Genre ideas:
The genre of our music video is Indie Jazz/Blues, therefore,
we intend to follow the main conventions as well as challenge some of them, by
making our artist conventional to other jazz and blues artists, such as Lana
Del Rey, Amy Winehouse and Paloma Faith who are artists that have an original
style of performing. Similarly, our artist will also reflect originality,
through our use of mise en scene. We will ensure that our artist looks
confident and professional at first through her body language and facial
expressions. Then through the use of make-up (that she will smudge) and the
iconography of alcohol, we will portray her as a disheartened and sorrowful
person which people struggling with addiction and emotional issues can relate
to. However, we will also challenge stereotypes by allowing our artist to
fulfill her self-disruptive longings through the song and themes, which is not
evident in all Jazz and blues music videos, due to artists following
conventions. By challenging genre conventions, we are likely to make the artist
more successful and popular due to them becoming more noticeable by their fans,
and the mainstream audience.
Morals and Values:
We want our artist to cause controversy in her morals
because the Indie genre in well known to be controversial and left-wing in
their representations. We want to attract our target audience through the true
and original artist, which will show that they carry their own values and are
not afraid to stand up for them, even if it makes them different form the mass.
It is important that the artist is able to portray her own persona to match
Dyer’s theory of ‘ordinary and extra-ordinary’, because then we will attract
and appeal to everyday people. She should also be able to express her true self
to the audience by being open about personal issues and addictions as people
will be able to feel like they are not alone and can look up to celebrities
that struggle.
Media perception:
Our artist is inspired by Amy Winehouse and Lana Del Rey.
Both of these stars are respected within the industry and media. Therefore, she
will be identified as a good performer in the industry rather than a fully
established star. This is due to her lacking ultimate popularity and not being
noticed by a mainstream audience. As a result, our artist will be perceived as
niche, rather than mainstream, as she will express her different views and
values which may be viewed as intense and sincere by certain audiences. Also,
she will not be in the public eye as much as the mainstream artists, due to her
being relatable to the audience though her normality and lack of consistent
fame. Moreover, our artist will express her true self to the audience, rather
than being portrayed as 'fake', which is important when it comes to the
audience forming an opinion about an artist. Amy Winehouse and Lana Del Rey
similarly expresses their true self to the audience through their unique image
which is evident in the media, newspapers and magazines and are not afraid of
the critique for their action as they have their loyal fan base.
Similar Artists:
- Lana Del Rey
- Paloma Faith
- Amy Winehouse
These solo female artists have inspired us when constructing
our own female performer. We want our artist to have a sophisticated look at
first to assert her class. However, when the audience look closer they will be
able to see a softer side to her, as if seeing different ‘layers’ to the artist
and see her in various ways. This will help to add originality to the artist
and get rid of monotony as the audience is always displayed to a different side
of her and everyone will be able to identify with the performer.
In our production we want our artist to dress like a classy
woman who is clearly financially stable and doesn’t lack money/ possessions
etc. This will create a sense of superiority and intimidation from her and the
audience will admire and aspire to be like her. However, during the music
video, she will reject all that and show that she doesn’t truly care for her
possessions but wants love and companionship. This challenges conventions as
typically people long for wealth and success but she actively rejects that.
This is typical of an indie/ blues artist as conventionally many niche artists
often repel the mainstream values and chose to live by their own
individualistic morals. Similarly, to the costume, the artist will also have a
classy make up, consisting of light facial and eye highlights but red lips,
similarly to Lana. However, during the video, she will smudge it away to imply
her rejection of
typical beauty standards and convey that beauty doesn’t mean
happiness, just like money. Both of these ideas are challenging the mass
ideologies and therefore are conventional of the indie/ blues genre. Lastly the
body language and the facial expressions we plan to use are similar to Amy
Winehouse. In most of her music videos she has a very inert facial expressions
and stiff body movements. This helps her to maintain her serious image but at
the same convey her miserable persona, evident in most videos and her everyday
life. We want our artist to have a similar facial features and body movements
which matches the typical indie blues artists who have a common sorrowful image
associated with them.
Our Artist:
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Link to Theory:
- Hebdige: First off, audience engagement can be applied to our product. Engagement is linked to Hebdige theory. He stated that different people can react in different ways to the same stimuli, or a media product in this particular case. This can be linked to his subculture theory and how different groups of people react similarly within their group but differently to other groups, if exposed to the same media text. This means that audience has the power to engage in different media in their own individualistic way, based on their own memories or traits. This makes them an active consumer who can make their own choices and decisions. This is common for indie genre as such niche genre has a loyal fan base who actively selects to listen to such music as they are not fed with it from the media. Furthermore, the artist could be categorized into a subculture as she is clearly an individual who isn’t afraid to reject common values. For example, she rejects money and wealth for the sake of her own well being and emotional happiness.
- Goodwin: Our idea will be associated with Goodwin's theory as we will follow the features he has identified which include: genre characteristics will be conveyed through the artist’s costume. The star will have their own individual image, with dark attributes from the makeup, and a mysterious persona from her body language and facial expressions.
- Aristotle: The themes of youth, morality and consumerism are very common within today’s society and people will be able to identify with it. The theme of youth will evoke audience’s emotion as they will feel nostalgic about their own past, which will gain the artist a sympathetic response. The idea of morality will engage the audience as they will be able to judge the decisions the artist makes and actively respond to the product. Lastly the theme of consumerism is very applicable to today’s society. Clearly the artist is rejecting all her possessions and shows that products are not important and don’t give you happiness.
- Dyer: Our artist will be portrayed as a performer as she will promote her moral ideologies throughout the music video. As suggested by Dyer ‘A star should be ordinary and extraordinary’, meaning that we will portray our artist as someone the audience will be able to relate to, for example her drug addiction and emotional issues, but extraordinary because she will be a talented singer.
- Mulvey: We will not utilize Mulvey’s theory or ‘Male Gaze’ as the artist will not expose her attributes for heterosexual males and the camera will not linger around her assets. This is conventional for an indie/ blues music video because niche genres often promote equality and value the music instead of body selling.
Conclusion:
Planning our artist representation has been extremely
beneficial for us, as we now have a clear idea of how we want our artist to be
portrayed, which is to express her difficult situation. We are also now more
aware of which similar artists we want our artist to reflect which is Lana Del
Rey, Paloma Faith and Amy Winehouse who all differ from mainstream artists and
can create controversy at times through their truthful and varying
representation. Now that we are aware of
this, we will ensure our artist is portrayed in the correct way, making her
niche but also mainstream, through media perception which will allow the
audience to notice her and the fact that she has her own style of music and an
original persona. Creating the right artist image is important in the long term
as the audience should be able to identify the artist from the offset,
identifying their beliefs, values and persona, which should not continuously change
as it could turn the audience against the artist. Without planning our artist
representation, we would not be able to link our artist to certain theories
such as Goodwin and Hebdige who promote important factors within their
theories, that should be evident within all music videos. Therefore, by
planning our artist representation, we have now identified which
characteristics our artist will follow and which theories will apply to her
role.
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