Music Industry Case Study 2

Independent Record Label:
An Independent record label or Indie record label is a record label that operates without the funding of or outside major record labels. Many commercial bands and musical acts begin their careers on independent labels

Case Study:
Name: A&M Records

Established: 1962

Background:

• American by nature,
• Most early artists were Jazz Artists,
• Moved into Pop in the 60's and 70's,
• Began including British Artists in the late 60's,
• Became the worlds largest Independent company from the 1980's onwards,
• Entered a distribution agreement with RCA Records,
• Released Soundtracks for key films as well, e.g.: Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves,

Music Industry Research and Case Study 1

The Music Industry:
The music industry consists of the companies and individuals that earn money by creating new songs and pieces and selling live concerts and shows, audio and video recordings, compositions and sheet music, and the organisations and associations that aid and represent creators.

Example Music Industry Organisation and Case Study

Organisation: RCA Records (Radio corporation of America)


Parent Company: Sony Music Entertainment

Mainstream or Independant Company: Mainstream

Genre: Various (Pop. Rock, Hip-Hop, Blues, Jazz, etc...)

Artists who have worked with them: Rick Astley, Take That, Miley Cyrus, Whitney Houston, etc...

History:

• Started on 23rd June 1901,
• Suffered during the American Great Depression and World War 2,
• Began to make a better name for itself in the late 50's early 60's,
• Started releasing vinyl's around the same time,
• The digital age helped improved sales and the companies rep,
• Began to struggle as more music companies sprang up,
• Began working with Broadway and Hollywood in the late 70's early 80's,
• Multiple controversies regarding fraud and career ruining contracts with artists such as Kelly Clarkson, Kenny Rogers, etc...

My Artists Mood Board (Computer version)

Goodwin's Theory and analysis

Andrew Goodwin: Video Analysis theory
Writing in 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' (Routledge 1982)

1) Music Video's demonstrate genre characteristics e.g.:performance, dance, etc...

2) Their is a relationship between lyrics and visuals,

3) Their is a relationship between music and Visuals,

4) close-ups of the artists-visual style

5) Frequent reference to notion of looking (e.g.: screens within screens, telescopes, etc..) and voyeuristic treatment of the female body,

6) Often intertextual reference to a separate media e.g.: film, tv, other Music Video's,

Case Study: Bastille-'Bad Blood'

research into a Music Video Director: David Fincher

Music Video Director role:
A music video director is the head of music video production. The director conceives of videos' artistic and dramatic aspects while instructing the musical act, technical crew, actors, models, and dancers. They may or may not be in collaboration with the musical act.

David Fincher:
As a music video director, Fincher has won two Grammy Awards for Best Music Video, for his work in "Love Is Strong" by The Rolling Stones (1995) and "Suit & Tie" by Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z (2013), and three MTV Video Music Awards for Best Direction, being one of the most awarded directors in the category, alongside Spike Jonze. He also earned back-to-back MTV Video Music Awards for Best Direction in 1989 for "Express Yourself" and in 1990 for "Vogue". In 1990, he earned three of the four available nominations in the Best Direction category.

Source of Knowledge: Wikipedia, kew word research-David Fincher Music Video Director
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Fincher#Music_videos

Example of David Fincher's work:

Case Study on Recording Artist/Band

Gary Barlow

Born: 20th January 1971 (Age 45),

Profession/Occupation: Singer, Songwriter and Record producer,

Genre: Pop

Background Knowledge:

• At 15 he reached the semi-finals to a music competition and was invited to London's West Heath Studio,
• At 18 he recorded his first single "Love is in the Air",
• Same year he was introduced to Nigel Martin-Smith who invited Gary to join their boyband,
• 'Take That' soon consisted of: Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and finally Robbie Williams,
• Group were signed to RCA Records,
• First Album 'Take That & Party' released in 1992-topped at second in the UK Album Chart,
• 1993 reached number 1 with 4 top single songs,
• 2008-band nominated for 4 Brit awards,
• Since going solo Gary has written and performed songs for a variety of artists and for special events such as HRH Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Celebration,
• 2011-replaced Simon Cowell as the main Jude on 'The X Factor',
• A well renowned Charity working appearing with  charity groups such as Comic Relief, Children in Need and Cancer Research UK,
• Currently Married to Dawn Andrews and has 4 children: Daniel, Emily, Daisy and Poppy,
• Recognised as one of the greatest British Musicians of British History,

