A2 Media Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Prior to the filming of our music video Ambulance by The Empires we noticed the hybrid of narrative and performance from other rock bands and artists. The narrative would tend to illustrate the lyrics in the music video, a common theme in songs by Green Day and foo fighters etc, so we felt that we had to follow the codes and conventions of rock songs in that aspect by including a narrative that would illustrate the lyrics of the song in the music video. Although they still contained narrative they were mainly performance based so we spent a lot more time filming the performance by the band in comparison to the narrative however we did stress the narrative so that it matched the aggressive punky sound of the song. Another thing we realised during the research and planning of our video was that the typical rock music video would follow Goodwins theory that a music video should contain a close up of the members of the band, so we incorporated close up shots of the singer. The lyrics ultimately described an out of control girl who would eventually end up in an ambulance, along with a partner or boyfriend that she has had a bad influence on, so we made the lyrics fit around this and so we had to find the punkiest girl we possibly could, one who would fit the description and style that we were aiming for, heavy black eye make up and dark clothes etc. In contrast to this we made the boyfriend that she was having a bad influence on look like a relatively innocent, normal boy, just to contrast the two and highlight the influence she is having on him. When making the digipack, what we had in mind was to make the audience clearly aware that this was a rock album they were buying, and we done this by developing a logo for the band, mainly with dark colours which is a typical convention of a rock or metal digipack. We then painted this logo on a canvas backdrop at our filming location which the band then performed in front of. At first we were planning on making a photo of the band the cover, then we decided against this and took a photo of the backdrop, and edited and manipulated it using Photoshop. I believe the end product digipack reflects rock album digipacks on sale right now, and you can clearly tell what type of music you are listening to by looking at the digipack. The back of the digipack features common conventions like a tracklist and bar code, where as the front contains the band logo we created with some paint splashes, which follows the conventions of rock stars image of carelessness and not caring about presentation and going their own way. The photographs we took of the band for the other areas of the digipack were in a darkened run down room in a building in city centre, and we noticed a common convention in digipacks of bands such as green day and nirvana was that they would contain a few images of the band, and would all commonly wear similar clothing as the empires, so this too followed the conventions of a typical rock digipack. The website follows many codes and conventions of a typical rock bands website, but I feel our website also develops on common websites as we put a lot of time and effort into developing the website using html coding to create our own theme and background for the website, as well as the layout etc. It typically contains pages such as tour dates and advertising and we felt that we really needed to make the website more than just another feature of the band. We put time and effort into trying to make a genuinely interesting website and I feel that by doing this we develop on typical conventions of a rock bands website.

  How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
What have you learned from your target audience feedback?
http://prezi.com/z5_bsd8tmpub/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Digipack and Websites Research

To provide ourselves with inspiration on how to develop the digipack we looked at the bands which are similar to The Empires, such as Green Day, Foo Fighters etc and noticed a common theme of rock bands didipacks is that they tend to involve a few pictures of the band, the bands logo, and dark colours. We then decided that to fit the codes and conventions of a rock band we needed The Empires digipack to contain some dark images and colours, with the goal being to recognise that that the digipack is a rock album without being told. This My Chemical Romance digipack contains a dark sombre image that they have created themselves, and a picture of the band, so this has inspired us to do something similar, develop our own logo and use it as the front cover to the album. We will also need to organise a photoshoot with the band to provide us with some photos for the digipack. Whilst researching forms and conventions of rock bands websites, there were many common trends. Alike the digipacks, dark colours and images were a common theme. We feel we need to emulate this by making our website design consist mainly of dark colours and images, to successfully create a good rock bands website. On Linkin Parks website, there were the usual pages about tour dates, discography etc but also the dark theme and colours. Bands websites such as Green Day, My Chemical Romance and Nirvana all followed the same trend, they were quite similar websites with just different colours and themes, the content was mostly the same. However, we find them quite tedious and boring, so our plan will be to challenge codes and conventions of a typical rock bands website by making a more interesting website, as well as following the codes and conventions by using dark themes and colours.

