Branding Analysis

What is branding?
Branding is creating the identity of a specific product, in our case a music video. Branding varies. It can be presented through similar designs, slogans, colours etc. Branding is a valuable concept in advertisement and this is the reason I am researching this. Looking after a brand is called brand management and this is how we see consistences through bands like the Sex Pistols. 
I am going to anaylis The Sex Pistols are branding. This is my case study for Brand analysing.  This is because they have a vast array of music products, as well as promotional products which are all very silimilar in the following aspects:

•   All of the products have been created with the same Mise en scene, for example: the Queens head is used frequently throughout the products to promote "The Clash". Also the same font is continuously used which all round makes each product very simialar and recognisable.
• The products all use the same colours, which makes them easier to associate together when audiences want to buy the Sex Pistols products and gets attractive to other merchandise available on the market.
• These contributing factors create a specific market, which is the younger market. This is because the younger market (ages from about 16- 24) has disposable income, so can therefore afford to purchase items, like CD'S, Purfume, T-shirts and just any merchandise associated with the band.

Below are a few examples of the Sex Pistols Branding which link cohesively together:


                                                                        This is the Sex Pistols CD cover for "God Save The

Queen" from the 1970's.
The mise en scene is very typical of our Country, with the English flag based in the background followed by the Queens head in a oval shape in the centre. The centre of the CD is black and white degraded which shows age and authenticity. The text : "God Save The Queen" is placed over the Queens eyes and mouth and is in various fonts. This is to reflect that The Sex Pistols are a very different band.

This is a promotional T-shirt from the Sex Pistols. As shown the background contains the Union Jack as does the CD cover. The shirt also reflects back to the CD in form of the font, but this time the font colour is in red. This is to make the Sex Pistols name stand out from the black background of the T-shirt and help promote the band. This is accupanied by "Sidvicious" and the band member playing guitar coloured in white, maybe reflecting purity?

               This is the very defining  Sex Pistols Purfume. This is very simialar if not in the exact design as the above products. The fun and different mise en scene is thouroughly maintained and all connotation of the previous products are still represented through this product.
www.sexpistolsofficial.com/

Here is a reference to the Sex Pistols online website. There is still a coherent connection of brading throughout the website and the other products. The websites image is abit rough around the edges with the torn edges but this adds to the image of rough rock stars and the colours contribute to the fact that the members are fun and outgoing.
In conclusion, the Sex Pistols are in my opinion the perfect opinion are spot on for the ideal spreading of branding. With the branding so simialarly produced for each product you know instantly what each product represents. And in result, tempted to purchase other products from the range.
From this case study  I have learnt the following factors:

• For a brand to be easily recognizable through it's series of products, it must have certain consistences throughout. These consistences could include similar colour schemes, graphics, and font styles. This must occur throughout a range of products otherwise the audience will not be able to identify one product to anorther from the same range.

For branding to be consistent they also need to aim for the same target audience. For example the Sex Pistols aim for the younger generation, if the products were targeted to the older generation they would not be able to recognize the product, therefore resulting in loss of sales. 
This case study can help us a group to identify the conventions of a typical brand similar to our genre, resulting in a brand which consists of the same conventions and quality and will be easily identified to our target audience of the teenage generation. 

top 40 album chart

Looking through this weeks top 40 album chart there are a number of indie albums including Kings of Leon "come around sundown" at number 12, The script "science and faith" at number 21 and Mumford and sons with "sigh no more" at number 39.
Therefore from this research we can see that this music is quite popular at the moment.

Questionnaire for music video

We carried out a questionnaire and handed it to 15 individuals to find out what genre of music people prefered and to get an overall idea of what people like about music videos. Results showed that people generally thoiught that indie was the best and most popular genre at the minute, We also asked people what styles of music videos interested them and what colour schemes they thought suited the genre. Here is an example of one that we have scanned in.

• We found the most popular music genres to be indie and Dance with 13/15 rating one of these as their favourite genre and under 50% mentioned rock or pop or r&b.
• We also found that these two were said to be the most popular genres at the minute. Particularly with people our age as they dominated our questionnaires and said"indie is popular due to an increase in gigs and festivals" and "dance is the main genre associated with teenagers and going out at the weekends".
• We found colour schemes varied quite dramitically and the majority of colours were mentioned, however darker colours seemed more popular from our questionnaires, such as blacks, greys, reds and blues.
•  Finally we asked the question " when watching a music video do you like to see narritive, performance or both?" here we found only 3 people enjoyed purely performance, whilst 6 people picked both and the other 7 just narrative.

Analysing a Classical Musical Album Cover

Analyse of Katherine Jenkins Album Cover - Believe.

