Conclusion: Subculture within society

Introduction

It is easy to say that everyone has a subculture but if asked could you class yourself to a particular subculture? There are many stereotypical subculture within our society such as Goth, Geek and Chav but would you want to call yourself a geek? It now appears more accepted within our soicety to embrace who we are. For example people who are Gay are now very much accepted but not long ago people would have to hide this fact about themselves as it just wasn't seen as 'right'. This is the same in some sense for 'geeks'. Geeks are usually seen in films and T.V as being 'losers' and would be shown having no friends or being beaten up but now we see 'geeks' being resepected with films such as 'superbad' where most of the characters aren't popular but have comic value which makes them respected by their audience and therefore gives geeks a comic quirky side in society.



Subcultures within the music industry

When stereotyping someone to a certain genre of music it could be seen as a simple task. However todays audience are beginning to rebel against the Music industry and become more diverse with their prefrences. The music industry want their audiences to fit to a certain subculture and therefore create an image for the artists which they want their audiences to follow, for example Emo. When the music industry produce a song from artists such as My Chemical Romance they want their audience to have the stereotypical image and therefore seperate their audience into different categories. But audiences are prefering to use this system rather than be used by it. No one wants to be a brand for the music industry to profit from. The audience will always want to rebel. An example of this post-modern identity is someone who to an audience should be from one subculture (for example indie) but listens to music from an oppositional sub-culture (for example emo). Our understanding of the music industry needs to change as it is becoming less common for someone to stereotype themselves to a genre of music they listen to.

Female subcultures within the music industry

The role of female within the music has many different viewpoints both negative and positive. There's the one sense that these woman are being portrayed as 'objects' such as 'The Pussycat Dolls'. When a female group are refering themselves as being 'dolls', it gives the idea that their mere purpose is to be something that is lifeless and without their own self control. However in another way this feminist viewpoint of girl groups has a inverted negative impact upon the music industry as they are giving something for female audiences to rebel against. And this creates a new subculture of 'feminism'. There are now quite a few female artists who won't project this image upon themselves such as Laura Marling and Lily Allen who instead to prefer to mock this image by either not having a girl image at all or by being too dressed up but having a rather 'laddish' attitude such as Lily Allens swearing andn backlashes at other artists.
Nowadays though the music industry does try to create a more positive view on body image when it comes to female artists and not allowing all their artists to be too skinny and curvy instead such as the Sugababes and this is allowing young girls to have a more postive attitude within themselves rather than feel like they are having to starve themselves to look like their role models.

The impacts of subcultures within the music industry

Parts of this have already been covered in Subcultures Within the Music Industry and Female Artists Within the Music Industry but there are many impacts with subcultures in general. One of these impacts which was covered was how an artist projects their image outside of their music. Most artists will often be seen in some sort of publicity scandal but one which often gets the music industry and audiences the most angry is drug taking. It appears that within this industry one of the ways to ease the pressure and produce good music is to take drugs but once the newspapers find this out the artists label or management will want it to stop or are prepared to fire them even though it was likely that they would have known what was happening. Pete Doherty was a chosen example due to the amount of times he has been to court over drug offences or alcohol abuse etc but still carries on creating music and making money. This is due to the image in which Pete Doherty label wants him to have as he is known for being rebellious, but he has been successful so in some ways this technique is workingn as an audience want a role model who is considered 'cool'. However fans can grow tired of it all as solo artist Amy Winehouse was a known drug addict and would often be cancelling shows or not meeting her high standard of performance and this ends up resulting in a loss of respect for the artist and less money for their labels causing them to be dropped. Therefore the main impact within these subcultures appears to be whether or not the music industry can keep up to date with what the audience are willing to tolerate in order for them to make a profit.

Artists changing genre

It appears that artists are also being put under pressure by this post modern identity which audiences are beginning to show and therefore are being understrain to show more variety in their music. Nelly Furtado wasn't selling by releasing folk music so therefore knew the money was in mainstream R&B. Audiences are always wanting something new and edgy. Dizzee Rascal went mainstream to appeal to the large audience who listen to dance music. These two genres R&B and Dance appears to be where the money is within the music industry as they don't necessarily stick to one particular sub-culture. In someways their is something that most people can get from these genres such as being at a club or party as it creates and atmosphere. Nelly Furtado's folk releases would be more likely to be played in a shop or restaurant but wouldn't go anywhere near the young part scene. Now her music has more varities and can be used with much more variety and publcity for the artist. Another technique each of these artists used was colloborating with other successful artists to merge to different subcultures. Dizzee Rascal will now have previous fans as well as the artist Calvin Harris' fans who he helped produce his new album 'Tongue and Cheek'. This was the same for Nelly Furtado who had her old fans enjoying her new sound and image as well as fans of Timbaland who appeared in her song Promiscuous and is famous for producing successful artists such as Justin Timberlake and 50 Cent. Therefore the music industry are making the subcultures much broader to try and compete with this Post Modern Identity in which audiences are creating for themselves.

