How my music video for Smaller Than You creates a subculture.

The artist chosen for our video is a band called Smaller Than You. Smaller Than You's music falls under the genre ska/punk.

Reggae/ska subculture

Ska as a subculture is one that isn't seen as widely as emo's or goths but has been around since the 1970's when Jerry Dammers formed '2 tone records' where bands such as The Specials and Madness thus making ska a subculture.

This subculture consisted of the 'two tone' style which was the black suit, trilby hat and black ray ban sunglasses. To this day when someone is seen wearing this style of outfit it is clear to even a young generation that this is classic ska style which The Specials and Madness would always incorporate into their image.

Although the band we are using for our music video doesn't fall under this particular style of ska the roots of where ska began needs to be considered as without it ska wouldn't be as sucessful. This is a link to how we are going to pay tribute to reggae ska within our video.

http://izzismusicblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/intertextual-references-of-ska-genre-in.html

punk/ska subculture

More modern day ska incorporates a punk edge to the music to allow it to appeal to the young target audience but still keep the roots of ska alive. The punk/ska subculture is a subculture which like reggae/ska isn't as mainstream as emo's or goths but could still be seen to be just as popular. This subculture is our target audience for our music video. When researching our target audience to find out more about this subculture a stereotypical image was still made before we had even handed out questionnaires on our music video. For example based on the band and the fan base at their gig, there style seems to have a laid back casual look. (see link for audience profile http://izzismusicblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/audience-profile-for-band-smaller-than.html)

When researching other ska/punk bands I found that most of the bands who are signed where american such as the band Less Than Jake and the aqauabats. This shows how this subculture appears to be more sucessful in America than in the UK. This could be due to the higher demand for RnB artists from music producers as they know how large the subculture is that they are supplying to and therefore know that the artist they are going to sign will make profit.

As it is the ska/punk subculture isn't as large or considered to be as popular as these other subcultures but this could be a sign that like the sudden popularity of RnB with artists such as Rihanna and Jason Derulo having complete success with the release of one single, ska will once again make a comeback and create the same history as the 'two tone' subculture of the 1970's

Mufasa for president of Disney!

Mufasa

Mufasa is father of Simba in the film the Disney film The Lion King. He has a wife named Sarabi and an evil brother named ska.

I feel Mufasa should be president of Disney as he embodies all the characteristics of a true leader. He is king of the Pride Lands and is in charge of all the other lions, therefore has experience already in ruling a kingdom.

He is seen as father figure within the film so is someone people can look up to as well as feel protected by. He sacrifices his life for his own son so shows he is commited. He would help to develop Disney's family image as he isn't promoting someone that is evil or villeanous but instead someone who can inspire wisdom and knowledge upon the young generation of today.

Album covers from mainstream artists

These are artists/bands album covers which I think resemble creativity and allow a strong promotion for the artist.

This is the album cover for Lady Gaga's album titled 'the fame'. Lady Gaga is a pop mainstream artist. This album shows a creative quality as it is showing a close up of the artists face but also in a disguise. The title of the album isn't also as noticeable and is hidden within the frame of the sunglasses.

This sort of album covers makes the artist recognisable to their genre. For example as Lady Gaga is pop mainstream she's is advertising her image more than her music.

This is the album for Noah and the Whales second album 'the first days of spring.

Noah and the Whale are an indie/folk band.

This album cover is promoting the band in a vintage style. It appeals to their target audience who express individuality and aged between 16-25. Noah and the Whale are known for their vintage, retro appeal as they have a style of music which has an old folk style.

Therefore this album appeals to the country style genre and target audience of the band.

This is the album cover for the first Arctic Monkeys album 'Whatever People Say I am That's What I'm Not.'

To me this cover is a strong promotion of the arctic monkeys. Their genre is alternative rock. This album cover shows how they want to represent themselves as 'alternate.'

Most artists don't want to show their band members drunk and smoking on the front of their album covers but by doing this are appealing to their target audience of 14-25 year olds. This album cover represents teen rebellion and gives the idea that by listening to this album you are rebellious. It doesn't promote the artist but instead promotes the appeal of their music. This is the idea I want to use for my digi-pak.

Thus is the album cover for Nirvana's first album 'Nevermind,' released in 1991.

There was worry when this album was released as to show the baby in the pictures penis and a second album cover was created that didn't show it in case there was an outcry. However Kurt Cobains only compromise to this was to put a sticker on the penis saying 'if you are offended by this you must be a closet paedophile.'

