(R) Audience Concepts - The Basics

(R) Uses & Gratifications Theory

The first generation to grow up with a television in lives became grown ups in the 1960s. During this time, it became more and more apparent to media theorists that audiences made choices about what they did when consuming texts. Audiences weren't a passive mass, they were made up of individuals who actively consumed texts for various different reasons and in numerous different ways.

 

In 1948 Lasswell suggested that media texts had the following functions for individuals and society:

• surveillance
• correlation
• entertainment 
• cultural transmission 

Researchers Blulmer and Katz expanded this theory and published their own in 1974, stating that individuals might choose and use a text for the following purposes:

• diversion: escape from everyday problems and routine
• personal relationships: using the media for emotional and other interaction (e.g. substituting soap operas for family life)
• personal identity: finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from texts
• surveillance: information which could be useful for living (e.g. weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains)

Since then, the list of uses and gratifications has been extended, particularly as new media forms have come along (e.g. video games, the internet).

(R) Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin's music video theory is made up of five key aspects:

• Thought beats (where the audience 'sees' the sound)
• Narrative and performance
• The star image
• Relation of visuals to song
• Technical aspects of a music video

Step 1 - Thought Beats

• The audience 'looks into' the music and interprets it by looking at the chorus and verses
• A particular artist's voice can often be unique and recognisable, therefore they can easily be identified by the audience
• The artist can be known as a storyteller as they're almost telling a story within their song. The music video can be seen to aid the story that the artist is telling the audience through the vocals

The story that I want to portray in my music video is that Becky (the main character) will be suffering from heartbreak from losing a loved one. It won't be clear how she has lost a loved one, or who that loved one was, be that male or female, friend, family or lover; it will be up to the audience to interpret it however they want. The vocals repeat the idea of 'summertime sadness' and the visuals will show Becky looking sad and desolate, although there will be cuts to Becky looking happier and as though she's interacting with the person behind the camera which will give the audience the impression that this person behind the camera is obviously no longer with her when she's acting out the sad parts: this person behind the camera can be anyone the audience wants them to be.

Step 2 - Narrative and Performance

• Goodwin says that audiences tend to make up their own idea about the messages being sent by a song via a basic understanding of what it is actually about.
• Narrative and perfomance work together to make it easier for the audience to watch the video over and over without losing interest
• When the artist acts as the singer and an actor in the video it makes it more authentic
• Goodwin believed that miming is the most popular thing done in music videos, however it is in the artist's best interest to make it look as real as possible

Although not all of the shots in my music video will include miming, I will include parts that will include it in order to fully appeal to my target audience and make the whole experience as authentic as possible. I will have to practice miming though in order to make it look as real as possible, because if it doesn't look real the whole effect will be ruined and on the whole, the video will look less professional and be less pleasing to watch.

Step 3 - The Star Image

• Star image is a vital aspect of music videos as it is how the artist appears to the audience
• This could include their costume, their represented personality and their overall iconography - these elements might not sell the artist but they do help represent the artist to their target audience
• The star image develops over time and plays a big role in the production process of music videos

Lana Del Rey's star image can be seen as being highly manufactured or very unique and 'pure'. Throughout her music, Del Rey is portrayed as being the victim (many of her videos feature abusive relationships or some form of heartbreak), thus wearing a lot of white in order to emphasise her purity and innocence. Furthermore, she is consistently constructed as very vulnerable and naive person, although her appearance is very sexualised. Her costume, hair and makeup can be classed as being very 'retro', as she seems to draw inspiration from other past decades - i.e. the 30s, 50s and 60s - and in many of her videos there's a very retro feel to them via the use of old 'classic cars', sepia tones and other filters that help add to the retro feel. Del Rey describes herself as being a "self-styled gangsta Nancy Sinatra".

I will transfer some of this star image into my own music video, drawing inspiration from the Instagram-esque filters and the 'retro' styled costumes, hair and makeup. 

Step 4 - Relation of Visuals to a Song

• There are three ways used to promote a song - illustrate, amplify and disjuncture
• Illustrate: using images and videos to set the storyline and illustrate the meaning of the lyrics and the genre
• Amplify: constantly repeating certain parts of the video so that it is drummed into the audience's vision and makes them remember what happened
• Disjuncture: this is where the meaning of the song is completely ignored

For my music video, I will use a mixture of all three of these aspects. I will use the amplifying technique mostly for any abstract images that I include, I will use the illustrating technique when showing Becky as her darker self - the one currently suffering from heartbreak - and I will use the disjuncture technique when showing Becky as her 'lighter', purer self - when she is shown during happier times.

Step 5 - Technical Aspects

• Technical aspects hold the whole music video together (camerawork, movement, angle, mise-en-scene, editing, sound and special effects)
• Speed, camera movement, editing, cutting and post production are all forms of 'use of camera'
• Lighting and colour help set the mood and add emphasis on key moments
• The mise-en-scene is vital, it needs to look realistic in order to look professional, therefore appealing to a wider target audience
• The beats are cut in order to match the rhythm of the music thus making the video more entertaining

The editing for my music video will be very Instagram-esque, just like Lana Del Rey's videos actually are. Throughout the video there are two sides to Becky, during the 'darker' shots the lighting will probably be quite dull and the editing and pace quite slow to match the music, although during the 'lighter' shots, the lighting will be brighter, the editing more colourful and the pace faster, perhaps with a time lapse being featured. The setting throughout the video will be a Nature Trust park, although I will need to film away from crowds of people in order to make the video look more realistic and professional.

(R) What is a Digipak?

A digipak is packaging which is usually used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums and usuallly contains more special features than just a regular CD. A digipak usually consists of a 'gatefold' paperboard and one or more plastic trays to hold a CD. Digipaks were first created by MeadWestvaco and their product, called Digi-Pak, is trademarked.

