Evaluation: Part 1 - Brief

The initial brief I was working towards was Brief Number One - Music Promotion. This mainly appealed to me because watching music videos on Youtube and other online sources was an everyday thing. I felt that the opportunity to make a music video was far more interesting than making a Children's TV Drama.
In our group the idea we went forward with was my Music video after presenting a powerpoint about it and my ideas for the songs video in class.

Here is my Presentation for Solo' Ver Now.

The artist that i found was an unsigned Soul/RnB artist who we felt emphasised sophistication in his song. We found the song and artist from the popular website called www.unsigned.com. From the stage where we knew we definitely wanted to use his song, we sent an email to him asking for permission to use his song for our A2 Music Promotion project.

 Due to our assumption that he would reply within a few days with a yes, we continued with the research and analysis' of similar text whilst generating ideas for the video. At this point we still didn't have a response from the Artist so we continued trying to contact him e.g. messaging his MySpace page but again, no response. We felt we were too far into the ideas of our music video to be set back by restarting with a different song. So we decided to continue using the song but we acknowledged that it is a copyright infringement.

The generic hybrid of RnB mixed with Soul is appealing as it creates a level of calm and smoothness through out its genre. The genre also captures me due to its slow pace coming from Soul, in contrast to the pace of a Rap song where lyrics are too fast to hear.
I believe this song appealed to me and my age group as it contains a presence of RnB through out which generally attracts teenagers and young adults.

Post-Production Log 15

Final Music Video: Solo - Solo 'Ver Now

Final Digipak

Final Magazine Advert

Job Allocations: What actually happened.

• Mood Board: Me
• Music Video Analysis: Amandip... 3 Done (Taio Cruz, Drake, Enrique)
• Audience Research Survey: Both
• Focus Group: Me
• DVD Cover Analysis: Amandip... 2 Done (M.J, Young Money)
• DVD Cover Analysis: Me... 1 Done (Linkin' Park + Jay-Z)
• Magazine Advert Analysis: Me... 3 Done (Kanye West, La Roux, 50 Cent)
• Audience Reseach Analysis: Amandip
• Treatment: Me
• Song Lyrics: Me
• Magazine Advert Analysis (Extra): Me
• Flatplans: DVD Digipak Front & Back Cover Analysis: Me
• Flatplans: Magazine Advert Analysis: Amandip
• Shot List: Me

Post-Production Log 14

Post Production: Friday 3rd December..

Also ended up being a snow day.
But the teachers were kind enough to extend the deadline till Thursday 9th December. Much Appreciated!

Post Production: Slight Problem.. 2/12/10

The day before our Final Edit deadline the school gets closed due to snow  -_-

We've got the 3 minutes on the timeline and everything looks good, we just needed to add our visual effects and some transitions today but now we can't until tomorrow.

Post-Production Log 13

Post-Production Log 12

Post-Production Log Week 11

Production Log Week 10

Production Log Week 9

Production Log Week 8

Production Log Week 7

Production Log Week 6

Evening before filming London Shots

Tomorrow we go to Embankment + Millennium Bridge to film some narrative shots for our music video. What came to mind just now was a music video i saw a few years ago, couldn't remember the title and artist and first but after searching for it i found it.

Sugababes - About you now



This video focuses on the narrative and performance elements, using two characters during the narrative, who are looking for each other through the streets of london, to meet up, as they know how they feel about each other now. That's why i remember this video so clearly, because it was shot through a few streets of london, which is very relative to our music video during our narrative as the artist and the females lead walk alone across embankment.

Millennium bridge is also a setting for this video which makes it all the more relevant.

This video also takes a lot of shots which are just to fill in the instrumental of the lyrics, such as pans so quickly everything is missed but connotes a rush. I want to create the opposite of this by making everything feel slow and almost painful, to emphasise the feelings of the two characters.

Discussion 1/11/10

We had to re-evaluate which days we are filming on and compress this into two days.
We also decided on which channels/scenes would have separate outfits and how this would effect our work. We done this so that some of these scenes will not have clashes with the front and back covers, to make sure it follows the house style.
This is because we kept the photoshoot in mind. For example, we will be taking a few shots for the front and back cover when we go film on the millenium bridge and embankment.
Along with this we had to annotate the shot list to colour code what is done on what day, and what outfits are needed when.

