "whores on seventh avenue". At the point where this girl appear in the music video, she will be representing the lyrics that are being sung as by doing this we can allow the audience to gain a better understanding of what is going on in the music video and it also demonstrates the illustrative narrative that we are trying to create. She is shown multiple times throughout the video with whilst becoming attached to the main actor. The girls will be representing gender through the male gaze which was put across by Laura Mulvey who used the theory that men only see women as objects and that they are only there for specific things in life. We will show this representation by the dress code of her as it will be rather provocative which will show that we have understood the theory put across by Laura Mulvey.

Character Profiles for Music Video

Character Profiles for Music Video 

Main actor: The main actor will be shown as two different ages. The first will be a young boy, around 8 or 9, who has had a challenging life due to his parents constantly arguing. This will be portrayed during the first scene of the video as he watches his parents argue and decides to leave without them noticing. This unnoticed departure may connote that throughout his life he has not been recognised and been important within their lives and that leaving may be the start of a new life. Therefore by showing the couple fighting, we will encode this idea that he has never been wanted within the household and he belongs somewhere else. We are then shown him later on in life as a teenager, around 17 or 18, and he is still living on the streets. This character will be portrayed as a timid, dirty and socially unwanted person as he wanders throughout the streets looking for work. This image will be shown via his costume as it will be ragged dirty clothes which mirror his surroundings. By showing this portrayal of a young boy we are both conforming and challenging youth and gender stereotypes. For instance we are conforming as the natural idea of a young male is scrubby and troublesome, which may be true within certain scenes of the video (the fight scene). However, we are also challenging the norm as it shows that the young male has taken life in his stride and has taken responsibility for his actions, which is often looked over by the public as their views are shrouded by the bad coverage of teenagers via the media. The clothes that the actor is wearing are also challenging the typical representation of these categories as the normal idea of a young male would be rather chavvy yet clean appearance which is the binary opposite of our character as the clothes that he is wearing are smelly, filthy and ripped.

Parents: The two parents will be aged around thirty and will live in a normal house. Within the video they will be shown arguing about something in front of their child who has obviously seen it all before. This behaviour connotes their un-parental characteristics and proves that they do not deserve to have this child. As the child leaves the house unnoticed it shows that they do not have any true feelings towards the child as they have not realised that their 8 year old child is leaving their house. We will show their true feelings via their facial and body expressions during the argument. As they are not seen throughout the rest of the video we need to make an impact straight away therefore they will be shown with sheer anger and frustration which will automatically create an image within the audience’s mind as it’s not right to fuel this anger right in front of a child.

Managers: Throughout the video the main actor tries out for several jobs all of which are rejected except for one. Each of the managers seen throughout the video will be of different ages yet all of the same status, which is higher than the main actor. Each of the managers will be dressed in smart attire or in their work clothes depending on the nature of the job. Through these costumes it is easy to show that these people all have their own forms of dominance and importance in society compared to the main actor; which is common when people compare adults to teenagers. We will also represent them as typical middle/upper class adults as they are turning away a young man due to his troubled background. This view is very common in real life as adults generally look down on those younger then them, especially if they are from a different class (Marxism?).

Young lads in fight scene: At one point of the video the main actor is beaten up by one lad who is trying to impress his friends behind him. We have chosen 4 lads in total, two recording the event, one beating up the main actor and another standing there egging him on. We decided to choose a bunch of boys as this behaviour is typical within a group of youths, or so the media believes. We thought that having this negative image will have two main effects; first it will conform to the negative stereotype associated with youths through the media thus allowing for the audience to easily accept this behaviour. Secondly they will majorly contrast (Binary Opposites) to the main actor due to their difference in backgrounds and appearance. We will give them typical chavvy clothing i.e. hoodies, gold chains, caps, tracksuits etc. This image will be easy to acknowledge as this is the normal iconography associated with modern youths. We will also show a form of hierarchy within the group by having the ‘leader’ as the one doing the beating. We will encode this by making him look dominant within the group by having everyone follow him and his actions. Also once he main actor knocks out the ‘leader’ the rest of the group flee as they have lost their main man and are now shown to be the sheep they really are.

