Ed Sheeran - + Digipak Analysis

Having analysed the album cover for Ed Sheeran's album '+', in my previous blog post, I will analyse the rest of the digipak in this post.

Ed Sheeran - "+" Album Cover Analysis

Band Instagram

We created this page as we wanted our band to look as authentic and professional as possible, with our research showing us that indie artists communicate with their fans by posting photos to the app. Examples of indie artists that I researched that do this include:
-The 1975
-Ed Sheeran
-The Hoosiers
-The Wombats

Song List for 'The Secret Nothings' Debut Album

As well as our chosen song - 'Heart Out' by The 1975 - I also need a wide variety of existing songs from the indie genre to form the song list of our fictional band's digipak. My research has shown that indie bands usually feature 10 to 12 songs on an album so, as a result, I have decided to use 12 songs - including our chosen one. The songs that I have chosen come from a variety of different indie bands, with the reason I have chosen all of these songs being that they all sound stylistically different, but the themes of love, heartbreak, pain and emotion all being present in them. The song listing of my album is:
01. Heart Out - The 1975
02. Walking Disasters - The Wombats
03. Sweater Weather - The Neighbourhood
04. Handshake - Two Door Cinema Club
05. Tiny Legs - Then Thickens
06. Pressure - The 1975
07. Dead American Writers - Tired Pony
08. Rain - The Luka State
09. When It Rains - Paramore
10. The Wolves (Act 1 & 2) - Bon Iver
11. Tiptoe - Imagine Dragons
12. Avocado, Baby - Los Campesinos!

Indie Music Video Questionnaire

Enclosed in this blog post is a questionnaire that I made and set to establish my music video target audience of those who would watch a music video of the indie genre. In making this questionnaire, I took into account the different type and genre interests, age and gender of the participants, and what makes a music video indie. The responses are soon to follow.

Indie Genre Moodboards

In my research, I have made two mood boards focusing on my chosen genre - indie rock. They focus on conventions found in the genre such as bands, clothing, hairstyles, colours, instruments, behaviours and styles. My group and I will hopefully take note of and use these conventions to further both our band's persona and final product.

Band Twitter

In order to further the illusion that our band is real, as well as giving our band an identity/persona, my group and I decided to create a Twitter account to give our band's followers announcements, updates, tour information and other general info that can be kept track of. This is good for our band as it can be used to make our band's digipak and website more authenticity, as we can use the Twitter as a social networking link as well as featuring a Tweet bar to show all tweets from the account and when they've been updated.

Our Band Name

In order to get inspiration for our indie rock group's band name, our group wrote down many different band names that sounded like they would belong to an indie rock band. We narrowed them down until our final three were - The Secret Nothings, Little Castles, and Into The Wild. We finally agreed that our band name should be The Secret Nothings as it adds a sense of mystery and enigma to our band, intriguing an audience in the type of music that our band makes and the content they produce.

UK Music Video Awards

The UK Music Video Awards are an annual celebration that rewards music videos that show "creativity, technical excellence, and innovation". The awards celebrate many different factors within the music video industry: from genre-led video categories, to prizes for individuals in the technical and craft areas of the business, to recognition for innovative approaches to music videos, ads and other visuals. There are also awards for international videos and outstanding individuals, voted for by jury members. The Awards take place in the autumn, with the entry process opening in early August.
The awards have many different categories such as BEST POP VIDEO, BEST DANCE VIDEO, BEST URBAN VIDEO, BEST ROCK VIDEO, BEST INDIE/ALTERNATIVE VIDEO, BEST INTERNATIONAL VIDEO, and VIDEO OF THE YEAR. Past winners for VIDEO OF THE YEAR include BJORK - WANDERLUST (2008), COLDPLAY - STRAWBERRY SWING (2009), OK GO - THIS TOO SHALL PASS (RUBE GOLDBERG MACHINE VERSION) (2010), MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA - SIMPLE MATH (2011), M.I.A. - BAD GIRLS (2012), and FLYING LOTUS - UNTIL THE QUIET COMES (2013).

