Marketing

There are many ways to market an artist such as TV, press, online, performances and other things such a merchandising (band merchandise, clothing range, make-up range etc).

Nowadays the best way to market an artist is through TV or online due to the recent advances in technology it is much easier to keep up to date with everything your favourite artist is up too, through TV interviews or youtube, twitter and other social networking sites. These are all incredibly important to keeping fans in on what the artist is doing and therefore keeping their support and loyalty. It also helps to draw attention from new audience members to the artist.

There are also many clever ways to market an artist through viral campaigns or funny TV adverts which include the artist on a personal level (the artist being themselves, or an exaggerated version of themselves), this may be to advertise something not to do with the artist however it will still also draw attention to the artist and get publicity for them.

Conventional methods such as above and below the line marketing using newspaper interviews, billboards, gossip stories are also still effective. Performances on TV/radio or at collaborative events and touring all draw focus to the artist.

Marketing our artist

Our artist is a young female mainstream pop artist and is signed to a big record company, so has the availability of a huge marketing campaign.

As her target audience ranges from 14-25 this is quite young and so it is important for her to be active online. Therefore we would set her up with a Twitter account and Instagram account run by her. Have a fan Facebook and Tumblr account run by the record company. She would also have a VEVOyoutube account for her recent music videos and behind the scenes footage.

It has become increasingly frequent for female artists to have their own make-up ranges and therefore she would have one too. I think since we are giving the artist such a particular style that fans would emulate the way she dresses and so it would be fitting for her to have own clothing line.

She would also have frequent radio/TV interviews and performances, and the conventional advertising e.g. billboards, magazine adds. Also due to her age I would anticipate that there would be a lot of tabloid gossip stories surrounding her love life which would add to her marketing.

Audience

Our Audience

We believe our key audience to be females between the ages of 14-25, this is due to the genre of the song being pop, meaning it will most likely be played a lot on radios such as Capital who's target age ranges from 15 to 30 year olds. Therefore the song would reach a wide range of people. We also thought that the audience would be people who connect with the song and since it is sung by a female it is most likely to appeal to females as they may gage more with the themes of the sing, however the song is just generally quite a universal party anthem and so would most likely be enjoyed by both genders and possibly even people of old or younger ages than we anticipate. However our target audience remains as 14-25 year old females and this is the most likely audience for the song and so this is who we will target in our film, album art and websites.

 

I believe our key demographic areas to target would be C1 down to E as they are most likely to be aware of the song through the radio and/or when it is played in bars/clubs or just around shopping centers. However I feel that as the song is such a universally enjoyed song (a pop song) that it could probably be appreciated by most demographics; everyone can relate to the songs message of wanted to let loose, even the A class demographic likes to let their hair down. However, as the main target audience still remains as C1 to E this is who we will target with our marketing campaign.

I believe our audience would look to seek out our music video and so would follow the uses and gratification model.

Star Image

Mood Board

Star Image

Star Image Theories

Stars are extremely important to the music industry, they ensure a long careers and guarantee sales. Which is why it is always important to present a certain image of the star as being someone special, someone who the audience can emulate, look up to and desire. Creating influential stars who the audience look to model behaviours of has always been important. Painting certain genres of celebrity in a certain light, for example the norm for a rock artist would be to be portrayed as extremely rebellious, in order to fit their music style and what their fans might expect. Members of pop boy bands being shown as heterosexual and highly available in order to sell more records to idealist young female fans, as with the case with many artists such as George Michael.

However in more resent years this idea of the untouchable superstar has been deconstructed by shows such as 'The X Factor' giving rise to the new ideas of stars just being normal people. Perhaps killing our faith in such stars and so the music industry as a whole. However it has been shown that conversely we seem to desire that 'normal' lifestyle more, as it is selling something ordinary and achievable.

Goodwin's theory on stars states:

-The creation of character identities for stars provides a point of identification for the audience/spectator, which is especially important when lyrics often lack depth.
-The construction of stars is central to the economics of the music industry - stars guarantee sales and long careers.
-Star loyalty is a key ingredient - fans are loyal to the star.
-The audience knows its own tastes but the music industry has long been able to work around this - The construction of stars is one way they do this.
-The record industry is very dependent on stars - many record companies rely on a few big stars (or even just one) to provide stability.

