Steve Archers Theory

Post modernism

There are so many different definitions of post modernism. In short though Postmodernism is what came before. Post modernism has become a phrase which is used to describe anything that looks culturally avante garde in an old school way. To understand what post modernism is you need to look at what came before. When looking at genre there is a theory that suggest genres go into a cycle. That cycle is shown below 

 

 Experimental-----Cannon-----Post modernism

 

After these 3 stages happen the cycle then repeats itself. The experimental stage is the stage of genres that attempt to establish new trends. The cannon stage works with those trends to try and fix them into our cultural understanding. Finally post modernism looks at those trends and then adds something new in them. People may argue that music videos are post modern. This is because they might follow the cycle below.

 

Full length talkie films----music videos----Short silent films

 

Then this sequence will go back to the start. Post modernism becomes the new by referring to the old. This can invent copying. This can be created by anyone and made to how they please.

 

A lot of music videos now day incorporate ideas from films. For example the top gun film has interested Will Young into making his own music video called "Switch it on" which has a similar style to the film itself. When artists do this they sometimes choose to make it funny occasionally so that it adds a different view on the film. Cult status is often awarded to a movie due to the fact that it is post modern. Staying on Intertextuality there are 3 different types of intertextuality. The first is Homage which is imitation which is the highest form of flattery. Pastiche is using the imagery of one text to make a comment about another. Finally parody's are basically taking the mickey of the film.

 

An example of Homage would apply to Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" which refers to Vincente Minelli's "The band Wagon" in 1953. The contrast of the two videos can be shown below. Michael Jackson's version is the 2nd one.

 

An example of Pastiche being used in music videos would be Will Young's music video version of the Top Gun film in 1983. The music video is called "switch it on" and highlights some of the homoerotic scenes that go on in the film. This is not a parody though as it is not made to be solely funny. The video of "switch it on" is shown below. 

 

An example of a Parody music video would be Backstreets song called "Everybody". This is a parody from the film Casper. The video takes the mick out of a lot of horror characters which include the likes of mummy's, Dracula, Frankenstein and more. The music video is shown below. 

Now that we have the invention of you tube and state of the art editing software, many people have taken it upon themselves to create their own parody's to show the world. There is the debate though whether or not they are music videos or film extracts though as they contain film extracts but are carefully edited so that the dialogue is different to make the video fit the music video conventions. The answer to this though is that it is a music video because it has been specifically edited to create amusement in the music video industry.

 

Overall my answer to post modernism being a shortcut to mass audiences is true because things that have been changed to attract mass audiences. They attract mass audiences because they may have seen the original film or music video and if it was a success then the audiences that watched them will want to see the updated versions to see what has been changed and what is good. They are classified as a shortcut to mass audiences because the audience will already be there. This means that the necessary adverts for the music video will not have to be as thorough  as the original as the audience of the original will most likely be the audience of the new version. 



Influential Music videos

Introduction

 

Music videos over the years have become more and more influential and some videos are the start of something new in the music video industry. For example new ideas in music videos can encourage others to do something similar if successful. Below are some influential music videos from the last 40 years.



1960

Bob Dylan's song "Subterranean Homesick Blues" in 1965 was probably the first music video that presented inspiration to the world of music videos. This is due to the songs creative technique in delivering a simple music video. The video consists of a person holding up cards with the lyrics of the song on them and gradually swapping through the cards to match with the non diegetic sound of the song. This happens throughout the whole video with the addition of a random background character. This video has a very simple idea behind it but gets peoples attention due to its unique presentation. Below is the music video itself.
 

1970

Next is Queen,s "Bohemian Rhapsody" in 1976. Some critics have gone as far to say that this song is one of the best videos ever. Queen in this video use the different conventions of the music video very well. This includes features like lighting, smoke, mirrors and more. The most important thing that represents this video would be its visual presentation. There are many different techniques used to help this video become a success. You could say that this video has many different genres as there are so many different aspects of this video. For example there are parts of the song which are slow paced and then the song suddenly goes into being fast paced. The music video is below.

1980

In 1983 one of the most influential music videos and probably one of the best music videos was created. This was Michael Jackson's "Thriller". This was down to many different things. The main thing though was probably because it was almost like a short thriller film. This is because the video is 14 minutes long and contains a lot of diegetic sound with no singing to build up the main song itself. Again this is a video that is very different as the main theme is horror and this is why you have zombies dancing instead of normal people. The video is shown below.

1990

In the 1990's the most influential music video was Nirvana's "Smells like teen spirit". This is due to the videos great choreography. One of the things which the video uses the best would be its use of smoke as it is involved within most of the video really making an impact to the style of music. The song itself is rock so Nirvana does the song justice by adding lots of fast paced editing when the fast paced music kicks in. Nirvana also uses the crowd well in the video as they join in with the band by dancing, singing and jumping about. This makes the audience watching on the TV, computer and more feel like they are actually there having fun with the band. The true fans of the band will enjoy this feature especially if they have not seen the band live and want the opportunity to do that without spending money. Lighting is another cool feature used as the setting itself is pretty dark apart from the single use lights shinning on the band themselves this therefore represents the importance of the band. The video is shown below.