However due to newer regulations this album cover wouldn't be allowed to be released.

This album cover promotes a extremity and individuality. Nirvana's genre is grunge and seeing as there music may offend the album cover is giving the idea that 'if you're offended by the album cover you are likely to find the artists music offensive.'

Mark sheet for research into the music industry

Evaluation of our methodology for the questionnaire.

The questionnaire was constructed to help develop an idea of the target audience for the band Smaller than You. With this information I can strengthen the promotion of the band as I will have an idea of who it is I am marketing the music video and band too.

The questionnaire did manage to do this as it showed that a majority of our audience would be male due to the way they buy and find out about their music. Therefore the question 'Where do you buy your music' and 'how do you find out about new artists and bands' was overall successful.

Most of the questions were also quantitative which is the method which seems to work better with questionnaires as the public often prefer to have a guideline or an easy option rather than having to think in too much detail about the questions. Quantitative analysis also allows clearer results which can be analysed much easier than Qualitative analysis which allows a more in detailed reading of the results chosen.The question asking 'Where do you buy your clothes' didn't appear to have any relevance to what we were trying to find out as it seemed to broad due to the answers which were to be selected. For example if our target audience selected 'high street' then there is an assumption that the person would be more into mainstream music but there are so many different ideas of what shops are counted as 'high street' and therefore only gives an idea into our target audiences social habits and appearance.

Our research could be improved if we'd slightly extended our questions such as adding 'where do you buy your clothes and why' to gain a better understanding of our target audiences social habits. Also by adding some questions which are more linked to our genre of ska such as 'Do you enjoy ska music' but also including the question on their favourite genre to see if the links between ska and other genres and see what our audience may prefer instead of ska.Another improvement would be to show footage of our video and ask their opinion as to whether our ideas are reflecting ska influence as well seeing whether or not the audience understand the idea within our video. This would allow a better knowledge of what our target audience want.

Audience profile for the band 'Smaller Than You'

From the results of the questionnaire this is an idea of what our target audience might look like as well as their social habits.

Intertextual references of ska album designs to include in Digi-pack

These are some ideas for my album covers. The album covers are taken from ska-artists to see if they follow a generic pattern in their ideas of promotion. The band I am promoting 'Smaller Than You' are also ska so this will help to develop my ideas.

This is the album cover for the band Madness with titles album 'Total Madness'.It includes the famous singles 'One Step Beyond' 'House of fun' and 'Driving in My Car'. This album was released in September 2009 and went to number 11 in the UK charts. This album art works as it uses iconic britishness of the 70's with the vintage red London bus. The audience can instantly recognise that the band are british as well as classic. The images used within the bus are taken from previous album covers and are positioned to look like passengers. This adds some humour and quirkiness to the album which also reflects the persnality and music of the band. The main artwork used on the front of the bus is taken from the album 'One Step Beyond' which also included the single 'One Step Beyond' which stayed in the UK charts for 37 weeks. The font used is bold and eye catching with two colours used to seperate the name of the band with the name of the album.

This is the album cover for the ska band 'The Specials' with album titled 'Too Much Too Young'

This album was released on 7" in the 1980's then re-released on in 1996 on CD. This album cover reflects the ska scene of the 1980's, The Specials formed with the goal of intergrating black and white people therefore these 2 tone black and white colours reflect racial unity, this was also reflected in their lyrics. The colours are also representing '2 tone records' which was created by Jerry Dammers in 1979. His goal was to create something new which came with it '2 tone ska.'

(History taken from website below)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/coventry/features/stories/west_indian/history-of-ska-music-the-specials.shtml

This is a modern album cover for the Amercian ska-punk band Less Than Jake with their album entitled 'GNV FLA'. It is an interesting cover as at first the letters on the front appear to have no meaning what so ever but dedicated fans would either connect straight away or want to research it further. The LTJ at the top is the band name initials 'Less Than Jake' and the 'GNV FLA' is a tribute to their hometown Gainesville. This album was inspired by their hometown roots and therefore have managed to write a cryptic clue on the front of their album to tribute this town. This is an interesting method and technique as it also uses a picture of the town in a black and white as a background. This makes the title letters stand out and allows their audience to understand more about the demographic of the band as well as allowing the band to appeal to their audience demographic. I don't think this album cover allows strong promotion for the band as only their fans would be able to recognise the album as being Less Than Jake. It also doesn't make it absolutly clear on the genre of their music but it uses some creative ideas which I would like to include in my own design.

