Production Roes

Deconstruction of chosen song lyrics

 

We deconstructed the lyrics to the song we had chosen so that we knew when each different part of the song started and ended. This would help us construct ideas for the video and where they would go, and will also be very useful when editing the whole video together. From deconstructing the lyrics it can be seen that the structure is typical in some ways for the indie genre: e.g. verse, verse, chorus, verse, verse chorus, chorus , chorus etc. however most indie soings have a bridge which this does not.

Music Video Vox Pops and Analysis

Genre

Genre is used to describe  how music is categorised by song and artist making it easier for audiences to find their preferred music style, however it has changed dramatically over the past twenty years becoming more diverse through artists bringing their own original style to genres, negotiating the core conventions of said genre. Genre is ever-changing and has done since the start of music promos, due to new styles redefining the meanings of different genres.
The hybrid Indie/Alternative genre is broad in the musical/performance styles and sound . Music and the promos range from soft acoustics of Mumford and sons to the soulful, energetic music of Patrick Stump. Its hard to pin songs and artists to this genre with how varied it is, and just as hard to explain specific artists styles based on just stating the genre. The genre literally means the music is independent and different, but because there's such a range of conventions throughout the genre, its hard to explain exactly what the alternative/indie music is.

The artist I am Making my Music Promo for is Natalie Lungley, an aspiring South London  artist who creates acoustic, soulful music. She is influenced by artists from Nirvana, which is Grunge, To Indie artists such as Lana Del Rey. These influences are mixed with her own individual style  that she brings.

Lana Del Rey herself is influence by artists such as Amy Wine House, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe. These influences are what brings her the niche 50's Hollywood style her fans like coupled with her own indie style. Natalie Lungley incorporates this style into her own Mise-en-Scene with the lighting and style.

 

Sex Pistols

Alternative and indie music developed from the punk genre with bands such as the sex pistols changing the conventions of the genre and influencing new artists

Radio head  

Alternative music started in the 1980's with bands such as Radio Head, with unusual styles developing from rock and such music.

Most bands like them went on into the 2000's which influenced newer generation alternative and indie music. They created the conventions of unusual costumes, deep meaniful poetic lyrics, being different, locations being quite normal, and a lot of performance. These were then developed by the newer bands.

Patrick Stump
Patrick stump is the lead singer of Rock band Fall Out Boy, however he has produced and created his own albums which follow conventions of the alternative/indie genre in 2010-13. Soul Punk has an electronic 80's sound which has poetic lyrics that focus on more conceptual ideas. His Mise-en-Scene ranges from exciting vivid lighting, to unique and sparkly suits. which give him his own style within the genre. His promos have been illustrative, amplification and disjuncture and its this ever changing style that  is a convention of the genre and him negotiating new style within the genre. however this wouldn't be able to compete with the popularity of Twenty One Pilots later on.

Tom Odell
Tom Odell is on the other end of the alternative/indie spectrum whereas he has a softer, more acoustic sound with the same poetic lyrics, and has been popular from 2011. His Mise-en-Scene is simple and natural, whilst his promos follow more amplification and disjuncture styles that show more of the conceptual side of his lyrics.














Twenty One Pilots

Twenty One pilots are the newest upcoming stars in the alternative/ indie genre, however they have been producing music for mid 2010. Their music style ranges from rap, rock, country and pop; which is why they fit into the alternative/indie genre, being so broad in their sound, creating new conventions in their promos. Their Mise-en-scene fits with the common conventions of the genre of having unique costumes that are a mix up between casual clothes to unusual outfits. Their promos involve a lot of performance with little narrative, and the focus of the promos is more conceptual which is why they are more amplification to disjuncture promos. Their lyrical content is very poetic and relatable which is why they have become so popular so quickly.

 Typical lyrical content from the genre is very poetic and contains a lot of metaphors. examples of this from twenty one pilots are

"sometimes a certain smell will take me back to when I was young,

How come I'm never able to identify where it's coming from,

I'd make a candle out of it if I ever found it,

Try to sell it, never sell out of it, I'd probably only sell one"

"Sometimes quiet is violent

I find it hard to hide it

My pride is no longer inside

It's on my sleeve

My skin will scream".

There's a lot of heavy, deep meaning behind the lyrics of the alternative and indie genre, but because they are relatable is the reason for their popularity.

This ties into the style and characteristics of the genre. In musical terms it is specific to the artists as there is direct links between their specific genre and their musical style. Tom Odell has a more soft spoken musical style which matches the subtle metaphors behind his lyrics whilst Patrick stump is more upbeat electronic, being bolder in expressing his outward metaphors.

 

 Bands are represented generally as independent, they are secure in their style and sound, not involved with the clichés of the music industry. All of the artists have their own representation whether that be the black sheep/ rebel type, or acoustic hipster and such, however they all follow the independent representation of being different. 

What's important to the performers of this genre, their ideology, is usually about over-coming hardship and inner demons, linked a lot to relationships and love but much like the genre itself, the ideologies  are varied depending on the artist themselves.

The genres target audience are young people between ages 14-25, and can be any gender. This means their usually of socio-economic class E/D but come from lower class families.

Alternative/Indie Genre

The Indie/Alternative genre is very broad in the styles within the hybrid genre. Music and their promos range from soft acoustics of Tom Odell to energenic, fast paced  performances by Twenty One Pilots. Our chosen artist lies somewhere in the middle of this broad sprectrum of sound, lyrical and performance style. Its hard to pin songs and artists to this genre with how varied it is, and just as hard to explain specific artists styles based on just stating the genre.

