G324 Advanced Portfolio in Media Studies: September 2015

Tuesday, 29 September 2015

Arctic Monkeys - AM - Digipak Analysis

"AM" by Arctic Monkeys is a very simplistic yet effective style of a digkipak and is very similar to The 1975's . ''AM'' was released digitally and physically on September 6th 2013 under Domino Records and charted at number one in the UK album charts for two weeks.

Front panel

The front of "AM" is very similar to The 1975's as it has a simple black and white design. However, AM features no text unlike The 1975's and just includes the image of a sound wave (a sticker featuring the bands logo is used for the packaging for the digipak). The full digipak is black and white which is a common convention in the indie rock genre and the use of black and white stands out it's audience. The image of the sound wave relates to the first single released from the album ''Do I Wanna Know'' and this gives the band a new identity as previous albums sound very different to AM and therefore their new style of branding their products has had to change. Using the sound wave on the album, merchandise and in music videos reflects this change and somewhat separates their new material from their old material. Alex Turner, the frontman of the band said that the sound wave coincidentally 'kind of looks like a bra' and this reflects the albums songs as they all consist of being written about women. The front panel doesn't feature the bands name like The 1975's does and this could be because AM is Arctic Monkeys' fifth studio album and have already established a big audience and fan-base whereas The 1975 is the bands first and therefore need to get their name out there. However, the centre of the sound wave forms into the initials "AM" (the name of the album and also an abbreviation of the bands name) It's also noticeable that each 'wave' can be interpreted into the letters "A'' and "M". The use of this is very unnoticeable and unrecognisable unless the consumer is a fan of the band, which gives it an optical illusion effect.

Inside panel - The inside panel of the digipak is black and white and features an image of the band on the right. This again, is similar to The 1975's digipak as the image is in black and white and most members are looking away from the camera whilst Alex Turner (frontman) and Jamie Cook (guitarist) look directly at the camera. This is a typical convention in the indie rock genre as the lead singer almost always looks directly at the camera whilst the other members look away into space.

The CD - The CD features the same graphic design as the front panel and like the front panel displays identity of the band.

Back Panel/Tracklist -The back panel features the bands logo at the top which allows new listeners of the band to know their name. "AM'' contains 12 tracks and each is displayed on the back of the album to allow the audience to know which songs feature on the album in order. The back panel also includes copyright and record label information alongside the bands official website.

The 1975 - Digipak Analysis

The 1975's self titled debut album was released the 2nd of September 2013 and hit number 1 in the UK album charts. The album was released as a standard and a deluxe album through both physical and digital sales.

The 1975 display their consistent image of releasing their products in black and white by using grayscale for their digipak release. This conforms to the indie genre as black and white/grayscale is common use in this genre for artists whilst also being the bands continuous motif.

The front and back of the digipak contain no images of the band members and the main focus is of a black illuminated rectangle (another one of the bands continuous motifs) and thus allows it's audience to focus on the digipaks text. This is another convention of the indie genre as most bands want their audience to focus on the music and not the bands personal aesthetic. This rejects conventions of the pop genre which the band are sometimes associated with because they're disregarding the use of image to sell their records.

The front panel The front cover features the bands logo in the centre of an illuminated rectangle sign placed in a dimly lit room. The album has no title as it's a self titled album and the only text featured is the bands logo and also that the album is the ''deluxe edition'' which allows the audience to instantly recognise who the album is by. The bands logo is very distorted and some of the words and numbers are either backwards or partly deleted. The logo conforms with the indie genre as it looks edgy and unique whilst also being a part of the bands identity.

Inside panels - The inside of the digipak displays a two panel image of the band which conforms with the indie genre as they are looking away from the camera, disinterested and in dark drapey clothing. The fact that The 1975 have included an image of the band once you open the digipak is a good feature as it shows a more personal side to the audience and their fan-base as it essentially feels like now the audience have decided to buy the album despite it's lack of images, information and colour on the front now that they want to listen to their music they can see the band as people.

The CDs - The two CD's feature a plain black matte effect and the bands logo is glossy. This again conforms to the stereotypical features of the indie genre because it's a common colour used.

Back Panel/Tracklist - The back panel of the digipak is very plain and simple and displays a 39 song track list as the deluxe album includes every single song the band has ever released including songs from the standard album and all 4 EP's that they previously released. ''// Disk 1 // " features songs from the standard album whilst " // Disk 2 // " features songs from each of the fourth EP's and they're divided by subheadings categorising each song with which EP it's a track of. The EP titles are: facedown, sex, music for cars and IV. The bands use of ''//'' relates to band identity as they commonly use ''//'' when announcing new music and tour dates on social media websites like Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook. Additional information included on the back panel reads copyright information and logos for the bands record label and publishing information with the bands official website included. This allows the audience to connect with the band through their website and see any upcoming tour dates.

