Audience Research - Who is the Target Audience?

In order to make sure that our promotional materials appeal to our target audience, we decided it would be in our best interest to bring together a focus group to provide us with feedback at various stages in our planning, production and post production. Our focus group have so far helped by providing their opinions on what they consider to be the strengths and weaknesses of the music videos we have been researching. In the future, the focus group will give our group feedback on our own work. At certain stages we will ask them to view what we've come up with and provide us with positive and negative feedback.

When putting together our focus group, our overall goal was to come up with a sample of people which are a representation of our target audience. In order to do this, we began by pinpointing our target audience and creating a typical profile of a member.

Audience Profile:

Age: 15-24

Gender: Primarily female but males are included

Registrar General's Social Scale: C1/B/E 

Shelby's Psychographic Cluster: 'Innovators: who wish to make their mark'

Description:

A typical member of our target audience would be a female, however the various promotions will be targeted for both males and females. When researching The Chainsmokers original productions and who typically goes to see them live, we personally felt that they catered slightly more for women than men. They would also be in their late teens or early twenties - perhaps a sixth-form/university student. They would be someone who wishes to strive in the world they are present in and make their mark and could possibly see themselves as rebellious - someone who wishes to remake their world in their own image. We also think that the members of our target audience would most defiantly enjoy going to gigs and festivals, much like those of Nass and Boomtown, where dance/EDM music is sort after. 

In terms of Elihu Katz's 'Uses and Gratifications', a member of our focus group would be someone who gains a sense of their own identity from the music they listen to and someone who uses music as a form of escapism from the stresses of everyday life drama. The 'Uses and Gratifications' model suggests that audiences use the media rather than being used by the media. 

Focus Group:

Using this audience profile (above) as a base, we compiled a group of five people who are within the same friendship group so to an extent share similarities and are similar ages/genders with our target audience. We will continue to use the exact same members of the focus group throughout the development of our coursework and evaluations. 

Phoebe: Studies Drama, English Literature, and Philosophy and Ethics at A-Level. Her hobbies consist of playing guitar (very musical person and enjoys going to gigs and festivals), blogging and reading. 

James: Studies Mathematics, Economics and Geography. His hobbies are football, going to the gym, and socialising. 

Alex: Studies History, Geography and Business Studies. Hobbies consist of horse riding and socialising with friends from school and work.

Scarlett: Studies Geography, Business Studies and Drama. Her hobbies include dancing, athletics and socialising with friends.

Ben: Studies Psychology, Biology and Chemistry. Ben's hobbies include playing cricket and attending gigs.

Analysis of Record Label - Disruptor Records and Columbia Records

Disruptor Records

Disruptor Records is a joint venture with Sony Music Entertainment. Disruptor Records "streamlines label capabilities with a uniform strategic goal of long term artist development". They use forward-thinking progressive marketing methods which revolve around genuine, non-commercialised promotion. They also focus on direct artist/fan communication relationships to build artists careers. 

Disruptor Management is the artist management division which continues on the same philosophy of the label with a 24/7 dedication to career building, creating loyal fan bases, and also strategic planning for commercial success. 

Selector Songs is a joint venture with Sony/ATV Music Publishing and represents some of the most talented and upcoming songwriters, producers and artists from many different countries around the world.

Artists: 

The label has a total of six artists as of September 2016. They are; 'The Chainsmokers', 'Life of Dillon', 'Lost Kings', 'XYLO', 'Jocelyn Alice' and 'DJ Vanic'. 

The label is very active on social media. Their website has links to every account they operate as well as an address in which people can use to get in touch. 

Website link: http://www.disruptorrecords.com

Columbia Records

Columbia Records (known as Columbia) is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc.; the United States division of Sony Corporation. It was founded in 1887, evolving from the American Graphophone Company, the successor to the Volta Graphophone Company.

Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the recorded sound business, being the second major record company to produce recorded records. Columbia records went on to release records by an array of singers, instrumentalists and bands. The Columbia name was adopted internationally in 1990. It is one of Sony Music's three flagship record labels alongside RCA Records and Epic Records.

Artists:

Adele, A R Rahman, Barbra Streisand, Beyoncé, Bring Me the Horizon, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Calvin Harris, Celine Dion, Daft Punk, David Gilmour, Earl Sweatshirt, Electric Light Orchestra, Ella Henderson, James Arthur, J. Cole, Juicy J, Lavengro, Little Mix, Madeon, MKTO, Nine Inch Nails, One Direction, Passion Pit, Patti Smith, Pharrell Williams, Rachel Platten, Russ, the Neighbourhood, The Script, T.I., Train, ZHU and the casts of Fox's hit television shows Glee and Empire. 