Research and Planning

Indie is a word derived from 'independant'. In the 1950's and 60's it was almost impossible for independant music labels to get their music recognised as the major record companies had so much power in the music industry and small labels simply didn't have enough money to become successful. However punk rock changed everything for the independant companies as many different acts became very popular, this boom in popularity forced the music industry to create the first UK indie chart. Now indie is one of the most popular genres around.

AUDIENCE
To find the audience and typical demographics for our chosen genre of music, which is indie rock/alternative rock, I looked at similar artists Last FM profiles to find typical ages, locations, social backgrounds, interests etc. The bands I chose to research to develop this information were Nirvana, Kasabian, The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand.

Nirvana
Nirvana were a three piece grunge band which established itself in the Seattle Grunge scene in the late 1980s, formed by iconic frontman Kurt Cobain that sound similar to the band that I have chosen to create a music video on. This grungy alternative type of music is a style that is common in many of the artists I have researched. On Last FM I found that the locations of listeners and typical ages of listeners varied massively, with listeners all over the world from countries such as Austria and Montenegro, and ages from 12 years old to 74 years old. But mostly, the listeners would come from United States, Canada, UK and other English speaking countries.

There is a lot of teenage listeners which defies the belief that Nirvana listeners would be of an age older than Kurt Cobain's passing, and the average age ranges from 16-50 years of age, and popular with both males and female. The audience of Nirvana tend to be emos, and people who would dress in black with usual black hair and black make up, but also some listeners defy this and are normal people who would listen to any genre of music.
The reason audiences still listen to Nirvana today, to quote the BBC article - 20 Years of Nevermind; "The music is easily understandable - pop-rock with bite, grunge through critical categorisation but with enough melodic nous to stand tall. It speaks, even today, to the temporarily disaffected teen; but in a way that's inclusive, too, of anyone who just wishes to enjoy a great chorus, a cracking hook, and a mighty riff. Put simply, Nevermind nailed a formula". This explains that pure musical talent that can be performed live without auto-tuning and all the computer effects used today, and it will never become unappreciated. Nirvana made music with raw talent and relevant messages and thats why it still appeals to audiences, because it's simple combination, but provides iconic music that reminds older generations of key times in their life, or can be used as a soundtrack for young people now, creating memories that they'll remember, theres always a song in peoples lives that can take them back to a certain time and place, and for the older generation, Nirvana was it.



Kasabian
Kasabian are an English alternative rock band formed in Leicester in 1997, a similar sounding band to the band we are studying and in the same genre.
DEMOGRAPHICS
To find the demographics of listeners of Kasabian, I looked on websites such as Last. Fm and looked at common countries the band tour in to find listeners from all across the world.

AGES

By researching the listeners of the band on Last Fm I found that Kasabian are a band that mainly appeal to a younger audience, of average age 15-25 mostly. Although this is the main age of the audience of listeners, there was also some listeners from 30-40, but not many over that, or under 15 either.

LOCATION

On Last Fm I found by researching the listeners and there profiles and I found that the UK is the location in where most Kasabian listeners come from. This comes as no surprise as the band are an indie/alternative band which is commonly associated with the UK. As well as the UK there are fans from all over the world, mainly in European countries such as Poland where Kasabian seem to have a rather large fanbase, which also corresponds with Nirvana who also seem to have a huge following in Poland. As you can see in the tour promo photo Kasabian have toured in Singapore which also suggests a following in that country and that area. They commonly tour in the US and all over Europe, which is where a large percentage of their fanbase derives, apart from one exception which is Brazil, who seem to follow alternative rock.

SOCIAL BACKGROUND
The social background of the listeners of Kasabian are people from the alternative rock scene and the indie rock scene, which is a social background in the UK.