'Whores on seventh avenue': There will be three girls who will all be dressed in provocative clothing as they will be the "whores on seventh avenue". At the point where these three girls appear in the music video, they will be representing the lyrics that are being sung as by doing this we can allow the audience to gain a better understanding of what is going on in the music video and it also demonstrates the illustrative narrative that we are trying to create. They are shown multiple times throughout the video with one of them becoming attached to the main actor who later on in the video becomes his girlfriend once their lives have improved. The girls will be representing gender through the male gaze which was put across by Laura Mulvey who used the theory that men only see women as objects and that they are only there for specific things in life. We will show this representation by the dress code of them as it will be rather provocative which will show that we have understood the theory put across by Laura Mulvey.

The Boxer Storyboard Ammended

The Boxer Mumford and Sons Timeline

The Boxer Storyboard (draft)

Initial Ideas for Production Power Point

Media ideas c&t from connorevans1

Folk Music Documentary

Folk Music Documentary


Found it impossible to add YouTube video directly to here as it would not find the correct video, so I had to use the link above ^

Audience Profile

After analysing all of our completed questionnaires, we believe the main demographic would be either male or female but aged between the ages of 21 and 40 as we realised that people under the age of 20 have a a larger interest in the pop music genre rather than the folk music genre as it may seem 'dated' to them. Our preferred audience would be somebody who is in full time employment or a university student as they always seem to be more open minded and they are often prepared to listen to a range of music. We believe that our audience is rather niche, however this aids us when we go to create our music video because we know how to address them directly as well as us knowing how to attract them and appeal to them. Another good thing about having a niche audience is we know exactly what elements they would like to see in the music video.

Graphs of Audience Feedback

  These graphs below are our audience questionnaire summaries. It allows us to quickly recognize what is the most popular thing from the particular question that we asked.

1. In this first graph it shows the difference in the number of people that we got to fill out our questionnaire. The overall total was twenty eight with the majority of them being female, with a total of seventeen answering it, and then the males were in the minority with only eleven of them answering our questionnaire. 

2. In the second graph which is displayed above, we asked our audience what age range they would fit into. As it is clear to see the majority of our participants for the questionnaire were in the age range bracket of 16/20. The other three options didn't receive as much backing from our audience as only five of them were over thirty one and only three of them in the age bracket of 21/25. There were no participants in the bracket of 26/30.

3. In this graph we asked our audience how often they listen to music to try and grasp how interested they were in what we were actually analysing. We gave the participants four options to chose from which were did they listen to music once a week, a few times a week, everyday or other. It is clear to see that the run away winner was that our audience listen to music everyday, as was answered by by twenty two people. The only other option that registered votes was people who listen to music a few times a week but only six people gave that opinion.

4. For our next question that we asked, we decided to see how often our audience brought music. Once again we gave them four choices of answers and like previous answers, we had an answer that stood out with fourteen votes in its  favor which was that they buy music every now and then. However, unlike the previous graph, every question did receive a vote but they were only minimal in the dent that they made on the outstanding winner. With the highest lowest vote receiving only half what the top vote got it showed little significance in the answers. The others took five votes and two votes.

5. In this question that we asked our participants, we decided to see what their current occupation was and we once again offered them a choice but we only offered them three choices this time. Again, like the previous graphs and the majority of our graphs, you are able to see that there was one answer which stormed the votes and that was students. With the majority of the votes being cast by students this could have some impact on how we receive some of our data for other questions. We had eight people say they were in full time employment and only one person say they were unemployed at this current moment in time.

6. This question asks our participants what genre or genres of music interests them the most. We gave them a large selection choices to chose from and even though we did this, there was a clear winner. Pop was the winner of this question which has little significance to us as we were looking at how many people liked folk music. With folk only gathering five votes it will be difficult to estimate how we should actually target our audience. Despite every option gaining votes and giving us a valuable insight in to what our chosen audiences actually likes, it will be very difficult to reach out to the niche audience who like folk music.