Intertextual references of the ska genre in our music video

Less Than Jake are an american ska punk band and formed in 1992. The have released 8 full length albums thus far. They reached number 37 on the UK charts with 'Brightest bulb has burnt out' and recently performed at the Reading and Leeds festival over the summer. They are currently signed to sleep it off records. This video is from their album GNVLA:Digipack. It shows a modern ska video with ideas and techniques we want to incorporate into our video for Smaller Than You with 'Who Knew'

The opening is of an urban location. For our video we are planning on filming in Norwich City Centre. The city resembles an up beat atmosphere which is relevant to the genre of ska therefore this long shot helps to establish location as well as genre within our video due to the two tone movement which occured within coventry in the 1970's. Coventry is located 2 hours outside of London as is where Jerry Dammers launched his record label 'two tone records' where bands such as The Specials and The Selecter where signed too, they also came from Coventry. Therefore this urban location is a tribute to the small city where ska was originated.

This close up of the mans feet is the shot which we are trying to incorporate with our video. We plan to use skateboarders therefore want to show close ups of their movement. The close up of the feet connotates the target audience of the band as the shoes are those worn by generally by a young generation between 15-25. The main character of the video is male suggesting the target gender for the bands audience demographic.

The frequent close up of the lead characters face tells the audience that he is the focus of the video and helps strengthen the narrative. Our video uses a narrative which will need to close ups of our male character. Close ups of performers is a convention of music videos; Goodwin claims closeups "are a demand of the record label".

As well as showing close ups of the male lead character their are also close ups of the lead singer of the band. This allows the audience to understand who it is that is being marketed and again strengthens the promotion of the artist Less Than Jake.

The video is always showing shots of the location to strengthen the urban derelict location.The costume of the lead character links to the laid back urban setting as the character appears casual in his outfit but not 'scruffy' this makes him appear confident and rebellious .This idea is a tribute to the ska band The Specials who in the video 'Ghost Town' are dressed in suave suits when driving through the derelict city. The filter used in this image shows creativity within the video which catches the audiences attention. We would like to incorporate this idea within our video to make our video stand out.

This video has a strong narrative which is the lead male character finding some sunglasses which have a special power when put on, the video then see's the positive and negative aspect to these sunglasses. Our video has a similar idea of using an object for our narrative which is drumsticks. The drummer of our band has his drumsticks stolen and needs to get them back before his gig at the end of the day. Close ups need to be used of the passing of drumsticks in order for this to work within our video. This video uses close ups of the male character wearing the glasses which allows their narrative to work.

Questionnaire results

These are the results obtained from the questionnaire given out to 5 males and 5 females to help work out our audience demographic for our music video for Smaller Than You with the single 'Who Knew'.
These results aren't in the original order of the questionnaire.

Average age of our female audience from the questionnaire is 21.
Average age of our male audience from the questionnaire is 19.

The blue graphs are the results of our females and the green are the male results.
1) How often do you buy your music?












The results show that 60% of males buy their music very often where as only 20% of females will buy their music very often and 40% of females rarely buy music. This shows that are male audience are more insterested in buying music and supporting the artists they enjoy listening to where as the female audience would be more likely to simply spotify their artist or find a way to illegally download.

2) When do you mostly listen to your music?

Males appear to be very sociable when they choose to listen to their music with a strong 80% saying they enjoy listening with friends as well as on their own. Our females also appear to be very sociable when listening to their music with 60% choosing to listen with friends as well as on their own. This shows that our audience would enjoy our chosen song for our music video as it is of ska genre and could be enjoed at parties as it is lively and up beat so are audience can listen to music and socialise at the same time.

Where do you hear about new music/bands?

It is clear that males prefer to research for new music/bands with 60% of males finding new music/bands on the internet whereas 80% of females will find their new music through music channels on the television or the 60% who will simply listen to whats on the radio. Therefore when it comes to promoting our band Smaller Than You it is more likely that we will have a mainly male dominant fan base at first as our music video will only be able to be promoted on You Tube or the bands Myspace. Once the band are signed and have a big enough budget to promote the video on music channels such as MTV the female fan base will begin to increase.


What type of gizmos do you own?

