To the copyright holder
We are a group of A Level students working on an A Level project for a qualification in Media Studies. We are writing to reqyest permission to use the following track as part of this project:
"For Your Love" by John Rzeznik
With your permission the track would be used as the accompaniment to a short form video that is made purely for assessment purposes and will have no commercial usage. The video will be viewed only by members of the school community and the assessor of the examination board.
The artist and the copyright holder will of course be fully recognised in the pre-production and evaluation material that accompanies the project. We can also include a full copyright notice if required both in the planning material and on the video itself.
Yours sincerely
Stephanie Mareen Kufferath-Kassner
Hurtwood House School
- This email has been sent to metalblade@metalblade.com
- www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p13permission
Friday, 10 September 2010
Chosen cover track
We chose the Song "For your Love" by the Yardbirds, however we are working with the Cover Version of John Rzeznik.
Our Target Audience
Our target audience is basically our generation of 15 to 25 year olds. However our secondary audience would be the older generation who previously loved the Yardbirds and now like the newer version of that style of music.
Our Record label
Today it is the 18th of October and we still haven't got a reply from metalbladerecords.
Institutional Context
Institutional Context
POP PROMOS
What is the history of the band/artist you have used?
The artist we have created is called Jack Thomson. He was born in
What genre(s) of music do the band/artist fit into?
Jack Thomson is possibly mostly influenced by the genre of rock / alternative rock, however also by classic rock artists such as “The Beatles”, “The Rolling Stones” and “The Kinks”. Also he is possibly aiming to be similar to Paolo Nutini. His contemporary competitors are people and bands such as “Nickelback”, “
What record label are the band/artist signed to?
Jack Thomson is assigned to Metal Blade Records which is part of Warner Bros. Records. Other acts who are assigned to that Label as well are for example Lilly Allan, Jason Derulo, Iyaz, Mika, and Daniel Powter. The choice of label has probably a huge effect on the development of the artist, because as Warner Bros. Records own a lot of musicians as well as promoting aspects such as magazines and television programmes, Jack Thomson has a high chance of being promoted and marketed very quick and effectively. Furthermore Warner Bros. Records as well as Metal Blade Records are very experiences in what they do and therefore create a good and secure base for our artist.
Who are the band/artist’s audience?
Gender: male
Age: 15-23
Ethnicity: White
Education: Usual, low
Class: middle, low
Sexuality: straight
The typical fan’s lifestyle would probably be that he is a musician as well – the typical “cool-guy” sort of thing. They might listen to the different alternatives of rock such as hard rock, blues rock, soft rock, alternative rock etc. Typically they would consume other media products such as unplugged discs, live concert DVD’s and fan-shirts.
What kind of visual image has the artist/band created for themselves?
The imagery on the CD-Cover would probably be showing him with a guitar or maybe even “kind of” live in concert as this would reinforce the fact that he is a true artist and musician and not a created product. The music video will be present in a black and white 60’s style which shows the reflection towards the old “golden” rock times that Jack Thomson is referring to. Furthermore the video would therefore then differ a lot and might attract a wider audience as it is something new. As well as this the music video shows reference to the “today’s time”, through the use of specific items or moods that were present or invented in the 60’s but are still accurate today. This would hopefully set the mood for the 60’s feeling and attract a large audience, because a lot of people say “I wish I was born in the 60’s” – and through the help of this new artist and music video we might bring the 60’s feeling across. The video would possibly be exhibited on VIVA or MTV and general music channels, possibly also the channels own by Warner Bros. – attracting a very broad audience.
Initial Ideas
When we first came together as a group, we decided, that we liked the idea of reestablishing a 60’s television show, completely in the style of the 60’s including black and white screening, as well as the clothing, audience, performance and moderation of the people in the video. To start off we searched for a style of music, that we could possibly fit into the music video and we figured, that we liked the style of rock / alternative rock. Trying to find a song, we came up with a lot of classical songs, such as Ray Charles or the Beatles and we figured, that we couldn’t use that, because it is just too well known. While researching on youtube, we found the song “For your Love” by the yardbirds and actually the video they have been using was in the style we wanted ours to be as well. However we need a song, that it a lot more modern, so that people nowadays in our generation would actually listen to it. On search for that we found the song “For your Love” in a cover version by John Rzeznik. Now that we found the song, we could develop our initial idea further, because we figured, that if we do a whole video in the 60’s style, it would get a little boring after about a minute. Therefore we thought that we should create a context to the world we live in today and therefore research things that have been created in the 60’s but are still accurate today and we came up with the MINI. We figured, that we could change the video from the original black and white 60’s television show style into a modern, colored today environment, probably having the girls that were in the audience originally cruising through the world in a MINI with the lead singer, still admiring him. This would the be cross-cut with our initial idea. As well as this we would focus on fashion, because some of the things that have been invented in the 60’s are coming into fashion now. With this we can create a link again. As well as this we thought of focusing on the lyrics, as the song is about what a guy would do for the love of a girl and therefore in the music video, even though we have audience members and band members, we would have the lead singer and one girl, showing the story of the song.
