I decided that i would complete my coursework with another member of my class, Holly Park-Davies and make sure that we equally share the work load to create a music video. First of all we had to decide which genre of music to choose, we looked at which songs we would like to use and how we would go about making a video them. We came to the conclusion that we would create a Tween pop music video.
Tween pop is a subgenre created and marketed towards teenagers and preadolescents covering a mixture of genres. The first tween pop groups started in the late 80's early 90's with bands like new kids on the block, take that and the spice girls. In 1999 we saw teenagers like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson and Avril Lavigne emerge and become branded 'pop lolita's'. However, it hasn't been until recently that the disney channel's influence has made Tween pop bigger than ever with young girls. Starting with the stars from the disney channels' high school musical and programmes like Hannah Montanna they have created stars like Miley Cyrus, Vanessa Hudgens, selena gomez and the jonas brothers. This has created a huge market with numerous artists now targeting the tween pop culture.
After we had decided on the genre of music we would like to use we looked at similar artists and analysed their music videos. Similar artists that we selected to analyse were taylor swift, Miley Cyrus, Hilary Duff and Kelly Clarkson, the two that i analysed were Taylor swift and Miley Cyrus.
Taylor swift-You belong with me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vQjSGfU_L4This video represents a typical female tween pop singer with a target audience of young girls. The video tells a story but also shows off the singer and her personality so the audience can start to understand her more. She is first shown as the stereotypical nerd at her school, always studying. She’s wearing glasses and looks like she puts little effort into her appearance wearing casual scruffy baggy and uncoordinated clothes, like worn jeans and dark colours with old trainers. She is also shown in marching band/majorette uniform. This isn’t showing her as much of an idol to her audience. Whereas her love interest’s current girlfriend is shown as the typical popular girl. She has perfectly combed hair and make up and is a lot more lady like. She looks more like the girl that all the boys would want will want, especially with her own convertible car. Taylor Swift’s Love interest is a good looking young boy and looks like a nice guy and would appeal to Taylor’s target audience himself. It makes him look too good for Taylor Swift. At the end of the video she changes as the pace of the music slows down and begins to speed up again. She then changes from a nerd, to becoming centre of attention in a long ball gown and long blonde hair and gets the boy she wants. This makes her look like an icon to her all of target audience. We could look at Taylor Swift’s appearance changing throughout the video when making our film video.
The video is set in a typical American neighbourhood, we can tell this as the first shot is an establishing shot, making it seem realistic to the target audience. It shows the relationship between the characters from the start, showing the distance in different houses, using an over the shoulder shots.
Over the shoulder shots are used frequently throughout the video to display the characters relationships and reactions, this works well in love stories, so we should consider this when making our music video. We see them gradually become closer as the story progresses. Throughout the video they edit the shot by using cross-fade; this is where a shot fades into another, this changes with the pace of the song on the video.
The shot that is used mostly in this video is the mid-shot. This is used to show relationships with two characters which are perfect for this music video. Another shot that is used and works well in this video is the reaction cut to show characters responses to the scenario especially when Taylor Swift sees her love interest with his girlfriend. This would be good to use in our music video to show all the different characters point of view. An important shot that they use is at the end is the close up which shows the audience two characters getting together at the end, this would be something that we need to use in our music video. They use realistic settings throughout the whole of the video in and around an American neighbourhood, indicating that it was primarily targeting an American audience and then move out worldwide. This is so that the young female audience in America can relate to the video fans from other countries can get an idea of the typical American teenager. Settings that indicate it is set in America is the style of houses and that there is the stereotypical popular couple and inferior characters around them. Taylors crush is a stereotypical ‘jock’ that plays American football and his girlfriend is a cheerleader, where as Taylor swift is portrayed as a stereotypical ‘band geek’ at an American football game. This setting is generally the impression given to the same target audience in other countries about the American school life, which can also be seen in films such as high school musical and camp rock. These are typical representations of mainstream America.
