Questionnaire

Me and my group decided to do a short questionaire to see what type of music people our age listen to. We came to the conclusion that it was alternative indie rock, luckily the video that we decided to shoot was simialr of that style.

Music questionnaire

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Digipak Layouts

All digipak styles tend to be quite similar, as in you open it up and the cd is inside, but some of them have little twists like this Oasis album. Layouts such as this one, make it more interesting for the audience to look at. It includes extra things that the audience can look at, whether that be pictures of the band or lyrics, or even just words that the band has said. If you've made an album though, I think it gives the audience a reward having bought the album, if theres something a little bit different to the average digipak layout.

A layout that caught my eye, and one which I found interesting was this one, I'm not sure who the artist is, but it has different compartments and allows the audience to look through it when listning to the album. Read about the history of the band that they're listning to and whose music they admire.

They help promote the band and their songs, some albums include pull out posters promoting the band further. Some digipaks also include a DVD of the artists live at gigs, and if they really want to promote they might even include stickers. Usually a bands digipak would have a recognizable style so that the audience would instantly know who they were, sometimes before even looking at the name.

If you were to construct a layout this would be the most typical common design.

Cd sales and statistics

Cd sales has dropped massively since last year, as downloads have risen. Sales albums has shown that it dropped 3.5% in 2010. Across the year single sales increased by 32.7%, and 98% of those were digital downloads. More and more people have started to download entire albums, declining the sales of CD albums. To show the declining decrease in album sales in 2009 Zavvi formerly known as Virgin completely collapsed and had to shut down.

" while sales of physical Cd's continue to trend downwards, music fans are clearly responding to the explosive growth of digital retailers and outlets selling and streaming music in the UK. 2009's result is clearly encouraging."

The BPI said the album market was aided by a healthy stream of releases in 2010 with Lady Gaga, Susan Boyle, Micheal Buble etc.

According to the Telegraph they say that ' Vinyl records and cassette tapes have enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, as more music fans ignore Cd's and digital downloads, official sale figure suggests. The official UK chart company showed that old fashioned albums rose more than 5% last year. Cd's have fallen by a fifth in the same amount of time. American sales of Vinyl records topped almost 3 million, an increase of about a million records. Amazon said it had more than 250 000 vinyl albums in stock to meet the growing demands of the customers.

And Internet search engine Yahoo has shown a 210% increase in people searching blank cassette tapes, and 110% increase in people searching music cassette tapes. Most vinyl sales in the past have been made by Dj's and dance music fans, but more rock and country ones have been sold recently.
Music experts say that vinyl sales could be even higher because official sale statistics do not include those from smaller record shops and albums sold at concerts. British sales of 7inch records reached its peak in 1979, with roughley about 89 miliion copies being sold. But Cd's started to become more popular so vinyl sales dropped to 180 000 in 2001. But last year sales rose to about 223 000 million.

"Vinyl sounds richer and there's something special about cover art and the sleeve notes which you cannot get with digital tunes."

The music industry blames the illegal download market for the ever falling sales. Digital piracy makes up 95pc of the global download market. The global music industry sales dropped physically and digitally by 10pc last year. Since new legal music sites have been introduced to us Spotify and Itunes, so far they have failed to stop to problem.

My Music video Idea.

Like in some of the music videos out there some of them follow a story, and cut from music scenes to the story scenes. Our song that we're going to use is Boy racer by our friends band the Richard Heads. We've decided to have at the start the bit where all the racers meet each other, and we're going to have the people who win the race to be really geeky, as it's that kind of humour that's been in some of the other video's that I've analysed. Me and my group have made story boards talking about the different shots, and camera movements that we will be using in our video. We have also decided that we are going to try and do some lip syncing as I think that it looks quite good, we are also going to include jump cuts to the band actually playing the song, and to the story of the race. We were thinking about using the slow motion effect at the end, as it when the first car wins as it might add to the humorous effect that we want for our video.

Alternative rock music videos

Alternative rock emerged from the independent music scene, there's lots of different headings that come under this genre such as grunge, britpop, indie rock etc and it's all descended from original Punk Rock. Bands that come under this genre would be ones like : Blink 182, Biffy Clyro, Nirvana, Foo Fighters etc.

Here's some examples of some music videos that come under the genre, in the videos the bands don't take themselves too seriously, there fun and enjoyable to watch. They don't seem as though they're technically difficult to create, and they seem achievable.

Blink 182 - All The Small Things




This is a modern alternative video, they are making jokes out of boy bands and over exaggerating their actions. The typical representation of this band


is that they like to enjoy themselves and have fun with their music, and that is portrayed through their video. Because the video includes a funny context it allows the producers not to add in any unnecessary effects. The music is fast pace so it includes lots of jump cuts and panning to portray the pace of the song, it also uses establishing shots, closeups and the stereotypical shots that are used in cheesy boy band videos.