VMAs (Video Music Awards)

An MTV Video Music Award (a.k.a. VMA) is an award presented by MTV to honor the best music videos. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category), the annual MTV Video Music Awards ceremony has often been called the "Super Bowl for youth", an acknowledgment of the VMA ceremony's ability to draw millions of youth from teens to young adults every year, with the VMA had becoming a coveted award. The statue given to winners is an astronaut on the moon, one of the earliest representations of MTV.
The annual VMA ceremony occurs before the end of summer and held either in late August or mid-September, and broadcast live on MTV. The first VMA ceremony was held in 1984 at New York City's Radio City Music Hall. The ceremonies are normally held in either New York City or Los Angeles. However, the ceremonies have also been hosted in Miami and Las Vegas. The VMAs have increasingly become renowned for the eye-catching performances that take place and the multiple controversies that the ceremony has produced regularly each year. In 1989, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora turned out a stripped down acoustic performance of the Bon Jovi hits "Wanted Dead or Alive and "Livin' on a Prayer", and in the process possibly provided the inspirational spark for MTV Unplugged.

Notable controversies that have occured on the VMAs include:
-1984: Madonna performed her hit "Like A Virgin" dressed as a prostitute bride and wearing a flashy buckle reading ‘Boy Toy’ before writhing around the stage.
-1989:  Andrew Dice Clay's appearance to promote his new movie, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, earned him a "lifetime ban" from the network when he introduced Cher with some of his already-notorious nursery rhymes that contained vulgar language and references.
-1991: A conflict between Poison's Bret Michaels and C.C. DeVille culminated in a fistfight.
-2003:  Madonna portrayed a groom kissing her brides, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, on stage.
-2008:  Host Russell Brand commented on Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, begging the audience to vote for him. Brand called President George W. Bush a "retarded cowboy" and claimed Bush "wouldn't be trusted with a pair of scissors in Britain."
-2009: Country singer Taylor Swift won Best Female video for "You Belong with Me." During her acceptance speech, rapper Kanye West unexpectedly showed up on stage. Taking the microphone from Swift, he announced "Yo Tay, I'm really happy for you, and Imma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!". MTV cut away from the stage (showing Beyoncé with an embarrassed look) after West gave the microphone back to Swift and giving the middle finger to the audience as they started booing him off stage, and so Swift did not finish her speech. West was removed for the rest of the show.
-2013:  Miley Cyrus' performance of her song "We Can't Stop" featured the former child star entering the stage through a giant teddy bear wearing a one-piece bodice with a teddy bear styled on it. The singer performed with a group of back-up dancers dressed as giant bears before singer Robin Thicke joined Cyrus on stage to perform his song "Blurred Lines". Cyrus then stripped down to a flesh colored bikini and proceeded to perform her signature twerking dance moves, simulating sex with Thicke and groping his genitals with a giant foam finger.

History of Music Videos

A music video is a short film that interlinks music and imagery, made for either artistic or promotional purposes - with modern music videos mainly being made as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Prior to the 1980s, these works were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip", "promotional video", "song video", "song clip" or "film clip". However, music videos came into prominence in the 1980s when MTV based their format and content around this type of media.
Music videos allow the audience to engage more with the artist.

The first example of an "illustrated song" was "The Little Lost Child" by  Edward B. Marks and Joseph W. Stern. The song showed the first hint of video synchronized with the song, with the idea being to combine a series of images (using a stereopticon) to show a narrative while it was being sung. 1902, saw the synchronized recording of music and film, with music accompanying a moving image (silent films) arriving in 1920. 1926 saw the arrival of "talkies", films with spoken dialogue, with "screen songs" (extract of the film with the song featured playing over it) being introduced in 1930. A famous example of a screen song would be Footloose (1983).

1956 saw the rise of television, with many promotional films for songs being shown on that form of media. A band that used this to advantage were The Beatles, who released several promotional films to television networks in 1965 - such as "Help!".

The first properly acknowledged music video was for "Video Killed The Radio Star" by The Buggles, in 1979. The video was produced on a budget of $50,000.