Throughout the Music video the colours that are mostly used are different shades of blue and low key lighting, to go with the dark moods and Taylor’s heartbreak. However in most of the scenes there is high key lighting used when showing Taylor Swift and low key used on the other characters. This is to highlight that she is the main character, showing her going through the story. The last part of the music video is set at the school prom, where everybody is dressed formally and Taylor Swift arrives and the high key, bright lighting turns to her, whilst the rest of the cast are shown in blue, low key lighting. By using the colour blue they are juxtaposing the mood as blue colours are used usually for sad, depressing shots, where as here they are using it in a happy ending. This could be because of the subversive behaviour shown by both characters.
Miley Cyrus- 7 Things I hate about you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU1514VkDkcIn this video they are concentrating more on exploiting the artist and target audience, where as in the last video it is purely to show the story behind the song. Although both songs are about boys but this video and song are in a different context. In the first video she is singing about a boy that she loves but they can’t be together where as in this video the artist and other characters in the video are heartbroken, this is similar to Kelly Clarkson’s video. The artists in both videos contrast each other showing that they have different personalities as Taylor swift is shown as the sweet innocent character in her story and Miley Cyrus is represented as a fiery individual, acting rebellious. Miley Cyrus and the other characters in the video all wear odd combinations of clothing giving a statement to their audience that they are individual, the fans could be influenced by this so they need to be careful how they are represented in the video. So even though both artists are targeting the same audience they give a different outlook.
On the other hand Miley Cyrus gives a similar impression to Kelly Clarkson in the third video both showing an attitude and using a fast paced cutting rate. However in Miley Cyrus’ video the cutting rate is more with the pace of the song than in Kelly Clarkson’s video. Both Miley Cyrus and Kelly Clarkson use others lip syncing in their videos. Unlike Kelly Clarkson, Miley Cyrus represents her target audience in her video, identifying her as one of them meaning that they can relate to the artist, song and video.
Alike Taylor Swift’s video mid-shots and close ups are used most in this video to display emotion on the artists and characters faces and the body language that they use. By the artist constantly looking directly into the camera she is communicating with her audience which is vital in a music video as they need to grab their attention immediately making it feel personal to the viewer. I have identified that all of the videos we have analysed mainly use mid-shots and close ups so it is important that we use them when making our music video.
Long shots are used when showing her band and others in her video, showing everybody involved. It also shows Miley Cyrus with all of the girls proving to the fans that she is just like anybody in the target audience and is friendly towards fans. The way that the band is always in the background establishes that she is the lead singer as well as trying to promote her band by putting them in the background at all times.
The setting is a plain grey artificial set; this is used to throw the attention onto the characters and display the emotions on the characters faces. Using a dull, grey set makes it look emotionless and depressing representing her heartbreak. In the Taylor Swift’s video they use a lot of blue colours which are also seen as sad, depressing colours, so there is a pattern there that we need to highlight in our video. The grey setting also makes the characters and the bright clothes stand out so that they can make more of a statement. You can see that they have used high key lighting here creating shadows which generates movement. The brightness of the lighting changes throughout the video, it gradually gets brighter as the song goes on to sound a more upbeat and becomes brightest when she announces that she loves the boy. This shows a similarity to Taylor Swifts as she is glowing at the end of her video when she gets the boy that she wanted. Both videos have a happier outcome and you can see this as the pace of each of them slow down and become much calmer.
The typical things that we found were that they were all singing about somebody they love or have loved. There are two styles of video one is giving the song a storyline and the other is of the artist singing in a set using others. Most of the shots used were close ups or mid-shots andgenerally a fast cutting rate so it is vital that we use these more frequently. However i also discovered that when the artist gets her loved one the cutting rate slows down which we will need to look at. Lighting we need to use is either natural looking or high key with it changing to lower key towards the end. We need to be careful how our artist is represented as the specific target audience may be easily influenced. At the same time we need to create a personality so that the artist seems individual and is dressed fashionably.
After looking at other videos i decided to carry out my own research by holding a focus group with 3 girls from the potential target audience.
Olivia aged 13,
Emily aged 16,
Kelly aged 16.
Whose preferred genre is Tween pop music.
Watch these two Tween pop music videos.