7. For this question, we gave the audience the chance to give an answer of their choice because we left the question as an open question. This enabled us to grab lots of different answers from our participants. However, the majority of answers for this question seem to indicate that the lyrics are the most important factors when they are deciding on their chosen genre.

8. This question is similar to the one we asked earlier but we this time asked the audience which music genre or genres least interests them and it was something which we kind of guessed would happen with the majority of our participants being students. Classical music was the least popular music genre as it got fourteen votes which was the most. The second least popular genre of music was rap as it received eleven votes. The other genres of music all received votes but not enough to try and compete with the dislike for the top two genres. Dub-step did receive eight votes but that was still some way off the top two. There was no surprise as pop got no votes for dislike.

9. For this question, it is slightly similar to question seven where as it is an open question which has once again enabled us gain lots of answers from just one basic question. It is the complete opposite to question seven where as in this question we are asking the participants what are their reasons for not liking the particular genres available in question eight. In this question it tells us that the reason people aren't interested in these genres is because they simply don't interest them or they bore them.

10. As we reach half way through our audience questionnaire, we decided to ask them how they found out about new songs that were going to be released in the distant or near future. We gave our participants five options to chose from which means they had plenty of choices which they could select and we decided not to limit them to just one choice so we left it as an open question where they were able to chose as many as they liked. This enables us to see how our audience finds out about new songs in more detail. All of the answers but one received backing and that one was other. The radio and internet received the majority of the votes with people saying that adverts before youtube clips were the most popular way to find out about new songs. Participants also said that the radio was the most formal way of finding out abut new songs as they get the early releases. TV and magazines also chalked up a few votes but not enough to dent the top two options.

11. For this question we gave the audience a closed question so we could estimate how our music video would be received when it is actually made. We needed to see how many people in our analysis watch music videos and there was an astonishing over turn with a staggering twenty seven people saying they do watch music videos and only one person saying that they don't watch music videos.

12. For this question we decided to follow on from the previous question that was asked which was "Do you watch music videos?". We then asked the participants that if they said yes, how did they watch music videos and if no, why were they not watching them. We left this as an open question so the audience could just tell us how they watched them. The most popular answers were the internet (places like youtube) and on TV (places such as music channels like MTV). The internet was the most popluar answer with it gaining the majority of the votes which shows us that music videos can be veiwed on different formats now-a-days. 

13. For question thirteen we asked the audience what type of music video did they prefer and we gave them a small selection of answers to choose from. These choices were a storyline, a live perfomance, a videos which exaggerates specific themes and a video which is unrelated to the lyrics. There were two choices that we gave which too most of the votes and this gave us great insight as to how we should portray our music video as the audience tend to like the video better if it is a live performance or a narrative based story.

14. Question fourteen asked our participants 'Why do you prefer this type of music videos?'. This was a follow on question from the previous question and it has once again enabled us to gain a better insight as to why our audience prefer this type of music video. So according to this question, people prefer videos that are either live or story based because they make the songs more interesting and they create meanings to the lyrics which are being sung which improve their experience when they are watching the videos.

15. For this question we really began to dig in and ask our participants about our particular chosen genre of music, which as stated above is folk music. Despite it being a closed question, one of our candidates decided that they would add on an answer so we decided to incorporate it into our answers. The majority of the people who we asked said no which wasn't the result that we wanted to hear as we needed people to be cooperative with us and this shows that with the people who took part in our questionnaire that students aren't really that interested in the folk music genre so that gave us a hint as to who our audience should be.

16. Like the majority of our questions that we have asked, this question offers the audience a selection of answers to chose from and we didn't limit them to how many they could circle so this gave us a more extensive set of results to look at. The top two things which our participants expected to see in a folk music video were hay bails and instruments. Later on we asked them what instruments they expected to see in the music video and we shall assess that at a later stage. All of the options received backing but there were two options which stood out.

