Music Poster Analysis

I decided to research music posters of each genres due to the fact that as a group we are unsure which genre were doing at this stage. I have analysed each genre pointing out certain features that form on their posters that give a distinct idea of what genre it is to the audience and why there type of poster attracts a certain audience. I found that by doing this research, it will help us narrow down our opinions of what to do and give me some idea of how to create my ancillary tasks for this media product. I have looked into indie,pop, rap, British pop and r&b, I focused on the genres that I would have considered doing for my main task and looked at popular artists of that genre to understand why they sold so well.

Prep Of Our Audience Research

Today, me and my group considered the different types of audiences that we will base our music video on. We have analysed each type of age we want to focus our video on, we will be considering both genders from the ages of 12-around 25 this will give us an idea of what ages like in a music video, this will narrow it down to help us focus on what to include within the video itself. We have considered creating a questionnaire and creating a focus group to gain the information that we need.

Questionnaire
To ensure that the questionnaire is reliable, as a group, we will create a series of questions that will indicate what genre they most like and why , who there favourite artist is and why and other questions based on the music videos.

The focus group will consist of 4/5 people from years 8/10 and sixth form as well as asking older family friends, this will enable us to listen to our targeted audiences opinions clearly, we will ensure that each person has a say so we have more of an opinion and we will try avoid complications such as having shy and disturbing participants during our focus group. We can do this by engaging more conversation with the shy participant and making them feel welcome and by limiting the questions we give to the dominator.

Purpose Of Music Posters

One main reason to create a music poster is to advertise the film, they want the audience to know about the album/song and create as much 'buzz' as they can. This links to the two step flow theory which allows people to form there opinion on the song/album and see if the song would be for them. The poster would be before the album would be created and distributed and would be posted around places such as public places like bus stop as well as in magazines, so the temptation would be around for a wider audience to see. The audiences ideas and opinions flow to a wider audience such as the internet and allow others to form another opinion, causing the two step flow.

As well as this, posters are there to provide the information that they might not know. they would provide the name of the album, the name of the artist and the institution that created and distributed it and when it is released. This is important for the audience to know as it all depends of this information if they would want to buy the album. Certain people wouldn't like certain peoples music, there for wouldn't be interested in the album.

Genre Conventions of R&B

Rhythm and Blues, often refereed to ask R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of music which originated from African/American people. the term Rhythm and Blues first came about when Billboard magazine first used it in the late 1940's. R&B was an African/ American urban sound that generally involved jazz.

When R&B was first introduced, it was known to be described as a rocking jazz based with a heavy beat. R&B became popular because of its dance ability and became popular in clubs.The lyrics of R&B were about everyday life. The songs were about work, sex, drinking and love.

By the 1950's R&B was starting to define the sound of rock and roll but by the 60's R&B included soul and music, then by the 70's it was seen as funk. However, by the 80's R&B was defining pop, soul and jazz.Going into the 21st century, R&B would include New jack swing, hop-hop, neo-soul, pop and funk, also known as contemporary R&B.

R&B artists

• R Kelly
• Mariah Carey
• Chris Brown
• Beyonce
• Rihanna
• Ray Charles
• Stevie Wonder
• Mary J Blige
• James Brown

With in R&B music videos they often contain groups of men or women together in clubs and bars, aiming to seek out a sexual parter. R&B has become very sexualised over the past years and has brought a lot of strong, independent women to the music scene. Instead of R&B music often being about religion and soul in the early stages, its seen as being about gangsters and sex rather than something meaning full. A lot of females portray themselves to be sexual objects within videos in order to sell the video, whereas on the other hand, men are seen to be the dominant character wearing a lot of 'bling' with their bodies showing.

Target Audience

A majority of R&B target audience when it first started was a range of ages from teens to people in their 70's. Where as now fans are teenagers/ young adults between the ages of 15-25. This could be because of the explicit lyrics and sexual videos that they show, however, a majority of this age group are teens of both  genders, it is usually this age group that are attracted to this music as they are usually associated with heart brake, love or drugs.- this is something that greatly influences teenagers.

 The target audience could be seen a very female orientated  audience because they are portrayed in a sexual way that they would want to look like, through nudity and lyrics. As well as this, females will be physically attracted to the male artists (many R&B artists are male). Then again some males are attracted to the naked women that are now portrayed in a R&B music video.