Taylor Swift - You belong with me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuNIsY6JdUw
Miley Cyrus - 7 things I hate about you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU1514VkDkc
Out of the two videos which do you prefer?
Olivia: Taylor Swift – you belong with me.
Emily: Taylor Swift – you belong with me.
Kelly: Miley Cyrus – 7 things I hate about you.
What do you like about this video?
Olivia: It’s a love story where Taylor gets the boy in the end. It’s like a short version of most of the films I watch where the geeky girl fancies the most popular boy in school and a jock but thinks she’ll never get him because he has a girlfriend who’s a cheerleader and is the most popular girl in school and thinks she can never get him. Then there is a happy ending where she changes and turns up looking pretty and shocks everyone, she finds out he really likes her and they end up together. So I love it. Oh and Taylor swift looks funny as a geek.
Emily: Yes I like that it’s telling a story too and how it’s set in an American high school. Also the boy in it is called Lucas Till and plays Miley Cyrus’ boyfriend in the Hannah Montanna movie and he’s really good looking. I love Taylor swift too and when she turns up at prom completely different.
Kelly: I prefer Miley Cyrus’ video because I like the song better and I like Miley Cyrus more anyway. The best thing about the video is that when the song gets faster Miley and all the others go mad singing at their boyfriends or probably ex-boyfriends.
What is it that makes you like the other video the least?
Olivia: I like Miley Cyrus and the song but the video’s boring it’s just a group of girls in a room singing and crying.
Emily: I think the same, I like the song but the video isn’t much to watch bits of it looks quite depressing. Taylor’s video is something different whereas loads of artists have music videos like Miley Cyrus’.
Kelly: I actually don’t know why I like it the least. It’s probably because I prefer Miley Cyrus’ music to Taylor Swifts, so I can’t really think of any other reasons why else I like it the least
How do you think the artists are represented (how they look) in the videos?
Olivia: Well Taylor Swift is meant to be a geek but she doesn’t actually seem like one she’s just wearing glasses.
Kelly: Yes you see where she’s dancing round her room; I do that all the time.
Olivia: Ha and me
Emily: Yes and me. She doesn’t look much like a geek she just looks fun and friendly making the popular girl look like a snob.
Olivia: Yes and when she turns up at prom in that lovely dress and it just makes her look even better.
Kelly: What we’re saying is if the video is meant to make her look like a reject it doesn’t it just makes her look better.
Emily: Exactly and then Miley Cyrus looks depressed and upset so we all feel sorry for her.
Kelly: Yes she looks depressed and upset and then a bit mental when she’s jumping round with all the other girls.
Emily: She looks alright though because if we did that we’d all look stupid especially in what she’s wearing.
Kelly: I know yeah she always wears weird clothes.
Do you that think that both of the songs suit their videos?
Emily: Yes they do if you listen to the words in you belong with me they sing what the video is doing.
Olivia: Like when she walks in the room and it goes slower and gets faster when he sees her.
Kelly: I like that bit. Miley’s video suits hers too because in the chorus when it’s fast their all jumping around and then when it’s slow their all standing their singing upset.
Olivia: Yes and some of the girls have stuff from their boyfriends I think one has a teddy or something.
Does this video make you want to purchase the song?
Olivia: Yes I’ve got both of their albums.
Emily: Me too I think I got it just after this song and video came out.
Kelly: I’ve got Miley Cyrus’ album not Taylor swift. It’s not her videos that made me buy it anyway I just like her music
Where/how would you purchase this song?
Olivia: I got my album on play.com it’s the cheapest but all the other songs I have I just download.
Emily: I downloaded the album off ITunes but I rarely ever buy music I normally listen to the videos on YouTube.
Kelly: I brought the album on play.com but I don’t really buy music either i just listen to the songs on YouTube.
So from this feedback from the audience I have discovered that the most influential video that we could create would be a video with a love story as two of the three said that they purchased a song because of the video. We also give our artist a good representation as they picked up on the fact that although Taylor was supposed to be a 'geek' she was still portrayed as the better person. The video should be something that the audience can relate to as all three of the girls said that they could relate to parts of Taylor Swift's video. Having a love interest is also very important as the girls even recognized the boy in Taylor Swift's video from the Hannah Montanna movie.