Natalie Lungley (artist) Biography

'A mix of Mazzy Star meets Portishead’ - Liam Howe

Natalie grew up in south London and had a huge passion for photography and nature.

 Has interests in a range of music from Fiona Apple to Deftones,

she began as quite an introverted and private person who wouldn't want to get in front of a camera and perform herself

singer-songwriter and producer brother Matt came home and heard her singing in her room one day and encouraged her to put a video up on YouTube,

 

Natalie and Matt have started writing and arranging together and have built over 6 million views so far, building a worldwide fan base with their covers and originals.

 The Seattle grunge scene led by Nirvana was a major influence on her, as well as bands like The Smashing Pumpkins and Pixies. in contrast  Matt’s production style had developed with a strong connection to Trip Hop and Portishead, Massive Attack and The Fugees.

 

 I chose this track because it's unique to the genre with how it sounds,  the song itself is slow enough that it will be easy to create a music video for but also quick enough in places to be exciting and allow us some creative risks.

Importance of Genre

Genre is the categorey list in new media, made up of typical conventions. In music terms, genre is the type of music you are listening to, for example: if you are listening to Fall Out Boy you are listening to the Rock/ Pop-punk genre. you can get single or hybrid genres.

Genre is a useful concept when looking at music because it helps us find typical conventions for each genre, how people follow these, and how the these are used to appeal to the target audience.

The concept of genre benifits both audience and producersb as it helps audiences easily find out whether artists or songs are in their taste of genre and helps producers target the audiences that like that sort of music.

repoitoire of elements: what an audience expects to see.

indie have : acoustic, urban areas and lack of expensive sets, more interlectual lyrics and that indie hipster look

Audience: Gem Natalie Lungley

Analysis of music videos

The conventions, genre and style of music video are all dependent upon each other to some extent with most conventions and styles being genre specific. This is important with how audiences get a familiarity with how the music videos of their favourite artists are created and can recognize the styles easily through conventions used.

Here is the music video to the song Lane Boy by Twenty One Pilots. It is largely a performance video with some elements of narrative in a disjuncture style. This is a common convention throughout their videos, being largely performance based as both artists in the band play instruments, with disjunctured storyline that hardly relates the actual lyrics except through synaesthesia, where the feelings evoked from the visuals of the video are reminiscent of the themes of the lyrics however not related enough to be amplification. In this video Tyler, the lead singer, is performing throughout the video whilst two men in hazmat suits back up dance to him. This is an example of the disjunctured storyline, and is an example of the commen convention of having unusual costumes in their music videos. overall the video does follow the common conventions of the alternative/rock genre. The dancing is limited to the important lyrics to emphasise them and the meaning behind them. its not a common convention that the singers dance in alternative indie video.

Here is the music video Sprectrum by Zedd featuring Matthew Koma. it is a closed narrative video with a linear storyline, it is also an example of amplification wheras the video follows the lyrics loosely. The video follows common conventions of the pop/ EDM genre with an easy to follow and understand story that relates to the lyrics and has synaesthesia with how most of the videos in this genre usually have a protagonist that we root for. Audiences like this style of music video as its easy to understand and doesnt take much thinking to realize what is happening.

These to music videos are polar opposites in their conventions, genre and style however they are both successful with how they follow the conventions of their genre that their audience is familiar with and expects. This is a great example of how important the style and conventions you follow when creating a music video are.

Intertextuality has a huge effect on the audience with it being an enjoyable/ humourous experience recognizing other forms of media or popculture in music videos. The best example is from the music video Irresistable by Fall Out Boy, which is a disjuncture, closed narrative based music video. It features many references to pop culture in memes, people amnd famous things from the internet. This is satirical and humourous for the audience watching and is successful if the video is not supposed to be serious

Music videos that inspire me are Car Radio by Twenty One Pilots, Heartbeat by Childish Gambino and Light 'em Up by Fall Out Boy, as they are all amplification and disjucture videos which require more thinking to understand the meaning behind the video and give off more synaesthesia.

Analysis of music artists and music magazine adverts

Adverts in music magazines are an important part of promoting an artist and presenting the artist to their audience. Artists follow conventions in their magazine adverts in order to appeal to their audience and promote themselves. overall through this promotion of themselves they are promoting their music, which is the goal of the music artist.

 Here is a magazine poster from the music magazine Rock Sound of the Alternative rock band Twenty One Pilots. It uses the conventions of showing the artists themselves, where they are are performing on stage here. It also shows the bands logo which is on the drums, so something is easily associated with the band, to make them more recognizable through this promotion.  There is also the magazines logo in the corner to show where the poster came from if it is removed from the magazine.

Here is another Music magazine poster which follows similar conventions to the previous. It is a poster of the rap artist Childish Gambino for his new album. it follows the convention of showing the artist themselves, where here he is in a performance pose. It also shows his new album name for the recognition and promotion of him and his music. It also has the Magazines name small at the bottom.

here is a magazine poster for the well known pop boy band One Direction. This follows the conventions with the artists being shown, although they aren't in any performance stance it still follows the convention. Their band name is also displayed large and bold typography for recognition and promotion. The magazines name is also shown in the corner. so although this is a lot different to the posters from the other genre it still follows the basic conventions of what a music poster is.

The importance of following the conventions is so that the artist promotes themselves successfully. having an image of the artists themselves allows the audience to recognize what they look like, what their style is and what type of personality they are trying to show. The audience is more likely to listen to your music if the recognize you and like your style and such. Also, having the artists name of logo allows the audience to associate that with the artists music, meaning even if they don't see an image of the artist they can still recognize them.

Music posters that inspire me are:

These posters all inspire me because they empower the artists and make a statement.