Random Inspiration

So i'm sitting here looking at music videos of my favourite artists and come across this new artist: Gilbere Forte. I really liked this track due to it's lyric, beat and pace but more then that...

Watching the video inspired me to try this concept of the video in ours, where they write lyrics on the screen over certain shots, which i could use during the chorus. I'll keep that in mind while editing the music video, testing out different styles of the aspect and see if it fits into our music video.

Background Options

Here i just created 4 different backgrounds with a primary black background but tried out 4 different brushes to create a sense of purple to go with our house colours, from here we will pick which background to use for our DVD cover and magazine advert.

Shot List

SHOT LIST

Flatplan Analysis

Magazine Advert Analysis

Flatplan Analysis



DVD Cover Analysis

Annotation of Dvd

Pre-Production Log 5

Pre-Production Log 4

Magazine Advert Analysis

 There are a number of conventions on this magazine advert.

They Include:

•  Artist Name - Jay-Z is a worldwide phenomenon therefore having his artist name is big bold black text is simple enough to interest the readers of the magazine. The Artist name's typography is the same as the album's one, therefore we can say that it creates a level of synergy between the two.

• Album Name - The album name is also exactly the same as the album covers typography again creating a stronger sense of synergy. Along with this they both contain the symbol representative of the blueprint 3 album.

• Featured Tracks - This bit is in the center of the magazine advert as it is positioned in the place which the readers will see first. It is the name of the two tracks which were pre-released to create more anticipation and make the potential buyers want it more. 

• Release Date - Conventional as it is always used to tell the audience when it will be out for purchasing. 

• Brand Name (ROCNATION) - The audience which are massive fans of the artist will know that ROCNATION is a huge Jay-Z brand which represents him as an artist. This branding will attract audiences to buy it as it will make them feel part of the brand.

This magazine advert is seen to be very simple, which it is depending on how well you know Jay-Z.

He is a huge music artist around the world and well-known everywhere. This is advertising his Album 'The Blueprint 3', which was highly anticipated last year. Eventhough the magazine advert lacks detail it contains the vital elements and conventions needed to persaude people to buy the product, as Jay-Z is a huge artist with a massive fan-base, it isn't very impotant for him to bombard the page with unecessary information and images, becuase its highly likely that the readers of the magazine will buy the product. This magazine advert is used to simply create awareness of WHEN the product is available, as he already is very well established.

PERMISSIONS PROBLEM

Ok, so i think we've come to the stage where we've gotta accept that this music artist which we based our work on is just not going to reply to any of our emails and messages. 


We've tried to contact him by emailing him (both of us), we also left him a message on his www.unsigned.com page, and along with that we even found his myspace page and left a message on there, but no reply what so ever. 


We thought long and hard about changing the song to something similar but we're going to stick with just getting the song off the internet and using it for the project, and remove it at the end after its been examined. 

Song Lyrics - Solo 'ver Now

Solo 'ver Now

CHORUS

Girl you know you’re so cool

You know what im all about

But the world is so cruel

I think its solo’ver now

Don’t let me unrush

i felt so alone

I know ur so fine but

its comin to an end now ow oww

Girl you know you’re so cool

You know what im all about

But the world is so cruel

I think its solo’ver now

Don’t let me unrush

i felt so alone

I know ur so fine but

its comin to an end now ow oww

VERSE 1

When she amnesty she cries

I said please don’t do that to me girl

So I tried to dry her eyes

She said ur in my mind forever

In this moments voice don’t knw how to act

I did my best but that was hard to meee

But its over, thats our fateee

But I sweeeeeeeeearrr she can count on me

on your bestfriends coz we were meant to be

But after all

Why should I care about what shes thinking

Coz when girls with youuu they just don’t cre about what ur feelin.