Richard Dyer's theory originally on cinematic stars can be used to explain music stars too and it states:

-Stars are a phenomenon of consumption - that is they are a result of our modern culture of consumerism
-There are a range of audience-star relationships

• Emotional Affinity- Most common, where the audience feels a loose attachment to the artist
• Self Identification- When the audience member places themselves in the same situation and persona as the star
• Imitation- This is most common with young audience members and takes it beyond ordinary. The audience member sees the star as a model of what they should do in their life and imitate it.
• Projection- This is the extreme version of imitation; when the audience member's behaviour becomes more that simple mimicking of clothing, hairstyle etc.

Other Influences

Although not in the pop genre the music video for Move Along by The All American Rejects which shows the lead singer in many different locations, has influenced the idea to have lots of different people lip sync a part of I Love It and cut them all together.

We also thought about slow motioning paint on speakers, just as another visual draw to the video.

We also were influenced a lot for the costume of the artist by the character Effy from Skins as she has a very rebellious attitude and grungy style which fits the meaning of  the song (I don't care). We are, however, having our artist wear more colorful clothes/ make-up than Effy as we still need to make the music video bright and fun.  

Audience

Audience Pleasures

All media texts keep the audience in mind and serve to offer the audience pleasure. There are many different audience pleasures each genre of of music video uses in different combinations to satisfy there specific audience.

Emotional Pleasures - These are generically designed to create a strong response in the audience, for example, horror (mainly used in the metal genre) comedy, melodrama to state a few.

(the video bellow is extremely graphic view with caution)


Visceral Pleasures - Is a physical feeling created within the persons internal organs and is defined by how the media text elicits a physical effect upon its audience. For example, many music videos of the 'hippy' or 60s genre look to create a psychedelic feel within its audience, so they feel as though they are on a trip.



Intellectual Puzzles - These pleasures come from being able to decipher a plot or being surprised by something unexpected in the story. This tends to happen during narrative based music videos.



Audience Theories

The Effects Model - The idea behind the effect model is that the audience is powerless to what the media put out, they are force feed the messages from the media. It is the media that has the power and the audience just receive the information.

The Uses and Gratification Model - This theory states that it is the audience that has control. That they actively seek out specific media for their own gratification. They control their own media consumption. There are four main uses the model states the audience has for the media:

Diversion - escapism and emotional release
Personal Relationships - the audience has a relationship with known media and discuss this with people
Personal identity - reflection upon ones own life compared to the media texts
Surveillance - See what's happening in the world

Goodwin

Institution

Pop Genre - Influences

Openings

It has become a growing trend in recent music videos to have an opening before the song starts, some examples shown below. This is what influenced us to have an opening to our video. Each opening adds something to the video, either further narrative (as with Avicii) or a better understanding of the concept behind the video (as with Eminem and Lily Allen).



As each opening clearly has a reason behind it, it is important that ours adds something to the video and would not present the same message without it. Our original ideas were all to have something that adds to the narrative as our video doesn't really have a clear story behind it. We initially thought off the artist throwing clothes out of a window and then storming out of the house. This then created a thought behind the whole music video of shes just left her boyfriend because she wants to have fun. Therefore bringing meaning to the video instead of just the artist having a laugh. After the lyric deconstruction we were all clear that the video had to, yes, be fun and upbeat, but have the underlying narrative of the girl leaving her significant other because she was fed up of him bringing her down and not allowing her to just have fun. We then came up with the idea of a young girl being trapped in the life of a 50s housewife (because of the line 'you're from the 70s... I'm a 90s...') and being subservient to her boyfriend who doesn't allow her to do what she wants. And so we decided to make the opening of the artist serving tea to her boyfriend who is mumbling about something dull and then the beat of the music kicks in and she snaps and shoves a cake in his face (adding a slight bit of humor to keep it light-hearted) and then storms out before the lyrics come in. This added the underlying narrative that we wanted so that the video can have some meaning behind it.

We also thought that this also could show further insight into some issues in today's society such as voyeurism and patriarchy. Showing how woman are being objectified and seen to have to serve men, not only literally but in the way the look and act; to please men. Therefore the act of her going against him could not only show how she is fed up of the relationship but how women of the 21st century are trying to push back against the domination that males have over them.  

