For this project we created Ava, a British, indie-pop artist, who was heavily influenced by artists such as Lily Allen and Kate Nash. We produced a music video for her debut single, He Wasn't There.
Our media products use a lot of the typical conventions of music videos, album covers and websites, but we mainly decided to challenge the feminist theory of "the male gaze", and therefore decided to not sexualise our main artist; we wanted the audience to watch the music video from her point of view, and to therefore connect to her character on a more personal level. Below is a video we edited, which details the references used throughout our whole He Wasn't There project, which helped us to identify the genre conventions of indie-pop music videos, and some of the music video techniques used for the one shot format. Researching these videos also taught us how to establish artist identity, especially for debut artists.
MUSIC VIDEO
Representation
Above is a video explaining how we used representation in our music video, and the ways in which we wanted to develop the representation of race and gender in pop videos
Suggestive sexualisation used in Katy Perry's Roar
The controversial Wrecking Ball, showing nudity and extreme explicit sexualisation
Typically in mainstream pop, female artists, such as Rihanna, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus and Beyonce, are sexualised due to the heirarchic nature of the music industry; the industry is run by men or "gatekeepers" and these men are considered to be the most important audience when it comes to music videos. This shows how the industry is steered by the "male gaze", which leads to the treatment of women as sexual objects, due to the fact that men are almost always behind the camera. We decided to challenge this convention, as Ava would be a feminist and therefore wouldn't put up with being treated as an object.
Furthermore, we styled Ava in a very feminine way, putting her in floral dresses and skirts, so as to show that she can be both assertive (when she rejects the boy's advances) and also feminine and sweet (when she dances with her friends). We also decided to develop the "girly" stereotype, by also presenting Ava as a strong, positive and non-passive character.
A moodboard we created right at the beginning of the project, to show the retro style that we wanted to emulate throughout the project
Ava's Industry Background
It was very important for us to try and challenge the music industry's lack of female leadership, therefore we decided to create a record label (Fruit Bowl Records) that is mainly run by women. This was after some research into female leadership in the music industry, which raised some shocking statistics.
Survey done by Creative & Cultural Skills
Statistics from PRS for Music's data collection
Further research led me to AIM's 2012 membership survey, which revealed that only 15% of labels are owned by women.
These shockingly unbalanced statistics were one of the main reasons that we decided to challenge the typical convention of women being signed to male-fronted labels, as I believe that the "gatekeepers" scenario, of only men running all aspects of the industry's decisions, is outdated and inaccurate.
Editing
Despite having done research on Carol Vernallis' theory of editing, we knew that our music video format of a one-shot wouldn't require any editing, as it is quite a unique style of music video. Her theory states that music video must include non-linear montage scenes, however as our video is a one-shot we will be completely defying this convention. We think this could be a good USP for our video, as it would make it unique and quirky.
After doing research on Andrew Goodwin's theory, we decided that we wanted to draw on his theory of the relationship between the visuals, music and lyrics as being either amplifying, disjunctive or illustrative.
The above powerpoint demonstrates some of the ways which we planned to tie the visuals in with the lyrics.
Illustration
"I didn't care about the lies"
"If you'd have stayed with your ex-wife"
"I wouldn't change you for the world"
Disjuncture
"But you taught me right from wrong"
Amplification
"He wasn't there when I needed him, no he was never around" - here it is implied that Ava is talking about a boyfriend
Because one shot music videos aren't the norm, there are some issues with the format:
Problems with one-shot videos:
Many one shot videos have flaws, and most of the videos we looked at had some small characterisation/action/narrative issues, which the viewers on YouTube were all too eager to point out.
A comment on Bat For Lashes' What's A Girl To Do video
A comment appreciating the difficulty of one shots, taken from Bat For Lashes' What's A Girl To Do video
An arguably mocking comment from OK Go's Here It Goes Again video
A goodnatured criticism from McFly's Love Is Easy video
Despite some potentially negative reactions, most of the viewers understood the difficulty with trying to produce a one shot music video, therefore we are not too worried about people commenting on the things which sometimes go wrong in the background of our video. In fact, we welcome viewers to rewatch the video as many times as they want, and try and spot funny moments, as we think this also emphasises Ava's quirky and casual nature.
Album Cover
For our album cover we researched the forms and conventions of British, female, indie artists' album covers so that we could create a cover that was typical of these artists; because our music video was already quite unconventional and out-of-the-box (or frame), we decided to balance this out with the conventionality of the album cover so as not to make Ava seem too eccentric.
Website
The above video references some of our main website inspirations, and details the similarities between Gabrielle Aplin and Ingrid Michaelson's websites and our finalised website. In summation, we used most of the website conventions of female indie artists' websites, while also adding some of our own quirky features to set Ava apart from everyone else.