This album cover shows Katherine being used with a medium shot. The mise en scene is simple and classic. It  The cover is simply composed of Katherine's face in a side posture to reveal the purity of her. The whole of the cover is black and white, using low key lighting and a black background to focus on Katherine's features.
The font of the writing isn't complicated but still has curves, which shows simple, and classic. The overall appearance of the album cover would appeal to the older generation of audience. This is due to the fact that the album cover wouldn't nessessarilty appeal to the younger population as it isn't colourful in comparison to the albums out in the market which are specifically targeted towards the younger generation.
With Katherine Jenkins being so well known in the Classical Industry and being so well published on this cover, the classical audience will instantly recognise these conventions of the album cover and feel comfortable with purchasing the album.

Feedback

This is progressing nicely. Here are a few suggestions to add a bit more depth in places:

• Action Plan - add time frame for this and who is doing what.
• Add a brief post defining what a music video is and what they are for and outlining Goodwin's ideas about their codes and conventions and link to next phase - you will all analyse one to see how this works - add the post and I can help you move it to where it should be!
• Music Video analysis - all need a reflection piece at the end - what can you learn from this? What can you sue from it? Kiera - add a gap between each para to make it easier to read - add a few still images? Laura/ Viki - need more detail in analysis - add examples to illustrate your claims, link to Goodwin more thoroughly; Steph - link to what you can learn for your own video development.....
• Album Covers - possibly add a start post for this section - what is the role of an album cover and what are its key codes and conventions - what elements do you find... think, too, about the back covers and inside covers.... in individual analyses, you need to end by reflecting on what you could learn or use from these examples...

Then you need to move on to analyzing the genre conventions for the music genre you will be promoting, teh audience and institution....

Analysing A Pop Single Cover

Analysis of Flo Rida - Club Can't Handle Me 

This cover is for the single 'Club Can't Handle Me' - Flo Rida, the picture is very simple showing a medium shot of the artist, and his name in a large font over him with the name of the song. It also shows a DJ in the background which conforms to the genre as it shows that the music is played by DJ's in nightclubs etc. To make the cover more interesting, shots of coloured lights are placed behind the artist, this also conforms to the genre as it is like being in a club with the bright lights and lasers, the light is centred around the artist to show that he is the main person.

Analysing album covers and digipaks for the indie genre

This cover is very basic but still gives us an insight into the bands image, the colours represent their simple, yet classic image (black/white)this shows us their casual style and the man's face being the centre focus suggests a closeness to the band, that the songs inside the album will be meaningful and give us an idea of what goes on in the band members lives.

Again this arctic monkeys cover is very simple and i can see through looking at different indie bands that the covers always seem to be quite basic, however they still show us the bands image and give us an insight into their music style. This cover suggests that the band are quite rebellious as the man is smoking it also conveys that they are unique and don't stick to traditional conventions when it comes to their music. The black and white again shows their indie style and it looks as though he may be in a photo booth as he looks straight at the camera which gives us an insight into personal life.

This is the only image i could find similar to a digipak that was done for an indie band, this shows that a colour scheme has been used and maintained, to give it a brand image.

Analysing a dance music album cover for initial genre ideas

Analysis of David Guetta - One Love album cover

This album cover is that of David Guetta's One Love. The genre of the album is dance shown by some of the media language used. 

The mese-en-scene of the album cover contributes greatly towards both selling the track and telling the audience what genre it is. The photo on the album is black and white colour grading, yet a bright pink colour is used for the font. This indicates the genre is very black and white as there are a lot of musical dance artists around, yet there is an element of excitement shown with the pink font indicating the album is different from any others drawing an audience in. The character on the front of the album is David Guetta himself wearing sunglasses to show he is maybe of importance. By David Guetta being on the front cover it attracts an audience who listen to dance music as he is a well known DJ and so if you're into dance music you will know who he is. 

A reflection of music video analysis

After looking at several types of music video we have reflected over our findings and come up with this conclusion:


Laura - Dance: After looking at the dance music video 


Keira - Indie: Indie is an ideal genre for our music video, I looked at the video 'Always where I need to be' by the kooks and found that a lot of the footage they have used was taken outside in different locations, this would be ideal for us as we may film some of our video in college time, and so we may want to use outdoor locations. I have also found that indie videos don't always stick to typical conventions of music videos, such as linking the music with the visuals and the visuals with the lyrics, therefore we could be quite experimental and try out different effects and ideas with our project.

Viki - Pop:


Steph - Classical:








Overall we are drawn towards using an indie genre as it seems to give us the best opportunities in presenting our skills and being experimental. It also gives us the chance to use different locations and seems to challenge typical conventions and so we could try out different effects and ideas with our project.

