Song artist.

OneRepublic are an American rock band formed in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 2002 by lead vocalist Ryan Tedder and guitarist Zach Filkins. It also currently consists of guitarist Drew Brown, bassist and cellist Brent Kutzle, and drummer Eddie Fisher. The band first achieved commercial success on Myspace as an unsigned act. In late 2003, after OneRepublic played shows throughout the Los Angeles area, a number of record labels approached the band with interest, but OneRepublic ultimately signed with Velvet Hammer, an imprint of Columbia Records. They made their first album with producer Greg Wells during the summer and fall of 2005 at his studio, Rocket Carousel, in Culver City, California. The album was originally scheduled for release on June 6, 2006, but the group was dropped by Columbia two months before the album ever came out. The lead single of that album, “Apologize”, was released on April 30, 2006 on Myspace and received some recognition there, becoming number one on the Myspace charts.

In 2007, OneRepublic released their debut album, Dreaming Out Loud. Its lead single, “Apologize”, was notably remixed by Timbaland, becoming a huge international success, reaching number one in sixteen countries and subsequently earning them a Grammy Award nomination. The second single, “Stop and Stare”, mirrored its predecessor’s success. The album was later certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The band’s second album, Waking Up (2009), produced the singles “All the Right Moves”, “Secrets”, “Marchin On”, and “Good Life”, with the latter reaching the top ten of the US Billboard Hot 100.

Timbaland
Timothy Zachery “Tim” Mosley (born March 10, 1972), known professionally as Timbaland, is an American record producer, singer, songwriter, rapper and DJ.Timbaland’s first full credit production work was in 1996 on Ginuwine…the Bachelor for R&B singer Ginuwine. After further work on Aaliyah’s 1996 album One in a Million and Missy Elliott’s 1997 album Supa Dupa Fly, Timbaland became a prominent producer for R&B and hip hop artists. As a rapper he initially released several albums with fellow rapper Magoo, followed by his debut solo album Tim’s Bio in 1998. In 2002, Timbaland produced the hit single “Cry Me a River” for Justin Timberlake, going on to produce most of Timberlake’s subsequent LPs such as FutureSex/LoveSounds and The 20/20 Experience and their respective hit singles. A Timbaland-owned imprint label, Mosley Music Group, featured artists such as Nelly Furtado, whose Timbaland-produced album Loose (2006) was a commercial and critical success. In 2007, Timbaland released a solo album, Shock Value, which was followed by Shock Value II in 2009.

Music genre selection.

Pop

Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form in the Western world as a softer alternative to rock and roll. The terms “popular music” and “pop music” are often used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular and includes many styles. “Pop” and “rock” were synonymous terms until the late 1960s, when they were increasingly used in opposition from each other.

Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music. Pop music is eclectic, and often borrows elements from other styles such as urban, dance, rock, Latin, and country; nonetheless, there are core elements that define pop music. Identifying factors include generally short to medium-length songs written in a basic format (often the verse-chorus structure), as well as the common use of repeated choruses, melodic tunes, and hooks.

Famous genre pop song.
“Sorry” is a song recorded by Canadian singer Justin Bieber for his fourth studio album, Purpose (2015). Written by Julia Michaels, Justin Tranter, Sonny Moore, Michael Tucker and Bieber; the song was produced by Skrillex and Blood. It was released on October 23, 2015, as the second single from the album. A dancehall-pop and tropical house song, “Sorry” contains in its instrumentation “brassy horn bleats”, warm island rhythms and a dembow riddim beat. Lyrically, “Sorry” is a plea for a chance to apologize to a lover, with Bieber asking forgiveness and a second chance to redeem himself.

Codes and convention of pop.

1. CONVENTIONS
   • Artists are clothed in fashionable, stylish and mainstream outfits . • Artist are portrayed as happy, enjoying and content with life. • The lyrics are normally based around love or relationships • .Often bands express the unity associated with teens, which is the main target audience for this genre.• Music genre is normally conveyed through the video dressing and setting. • Pop magazines are often themed with bright and bold colors which are normally associated with positive vibe . • Pop is that the song usually is between 3-5 minutes long with a set structure and a consistent beat.
2. • Another convention of Pop music is that within the music industry it tends to follow current trends rather than being independent and making something new, unique and different to hear. • The form the song normally follows a verse-chorus-verse structure and uses hook lines which are catchy therefore stays in the audiences mind.• Pop music promotion is via radio stations and magazines. In the UK Pop songs are guaranteed to be heard everyday on well known radio stations.
3. IMAGERY • The songs usually include beats that are very dance-orientated.• They stereo typically are associated with people in their teens as many people in their youth enjoy partying and clubbing and dancing, which is exactly what the purpose of pop music is for. • A lot of the imagery created is base on sex or partying as this is stereo typically what teens enjoy.
4. ARTIST REPRESENTED IN POP Artist are expressed in a very sexual and seductive way, trying to lure the audience in; very show/staged like. However current artist choose to dress in provocative ways portraying a sexual atmosphere..
5. 10 YEARS AGO….Pop artist were not seen in extremely revealing outfits like you were wearing nothing like nowadays, instead they wore more clothing with a bit of bare skin.Then NOW
6. HAIR & Makeup In the current day hair and makeup is used to communicate the artist feeling, views and express a message; it plays a major role in pop music videos.
7. 10 YEARS AGO…The Make up and hair wasn’t so extreme and seen as necessity compared to nowadays. The make-up was complimenting, natural and pretty, also the hairdos were simple yet stylish.
8. TECHNOLOGY Technology recently has been used as a major part of a music video.Animation is used greatly to created an exciting, loud and lively atmosphere.
9. COUPLE OF YEARS AGO Animations in music video were hardly seen pop music videos. The artist tend to be the main focus to the camera eye and dance choreography was the main element to a video; pretty simple.

