Researching onedirectionmusic.com

Opportunities to spend money:

The Single

There is a page on the site dedicated solely to buying the debut single, which allows the audience to purchase it through various online shops, such as itunes, play.com and HMV. The single cover is given prominent position on the page, allowing the audience to recognise the brand image. 

The Tour

The site has a page dedicated to events, and on this there can be found a list of all the dates and venues of the upcoming One Direction tour. Alongside this are instructions of how to purchase tickets once they go on sale.

Merchandise

One Direction have an offshoot website linked to their main site, which sells merchandise associated to the band, along with other artists from their record label. Amongst the items available for sale are posters, mugs and clothing, all with images of the band, the band logo and sometimes signed autographs.

Track Shortlist

For our Music Video project, we looked at female fronted rock bands, as there currently is a gap in the UK market for music of this genre. Using older tracks such as 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot' by Pat Benetar for inspiration, we researched modern bands to find an appropriate song.





Our final shortlist included the songs listed below:

Goin' Down - The Pretty Reckless

My Medicine - The Pretty Reckless

Dull Life - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Crazy - Mimi Soya

There were many more tracks that we listened to, including msuic from bands such as Paramore, but we felt that the type of music we wanted was more angsty and angry than what was available in their catalogue. After pitching a rough idea for the music video to our teacher, we were given the go ahead to use our favourite track, Goin' Down by the Pretty Reckless.

Music Video Intertextuality

 Taylor Swift - Love Story

The music video for Love Story by Taylor Swift references the stereotypical princess-centric fairytale, with elements of Romeo and Juliet and costume dramas such as Pride and Prejudice.

Perhaps most prominent of the intertextual references are the allusions to disney princesses, through both narrative and mise-en-scene. In the video, Taylor plays the protagonist who is locked away in a castle, only for a young man to come and rescue her. Visually, the clothes match this set-up - she is dressed in a long ballgown and many of the shots are taken from a window in a castle, bearing much similarity to Rapunzel. As Taylor Swift's core fanbase are females between 8-18,  this reference is instantly recognisable , as most of these girls would have a sound knowledge of disney princess movies, and would be hitting the age of aspiring to have a perfect 'fairy tale' relationship.

The lyrics pay homage to Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet', so it is unsuprising that the video includes some intertextual references to the play. The balcony scene is the most obvious homage, as Taylor is presented on an elevated level whilst her suitor is on the floor below. In terms of costume, the themes of 'Romeo and Juliet' are more noticeable in the male characters attire. Like Romeo, he is shown in some smart traditional mens clothes, but in the balcony scene he is dressed far more simply, indicating that he may be of a lower class in comparison to her.  



The dance sequence in 'Love Story' is highly similar to those in both the BBC serial and the Joe Wright film adaption of 'Pride and Prejudice'. Like Romeo and Juliet and disney movies, Pride and Prejudice is commonly regarded, especially by women, to be one of the greatest love stories of all time, so by including a reference it gives the video a stronger feel of the epic romance it is aiming for.

Album Cover Analysis

From looking at a range of albums from different genres, I've been able to distinguish the key features that make up the album's composition. These generally include:

1. Artist Name
2. Album Title
3. Image of artist
4. Track List
5. Record Label Logo
6. Bar Code

There are different ways of categorising album covers, but often this is most easily done through the genre. Mainstream pop albums tend to feature a CU of the lead singer, whilst alternative bands lean towards using original artwork. The colour scheme is also often a key signifier, as the brighter the colours, the more attractive it is to a younger audience. Dark, gloomy images lend themselves to an older audience, that are perhaps more serious about their taste in music. However, in recent years it has been harder to identify the type of music through the album artwork, as it is currently in vogue to create something this is highly striking and original, regardless of the style and tone of the music.

For debut artists, albums usually have an image of the singer or band on the front cover, so that they become quickly recognisable to a new audience. There is a reoccuring theme of creating a very strong brand image on the debut album, for example there will be a striking font and very distinctive styling on the artist.

Music Influences

Our class held a group discussion concerning how we have been influenced to like or buy music in the past and in the present. Some very interesting points kept on being raised that seemed to apply to the entire group, so I've collected a summary of the most important notes.

As a child, musical influuence often came from:

1. Older Siblings
2. Parents
3. Friends
4. Songs taught in school
5. Songs from popular culture, such as children's and reality talent shows.