Sequence Of Shots

Shot 1: Medium Close up of Jake Cummings the drummer of the band coming out of Soundclash holding drumsticks. Zoom out into a long shot to show the whole character from head to toe holding a skateboarder. The track hasn't started yet.



Shot 2: Long shot of Jasper going past Jake and stealing the drumsticks which then track to show them skatboarding down St.Benedicts. The Music has now started which you can hear the opening drumming clearly which then links to the narratice of our video.



Shot 3: The camera then tracks the skateboarder as he skates around The Forum. Including low angle shots of the skateboarders feet and the skateboard as they move.



Shot 4: The drum sticks are then passed to the next person showing a close up of the drumsticks. The drummer and skateboarder run into Forum Car park which then zooms into the opening and zooms out as they run out again.



Shot 5: The drumsticks get passed again to a male character who runs onto a bus. The camera tracks his running for the bus and zooms in on the bus doors closing.



Shot 6: The guy is sitting on the bus . Close up of him putting his headphones on and thats when the sound switches from Non-diegetic to Diegetic as the people on the bus would be able to hear the muffled sound of the single playing loudly through his headphones.



Shot 7: Medium close up of the guy as he gets off the bus. Close up of his face as he takes off his headphones taking the music back to being diegetic. The camera then tracks him walking into a skate park.

Shot 8: The camera tracks the skaters on the ramps. At this point there will be close ups of professional skateboarding tricks being low angle and high angle. To get better track shots the skateboarders will be holding the camera. The drumsticks are passed onto the next person.

Shot 9: Shot of the drumstick exchange with close up of the hands passing them to the next person. Still shots will also be included as well as slow motion.

Shot 10: The skater traveks through an iconic part of norwich either The Forum or The Castle.
Low angle shots of the location so the audience can see only parts of the buildings.

Shot 11: Close up of Jake's (the drummer) anxious expression as he waits outside the gig venue. Long shot of skateboarder approaching him. The drumsticks are given to the drummer.

Shot 12: As Jake goes in the door the camera zooms in on a poster which reads 'Smaller Than You Tonight' to make the narrative clear that the drummer is performing.

How people use subcultures to identify themselves

No matter how much people are willing to deny it, it is considered that everyone is part of a subculture or another. Whether it is being a skateboarder, a geek or a goth everyone can often be put into some sort of category.

subculture: is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from a larger culture. (wikipedia)

But it can also be considered that music plays a big role in seperating these subcultures from the rest. For years people have looked to the music industry as a way of seperating themselves from the rest by creating a stereotypical image which fits with a particular genre.

For example Punk.

The Punk genre has a very stereotypical image which is associated with either crime or offensive outfits but is a big example of people gaining there image and attitude from music.

This genre of music allowed people to express themselves and show others who they are and people would be able to make a stereotypical view of their personality and music taste through their clothes. However this genre was not one that was taken to well as these bands were promoting sex and drugs to young audiences as well as constanly using bad language in interviews on the radio and t.v.

Therefore fans of bands such as The Sex Pistols and The Clash where using there image to let the public know that they had the same opinions as these bands and where against the law and the country.

This is a video by from the Sex Pistols with their single 'God Save The Queen' and shows the crazy behaviour that occurred throughout the 70's with Punk culture.

It is this sort of genre that young people between the ages of 15-25 can really connect to as they are at the age where they are wanting to rebel against there parents. But Punk isn't considered so popular with young audiences of this modern day and age and could be considered 'outdated' as a newer subcultures are found such as...

Emo

This is a subculture which is based around teenagers aged 14-20 and a subculture which allows teenagers to rebel against life and parents and be what is considered 'emotional'.

Bands which are linked to this subculture are My Chemical Romance, Paramore and Panic at the Disco.

Emo originated with the hardcore Punk Movement of the 1980's in America and was known as Emocore.