Comparing my focus group with our questionairre I've done some research into our potential audeience.
The results in our questionnaire presented that our target audience mainly listen to teen pop through watching the music channels on the Television. Channels like starz TV, smash hits and the box and chart hits are the channels that play teen pop more than any of the other channels in England.
Starz TV formerly known as Fizz TV are owned by Mushroom TV ltd who also own channel aka. Starz TV plays a wide range of music but is one of the channels that play teen pop more frequently than others. Teen pop also gets a lot of coverage on ‘The Box’ which is one of the biggest music channels in the UK, half owned by channel 4 and the other half owned by Bauer Verlagsgruppe. Even though ‘The Box’ and Starz TV play a lot of teen pop, Smash hits generally play more teen pop as it is devoted to pop music. Smash hits is owned by Box television and comes from smash hits magazine. When we asked a sample of our target audience we found that Smash Hits was the music channel that they most listened to, and MTV wasn’t far behind.
MTV is a globalised music channel. Teen pop is extremely famous amongst young American girls so it gets regular coverage and there is high demand for teen pop artists like Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, selena Gomez and so on. An artist similar to ours is Miley Cyrus who is often filming personal shows for MTV like Miley’s sweet sixteenth so our target audience will tune in to MTV. Another globalised channel that introduces teen pop stars is the Disney channel; they also produce videos for Miley Cyrus and other artists like Vanessa Hudgens. So we will also need to consider the type of audience watching the Disney Channel when making our video.
Our target audience also mentioned that they listen to teen pop on YouTube for free. The record companies, artists and producers are all happy with this because they get masses of people watching the video and are aware of the artists. With the divergence of technologies the videos aren’t only on the TV. Using an I phone, our audience are able to download videos on the go with iTunes and also watch them whenever they want on YouTube. They can also use the iPod touch to download the music and videos from their computer to watch whenever as well. So our audience always have access to the music they want to listen to and can listen to it whenever they want. Few people still buy CD’s of the artist’s as most of the music is exclusive, however some of the artists bring out albums out but little people buy CD’s because there are other free ways of listening to the music.
Whilst i conducted my focus group Holly was handing out a questionnaire to see what a large sampl of our target audience would want to see in a tween pop music video.
Following this i did some research into record producers of similar artists.
Founded by Scott Borchetta in September 2005, Independant Label Big Machine Records have a catalogue of country and western artists. In their first year they had a number one single, five places in the country 30, recieved a nomination for record label of the year and placed all three of the label's three new artist releases in the Top 10 Most-Played New Artists of 2006.
Even though Big Machine's artists specialise in the country and western genre their signature artist is Taylor Swift who is a Tween pop icon. Her album has one numerous awards including 2009’s highest-selling album of the year across all genres as well as spening more weeks at number one top the Billboard Top Album chart than any other album in the last 10 years. Her singles 'love story and 'You belong with me' became the first ever Country crossover single to hit #1 on the Billboard and USA Today Top 40 airplay charts.
Other than Taylor Swift their catalogue includes Reba McEntire, Jewel, Trisha Yearwood, Jack Ingram, Jimmy Wayne, Billboard’s “New Country Artist of 2009” Justin Moore, Steel Magnolia, The Band Perry, Fast Ryde and Sunny Sweeney collecting Big machine records 35 awards between them.
Recently in 2009 Big Machine partnered with Universal Republic to create Republic Nashville but still manage to be a small but powerful record company.
Hollywood Records was created in 1989 by the Walt Disney Company to develop new pop and rock artists and diversify its music group. Initially the label was distributed by Elektra Records in the USA and Canada which later changed to Distribution in North America switching to PolyGram in 1995 that has since been taken over by the Universal Music Group.
Their roster include artists like Duran Duran, Queen and Danzig. However, toady Hollywood records operates under the disney music group so their artists are mainly young stars and performers for the disney channel like Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, The Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato. Their artist to sell most of the label was the tween pop star Hilary duff with 16.5 million and 5 million of her album metamorphosis.