17. In the graph above shows the question that we asked our participants towards the end of our questionnaire. We asked them what settings did they expect to see within a folk music video and we gave them five options to chose from but like previous questions within the questionnaire, we didn't limit our audience to just one answer as we encouraged them to put as many down as they wanted so that it helped our research. The top answer was a stereotypical answer which we expected and that was countryside and the other answer which scored high on the suggestion front was a farm.

18. In question eighteen, we used a closed question so we could gather specific data that would help us depict what our possible audience expect to see in the actual music video. We asked the participants did they expect to see the band who are singing the song to be in the music video? With the overall majority of the votes, our participants said that they did expect to see the band in the video.

19. Question nineteen was the last out of four questions which were our major open questions. This question was just to give us an idea as to what the participants wanted on the front and back cover of a folk music album and what they already expect to see on one as well. The majority of our participants that we questioned expected to see images of the band or artists on the from covers along with the instruments that they may be playing. Also as well as this, quite a lot of people who we asked expected to see the titles of the bands song lyrics on the back of the album.

20. As I stated in the summary for question sixteen, in this question we asked the participants what musical instruments they would stereotypically associate with the folk music genre and once again we gave the audience a large selection of options to chose from but we didn't limit them to just one option as we once again encouraged them to give us all of the answers as to what they expected and that reflects in our graph above as there are way above our actual number of twenty eight. The most likely answers were the ones which got the top suggestions from our participants and they were the banjo with twenty three marks and the acoustic guitar with twenty two votes. Not far behind those top answers was the tambourine which isn't a stereotypical instrument of the folk music genre but has been used in some folk music videos.

Audience Questionnaire

Questionnaire

Circle appropriate answer

1) What is your gender?     M/F

2) What is your age?      16/20   21/25   26/30   31+

3) How often do you listen to music?   

Once a week   A couple times a week   Everyday    Other

4) How often do you buy music? (I.E. CDs or Itunes etc.)

Once a week   Once a month   Every once in a while   Other

5) What is your current occupation?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Circle appropriate answer(s)

6) What genre(s) of music interest you?

Rap   Pop   R’n’B   Folk   Classical   Alternative   Acoustic   Dubstep    Other

7) What interests you with your chosen genre(s)?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

8) What genre(s) least interest you?

Rap   Pop   R’n’B   Folk   Classical   Alternative   Acoustic   Dubstep    Other

9) What are reasons for your choice(s)?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

10) How do you find out about new song releases?

Magazines   Internet   TV commercials   Radio   Other

11) Do you watch music videos?    Yes/No

12) If yes, how do you watch them? If no, why don’t you watch them?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

13) What type of music videos do you prefer?

Story (follows lyrics)     Live Performance     Exaggerates themes    Unrelated to lyrics

14) Why do you prefer this type of video?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

15) Do you listen to Folk Music?              Yes/No

16) What props do you expect to see in a Folk music video?

Hay     Light Bulbs     Trilby     Chequered shirts     Instruments (Banjo, Guitar etc.)

Other

17) What settings do you expect to see in a Folk music video?

 Abandoned building (Barn, factory etc.)     In the city      Farm      Countryside      Festival/Gig      Other  

18) Do you expect to see the band singing/performing in a folk music video?   

Yes/No

19) What do you expect to see on a Folk music album front and back cover?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

20) What instruments do you associate with the Folk music genre?

Banjo       Piano/keyboard       Double Bass      Acoustic guitar      Tambourine      Saxophone      Trumpet      Drum      Other

The Felice Brother - Album Advert

 

For this album cover advertisement that we are going to analyse, we looked at all of the features that are visible to the untrained eye.

To begin with, at the top of the advert the audience is able to see clearly what the bands name is as the text is emboldened so it is made easily recognisable to the audience which they are trying to entertain and inform.

Underneath the name of the band, in smaller text which isn't as easy to read or recognise, the band and the production company have put quotes from certain magazines and newspaper articles. This allows the band to advertise themselves and allows them to promote themselves by showing the audience that they are trying to inform, what other people think of the band and what they think of the new album that they have coming out.