The stereotypical outlook of an Emo is someone who is 'emotional' i.e depressed and therefore there are a lot of impacts on this subculture and articles which have been released which try to link suicides with the Emo culture. For example this article found in NME:

Emo fans have contacted NME.COM to defend their music against claims it inspired 13 year-old Hannah Bond to commit suicide.Roger Sykes, the coroner who gave the verdict of suicide yesterday (May 7), suggested that the fact that Bond was an obsessive fan of such music (My Chemical Romance being mentioned in particular) was linked to her death.The inquest heard that Bond had discussed with friends the "glamour" of suicide, and was obsessed with My Chemical Romance.However while most fans accepted that Bond's death was a tragedy, they rejected the coroner's conclusion that "the emo overtones concerning death and associating it with glamour I find very disturbing".NME.COM user Time For Something Bibical said: "My heart goes out to her family, but you don't get 'sucidial' just solely by listening to 'emo' music, there are always deeper reasons and connections. "My Chemical Romance aren't very emo to be honest, their last album had quite a lot about hope - eg 'Welcome To The Black Parade' and 'Famous Last Words'. I listen to emo music, it doesn't make me sad or anything."Neamychem added: "MCR is a band that wants to save people's lives, NOT destroy them."luvmark also questioned the coroner's verdict. He said: "I find it disgusting that small-minded people would assume that music has that much of an influence, that someone would kill themselves because of it. "The idea of suicide has always been glamourised, even in films, but apparently it's easier to blame someone who has been slated in the past. I listen to My Chem, as do many of my friends, and we are happy people with happy lives."

But the Music that is linked to the Emo culture doesn't pocess qualities that are always considered happy particularly My Chemical Romance who link their videos around death such as 'Welcome to the black parade' and their single entitled 'dead'.

Their video for dead is also very similar to that of The Sex Pistols and 'God Save The Queen' and therefore is showing their influence of Punk culture.

A lot of what I am saying could be considered biased as when it came to asking some people I considered to be stereotypically Emo I didn't get the answers I was expecting.
One of the questions I asked was

How does this genre make you feel?
And one of the answers I got back was 'inspired'

So rather than being able to class this genre as Emotional it is in some ways a release for young people to get away from the stress of school, home and growing up.

Ideas for shots and angles in our music video

This nike advert helps to give an idea of how filming the low angle shots of the skateboarders will look and develop an idea of how we can mix these different angles and still allow the video to have continuity.


This Long shot of the Skateboarder allows the camera to track the whole movement. It's also a good shot as it includes all of the background and the audience can realise that the skateboarder is being rebellious as this a high class resedential estate which he is trespassing.
This helps to develop an idea of the ways in which skateboarders can be filmed in being professional but also rebellious which appeals to our young target audience who are wanting to rebel from society.



This is really good close up of the skateboarders feet as he rides along the street with his skateboard. The company Nike succeed in their marketing strategy by including this shot but is using a subtle marketing technique which is always keeping the audiences instrest by including many different angles . In order to achieve this shot the camera would need to be on a dolly in order to follow the movement. Therefore in order to do this shot it would have to be hand held with the skateboarder holding the camera whilst it films their feet.



This high angle shot makes the advert seem more impressive in the way the shadow is so clear and moves with the skateborder and how again they have shown rebellion as a girls bike represents small children living where he is skating and who's parents wouldn't approve of his behaviour. It is likely this shot was taken using a crane so for our group to get this angle in our music video we would have to improvise and be taking the shot from either a bridge or ladder.

Shots from our filming

Here are a few shots from our shoot on the 20th September at Anglia Square. It helps to develop our ideas for our video and locations which we will be using.

We got the skaters to allow us to write our names on the back of there skateboards and try and incorporate this somehow into either our digipak or opening/closing shot of our video.







This is an example of some of the high angle shots which are going to be in our music video. We would take these shots showing the skaters feet as they go around Norwich as well as making it look more professional by showing the tricks as they jump over the camera or walls.

We weren't able to put this graffitti in our video but is another idea for our digi-pak cover as it gives the band a rebellious edge as well as how the genre of ska would often have the artist or band running around towns or cities causing havock, for example Madness and 'One Step Beyond'.





This is one of skateboarders Chris doing a trick. We captured this in mid-air to make it seem more dramatic and make it seem rebellious. We want to include as many tricks as we can within our music video to make it seem more professional and make it seem more exciting which would work well with the fast paced music.

Sadly some of the tricks resulted in broken skateboards.

This picture helps to portray the image that we want from our skateboarders which is a laid back but trendy look as he's just got a iconic t-shirt on and jeans.

The impacts of female subcultures within the music industry

There are always impacts within the music industry and people usually look towards artists who take drugs or artists who condone violence and death in either their singles or videos. But one of the problems which isn't always directly taken into consideration is young female fans role modeling themselves on female artists or bands who's ideas and image may not be considered to the age group who are able to listen and aspire to be them.

