Research: Indie Music Videos 1: locations

Sandi Thom: Punk Rocker

This Music video is fully performance based and is unconventional- the entire song focus is Sandi Thom singing into camera. As the music video follows Sandi- it becomes evident that the song's music video is made up of one location- an inner city built up area- this is used to contrast with the lyrics, in which Thom makes reference to the 70's and how different life was then and to now. This connotes how times have changed between the generations; not only in music but life itself.

The 1975- Settle down
My take on this song using the music video: This song is about two young gay boys. The lyrics mention a girl most of the time but I think that's just the projection the boys are putting on each other. They are "supposed" to like girls. If their families ask about any crushes or romantic interests, they may lie by describing the other boy as an imaginary female with the same qualities. The families have a hard time accepting the boys' sexuality - even trying to "pray the gay away." The lyrics talk about that they can't be seen with each other but at the end of the video, when they finally accept who they are, they realize it doesn't matter what people think about them. These people are "vanquished". The ocean is a symbol of inner turmoil and confusion. When self acceptance happens, it becomes a calm sea. The five main locations within this sepia filtered video are- Seaside, industrial work-site, house (internal), housing estate, work site (internal). These locations are used to illustrate the social implications/representations of the two boys.

Plain White T's- Hey there Delilah
This song is about a girl and a boy in a long distance relationship who talk about their future plans of her finishing school and him becoming a famous guitar player. The music video for Plain White T's features five locations, however, they all have a blue tint to them which provides synergy across the locations. The performance element is always done in the same location- the white, empty room pictured bottom left, I feel that this is used so it becomes obvious to the audience who the main singer of the band is. The rest of the music video is conducted in an urban setting, the first being the girl waiting at a relatively small train station, this is also used in the end of the music video to create a full cycle. Then, there is a point of view shot from the inside of the train, in which the audience are notified that it is raining due to the rain on the window- this is used as rain connotes sadness. There is then a location inside an urban building, featuring a heavy rusted staircase. Finally, a scene is also done in a busy urban setting- it is used to make the girl pictured seem small and really out of her depth.

Research: Black Eyed Peas - Where is the love analysis

Initial research ideas

I usually listen to a  vast range of different genres, it depends on the mood I'm in which will establish my choosing of a genre at a given time, however, the artists I tend to listen to are:

• The 1975
• Jon Bellion
• Arctic Monkeys
• Saint Raymond 
• Hozier
• The Weeknd
• Ed Sheeran
• Sam Smith
• Plain white t's

The 1975
7 official Music Videos: (From most recent to older music videos)
The 1975 - Heart out (9 months ago)
The 1975 - Robbers  (1 year ago)
The 1975 - Settle down (1 year ago)
The 1975 - Girls (1 year ago)
The 1975 - The city (1 year ago)
The 1975 - Chocolate (1 year ago)
The 1975 - Sex (1 year ago)

The 1975 album covers and Posters seem to be all linked and have a sense of nostalgia to them, with this black and white effect. This effect could illustrate how they are trying to make the band seem more indie, although the band has produced music since the turn of the century, this further links to this ideology of post-modern music. The 1975 are available through CD and online streaming services, connoting how they are still targeting and a younger target audience in contrast to the nostalgic feel of the music itself.

Initial Response To The Task Brief.

Brief
1. A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

• a website homepage for the band;
• a digipak for the album's release;
• a magazine advertisement for the digipak.

Initial response; considering I have such an ecliptic taste in music I am struggling to specify a certain genre of music to target/promote for these certain tasks. In response to the brief, I have a few initial genres that I would potentially like to work with. While on the other hand there are some genres that I am not very familiar with at all. The initial genres that I  would like to potentially work with would be indie or pop- this is the reason of these genres being particularly familiar with me. There are two genres in particular that I don't think that I would not like to work with as I am not really familiar with, these  are Jazz or heavy metal, as I don't particular listen to them don't really have much of an idea as to the codes or conventions that come with those genres.