One Direction Website - Interactivity

Our artist is going to be a brand new debut artist so we need to know exactly what is needed on a website for this type of artist. Therefore we researched the ways in which bands connected with their audience's through interactivity, as raising a fan base is the most important thing when you start out in the music industry.

The One Direction website is full of interactivity, exactly what you would expect from a brand new band trying to make it back.

One method of interactivity is their utilisation of social networking, which is very clear and obvious on their homepage. There are links to outlets including; Twitter, Blogger, Facebook and Youtube.

What’s more, there is the opportunity to purchase their debut single, with a direct link on the website. The link is visual, with a picture of the single artwork, showing fans what they are getting. This interactivity is in the form of advertising, making the most of their fan base and encouraging them to buy which at the end of the day funds the band’s success.

A news feed fills audiences in about the band - essential for our website 

The news feed allows fans to be constantly up to date with the band. The content rangers from competitions to from the band, offering fans the next best thing to seeing them in person. On that subject, there are other competitions to meet the band, another example of interactivity.

 Fans can subscribe to a news letter as well as buy One Direction merchandise such as T-shirts and Posters.

A shop is definitely a feature I would look to include in our website

Cultural References

When I think cultural references in music videos I think parodies or satire, one of the main elements of postmoderminsm. This video, ‘Just Lose it’ by Eminem heavily references one man from music and culture that almost his entire audience would recognise. The reference is a wholly negative and satiric one of Michael Jackson a world famous pop star. The video starts by mocking his Billie Jean music video. The costume is over the top and the dance moves are shoddy, clearly mocking the singer.

The next step of The next step of Eminem’s parody comes when Jackson sets fire to his hair. This a famous moment that audiences will recognise, that actually happened to Jackson. Emimem’s whole tactic of mocking one of pops greatest stars was always risky, as it could have upset some of his fans. However, the majority of his fans understand his humour and are used to his jokey attitudes and will appreciate these cultural references.

Although of less importance, there is a reference to Christmas and Santa in the video. The whole scene is rather comical, with poor outfits and the bad attitude of the santa. This reflects the overall parodic nature of the video.

Santa Stan

He then goes on to reference his older work, re-creating a scene from his film 8mile. Once more, this appeals to his fan base specifically, showing inter textual references can be a strong way to please existing fans.

The parodic nature continues, when we see Jackson in a bedroom with a room full of kids., referring to his accusations of molestation when Macaulay Culkin stayed at his house.

We then see the scene where Jackson’s nose falls off, again a reference to his actual life. The way it bounces around on the floor shows the Eminem is clearly mocking Jackson. referring to his accusations of molestation when Macaulay Culkin stayed at his house. 

     

Neverland



  

Anyone seen a nose?



 



Director

I have conducted this research with my idea for an indie rock band video for Kasabian's song fast fuse.
Samuel David Bayer born February 17, 1965 is an American commercial, music video and film director, and cinematographer.

Samuel Bayer

Bayer was a graduate of New York City’s School of Visual Arts in 1987 with a degree in Fine Arts, he moved to Los Angeles in 1991, and became a popular director during the alternative rock era. He has shot and directed videos for The Strokes, Nirvana, Hole and Green Day and won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction in 2005 and 2007.

My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade ‘The Black Parade’ is a dramatic rock video. I have chosen it because it features a performance with guitars that focuses on the lead singer. Furthermore there is a black and white style, I plan to use both of these styles in the idea I have for my own music video which I picture to also be for a rock band. What’s more, Bayer inserts a narrative into the story, which begins as a dual narrative but merges into one. Like Bayer, I also see my video featuring a dual narrative. Bayer has clearly directed the lead singer to perform aggressively and towards the camera, breaking the fourth wall. The song I have in mind is quite rocky and I think that I will try to emulate these directions to my actor if my video was to be created.      

Green Day - American Iconography

The whole performance style video is again seen in ‘American Idiot’ and ‘Keep Your hands off my girl’ , there is a fast paced and choppy editing approach to the video, which reflects the fast tempo of the music. This pace is definitely one I look to recreate. What is also interesting, is that as well as the performances, there are symbols or narrative that reflect the lyrics. In ‘Black Parade’ the setting is a parade, ‘American Idiot’ has American imagery such as a flag and an abandoned warehouse, where as ‘Keep your hands off my girl’ features lots of dancing girls. All these meanings are very literal, and Bayer proves that simplistic and obvious imagery can still be effective.