CHORUS

Girl you know you’re so cool

You know what im all about

But the world is so cruel

I think its solo’ver now

Don’t let me unrush

i felt so alone

I know ur so fine but

its comin to an end now ow oww

Girl you know you’re so cool

You know what im all about

But the world is so cruel

I think its solo’ver now

Don’t let me unrush

i felt so alone

I know ur so fine but

its comin to an end now ow oww

VERSE 2

Then she came into my arrrrmms

No girl has ever held me that str-ong

Said she loved to love my charms

I said well il stop you doing wrong

In this moment girls dont know how to act

She said for the last time please make love to me

So in memory of our past

I sweaaaaaaaaaar sshe made love to me

It was the best time

And it was meant to be

well afterall

I think I know what shes feelin

Its hard to leave a girl

That’s for sure what im thinking

CHORUS

Girl you know you’re so cool

You know what im all about

But the world is so cruel

I think its solo’ver now

Don’t let me unrush

i felt so alone

I know ur so fine but

its comin to an end now ow oww

Pre-Production: Treatment

Treatment



Artist & Audience


The Artist is named ‘Solo’. He is a young RnB/Soul artist who aims to convey passion and emotion into his music. This is definitely a challenge to the stereotype that all young males are insensitive. He has a target audience of males and females aged 15-25 years old, simply because his music is based on emotion, therefore targeting many females, whilst also aiming at the teenage/young adult age group because they are primarily the ones at the stage where they look for love in their lives, in terms of ideology. Solo’s music also seems to acquire the taste of some middle-classed audiences, with his powerful sense of style which seems somewhat simple yet sophisticated. This sophistication is represented through his clothes which we will definitely be portraying when playing solo in the music video through mise-en-scene.


The target audience are still primarily working-class young adults, mainly based in the UK. This video will be targeting the audience who are slightly more into their relationships and fashion. We will aim to appeal to them by using A LOT of mise-en-scene such as clothing, lighting, a slight sense of performance and setting. Clothing will primarily be with a level of sophistication, no tracksuits etc , which are stereotyped for the less sophisticated young audiences, and aim to film in settings which are tourist attractions e.g. London eye and the Millennium Bridge.


Along with this, the aspect of a conceptual channel in our music video should appeal to the young audience through their other media consumption using conceptual imagery through green-screen editing and a projector as we have discovered through our research that music videos of a similar genre have done this successfully and it has strongly appealed to our audiences, such as Drake – Over.


Our Vision

• Mise-en-scene in both the music video and the ancillary products will have the artist in a number of sophisticated outfits and dark lighting with Gels to create a dark-coloured effect of lighting during the video. Along with this we want to create/film in a setting which conveys another sense of sophistication which will represent our artist well in that way. This will give mise-en-scene a powerful role in our music video to represent the brand. In this mise-en-scene we will be conveying our house colours to be dark colours such as Grey, Purple and black to create a sense of mystery in his character and branding. These colours will be included in ALL our products to emphasise the sense of synergy throughout.


• The editing style/cinematography is going to be a HUGE part of our music video as we are going to attempt to create a number of shots in a kind of pencil/paint effect whilst the artist is performing in the channel where he’s sitting on the bed, along with this we want to make parts of the video in a picture-in-picture style, to appeal to the young target audience who enjoy the visual effects in a music video. In these P.I.P shots we can put of the music video channels we are going to use, one of the female alone and another with the male alone, which won’t be a performance style. We are also considering using these effects for the ancillary products with the house colours to again convey the synergy between the products. The cinematography will be an unexpected and uncommon aspect of our filming as we are choosing to do a number of long shots which are quite lengthy between cuts depending on how it will flow with the song. We will try to use a projector to play conceptual images over the artist during the performance channel of the video, where he is again sitting on the bed singing.


• The Magazine Advert and DVD Digipak will be strongly synergised through the house colours, the main images, the mise-en-scene and the artist itself. This will be synergised with the music video also with house colours but also with still shots from the music video at the back of the DVD Digipak as a preview to appeal the audiences, and maybe some images during the video as the main images to synergise through the actions of the artist.


• We are going to have a number of genre conventions such as a ‘cut to the beat’ style video which will flow with the song to create a sense of flow instead of going with the idea of making it not flow and making the audience feel confused. Another genre convention which we will be using for the RnB/Soul music video is to include a channel in the music video which primarily focuses on the narrative of the song, and the break-up which we can also tell from the song title ‘Solo ‘ver Now’.






