My Poster and CD Cover

Purpose of a Music Video

History of Music Videos

Censorship

Censorship is the process whereby official bodies are able to reject a publication of a product or text. Censorship of music can stop a song or video from being publicised or broadcasted on radio or television. Some institutions or artists choose to censor even if governing bodies do not. Internet censorship is still very minimal.
Moral censorship is the removal of materials that are obscene or otherwise morally questionable. Pornography, for example, is often censored under this rationale, especially child pornography, which is censored in most jurisdictions in the world.
Political censorship occurs when governments hold back information from their citizens. This is often done to exert control over the populace and prevent free expression that might foment rebellion.
Examples of Censorship:
• Self-Censorship
• The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC)
• Ofcom

Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham Notes

Michel Gondry:
• Shows emotion in his videos
• Plans to make shapes with the human body
• Cencept based producer
• Ideas came from thoughts and dreams
• Perfectionist
• Emotional
• Life experience has influence on his videos
• Doesnt link lyrics visuals
Chris Cunningham:
• Perfectionist
• Fast editing
• Concept based unrealistic story lines
• Videos are dark and mysterious
• Childhood memorys influence videos

Advantages of conventionalvideos (disadvantages of unconventional videos):
 Memorable
 Gives artist an interlectual sense
 Artist can have a niche audience
 Abstracts to life
Disadvantages of conventional videos (advantages of unconventional videos):
 Limited target audience
 No relationship built with atirst and audience
 Lose fans

Research into Music Channels

When compared to other music channels and radio stations this logo is much plainer. The logo has the word magic written in it with a bold italic font. In terms of colour it is plain blue except for the dot on top of the “i”. In many ways this links and corresponds with the type of music they play, for example from research Magic mainly focuses on music from the 80s and 90s although a large section of daytime is now dedicated to 'Today's Magic Hits' to keep up with the current market. More modern channels e.g. Kiss have much more modern logos which corresponds with the type of music they play on a day to day basis. Also the logo and the name is “magic” which that itself is not really a modern name which suggests to us the channel does not play modern music.
Below are the highlights of what is coming up on magic TV from the 4th July:
From July 4th - the Official 50 Best Selling Love Songs Of The Noughties, countdown of the biggest romantic records of the 21st century so far.
From July11th - seven days of power ballads, starting with Neil Fox from 11am. Bon Jovi, Take That and Meatloaf. Foxy presents his 100 Greatest Power Ballads.
From July 12th - Lorraine Kelly will be paying her 100 Classic Tearjerkers
From 18th July - The Nation’s Favourite Summer Songs
From 24th July - Top 50 Wedding First Dances
From this list it is clear that they offer their viewers a wide range of classic songs to suit everybody’s taste. Even though their main image is to provide well known singles from the 80’s+ they still offer a wide range of genres including dance and pop.
Creating a new channel:
From research I have identified a gap in the market for a music channel of which begins programming at 8:00 in the morning and every hour after than until 10pm is a different genre of music. There are many genres and so every hour of genre including RnB, pop and rock and all the less known ones too.
On average there will be 15 songs per hour of that type of genre. A good name of which I have thought of for this music channel is “Every Hour” linking the name with the style of programming it provides.
This channel should be commissioned because its target audience is wide range, nearly every genre is included in the daily show and appeals to all age groups.

Star Development

Goodwins Theory - Michael Jackson

Questionaire - Target Audience

Research into different artists and Ancillary Texts

Research – Different Music Videos and Artists

Purpose of music video:
• Advertise herself as an artist. The song with the music video will allow the audience to not only listen to her song but also see her face and make her well known.
• Advertise her single. The music video will also enable DVD’s to be sold with music videos on, more advertisement and sales means the single will become popular.
• Makes the song memorable for the audience. With video added to the song the song in itself will become more memorable
• People remember pictures more.
Lady Gaga – Pokerface (pop):
Genre: Pop / Electro pop
Style of music video:
Performance – For most of the video she is actually singing the song whether she is dancing at the same time or sitting still.
Generic conventions:
All these generic conventions are linked to a typical pop music video.
• Dancers/artist dancing
• Artist singing (performance)
• Mysterious sense
• Wild clothing
• Editing effects.

The Black Eyed Peas – I gotta feeling (RnB):
Genre: RnB
Style of music video:
Everyone is partying and having a good time. Drinking alcohol, lots of vocals
Generic conventions:
• Drum kit
• Alcohol
• Double bass
• Saxophone
• Horns
• Piano
• Organ
• Electric guitar
• Vocals
• Background vocalists

Coneventions of Main Genres

Pop:
• Dancers/ singers performing
• Having fun
• Has an aim of appealing to a general audience, rather than to a particular sub-culture or ideology
• Has an emphasis on craftsmanship rather than formal "artistic" qualities
• Has an emphasis on recording, production, and technology, over live performance
• Has a tendency to reflect existing trends rather than progressive developments
Rock:
• Guitars
• Performances
• Band
• Drums and or other instruments
Classical:
• Relaxing atmosphere
• Instruments
• Calming
• Performance on instruments
R&B:
• Drum kit
• Double bass
• Saxophone
• Horns
• Piano
• Organ
• Electric guitrar
• Vocals
• Background vocalists

Identifying a target audience – Kate Nash “Nicest Thing”

Age:

The song will typically appeal to young women. This is because it is a typical love song which can appeal to teenage love as well as partners who have been together a long time and may well be married or planning to marry.

