Producers' Strategies

During the 1970's, bands would be replaced by their music videos if they went on tour to ensure that they were still being 'seen' by members of the public. Top of the Pops started this; if a band was unable to play or be at the studio in time for the airing of the show, they would show the video instead. If bands didn't have a music video, programmes like Top Of The Pops would use a previous band performance, either taken from a concert [if they were well enough known to be holding concerts] or Top Of The Pops would record a performance weeks before the show actually aired at the studio [the only difference being that there wouldn't actually be a crowd of people during the early shows of Top Of The Pops (70's and 80's)].

Both Myspace and YouTube where important in the strategies that the bands producers took on in order to ensure the band got noticed. The websites had a huge effect on the way that bands where seen, therefore giving their producers more opportunities. The 'internet generation' has always expected things to be instant, the producers had to keep up with the growth in popularity of the websites to ensure that they were doing all they could to get the bands noticed.

YouTube had a way of spreading the bands videos between users, as well as other users of the internet [e.g. email users etc], whether they knew about YouTube or not. The creation of YouTube had meant that bands can make videos to help sell themselves – not always with the permission of their manager or producer. The freedom that bands could have, via websites like YouTube, meant that audiences may be more interested because bands could say what was on their mind.

On the other hand, producers who have a lot of control of their bands could apply more pressure to the artist to make them become better known. For example, artists attending award ceremonies may have a set thing to say when accepting or handing out an award – to prove to the producer they are worth it as well as proving to the audience they can hold the limelight.

Producers who have control may apply more pressure on the artist to make sure that they have the best opportunities available to them during their career. The use of YouTube and self expression on websites allows people to become more involved with the bands meaning that they would become well known and successful.

Extension of income/Power

Stars have become more powerful over the last decade due to increases in influences being portrayed by all the media types (text, videos, internet etc). Certain stars project a certain type of power.

Example 1: 50Cent

During the majority of 50Cent’s videos, its clear to the audience that he is projecting the idea that he has money, creating an economic influence; the more money you have, the happier you can be, the more successful you are.

Example 2: Lady GaGa

Lady GaGa is clearly seen as a purely artistic music video artist, helped by a lot of the final idea’s being having the controlling vote on all ideas. Having had most of her videos spoken about during the first few weeks of the video’s release, Lady GaGa creates an artistic influence that can allow people to project themselves in interesting and new ways, breaking the bond between stereotypes and assumptions.

Example 3: Bono

Bono, from U2, has been seen to ‘have it all’. By creating an ideological influence for the audience, lyrics and personality has portrayed a set of beliefs that members of the audience can aspire to. By being very involved with humanitarian work, it portrays an image to the audience that he is an ideal person: helping others and being unselfish.

Many executives in the music industry have previously debated the use of YouTube to artists, questioning whether it’s a help or becoming a hindrance to the artist making money. YouTube has faced controversy for not making viewers pay to view videos and had previously banned all music videos from playing after an agreement with a record company had fallen through. Websites like www.musicthinktank.com house articles on the use of YouTube to artists, questioning if it’s affecting all artists, or those who are unknown. Various executives, on behalf of the Google company division, have stated that YouTube helps boost sales for artists because others are able to view the videos and preview the full track before paying [most frequently using iTunes] therefore increasing the YouTube viewer’s number as well as sales.

Promotion

Artists during recent years have been able to promote themselves and their tracks better, bigger, and more frequently than before. The use of the Internet has had a huge effect on what they can do. Websites like YouTube and Facebook allow artists to connect directly with their audience. YouTube in particular allows everyone to see the video that the artist could record and post without a particular audience whereas Facebook allows the artist to choose who can see the post. This also applies to another website, similar to Facebook, called MySpace. However, MySpace users have the option to have a band page, which is more likely to be seen by more people as its searchable by genre, name and popularity.

Promotion of the artist can vary in different ways. Websites have a quicker way of promoting an artist, which can be useful if it’s the right type of news being spread. Text can be more useful towards as a form of promotion because it is more hypocritical. If the artist has the countries newspapers or magazines on side, they are more likely to be able to persuade members of the public to like the artist. The stars using text forms of media could be more likely to succeed as the text media could be seen as a more reliable source – after-all websites like Facebook and YouTube which both offer ‘channels’ or band pages could be made by any fan or ‘Tom’, ‘Dick’ or ‘Harry’.