The Stone Roses - Album Advert Analysis

(Please hover over the image to see advert analysis)

Lana Del Rey - Album Advert Analysis

(Please hover over the image to see advert analysis)

Lorde - Team - Shot Count

73 shots are used throughout "Team" by the indie pop artist, Lorde. The pace of the edits differ throughout the video which is highly narrative based but also features a performance from the artist herself. "Team" mainly features establishing shots, mid shots and close ups to form the videos narrative. The song itself is of a fast tempo and the video reflects that when the more instrumental parts of the song kick in and therefore the shot speed increases quite significantly.

Catfish And The Bottlemen - Cocoon - Shot Count

In this 4:04 long video by Catfish and the Bottlemen (an alternative rock band) for their debut single "Cocoon" I counted 149 shots. The pace of the edits differ throughout the video, at the start during the heavy guitar introduction just one shot is used to show a doctor opening a door, as soon as the first lyric is sung the shots start to increase in speed and each shot establishes which people are going to be featured throughout the video. The pace then slows back down once the protagonist and his love interest are shown because the slow paced edits tell the narrative of the video but the pace speeds up again once the narrative peaks before abruptly slowing down similar to the start of the video. Throughout the video, close ups are mainly used by the director to show the characters facial expressions to express feelings and two shots are also used a lot to display the protagonist and his love interest together.

Lorde - Royals - Music Video Analysis

A Detailed Analysis of "Royals" by Lorde

"Royals" is the artist Lorde's first song from her number one selling debut album, Pure Heroine. The music video was first released on the 12th of May 2013 and later released onto VEVO with the "U.S version'' on the 18th of June 2013. The difference between the two is more close-ups of the artist are featured in the U.S version. This conforms to a theory of Andrew Goodwin's (the demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist) the use of close-ups are again, mostly featured in the U.S version of the video and this was released as soon as people started paying attention to Lorde's music. This establishes what the artist looks like to the audience and creates recognition. Lorde is shown through the use of mid shots and Goodwin's theory of voyeurism and the notion of looking is not displayed throughout "Royals." Instead, Lorde goes against pop video conventions and how typical pop artists look as she is dressed like an average teenager and has messy natural hair and minimal make-up with appropriate costume which allows a sense of relatability to be established to her main target audience, teenagers of a similar age. How Lorde is dressed also relates back to the song. Although Lorde's appearances form no narrative it establishes to her audience that she knows she will never be 'royal'.

"Royals" is both narrative and performance based which conforms to Goodwin's theory of music videos demonstrating pop genre characteristics. The performance and the narrative however do not link as Lorde does not feature in the narrative side of the video which centres around the average lives of two teenage boys. The cuts throughout "Royals" match the beat of the song and this is a common characteristic of the pop genre.

There is some relationship between the lyrics and the visuals of the song and therefore "Royals" conforms to another theory of Goodwin's. "Royals" is a song about knowing you'll never have the glamorous and luxurious life of celebrities and the video shows this as the four people throughout the video are wearing plain costume and the props used in the video are outdated and lack colour, because of this, "Royals" is therefore a highly amplified video.

''Royals'' mostly uses close-ups and mid-shots however the narrative story of the video is shown through the use of long shots and establishing shots as these mainly focus on the setting. However, a few close-ups of the protagonists shown are used for emotive purposes as a clear view of their facial expressions are shown.

The video displays little intertextual references (''there is often intertextual references to films, tv programmes, other music videos'' - Andrew Goodwin) but a common theme which runs through music videos is the idea of leadership. However, "Royals" conforms to indie genre characteristics in narrative sense as the protagonists are making the most out of what they have and are not worrying about what they don't have because they don't want to be wealthy.

The 1975 - Girls - Music Video Analysis

A Detailed Analysis of "Girls'' by The 1975

"Girls" is the fourth single released from The 1975's self titled debut album. The music video was directed by Adam Powell and released on the 23rd of October 2013. The four minute long video follows both a narrative and a performance by the band throughout, which is a typical indie genre characteristic according to the theorist Andrew Goodwin.

"Girls" opens with a wide shot, showing the band (clad in all black clothing) in their entirety and also the continuous motif of the bands logo of a rectangle which is featured on their album, previous music videos and merchandise. The 1975's use of their logo throughout their media products conforms to Goodwin's theory that ''artists may develop motifs which recur throughout their work''. thus giving The 1975 a recognised and iconic visual style.