In 2012, Columbia Records gained the highest label share on adult contemporary radio in the US, and was named the number-one adult contemporary label that year.

Website link: http://www.columbiarecords.com

The Chainsmokers: Artist and Genre Research

The Chainsmokers are an American DJ duo consisting of Andrew Taggart and Alex Pall. They were formed as an EDM DJ duo in 2012 under the management of Adam Alpert in New York City. Initially, the duo started out by making remixes of indie bands. In 2012 they collaborated with Indian actress and artist Priyanka Chopra on the single 'Erase' which was followed by 'The Rookie' in early 2013.

Their single '#selfie' was released for free in December 2013 and picked up by Dim Mak Records who re-released it in January 2014 and eventually streamed it to Republic Records. The single helped the duo to achieve breakthrough success as it charted internationally and peaked on the Dance/Electronic Songs chart.

August 5th 2014, The Chainsmokers released 'Kanye' featuring sirenXX which was the follow up to '#Selfie'. Around seven months later, they released 'Let You Go', featuring the American synth-pop group, Great Good Fine Ok.

The Chainsmokers signed with Disruptor Records, a joint venture label with Sony Music Entertainment as well as Columbia Records which is a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment; this was by their manager Adam Alpert in April 2015.

On October 23rd, 2015, The Chainsmokers released their first EP titled 'Bouquet' which features the songs; 'New York City', 'Waterbed', 'Until You Were Gone', 'Good Intentions' and 'Roses'. Their follow-up single 'Don't Let Me Down' was released on February 5th, 2016 featuring the singer Daya. A couple of months later they released the single 'Inside Out' which featured the Austrian singer Charlee.

On July 29th 2016, The Chainsmokers released 'Closer' featuring the singer Halsey, which reached number 1 on the US Hot 100 and UK singles charts. 

Genre:

The Chainsmokers associated genres are:

• Electro house
• Progressive House
• Electric Dance Music
• Trap Music
• Electropop
• Dance-pop

Conventions of these genres: When it comes to EDM (Electric Dance Music) dancing plays a huge role, mainly due to the fact that this music is found in clubs where people are typically there to dance. It is also conventional for the artists not to appear in the videos as they usually have a narrative, more often than not unrelated to the lyrics. A summary of a standard EDM music video is that an upbeat song has an equally upbeat video with an unrelated narrative, and dance and party scenes. Bright colours are common as well as women dressed in minimal clothing.

Through research of the EDM genre itself, I have found that music videos for this genre do not have many codes and conventions; this is because it allows more freedom for the artist. Most artists follow the same creative routes and create a video which is suited to young people.

"House/Dance music is a genre of electronic dance music - originating in the American city of Chicago in the early 80s. At the start of this new craze, this genre was generally dance-based music, which was then characterized by repetitive 4/4 beats and the rhythms were mainly provided by drum machines, off-beat hi-hat cymbals and synthesized baselines. Now, this genre has moved on, but has still kept several of these core elements. This has manifested into fusion sub genres, the likes of euro house, tech house and electro house." - https://prezi.com/ypvixntzrug3/dancehouse-genre-conventions/ 

Modern artists with this genre include: 

• Calvin Harris
• Zedd
• Diplo
• Avicii
• Tiesto
• The Chainsmokers
• Nicki Minaj

Statistics of this genre: The industry is said to be worth $6.9 billion.

Music Video Permission / Response

Below is a copy of the letter we sent to the management of The Chainsmokers and their label Disruptor Records who own the rights to the song "New York City". We sent the email on the week commencing the 5th of September 2016 and as of the 26th of September 2016 we have no yet heard back.


As of yet we have not received a reply; however we are still continuing in our planning process unless the management team responds and denies permission.

If they do not give us permission, we understand that we will need to start our process again.

Matching Sounds to Visuals Vs Matching Lyrics to Visuals

From doing some initial research into the coursework this year by looking at music videos I've realised that one of the first things noticed by the audience is the sound of the song itself. When an artist is creating a video for his/her song it is important that they match the sound of their song to the visuals. For example if the song is slow piano, it wouldn't make sense for the audience to see someone heavily banging on a drum. If it doesn't match it can be confusing which is more than likely to result in a disinterested confused audience. Equally, it is important to match the lyrics to the visuals because the audience will pick up on any mismatch eventually. If in the song there is a lyric or phrase that stands out, it makes sense for the artist and other people involved in creating the music video to visualise this lyric in the best way they can. This develops a connection between the song and the audience and in turn can make viewing the music video a more enjoyable experience. It is important to get the right balance if you want your music video to be successful and memorable.

