TEXTUAL ANALYSIS - ALL I SEE (RESEARCH)

Textual analysis- ‘Bondax- All I see’

Bondax are duo consisting of English musicians Adam Kaye and George Townsend. They’re predominantly in the electronic dance music genre. All I see is their 7^th release since their first since in 2012. The pair features throughout the video which has received 800,000 views on YouTube but don’t contribute to the vocals in the song, which is quite typical of a song in this genre as DJ’s recruit another artist to provide vocals or have a regular singer they can call upon. The video chosen falls into the narrative category and centres around a group of guys who are travelling across the globe and are just generally enjoying themselves. It goes on to show an element of performance, where the pair seem to be playing a song to an audience.  Bondax are signed to relentless records, which are an independent label who have a roster of artists similar to the genre of bondax. The reward for being an independent artist is that you can get more freedom of choice in your video’s and have less demands from the record label to include certain motif’s that represent them.

Bondax (Adam and George) are being represented as a couple of cool guys who seem to be enjoying the success that has come with their career which is exemplified from the start to the end through a montage of them either playing around on the beach or performing in front of a crowd in an exotic location. However the way they are being represented is much different from the style of representation you’d see through artists in the ‘Hip Hop’ genre who also seem to be enjoying themselves in videos. For example, at the beginning of this video you see the pair enjoying much simpler things like the hillside or the sun, however in a stereotypical Hip Hop video would include the artist driving round in flash cars and carrying massive amounts of money. One of theorist Andrew Goodwin’s theories is that Genre is about repetition. By Bondax using this sort of narrative, they’re sticking to the generic conventions of dance videos. These conventions include sunny, exotic locations that get the target audience excited for summer. So this video supports that theory.

You can see straight away in the video that the pair are relatively up date with fashion and trends which would appeal to their target audience of male and females between the ages of 16-24. This is exemplified through the clean white T shirts, the shades etc. The sort of clothing they’re wearing is casual which matches the calm atmosphere created by the visuals, for example the wide shots capturing the guys sitting on the Cliffside under the sunset. The video shows off their cool nature through a number of shots making them look good, which is known as the notion of looking in terms of Goodwin’s theory.

As the video progresses, the Pair is joined on holiday by a group of friends. A generic convention of dance videos are that they’re fun and in the process make people want to go back to previous experiences, for example sunny holiday’s with friends. So by casting people as their friends for the video, they’re actually reaching out to their target audience. As this is happening, lyrics such as ‘throwing my hands up to the sky’ and ‘all my senses come alive’ again relating to the target audience as the years 16-24 are almost certainly the best years of your life, which is what the artists are portraying in the video. These lyrics on the hook later on in the song are directly linked to the visuals as we see people partying to the song Bondax are performing, which is another of Goodwin’s principles.

IAt around 1:24 we see the pair on the beach playing football and drinking beer, which is another thing that would appeal to the target audience as this sort of activity is very common for their demographic, particularly males.

For the rest of the video we see the performance element becoming more predominant as it moves away from the montage of the guys by the beach and chilling on rocks. This conveys to the audience again that they’re living the dream as the lyrics suggest they’re pursuing their dream job whilst having a great time.

Nothing about the video is too complex. If the pair decided to go for a complicated conceptual video, they might lose a share of their target audience as they’d be breaking the codes and conventions of the dance genre. This suggest that artists are bound to within in their genre and further elevates Goodwin’s theory of genre being about repetition.

Overall, Bondax did a good job in creating a video that supplemented their genre nicely. The most notable way they did this was the exotic locations that appeal to the psychographics and the pair’s appearance which the target audience can relate to. They also stuck to many principles of Goodwin’s theory which could keep the group’s target audience engaged.

NINE SHOT ANALYSIS - YOU & ME (RESEARCH)

Here is the 'You & Me' music video that the nine shots were taken from in the analysis above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_vM8ePGuRM

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS - GOOD MORNING (RESEARCH)

Digi-Pack analysis on Kanye West’s ‘College Dropout’ and ‘Graduation’.

Digi-pack’s, also known as album covers are massively important in promoting musicians material. In recent times they’ve slightly lost their influence due to the growing popularity of online streaming sites; However the releasing of an album cover and layout brings excitement to the artists fans and reveals a lot about their direction. 

Kanye West is an important figure within in the industry, most notably for the diversity of each of his albums, which is why I’ve decided to pick two of his Covers to analyse.

‘College Dropout’, 2004, Roc-A-Fella Records.

College dropout was the debut album of the Chicago born artist. The album name is dedicated to himself, a young man who dropped out of college to focus on something that he wanted to do.