Conclusion
Overall, our products draw upon many of the already established indie-pop conventions, however we also took some issues that we noticed were prevalent in the music industry, and challenged them, in order to create a more accurate representation of the contemporary British music industry.
Our media products use a lot of the typical conventions of music videos, album covers and websites, but we mainly decided to challenge the feminist theory of "the male gaze", and therefore decided to not sexualise our main artist; we wanted the audience to watch the music video from her point of view, and to therefore connect to her character on a more personal level. Below is a video we edited, which details the references used throughout our whole He Wasn't There project, which helped us to identify the genre conventions of indie-pop music videos, and some of the music video techniques used for the one shot format. Researching these videos also taught us how to establish artist identity, especially for debut artists.
MUSIC VIDEO
Representation
Above is a video explaining how we used representation in our music video, and the ways in which we wanted to develop the representation of race and gender in pop videos
|
| Suggestive sexualisation used in Katy Perry's Roar |
|
| The controversial Wrecking Ball, showing nudity and extreme explicit sexualisation |
Furthermore, we styled Ava in a very feminine way, putting her in floral dresses and skirts, so as to show that she can be both assertive (when she rejects the boy's advances) and also feminine and sweet (when she dances with her friends). We also decided to develop the "girly" stereotype, by also presenting Ava as a strong, positive and non-passive character.
|
| A moodboard we created right at the beginning of the project, to show the retro style that we wanted to emulate throughout the project |
Ava's Industry Background
It was very important for us to try and challenge the music industry's lack of female leadership, therefore we decided to create a record label (Fruit Bowl Records) that is mainly run by women. This was after some research into female leadership in the music industry, which raised some shocking statistics.
Ava's Industry Background
|
| Survey done by Creative & Cultural Skills |
|
| Statistics from PRS for Music's data collection |
Further research led me to AIM's 2012 membership survey, which revealed that only 15% of labels are owned by women.
These shockingly unbalanced statistics were one of the main reasons that we decided to challenge the typical convention of women being signed to male-fronted labels, as I believe that the "gatekeepers" scenario, of only men running all aspects of the industry's decisions, is outdated and inaccurate.
Editing
Despite having done research on Carol Vernallis' theory of editing, we knew that our music video format of a one-shot wouldn't require any editing, as it is quite a unique style of music video. Her theory states that music video must include non-linear montage scenes, however as our video is a one-shot we will be completely defying this convention. We think this could be a good USP for our video, as it would make it unique and quirky.
After doing research on Andrew Goodwin's theory, we decided that we wanted to draw on his theory of the relationship between the visuals, music and lyrics as being either amplifying, disjunctive or illustrative.
After doing research on Andrew Goodwin's theory, we decided that we wanted to draw on his theory of the relationship between the visuals, music and lyrics as being either amplifying, disjunctive or illustrative.
The above powerpoint demonstrates some of the ways which we planned to tie the visuals in with the lyrics.
Illustration
|
| "I didn't care about the lies" |
|
| "If you'd have stayed with your ex-wife" |
|
| "I wouldn't change you for the world" |
Disjuncture
|
| "But you taught me right from wrong" |
Amplification
|
| "He wasn't there when I needed him, no he was never around" - here it is implied that Ava is talking about a boyfriend |
Because one shot music videos aren't the norm, there are some issues with the format:
Problems with one-shot videos:
Many one shot videos have flaws, and most of the videos we looked at had some small characterisation/action/narrative issues, which the viewers on YouTube were all too eager to point out.
|
| A comment on Bat For Lashes' What's A Girl To Do video |
|
| A comment appreciating the difficulty of one shots, taken from Bat For Lashes' What's A Girl To Do video |
|
| An arguably mocking comment from OK Go's Here It Goes Again video |
|
| A goodnatured criticism from McFly's Love Is Easy video |
Despite some potentially negative reactions, most of the viewers understood the difficulty with trying to produce a one shot music video, therefore we are not too worried about people commenting on the things which sometimes go wrong in the background of our video. In fact, we welcome viewers to rewatch the video as many times as they want, and try and spot funny moments, as we think this also emphasises Ava's quirky and casual nature.
Album Cover
For our album cover we researched the forms and conventions of British, female, indie artists' album covers so that we could create a cover that was typical of these artists; because our music video was already quite unconventional and out-of-the-box (or frame), we decided to balance this out with the conventionality of the album cover so as not to make Ava seem too eccentric.
Website
The above video references some of our main website inspirations, and details the similarities between Gabrielle Aplin and Ingrid Michaelson's websites and our finalised website. In summation, we used most of the website conventions of female indie artists' websites, while also adding some of our own quirky features to set Ava apart from everyone else.
Conclusion
Overall, our products draw upon many of the already established indie-pop conventions, however we also took some issues that we noticed were prevalent in the music industry, and challenged them, in order to create a more accurate representation of the contemporary British music industry.
No comments:
Post a Comment