2000

In 2000 came a music video and song by itself that was very popular throughout the general public and this was Nickelback's "Rockstar" in 2005. This music video was popular sue to it being so unique. For example nobody really does videos that often where the lyrics of the song are sung by so many people after each person saying a line or two. This sort of song really wants to make you join along and sing as the song feels closer to you if so many people are singing lines from the song. To start with the song was only released in America and Canda but then was released worldwide. Rockstar currently has a 3 million dollor income over the song in the US alone. The music video is shown below.  

review of 2 magazine adverts for albums

A Magazine advert for a new song/album that is either coming out or has already come out is shown below. This example is the Kings of Leon's new album called "Only By The Night". The album includes "sex on fire", "crawl" and "use somebody" which is indicated at the bottom of the advert. Another thing that is indicated from the advert would be the release date stating that the album is out now and currently available. This advert is very simple but effective by showing the bands main symbol/face to the band. This is because most people know who Kings of Leon are now so fans will instantly be drawn to the advert seeing as it is bold and simple. The use of colours in this advert are also very different. This is because the picture itself is black and white whereas the writing at the top and bottom of the advert contains many colours. For example there is blue at the top and red and yellow at the bottom. This adds a nice use of colour contrast to the advert which could help draw peoples attention.

 

Another Magazine advert for a new song/album is shown below. This one is for Plan B's new album called "The defamation of strickland banks". This particular advert is aimed to show off seeing as there are 9 different reviews of the album from various different businesses indicating to the audience just how good the album is.  There is also a statement saying "The multi-platinum album of the year". This helps show off the album even more. Apart form the Red in the name Plan B and the statement the whole advert is black and white adding to the simple yet effective design. The writing also seems to be in some sort of orderly format as well seeing as the writing switches from red to white 2 times. A picture of Plan B's singer is on the right hand side of the advert just to show the audience who the name of the band is associated with. Finally there is a sneak peak at the album cover right at the bottom of the advert just to show people interested what they will be getting.

 



Review of 2 Digipaks

An example of a CD Digipak is shown below. This is a Michael Jackson Digipak that is for the "This is it" album. The main unique selling point of this Digipak is special art work that will attract the most loyal fans. The CD's themselves come out of plastic wallets. As you can see from the picture of the Digipak below it looks very similar to a book as it has lots of pages showing different pictures and then also has the obvious wallets to hold the CD's in. The front cover of the package is very simple but effective with the white background and then the silhouette of Michael Jackson in the middle. Then the Digipak becomes more creative as it contains lots of photos showing Michael Jackson's last moments as he was rehearsing for the last concert he was ever going to do. Unfortunately though he passed away before participating in the concert so this Digipak therefore could be seen as a piece of memorabilia seeing as this is the last album that will be released that links in with Michael Jackson's last performance.

 

Another example of a Digipak but this time in the form of a DVD and this is one of the biggest DVD Digipaks I have seen. This is the Lord of the Rings extended edition blu ray. As you can see this is a massive Digipak that contains 15 CD's and lots of exclusive artwork included. This is something that the fans of the particular franchise will really want to buy if they are dedicated. The package also includes 3 guide books indicating to the fans all the features that come with this DVD Digipak. In terms of the DVD cases there are 3 but they all contain 5 DVD's each with a total of 15. 

Steel Panther background

Steel Panther is the band that we have chosen to base our a2 music video promo on. The song we have chosen to do from Steel Panthers collection is called "Just like Tiger Woods". Below is information about the band which I could find out.
Steel Panther is a band from Los Angles, California. They are known for their humorous lyrics as well as their exaggerated stage performances. They are a band that started in 2000 and is still present. The members consist of Michael Starr, Satchel, Lexxi Foxxx and Stix Zadinia. There genres consist of glam metal, heavy rock, hard rock and comedy rock. The quartet began to gain popularity in the Sunset strip during the early 2000s under the name Metal Shop (soon changed into Metal Skool, then into Steel Panther). The band did weekly shows on Monday nights at the Viper Room, playing covers of 1980s hair metal hits while parodying the bands that made the songs famous. In April 2008 the band decided to change their name from Metal Skool to Steel Panther, making a new debut at The Rockin' Saddle Club in Redlands, California. In May 2008, the band signed a contract with Republic Records (owned by record label Universal Records) announcing plans for a new studio album. The first single, an updated version of "Death to All but Metal", first appeared on iTunes on 27 January 2009, whereas the album, entitled Feel the steel and produced by Jay Ruston, was published on 9 June, during the same year. A promotional video, directed by actor Dean Cameron, was shot for the song "Fat Girl (Thar She Blows)". Below is a picture of what Steel Panther look like.

Magazine adverts

Magazine adverts for music are put into magazines to help promote the band and artist so that the people reading the magazine become interested in the song. For some of the more famous artists/bands the design of the magazine advert does not have to be anything special because they are already quite well known. For example it might just be a picture of their faces that get the fans interested and excited. For some of the less fmaous people though they may have to create something a bit different that will stand out to the people looking at it so that it attracts attention. An example of a magazine cover for a song is shown below. This is an advert for Kasabian. They are quite well known so they do not have to make a first impression. Some more examples are also shown below.

A2 media music video prelim

 

Above is our music video prelim that we made. The song is "Just like Tiger Woods" from Steel Panther. This gave us a good understanding of how a full lengh music video should be filmed and gave us experience going into our full lengh music video that we have to complete later in the year. You can also watch this video via you tube if you follow the link below.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux4wfFh-DUk

Digipaks

Definition

A Digipak can come in the form of a DVD and CD. Digipaks are usually used for CD's and DVD's that contain more than one disc and are special for one reason or another. They also often include artwork and special features that attracts the consumers looking to buy the product. They are always more expensive then the normal versions of the DVD's and CD's as they contain extras. When opened the Digipaks fold out into several different slides. This is so that the slides hold more CD's and DVD's inside for the person to enjoy. One of the pros of the Digipaks is that the fans of the certain DVD or CD will be more willing to buy the more expensive Digipaks due to the facts that it is presented as the ultimate edition. Below are some examples of different Digipaks.