Our Production Group
Our Production Group consists of three members. Me, Stephanie Mareen Kufferath-Kassner, Emma Solms-Laubach and Charlie Hiett.
Star Image
In order to understand the relationship between the music industry and its audiences, it is important to consider the roles of music stars. The term "star" refers to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience.
Dyer has written extensively about the role of stars in film, TV and music. Irrespective of the medium, stars have some key features in common
A star is an image, not a real person, that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) ouot of a range of materials (eg advertising, magazines etc as well as films [music])Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strenght of their meanings.
Stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media - magazines, TV, radio, the internet - in order to construct an image for themselves which can be marketed to their target audiences. The star image is made up of a range of meanings which are attractive to the target audiences. Fundamentally, the star image is incoherent, that is incomplete and "open". Dyer says that this is because it is based upon two key paradoxes.
THE STAR MUST BE SIMULTANEOUSLY ORDINARY AND EXTRAORDINARY FOR THE CONSUMER.
THE STAR MUST BE SIMULTANEOUSLY PRESENT AND ABSENT FOR THE CONSUMER.
The incoherance of the star image ensures that audiences continually strive to "complete" or to "make sense of" of the image. This is achieved by continued consumption of the star through his or her products. In the music industry, performance seems to promise the completion of the image, but it is always ultimatley unsatisfying. This means that fans will go away determined to continue consuming the star in order to carry on attempting to complete their image.
Finally, the star image can be used to position the consumer in erlation to dominant social values (that is hegemony). Depending upon the artist, this may mean that the audience are positioned against the mainstream (though only to a limited degree, since they are still consumers within a capitalist system) or within the mainstream, or somewhere in between.
Conventions of the video promo
Common Generic Conventions of Popular Music Promo Videos
Although pop video is fairly freeform generically and artistically it still employs several common conventions.
These include…
l The explicit and unashamed promotion of the artist’s “image” (aesthetic/generic/ideological) as a specific product with a brand identity, ready for mass consumption
l The featuring of the artist (almost without exception)
l A wide and extensive use of shot types, camera angles and movement
l Repetition of reoccurring thematic elements and generically specific iconography (one key element often being dominant and providing the skeletal structure for the promo)
l A possible narrative structure
l A possible performance element
l The flexibility to disregard Realism!
l Shots cut tightly to the beat of the track
l Use of special effects (lighting, annimation, CGIs, in-camera effects)
l A carefully constructed Mise en Scene appropriate to the content and tone of the track
l High impact instantly! (Don’t forget that competition for airplay on the main music channel outlets is intense)
Background to the music industry
Introduction to the Music Industry
l Musical taste can be a controversial topic- almost to the point of tribalism.
l It is contentious because it defines and often signifies personality and lifestyle. Musical taste is about the way you dress, speak and sometimes act.
l However, all commentators agree that Music and its trends - sit at the epicentre of popular culture.
l Not only to the extent that an individual can derive a sense of identity but to the extent the global community can be changed by Musical Trends
l It is this ‘dynamic tension’ that exists between the artistic and commercial forces of underpins the success of this vast media business.
l A tension between the organic and synthetic
l Another feature to consider is the music industry ‘synergetic connections’ with other media forms – this codependence with other media means that a ‘mutual reliance’ can be productive and but also risky.
l Dominated by 4 trans-national corporations
¡ Universal/AOL-Time Warner
¡ Sony/BMG
¡ Warner Bros
¡ EMI
These are known as ‘The Majors’
l Most majors also own, or licence, a string of smaller subsidiary companies in order to reach different kinds of audiences in different kinds of genre
l These companies are known as ‘Major-Independents’ and are operated under the “loose-tight” approach
l The Majors also exclusively distribute their own global product. They also distribute for their ‘Major Independents’ and other ‘True Independents’
l Finally, there are a huge number of small companies with little or no financial connection to the majors
l These companies often concentrate on a small number of artists, within specialised niches in the industry. These are known as ‘true independents’
l Most record companies organise themselves internally into several key areas:
¡ Artists and Repertoire (A&R)
¡ Marketing/Artist Development
¡ Promotions
¡ Legal
¡ Financial
l The industry as a whole has a complex relationship with a number of different media
l To be successful and artist must receive exposure via Radio, TV, Print media, Film, New Media. The co-ordinated simultaneous use of these media is known in the industry as a ‘Cross-Media marketing Campaign’
This relationship is ‘symbiotic’
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