To the right are the fans at a Kasabian concert, which are people of the indie rock scene, these are similar to the people who would be at a gig of the band that we are working for who are called the Empire

GENDER

The gender of listeners was found by viewing the listeners on Last Fm and viewing the gender of the listeners on their profiles. I found that Kasabian's listeners are mostly male, however there is a proportion of listeners that are female. My estimations is that the male to female listeners ratio is about 70/30. Kasabian are marketed as a men's band, this was recognized when they featured in the Carlsberg advert for the World Cup. They were chosen to premier the 2010 England shirt which made them more relatable to a male audience as beer and football are both heavily linked to the culture of men. However, they do have a very wide target audience ranging from teenagers to adults. This is because their alternative music and showmanship on stage also attracts a teenage audience. They are also marketable to women with their edgy image which women may find attractive.

INDIE ROCK BANDS SPENDS AND INTERESTS SPENDS
The spends of the audience of Kasabian listeners as well as indie rock listeners would tend to be an edgy style of dress sense, an attempt to stand out in society. This would mean shopping in small stores that would sell band merchandise and a more dark style of clothing. Memorabilia is commonly sold at Kasabian concerts which would be purchased by the fans of the band

INTERESTS

The interests of Kababian fans tend to differ from the interest of Nirvana fans as although they are a similar genre the bands have completely different backgrounds and the majority of both sets of fans derive from different places and countries, with the majority of Nirvana fans coming from the United States, and the majority of Kasabian fans coming from the UK, both fans have different interests but they can relate to each other, as both sets tend to dress in edgy clothing similar to the band itself. The interests of Kasabian fans based on the profiles of the listeners on Last Fm tended to included listening to Kasabian and other indie rock and alternative rock bands.

The Strokes

The Strokes are an American indie 4 piece band formed in New York City in 1998. Upon the release of their debut album Is This It in 2001, the group met wide critical acclaim. Since then, the band has maintained a fan base in New York City and elsewhere in the United States, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Ireland, Canada, France, Brazil and Australia. A number of members have embarked on a variety of side projects, though they regrouped for a fifth album, titled Comedown Machine, released on March 26, 2013. 

They are one of the many indie rock bands to hail from the US at the dawn of the 21st century and their debut album, Is This It, was ranked number 199 on Rolling Stone's 500 Best Albums Of All Time and number 8 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Debut Albums of All Time.

TYPICAL AGES

I found the typical age range of The Strokes on Last Fm listeners and found that the age of listeners would range from the young age of 13 years old to 43 years, but the most common age bracket of fans was between 15-23 years of age. It was difficult to find listeners older than 30 which suggests that The Strokes audience is typically young adults and that they might not appeal to the older generation of music listeners.

LOCATION

I found the location of listeners of The Strokes by viewing the listeners profiles on Last Fm, and immediately found that they have a strong indie following in New York City and other areas of the US. They are also acclaimed and popular in the UK in particular of all the areas of listeners. They commonly tour in Canada, France and Brazil and on Last Fm there was a strong following in them countries too. 

SOCIAL BACKGROUND
The social background of fans of The Strokes are similar to the fans of Nirvana and Kasabian as they are all from a similar genre of music and so have the same kind of social background. The social background they belong to is the indie social group and I gathered this information by interviewing people I know who are fans of The Strokes. The results found that they are fans of Kasabian and Franz Ferdinand which are indie bands, and when asked do they consider themselves indie, the fans said yes.

GENDER
Alike Kasabian, another indie rock band I researched, the most common gender of fans were male. This was found on The Strokes Last Fm page under the listeners section. An average of 25 percent of fans were female which shows The Strokes appeal to a male audience, a common finding when researching indie rock bands. In saying that, however, The Strokes may appeal to a female audience due to their edgy clothing style and appearance which women may find attractive.

Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand are an indie rock band formed in 2002, and based in Glasgow. The band first experienced chart success when their second single, Take Me Out, reached No. 3 in the UK Charts, followed by their debut album, Franz Ferdinand, which debuted on the UK album chart at No. 3. The band went on to win the 2004 Mercury Music Prize, and two BRIT Awards in 2005 for Best British Group and Best British Rock Act. NME named Franz Ferdinand as their Album of the Year.