Alternatively, in Europe and the UK Hollywood Records currently releases acts such as Jesse McCartney, Vanessa Hudgens, Corbin Bleu, Aly & AJ as well as soundtracks through EMI, but all other artists are distributed through Festival Mushroom Records & Warner Brothers Records.
For both of these record labels Tween pop artists have sold the most labels and albums, with Hollywood records now having more of the Tween pop artists than anybody else. This shows that it is becoming and increasingly popular genre of music.
Finally before i create my own music video i have done some research into other music video producing companies. It was hard to find information on music video producers so i had to resort to general music video producers.
Anonymous content is an industry leading music production and Management Company established in 1999. The owner is Steve Golin, with Shiera Rees-Davies executive producer and molly Bohas directors Rep. They have built relationships with talent, talent agencies, advertising agencies, broadcasters, international distributors being able to create projects like music videos, films, adverts and television shows. They have many talented and award winning Directors to produce their music videos:
Anonymous
Sean Donnelly
Andrew Douglas
David Kellogg
Daniel Levi
Phil Mucci
Jake Nava
PES
Mark Romanek
Malcolm Venville
And the feature directors are:
Scott Coffey
David Fincher
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
John Hillcoat
Garth Jennings
Wong Kar-Wai
Guy Ritchie
David Slade
Gore Verbinski
These directors have worked with artists such as Beck, Beyonce, Coldplay, Janet Jackson, Lenny Kravitz, Madonna, Pink, Prince, Red Hot Chilli peppers, REM, Rolling Stones, Shakira, and U2. Samples of music videos they have created are:
Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Hump de bump
Lighthouse family – run
Plan B – no good
Beyonce – Single ladies
Nine Inch Nails – only
Muse – time is running out
Madonna – What it feels like for a girl
Beck – Hell yes
The company was founded by Grant Cihlar in 1989 in Hollywood, California as a music video production house and then grew into a creative boutique producing some highly customized products. As well as music video’s they’ve created adverts and other promotional materials, as well as being in the independent feature film and documentary markets. The have a domestic and international service being able to provide globally.
Grant Cihlar started as a guitarist himself as a guitarist for Tim Scott on Geffen records and managed a lot of bands himself across the world producing music videos. This was where he met his wife with a design background and an eye for detail playing an important part in the business to make sure 1171 can keep their cutting edge content in music videos, adverts, film and television.
Their directors include
In America:
Paul Andersen
Tod Waters
Brian Thompson
James Cox
Paul “Coy” Allen
John Lodgson
Craig Ross, Jr
Abdul-Malik Abbott
International:
Kenneth DeBacker
J&L
Stefano Moro
They produce music for all kinds of artists what ever the genre of music.
Examples of some of the Music videos they’ve produced are:
Lumidee – Dance (created for fifa world cup 2006)
T.A.T.U – all about us
- Friend or foe
- Dangerous and moving
- Show me love
Trick Trick FT Eminem – welcome to Detroit
Def Lepard – now matter what
Alice Deejay- better off alone
Bloodhound gang – the great white dope
And many more including films, adverts and adverts.
Another important result was that most of our target audience thought that Norah lane compares to other Tween pop stars like Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift with nearly half of them scoring 9 and 10. This means that we were successful with how she was represented using the correct clothes and emotions, however, two people were negative about comparing Norah Lane to other these Tween pop artists. Everybody I asked believed that the storyline fits the music video but one of the vital conventions was that our audience would be able to relate to the story line in some way. When I asked whether my potential target audience would be able to relate to the story in our music video 14 out 25 said yes they could. However, when I asked whether the transformation in our music video is as good as the transformation in Taylor Swift’s video 16 out of the 25 people I asked said no. 