Technology Use


We will be using a wide variety of technology for this project including the music video and both ancillary products. For the music video we will be using the camera equipment provided by the school, along with its green screen filming area. This is all during the actual filming stage, once editing begins we will be using a Final Cut Pro. This is an advanced editing software that will allow us to use picture-in-picture, slow motions, visual effects etc. This is useful as we are aiming to create a music video that uses new technology heavily in order to create the style which we know will appeal to our target audience.


For the Magazine Advert and DVD Digipak production we will be using Photoshop CS5 as I am very familiar with the software. It is also because it allows us to create a product which is as close to perfect as possible, with tools such as the magnetic lasso etc. We will definitely exploit this technology until we are more than satisfied with our products as it is a perfect tool to create the Digipak and Advert.


Logistics


We will be filming in a number of locations such as central London, possibly on the Millennium Bridge, London Eye and on some popular roads such as embankment. To film in some of these tourist attractions we will need permission by the local authority therefore we will go ahead and get the permission by the time production begins. The whole aim of that is to create a level of sophistication in the music video which represents the artist’s style. We will be filming primarily in the evenings and afternoons when it gets darker in terms of natural lighting. This will help set the mood of the video as mise-en-scene is very important. Other locations we will be filming in is my house, in the bedroom as we need a bed to film the performance channel where he is singing on the bed with ambient lighting of the house colours.


The artist in the video will be me (Shani) as we cannot get the actual artist to come perform in the music video after several attempts of asking him. We will be having a female in the music video which will represent the lost love in the narrative of the lyrics.


In order for our production to be successful and also help us on the ancillary products we will be planning with a production schedule of what days we can film the which shots etc. Along with this we will be taking recce images during production to give us an idea of the artist style which will be used in his clothing during the creation of the ancillary products and primarily the main image of the artist.

Audience Research Analysis

Audience Research Analysis

Pre-Production Part 3

3 Magazine Advert Analysis'

Magazine Advert Analysis

The upload is continuously coming out differently from the actual document with problems like stuff coming off the page etc/, can't do anything about it.

Digipak Analysis

Linkin Park & Jay-Z Digipak Analysis
DVD Cover Analysis

Focus Group Part 2

Focus Group Part 1

Pre-Production Log Week 2

Audience Research Survey

Click to see our Survey.

3 Music Videos Analysed

The introduction for 'Taio Cruz - I Just Wanna Know' is very influential for our music video. It sets the scene for the rest of the video and also it shows the two main characters that will be involved in the video. We think an introduction similar to this will work very will with our video and appeal to our target audience because it is from an R&B genre and setting the scene is very important for the introduction.



It is apparent to the audience that the music video is in a narrative form, as a story is being told through the lyrics and actions. This is what we intend to do with our video, and this is usually the main part of slow R&B music videos. We believe that this will be appealing to our target audience because narrative's are used in R&B videos and that is our main genre.

In the music video you can see that there are some performance aspects where the artist is singing along with the song without any part of the narrative being shown. A similar aspect to this will be used in our music video. We think that this will be appealing to our target audience because although using a narrative is the main aspect of R&B videos there are also performance aspects which make the video much more appealing to the audience.



In the music video for 'Drake - Over' there are many visual effects that are used throughout. One of the effects that we particularly like is when he is standing and you can see people going passed him very fast, which gives the audience an idea that the main is alone. This will be appealing to the audience because in our song the man is singing about his relationship being over, so a similar style to this will emphasise this for the audience to see, so the effects tell a story, along with the narrative.



In the music video for 'Enrique Iglesias Ft Ciara - Takin' Back My Love' we can see that he and his partner are fighting and that they are having some problems in their relationship. The main part of this video that we find influential is when the couple are arguing and the man's partner walks away from him. We would like to use the aspect of an argument in our music video because the man is singing about his relationship being over, so this will emphasise the situation for the man.



Also we can see the man throwing around objects which shows his frustration toward the changing of his relationship. We will find this very useful in our music video because it brings forward our two aspects of visual effects and also having a narrative. This will emphasise both aspects for the audience which we think will be effective because they get a feeling of how the man is currently feeling.

Pre-Production: Mood board

Pre-Production Log Week 1

Job Allocations

Planning

Pitch Feedback

Strengths

• Audience profile was clearly decided and explained for the music video.
• Interesting idea of how it will challenge typical stereotypes of males which is also appealing to a female audience.
• Nicely compared to different existing mainstream artists of a similar style & genre.
• Black and white element in both the video and ancillary products will make it easily recognised as the same artist whilst connoting narrative of the song well.

