http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GBn-BpkNsA
This is "Walking On Broken Glass" by Annie Lennox, which is a fun song, it's upbeat and has a really good musical motif with the string instruments, and yet also a good beat. There are parts where there are more female voices, so this could be a possibility.
The other day I was watching TV, and this song "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)" was played. I also reconised it from "The Parent Trap", and so I looked it up. Apparently it has been used in 9 films!
Anyway so here is the Natalie Cole version, which I really like. This song is very happy, has many female voices, and could have some great visuals to go with it. One concern I have is as to whether it would be plausible that their voices are our voices... So maybe we'll do a lip-syncing test run on it or something.. But I really like the song and I think it could work well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-d1w49RWSY
This is "Voodoo Child" by Rogue Traders, which is a fun song, only one female voice though.. It is from a few years ago, and I like it because it is catchy and has a strong beat. I can imagine plenty of weird narratives to go with this, which would allow us to be really creative with our music video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kifP3S7-OE
This is quite funny, this is a remix of "Voodoo Child" with "Funky Town". I don't really like it, but it's funny I found a remix of two of the songs I looked at...
Natalie Bassingthwaighte - "Alive"
Found this by chance, it's upbeat with a female vocalist, but it's fairly recent, however since it's an Australian artist, I don't think any of us know her.. This could work, with some extreme hair and make-up.. I've only listened to it once, but it's quite catchy, and I quite like it..
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http://www.lilyallenmusic.com/lily/
http://www.myspace.com/lilymusic
1. Summarise the changing image of the band/artist as it has developed over time. It might also be useful to summarise the music genre also.
When Lily Allen first came on the scene, her image was quite unique for the time. She usually wore "urban" clothes such as trainers and gold bling, mixed with long pretty (prom-like) dresses; an unusual mix. Over the years she has experimented with her style trying at times to seem more sophisticated, or more elaborate and creative, perhaps to fit in with newer artists who are extremely visual with their look such as Lady Gaga or Katie Perry. However her signature hairstyle has barely changed from long straight black hair with a straight fringe. She went blonde for a bit, even pink for a while, and cut her hair into a classy bob, but she went back to her original look for familiarity because it is part of her brand image. Part of her brand image is the fact that she is able to satirise herself, making her seem likeable. She dresses in funny costumes, showing her audience that she isn't serious. The main genre of her music is pop, however that can be broken down into "urban-pop", "ska", "electro pop" and "pop rock".
2. Who are the fans? Do you have any sense of how the music companies have segmented the audiences? To what extent has the branding of a band been linked to target audience?
With her first album, "Alright Still" her songs were happy and upbeat, with "smile" being her first hit. Her audience was mainly made up of young fans, appealing to a certain group of people by using London as part of her brand image. This not only appealed to Londoners, but also to people who want to visit London. Her most recent album, "It's Not Me, It's You", is more sex-orientated, showing that the record label want to expand their target audience to older people. She is trying to draw on her life experiences that aren't always happy, shown by the song "The Fear".
3. What marketing strategies can you identify? What kinds of strategies can you list? (above/below-the line? unexpected promo stunts? etc). List any examples of the use of synergy with other industries to promote other media/products in connection with a band/artist.
Lily Allen uses the myspace music facility to target young tech-savvy fans, and other social-networkers, as well as tweeting on Twitter, keeping her fans updated by an informal personal connection. She has got her own jewellery collection coming out later this year, which she says is based on Chanel jewellery. This links with her connection to Karl Lagerfeld and the fact that she was in a Chanel advert earlier this year. Lily Allen has been signed up as the new brand ambassador to promote the new Braun Satin Hair range of styling products. She is promoting Braun’s new satinliner, satinstyler and satinpro products. As part of her role as brand ambassador, Allen is performing a special gig to celebrate the launch. No advertising campaigns are planned as yet. Allen said: “I love playing around with different looks and hairstyles and that’s why I wanted to get involved with Braun.” She partnered with fashion retailer New Look earlier this year to launch the ‘Lily Loves’ clothing range. Lily Allen's single "The Fear" is being promoted via a viral music game.
4. Add any relevant links to your blog, especially Myspace page/music vids/official websites etc. A couple of illustrations (e.g key web design graphics/album cover photography) would also be useful to add to your blogs.
(see above)
Meeting 1
We had a casual meeting today to start the process of choosing a track. We agreed that we didn't want to do a slow song, so we want something upbeat and with a good rhythm. We all seem keen on 80s ish songs that are girl groups as we think it'd be best if we are all in it.
That's it really, but it consolidated our group, so that is good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSqI3ve_rgY
(embedding was disabled)
(analysing using Vernallis' theory)
This is George Michael's rather strange music video to "Outside". I have a feeling that he had quite a strong Directorial role as it demonstrates something that happened to him. He was caught fooling around with someone in a public restroom by police, so in this video there are loads and loads of couples fooling around in public. There are even two male police officers who start kissing - something which is still quite taboo.
I think George Michael's message is that he should be free to do what he wants, and that the police were stupid for punishing him. This is quite a childish viewpoint, but I suppose he's brave for making this video.
The music itself is very upbeat and happy in character. It seems like a summery song, but I'm not sure if it matches the visuals. Some of the shots are of sunny landscapes and outdoor swimming pools, which do fit the timbre of the song, however some are people kissing in a skip, or a dark party, which I think would be more fitting for a dance tune, with lower pitches and a darker feel.
The camera goes back to an MCU of George Michael lipsyncing, however it doesn't do this too much. The MCU is a stable point and allows the audience a break from the constant montage of couples kissing in various places.
There is no real narrative in the video as there is no continuous story. There is a dance routine in a party where George is dressed as a police officer. If I to describe it in terms of performance vs narrative, I would say it was mostly narrative, however the narrative is in a montage style, and not a story with a beginning, middle and end.
It starts with a faux film in another language which kind of looks like an erotic film since the woman is moaning and undoing her top. There are credits in the foreign language (it looks similar to German, maybe Norweigan?) and jazz music. There is a CU of the blonde woman puckering her big red lips, which is dissolved into a middle-aged police woman showing her police badge as sirens wail in the background. This is when the song really begins. The opening sequence is convincing as a film because the editing pace is much slower, there is narration, and there are credits. I think the reason for this was to show the kind of film that the people featured in the rest of the video might watch. It uses classic Hollywood continuity editing, which is a contrast to the rest of the video.
There is also diegesis in the opening, when the man is washing his hands, and you can hear running water. This again makes it seem like a real film.
A lot of the video is through the perspective of policemen, for example with the helicopter. When the music begins, a helicopter is shown to be flying in the air. This is crosscut with "frame within a frame" where the screen has a red border to show it is a police camera that is watching people get arrested for public displays of affection, something which happened to George. This is interesting that he wants the audience to see things through the perspective of the enemy.
There are several effects used, for example, the sweeping shots of cliffs (taken from the helicopter presumably) change from full colour, to grayscale, to full colour again, as if a monitor was flickering.
Due to the visuals and the lyrics, it seems that this is not a serious song. The first few lyrics being "It's human nature" and "I think I'm done with the sofa, I think I'm done with the hall, I think I'm done with the kitchen table baby". This suggests that he is bored of having sex indoors, and has now decided to do it wherever, in spite of the law. I think George Michael's aim was to destroy the taboo around sex, and find out how many people agree with him. According to the youtube comments, there are many who agree and some who have been in similar situations....
I think it's a funny song, great music, a great summer dance track. The dance routine is quite funny because of the outrageous costumes (women in their bras, George in a police outfit). This shows that he has a sense of humour, and I think he was trying to get his fans on his side over the public arrest.