An example of one of these groups is The Pussycat Dolls. They are a group of 5 woman who are trying to give across a sexy and seductive image with singles such as 'don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me' and 'When I grow up' which includes lyrics 'when I grow up I wanna be famous I wanna see the world I wanna be in movies,' which is telling there younger fans that there ambitions should be to be famous rather than having the ambition to carry on at school and go to University.

A book, Media Gender and Identity by David Gauntlett mentions how there song 'Don't cha' can be seen as empowering confident and seductive and how there band is trying to represent female power. However he goes on to say that the idea of being a 'doll' is considered to be not so empowering as it sends the message that they are not human beings but lifeless plastic figures.

This video for their single 'don't cha' shows the group in not a lot of clothing and how they are the main focus of the video, giving across the idea that by the way they do and their image gives them the main focus and attention.






Another example of a female artist who could be considered to be sending out the wrong messages to younger fans is Britney Spears. Her first single 'Hit Me Baby One More Time' is supposed to be a catchy song for all ages to be able to listen to but when the lyrics are actually uncovered this song has a derocative message to women and is even critiscied in her early years as being in rolling stones as being 'child pornography,' As she began her carrer at the young age of 16 and therefore wasn't deemed old enough to carry off her image.

A quote taken from the American Family Association said "pictures, which showed Spears in push-up bras and a minuscule pair of shorts with 'Baby' in rhinestones on the bottom, presented a 'disturbing mix of childhood innocence and adult sexuality' and asked that all 'God-loving Americans' boycott stores carrying her albums"


Young girls will be influenced by her image and lyrics and therefore think it's right for them to wear hot-pants and be a 'sexy schoolgirl'.

I found these comments written on Britney Spears' website and show young a lot of her fans where when they first started listening to Britney Spears.


i love this albumm i mean i was 4 11 years ago ive been a fan of britney since then i loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee her <3>


This is my 1st review.. I finally realized where to do'em.. so here goes! I was 11 in the 5th grade when i heard BOMT.. from there i was hooked! So this WHOLE album is a classic, a "door opening" to a "Crazy" ride for me.


There are other impacts as well resulting from these female subculutres and their choice image and lifestyle and that's anorexia. Thousands of girls will aspire to look like these artists and therefore can have body confidence issues.
A study was made at the University of Sussex to see if there really where effects of girls aged 12-19 really where suffering from these issues.

Dr Helga Dittmar says: "The mass media is a pervasive force in shaping body ideals, but this negative impact has remained under-examined. Female models in music videos help to promote thinness as desirable - and are often depicted in ways that emphasise this physical ideal. It is against this ideal that young girls come to measure themselves, often unfavourably, which can lead to body dissatisfaction and, in turn, unhealthy eating behaviours."

The researchers discovered that after just ten minutes' exposure, it was the group who watched music videos featuring thin, idealised models who exhibited the greatest increase in body dissatisfaction, compared to those who merely listened to the songs or had completed the memory task.

However despite all this their are artists and groups who are trying to combat this issue. One artist in particular is Lily Allen. Reports came out a few weeks ago claiming Katy Perry considered herself 'like a skinnier version of Lily Allen and a fatter version of Amy Winehouse'.

This sort of comment is not what the music industry want to hear as Lily Allen is hardly large herself and it's making it appear as though skinnier is more attractive.

In which Lily Allen replied

"I happen to know for a fact that she was an American version of me," because their record company needed, "to find something controversial and 'kooky' like Lily Allen."

Lily Allen doesn't let comments like this affect her and therefore sends out a postive message to her fans. She is also an independent artist who writes her own songs. Her songs also don't tgive out the same messages as some of the other artists and are more focused on her previous relationships and her revenge. For example her first single 'smile'.

But has the music industry gone less central to pop in recent years? Some might argue that female artists are considered to much of a 'gimmic' with an article from 'don't panic magazine'

saying:

There are few examples where female singer-songwriters are completely doing it for themselves. Take La Roux (above)- fronted by a woman (who technically can't sing) but whose songs are actually co-written and produced by Ben Langmaid. Little Boots’ first song ‘Stuck on Repeat’ was produced by Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard, a name that undoubtedly helped to elevate her to the mainstream. Lady Gaga, Florence, Roux and Natasha Khan (Bat for Lashes) all pride themselves on some sort of flamboyant gimmick. It’s hard to ascertain whether dancing around half-naked in flimsy costumes was entirely their own idea.