My Artists Biography

Name: John Conroy

Born: 20th February 1989

Nationality: British-Kent

Profession/s: Guitar Musician, Singer,

Family: Currently married to Elizabeth Conroy (26), has 2 children Emma (4) and Sophie (3), all currently live in the Sidcup area of Kent.
His parents Andrew (49) and Sophia Conroy (48) live close by and spend much time with them all.

General Information:
John is an upcoming artist who's musical skills have granted him performances at several local music events and his singing has allowed him to appear at major events such as Glastonbury Festival.
His love of music began from an early age, his parents often found him tunefully singing in his room and old school friends say "You could never pass John without hearing him humming to another song, it was his main passion".
After completing Secondary School John applied to the University of Durham to begin working on his musical passion, while their he joined up to a musical arts class hosted by ex-musicians, his passion and skill was quickly recognised and soon he was invited to London's West Heath Studios to start recording his own songs.

By the time John had reached 20 he had already been asked to join a boy band, 'The English Men' began touring the UK at first in small scale festivals but gradually working their way up and building on their popularity and finally making it to the O2 in London, from their on the band made their way onto the charts and in 2010 the reached top 3 with their song "Cant ever let you go!"

It was on this tour that John met his current wife Elizabeth, while touring in Wales the two musicians met and fell in love both in each others personalities and in their equal passion for music, in early 2011 John proposed to Elizabeth and later that year the two became married and in mid 2012 they announced the immanent arrival of their first baby.

While Johns family life was beginning, his time with 'The English Men' was slowly ending, each band member had received substantial offers from seperate music studios and in late 2012 the band officially broke up but all members remain good friends to this day.

Currently John has signed a contract with Capitol Studios and is expected to release his first solo album in late 2016, early 2017.

Artists/Groups who relate to the Genre I have picked + example songs:

Ed Sheeran:

Gary Barlow:

Passenger:

Robbie Williams:
Sam Smith:

Pop Music Genre Analysis:

Pop Genre:

-Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form in the Western World during the 1950s and 1960s as a softer alternative to Rock and Roll,

-"Pop music" can be used to describe a distinct genre, aimed at a youth market.

-Characteristics of pop music include an aim of appealing to a general audience, rather than to a particular sub-culture or ideology, and an emphasis on craftsmanship rather than formal "artistic" qualities,

-Music scholar Timothy Warner said it typically has an emphasis on recording, production, and technology, rather than live performance; a tendency to reflect existing trends rather than progressive developments; and aims to encourage dancing or uses dance-oriented rhythms,

-The main medium of pop music is the song, often between two and a half and three and a half minutes in length,

-Pop music has been dominated by the American and (from the mid-1960s) British music industries, whose influence has made pop music something of an international monoculture, but most regions and countries have their own form of pop music,

-The Pop music Genre is expressed significantly through key Music Artists such as: Michael Jackson, Ed Sheeran, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, etc...

-There are multiple sub-genres that arise within the pop Genre itself:

Source of evidence: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_popular_music_genres#Pop

Genre analysis and identification from own knowledge:

A2 Media Studies: Course Specifications

A2 G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media

25% of A2 Work=Music Video
100 marks total

Portfolio will include:

• Music Video
• Digipak
• Magazine for Digipak

Music Video Specifications:

• No Swearing
• Nothing Explicit
• Few found images/footage
• No Copyright
• Aware of cinematography/ framing/ editing

• Music video will be completed by March
• Ancillary text/Magazine and Digipak will be done individually and completed by Christmas-exam preparation afterwards

The Exam:

• Section A-Evaluating Year 12 and Year 13 work (Practical)-2 Questions
• Section B-Collective Identity-Analyse how women are represented in 2 different texts and discuss there representation in Music Videos and Prints.

