Jay Z Analysis

Jay Z is seen as being a gangster in this music video. This can be seen by the use of urban setting where they use: freestyle dancing, guns, graffiti, criminality, rough looking clubs, him getting shot, basketball court, the police are white and black men are in prison.

The cinematography used is in the video are close-ups which are to show the record label, there are low angles when the camera are on Jay Z to show that we are inferior to him. There are other close-ups when he swears, shows that his record label is explicit, it also shows his aggression and his type of genre. The only other shot types that there are, are long shots of unimportant people, and the only close-ups that aren't on Jay Z are on the female "breasts and ass".

The target audience for this type of video is young adults which are addressed by any relevance to how they act compared to how people in the music video act.

His own record label is Def Jam, this shows his independence. There is less emphasis on Jay Z on his own as he is an established artist and doesn't need a lot of focus.

Goodwin

There is reference and notion of looking in the video, this is shown by when you see his face is on another TV within the video. The lyrics match the video when he talks about his hat he then proceeds to move it. He also says the word "bitch" and it literally shows a woman. There is a synchronous relationship, when he raps fast the video goes fast and it cut's in time with the beat. The use of fast editing shows that it's an aggressive music video. 

Michael Jackson "Beat it" Presentation Analysis

Music Industry in Crisis

Music Record Labels

Difference between major and independent labels.

Major label - A major label is owned by an enormous corporation. Majors have tons of money to throw into promotion and tour support advertising. Major labels are more strict about what they let their artist release as they don't want to pay for something that's going to fail.

Independent label- Independent labels are low key and they will sign an artist whether they think sound good and have a future in music. If you are signed into an independent label you will have to pay for the equipment that they will need to create the music.

The Big 3

Sony BMG - Sony BMG was a founded March 3rd 2004 and holds a share of 25% of the music market. They have offices in more than 30 countries around the world. They and own and distribute more than 20 labels, some which are big in the business, such as: SoSo Def, Red Music Distribution and J records. They also have some of the top selling artists such as: Britney spears, Justin Timberlake, Leona Lewis, etc...

Warner Music Group - Warner Brothers movie studio began the label in 1958 as a way to release the soundtracks from their films. The time they created the label was good due to the increase in popularity of rock and pop music. 1968 they acquired Atlantic Records, which at the time was well know for it's jazz and R&B.  They expanded again, by buying Elektra Records and changed their names to Warner Communications but was better known as Warner Elektra Atlantic (WEA). In1987 they merged with Time corporation forming Time Warner. They sold Warner Music in 2003 for $2.3 billion.

The Universal Music Group - The Universal Music Group is an American multinational company - a subsidiary of Universal Studios. In the early days, Universal Records was seen as an unimportant extension of the Universal Pictures Group who were the most successful movie studios in Hollywood. Some artists signed with Universal or with their subsidiaries include Kayne West, 50 Cent, Mariah Carey and Gwen Stefani.

Fanfare records - Fanfare records was a British record label that was founded by Iain Burton and Simon Cowell which was used to make Simon break into the music business. Burton and Cowell worked together at Fanfare Records for eight years. The label was most successful during the mid 1980s to early 1990s. The label became known and successful when they came with Sinitta. 

Postmodernsism is a shortcut to mass audiences

Postmodernism is a shortcut to mass audiences because it allows more people to get into something again, if something is remade the people who previously liked it will, and then you will have the newer audiences who haven't seen it before or didn't want to because of how old or different it was, but will now watch it due to it being modernised.

An example of postmodernism can be a parody an example of an artist who creates parody music videos is: Weird Al, an example of a music video he has made is Fat which is a parody of Bad by Michael Jackson:




and



You can see the resemblance by the beginning of the song and how it is acted out. The setting that they are both in is some form of car park. He sings with the same beat and tune to the Bad song, it is almost the same song.

John Fiske develops Roland Barthes' semic code: A car chase representation is relatable to to us due to all the ones we have seen in tv shows and movies. It is rare that we are going to experience one in real life and if we were to ever get into a car chase we would try to follow the model from the media we were given. We would understand intertexually, in terms of have seen so often on our screens. This has created the cultural knowledge of the concept of a 'car chase' and it has left people knowing it as a normal event.