AGES
The ages of Franz Ferdinand fans were found on the Last Fm listeners profiles and I found that ages of listeners ranged from 17-29 and this result shows that the band appeal and relate to a younger audience of listeners, this is due to the indie rock scene being a relatively new scene. It was difficult to find any listeners below the age of 17 and above 30, concluding that Franz Ferdinand are a band mainly suited to young adults.


LOCATION
On the Last Fm listeners section you are also told of the location where the listeners come from, and the majority of listeners came from the United Kingdom, particularly England and Scotland, where the band are based. The band also have a large following in Poland and Brazil and commonly tour in Australia and all across Europe, this shows a fanbase in most of the world.

GENDER
A surprising find in the gender of Franz Ferdinand listeners in comparison to the other indie rock bands researched was that the majority of listeners were actually female, I suggested this being due to their softer sound which females would be more likely to appreciate and be appealed to with. Overall in the researching of indie rock bands and alternative rock bands the most common gender of listeners was male, but these findings show that the genre can be related to by both males and females.

Indie Rock Codes And Conventions

Arctic Monkeys - Teddypicker
Appearance- A common occurrence with appearance in indie rock videos is scruffy hair, casual clothing such as polos, jeans and hoodies. This is to give the audience the impression the band(and genre) are easy going people who 'don't care', step outside the circle, and think outside the box. 

In this music video the codes and conventions of the Indie genre are followed to the audience’s expectations. 

Other common codes and conventions of indie rock music include:
-The band playing the music in the music
-The band performing live in front of a crowd
-The reason we see the band playing and performing their music in the videos is due to their intention of appearing as talented musicians, rather than industry made superstars.

Research and Planning

Similar bands:

-Artic Monkeys J

-Nirvana M

-Foo Fighters R

-Queens of the stone age E

-My Chemical Romance R

-The Black Keys R

-Kasabian M

-The undertones J

-The last shadow puppets E

-The Strokes M

-Franz Ferdinand M

-The stripes E

-Green day E

-Stereophonics J

-Rage against the machine J

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Genre:

Alternative/Punk Rock

Typical Age:

Younger ages - 14 to 30

Liked by people of older ages also but the music being made isn't targeted to older people.

Demographics:

11/10/2013

Nirvana- 

Today we searched various artists on ask fm to find demographics and the typical characteristics of your usual Nirvana, QOTSA or Green Day listeners. We found that most listeners were aged 14-45 with Nirvana, 14-35 with qotsa and 14-40 with Green Day

Stuart Hall- Representation and the Media

Blacks-Blacks are usually represented as dumb, lower class, fond of drugs and jazz music. They are also interpreted as pimps and slaves

-Those who have power in society influences the media

-Images in modern film/media are saturated, depending on the camera shot, angle and the editing.

Representation is a RE presentation

Politics and news represents topics, types of people, situations and events, the representation is the meaning given to things depicted.

Media can also be distorted/bias depending on the source that the news came from.

Culture- war, ethnicity, stereotypes are all depicted differently

Sexual stereotypes are often presented

Advertisements only work when we identify what is represented in the media, they are there to promote the product and get maximum results.

The male gaze is a term from gaze theory that describes the tendency of works to assume a straight male viewpoint even when they do not have a specific narrative point of view. One of the most obvious results of male gaze is the way a (usually male) directors interest in women informs his shots, leading to a focus on breast etc. e.g. in a sex scene the cam will show more of the woman. A subtle psychological effect of this is that in visual media audiences are primed the sympathise with, or at least respect, characters if the prominent shot of them concentrates on their face.  If it shows another body part the audience is more likely to see the character as a threat or an object of desire. Ultimately the male gaze is used to describe when the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual man. Female characters are sexualised and the camera may zero in on female body parts considered sexual.

The video i have chosen to analyse for male gaze is Bandz A Make Her Dance by rapper Juicy J which is a street anthem. The music video is suggestive and contains a lot of female dancers.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI0gk2KJeho