Final Draft For Magazine Advert

I created two drafts of magazine adverts to see which one would be best to showcase my artist to the targeted audience. I chose this advert because I felt that it looked more professional and emulated my artist well. Also I made the background black and white so that there would be more focus on my artist and the information written. The layout of the advert looks more professional as the text and image are all aligned. I positioned my artist in the centre so that the audience know that she’s the main subject. I broke down the text into different font sizes as it was easier to read and so that all the main information was identified first. I didn’t use a range of colours in the text and the advert as I wanted it to look as professional as possible and also because it wouldn’t have related to my artist.

Final Draft of Album Cover

Richard Dyer's Star Theory

Stars and Stardom

According to Richard Dyer in order to comprehend the bond between the music industry and its audiences, it is vital to acknowledge the roles of the music stars.

The phrase “star” pertains to the semi-mythological meanings established around music performers as a form of branding to sell them to a dedicated and broad audience. It allows the audience to feel connected to the performer in terms of how the “star” represents themselves seeming ordinary but likewise being extraordinary with the amount of wealth and fame they have.

According to Richard Dyer a “star” is not a normal person but an entertainer who perceives themselves as an aspiring image to their audience.

Some common values of music stardom

·         Youthfulness

·         Rebellion

·         Sexual magnetism

·         An anti-authorisation attitude

·         Originality

·         Creativity/talent

·         Aggression/anger

·         A disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour

·         Conspicuous consumption, of sex, drugs and material

·         Success against the odds

Dyer also says there are many key features stars have in common:

-          All stars are not normal people but an image that depend on a variety of media materials such as magazines, advertising, internet and/or films to promote them.

-          Stars are commodities consumed and produced by the strength of their meanings.

A star’s image is dependent on what is called subsidiary media. Subsidiary means to assist something or someone in aid, in this case to promote the “star” for their target audience to buy into their products.

The graphs below shows the breakdown of subsidiary media promoting a “star” and the artist:-  

A star's image is based around various features that will appeal to their target audience such as sexual magnetism. Rihanna is known for her raunchy and rebellious manner which attracts a male audience because they find her attractive.  

However a star must be absent and present at the same time which Richard Dyer has broken down into two paradoxes.

Paradox 1

The star must be ordinary and extraordinary at the same time for the consumer.

Britney Spears is an example of this, we always see Britney Spears in magazines, tv adverts and on youtube. This is because they have marketed her to be available to her audience all the time so that they feel they have a connection with her but the audience can never be satisfied because many of them have never met or will meet Britney so they buy into magazines and her music to connect with her more making her dominant to rival artists like herself (hegemony).

Ordinary:Mum

Extraordinary: Performs around the world

 

Paradox 2

The star must be present and absent at the same time for the consumer.

The consumer can regularly find a way of looking into the artist through the media, one way is YouTube. This makes the artist available for the consumer as they access it via the internet at any time. However the artist is hardly ever present for the consumer to see in real life.

:

Present: YouTube Music video   

Absent: Rarely/never see them in person

The Star Image

·         The absence of the star makes it inevitable that the audience will continue to look into the artist to complete or know more about the image.

·         This is accomplished by the continuous consumption of the star through their products.

·         In the music industry an artist’s performance almost serves the completion to the star’s image but this can equally ruin their image and leave the audience unsatisfied by forgetting lyrics to their songs, dance routines etc. This damages the star’s image rather than building it.

·    This leads fans to continue consuming the artist’s products attempting to complete their image.  
·    Ultimately the star image can be used to        

Music Video - Planning

Colour - For our video we want the colours to be dark and mysterious, possibly black and white or low key lighting as this goes along with the lyrics to the song. Also we thought that these colours emulate the genre as hip hop is sometimes seen as a “ghetto lifestyle”.   

Image – Our artist will be wearing urban clothing; such as checked shirts, baggy/loose fitted jeans and trainers. We also thought that if we are filming outside our artist should wear a puffy jacket with a snapback (cap) as the season is autumn. Creating this image relates to our genre as many rappers wear these types of clothing and we thought that our target audience would be attracted to this as many of them dress and will want to aspire to be like our artist.

Characters – for our music video we are concentrating only on our artist. We will not be using no other characters because we feel that if we focus on the artist the audience can familiarise themselves with him as he isn’t well known. The artist will be acting as themselves and will be shown reciting their lyrics with a simple narrative to go along with it.