This video is an example of matching the sound to the visual as well as the lyrics to the visuals. The video is set in a club which works well with the EDM music as thats its typically scene. The two girls in the bathroom are the ones mouthing the lyrics and seem to be taking a selfie hence the match with the lyrics and visual. The lyrics "but first, let me take a selfie" is the cue for the visuals to cut to a bunch of different shots showing people taking selfies or of ones already uploaded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuwfZGDWOio

This video is funny because the visuals are quite contradicting to the lyrics as well as the sound in some places. This lyrics talk about forgetting about the relationship and the visuals show the memories the boys are trying to forget. Its contradictory because it seems like the moods are completely different, the songs sad but the visuals are happy. There are lyric matches such as "drove by all the places" and the visuals showed a car driving. The boys being alone in the rooms show the emotion that connects with the song and this shows the sound matching the visuals. In this video more so i have found the connection is more between the sound and visuals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCCJCILiX3o

I feel like in music videos it is easier for artists to match the sounds with the visuals and focus on the lyrics in a minor way. Of course both are equally as important in the long run but not every video requires the lyrics to match what is going on visually. If an artist choses not to focus on the lyrics then it has to be done successfully in order for the audience to feel a connection to the song and video at the same time.

Deconstruction of Music Videos

A major part of our course this year is learning about the deconstruction of music videos. When watching the music video we have to know exactly what it is we are looking for in order for the task to be fully effective. An introduction into the basics of a music video is by looking at how many cuts there were and how many setups, as well as looking at the type of shots whether they were close up or not.

I looked at three music videos from three different artists.

Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud

This video is very unique in the sense that it only really has two set ups. The first being the red screen with the female dancer and the second being what seems to be an auditorium when the majority of the video is held. The camera was constantly moving as so to capture every shot and aspect of the dancing. The cuts were a mixture of quick and slow and there were around 70 altogether. The shots were the camera giving a wide angle before moving closer towards the dancers and then it cut and repeated this. The camera was never too close so it gave off the impression that the dancers were sharing a private moment and the viewer was looking in, this however did not make the audience feel disconnected as the dancing was very captivating.

Taylor Swift - Wildest Dreams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdneKLhsWOQ

In this video as the cuts were so fast it was difficult to count the exact number of setups, there were over 50 in this video showing various aspects of the safari and the movie set in which the music video is based. The cuts were extremely fast paced and fit well with the music. In total it was very difficult to get the exact number but it was around 135 altogether with about 50/50 being close up or medium/wide shots.

Fifth Harmony - Work from Home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GL9JoH4Sws

'Work from Home' by Fifth Harmony had an average total of 35 different set ups and around 214 cuts. The shots were either a close up of an individual girl or a wide shot featuring all five of them. The cuts were a mixture between fast and slow and depended on the music.

Types of Music Videos

There are 3 main types of music videos:

• Narrative
• Concept
• Performance

Narrative:

Typically, narrative based music videos are very cinematic and it often feels like you're watching a short film, set to a song which lasts 3/4 minutes. It can be known for narrative based music videos to include diegetic sound as a way of communicating information to the audience, mostly dialogue but can be sounds as simple as a car door closing. Narrative videos usually link the lyrics with visuals.
In the video below of "Treat You Better" - Shawn Mendes

The video itself is about a girl in a relationship which appears to be abusive and Shawn plays the character of the boy she should be with. The line "I know he's just not right for you" shows that Shawn has feelings for the girl and that he wants what is best for her, which isn't the guy she is currently with. The editing techniques aren't much different to what we used both last year and in our preliminary task this year, quick cuts between Shawn sining and what the girl is doing happens consistently. Also the lyrics have been matched with the visuals in the line "see it on your face" corresponds with a visual of the girl and the boyfriend pinching her face.

Concept:
Concept music videos revolve around a concept or idea that tends to be quite unusual or unique. The are highly likely to keep the audience's attention because theres so much to concentrate onscreen. Concept based videos can be an interesting way to represent the artist and even if the artist choses not to be in it then there is the opportunity to get creative and represent the artist in a way that their fan base isn't used to.

In this video "Heart Made Up On You" by the band R5, the band went in a completely different direction to what their usual videos are like. They gave this song a story, the idea (concept) being that Ross, the lead singer had fallen in love with a girl and had inadvertently dragged the rest of his band into a mess. Ross and his love interest in the video are seen carrying out a robbery in-between cuts of the band performing. The performance intended to be a distraction to the crime surrounding the band.  A lot of diegetic sound is included in this music video with the intended effect to make it feel more cinematic. 

Performance:
A music video based on a performance is exactly what it sounds like, its the band performing the song 'live'. Due to the simplicity of the concept, the location becomes far more important when planning. The choice of the location must fit within the genre of the song or else the audience will find that the visuals don't match what they are hearing. This will take away from the enjoyment the audience member when watching the video.