Moodboard for Music Video – Apologize

Here’s a moodboard that I created for my music video.

Digipak Analysis – Teenage Dream (Katy Perry)

The denotations of this digipak cover is that Katy Perry is laying on a pink cloud while looking directly at the camera. The connotations of this is that Katy Perry is sexualising herself, due to the fact that she’s not wearing any clothing. This can also relate to the title ‘Teenage Dream’ as the clouds can symbolise dreams and Katy Perry could possibly be portraying herself to be like an angel. This digipak contains symbolic signs as the title ‘Teenage Dream’ looks like candy canes, the cloud that Katy Perry is laying on looks like cotton candy and the name ‘Katy Perry’ looks like it’s written in the strawberry lace sweets. These sweet signs are symbolic as they can depict Katy Perry to be a sweet and innocent music artist. These images appeal to the target audience of teenagers and young adults as the cover is stereotypically bright and eye-catching as well as the fact that Katy Perry is only partially covered. This can reinforce the fact that Katy Perry is desired by the pop target audience. 3. This digipak shows strong elements of the pop genre due to the fact that it’s eye- catching and Katy Perry herself is on the majority of the covers. This digipak is a six covered digipak as there are three covers on one side and three on the other side. On the inside, Katy Perry is shown on the first and third cover wearing a crown which could possibly portray that she’s the Queen on pop. The back of the digipak shows the track list and when the digipak is opened up, it again shows picture of Katy Perry, but this time laying on the pink cloud. This pink cloud, that can be seen as cotton candy, covers these three sides of the digipak The CD designs themselves are of candy, which portrays the fact that Katy Perry is trying to get her point, of being a desirable music artist, across. 4. This particular font appears to be made out of the strawberry lace sweets. As well as this, it’s also very fluent and smooth which can represent Katy Perry as a sweet and easy-going person. This song title looks to be made out of the candy cane sweet and appears to look like it’s ‘melting’. This font style looks almost irresistible and can portray the song, as well as Katy Perry, to be desirable for the pop genre. These text fonts somewhat reinforce Katy Perry’s star image as it promotes this song as well as Katy Perry as a music artist. The candy effect can give the idea that she is defining her own artistic image of being ‘sweet’, whereas it can also be seen as a new way of expressing and representing the pop genre in a quirky way. The design of the back cover is also similar to the name and song font. The track list is written in a candy style font, however, the O’s in the song titles are replaced with what appears to be a sugary sweet. Also the barcode is out of the way of the designs as it’s in the top right-hand corner. As well as this, the record label details and editors/producers of the CD is written in a smaller font at the bottom of the case.

Digipak Analysis 2 – The Florence

The colours used in this digipak are very calm therefore, at first glance people may think that it could be associated with classic music.The font used aren’t very bold therefore, giving off the expression of calm and relaxed and not over the top.

The images used in this digipak are also very minimal in colour, the main image of the CD cover, is black and white therefore, indicating that it wouldn’t be very pop who use a lot of colours and also indicates that the music will be very calming and maybe inspired by old times.

The images do not use very much artificial lighting, it all looks quite natural, except for the front cover image which looks like it was studio taken. The colour scheme in this digipak is also very minimal colours, they are very neutral and earthy.

I think that this suggests that the songs within the album will be soft pop or classic type of sound. The gifts included in the digipak will make it more appealing to the consumer.

I think this because by having things that aren’t usually available in like, jewel cases, it allows the consumer want to purchase these items in order to feel closer to the artist or to get more content which is otherwise unavailable to them.

Therefore, for my digipak I would like to include things like posters, photo cards and other gifts that will be available to the consumer and want to make them buy it and will be worth their purchase.

In this digipak there is various shots of the artist, this suggests that there are different types of songs available that are very different to one another but similar. This may attract its target audience since it will be very appealing and interesting. Also, the consumer would know by getting this album they could expect diversity but still has a similarity within it.

There isn’t very much writing or, any bold messages/ texts, I think makes this digipak seem more relaxed and casual then if it was to have bold writing and messy pictures. It also shows that the genre of music which this artist plays must be something gentle yet stands out because that is what the consumer might decode from this.

 

Digipak Analysis 1 – O!RUL8,2?