MTV was launched on 1st August, 1981 to showcase several different music videos and promote the artists involved. The first video ever played on the channel was for "Video Killed The Radio Star".
MTV's coverage also helped increase the popularity of Michael Jackson, who has been described as "transforming the music video into an art form and a promotional tool through complex story lines, dance routines, special effects and famous cameo appearances; simultaneously breaking down racial barriers." Music videos of his that have been described as influential include "Thriller" (1983), a 14-minute horror musical directed by John Landis and including a monologue by horror icon Vincent Price, and "Bad" (1987), a music video inspired by the musical film "West Side Story" and directed by directing icon Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver/Goodfellas/The Departed/Shutter Island/The Wolf of Wall Street), who inspired more well-known film directors to direct music videos - such as Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind/The Green Hornet), Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich/Adaptation/Her), David Fincher (Fight Club/Se7en/Zodiac/The Social Network), and Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo/Never Let Me Go) who directed the music video for "Scream" by Michael and Janet Jackson, which is the most expensive music video ever made at a budget of $7 million.

2001 saw the release of iTunes, a  media player, media library, and mobile device management application developed by Apple Inc. It allowed customers to purchase both music and music videos to watch on any Apple devices that they own. This was followed by the release of YouTube in 2005, a video-sharing website that allows users to upload, view, and share videos.

Influential music videos include "Take On Me" by A-ha in 1985, with the video using
a pencil-sketch animation/live-action combination called rotoscoping in which the live-action footage is traced-over frame by frame to give the characters realistic movements, and "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel in 1986, providing Claymation, pixilation, and stop motion animation that gave life to images in the song - and won 9 VMA's.

Some music videos have garnered over 1 billion views on line such as "Gangnam Style" by Psy (2012) and "Baby" by Justin Bieber ft. Ludacris (2010).

There have been several music videos to cause controversy. Notable examples include "Rock DJ" by Robbie Williams (2000) which features Williams stripping his clothes off before graphically ripping his own flesh off, "S&M" by Rihanna (2010), which features Rihanna in many sexually suggestive scenes, and "Telephone" by Lady Gaga ft. Beyoncé (2009), which features both artists poisoning an entire diner.

A new trend alongside music videos are lyric videos, which show the lyrics on the screen accompanying the music. Artists who have used this include Katy Perry and Taylor Swift.

Los Campesinos! - "Avocado, Baby" Music Video Analysis

Los Campesinos! are a six-piece indie band from Cardiff, Wales - comprised of Gareth Paisley, Neil Turner, Tom Bromley, Kim Paisley, Rob Taylor and Jason Adelinia. The song is the second and final single from the band's fifth studio album "No Blues", with the song running at 4:36 minutes. However, the video is 5:03 minutes long. The video is directed by actor Craig Roberts, who has starred in films such as Submarine and 22 Jump Street, and was released on the 29th of October, 2013.

The video reflects the lyric "And I feel like I'm the host of a terrible game show", by having the narrative feature the Gareth Paisley, the band's lead singer, portray a game show host whose life is rapidly going down hill. Throughout the video, his officials are seen to be trying to replace him with a younger, more attractive host, with the lead character's show decreasing in ratings due to uninterest - reflecting the lyrics "And the guests on today's quiz are celebrities. Won't respond to any clues they're just cracking jokes for views and the answers to these questions means everything". Additionally, when Paisley's character is eventually replaced, he is seen sporting a teardrop tattoo and being placed inside a coffin, mirroring his character's decline and reflecting the lyrics "May she who cast the first fist of dirt across the casket have mourners lick the mud from her fingernails". As Paisley's character's life continues to get more and more negative, the chorus of "Oh, it won't get better, that doesn't mean it's going to get any worse" is further reflected. The video ends with Paisley's character murdering his replacement and officials in a blaze glory, mirroring the ending line "A heart of stone, rind so tough it's crazy, that's why they call me the avocado, baby" - showing that no matter how bad his life gets, he is tough and unbreakable.

The video is filmed entirely in one take, however actions in the video take place to the beat of the song. An example of this would be Paisley's character reaching equilibrium and exiting his television studio at the moment that the final chorus builds to a crescendo. As well as this, the video manages to use a variety of different shots such as long shots, close-ups and low-angle shots, despite being filmed in one continuous take.