In the video below of "Wherever I go" by One Republic, it is purely performance based. The location is low key and the entire video is very simplistic and the only thing that really happens in the video is that the shot changes direction and switches between distance and close ups.

Narrative and Performance combined: 
Sometimes, artist make their videos by choosing to combine performance and narrative, sometimes all 3 types can be combined. The combination can be particularly useful if the narrative perhaps involves a concert or a reference to the artist themselves.

What is a Digipak?

What is a digipak?

• A digipak style of packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums.
• Digipaks consist of a book-style paperboard or card outer binding; with one of more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside.
• The term 'digipak' came to be used to describe all soft CD packaging.
• Digipaks were first created by MeadWestavco, their product called 'Digi-pak' is trademarked; however, as the design format became popular and began to be used by more and more artists and manufacturers. 
• Currently, digipaks are very common and popular.

How does a digipak benefit the artist?

• The front of the digipak has an aspect of what the artist is trying to represent, also what their genre is.
• The digipak is likely to have a theme and construct a message about the artist's image.
• This helps to enhance the artist's brand and increase their popularity.
• The digipak also helps the artist in enhancing their creative power, for example, it is likely that the theme of the digipak will follow the theme of the artists's album. Therefore linking the artist to their products in a  consistent way.
• All aspects of the digipak, the album, the music videos and the artist's brand are joint together. 
• The artist is benefited because their music is being promoted in the music industry and brings awareness and more popularity to the artist. 
• This means more album sales and a happier artist and more importantly a happy record label.

Key features of a music video - Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin published his theory on the key features of music videos.

His theory stated that there are 5 key aspects to a music video:

• Technical aspect of a music video
• Star image, lots of camera shots making him/her the main focus and centre of attention
• Narrative and performance of the song
• Thought through beat (seeing what the lyrics mean in your head)
• Relationship between the song and visuals

Technical aspect of a music video:

Whilst researching i found out that according to Andrew the technical aspects of a music video helps hold it together through the use of mise-en-scene, special effects, sound and editing. 

Lighting and colour is known to help set the mood for videos and has the ability to create emphasis on significant parts of the song to create a dramatic effect and provoke a response from the audience. 

Mise-en-scene is vital to help the artist gain a higher level of credibility and make his/her's work look more professional.
When it comes to the song itself, the beats in it can help in the editing process because essentially you can cut to the beat.

Star image, lots of camera shots making him/her the main focus and centre of attention:

According to Goodwin, the star image is a vital aspect of the music video, the artist makes the video more appealing for the audience whilst bringing their own individuality to the video. 

Essentially, the star is what makes the video unique. 

This helps to promote both the star themselves as well as the music video.

Narrative and performance of the song:

Goodwin believed in his theory that it was highly important for the artist to be involved in the video by performing or acting out a role in the narrative. 

It can help with the realistic aspect of the video and make the audience feel more connected and entertained.

Thought through beat (seeing what the lyrics mean in your head):
According to research there are three main stages in identifying what the lyrics mean to an individual - 1st step: Analyse the music structure understanding the chorus and verses.
-2nd step: Analyse the main voice, the singer should have a unique voice to others and it will give the opportunity to form an identification that can be related to the star/singer.
-3rd step: This is to do with the story of the artist which is trying to be told through the song, it can establish them as the storyteller and the music video can aid this by linking the vocals (lyrics) with the visuals.

Relationship between the song and visuals:

Similar to above there are three (main) ways the music and visuals are connected.

-Illustrate: Music videos use certain images and shots to illustrate/explain the meaning of lyrics to their song and genre.

-Disjuncture: The content of the song is intentionally ignored as well as the genre in order to create a whole new set of meanings. Traditionally these music videos don't make a lot of sense and often are known to use abstract imagery.

-Amplify: Uses repeatability, which is where the images and camera shots are manipulated and shown repeatedly throughout the video and essentially 'drummed' into our vision. 

Andrew Goodwin's theory on music videos can traditionally be applied to most videos. 

Introduction to the task...

G324 Advanced Portfolio in Media

The production element and presentation of research, planning and evaluation may be individual or group work. If you work in a group, the evidence for assessment may be presented collectively but will be assessed on an individual basis for your contribution to aspects of the work, from planning, research and production to evaluation.

B R I E F

For this brief, you will need to produce a media portfolio, comprising of main and ancillary texts and a presentation of your research, planning and evaluation in electronic format (in this case blogger).

The portfolio will be produced through a combination of two or more of the following media:

• Video
• Print 
• Web-based
• Audio
• Games Software

M A R K S

As at AS this unit it marked out of 100.

• Planning and Research (20)
• Construction (20)
• Evaluation (60)