When I asked why this was most people said that there was more of a change in how Taylor Swift looks in her music video compared to Norah Lane. Other people said Taylor Swift’s video makes it look more professional and some said that it looked better because she turned up at prom. So to improve on our music video we would have to make the transformation scene more effective and professional looking by making more of a difference to how Norah Lane looks. On the other hand 20 out of 25 of the people that we asked thought that the actors were suitable for their parts. Out of the other five people that said the actors weren’t suitable for their parts, four believed that ‘Kurt’ wasn’t good looking enough as Norah’s love interest and one thought that we could have used somebody else as Norah who looked more like a ‘tomboy’. In response to whether Norah is represented well in our music video, 14 out of 25 people marked 8, 9 or 10 with nobody scoring it below a 6. This is showing that Norah Lane would be suitable as a Tween pop artist being a good example to young girls. When I asked whether we need to make improvements on our music video 13 out of 25 girls couldn’t come up with anything that we could improve. However, those who did comment on the fact that we’d need to make a bigger difference in the transformation, making her look more like a tomboy and then when she looks ladylike it will have more of an impact. Other improvements included having a different actor for her love interest and making it look more as if it was filmed in an American school. 
Looking at the results most people think that Norah’s website is realistic comparing it with other Tween pop artists as only 4 people have scored it below a 7. This could be because we have chosen a nautical theme as 22 out of 25 people said yes they like the theme chosen for the website. The majority of the girls that I asked also believed that the nautical theme also suits Norah’s personality from her music video with 20 out of 15 saying yes. Although when I asked if they thought the website is easy to understand and navigate around only 14 out of 25 said that it was, meaning that quite a few people thought that it wasn’t very clear. 
When I asked the girls if they thought there was enough information available for fans looking at the features available on the website 22 out of 25 said yes that there was. Those who said no thought that there wasn’t enough information on Norah Lane just looking at the homepage. Alternatively there is NorahStyle on the homepage for the bigger fans to become members to get exclusive information about Norah and 19 out of the 25 girls said that they would like to become a member themselves. 
More importantly 17 out of 25 girls thought that the image isn’t appropriate for the website as she is winking at the camera which may look slightly promiscuous to young girls and parents. So although we used this after looking at Katy Perry’s website it may be something we need to change. However a good outcome was that 20 out of 25 girls said that they thought the website would appeal to them and only five of the girls mentioned that we needed to make improvements. The only improvements that they believe we need to make are to change the image to something more suitable and to make the text a bit clearer. 
Comparing our Album cover to other Tween pop artists people generally scored high with none of the girls scoring below 5 and most people scoring 8 to 10, suggesting that it looks professional. The girls also thought it was a good idea that we used the same theme for our website and album cover as 24 out of 25 said yes. Having Norah Lane dressed in the same clothes as her website on her album was successful as 24 out of the 25 girls thought that it was a good addition, as well as 23 girls believed that the image used for the back of the album cover works well with the nautical theme. 
The girls seemed to like the presentation on the album cover as 18 out of 25 said that they would even buy it if they saw it in stores. All 25 of the girls thought that the album title is suitable and 23 out of the 25 girls thought that the songs on the album looked like those you would see on a typical Tween pop artist’s album. Only two of the girls could come up with improvements for the album cover and this was that they noticed there wasn’t any small print on the bottom of the back cover as there is on other albums. 
On the whole people thought that the way we have given Norah Lane a good representation with only 7 people thinking other. People may not believe that she has been given a good representation due to the image used on her website as a lot of people seemed to object to it. However, overall Norah Lane would be a suitable icon for young girls as a Tween pop artist. 
20 out 25 of the girls like Norah Lane as an artist and said that they would chose to follow her. Reasons that they gave for this were mainly that she sings the genre of music that they prefer or that Norah looks like your typical Tween pop artists. Other reasons included that they like the album and that the song titles looked like something that they’d want to listen to. A lot of people also said that they like the music video and it is something that would interest them. However those who answered no generally thought that Norah isn’t as good as other Tween pop artists out there and the music video didn’t measure up to the love story used in Taylor Swift’s you belong with me, which is a hard thing to do when it has won so many awards. All in all I think that our potential target audience have a mixture of feelings about our media products but the majority of people tend to like our music video and the artist that we have created. A lot of people are enthusiastic about our album cover and our website but our downfall was the image used for the webpage which the girls didn’t seem to like.