But artists have always been influenced by other musicians and if the artist happens to be male then it shouldn't matter as long as they are successful and it's artists such as Florence, La Roux and Natasha whoare trying to give a different impression on woman within the music industry for being individual and showing that they have musical talent rather than being like The Pussycat Dolls which in some ways show their group to be a franchise with their T.v Programmes 'search for the next Pussycat Dolls' as well as T-shirts and novelty items.

The impacts of subcultures within the music industry

Most artists or bands particularly under the genre of Punk or Rock will have to be keeping up an image of themselves which can sometimes go against everyday society or even the law.

It is this image that their fans will try to copy and therefore can lead to tragedy.

For example. Pete Doherty.

Pete Doherty has been in two bands The Libertines and The Babyshambles and is now going solo. But he is more famous for his out and about antics rather than for his music. He has been arrested several times for drug pocession as well as abuse.

NME have several articles related to Pete Doherty about his off-stage antics

Pete Doherty's show tonight (June 11) at the Derby Rockhouse has been cancelled after the Babyshambles man was arrested in Gloucester for driving and drugs offences.

Pete Doherty was arrested yesterday (November 18) for crack cocaine possession

Pete Doherty is to stand trial in Gloucester Crown Court after being arrested for drug, drink and driving offences.

As well as The Guardian

The Babyshambles singer was arrested in the early hours of Thursday morning after police spotted him driving erratically as he left a gig in Gloucester. The singer has been remanded in custody and is due to appear before magistrates in Stroud on Friday.

And The Daily Mail

The singer, who famously dated model Kate Moss, was detained at an airport in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday after he was found slumped in a bathroom on board a British Airways plane.
He was believed to be intoxicated and was taken back to his seat, but flight staff alerted police when a hypodermic needle was later found on the plane, which they wrapped in tissue.Read more

Pete Doherty plays music to the Indie genre which has a massive fan base and therefore fans of his music will be looking at Pete as a 'role model' with the idea that the only way to be 'cool' or 'outrageous' is to take drugs and get arrested.

This article found on http://www.contactmusic.com/ is the point which I'm trying to focus on and is an impact which is known within the music industry:

Editors of British magazine NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS (NME) have been accused of glamorising drug abuse by naming troubled cocaine and heroin addict PETE DOHERTY its "Cool Icon" of 2004.
Drugs charities ADDACTION and DRUGSCOPE are furious the influential publication chose Doherty, who was thrown out of rock band THE LIBERTINES for failing to combat the addiction and for breaking into the band's co-founder CARL BARAT's house last year (03) to steal possessions to sell for drugs.
But NME's deputy editor ALEX NEEDHAM insists, "It is not a heroin addiction which makes Pete Doherty the coolest. He is a very talented musician who has become a modern day minstrel.
"There is a parallel with KURT COBAIN but NME does not endorse drug abuse. Readers can see it has caused the disintegration of a great band like The Libertines."
Addaction's policy manager REBECCA CHESHIRE counters, "Young people are vulnerable to hard drugs and not everyone has the ability to afford expensive rehabilitation programmes like rock stars."

There are clearly fears that these artists are encouraginf more people into taking drugs with other indie artists MGMT including in their lyrics, 'I'll move to Paris, shoot some heroin, and f*** with the stars.You man the island and the cocaine and the elegant cars.'

The lyrics are telling young people that drug taking will make you attractive and famous.

However despite all this in 1998 Sir George Martin the producer for the Beatles tried to voice his concerns about drug taking within the music industry by proposing that 'record companies refuse to sign new bands if they took drugs. Sir George added, however, that he was not "unrealistic" enough to believe companies would drop existing artists just because they were on drugs.'

But sadly had this thrown in his face by Alen McGee. Alan McGee, head of the Creation record label, said Sir George had personally gained from music recorded under the influence of drugs.

This appears to be the case amongst most producers and artists as the artist is able to write better music if they are under the influence. And producers and executives are being selfish for this "I can hear some record company executives say: `You must be out of your mind, you would ruin us.' What's more important? Is it the future of the country, the future of the youth, or the bottom line?"

Reasons for Nelly Furtado's changed image

An article found on contactmusic.com

This comment made by Nelly Furtado makes it seem a bit clearer it the reasons why she chose to scrap her tomboy appearance for a for feminine sexy look.