Nirvana - Smells like teen spirit





With this video they have made it look as though its school pupils at a game with cheerleaders, but instead of it being a happy cheery expeierences they have completley changed the connotations of it. The crowds looking at the band ( them being the main attraction), the room its filmed in is smokey and the lighting is dark. Again like the other video there is no special effects as they are not needed, special effects are usually used in pop videos, or videos from the 70's or 80's, thats what I've noticed. Again the producers use lots of jump cuts, panning, close ups etc. shots and movements that keep up with the pace of the song.

Album Posters

This advert has all the key features of which an advert needs, it tells you who it is, it gives you an image, the album name, the release date, what format you can purchase the songs buy, and the most famous featured tracks. Some features that are missing would be a web address and a review quote, but both things aren't really essential. I think the reason the comapany has decided not to put a review quote is because they want the audience to make their own minds up about the album. The Foo Fighters are a famous, popular well established band, and at the bottom it says 'includes' it draws the audience in, and grabs their attention without giving too much away. So that bits the selling point. Another key feature of an album advert is that its bold and straight to the point, which this advert has portrayed. They have used the same image as whats on the album cover, so when the consumer comes to buy the cd, if obviously the advert has persuaded them it will be easily recognizable. I like how they've kept the colour scheme simple because it makes the logo stand out, and draws your attention to the advert.

Again this advert is straight to the point and bold. Its very different to the one before, its just full of reviews, this is a good selling point as it shows how much people respect and rate the album. They've put reviews in bold red writing so that it stands out, and is eye capturing and easy for others to read. They've kept it simple by not adding any pictures, they can do this as they are well established and the band already have their audience, so they don't need to 'over advertise'.

Kasabians band poster looks mysterious, the poster gives away no clues of the genre or the bands attitudes. This is their unique selling point. The basic message of this advert is just telling you to buy it, just like its waiting for you.

Bands advertised in magazines

Bands are usually featured in magazines when something big happening to them, so their releasing a new album or single or their going on tour etc. So they always feature to advertise themselves. Each different magazine features bands that relate to their genre, so Q would probably have Take That or Oasis or someone, NME would have new bands such as The Horrors or The Gossip.

This article is from Mojo, it was when the band The Last Shadow Puppets first started out, its advertising the bands first single, and making the audience aware if a new band and familiarising them to it. The bands a combination of the two front men from current successful bands, Alex Turner from the Artic Monkeys and Miles Kane from The Rascals. So the Last Shaddow Puppets are promoting themselves to audiences
that both of there orginal bands gathered, as those that are interested in music always like to hear new and different things. The magazine has been clever when thinking up a title for the articale 'best of both worlds', it makes it sound as though they will bring something new and interesting to the music world, which is a clever advertisment and word choice that MOJO has come up with.

This advertisment is advertising a tour, a new album (west pauper lunatic asylum) and new tracks (vlad the impaler). The band has a quirky, rock n roll vibe, you can tell this by the photo they have used, the front man with a spotlight beaming down on him. They don't need to over do their image as they're a well known band with a good reputation. It's not as though they're a new band, they are well established with a large varied audience, so they have to kepp the poster fairly simple, as to appeal to everyone. It must be successful though, seeing as they always get sell out tours!

This magazines advertising Britneys return after her downward spiral. So that's her advertisment selling her new singles, and people will because she is such a major superstar, they'll want to see if they've become worse or if anything has changed etc. The magazine has a wide audience, people buy it monthly as they are faithful to the magazine, so it's clever that she's agreed to so this interview as people will read it, people that don't usually listen to Britney spears, so her songs should hopefully recieve a wider audience. Everyone says that she has 'the girl next door' look, so they've chose an image, slightly reavling but not so much, making it appeal to men and women. They haven't really wrote anything about her on the cover, making people want to read further, especially for her fans. That's an effective selling technique.

Band advertisment research

The type of magazine that I'd like our bands advertisment to be in, would appear in magazines such as Mojo or Q, they feature bands and have a style similar to ours. In order for bands to sell themselves and their albums they need to be advertised in the right places, where their supposed target audience are likely to look. So featuring in a magazine which is typical to the bands genre gives them a good chance of selling themselves to the right sort of people.





With every single edition of this magazine they include a cd of the featured artist, including a few of their tracks, straight away thats a selling point for the band because it makes the audience want to hear more if they like it enough. The magazine hope people with an interest in the 'rock n roll' genre will buy it. The artists name doesn't really stand out very much because it doesn't have to, Noel Gallagher has an extremely recognizable face for those interested in music and the magazine genre. So its common knowledge that the audience know who he is, making people want to read further. The magazine have been very clever whilst coming up with a photo for the cover, the message that his face gives me is 'you better buy this magazine as I didn't get interviewed for nothing', his face is the thing that makes you pick up the magazine. The artists/bands that MOJO uses gives the magazine the reputation that they take their music serouisly, and so they have to be careful when picking their artists as they want people with an amazing reputation.