Weaknesses

• The description of the video is too vague therefore needs to elaborate what is going to happen during the video and what it will represent.
• Not enough ideas for the dvd cover and magazine advert.
• Should've played a music video from an existing artist e.g. Enrique Iglesias to connote what the video will be similar to.

Improvements

• Develop a clearer idea of what the music video will have running through it and how it will represent the song in terms of narrative.
• Elaborate on how my work music video will be non-linear.
• Discuss other ways i can integrate my ancillary products more.
• Have a more detailed explanation of what the ancillary products will look like and what elements will make all the products look similar and related.

My Music Video Pitch

Music Video – Idea Pitch


Solo - Sol'o ver now

http://www.unsigned.com/1solosoulrbartist

Music Video - Artist Search

Today i have been searching through http://www.unsigned.com/ to find an artist with copyright free music to create a music video for.

Through my research i have found several artists and bands which i believe i could potentially create a music video for.

Solo - A soul/R&B artist in his late 20's. I believe he can appeal to many males and females of the teenage to young adult age range (13- 30).

He has several tracks on his page of www.unsigned.com/1solosoulrbartist

These songs can be created to follow a narrative video because the lyrics are so powerful in telling a story.

Comparing the bands - HADOUKEN! and Gallows.

How does the band's typography and visual appearance differ?

Both the bands have very distinctive appearances and typography.

As you can see, both logos have very different typography. Gallows has a lot more of a dark, rock and horror look about it where as HADOUKEN! has a more bold, powerful and comic-style look to it. This is because they both convey their band's and target audience's through the style o

f typography. The Gallows one is giving us an insight into the dark culture of their band and audience while the HADOUKEN! logo is conveying a indie, bold and uniquely in-your-face style about the band and audience.

According to the music videos i have watched of both Gallows and HADOUKEN!, i saw that both the band's have a lot of differences in their visual appearances during their performance music videos. Gallows follows an aggressive, tattoo-ed and powerful look whilst HADOUKEN! follows the more subtle, stylish pretty-boy look.

How doe's the band's merchandising differ?

Gallows and HADOUKEN! both have an online store where they sell merchandise. HADOUKEN! sell a lot of apparel including t-shirts, badges, cds and bags. Along with this, they sell bundles for 'Guys' and 'Girls', meaning they have a segment of their audience being female, aswell as just males, therefore reaching out to a wider audience range than Gallows.

In the Gallows UK Store they have different items such as T-shirts, DVD's and Skinnies. But the main way the two band's differ in merchandising is that Gallows have an appeal to the US aswell, therefore they have a seperate store for the US which includes merchandise which would appeal to their target audience in the US, whereas HADOUKEN! only has one store which is based for the UK, but sells more of a range of merchandise than the Gallows UK store.

How do these differences increase their appeal to their differing niche audiences?

The differences between Gallows and HADOUKEN! are significant and that is why it has such a massive effect on the niche audiences. This appeal comes from the audience feeling like they are uniquely different from any other audience because they like their band, and because their band is so original to any others of the mainstream sort, they believe they have their own appeal, making them want to get even closer to their band to become even more unique. The audiences allow themselves to believe they feel a sense of escapism from listening to and following these bands, and it is only with this band, not with any others such as mainstream ones.

The merchandise of both bands increase the appeal of being different by giving them a physical item such as a T-shirt to wear, to advertise their uniqueness in comparison to other niche audiences.

Considering the range of ancillary products available for both brands identify three other products you would develop to help each bands brand.

I have seen both the band's brands and ancillary products they have to offer. I have a few ideas of some products which could further develop the brands they have already created a success with to make it even bigger and more appealing to their target audience as one of both the band's ethos would be to surpass the satisfaction levels of the target audience keeping them happy at all times.

Gallows should develop a signature tattoo design for their main extreme fans to follow, this design would be seen as a template of image aiding the design, so that the fans can then themselves edit the design by changing the name within the logo to their own, making them feel more appeal to the band. This would obviously come from the bands lead singer, Frank Carter as he is the designer for all the brand. This design should be put up on the internet and advertised by word of mouth so that they can allow people to view it on the internet, free of charge, making the audience feel appreciated and grateful, along with being closer to the band as they would be wearing the tattoo also.