The picture that is the main focus of the advertisement shows the audience a bit about what the band are trying to achieve. By facing away from the audience and being such a distance away in the picture, it allows the band to show what they are about but it also doesn't give away too much. Also, with the band being in the background of the photo, it is showing the audience as little as possible about the actual band as they may want to represent themselves through their music and through their lyrics in the songs.

Towards the middle of the advert, there are two pictures which could be the album front cover and back cover but this isn't made clear so it is extremely difficult for somebody to interpret as although it says the name of the band on the right hand side picture, it doesn't clearly state the purpose of what the photos actually are.

Once again, under the photos towards the bottom, the production team and promotional team have decided to intertwine some quotes from other newspapers and magazines that are able to promote how good the band are and it is also allows them to share peoples honest opinions on the new album.

At the very bottom of the advertisement for the new album, the band and the production company have decided to display where they will be selling the new album (play.com) and who has produced the album and who has had a hand in deciding how the advert will look.

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes Album Advert Analysis

This image that we have chosen to de-construct with the four micro elements is an advert selling the release of Fleet Foxes' new album Fleet Foxes.

As the new album is named after the band, less space is given up telling the audience both the album title and the band name, therefore more space is given up for other important aspects such as the album cover. Another advantage of this is also that the simplicity of the album name means that it will remain in the memory of anyone who sees it as they will not have to remember both the artists and the album name as they are the same. Another striking title on the page is the statement 'THE ALBUM OF THE YEAR' which gains a large amount of the audiences attention as it is the second biggest font on the page and it is a rather bold statement which can be used as anchorage as the audience will remember those words whenever they see the album, which may therefore improve sales of the album. The following pieces of text on the advert are quotes and awards from well known magazine companies which is typical within many album adverts as it proves that the band as well as the album have already been successful among many highly esteemed companies and gives them a higher status and the audience a higher incentive to want to buy the album. The smaller font towards the bottom of the page give the audience the pieces of information which are not necessarily the most important compared to the others however they still have their uses as they tell us the website address, release date and availability of the song. These pieces of information are common within adverts as they are the extra pieces of knowledge which some people may want to know, however their size and placement connotes their lesser importance and inferiority compared to the other pieces of text, therefore they are often looked over and not the primary focus.

The chosen colours of the advert are rather simplistic as the font is white on a black background which has multiple meanings, effects and advantages. For example, due to the simplistic nature the focus is aimed towards the text as well as the album cover, which is exactly what the company want as they pay attention to the important factors of the advert rather than getting distracted by other elements of the page, which is why the least important information is put in much smaller font. Another benefit that it gives is that the font is easy on the eye as the colours do not clash, which makes it much easier for any one to read therefore making it much more appealing as they will be more likely to read it all. There are also some connotations associated with this simplicity, including the fact that it may show their type of music as the typical conventions of folk music are traditional and classic means of music with simple instruments such as banjos and double bass which aren't common in any other genres of music. Therefore this style of writing and background has many different functions within the advert.

The next piece of the advert which has a large significance is the actual album cover which is situated virtually centre of the advert which draws a large amount of attention which is its main purpose as the audience need to know what they are buying. The image chosen for the album cover is rather unique in comparison to  a wide number of other album covers as this one is an old fashioned style painting of what seems to be a lively village setting which has no connection to the band or the title, however the image may again connote their style of music as the image is set long ago which may show the traditional values of their music which are commonly associated with folk music. On the other hand though, most albums usually illustrate the whole band or some of their artists on the cover as it lets the audience put a face to the voices as well as allowing them recognise them in the future, however this image is different as it gives no information about the band themselves which creates a sense of mystery among the audience. The colours used in the cover picture are both bland yet bright as they are a mixture of browns, greens, yellows, blues and reds which give a rather plain feel to the image, yet it stands out in the advert as the background is black which means that the audience are able to pay a lot of attention to the cover as it catches their eye due to its dominance in the advert.

Mumford and Sons - Sigh No More Album Advert Analysis

The album cover that we have looked at here is for one of Mumford and Sons older albums called Sigh No More.