Iphone and Blackberry weren't chosen from either genre showing they are more popular with an older working generation of 30-45 year olds due to cost and use of the technology. The mobile was chosen with and even 80% of females and males owning one as well as 80% owning an ipod. This shows how the society today has a need for new technology to allow them to keep up to date with social events and communication with friends, the ipod is an insight to how our target audience enjoys music when moving from place to place therefore would enjoy our artists energy and would inspire them when it came to listening to them privatley. The males appear to be more up to date with technology overall as 60% own a laptop or PC therefore would be more connected in wanting to research and find the band which we are promoting.

Where do you buy your music?

Males tend to shop in a variety of places for their music where as females tend to only shop on itunes, supermarkets and HMV. This again supports the point made earlier about how the fan base for our unsigned artist will be male as 40% answered that they shop at independent retailers for their music therefore when our artist is first released it may not make it straight to high street retailers but instead independent shops such as Norwich's Soundclash which sells artists on smaller labels. These smaller labels are also likely to be found on internet sites such itunes as 40% answered that they buy their music from their so there will be a small minority of female fans but it will be mainly male dominant.

How often do you buy your music in a month?














Males appeared to buy music more often than females which links back to the very first question about how males will support the artists they enjoy buy buying their EP/album/single where as females will find an alternative. 40% of males say that they bought music once a week this dispplays how their is often a negative impact upon the younger generation when it comes to illegal downloading as it isn't recognised that there is still a large percentage who are still trying to buy their music as much as possible. This 40% has a positive impact upon our artist as it is likely that if released their single will be likely to be bought rather than illegally downloaded.

Where do you buy your clothes?
(female results) (Male results)












Females prefer to buy clothes off the highstreet as females are portrayed as being more fashion concious than males. Males show a higher ratio of internet shopping and indpendent which shows from these results that they are more likely to spend their money on the latest laptop or mobile phone rather than spend their money on clothes.

Which websites do you use on a regular basis?

From these results it is likely we could get a good promotion for our music video as it would be posted on Youtube and males had a 100% result for viewing Youtube on a regular basis with females as well having a high 80% result. Both females and males view facebook 100% shoowing that the young generationg relies on these websites for communication. These social netoworking sites are beneficial to new un-signed artists particuarly myspace as fans can listen to samples of their music and let other friends know that they are a fan of that particular artist. Spotify doesn't appear to be popular with females but more so with males with 40% saying that visit the site on a regular basis. However Spotify is still a new way of listening to music and is only been recognised in the last 6 months so if these results where to be taken this time next year it is likely that this result would be higher if the site was truly successful.

What would you say your favourite music genre is?

80% of females prefer pop to males suggesting that males generally stir away from mainstream where as mainstream music s often female driven due to boybands and girlbands being aimed to be admired or idols. Females had more variety in their choice of genres showing that they would be more open to enjoy new music and choose to not listen to it due to opinion rather than music type. Males show a more intellectual music preference and show that they are more in touch with independent artists 'indie' therefore look for the smaller bands/artists. Therefore it is likely from these results that our fan base would be male as they also had 40% listening to ska which is the genre of the band Smaller Than You who we are making a music video for. Ska didn't seem very popular in either male or female but it isn't often recognised within the charts therefore giving it a smaller fan base.

Findyourtribe.com

This is a website which aims to place people into different youth tribes. The website features different brands and media which people can decide whether they love or hate which eventually decides whether they are a townie or a chav. The website is allowed to use the information given to allow companies to gain an understanding of their audience which in turn allows them to boost ratings or sales.

These are the different tribes the site will put you into:

The site has an interesting appeal with their quiz making it seem more like a game rather than something which is going to waste time. This in turn manages to appeal to their young technological audience as teens will prefer to answer a quiz which they can enjoy and gain from. The quiz uses informal language and colour to make it seem more appealing and eye catching. It gives gives something for the youth to rebel against as no one like to be classed into a certain category.

The wording they have used for these different social groups is interesting. The term 'Tribe' suggests something that is primitive as though we all instinctively latch onto a group. This term is also offensive to the young target audience as it was probably made by someone who wasn' this target audience. It also degrades those that are by using language like 'tribe' as it makes it seem as though young people have no independence and rely on being classed into these different sub-cultures.

I asked one of my friends to take this quiz and the results came out as Indie Scenester. He did not agree to this assumption or any of the other categories which goes to show that a young audience prefer to have a degree of independence and often disagree with said 'tribes' that people put them in.

