I created an account on SurveryMonkey which would allow me to gather results on which one of our four songs would be most popular and most likely to be successful, this audience feedback would also help us get an idea of what kind of genre specific features people like to see.

Slideshow that we presented to the group

Media Presentation

We created a powerpoint presentation breifing the ideas that we had come up with for our music video and then discussed them with the rest of our media class, this was so that we could gather responses and critisism; using my camera I was able to get someone to record evidence.

The views on our ideas were very well received and there wasn't really any bad critisism. We proposed 4 songs: one acoustic, one rock, one indie and one rap, this gave us a variety of genres to choose from and consider; for each genre we listed pros and cons and showed the audio of each track via a link to Youtube for the best result. The media group viewing the presentation decided that it would be interesting to do a rock genre since many of the people in our own group are interested in it, and therefore would already be familiar with many of the codes and conventions of those types of music videos. Taking this into account we have decided on a final song and hope to develop ideas for possible music video senarios.

Music Directors

Sourced from Wikipedia.

A music director may be the director of an orchestra, the director of music for a film, the director of music at a radio station, the head of the music department in a school, the coordinator of the musical ensembles in a university, college, or institution (but not usually the head of the academic music department), the head bandmaster of a military band, the head organist and choirmaster of a church, or an Organist and Master of the Choristers (a title given to a Director of Music at a Cathedral, particularly in England).


Sophie Muller
Sophie Muller is a british music video director, which related back to our work since the video we produce will be made solely in the UK. She has done many collaborations with artists like Sophie Ellis-Bextor, No Doubt, Sade, Shakira, Shakespears Sister, Garbage, Blur, Annie Lennox and Eurythmics.
Sophie Muller was born in London, United Kingdom, but spent her early years growing up on the Isle of Man. After leaving secondary education, she returned to London to attend Central St Martin's, gaining a Foundation Diploma in Art.
Following her graduation, Muller went to the Royal College of Art to study for her Masters in Film and Television, where she made "Interlude" and "In Excelsis Deo (In Adoration of God)." The latter won the J Walter Thompson Prize for creativity.
Her trademark style in most of her videos usually has a singer or a band inside a dim, isolated room.
This is good to keep in mind when thinking of our own music video since we could use her style as a reference.

Robby Starbuck
Robby Starbuck is an American music video director. In 2010 he was named to OC METRO's Top 40 under 40. SUBSTREAM Magazine ran a cover story on Robby Starbuck in 2010 as well. He works with a lot of American rock bands, which makes him a good reference for us since the bands we will likely be doing are of the rock and alternative genre. Some of the artists he has worked with include Snoop Dogg, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, The Sounds, Yellowcard, Machine Gun Kelly, Escape The Fate, Smashing Pumpkins, Metric, Times of Grace, Jeffree Star, Jon Mclaughlin, and Asking Alexandria.
Starbuck owns his own production company RSM and is signed there as well. In 2011 Robby was nominated in two categories for the Much Music Video Awards (MMVA) for his work directing Metric "Stadium Love". In 2011 Robby's video for OTEP "Fists Fall" won an online poll for best video with a message on MTV.com for the VMA's. The first Music Video shot on the RED Epic Camera was directed by Starbuck for The Smashing Pumpkins. On February 27th, 2012 it was announced that his company RSM expanded to representing 15 directors including himself

 

This is a print screen from his website http://www.robbystarbuck.com/ which along with his videos follows the typical conventions of the metal/rock genre stereotypes where there are a lot of dark colours and shots of the artist.

Here is an example of a music video he has done, which relates back to a previous music video I have analysed because it is the same band. The genre stereotypes fit is the video so we can use it as a reference.

Star Appearances In Music Videos

A guest appearance is a participation of an outsider performer usually called guest artist. Guest appearances are often described with the words featuring, with, or and. It is abbreviated in credit lists as Feat., Ft., f. The terms guest role or guest star are also common, the latter term specifically indicating the guest appearance of a celebrity.

In the early days of the music industry the bands were relatively stable units, and while guests were not uncommon, they were seldom given credits on album covers. For example, Eric Clapton was not credited in print for his guitar in the release of While My Guitar Gently Weeps of The Beatles. Still the term "featuring" was used as early as in the July 1954 UK Singles Chart by "The Four Aces featuring Al Alberts" with "Three Coins In The Fountain" at 5th place. Gradually guest appearances have become a fully credited staple of music industry. The custom of guest appearance has become especially prominent in rap music, and this influenced rock musicians as well.
To have a guest star on a record, the production coordinator must obtain permission from the record label of the guest and make sure that proper credits are delivered to the host record label to be printed on the album cover, often in the form "Artist name, courtesy of Record Label name." The permission is not always guaranteed or negotiations may take a long time.

 

This is artist B.o.B, an American rapper, singer-songwriter and record producer. "Airplanes" which is the song chosen here, reached No. one in the United Kingdom, and also in New Zealand, as well as the top three in Australia, Canada, the Republic of Ireland and the United States.

This song features artist Hayley Williams who is the lead singer of the rock band Paramore. This is a good example of songs featuring other artists because the genres of the two different musicians are completely different. The collaboration is used to attract fans from both artists, from the ones that listen to the music and others who are just fans of the celebrity. This will not only boost the popularity of the song but also enhance the career diversity of each artists.

Analysing Music Video

Pop Genre
For music videos portraying the song of an R&B, Hip-Hop or Pop genre, the style is generally the same. Both men and women who are featured are seen as glamerous, modern and attractive. Costume is bright, upbeat and often complimented by makeup. Setting's mostly contain bright studio lighting or a popular location young people are often depicted.

This is a music video by Owl City, a pop/electronic-synth American musical project by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Adam Young. His music is popular and this particular song fits the genre I am looking at since it is a collaboration with other Pop artist Carly Rae Jepsen. This type of Genre often has other singers featured within songs since it ups the popularity and targetted audiences are more likely to listen to it, especially if they are a fan of the other artist. This is likely the case with this particular song since Carly Rae Jepson has only just very recently had a rise to fame with her single "Call Me Maybe" which was met with great success, reaching the No. 1 spot on both The Billboard and Canadian Hot 100. The single also went to the number-one spot in 19 other countries.
Comparing this video to the typical conventions of the genre we can see that the costume fits the sterotype, both the male and female artist are wearing what is considered 'hip' by many teens and young adults. It is designed to relate to the audience and show off certain aspects about both singers. It also compliments the background colours.
The setting also fits several aspects of the genre, the location supports the idea that young people like to go out and have fun, we see them in the woods, a cabin, driving through a city and then later around a campfire partying. The song lyrics support the video also, both represent young people.

 

This is a music video by a K-Pop band and the song is called 'Electric Shock', this shows us that no matter what language/country the song is from, the genre stereotype is still the same. Perhaps even more so in the case of this video. The girls shown are wearing trendy, bright coloured clothes. The clothing being worn are probably from a popular clothing brand, this is often the case for Pop videos.

The whole setting for the video is brightly lit up and expensive looking.

Although the Owl City song is of a similar genre, the typical codes and conventions do not always apply. The music video does not show a choreographed dance which is almost always the case with 'Pop', so this would disagree with Steve Archer’s Theory. However the K-pop bands 'Girls Generation' does support it since almost all of their video is dancing.  Andrew Goodwin’s Theory is also supported by both these music video's since both artists appear heavily in the music video, each getting a huge amount of face time and close ups.