Target Audience

Our main target audience is from the ages of 16-25 as the song is indie/rock and therefore will appeal to this age the most. Also this age is mainly students who will most likely be the ones to listen to our artist. However, the secondary audience will be 25 plus because of the sexual context which is present in our music video.

The Vibe

We decided on a simple but effective name for our band: The Vibe.

I think this name is suitable as even though there is no underlying meaning or anything, it is simple so it will attract people more to the music that the band plays rather than their name or image they give off which is what we want.

We began to design a CD cover using some images from google and photoshopping them together. This will obviously be re-done with the actual band that we have casted nearer the time and is just a first idea. Here it is:

 

We would like it to be a simple CD cover where the name of the band stands out but also have the band on the front so that audiences can establish what kind of band they are and also so the audience can feel closer to them and like they know them better.

An album cover that really does this well is The Rolling Stones:

I like the way that they are all at different distances and it is simple but effective, which is what we are trying to get at. However, ours is more mysterious which I hope will intrigue the audience.

Feedback

Your response is sound and you have been creative with your blogs, I particularly like the use of images, which  could be developed into a presentation.  You do need to blog more influences from CD cover designs- it is important you show how your concept developed.

You have a secure knowledge and understanding of who you want your artist to be signed to; perhaps you could link this further by stressing the advantages that your artist has signed profiled them well.  to the particular record label.  Your target audience needs to be identified?

Deciding on a CD cover.

I think our CD cover should be quite edgy and strange, similar to those of Muse.







However, unlike the muse CD covers I think we need to have a picture of our band on there as they are a new band and therefore people will need to establish who they are and what they are like. Therefore it should be a mix of that edgy side of Muse with just a shot of the band which bands like Razorlight and The Libertines do.

Deciding on a record company for our band.

The song that we are doing is by Muse. Despite the success of their second EP, British record companies were reluctant to sign Muse. It was after a trip to New York's CMJ Festival that an American record label flew them to Los Angeles to showcase. Nanci Walker, then Sr. Director of A&R at Columbia Records, flew Muse to the U.S. to showcase for Columbia Records' then-Senior Vice President of A&R, Tim Devine, as well as for American Recording's Rick Rubin. It was during this trip, on 24 December 1998, that Muse signed a deal with Maverick Records.

Maverick Recording Company is an American record label owned and operated by Warner Music Group, and distributed through Warner Bros. Records.

I feel like our video is quite extreme and therefore our band would be owned by the actual Warner Music itself rather than a smaller company that is owned and operated by it. Warner Music Group (WMG) is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies.

The current incarnation of the company as Warner Music Group was formed in 2004 when it was spun off and made completely separate from Time Warner; as a result Time Warner no longer retains any ownership whatsoever in the Warner Music Group, despite its name.

The Music Industry.

The record companies roles are to manufacture, distribute and promote new products in order to make a profit which can then be used to invest in other artists and produce new music from existing artists.


The Majors

1.  EMI
2. Universal
3. Warner Music
4. Sony BMG

 These are the four major record companies who all own a collection of smaller record labels. Universal music, for example, is made up of record  labels such as Island Def Jam music group, Polydor records, Geffen records and Mercury records amongst others. Within these labels the Universal Music Group have signed Bon Jovi, Blink 182, Eminem, Dr.Dre, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, U2, The Hives, Scissor Sisters and Snow Patrol, again, amongst others. On top of this, they own the back catalogues for artists ranging from Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, The Supremes, Buddy Holly and The Who.

AOL Time Warner (the parent company of Warner Music) own a substantial slice of Hollywood film production in addition to CNN, Cartoon Network, TNT, HBO amongst others. This synergy assists in the promotion of music within other media formats. A Warner film soundtrack will naturally serve as a promotional tool for existing and new music owned by the music 'arm' of the corporation.

The music industry's product (the artist and their music) is costly to initially secure (artists like Madonna and Robbie Williams sign multi-million pound 'deals' with their companies) but the reproduction of the product on CD/DVD due to new technologies, is cheap to manufacture. However, a record company cannot always guarantee that new artists and their music will appeal to a wide-enough market to make a profit.


Cultural theorist Theodor Adorno and The Frankfurt School wrote about popular culture in 1941 and criticised the production and consumption of popular music. Songs follow a formulaic template that he called 'standardisation', with a few novelty flourishes referred to as 'pseudo-individualisation' - disguising the standard structure and duping listeners into thinking they were hearing something new.

If an artist's style of music becomes popular then companies will often sign a range of similar sounding artists who can then be sold on their connection to other bands. This explains certain musical 'trends' for particular genres like Metal, Britpop, Grunge, EMO.

Genres are marketed to existing audiences via 'niche' advertising strategies. A company wishing to promote a new Goth/Metal band would advertise in Kerrang! magazine and showcase the track and video on the Kerrang! music station.

The notion of prioritising the commercial over the creative creates tension between arists and their labels. The major labels have the image as the villains who have trapped artists. There are many tales of artists unable to release new material because their labels are critical of a change in musical direction. The prioritising of sales targets results in artists being pressurised into producing music that is a guaranteed seller.

Decision made.

We think we are going to stick with the song 'Feeling Good' by Muse. (see previous blog)

We're going to start of with a light on a keyboard player/ singer and have a tracking shot coming up from his feet on the keyboard pedals, to his face singing into the microphone. This is then going to interchange with shots of the husband (who in the narrative is a violent drunk towards his wife) grabbing his coat and leaving the house. As he leaves the house we see over his shoulder and there will be a focus pull of the wife on the floor crying or looking very upset. Therefore the narrative has started at the end of the story. After this we will continue interchanging the shots of the singer (as there are no instruments apart from keyboard present in the song at this point) with shots of the wife walking through the house very angry until she comes to a family/couple picture and picked it up and looks at it. At this point, there will be a shot of her dropping and smashing the picture at the same time as the music drops and the instruments come in. The lights will then come on all the other band members and we will have shots of the band members and the instruments as the music speeds up. We will then go back to the story showing the break up of the couples relationship.





We are hoping to shoot everything in this studio as this would allow us to get as many shots as possible on our shoot day rather than chasing around finding locations. Furthermore, we can dress the set however we would like and light it however we want.

 We are currently re-designing the storyboards as we have now changed a lot of things. They should be on my blog by next week.