FURTADO: 'FEMINISM TURNED ME AGAINST MEN'
NELLY FURTADO has turned her back on her feminist past because she fears it "brainwashed" her into hating men. The LIKE A BIRD singer admits she dabbled with women's rights when she first became a star, but now she's a single mum with a "secret boyfriend" she's a huge fan of guys. She says, "I went through a feminist phase and read a lot of philosophical stuff. "Some of the male-bashing brainwashed me for a bit so I stopped. I love men."

Analysis on Nelly Furtado's video I'm Like a Bird and Promiscuous Girl

Analysis on Nelly Furtado’s video’ I’m Like a Bird’ and ‘Promiscuous Girl ‘ and the difference between the two.

The music video for I’m Like a Bird is very different to her more recent released video ‘Promiscuous girl.’
The costume used in I’m Like a Bird is very casual with the artist wearing a pair of jeans and a top which shows her stomach but is long sleeved and round-necked. Therefore the artist is trying to use sexuality to appeal to the target audience of the video and instead is making the scenery and lyrics her main focus. This is also shown in her make-up which is natural which is linking to her setting of her forest. The look she is using is that which is fitting for her genre of music ‘folk’ as other folk artists such as Laura Marling and Regina Spektor have a natural look to their appearance as their music is uplifting as well as sorrowful rather than sexy and provocative.

This costume is contrasted in her R&B single for Promiscuous girl as she is now wearing tops which are much more alluring and provocative. She is also wearing heavy makeup showing how she is now trying to portray herself as feminine and sexy. Therefore the artist is using her sexuality as the main focus of the video which links with the lyrics as she is a ‘promiscuous girl’. This look is now typical to the genre of R&B as she is competing with artists such as Rhianna and Beyonce who will also use costume and make-up as a focus within their videos to entice their audience and make them desirable. Some of Nellys Furtado’s earlier fans will be likely to criticise her for this change of image as they would have liked her personality before of a beautiful woman who doesn’t need to use her sexuality to sell her singles.

The lighting is high key making the colouring used with the video much more saturated which enhances the green grass of the forest and the orange on the artist’s top. The lighting is also ambient making the video appear natural. The sun is used within the video to make the artist and location appear brighter it also is a representation of freedom as she wants to ‘fly away’ and also has a contrasting effect of something positive being used with something negative.
The lighting works well with the setting of the forest. This is the only location used throughout the video and the wide angled shots of the vast forest and meadows show her freedom.

The lighting for Promiscuous girl uses blue and green filters which make the scene feel like a dream or fantasy. The blue is also showing the artist to have a ‘cold side’ to the male who is trying to ‘win her’ and therefore makes her seem secretive and mysterious. The skin of the artist and the dancers is enhanced within this video to make the female body seem ‘appealing’. It has a definite contrast in lighting to I’m like a bird as she’s not trying to make a single which is uplifting but instead ‘sexual’ and this is reflected within the colours of the video. The colours also make the setting feel claustrophobic as though the artist isn’t trying to be so free with her music anymore but more generic.

The mise-en scene within this video helps uncover hidden messages of the lyrics and what they are trying to portray as well as the way the female is being represented. The long shot of her floating in the air makes her appear powerful as though she is Mother Nature or even Eve trapped within her own Garden of Eden. Therefore portraying her femininity as being dominant and powerful. Also the power she has within the video reflects the energy of the song and makes the listener feel powerful as well. Crowds used within this video show how she doesn’t need to be a bird to have the freedom to fly away as she is crowd surfing and therefore saying how people have the power to lift your mood and make you feel happy.

The Mise-en –scene of ‘ Promiscuous Girl’ is trying to appeal to her new target audience of the younger generation aged 16-25 as technology of the mobile phone conversation between the male and female shows their divide in character and role. The club setting is also appealing to her target audience and how she wants this song to be listened to.
The setting of this video is very claustrophobic which is generic to the ‘club scene’ as it makes it seem as though people have to dance closer together and therefore the video can include the dancers ‘bumping and grinding’ within the video which again adds sex appeal to the single. This is a contrast to the setting for I’m Like a Bird which was more free and natural where as this location is more urban and gritty.

The editing used within this video is representing life and nature as there is a shot where the artist is standing at a tree and the camera zooms in and out making it seem like a heartbeat. The editing as also made the artist the main focus of this video with the shots cutting to mid close ups of her face as she is singing and then cuts back to her being lifted in the forest.

The editing on Promiscuous Girl is still showing the artist to be the main focus but now for the role sexuality rather than just being the artist of the track. Rather than just the artist in the video she now uses a male and female cast. The video is also edited around the track as it is a single intended to dance to the dancers and music link at certain points of the song. The video is trying to show the artist to be independent and dominant as a female but by including Timbaland it now shows her as an artist who needs to have influences from other mainstream artists in order to sell.