Diegetic dialogue is spoken before the actual song starts to form the narrative of the video which relies on the band not wanting to film a 'pop music video' and shows frontman Matthew Healy disagreeing with the directors vision of how the video should look, "the whole scenarios not really what we're about, It needs to be black and white for a start." The bands drummer (George Daniel) agrees with Matthew and confidently states ''we're not a pop band.'' Matthew and George say this because black and white has been a recurring feature and a continuos motif of all of The 1975's music videos up to the release of "Girls."

The video then cuts to the bands famous rectangular logo and a static non-diegetic sound can be heard before cutting to the director, Adam Powell's clapper board which is the only part of the shot in focus and this establishes the bands first breakout into colour. The bands rectangular logo then appears again to display bright flowers reading the song title "Girls." The use of the flowers visualising the song title conforms with Goodwin's theory of music videos visuals having a relationship with the lyrics. The video then goes back to stereotypical indie genre music video characteristics as several fast paced close-ups of the band members playing their instruments to match the opening beat of the song.

Throughout the video, close ups of the lead singer show him looking moody and disinterested. These close-ups of Matthew conform to another theory of Andrew Goodwin's, which states that ''the demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist''. This creates the idea that the company want Matthew Healy to be identified as "The 1975" to it's audience. This is a stereotypical feature for frontmen of bands from the indie genre. An example of this can be found in "Kathleen" by Catfish and the Bottlemen which only displays close-ups of the lead singer Van McCann.

The video then proceeds to showing four scantily clad women who take the place of each individual band member and form the videos narrative. The video then uses fast paced cuts to switch between long shots of both the women and the band. The switch gives across the impression that the director has used binary opposites. In this sense, the women represent pop culture as they are wearing minimal clothing like how most women are shown in mainstream pop videos. Whereas the band remain the same and although the video is now in colour, the bands dark clothing has not changed. Therefore, the females represent the pop culture which the band don't want to become whilst also playing a relevant part to what the song is about, girls, thus making the video an illustrative one as the video features what the song is about.

"Girls" conforms to Goodwin's theory of the music video showing a ''relationship between the lyrics and visuals". The director does this by showing the main model who takes on the role of the lead singer blowing out a cake displaying a "17" candle during the lyrics, ''she can't be what you need if she's seventeen.''

Goodwin's theory of voyeurism and the notion of looking is evident in the music video. The models are instantly sexualised as they are scantily clad and move in a suggestive way. However, the notion of looking is only displayed once as throughout the video the band ignore the models and continue performing the song but one shot shows one of the models sat on the drummers knee, he however continues to play his instrument.

Although ''girls'' does feature a link between the lyrics and the visuals, there's also parts in the video where the dialogue displayed through subtitles does not match the song. Instead, the subtitles link to the narrative side of the video and show the band making fun of the directors vision. The video does display the song title throughout.

Monday, 21 September 2015

Intertextuality in Music Videos

Intertextuality

"Intertextuality" refers to the process of creating references to any kind of media text via another media text. Intertextuality essentially means for a type of media (film,television,music etc) to pay homage to another media text.

There are many different examples of intertextuality within the music industry and intertextuality is mentioned in Andrew Goodwin's Music Video Theory. Here are some examples which I found whilst watching music videos for research for my own:

Robbers - The 1975

"Robbers" is an example of music videos taking narrative inspiration from movies.

“ ‘Robbers’ was originally inspired by my love of the Quentin Tarantino film True Romance, the story of an Elvis-obsessed loner who falls in love and marries a prostitute. In the movie the couple run away to California after killing her pimp and stealing his drugs to start a new life financed by a once in a lifetime drug deal. It’s the sentiment behind the film that appeals to me, the hopelessly romantic notion that two people can meet and instantly fall in love, an escape story where love is the highest law and conquers all against the odds. Characters like Bonnie and Clyde always appealed to me as a teenager – couples so intoxicated with one another that they fear nothing in the pursuit of the realization of each other, actions fueled by blind unconditional love. ‘Robbers’ is an ode to those relationships. The type of relationship all humans long for. All or nothing. This video is about when love makes two people feel they are the centre of the universe.” - Matthew Healy

True Romance (1993)

Robbers (2014)

True Romance (1993)

Robbers (2013)

RAT BOY - Sign On

"Sign on" references parts of the music video "Alright" by the band "Supergrass". This is an example of music videos using existing music videos as an intertextual reference.