Gender:

Like most love songs, this song appeals to women more than men. This is because men see themselves as hard and rational and are unlikely to listen to this type of song. Whereas women are more emotional and caring and can relate to the song.

Genre of Music:

The genre of this song is a slow love song/pop and appeals to a target audience who enjoys this type of music.

Favourite Artists:

The target audience for this song would enjoy similar style artists such as Lily Allen and Sophie Ellis Bextor. Both of these alternative artists have similar styles, the way they sing and beliefs.

Beliefs:

As explained before the target audience for this song is likely to be people who believe that the people around them and the people they love are most important to them. There may be some materialistic values to them but mainly cherish loved ones company and attention.

Background:

Family values and family life may influence people to listen to the song. The target audience is for people who love people around them and have an emotional sense about them.

Style:

There is an innocent style about Kate Nash, which links to the song chosen. There is no actual brand reference in her videos and only has a style that suggests she is a sweet and innocent woman in love. This once again appeals to the target age range audience who might be caught up in love and might have love problems or worries.

Income:

There is no particular factor to do with income and the target audience, the song is more targeted towards emotional people caught up in love.

Lyric Analysis

Kate Nash Nicest Thing Song Lyrics
All I know is that you're so nice,
You're the nicest thing I've seen.
I wish that we could give it a go,
See if we could be something.

I wish I was your favourite girl,
I wish you thought I was the reason you are in the world.
I wish my smile was your favourite kind of smile,
I wish the way that I dressed was your favourite kind of style.

I wish you couldn't figure me out,
But you always wanna know what I was about.
I wish you'd hold my hand when I was upset,
I wish you'd never forget the look on my face when we first met.

I wish you had a favourite beauty spot that you loved secretly,
'Cos it was on a hidden bit that nobody else could see.
Basically, I wish that you loved me,
I wish that you needed me,
I wish that you knew when I said two sugars, actually I meant three.

I wish that without me your heart would break,
Yea, I wish that without me you'd be spending the rest of your nights awake.
I wish that without me you couldn't eat,
Yea, I wish I was the last thing on your mind before you went to sleep.

Look,
All i know is that you're the nicest thing I've ever seen
And I wish we could see if we could be something
Yea, I wish we could see if we could be something


The lyrics contantly refer to a lover or boy the charcter knows and adores. From the lyrics it is clear that the character loves this boy but he dont love her. The charcter constantly refers to her wish to be with the boy and secret time they had together.

Kate Nash - Artist and Her videos

Kate Nash is a 22 years old British female singer and songwriter from London. Kate had always been interested in music in her early years of childhood following onto her teenage years which reflected through her keen interests in learning how to play different musical instruments such as the piano and guitar.
Kate Nash knew music was what she wanted to base her career on, and she took her passion seriously. Kate had been rejected from other theatre schools before she then went on to studying Theatre at the BRIT School for performing arts and technology in South London. Kate had been writing her own songs from the beginning, and little did she know when she first decided to book a gig at a local bar in Harrow ‘Trinity’ to give a small audience an insight as to what she has to offer, it was the start of something big to come (career wise).
In 2007 Kate Nash had a hit single ‘Foundations’ which made it to #2 in the UK charts, which then led onto her success album ‘Made Of Bricks’ platinum selling UK number one. Kate Nash was signed by Moshi Moshi Records, all down to her recognition on social networking website ‘MySpace’.
Kate Nash’s music genre is classed as ‘Indie Pop’. Being in the music industry Kate has a unique and likeable streak about her. She has always been compared to Lily Allen as they have many similarities in terms of music styles and not to mention how they gained fame.

Analysis & Research into Youth & Subcultures

Grant McCracken:
Grant McCracken is an anthropologist, blogger and author. A member of Convergence Culture Consortium at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, McCracken has authored several books, including Transformations (2008), Flock and Flow (2006), Culture and Consumption II (2005), Big Hair (1996), and Culture and Consumption (1988). He believes the following; the postmodern world is full of diversity, dynamism and creativity. McCracken says if we look at the array of values and ideologies then we can’t say all subcultures can come from one main culture.
CCCS (Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies):
The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) was a research centre at the University of Birmingham, England. It was founded in 1964 by Richard Hoggart, its first director. Its object of study was the then new field of cultural studies. The CCCS totally disagrees with McCracken’s theory. This belief is that all subcultures down the line all stem from one major culture.
Hebdige:
Hebdige (born 1951) is an expatriate British media theorist and sociologist most commonly associated with the study of subcultures, and its resistance against the mainstream of society. He received his M.A. from the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in Birmingham, United Kingdom. He is best known for his influential book in sub cultural studies, Subculture: The Meaning of Style originally published in 1979. He is currently a professor of film and media studies and art at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Hebdige believes deep down all cultures are similar.
Dyers Star Theory:
Dyers star theory explains two paradoxes both of which relate to an artist’s performance and success.
Paradox One – Dyer explains that a music artist must be both ordinary and extraordinary. Ordinary so that the audience can relate to the artist and extraordinary to make them stand out from the crowd.
Paradox Two – Dyer also explains that the artist must be absent and present at the same time. Absent so that the audience craves for the artists material and present so the public don’t forget the artist.

Kate Nash Devlopment of Artist and goodwins Theory