Past A level Products

 After deciding what product were doing, Beth and I decided to research products that have been done by past A level students to give us an idea of the quality that is needed to make our music video successful. We have been looking at music videos that have been graded an A so that we can aim to achieve the same professionalism that they had.

The first video we looked at was by Macklemore and was based around the storyline of someone taking two robbers money. I found the storyline to have a good sense of humour that my age group would understand, I thought that this was a good quality with in the music video as I thought that due to Macklemore's audience being people our age, I found it linked quite well. As well as this, by comparing Macklemores original music video with this one, you can see that it wasn't copied in anyway which gave it the originality. From looking at this video, it gave me an idea to include some humour into it so that it will appeal more to a larger audience.

 The second video was done to the song 'Express yourself" which was seen to be a popular pop song in 2012, the music video had a lot of colours and a unique video to it, it showed a lot of thought and preparation with the costume and setting. However, although the video wasn't as much good quality as the other two, I found the narrative to be unique and found that it fitted well with the song.As well as this, they had unique settings that no one else would have, and it fitted in well with the quirkyness of the song. From looking at this music video, I've gained some ideas from the narrative and found that if we weren't to include a lot of lip singing, then we will have to create a structured narrative that will be easy to understand as well as be creative.

Out of the 3 that I looked at, I found that this was the best, I found that the quality was professional, as well as this, I found that the structure of the music video was seen to be well thought out. they used unique features like time lapse to create a nice effect and I liked the way they use multiple narratives that linked into one story. I found that the narrative linked well to their target audiences and they showed they had thought about their target audience by include stereotypical teenagers to show that this was their audience. I also liked the way they limited them selves to when they were lip singing and use specific parts like the chorus to do this.I feel that this will be a good technique to use sot hat there is a large narrative that is easy to follow



From researching past products, I have found that I will need to use good quality equipment like the Ipad to gain he quality that is needed to create a professional looking camera but also limit our selves to how often we use the lip singing so we don't loose out on the quality.

SWOT

 These are the SWOT analysis's that we create in class to have an idea of what suited to us the most.We looked at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of each one. After looking at them individually we realised that the trailer had the most threats due to the fact we found that we could have done a repeat if we were to do something to similar to last year. On the other hand, the music video task suited to us best as we all have some interest in music and are interested in different genres, which meant that in the researching aspect, we will know plenty about what goes into a music video of a different genre.As well as this, Adam and Beth have some previous knowledge from year 10 about music product and found that they could take advantage of this to create a successful product. Moreover, from year 10 to 11, I created poster based products, which will help me create unique and original ancillary tasks.

Chosen Task

 In previous lessons we were conducting ideas about what was involved in the 15 tasks and Miss suggested we focus on 4 certain tasks which were the movie trailer, Music video, children's TV drama and a soap opera trailer. We create a SWOT analysis for each task to help us decide what task would suit us best.
From the SWOT analysis on all 4, I recognised that the music music had more positives than negatives than any other option, I learnt from the SWOT that with all of us being interested in music that the music video task would open our opportunities. 

After researching the different options of my tasks, as a group we have decided to choose the music video task as we felt that it would suit our strengths the most out of the 15. We felt that if we were to do a trailer which was our second choice, we would find our selves doing a repeat of last year and in my own views I would like to create new skills and challenge my self to create a media product that is original and unique. Despite the fact that I have most knowledge on the trailer from AS, I felt that because a horror movie is easiest to do, it would become a repeat of last year.With me doing media from year 10 onwards, I have had to chance to create multiple media platforms from a magazine front cover to a advert poster, however I have never created anything to do with music before and would fine this new task interesting to collect research and create a product that no one has done before as well as this, my two group member Adam and Beth have had past experiences with music related products so they will have some helpful knowledge on how to create a successful video .
I will need to expand this knowledge to my ancillary tasks that I am planning on doing, I have chosen to do the Digipak and the magazine advertisement. I feel that with my knowledge from past years, I will able to create ancillary tasks that link well and look professional. In lesson we analysed a website page from the Disney film Frozen and I found that every part of the website had to be a working link to the main task, With this being not one of my strengths, I felt that if I am planning on learning new skills in the main task, I should rely on my previous knowledge in the ancillary tasks.