Pop Genre - Influences

Wings by Little Mix is so bright and colourful, with the make-up, costume, setting and lighting. It gives off a fun and youthful feel to the video. With our video we are trying to get across the same amount of colour and fun.
Also the very fast paced editing style is similar to what we hope to achieve.



Another good example of this is We Are Golden by MIKA which has extremely bold and bright mise-en-scene, and includes a lot of colour and fun, which again is what we want for our video.

Pop Genre - Influences

3.44 - 4.20

There is a specific part in the music video for Battles Ice cream which we thought would look really eye-catching in our video. It's the part in which footage has been shaped into silhouettes and is playing on top of another clip. We thought it would look good if, drawing on this idea, we shaped the words I LOVE IT out of footage and put it on top of another clip just as the final lyric of I Love It is heard and then the footage flickers off. We feel this would be a captivating way to end the video.

Pop Genre - Influences

Take It Off by Kesha shows an interesting use of powder paint and has influenced our idea for the powder paint fight in our music video. The use of the paint alone creates an incredibly visually interesting, eye-catching image, the video furthers this by involving rewinds of the paint and body parts exploding into powder. We want this part of our video to just be a messy party and so we wont be trying any of the cool special effects (such as the person turning into powder) during ours.

For our video we aim to play with the speed of the clips e.g. speeding up the clip and then putting it into slow-motion just as it hits a person, and rewinding the clips to fully maximize the impact of the powder paint and make it as eye-catching and interesting as possible.  

 

Pop Genre - Influences

The music video for I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas features the use of glow in the dark body paint. This influenced the glow paint idea for our music video as it looks fun and eye catching on screen. However, we were thinking of making the style of how we put on the paint look more sophisticated and creative. As in I Gotta Feeling its more funny and party-like, where we would be using it during the more slow parts of our video to add a more pretty and delicate dimension to the music video. Slightly more like Kesha in Your Love Is My Drug, but less tribal.

Pop Genre

The music video for Poker Face by Lady Gaga is typical of the pop genre. It focuses heavily around the artist, shows her in exaggerated, provocative outfits (bold mise-en-scene), has fast paced editing, uses lighting the enhance the video, constant camera movement, lots of glamorized close-ups of the artist. The video uses all possible attention draws to keep the focus of the audience on the artist, as most pop music videos do as it is a from of promoting the song and hence the artist and their image.

 

Pop Genre

Editing

The video for Roar by Katy Perry uses a lot of editing techniques and special effects. It is themed around the jungle and starts off with a cartoon - styled title which gives a sort of Tarzan-like feel to the video, as Katy Perry slowly becomes a sort of 'Jungle Jane'.

The editing pace at the beginning of the video is slightly slower than the rest of the video, this is probably to subtly reinforce the idea of her being frightened at the beginning. Although it is slower it is still quite quick, which is common for this genre of music video. The rhythm of editing follows the beat of the song and the specific lyrics.

The video also features a lot of special effects, for example, the fireflies, the wall paintings. Special effects such as these aren't necessarily specific to the genre, however, they do feature a lot in Katy Perry's music videos, e.g. Firework, in which it is made to look like fireworks are shooting out of her chest. There is also added glare from the light onto the camera which has been put on to enhance the natural feel to the video, this has also become more common in recent videos.

The final editing technique used is the brightening of the footage, the footage after the fireflies scene has been made lighter and brighter in order to create a more visually eye-catching image for the audience. This is typical of pop music videos.
    

Pop Genre

Camera

The use of camera for most pop music videos is very similar, in that it's constantly moving. This is generally done to keep up the fast paced feel to the video and maintain the audiences attention. An example of this being Jessie J's Wild, in which even when it seems like the camera is steady there is still slight movement. This also helps to create a more realistic feel to the video.

In the video for Wild there is also a sense of synesthesia as the camera movement sometimes follows the sounds of the music (e.g. shuddering moving down, or slowing down when the music gets slower.)

There are frequent close ups used and the majority of shots are either mid-shots or close-ups show the artists lip-syncing, which is again a typical feature of the pop genre. With occasional long shots to show dance moves or gestures.