Questionnaire

To help find out the target audience of our music video me and my group are going to give this questionnaire to 20 people in total. Ten of these people will be asked to fill in a hard copy and the other ten will be filmed as a vox pop. We hope that in this method we can find out which one enables us to establish our target audience the best. It will also help to strengthen our results as we can get an idea of appearance of our target audience as well as music interest.

Music Questionnaire

What gender are you?
Female Male

How old are you?

How often do you buy your music?
Very often Sometimes Rarely Never

When do you mostly listen to your music?
On your own With Friends Both Depends

Where do you hear about new music/bands?
TV/SKY/Freeview Word of Mouth Internet Radio Magazines

What would you say your favourite music genre is?
Indie Folk Emo Country Rock Pop Ska Metal

Other.......................................................

What types of gizmos do you own?
Mobile Phone Ipod MP3 Player IPhone Blackberry Laptop Home PC

Which websites do you use on a regular basis?
Facebook MySpace Spotify YouTube Ebay Hotmail Itunes

Where do you buy your music?
Itunes Amazon Play.com HMV Independent Supermarket Secondhand

How often do you buy your music in a month?
Once a week Once a fortnight Once Never

What festivals have you attended this year 2009?

Where do you buy your clothes?
Highstreet internet designer independent retailers other

shots of location

These are some shots taken of the locations we will be using within our music video.

This is taken outside The Forum and shows the steps which lead up to The Forum. We will include this shot as it's a location which is known for young people to hang around so therefore by including this shot it will appeal to our target audience. We would want to show The Forum at a low angle to make it seem more appealing and less obvious for the audience of our actual location making our video more cryptic.

This is another shot from The Forum showing some steps which we want The Skateboarders to do tricks down as Jake tries to capture the person who has stolen his drumsticks. This is also adding rebellion to our video as skateboarding isn't allowed around these pedestrianised areas.

Other steps from The Forum. This angle shows a wider perspective and therefore how we can include long shots, low angle and high angle of The Skateboarders doing professional tricks.

This area used also promotes youth rebellion as this area bans skateboarders as it is a public area. Therefore by using The Forum it links with the rebellious attiudes and non-conformity associated with the ska genre.

This shot is taken at Pottergate in Norwich. Pottergate is part of The Lanes in Norwich which is all about the independent companies in Norwich. This appeals to our target audience of independent music listeners as this area is all about going against mainstream industry. Most of our locations used will include steps or hills as this gives us best footage of The Skateboarders. This steps are good to use as it allows The Skateboarders to travel down Pottergate towards St. Benedicts.

This is the opening shot of our video where Jake will walk out with his drumsticks which will be snatched from his hand. We chose Soundclash as our location as it represents independent music of Norwich as insigned artists can promote their gigs and sell their EP's.

This shot helps to show a historic Norwich and this will be towards the end of the music video as it is darker and looks more atmospheric and mysterious when the old fashioned lights are on. The steps will be ran up instead of skated down and we can get low angle shots of the running to show the anticipation and fast pace movement of the track.

This our chosen gig venue The Arts Centre. This is where Jake is meant to be playing with Smaller Than You that night and needs his drumsticks back in order to play. The Arts Centre was chosen as like Sounclash it represents independent artists and bands within Norwich. They allow smaller bands the oppurtunity to play or support the artists or bands on bigger labels such as as well as promote unsigned artists and give them the oppurtunity to play to a live audience such as Norwich group The Brownies.

This is a shot of Anglia Square car park and shows the rougher more sub-urban area of Norwich. However this is still an iconic site of Norwich. This location was chosen as it is these areas where you find crime and rebellion which is what our skateboarders are representing. It also contrasts with the young cast as this location is run down and considered 'worn out' where as we are showing up beat characters running around and a fast paced movement which gives a different perspective on this location.


This part of Anglia Square is where the car is going to drive down to drop off cast member Hannah Ustel where the drumsticks can be passed on. This will give a good shot as the car can be tracked as it goes down this part of road. There is also no traffic so Hannah can be filmed from a close up as she gets out of the car. The high dominating building also helps to represent Anglia Square as an place of entrapment as it is not up to date with the modern architecture.

This location is an inter-textual reference from The Specials video 'Ghost Town' as the low angle shots of these buildings make them appear sinister entrapping with the grey filter of the camera giving the buildings a derelict and out of date feel to them. We want to try and give across the same effect within our music video.