This is a digipak, as you can see the synergy throughout the packaging is that it is red and while, the colours  do not clash over one another nor does it come out strange. The red in the white, makes the red stand out almost as if trying to connate that this album is suppose to standout from the other albums, who are plain compared to this one.

The packaging of the album is really simple and doesn’t seem complex. As you can see the content inside the digipak is a poster and photo cards (bottom right), this makes this different then a regular jewel package since it has a lot of content inside of it.

We can see that the logo of the album is carried throughout the content too, the poster, this makes it link in. In the image we can see the group are wearing too, which makes it almost blend in with the background but, the effect of shadows behind them make it seem like they are standing out.

What is a Digipak?

Digipak is a style of packaging which is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums. They usually consist of a book fold style of either paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. Digipaks are nowadays very common and very popular, but originally first created by MeadWestvaco.

Digipak’s benefit the artist through representation on the front cover and defines their genre of music. The digipak is styled to represent the artist and is very likely to show a theme or message as well as giving the artist another way to reach their audience through another creative outlet. All aspects of the digipak, brand image and music video are all combined together to create one solid representation of the artist and what they stand for.

Theories.

Music Video Theorists

Andrew Goodwin
Sven E Carlson
Carol Vernalis

Andrew Goodwin       

Goodwin was born in Sydney, Australia, and began learning the violin at the age of five.[citation needed His father, a school teacher, was a fan of classical music and collector of opera gramophone records]. While singing in St. Andrew’s Cathedral choir, he continued learning the violin, piano, and organ.

He beleived that every audience looked for 5 key aspects in a Music videos

• Thought beat

• Narrative and performance

• Star image

• Relations of visuals to the song

• Technical aspects of the music Video

Thought Beats

This form of analysis consists of three major steps

 Looking  at the structure of a song inorder to gain knowledge of the music itself, by understanding its   chorus and the verse

Listening to the voice of the artist and how he is uniquely indentified compared to other singers.This can help develop star image

Goodwin has identified that  Songs can sometimes tell a story, with the artist being the storyteller. This gives the music video a communication device, as they tell us as the audience a story and we listen to the artist.

Narrative and Performance

Goodwin suggested that most songs do not give us the complete narrative

 

We only tend to attain a brief understanding of the song and then tend to make up our own idea of what is being told 

 

The aritst or band who orginally sang and who own the song should also be the ones acting in it as helps increase authenticity by making the music video seem more realistic to the audiences and in establishing a relation with then 

 

He suggest that music vidos ignore common narratives and lay more focus on making it more commercial to attract larger audiences 

 

He also suggested that the narrative and the music video work together in the making of a music video which would keep audiences watching over and over again 

Star Image 

Goodwin suggest that the star image of an artist plays  a very vital role in a 

music video. They help in making the music video look more appealing to the audiences and bringing a individuality to the video by the way the artist is portrayed. The start image an artist defines himself, the costume, moves and appearance. This help to promote the artist/star’s image in public and also helps to promote the video and build a following 

 Technical Aspects

Andrew says that the technical aspect helps to hold the music video together Aspects such as 

1. camera work, movement

2. angle

3. mise-en-scene

4.  editing

5.  sound

6.  special effects.

7. editing

8. cutting

9. post production

10. All forms of use of camera.

Relationship of visuals to the song 

 There are three ways visuals are used to promote a song :

 Illustration  

Some music videos use some shots or clips to explain the meaning of lyrics to their song and the genre.

 Disjuncture.

Is a  situation in which the meaning of the song is completely ignored in the music video.

Amplify

This is when the images and camera shots are  repeatedly shown through out the music video and are enforced into our vision. 

Sven E Carlson

 He suggested that there are two category music videos fall into:

1. Performance  

2. Conceptual

 Binary opposites drives the narration of the video

 Performance Based

Performance based music videos include artists or bands singing and peroforming 

These can be of:

• Dance performance 

• Instrumental performance

• Song performance

Carlsson believed that the performer is often made into a ‘commerical exhibitionist’ this is where the performer is made into almost a selling item; someone that fans often aspire to be and these scenes will be extremely high in quality and have a gloss to them.

 Another type is the televised bard, which is a singing storyteller who uses on screen images instead of inner, personal images.

 The third and final type is the elctronic shaman, sometimes the shaman is invisible and only his/her voice that anchor the visuals

Conceptual Based

The audience watch something beyond the artist that aims to have artistic ambitions and they focus  on the cocept behind the imagery more than just the peformance

John Stewart

1. The music video have the outlok of TV commercials , with several of close-ups and lighting being used to focus on the star’s face.

2. He sees visual reference in music video as coming from a range of sources, although the three most frequent are perhaps cinema, fashion and art photography.

3. Stewart’s description of the music video as ‘incorportating, raiding and reconstructing’ is essentially the essence of Intertextuality, using something with which the audience may be familiar, to generate both nostalgic associations and new meanings.

4. The video allows more access to the performer than a stage performance can. The mise-en-scene, in particular, can be used to emphasise an aspirational lifestyle.