Now that I am working alone to create a music video my preparation has slightly altered. I want the colour of my music video to be dark as the song carries a sad emotion. So effectively low key lighting would be fitting to portray the feel of the song.  

The image I want my artist to portray is laid back but also stylish. I will create this by dressing my artist in an edgy/hipster way. This includes clothing that is baggy such as oversized jumpers and jackets. Further to make my artist appeal to the target audience I want my artist to wear heels to look more glamorous and to make the audience want to imitate the artist’s style.

For my music video there are two characters, I chose to use two characters because I felt that it would help the narrative of the song. Also many artists similar to mine go according to Goodwin’s theory in terms of videos being narrative based.  

Album covers - Planning

Font – we want our font to be bold and clear for our target audience to see straight away. The colour that we chose also is black, we chose this colour because it is bold and it goes with our genre hip hop as it is dark.

List of locations – the location we agreed on was to have our artist in a studio with headphones over his head recording a track. We thought this would connect to our genre hip hop. Also we chose this location because we thought that our audience could connect with it as they can see more into what the artist does on a daily basis.

Camera shots – we chose to use a mid shot for our album cover so that our target audience can see what the artist is wearing and also see the surroundings in the shot. We feel by using a mid shot the target audience will be able to relate to the artist in terms of clothing.

Colour options – we have more than one idea for our album cover; our first idea is black and white. Black and white would relate to our genre hip hop as it’s conventional because many artists in the past have done this. Our second option is to use ambient lighting; we believe that ambient lighting would capture attention to the album cover as it glamorises our artist giving off the impression that he is wealthy.  

Lighting – we have two ideas for our lighting, our first option is to use low key lighting. This would make our album cover look mysterious and interesting. High key lighting would also be a possible option; we think that it would make our artist stand out to our target audience when they see it.  

Main Image – as our artist is a rapper we have decided to go according to the genre hip hop in terms of clothing which is urban. We want our artist to have on a checked shirt with straight cut jeans and retro trainers. We chose this look because we wanted to emulate other artists similar to ours and to appeal to our target audience.

Now that I am working by myself to create a music video my idea and genre of artist has changed. I have developed and altered our previous ideas into my own; therefore my generic conventions have changed to suit the genre of my artist. My artist now is Adele who sings soul music; her style is very different to hip hop. She is quite mellow and laid back so I want to portray her image to the style of music she sings. I thought that dressing my artist on trend to what the audience would wear but not revealing would fit the genre of my artist and embody Adele’s style. Adele usually wears dark coloured loose fitted dresses and tops so I tried to imitate that but still make my artist look appealing to males also.



I chose to keep the idea of the font from my group as I still want it to be bold for it to stand out.

The camera shot that I want to use on my album cover is a close up of the artist’s whole body crouched on the floor. I chose to use a close up because the audience can familiarise themselves with the artist and also to show the clothing that she is wearing which will appeal to the audience. 

The colour for my album cover idea hasn’t changed much. Black and white would fit the genre of my artist because soul music isn’t really glamorous; it’s more subtle and understated. Likewise ambient lighting would also be suitable for the genre of my artist as it would draw the audience’s attention to the album cover.

 

I want to use high key lighting for my album cover because it will make my artist stand out to our target audience.

My location for my album cover has now changed and developed into a different idea.  I want my artist to be sitting in a room on the floor looking into the camera. I chose this location because I felt that it was laid back which connects to the genre and also I think it will build a relationship between the audience and the artist. Many artists similar to Adele have used this technique which follows Goodwin’s theory of the demands of a record label featuring the artist looking into the camera. It makes the artist more recognisable for the audience as she is new.

Questionnaire Results

The results of our questionnaire helped us know how to brand our artist to the audience because we now know their likes, dislikes and interests. This is important information because we now have an advantage when producing our own music video giving our artist the likability factor because we have followed what the audience want from a hip hop artist. Lastly going according to our audience’s preference will make our product sell well in the media.     



Questionnaire

Above is the questionnaire that my group put together to find out what the general public thinks about hip hop subculture. Doing a survey of research into your genre is key so that you know how to appeal to your audience when creating a music video.

When carrying out our survey we questioned people from the ages of 11 and over, this is because many people from these ages will have heard of or listens to hip hop. We asked them general questions ranging from what they expect from a hip hop artist to what style of clothing they expect to see a hip hop artist wearing. Questions such as these are vital for us to know so that we know how to market our artist as an image to the audience in order for the artist to gain recognition and to sell.