Music Promo Theories

Andrew Goodwin

• Music promos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in rock and metal videos and dance routines in boy/girl bands). 
• The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style) 
• There is frequently reference to the notion of looking (screens within screen,telescopes etc..) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. 
• There is often intertextual reference to films, TV and other music promos. 

Steve Archer 

• There needs to be a strong and coherent relationship between narrative and performance in the music video.
• Music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the band.
• A carefully choreographed dance might be part of the artist's performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to air visualisation and the 'repeatablility' factor.

John Stewarts

• The music video has the aesthetics of a TV commercial, with a lot of close ups of the artist. Lighting is used to focus on the starts face.
• Visual references come from a range of sources most are from cinema, fashion and art photography.
• 'Incorporation, raiding and reconstructing' are essential parts of intertextuality, using something with which the audience may be familiar, to generate both nostalgic associations and new meaning.
• The video allows more access to the performer than a stage performance can.
• Mise-en-scene, can be used to emphasise an aspirational lifestyle.

Sigmund Frued

• Voyeurism- Refers to the notion that erotic pleasure may be gained by looking at a sexual object (when the object is not aware of being watched) this is seen a lot in some genres of music promos.

Laura Mulvey

• Because filmmakers are predominately male, the presence of women in films is often solely for the purpose of display.
• The purpose of this display is to facilitate a voyeuristic response in spectators, which is generally seen from a male's point of view, one that is a powerful controlling gaze at the female on display, who is objectified and passive.

Roland Barthes

• Enigma Code- Referring to the idea of holding back information from the viewer as a way to raise questions that demand explanation.
• Action Code- Refers to the idea of building interest and suspense on the part of the audience.

 Tzvetan Todorov

• Narrative begins with an equilibrium (harmony), then moves to a disequilibrium (disharmony) until a new equilibrium is restored by the end.

Claude Levi-Strauss

• Constant creation of conflict/ opposition propels narrative. Narrative can only end on a resolution of conflict. Opposition can be visual (light/darkness, movement/ stillness) or conceptual (love/hate, control/panic), and to do with soundtrack.

Inspirational Video

Rizzle kicks 'When I was a Youngster'


This video is related to our own ideas in the way that it describes childhood thoughts and dreams. We are planning on using the idea of older characters dressing up as children for some of the shots within out music promo, to create the idea of memories throughout different ages.

Lyrics to Track:

I can remember that when I was a little youth I,   
Wanted to fly around the world making a new life,
I never thought today,
I'd be where I am now,

Yo, wanted to be a fireman,
Than I lost the desire man,
The second I got old enough,
To buy myself a cider can,
Yeah, I was a smart little kid,
That sides departed me since,
These days you can find me,
Sitting on the bench in the park with a lager and crisps

Back when I was younger,
I wanted to be everything on the planet,
Now that I am older,
It seems the ambition has vanished,
Yeah when I was a youngster,
When I was a, When I was a youngster,
Youngster, when I was a youngster
And now that I'm older,
I wish I coulda been everything that I wanted,
I'm on it

I think that if I think back back to the days
When I thought I didn't think that,
Nothing that I thought could not be possible,
Ha, try and figure that out,
Back when I didn't know how,
To settle for a desk job bring in those pounds,
I wanted to live in those clouds,
These days I deliver those sounds

I always thought of myself as a simple dreamer,
Never tried to hard but believed it,
Now all of a sudden,
It's gone my way

Back when I was younger,
I wanted to be everything on the planet,
Now that I am older,
It seems the ambition has vanished,
Yeah when I was a youngster,
When I was a, When I was a youngster,
Youngster, when I was a youngster
And now that I'm older,
I wish I coulda been everything that I wanted,
I'm on it

Music Promo: Mood Board

Ideas for Music Promo

One idea we have been working on for our music promo, is to amplify the idea of childhood memories that are featured quite strongly throughout our track. We have been working on the idea of using a range of different childhood memories and using a montage style to put them together during the promo suing a narrative style of both amplification and disjuncture.


http://prezi.com/e-cuiqspopfi/childhood-memories/ 

Response from Carl Hauck 'Windjammer'

Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:00:06 -0500
Subject: Re: windjammer
From: carlhauck@gmail.com
To: abbynewland@hotmail.co.uk

Hi Abby, Amy, and Rebekah - 

Thanks for contacting me, and thanks for your interest in using my music.  

I'd be fine with you using my music for your project since I'm assuming it's not commercial in any way. I'm sure it'll be fine, though, so you could probably proceed in the meantime.

The song "Windjammer" is the title track of my most recent album, which was filled with quite a few songs in which I was trying to come to terms with life after college and all that it entailed, especially since I was returning to my home town to teach high school.  I thought about where and what "home" is, about the people whom I'd wronged, about how dreams become compromised by "reality," and about the meaning of love, among other things.

The song in question was, for me, a way to look back (fondly) on various childhood summertime moments at the house I grew up in, which happens to be located on a street called Windjammer Court. So each stanza is basically a vignette of various fragmented memories (that probably wouldn't mean to much to other people :).

I'll leave it at that for now, but feel free to let me know if you have any additional inquiries or follow-up questions.

Thanks again.

-Carl

www.carlhauck.com

www.facebook.com/carlhauck

Acoustic Music Genre

Acoustic music mainly uses instruments to create its sound in a very simple and un-compromised way, compared to the use of electronics to improve the sound. 

Acoustic performers tend to improve their sound by using an amplifier, making their music louder more powerful. However, these amplification devices remain separate from the amplified instrument and reproduce its natural sound accurately. This is done by placing a microphone in front of the instrument, which is then attached to an amplifier.

During the 1990’s artists who realised the appeal of acoustic music but however were mainly associated with electronically produced music because performing acoustically, these performances became known as unplugged performances.

Music reviewer Craig Conley suggests, "When music is labeled acoustic, unplugged, or unwired, the assumption seems to be that other types of music are cluttered by technology and overproduced and therefore aren't as pure."

Acoustic Artists: 

Damien Rice - Cannonball

Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah 

Ed Sheeran - The A Team

Conventions of Acoustic music promos:

• Many of the shots seen in the promos are that of the performer him/herself either on their own of playing an instrument. Acoustic artists tend to focus more on the music rather than putting on a big performance, sometimes a narrative is used to help the song create a more emotional effect within the viewer and example of this is Ed Sheeran’s ‘ The A Team’. These promos can be based around either illustration, amplification or disjuncture, most of the time is is based on what the artist thinks will be best to show the song and the meaning behind it.
• Slowly paced camera shots, editing and movements are seen throughout acoustic music promos so that the viewer does not become distracted by fast paced shots, and therefore can understand the meaning of the song and the video. A range of different shot types are used throughout these promos, close ups and reactions shots can be used to put across emotions, however long shots and establishing shots are used to create an atmosphere for the mise-en-scene.
• The locations in these videos tend to be quite isolated locations, or a location that reminds the artist of the idea behind the lyrics. 
• The mise-en-scene in these promo are usually quite simple, keeping the main focus on the song and the performer, costumes are kept as real as possible, and the main props used are the instruments being played. The lighting will create focus on the important aspects, and will change depending on the mood of the song, for example, some promos will have spotlight to create more intense emotions, whereas other promos will be brighter creating a lighter mood.

Carl Hauck: Windjammer Lyrics