It is therefore clear that Nelly Furtado has completely abandoned her previous style of folk/rock in order to appeal to a more mainstream younger audience. But in order for her to have done this she has had to abandon her independent natural appearance and style and become generic and ‘sexy’ which is typical of an R&B female. This is a negative representation of the music industry as it’s not allowing females to use their individuality and talent to come out of their music. However this is mainly shown within the R&B/pop genre with other female artists such as Ladyhawke and M.I.A who are of Indie and electronica who don’t try to use this image to sell their singles.

Storyboards

Costume

The costume for our cast is a typical ska skater look. So therefore want to try and include trilbys, braces but try to keep it looking modern and fresh at the same time.

Male Skateboarder

This is just one of the looks we are going for, for our male skateboarder which includes skinny jeans, and casual top and headphones worn around is neck to develop the fact it is a music video by showing how our cast are into music.

Female Skateboarder

The look we dont want in our video.

We want our female skateboarder to look feminine but with a boyish side as well. The look we don't want is for our female to look like the pop icon 'Avril Lavigne' when she released her single sk8er boi. If we had this look in our video it wouldn't relate to the genre of the band and would also make our video look tacky.

The Look we do want

The look we want for our female skateboarder is that similar to Samantha Ronson as she herself as a stylish tomboy image and being a DJ reflects someone who is into music. She is often wearing skinny jeans, T-shirt and trainers. Her look also includes a trilby which is a signifying look of Ska The specials where a massive ska band from 1977 and therefore we are wanting to make sure we include some of the original ska style within our video but with a feminist twist.

This video from The Specials 'Message to you Rudy' shows the ska image of the 70's and gives an insight into the ska style and what we want to incorporate into our video as a dedication to this era of music.

Shooting Schedule

This is the shooting schedule for our music video

Friday 18th September: first day of filming. Getting shots of Jake coming out of Soundclash, practice filming and shots of location

Sunday 20th September: Skateboarding shots of the drumsticks being stolen. Shots will be taken in Norwich city centre and Anglia Square.

Monday 21st September: Shots taken at UEA with skateboarding tricks.

Other dates to be confirmed.

Cast for Music Video

The main idea for the video is a skater theme therefore we will have a large cast of skaters who will either be in the background at certain points of the shoot or going round norwich passing the drumsticks to a different person. We want to include a female skater in our shoot to make it go against conventions but also try not to make it ruin the ska feel of the video by making the video seem to pop like Avril Lavigne and her video for sk8r boi.

A few of the skateboarders who will appear in the video

Three of the male skateboarders in our video are actually in Smaller than You. These members are Jasper Dumas, Jake Cummings and Daniel Tuffs. Other members are local Norwich skateboarders Ross Barber, Chris Yeomans and Owen. They are all young between the ages of 18-25 and therefore appeals to our young target audience of this band.

Female characters

Martha Woodward
We decided to go against the female skateboarder as we couldn't find someone willing to do it. However her character is seen wearing a check shirt but a skirt and leggings therefore still reflects a skateboard image within her character. Her role is to steal the drumsticks from Chris at Anglia Square where Daniel Tuffs takes them at St.Benedicts.

Hannah ustel
We wanted to include some more females within our cast so we decided to cast Hannah as the character who first steals the drumsticks from Jake. Again she isn't shown as a very girly character as she wears in the shoot black skinny jeans and a long cardigain. This way it doesn't make the video seem too distastful or 'cheap'.

Main character of video

Jake Cummings
Jake is the main character of our Music Video as he is the drummer of Smaller than You and is shown in the first shot of our music video getting his drum sticks stolen. Therefore allows our narrative to be relative to the band as Jake is the drummer and works on the fact that Jake won't be able to perform that night without his drumsticks. Jake is also skateboarding in our video with other members of Smaller Than You.

The Band Smaller Than You who will appear throughout the video either performing, skateboarding or just in background.

Members of Smaller Than You are Jasper Dumas, Jake Cummings, Sam Irwin, Rikk Richardson and Alice Grenville. The only members of Smaller Than You in our video are Rikk Richardson, Jasper Dumas and Jake Cummings. We couldn't put the whole band in our video as they are either not in the country at the moment or are involved with work.