Analysing A Pop Music Video "Club Can't Handle Me" - Flo Rida

I have decided to analyse a pop music video, by doing this it will help me and my group decided which genre we would like to use for our final product.

The video shows 'Flo Rida' singing to the people in the club, this can relate to the target audience as they can relate to that feeling of watching one of their favourite artists perform. The main setting used in this music video is the inside of a nightclub, this is the perfect scene for the 'pop' genre, because these songs are the kind of music people will listen to before a night out or once they are out. Performance is used a lot throughout the video, and we see a lot of close up shots of Flo Rida, this appeals to the target audience as they want to see the artist in the video.

The lyrics throughout the video, relate well to the visuals we see throughout the video. For example, the lyrics are "to make em' stop and stare," Flo Rida is stood up in the middle of the crowd, and all the crowd are staring at him. Another set of lyrics are, "bottles, models, standing on chairs," as he says this, three girls walk in front of him with bottles in their hands. Another set of lyrics say "take you up out of this club," and as he says this he points out of the club. The last set of lyrics say, "paparazzi trying to make me pose," as he says this he poses right in front of the camera with his arms folded.

Analysing a classical music video - Katherine Jenkins "Angel"

To analyse Katherine Jenkins "Angel" music video, I am going to use Andrew Goodwins's narrative conventions which are:
- There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals (with the visuals either illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics)
- There is a relationship between the music ans the visuals (again with visuals either illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics)
- Particular music genres may have their own music video style and iconography (such as live performance in heavy Rock)
- There is a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close ups of the main artist/ vocalist.
- The artist may develop their own iconography (in and out of their videos, over time which becomes part of their star image)
- There is likely to be reference to voyuerism ( particularly in the treatement of woman, but also in the terms of "looking" e.g screens within screens, cameras etc)
- There are likely to be intertextual references (either to other music videos, films or Television texts.

I will now begin my analysis using the conventions above. At the beginning Katherine is sitting on a white chair and waiting which links to:
" Spend all your time waiting for that second chance and pray that will make it ok".
Video is mainly relaxed, based in only two, maybe three locations. This reassures the audience that no unusual conventions of other genres are going to occur (for example, rock music would show dark lighting, louder music etc).
The locations always consist with Katherine included, keeping us focused on Katherine and not turning/ switching the music off.

The music is very calm and relaxing (typical of the classical genre). The visuals are soft and gentle, set in black and white and Mise en Scene reveals Katherine in a white dress, linking to the song title of "Angel" through purity. Although there isn't a strict link for the visuals and the music, both obtain the same pace and mood.

The classical genre is generally always soft music, with attractive people acting as as the vocalists. The genre always stays true to it's conventions, so doesn't contain any other sections of alternative genres (e.g rock music = loud music, low key lighting etc). This is because we wouldn't be reassured or recognise the music genre and therefore not purchase the product. As a Music Company, they want genres to be very clear so that they do not loose profit. The genre is generally calm with a pleasant content which most of the target audience can relate to, therefore the audience is satisfied.

During the whole of the video, there are a number of close ups and medium shots of Katherine. This is to demonstrate her emotion and her body language, so we as an audience can get a close up of the star! Almost capturing a section of her personal life out of the music bussiness. These keep the audience focussing and therefore continue watching the video.  She is represented as "pure" throughout with visuals such as delicate Mise En Scene (furniture to complement her white dress). We also see a number of high angle shots to make Katherine appear quite innocent and captivationg.

Over the years of her carreer, Katherine's iconography has been created as a gentle angelic young woman. This is developed through her attractive flawless appearance, respectable clothing and of course all of her classical music. When in the public eye, she is well behaved for example, doesn't get drunk or act inexusably.

In the music video, the only reference to voyerism would be the close ups of Katherine, appearing innocent. These could be seen as "eye candy" to the male audience, which could lower Katherine's reputation. Other than this, there are no other references.

Throughout the video, there are no refereces of Intertextuality, as the video is focussed on the "Angel" track rather than promoting other texts.
Now that I have analysed the album cover using Andrew Goodwin's conventions, I will now use Media Language conventions to complete my case study of a classical music video.
Editing
The editing is of a average pace.





Cinematography
Throughout the music video lots of close up shots are taken. This is to keep our attention focussed on Katherine and also shows a "male gaze". The "male gaze" is for the gents of the audience, hense the range of close ups to keep the male audience attracted to watching as Katherine is an attractive woman.