Despite the actual advert being rather basic and simplistic, it actually explains a lot about the band as it displays several features of what the band are trying to achieve which is to show themselves off and to show the music off which is actually on the album.

At the top of the advert, the audience is able to see the name of the band which is displayed in an embolden form. This could be done to grab the attention of the audience and most importantly to make the actual band name stand out so that the audience can witness who this advert is actually advertising.

Underneath the bands name on the album advertisement, the name of the album is displayed in the same way that the bands name is but just on a smaller scale. Despite it being shown in a smaller font size, it is still recognisable as the name of the album to the audience which means that the bands main purpose to inform the buyers has been fulfilled as it is still readable.

Furthermore, below the bands name and their album name, we can see that there are four individual pictures of the different band members. I think that this is a good thing here because it shows that they have their own little thing to do within in the band, for example the person in the bottom right hand corner is the main singer of the band. This isn't easily interpreted and only people who have watched the bands music videos or seen other posters would recognise him as the main member of the band. The photos are all taken with a background that links in with the next one as they are all taken from what looks like a field, which could be classed as a convention for a folk music video, and they also have the sunset behind them, which is naturalistic lighting, and this highlights each individual band member and makes them easily visible to the audience who are looking at the advertisement for this new album.

Displayed towards the bottom of the poster is a quote from the well known music magazine called  NME. This is extremely good advertising for the band as it enables them to promote their new album in different ways. The quote could be taken from the print version of the magazine which means that people who are buying the magazine would have read about their new album and how amazing it is, as the quote says or it could be taken from the digital version of the magazine, so from online, which means that a larger mass audience could have read about their new album because advertisement through the internet is ever growing and it now allows bands to enhance the way they get the news out to their fans and it allows them to get the news out to their fans quicker as well. 

Once again, underneath the quote from the magazine, the band have shown the audience what some of their tracks will be called which are on the actual album. Nine times out of ten, the tracks that are being displayed on the advertisement are the tracks that the band expect to do well of it. The tracks that have been shown on the album did indeed do very well with two of them getting into the top forty of the charts which once again shows that the advertising through posters does work with an incredible effect.

Finally, at the very bottom of the poster, displayed right in the middle is the company that produces the band. The band will have been asked to do this by the producers and distributors so that they can also gain credit for the band and so that they can also gain recognition for actually helping the band do something like the making of a new album.

Major and Minor Institutions Definitions and the history of our institution

Within the music industry, institutions are known as record labels and can either be major or minor depending on their status, influence within society, who they have signed and other factors. Currently (since 2012)  there are three main major instuitutions who control the majority of the Worlds music market shares. These three institutions are Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group. However, if a company is not owned by or is not part of these main institutions then they are regarded as Independent/Minor labels, no matter how big they may be, but they are a great start for many bands or artists.

Major Institutions
- These institutions may manage various smaller organisations.
- They are a lot more likely to promote mainstream artists and bands rather than smaller independant artists and bands.
- Any major institution will have more than a 5% worldwide market share for the sale of music videos and songs.
- Due to a substantial finance backing, a major institution they are able to own their own distribution channel.
 - They also have a leading influence within the music industry.
The three major Institutions:

Universal Music Group (Largest)

 Sony Music Entertainment (2nd Largest)

 Warner Music Group (3rd Largest)







Minor Institutions
- These institutions do not have a huge market share like the three major institutions.
- Unlike the major institutions aiming for mainstream artists and bands, minor institutions tend to focus on independent artists and bands.
- As they are not part of the major institutions they must rely on independant funding, rather than the substantial financial backing that the major institutions receive.
- Minor institutions may sometimes co-fund projects with some major institutions to possiblt improve their status, but still not be part of those institutions.
Examples of minor institutions:

 

Bella Union

 

Irregular Records






For our organisation we have chose Island Records to promote our artist.