Another ancillary product which could be developed should be a custom designed skateboard for fans of HADOUKEN!, this would have a design on the back of the skateboard for their fans of the HADOUKEN! logo, making the fans feel like they are enjoying themselves at the skate park thanks to the band's design, and allowing them to show-off their appeal to the band to anyone that see's it.

The last product i would develop for HADOUKEN! would have to be a MP3 Player which could be custom designed from the website to have an default colour scheme and typography of the HADOUKEN! logo style, whilst allowing the fans to edit on their name by putting it into the website design and then it is manufactured and delivered. This again would make the fans feel appreciated thanks to what the band have developed for them, and allow them to show off their massive appeal for the band, making them more unique as a target audience as they're the niche audience for HADOUKEN!

Audience Profile for HADOUKEN! and Gallows

HADOUKEN!

Age - 13 to 21 - Due to young band members and colloquial lyrics.

Gender - Mostly Male - Predominantly male in the band apart from the keyboard player.

Social Class - Working Class, slightly swaying towards middle class - Due to the fashion style which you wouldn't generally see a conventional working class person wearing, this is the fashion sense of a slightly higher earning person.

Ethnicity - White - Due to the white characters in the video ('That Boy That Girl'). Also the style which this audience follow, the 'skinny jeans look', is usually linked with white people in britain.

Fashion - The Skinny Jeans Look

Lifestyle/Hobbies - Skating, Partying and partially the 'Skins' lifestyle.

Other Media Consumption - Tv dramas such as 'Skins', 'Misfits' etc. Music consumptions of genres like indie and soft rock.

Location - Mainly London and other major city areas.

Gallows

Age - 16 to 25 - The aggression and power emphasised by Gallows is not suitable for any ages under 16.

Gender - Male

Social Class - Definitely just Working class - Middle class people are stereotyped to be more sophisticated and more polite, less aggressive etc, therefore i don't believe this would appeal to any other class other than working class.

Ethnicity - White - due to the all-white members in the band.

Fashion - Rock outfits such as leather and metal, along with a massive appeal for tattoo's from these audiences.

Hobbies/Interests - Partying/Raving, attending Gallows concerts, going to the pub etc.

Other Media Consumption - A lot of punk rock genre music which emphasises the aggression in the audiences.

Location - Northern areas around britain, cities such as manchester, scotland areas due to it being predominantly white.

Reflection Grid

Reflection Grid

Task 2

Why are music videos increasingly important when promoting an artist?

When promoting an artist a music video is one of the most important aspects. This is because you are quite simply selling the artist, therefore their style, face, influential identity can all be used to promote the artist. It can be used to show off the artists performance etc. Along with this, the most important thing about this is when you see a music video on the television or internet, you don't have to pay for it. This means its the best way for an audience to view it because it's easy to access. Also on Youtube, when this video is uploaded and hundreds of thousands of viewers and viewing it and ratings are increasing tremendously, it is also promoted via word-of-mouth onto social networking sites such as facebook to audiences friends of similar music interests, therefore increasing the views and the likeliness of sales per person.

The style is important when using a music video to promote an artist because it creates an emphasis around it which could influence the target audience. For example, Lady Gaga's style is very different than other, but has created an emphasis on the artists individuality, therefore creating a lot more purpose to following her music.

What are the three types of music video?

The three types of music videos are:

-Performance: A performance music video is based around an artists performance in the video. This is sometimes a montage of live events where the artist has performed in front of an audience or a completely different performance at the studio primarily for the music video.

Here is an example of a Performance music video -

-Narrative: A narrative music video tries to convey the lyrics of the song. This can be done by constructing scenes of the moments which the artists are singing about. This can also be the created by having emotional representations by music artist or actors/actresses to convey only the emotion, for example if the lyrics were depressing and sad, the video would have low-key lighting and a person crying.

Here is and example of a Narrative music video:

-Conceptual: A conceptual music video focuses on conveying the appropriate themes according to lyrics of the song and following the tempo of the song through visual elements. This is focused around dance music videos as the tempo of the beat always follows the visual aspects of the video, therefore creating a synchronization between tempo and visuals.