Chosen band for music video

The band we are going to use for our music video is Smaller Than You. Their genre of music is ska and they are from Norwich. We chose this group as they used to go to our school so we know them quite well and because they are local we can also ask for them to appear in our video. There style of music was also important in the desicion as its very upbeat and therefore would make planning an idea for the video more original and fun.
Our chosen song from the band is a song called 'Who Knew' they already have a video for this song however it was made by one of the band members Sam Irwin so because it wasn't made by a big production company there will be no copyright problems.

Dizzee Rascal and his changing genre

Dizzee Rascal is another artist who has recently changed his style of music by collaberating with upcoming artists. He has released four successful albums but recently his music has changed from grime to pop. His first single to be relased was from the album was 'I luv you' and shows how his style can be very honest and also his 'cheeky' side as the song is about how teenage pregnancy.



Another success which came of this album was the single Fix Up Look Sharp and is a prime example of how Dizzee now has a much softer approach to his music where as his previous releases where a lot more gritty. However this change may have lost a few of his original grime and garage fans but through his change to a more mainstream style he has managed to gain a much higher fanbase by collabarating with other mainstream artists such as Calvin Harris in the single 'Dance Wiv Me' as well as Lily Allen with 'You wanna be a gangsta'. He's also been able to boost sales of his previous albums with his new more dedicated fans wanting to listen to what he has previously released and therefore buying albums and EP's.



This is one of Dizzee's mainstream/pop singles which still incorporates some of his previous works but also shows how he is with a bigger record label due to the better quality of video.

Nelly Furtado and her changing of genres.

Nelly Furtado is a prime example of an artist who has had to change her image to appeal to a different subculture in order to boost her sales. She released her first album 'Whoa Nelly' in October 2000 with Dreamworks and won an award for the single 'I'm Like a Bird.' When this album was released Nelly Furtado's music was described as 'folk rock' Her album Whoa Nelly sold 5 million copies worldwide where as her second album Folklore which was released in 2003 was not so successful.
Nelly Furtado had a much different image during these two albums with her videos not having so much sex appeal as her new albums. Her video for I'm like a bird shows Nelly Furtado compltley covered with her hair scraped back making her appear more tomboy than sex symbol.


In 2006 Nelly Furtado released the album 'Loose' This was produced by Timbaland who has helped produce other R&B artists such as Justin Timberlake, Jay Z and Jennifer Lopez. Nelly Furtado also moved to the record label Universal with other big artists on the label like Beck, Blink 182, The Killers and The Who. This label was a good change for Nelly Furtado as it promotes so many upcoming artists who will appeal to the modern audience. Nelly Furtado completley changed her image and style of music in order to fit in with Timbalands fan base and this proved a success with her single 'Promiscuous.'
Nelly Furtado shows how in order to sell you have to move with what is in trend at the time and with artists such as Rhianna and Pussycat Dolls being very popular with the subculture at the time there would be no way for Nelly Furtado to be sucessful without being able to show some flesh and appear more feminine.

This was the first to be released off her album 'Loose' and shows just how much she has changed. Before there would be no problem showing the 'Like a Bird' image to a 5 yeard old child now parents would feel horrified to hear their children reciting her lyrics with lines such as 'I can see you with nothing on feeling on me before you bring that on.' However it may appear that in Nelly Furtado doing this that it's terrible but this is the whole appeal for a young audience to be listening to music that adults dont enjoy. Before her music was too 'safe' now people see her as an artist who is willing to be different and therefore fans may see her as a 'sellout' she willing to move with modern culture.

To help further back up my point of Nelly Furtado being more successful as an R&B artist I did a quick post on the networking site Facebook asking people whether they preferred Nelly Furtado as folk or R&B and only 1 out of 6 people said they preffered her when she was folk so therefore this was an appropriate switch for Nelly Furtado.

How does the music industry create subcultures

Music has always played a big role in society. It can be used as a conversation starter, an epic moment in a film, a place for someone to escape or just background noise to ease an awkward conversation. Whatever music will be used for it is always going to be important and therefore I am going to find out how the music industry allows itself to be subcultural and then uses this as a marketing technique.
The definition of subcultural is 'a group of people with a culture which differentiates themselves from the larger culture'. This is seen a lot in the music industry and oftens shows artists revolving their image or music around what could be described as the 'modern' culture of music such as indie or R&B.

This is the research I am going to carry out

1) How different genres of music can cross over. For example Nelly Furtado switiching her genre from country to folk as well as Dizzy Rascal moving from Hip-Hop to dance.

2) Negative trends which can impact an artists sales such as drug taking or imprisonment

3) Artists who market their fashion trends to the high street so fans can get their image.

As well as this I will be posting videos or articles I see which will help support my question.