My favourite video of Bayers collection has to be ‘You only live once’ by The Strokes.

The Strokes - Isolated white setting

Not only is the song brilliant but the room is almost exactly how I pictured my band performance part of the video. It sounds silly, but having not seen the video or associated the other ones with Samuel before my idea, I feel a lot of my ideas and Bayer’s work is similar. The urban setting of ‘Heart in a cage’ is exactly what I had in mind for my duel narrative, black and white and busy. One final thing that I will take away from Bayer’s work is the unusual occasions of the performance parts of music videos. Although I’ve pictured a white room/studio I feel that an unusual location could also be effective and will discuss this with my group.



Urban black and white setting of heart in a cage.



Album Covers

1) What are the typical features an album cover has? Make a list of all the elements they have in common

After analysing a few album covers, I have narrowed styles down to 3 main categories.

Photo of band – This is almost always used for debut artists, as they aim to promote themselves and make people aware of who they are.

Album artwork – more established bands often use artistic designs on their album, they are normally digitially created but can be sketched. They can do this as fans will know what they look like and the imagery is successful way of attracting attention to the band.

Creative Photography- This could feature the band or just be a photograph which represents the band or the album.

Of course it is not impossible that bands cross over and merge these categories, and there are many examples of this.

There is the conventional list which album covers comply to. These are:
- name of artist
- name of album
- One of the 3 styles mention above, or a mix of them.

BACK COVER
- track listing
-smaller filler artwork or images. These typically reflect the style of the front.
- barcode
- institutional information



2) How would you catagorise the covers in front of you? are there any ways of distinguising between then other than generically?

The albums in front of me have been created by established Indie Bands like Kasabian and Arctic monkeys. As I have previously indentified, established bands lean away from the typical basic band photographs that we see from new bands. Instead the covers are creative, eye catching and interesting, with plenty to analyse. I’ve noticed that the bands generally focus more on the music than on their own and create a cover that reflects their music. For example West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum album appears random, with a mysterious setting, strange poses and costumes that seem out of place and that do not suit the wearers.

However, this reflects the band’s unique style and the variety of their music. Conversely, I found that my old Pop C.D’s stick to stereotypedand fit into the first Category I discovered. They focus on the Singer, and feature photoshoped to perfection close ups of the artist.

I can see that they will create a connection with the listener but not appeal to niche indie audiences. The imagery sells the artist as well as the song and are designed to appeal to the masses. Established bands like Coldplay opt for even more simplistic styles, these often stick to a font which is iconic and recognisable.

3) Album covers serve many different functions, what do you think these are? (ie. what is their purpose)

The album covers ultimate purpose is to sell the artist and their music to their fans. This can be applied to all album covers, however different fans have different tastes, and that is why we see differentiation. New artists stick to convention to attract new fans and appeal to the mass market where as bands like Oasis have an established fan base with specific tastes which they must appeal; to.

Music and Me

There's no point denying it, back in my childhood I was a massive fan of S Club 7. All my friend's loved them as well, and I'm not confirming this, but we may have done some performances on the playground during lunch... such was the extent of our love for band. This song S-Club Party was off their debut album and introduced all the members. My favourite member was Bradley who was the cool rapper and dancing one, I still know the words to this song and would'nt put it past my self to get up and start dancing if I were to hear it on the radio.



The Black Eyed Peas were my next and only other primary school obsession. There breakthrough song 'Where Is The Love' was massive in the UK and was my favourite song for years. The song's theme of terrorism was a bit old for me to fully understand so I would probably look back on how I sang the lyric 'nations dropping bombs, chemical gasses filling lungs of little ones' with a smile on face with slight dissapointed in my ignorance. Never the less, this is a brillaint song from when I was about 10 and I still love it now.



As for today, I'm into all sorts of music at the moment, any artist of any genre could worm their way onto my iPod and I would love it. My tastes range from the rap of Tinie Tempah, the drum and bass of chase and status to the indie style of Arctic monkeys via the Euro Trash of Sak Noel. My favourite band for the last year has been Kasabian and I feel that it would be misleading to not chose to represent my current music tastes. I love fast, laid back rock borderline pop and feel this song is brilliant.