Here is an example of a Conceptual music video:

From this video we can see that the visual elements such as the cuts between each effect are constantly in sync with the song, but also conveys concepts of the lyrics such as relationships in a RnB/Rap style.

Why is branding a band or artist especially important when marketing niche subcultures?

Branding a band or artist is especially important when marketing a niche audience because it has to focus around them more therefore allowing the audience to feel more in touch with the band through the branding. The brand is anything which associates with the band/artist, therefore this has to convey both the artists interests and style along with the audience, which would make them feel more in touch with the band, allowing the to be more satisfied by their interaction, according do the Uses and Gratifications theory. As they are a niche subculture, grabbing the interests and attention of these people is a lot more crucial towards sales than a mainstream audience as a niche audience would have fewer of them, making each of them much more important.

How does branding 'from within the band' increase appeal to a niche, subculture based audience?

Branding from within the band increases appeal to a niche audience because it can make the audience feel more in contact with their bands, by knowing that the branding came directly from the mind of one of the band, therefore allowing them to feel as if they're associated with a brand which that band member has made. This is more effective than just a marketeer from the band creating the brand identity because the band member would know their audience better, therefore understand what they want a lot more. An example of the would be from the brand 'Gallows'. This is because the lead vocalist 'Frank Carter', an ex-tattoo artist, is the man who creates the branding for the band. This includes the logo, textual elements and artwork. An example of this would be from the Gallows webstore, a t-shirt designed by Frank Carter himself.

In the above video, from 4.00 in the video, you can see Frank Carter's body, and the tattoo's covering his body, including a lot of artwork which he has used for CD merchandise etc.

Uses & Gratifications with Gallows - Task 1

Gallows - Target Audience

Gallows target audience focuses on a niche group of people which are mainly based within the UK. They focus on an age group of 16-25. I believe this because their actions and lifestyle are similar to those who live active and partying background. The members of the band also are based around this age so it is ideal for them to target those who relate to the same age group and style.

The gender which the Gallows target would ideally be more towards males for a number of reasons, one being because there are all male members in the group therefore males would find it easier to relate to their music and characteristics. Another reason being because stereotypically the hardcore, rough and aggressive characteristics which are associated with Gallows is also more likely to be associated to males.

The ethnicity that Gallows target would simply be white/caucasian because all the members are white, but also because stereotypically the people that are associated with the genre of 'Hardcore Punk/ Punk Rock' are usually white males.

The hobbies and interests of a person who follows Gallows and the hardcore genres would be typically partying and drinking, along with other wild activities. It's unfair to say that this target audience cause chaos and violence while following their favourite bands of the genre therefore can only be called a negative stereotype.

Current media comsumptions for this audience would be programmes and music on channels such as Kerrang because its a channel dedicated to rock bands etc. The social class for a audience of Gallows would typically be working class people of the UK because punk rock is not highly associated with middle class people and cultures whereas it is associated with working class people.

Uses & Gratifications

This theory of media audiences can be related to Gallows fans.

Gallows fans want to achieve a sense of personal identity from their favourite band. This means gaining personal values, feeling similar to people of the media (in these terms; Gallows members) and gaining an insight into themselves. Gallows fans feel as if their personal interests in the band is valued thanks to the actions the bands do, such as having many concerts in local places, getting close to fans when they do have concerts, and selling merchandise etc. Fans also want to find a model for themselves to follow and behave like etc, even though Gallows are not the best people to do this with, considering the controversial actions they do, they have some positive effects on people such as good dress sense etc.

Information and surveillance relates to satisfying interests in the band, following them across their tours and gaining a sense of security through knowledge. This means that people will theoretically feel better and more pleased with themselves because they know a lot about the band, therefore showing off their interests in the band, making them feel closer to Gallows and what they're up to.

Entertainment focuses on escapism and relaxation from the consumption of Gallows music, it can also mean filling time and having an emotional release. This is a big part of Gallows fans reactions to their music because it focuses on escapism from problems along with interests such as partying and drinking, whilst allowing the fans to enjoy the music and lyrics, videos etc. Gallows lyrics focus on things such as emotion therefore diversion from real life problems is a big aspect of their uses & gratifications by the audience.