Digipak Specifics:

• 6 Panels, must include: Front Cover+Title, Track Listing, Lyric Book, Bar Code, Record Label

Types of music videos

Narrative Based Video:

• A video consisting of a story relating to the lyrics and genre of the song, also it is a useful technique for engaging an audience.
• This type of song is often used when it features a film or scenes from a film e.g.: Fast and Furious 7-When I See You Again

Performance Based Video:

• This type features the band/artist performing either to the camera or an audience. This is a popular technique rock bands use as there concerts are usually high energy and there is more interest for a viewer to watch the band perform as a whole rather than an artist on their own.
• ACDC's 'Highway to Hell' is a good example of such a video.

Concept Based Video:

• These are sometimes unusual because they are based around one idea. They often concentrate on a specific editing technique.
• Normally a video would no consist totally of one concept.
• However a good example of a video that consists entirely of one idea is 'Her Morning Elegance/ Oren Lavie'

Example music video 3

Avicii-Hey Brother

Why I like this music video:
This is one of my favourite music videos because it is in fact a completely different story to the song itself however the music gives the video much more of an in depth understanding.

The video is the story of a kid and how his father went off to fight and unfortunately die in the Vietnam war, however the story adjusts this tale slightly so that the father is more like a brother to the kid, this is where the song 'Hey Brother' fits in perfectly with the narrative.

Example music video 2

Avicii-Wake Me Up

Why I like this music video:
In a similar way to the One Direction song-"What makes you beautiful" the majority of the video is the narrative within, with the song overlapping it, however the artist Avicii does appear at the end of the video and this is also where the video itself changes its setting to match the videos narrative.
Furthermore the video transition between two settings/narratives matches up with the song because it is the characters 'Waking up' from one life and starting a new one.

Example music video 1

One Direction-What makes you beautiful

Why I like this music video:
I like how the video is entirely based in the narrative of the song itself, the general setting is at the beach but because their is no switch between a studio performance and a character performance it makes the music video much more effective and makes it feel much more realistic.

Music Videos: Codes and Conventions

Codes and Conventions of music videos:

Cinematography:

1. Music Videos combine a mix live performance with stage performance to maximise its impact on the audience,
2. Camera usage and image sequence are crucial in the videos impact on its audience,
3. Camera movement, angle and shot distance are crucial aspects to be analysed,
4. The camera can be used to track the performer when they are walking/dancing or it can be used to move around the performer so as to create a more dynamic video,
5. Close-ups should be used throughout to emphasise the commodity of the artist as well as his/her voice.

Editing:

1. Fast cut montages are crucial to intense soundtrack videos as they help to ensure multiple viewings because of the difficulty to see the video from the first viewing,
2. Slower paces videos and transitions are used more to emphasise a particular mood that the artist want to put across-these are more common amongst female artists,
3. (Music Video to analyse=The Verve-Bitter Sweet Symphony)

Music Video facts and tips:

• The rise of digital technology had a big impact on the recording industry,
• New digital recorders made it cheaper to record as well as improving quality and enhancing the experimentation that can be had in the editing stage,
• Non-representation techniques (not showing the artist within the video) was becoming more popular,

Music Videos: The Beginning

• The introduction of film and cinema gave way to the idea of combining moving images with music, thus the first ever music videos were produced n film as far back as the 1920's.

• In the beginning music videos were popular amongst Jazz musicians as a way of promoting themselves and the newly invented music genre, the first of these videos came with artists such as Bessie Smith with her St. Louis Blues in 1929.

• The Move into the Modern Era:

• 1965: Bob Dylan sang Subterranean Homesick Blues in the film Don't Look Back-The song was credited for being the first modern music video.
• 1970: The Record industry uses TV shows to promote its artists, initially starting with 'promos' to replace the live performance of artists.
• 1975: Queen released Bohemian Rhapsody, this was the very first video to incorporate the new technology of digital visual effects, this set the base for all future music videos and set about the modern era for music videos and artists alike.