Postmodernism Notes

Postmodernism - Characterized by the self conscious use of the earlier styles and conventions, it's a mixing of different artistic style and media.

Experimental - Stage of genre attempts to establish trends.

Cannon- Stage works within those trends to dix them into our cultural understandings.

Post modern- Looks at trends

Post modern- Becomes new by referring to the old, invents by copying, humorous or terrifying and anyone can make it.

Homage - Imitation is the highest form of flattery.

Pastiche- Using the imagery of the one text to make comments about another.

Parody- Taking the mickey.

Examples of homage is "Smooth Criminal" and "Naughty Girl" following the film "Band Wagon".

An example of pastiche is Will Young's "Switch it on" which is a copy of Tony Scott's "Top Gun".

An example of a parody is "Predator the musical" where someone has made a song out of the lines in the predator movie.

Goodwin's Theory Notes

Music videos more often than not tend to include a demonstration of typical genre characteristics.
There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals and a link with music and visuals. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups on the artist.  Frequently reference to notion of looking is often an intertexual reference. There are frequent references to the notion of looking and the voyeuristic treatment of the female body. The voyeuristic treatment is usually used to get more people to watch their music videos as companies know sex sells, therefore selling out a body will help people with gaining a lot of publicity and attention towards their music video. For example: "Blurred Lines" featured naked women and got a lot of attention due to that.

Technical Codes

Technical codes - Cinematography

As with any moving image text, how the camera is used and how images are sequenced will have a significant impact upon moving.

Camera movement, angle and shot distance all need to be analysed.

Camera movement accompanies movement of performers but also creates a more dynamic feel to stage performance. They did this by constantly circling the band as they form a song.

Close-up does predominate, as in most TV, partly because of the screen size and partly because of the desire to create a sense of intimacy for the viewer. Also emphasises half of the commodity on sale.

Technical codes - Editing 

Most common form of editing is fast cut montage, rendering many of the images impossible to grasp on first viewing, there are videos that use slow pace and gentler transitions to establish mood.

This is particularly apparent for the work of many female solo artists with a broad audience appeal, such as Dido.

Often enhancing the editing is digital effects which play the original images to offer different kinds of pleasure for the audience. E.G. Split screens, colourisation and blockbuster film CGI.

Development of technical codes

They key innovation in the development of the modern music was: video recording and editing processes along with effect - Chroma Key or Green/Blue screen.

The advent of high-quality colour videotape recorders and portable video cameras enabled pop acts to produce videos easier.

In the 1990s, a number of technical codes became common.

Most common form of editing associated with the music promo is fast cut montage. Many images impossible to grasp on first viewing thus ensuring multiple viewings.

Split screens and other common effects.

Non- representation techniques, in which the musical artists are never shown have become more common.

Lack of edits,long takes/steadicam also common experimentation.

As genre developed music video directors turned into 35mm film.

By mid-1950s releasing a music video to accompany a new single became a new standard.

History of Music Video Notes

Music video

The invention of film/cinema brought the possibility of combining music and moving images. The advanced in technology helped with this process as it allowed more possibilities.

Music videos have been around since the 1920's, many musicians such as Bessie Smith, made short films to accompany popular songs. This could be seen as one of the first times use of film/cinema came into play.

Bob Dylan 1965- Films "Subterranean Homesick Blues" as a segment for D.A Pennebaker's film, "Don't look back"- and is credited as one the first modern music videos.

Bohemian Rhapsody in 1975, by Queen was marked the beginning of the video era and set the language for the modern music video. Considered one of the first to use advanced visual effects.

They used effects such as: Fade in/out, Zooming In, Close-up's, cross fading and more.
 

Blog Brief

The brief of this project is to make a music video with a promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video with two of the following three options: A website homepage for the band, a cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package), or a magazine advert for the digipak (CD/DVD package)