From this, it can be seen that children tend to follow trends dictated by popular culture. Music is initially a way to fit in rather than stand out, so they tend to conform to mainstream conventions.

Beyond childhood, music tastes appear to broaden. This usually happens as people start searching for an individual style and personality. In the past, people have cornered themselves into a specific genre, but now that we have become an 'ipod generation', tastes in music are widening, instead of falling into a niche area.

Music influences beyond childhood:
Friends

1. Youtube Searches
2. Other internet promotions
3. Songs from tv and film soundtracks
4. Radio

Hype Williams

Hype Williams is one of the world's most popular music video directors. His first video was made in 1991, and he has consistently made videos for top artists up to the present day.

The genres that he typically works with are rap and Hip-Hop, and he frequently collaborates with Kanye West, Mary J. Blige, and LL Cool J. His videos are known for distinctive colour schemes and exotic mise-en-scene. His earlier works make use of fish-eye cameras, but more recently his videos have featured shots in regular widescreen ratio, while a second shot is split and placed in the upper and lower bars.

Will Smith - Gettin' Jiggy Wit It - 1997

This is a prime example of use fish-eye camera, which Williams used almost without fail until about 1995, where the trend came to an end. This video has high contrast between blue, white and black, and uses several inventive set-ups, such as an Egyptian theme and a dance sequence by the statue of liberty.

Jay-Z - Big Pimpin' ft. UGK - 2000


Big Pimpin' is a classic example of a rap/hip-hop video. It includes a vast array of stereotypical rap cliches, like a boat, a beach, hundreds of scantily clad women, money and alcohol running free, large party scenes and high angles. This is one of the first uses of the widescreen camera, which Williams now frequently uses, perhaps most noticeably in LL Cool J's 'Control Myself', in which the top and bottom space show a different scene.




Kanye West - Diamonds from Sierra Leone - 2005


Shot in both the Czech Republic and Sierra Leone, this video is an example of Williams movement towards broadening the locations of his videos - he would later go on to film 'Stronger' by Kanye West in Japan. The video is shot entirely in black and white, and if it weren't for West's perfomance sequences, could be presented as a short film. This idea of the 'short film as music video' was further explored in 'Blame it' by T-Pain, which had opening credits, citing Williams and several celebrity guest stars. By the mid noughties Williams had begun to stray away from traditional  rap videos, and began to explore more serious topics, such as the blood diamond industry in this video.


Coldplay - Viva La Vida - 2009
This shows Williams departure from rap or hip-hop videos, and into alternative rock. Here, he has experimented with texture,  to coincide with the album artwork for Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends. This is a performance piece, so there are lots of shots of the vocalist and instruments, unlike in previous videos. The orange colour scheme which gives the impression of a classical painting indicates another change for Williams as he expands his music video genres.

Music and Me

Girls Don't Like Boys - Good Charlotte


 I chose this soing to reflect my time at primary school because it was one of the first songs I liked outside of the pop genre. My class was over two thirds male, it was probably because of this that I became gradually more tomboyish. For a long time, I only knew the song through everybody singing it, so when I first heard it wperfomed by Good Charlotte I remember being really excited that it was even better than I initially thought. I was also slighly judgmental of people who liked listening to harder, 'angry' rock music, so it was also a lesson to me that other genres can be just as good. My music taste has been incredibly wide ever since.

Childhood Song Shortlist 
Reach - S Club 7
Thunderbirds are  Go - Busted
Joseph's Coat of Many Colours - Joseph and the Amazing Multicoloured Dreamcoat



Spiralling - Keane



This is the song I've chosen to reflect my early teenage years. Though I didn't realise at the time, I was quite an emo child, although I was very subtle about it, which explains why the most emo my music got was Keane songs. I remeber listening to the lyrics one day and realising that they almost fully matched my life and the way I felt about things, and being happy that I'd finally found a song that 'got' me. Although it isn't really an accurate representation of me anymore, I still love the song, and use it as a running track.

Early Teenage Years Shortlist
Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield
Overprotected - Britney Spears
Angels - Robbie Williams


Hey Soul Sister - Glee Cast



I chose this clip because it features a song I love, on a show I love, sung by some unknown actor called Darren Criss. I like it because it's arguably one of the Glee covers that manages to outdo the original, and the performance is so happy and enthusiatic that you can't help feeling like that too.

Current Songs Playlist
Teenage Dream - Katy Perry
Love Like Woe - The Ready Set
Heart Skips a Beat - Olly Murs