This is the inside interview feature of the magazine. It shows a different side to Noel, he seems more loosend up, more laid back, it seems as though he wants to do the interview he's more willing to do it, compared to the front cover. Instead of advertising his own music, he's talking about his favorite bands, advertising other peoples music.

Album Covers - Digipak reasearch

Most of the time album covers are relevant to the genre of music, but you can get random ones. The factors that make album covers different are the images, the font, the layout, and the colours. They create common ideolgies and opinions of the band or artist, letting you create your own opinion. They need to look interesting and appealing to the audience, to draw their attention, making it more likely they'll buy it.

The album name is placed along the top of the cd, it's not part of the cd. It relates to the image and the band, because at the time when the Clash where in their prime time, it was a time of racism. So it was a 'black market clash' against England. The font of the name is simple, because I think the band were trying to send out a message. The Clash is written in a destroyed kind of way, which could have connotations of social equality being destroyed at that time. The band wanted to combine both punk and reggae together, which they did very successfully and were also one of the first bands to ever do that. Even though the photos are real pictures, it has a cartoon effect about it. It was a time period of riots, so the cartoon likeness could be their idea of a joke towards civilization. The cover has connotations of the band having strong opinions towards the government and society, and if you know about the band members especially Joe St rummer you will also know that that's true. I think that its easy to identify a punk album, simply because somewhere on the album they will use bright, fluorescent colours, or they will use surrealist images. They've also shown that their not soley just punk, by putting the rastefarian on the front, it also shows they were not embarrased to be different and they enjoyed being experimental and individual. Not all punk album covers have messages on them, but this was a band all full of strong opinions, and rebellion against the government.

As you can see this album cover is influenced by the genre. The obvious aspect would be the punk being the central image, it's got a scribbly look about it. The name looks like its spray painted, this has connotations of the band being rebellious. The slogan to me shows how the band has different sides to them, whether that be a difference in songs, or personality. The design of this album is another typical convention of the punk albums, having a black and white image with the name standing out in colour. On all of Rancid's other albums they've kept the style of the name exactly the same, with just a change in colour, they also keep the style of the images the same, they put a cartoon like effect on them. This gives the band their iconic image, making the albums and their image recognizable.

A2 Media Cousework Brief/ music video history

When Tv was first introduced Mtv was the first channel to ever show a modern music video. The first video to ever be shown was The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star. In the video it was extremely experimental, including a number of different themes. One of the first successful videos that really did push the boundries of technology was Micheal Jackson - Beat It. As you can imagine for the audience at that time it would of been exciting to watch as it was a lot different to the videos that were around at that time.
Obviously since then conventions of music videos have changed becoming more experimental, for example the Gorillaz have pushed technology boundaries. As you can see compared to the Micheal Jackson video you can see how much technology has improved





A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together 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);
- a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

I've decided to choose this brief for my coursework because it was the one that I was most interested in, and believe I will do my best in. I've also decided to choose 'punk' for the genre of music, as that's the genre of our friends band that we have decided to use. I have decided to create a magazine advertisement and an album cover because my skills are more developed in that area of technology.

As Media Course Work Evaluation

Magazine Evaluation Link

http://www.scribd.com/full/54136266?access_key=key-2chcyvs1jh509b9vawil

FINAL double page

My Photoshoot for my feature band

FINAL FINAL Contents page

I looked at mojo's contents page whilst creating mine. Some aspects are very similar. It fits the house style of my magazine as I've kept the colour scheme similar.

My FINAL FINAL front cover

As you can see the changes that I made from the other front cover I uploaded is, I got rid of the usic magazine as it didn't really fit in with the magazine. I moved the pull quote down, and I've moved the tag line.

Final Advert

I've added a quote onto my advert to catch the readers eye. Most adverts that I've looked at all included a tag line, and were kept quite simple so that's why I decided to do. I cropped and desaturated my image on Google. I decided to do an advert just focusing on a amplifier because my magazine has a focus on the quality of music rather than the actual people.

Advert

For my magazine I've decided to produce an advert. This advert would appear on the indside of the cover, so like a double page spread linked to my contents page.

Front cover

Edited Front Cover Picture

What I did to my picture is I made a copy and in layor 0 I added a lense flare, so that it would look like a spotlight so that the singer was at a gig. I desaturated the image and turned up the brightness and contrast. I wanted the focus to be on the guitar as the image for my magazine is meant to be classy, and more about the quality of music. This guy is meant to be Bob Dylan and because the music he produces is quality, thats why the focus is on the guitar and it doesnt show his head. Also you can tell this by the tagline on the front cover under the name Bob Dylan it says 'the mystery'.

Pictures

This is the picture that I decided to use for my front cover, because after I had changed it on photoshop it will end up looking how I intend my magazine to look, my front cover is a different musicans compared to my double page articale. This picture made my magazine looks more classier and sophisticated.

Flat Plan:front cover