The front of the digipak usually showcases some aspect of who the artist is or what they represent, and/or what their genre of music is. It also more than likely embodies a theme or a message to do with the artist's image. All aspects of the digipak, brand image and music video are all interwoven together, for example, if there's some futuristic idealism conveyed in the lyrics or the music video then the front cover would probably be more abstract and ambiguous. 

The aim of a digipak is to promote the sales of an artist, in the same way that the music video does. However, the features of a digipak give fans multiple reasons to buy the CD rather than downloading the content online. It could be argued that purchasing an artist's digipak establishes a consumer's loyalty to them, rather than simply purchasing the music via iTunes, or even illegally downloading it. 

A digipak is usually created as a 4 or 6 plate folded piece of card with a CD case in the middle and usually includes:

• a DVD
• a lyric book
• artist photos or imagery
• a list of songs

A digipak is basically a creative tool designed to appeal to and intrigue the audience, e.g. fans and people who take an interest in the genre of music.

(R) Media Convergence and Consumption

Media convergence is the idea that different types of media gradually come together because of advances in technology. For example, media can be consumed on various different platforms, i.e. it is now possible to watch a music video on a mobile phone, as opposed to watching MTV via a television.

The internet also allows audiences to possibly access music videos or films before they are officially released, or audiences can access reviews of music videos or films. Due to media convergence, forms of media which were once popular - CDs, for example - are now dying out as they're less able to compete with newer, less expensive forms of technology.

Media convergence has a great impact on the media industry due to its rapid growth - something that is popular today could be outdated in a few months' time.

To begin with, music videos were primarily streamed on MTV and viewed by audiences via a television. However, media convergence now allows audiences to watch music videos via the internet, through websites such as YouTube, where music videos can be streamed and shared with numerous other people, and other users can share their opinions via the comments. This can be very beneficial to an artist/band as it is a free method of distribution and they can gain valuable feedback and popularity because of the possibility of a mass audience viewing and sharing their video.

Media convergence also allows audiences to view an artist/band's song or video via many different platforms, such as mobile phones, iPods and iPads, meaning music videos can be viewed from anywhere in the world, not just where there is a television. Social networking websites also allows videos to be posted, which can allow them to quickly become viral and have a mass audience viewing them.

(R) History of Music Videos

(R) Purpose of Music Videos

There are various different purposes of a music video:

• To entertain the audience - these music videos are usually more linked to a narrative or performance based video
• To help the artist/band's tracks to be heard and appreciated globally, on a mass scale
• To help promote more sales and the shelf life of the artist/band
• To ensure that the artist/band's song becomes remembered
• To give the audience a better understanding of the lyrics - some song lyrics can be unclear and difficult to understand the meaning behind them, so a music video would help the audience understand the song more
• To provide the audience with the incentive to see the artist/band in concert
• To help keep the artist/band in the public eye after the album release, thus promoting more sales for their album
• To make money for the artist/band - most artist/bands will release their song without a music video first in order to create a buzz about the song, then when that buzz has died down they will release the music video for that song in order to recreate the buzz.
• To link a song to a film or television series
• To sell an artist/band's image and ideologies - this is usually linked with videos that feature story lines as the content or the style of the video usually helps to portray the style of the artist/band, and also allows the audience to relate and identify with the content of the video.

(R) The Music Industry

(P) Initial Ideas #1

Idea 1
Avicii - Wake Me Up

This song has opportunities to go down various different paths as it is a dance song but with slow, thoughtful lyrics in parts. The fast dance bits of the song have the possibility to be shots from parties - people dancing, having fun, not caring. Different people who are at the party would be singing the lyrics during the slow bit: "so wake me up when it's all over, when I'm wiser and I'm older, all this time I was finding myself and I didn't know I was lost" - basically the people involved would all be lost in some way so the mise-en-scene would reflect that in some way.

Idea 2
Lana Del Ray - Summertime Sadness (Cedric Gervais remix)

End of summer - end of relationship - juxtaposition 

Scenery shots from summer (leaves still on trees, etc.) and scenes from summer (snow, etc.) 

The summer represents happiness so therefore being the end of summer the main character would feel empty and lost so her actions would reflect this in the video. Juxtaposed to this could be the end of the main character's relationship so they could be looking back on this throughout the video. Lots of scenery shots would be used to reflect the feeling of summer and then the feeling of winter. The happy parts of the video could be styled as though the boyfriend is recording his girlfriend so she will be acting cute and happy and carefree and then it when comes to the end of summer she'll be alone and desolate, sad, etc.

Idea 3
Arctic Monkeys - Mardy Bum

The lyrics for this song represent a couple having their ups and downs, and conventionally, the music video would feature a male being in despair over his girlfriend arguing with him, as he feels he's wrongly accused. Therefore, the music video would feature a boyfriend and girlfriend going through the ups and downs of a relationship: arguing, then making up, etc. throughout the video. There would be cute moments, romantic moments and almost violent, angry moments.

Idea 4
Disclosure - F for You

The lyrics in this song are repetitive: "I've been infected with restless whispers and cheats / That manifested in words and lies that you speak / Because I played the fool for you" which give the impression that a girl/boy has done a boy/girl wrong by fooling them, cheating on them, lying to them, etc. So basically, it would be a break up music video but with an edgy, dance beat. My idea is to have a male stood still, with a neutral expression singing about the girl he fell for. This would be juxtaposed with separate shots of the girl dancing and being care free, etc. as though it's filmed like home video. The male would be shot in a plain, white room, with just a plain close-up of his face while he sings the words. There would be overlays of certain scenes over his face, possibly using a projector. Potentially, there would be an 'Instagram' feel to the video.

(R) Issues Surrounding Music Videos