What media/comapnies does it own? Is this significant?
The media company that we have looked at is Island Records. This company doesn't actually own anything as it is just a company which signs artists and promotes them. However, they have big links with other music comapnies such as The Isalnd Def Jam Music Group (US) and Virgin EMI Records (UK). The fact that the institue doesn't have any companies that it owns isn't extremely significant to us as it has links with other major distributors as well as having a parenting company which is Universal Music Group.

Does it have a production and distribution element?
The actual media company, Island Records, isn't a producer or distributor because they are more of a record label who signs artists. The actual company who distributors Island Records artists songs and upcoming albums is The Island Def Jam Music Group which is majorly based within the USA. On the other hand the production side of things predominantly comes from the artists themselves who are able to expand on ideas they have and form new songs and albums and then they go to Island Records or the Def Jam studios to tell the distributors and producers about their newest venture and then they work together to expand on the newest release.

What artists are signed to them?
Some of the most well known artists who are signed to this record label are listed below:

• Akon
• Angel
• Alex Clare
• Dappy
• Drake
• Dizzee Rascal
• Florence and the Machine
• James Morison
• Jessie J
• John Newman
• Mumford and Sons
• Rizzle Kicks
• Robbie Williams
• Willy Moon

What do you notice about the genre of music?
There isn't much to notice within the choice of music artist that has been signed by Island Records as they have everything from Folk music, which is the genre that we are looking at in depth, to things such as pop music (Jessie J) and R'n'B (Akon).

Would they be a suitable organisation to work with for your project?
We believe that this organisation would be a fantastic group to work with for our project because of the vast amounts of knowledge that the company actually has. By having links with the likes of Def Jam Music Group and other companies like Universal Music Group they will be able to advertise and market our new artist and their new single appropriately which will allow us to meet the genres audience that we are targeting because the distributors will be able to pinpoint what part of the community and fold is actually going to be the most successful place to aim towards.

Summary of Folk Album Digipacks

Mumford and Sons - Babel

Of Monsters and Men - My Head Is An Animal

The Lumineers - The Lumineers

Simon and Garfunkel - Old Friends (Box set)

Mumford and Sons - Sigh No More

For our analysis we decided to focus on the albums above as we believe that they consist of properties that depict what the true genre of folk really is along with contemporary factors. According to Gunther Kress genre is some form of text that is created through the 'structure of a frequently repeated social occasion', which means that they are derived from repeated patterns that are done over many years by different people. These patterns include stock settings, stock characters and stock themes, all of which are known as codes and conventions. As for the chosen albums, the majority have followed this theory as they display many images that are common iconography for the folk genre, such as banjo's and acoustic guitars which are shown in the Mumford and Sons album Sigh No More. 

The albums also conform to generic principles with their positioning, camera work and the characters shown. As for the majority of the album covers, the characters were positioned either in the centre or slightly to the right of the frame which shows that their are some connections among all album covers as it makes it much easier to draw the audiences attention to the band which makes them more recognizable. Furthermore, all of the albums but one show either the band as a whole or part of the band which enables the audience to put a face to the people that they're listening to, as well as selling an image of the band. As the bands/artists are shown on the front cover it follows Propps theory of character functions as they are portrayed as the 'hero/heroes' as they are the main people who are creating the music and who the music will 'follow', thus giving them a higher appeal to the audience. Apart from The Lumineers, the other albums chose mid-shots or long shots as it allows the audience to get a decent perspective of both the artists and the surrounding that they're in which aids the fact that they are not trying to sell themselves but just the music, which is a normal trait among folk music. 

As mentioned previously, there are some exceptions within the folk genre, such as the Lumineers album, which take the traditional folk genre and decide to twist, play and experiment with it which is one stage of genres according to Christian Metz. The imagery of this album is abstract and challenges the normal iconography of folk music. Within the other albums there were images of either instruments or characters or something that links it to their style of music, however this picture of a woman and girl have no relevance to the style of music which may confuse the audience as it challenges their typical expectations of this genre.

The colors used throughout the five chosen albums ranges massively from inverted black and white and normal black and white to bright normal colors used in the Mumford and Sons albums.