The target audience to this video is most likely to be for young adults, as the beat is incredibly catchy and the lyrics are witty and intelligent, giving the song meaning but also making it a good song to dance to.

The 1975 - "Settle Down" Music Video Analysis

Seeing as The 1975 are both a reputable band within the indie genre, and the band who have provided the song that we will be using within our video, I have decided to analyse a music video of one of their songs - "Settle Down". The song is fifth single from the band's (consisting of vocalist/guitarist Matthew Healy, guitarist Adam Hann, drummer George Daniel and bass guitarist Ross MacDonald - all from Cheshire, England) self-titled debut album. The song runs at 3:59 minutes, with the video itself running longer at 4:28 minutes. The video was released on the 29th of January, 2014, and is directed by Nadia Marquard Otzen. About the video, band frontman Healy states "I think I was slightly obsessed with how certain, bleak areas of Northern England contained my history and the soul of my family, my psyche - I always felt connected and disconnected at the same time.", as well as "I've always been quite fascinated with the potency of same sex relationships, plutonic or otherwise. I was brought up in a very open minded environment, somewhere I felt that, whoever I was, I would be accepted. With this understanding I was also very aware of others, school friends, acquaintances - whom, due to where we lived, probably didn't have such a comfortable place to grow up, we were unaffected and affected by taboos and the small minded at the same time."

The video, filmed entirely in black-and-white, tells the story of two young boys living in what looks to be a working-class town in the North East of England. Both boys are hinted to have feelings for one another throughout the video through a number of ways. At the beginning of the video, both boys are seen to be taking part in activities that are seen as "traditionally male", such as football and training for boxing, with authority figures such as their parents looking negatively at them whilst they are taking part in these activities - implying that the parents of these boys are disgusted at their sexuality and so force them to take part in "traditionally male" activities as a way to combat their feelings. Additionally, the boys are shown to be seen in certain locations but separated by barriers that stop them being together - for example, both boys are shown to be in a caravan park but one is trapped, looking out at the other one from inside a caravan, or both boys being in the back of separate cars, looking at each other sorrowfully as they pass each other. This reinforces the idea that they are living in a place that does not approve of the feelings that they have for each other. This can be seen to be backed up by the lyric "you know I can't be found with you". This reflects the theme of the video, as both boys know that they are not allowed to be seen together but can't help their feelings. Another way in which this theme is referenced within the video would be various shots showing adult figures in a church, preaching and praying. This could be a reference that many modern day Christians believe that homosexuality is a sin, again reinforcing that the two boys feelings for each other are seen to be negative within the place that they live. The video ends with the two boys escaping their homes and meeting up with each other, with them placing their hands to each other and creating a light between them. The light is seen to make their parents and all of the adults in the church fall unconscious, and soar high in to the sky. The light can be seen as the boys excepting their feelings for one another and no longer caring about the prejudice that they are facing from their authority figures. The main narrative plotline is interspersed with clips of the band frontman Healy walking through the town that the video is set, visiting the different locations that the boys were seen in throughout the video. Because of his facial expressions of sorrow throughout the video and the fact that he lights up at the climax of the video, this could imply that Healy is in fact one of the boys in the future visiting the town.

The video uses a variety of camera angles throughout - however, close-ups and mid-shots are mainly used to show the facial expressions of the characters or the actions that they are taking part in. However, the video both starts and ends with angled long-shots to establish the video and end it on a note of equilibrium. Many of the video's shots are in slow motion, however, to show the sadness of the main characters at their inability to be together. When the two boys finally escape and meet up together, the shots speed up to show the urgency of the two characters needing each other.
The average shot length of the video is no more than 6 seconds, with several cuts made in the video that follow the beat of the song. Each cut is a straight cut, not using any dissolving transitions, making each clip shown flow sharply and consistently.

The target audience for this video and song is most likely to be young adults, as the themes resonate with many viewers who have or are experiencing the same thing. Additionally, the song is very relaxed and calm yet contains a sense of adrenaline, making this a song that the audience could enjoy and listen to regularly.