Colour

The main colours used in the music video are blacks and greys. There is no bright and vibrant colours present as the video is simple and classic with just the blacks, greys and the white colours. This is a general conventio of the classic genre as the classic genre wants to maintain a simple look which we know we will be able to associate with the classic genre.

Lighting
The lighting combined with the colour gradience is high key. It allows detail of the mise en scene and Katherine's body language to be recognised





Mise en Scene







Sound

This research will help us progress on as a group as we now know the main conventions of the classical genre. This will help us decide whether the genre's conventions are suitable for what we want to create as our music video. Our main conclusions are that although this helped us determine the conventions of the genre, we will not be using this genre as a basis to work from in our music video. We will alternatively use the indie genre as we think this is the most revelant genre to our target audience. (Teenagers).

Analysing a dance music video for initial genre ideas

I am going to analyse the music video Katy B - On a mission to create for myself some initial ideas of what codes and conventions are used in a music video, but also what codes and conventions are used in this specific genre of music video to help compare with other genre of music video the rest of my group have analysed. By doing this it will help us to see which specific genre we want our music video to be.

The sound throughout the music video relates well with the visuals seen in the music video. It is quite clear from the instrumental sound of the song that it is a dance track, the DJ used in the video, on the prop a set of decs used to mix dance tracks, helps create a link with the sound, the visuals and genre. Katy B during the song uses words that relate to the genre and visuals of the video, My limbs seem to move what the beat dictates to me. During the video both Katy B and extras used are dancing to the beat of the song showing again the genre is dance and also relating to Katy's words limbs moving.

The settings used in the music video show a nightclub scene full of people dancing and drinking, this the perfect scene for the genre of the music as it is usually nightclubs dance music is played in. It also shows Katy B performing to this audience entertaining the target audience watching the video as they will be able to relate to that feeling of watching someone perform.

Analysing an indie music video for intial genre ideas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln_qHyGD9zo
Click on the link above to see The Kooks "Always Where I Need to Be"

I am going to analyse this video to get an idea of the codes and conventions used in an indie music video using Goodwin's points. Music videos essentially aim to sell the artist and their music, they do this in a number of ways, including through a relationship/link between the music, lyrics and visuals.

This video has some links between the visuals and lyrics as he talks about being "a man on the scene" and it shows him in lots of different locations. It says "I always thought i would end up with you eventually" and shows him with a woman suggesting this line is about her. However the links between the lyrics and visuals are limited because indie music videos tend to be more unique and different, they don't always follow the conventions and so can afford to be more experimental.

However we do see more of a link between the visuals and the music, as the band are performing in their video we see them tap their feet in time to the music, as well as walking at a similar pace. The pace remains quite consistent throughout, however when the music speeds up we have some jump cuts of the band, move to and from the camera from a distance very quickly.

We can immediately see that the genre of this video is indie as the band have typically indie characteristics, such as long hair, and they are also quite dressed down, wearing t shirts, skinny jeans and jackets. We get the impression it is quite a dreary day, which is shown through black and white colour grading and lots of shadows are used.

Performance is used a lot throughout this video and we see lots shots of the band performing in unusual places, which suggests they are unique and shows us their urban relaxed image, as we see them perform on a rooftop, on a beach and in an apartment. We get a sense of voyeurism in this video as we see them playing in an arcade and walking through the city, as if we are watching them on a typical day out.

Finally the use of effects in this video gives it an old fashioned vintage look, as it uses simple visuals, black and white colour grading and at one stage the shot distresses into another shot which suggests age and gives it a sort of video tape look.

Music Videos

A distinctive art form which can allow really interesting creative opportunities  - P. Fraser 2005. As a group we have researched into the true meanings behind a music video. A music video is primarily to sell the artist and promote their product as A. Goodwin explained in 1992 - Music Video is not primarily a commodity form but a promotional one. Goodwin came up with six points about the conventions of music videos:

• Genre characteristics 
• Visuals/lyrics
• Visuals/music
• Need to sell artist
• Intertextuality 
• Voyeurism

We are now going to analyse different genres of music videos, including dance, indie, pop and classical, using Goodwin's ideas to see if music videos necessarily always stick to these typical conventions. We will also analyse mise en scene and different narrative techniques.

Music Video Action Plan for Research and Planning

View more documents from smcmediastudies.
We are aiming to have our research and planning done a week after half term.

Introduction

Our group consists of Steph, Viki, Laura and keira. In our previous year three members of the group produced a print product involving the music industry, the other member of the group produced a film trailer giving her experience with using filming equipment. All these elements will help us with producing a music video, album covers and an advertisement. We as a group are going to begin our project by researching music genres and videos.