A gig review in newspapers or magazines is now seen as an out-of-date way of getting noticed. With popularity increasing in social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, anything users post is instant to friends. Newspaper and magazine reviews/star related news/articles are decreasing in popularity with the ‘internet generation’. This ‘internet generation’ can find out things in seconds via Twitter/Facebook without having to wait. Videos, opinions, star related news can be spread in seconds. Websites are less likely to choose what antics are used to promote the artist. The ‘internet generation’ expect everything that the artist’s products/possessions/party antics will be posted online with opinions whether it is a use to the artist or not.

The music video can be known as the star vehicle. The music video is the second thing, after the music track itself, that fans will look at and judge. If the video is creative, abnormal, experimental or a brand new idea, the video will be spoken about between different forms of media, placed on websites and clips may be used on adverts, generally progressing an artist’s career. By being used as the star vehicle, the video can present some personal aspects of the artist a lot easier than a music track or publicizing it. Music videos give the artist a range to project something that they may have a strong opinion on or an experience that they are singing about. Because the audience feels like they need to know everything, the music videos also give a cover to the artist, so they don’t feel too exposed when trying to promote themselves.

Extension of Outlets

Music plays an important part in life of people from all the corners of the globe, with music finding popularity from around the 1920's. It has been said that music is used as inspiration for many people across the world. Most importantly it allows the artist to express feelings and thoughts through the lyrics, melody and tempo.

Early History

An outlet for the music videos at the beginning was a device called a scopitone (a jukebox) a.k.a a soundie. A scopitone played film footage alongside. Originally intended for the people in café’s. The scopitone was used in café’s to attract the attention of young people meeting up with friends and its main purpose was to entertain them. They weren’t considered to be useful in bars or pubs because the main attraction was that they where for the youth, and typically pubs and bars where seen to be a very adult place. The youth have been the targets since the soundie.

1960’s & 1970’s

The use of videos during the 60’s was purely artistic. The artistic videos had an unclear meaning to them so they were seen as a purely experimental development.

The Beatles were known for creating feature films as well as music videos; some would say that The Beatles had started a trend for artistic videos.

Videos submitted alongside music tracks helped bands and television producers when the band in question went on tour. Top Of The Pops (TOTP) [a television programme specifically for the music charts] would play a music video in the place of a band they went on tour. Occasionally, TOTP would have a choice between the music video submitted by the band or they the option to use a pre-recorded performance that was recorded before the show or from another location.

1980’s & 1990’s

During the 1980’s video was much cheaper than film so it was rising in popularity with filmmakers. This rise in popularity for production had meant that there had to be a newer and better outlet to cope with the expansion of the available videos.

During the 1990’s a creation made by American T.V Producers had started the golden era of the music video. This channel was called MTV (Music Television) and was used to air the popular videos that had appeared in the charts at the time.

Music channels became more and more popular, adjusting what they showed during peak times including American reality programmes. During the naughty’s more and more satellite channel providers set aside and created more channels for music.

Lady Gaga - LoveGame

Genre

1. What similarities do you observe in the videos you have looked at?

Paloma Faith - Upside Down and Lady GaGa - Love Game have multiple similarities within their music videos. The main one being portraying the 'weird and wonderful' through clothing, set design and props. Another similarity is the use of dance. Lady GaGa has a more 'in-your-face' dance group which surrounds Lady GaGa throughout the video and Paloma Faith has a dance group which is suitably keeping behind Paloma to keep her in the limelight. Both of these dance groups are men, typically an admiration. The same type of camera angles have been used. Both Paloma Faith and Lady GaGa use long shots cutting into close-ups or extreme close-ups. Finally, lighting is used to create an atmosphere within the videos. Lady GaGa using lighting with the beat of the music video where as Paloma Faith has used lighting to create a free a light feeling.

2. How is your chosen genre different from another?

Both of these videos are of a pop genre which means that they are fairly upbeat and typically have happy lyrics. Comparing this to the indie music video by Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down. Instantly we can see that the lyrics are less happy and upbeat. The video plays along the idea of portraying the lyrics within the story being shown on screen. the lighting isn't used to create an atmosphere because in the indie video we are able to see that the atmosphere is shown by the mise-en-scene of the video.

Paloma Faith - Upside Down