 It was seen as a very bold marketing strategy from himself to not include his own face, or album name on the front cover of his album. Considering this is his debut album and other than production credits, he wasn’t a household name in the industry yet. However the risk duly paid off, the bear shown on the cover to the left came to be known as the ‘College dropout bear’ and featured in the next 2 albums released by West.  The name paved the way for a trilogy relating to school, i.e. ‘Late Registration’ and ‘Graduation.’ West, dressed as the bear/mascot is posing a very glum stance, which is ironic considering the look of the costume. On the outside we see a glum brown colour with a sort of golden frame putting more focus on the bear in the middle. The colour Gold is associated with wealth and power, two things associated with the rap/Hip Hop genre, however the glum posture in the middle, not displaying West’s face is breaking the usual conventions of album covers in this genre, where artists are seen showing their wealth in some way or another. This tells a lot about the artist and creates the connotation that he’s not doing this for money. This is also displayed through the musical content in the album, based on racial inequality in America. 

To the left we see the back page of the album cover. You can tell by the style of writing and the font that he is a creative person, and has put some thought into the Digi-Pack rather than just detailing the tracks on the back. Although he recruited Eric Duvauchelle, who at the time was design director at Nike, Kanye is known as an artist who has a very hands on approach to his projects. Again the colours aren’t the most appealing, but the wooden sort of colour gives it a natural fill. The brown circle in the middle is supposed to represent a tree, connoting that the records placed in them are natural and long lasting. This sort of imagery is counter typical to what we usually see from artists, especially in the early 2000’s where Hip Hop had moved slightly away from a reliance on meaningful lyrics.

Inside the album, we actually do see an image of Kanye, holding the bear’s head mask. This is again notifying the audience that he really is a college dropout, yet he’s achieving his dreams. This is actually quite a negative representation of West, as his fans still in school may be wrongly influenced. The angels to the side of him relates to his religious values, as he see’s God as the reason he survived his near fatal car crash in 2003, which actually increased the level of publicity he received and inspired him to move from just being a producer and actually release his own material. Obviously his religious values give him a more positive image. The San-serif font gives the artwork a more classical look, which is counter-typical of the Hip Hop genre.

One thing that our group have taken from this digi-pack is the importance of creating an attractive way of presenting the track list, rather than just listing tracks. Despite our song and album being in a different genre, there is still a lot of ideas we can fit into our Digi-pack due to the counter typical nature of it. For example we also want to represent the artist we’ve chosen as creative.

Graduation, 2006, Roc Nation.

Graduation is the Third studio album of Kanye West, completing the trilogy of his albums, named College Dropout and Late Registration. You will see a huge binary opposite between his first release which has already been talked about, and this one. It was designed with famous Japanese anime designer Takashi Murakami.

 Straight away we see a stark contrast to the College dropout layout. We see the bear, featured in all three of the trilogy’s albums, however this time we see it’s been animated, suggesting West has adapted to the changing times not only in graphics but music too. The drum work in this album has been done electronically due the enhanced technology, however his two previous had more natural sounding beats. The colour pallet on show is very appealing to the eye due to its brightness. West, not for the first time, decides not to place the album name, nor his own name on the front cover, which is a unique trait that sets apart all 7 of his albums from others. In recent years, major artists such as Drake have decided to copy that style. 

Surprisingly, Kanye west decides not to even place a track list on the back of this album, creating an enigma. In this image we just see the front cover image reversed. You can see graduation hats dotted around, which creates the link between the image and the album title. The image is trying to connote Kanye breaking off from the pack and graduating into the Hip Hop genres hall of fame. The colour’s give it a positive feel, which also reflects the musical content of this album. The yellow and pink colours being displayed are counter typical of the Hip Hop genre in the way that they’re quite feminine, which again gives West a unique image, something he likes.

Inside the album, you see fold out panels containing these images. This is something we’ll consider when making our Digi-packs, as we also want to images that are easy to look at and interests the artist’s fans. On the image to the right, we see what looks like a sort of university, again keeping the artwork relevant to the message behind the album. The animations are again connoting the audience how much the world has evolved. The switch to this cartoon theme also suggests that Kanye has developed a new style as an artist, which is a positive representation of the artists is it shows he isn’t someone bound within the conventions of his genre.

This, like the first Digi-Pack analysed, have helped give the group some pointers as to how we should set lay out our album covers. They’re both covers that have a lot of meaning behind, yet are completely relevant to the title, which is a difficult skill.

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS - HEATWAVE (RESEARCH)

Textual Analysis - Wiley - Heatwave

Wiley is a UK artist who has sued his fame in the rap industry to get critical acclaim by using his rapping talents in the pop genre. The intent of this song is to be a classic summer anthem, portrayed by the name of the song ”heatwave”; associated with summer. Wiley is in the group BBK and Roll Deep and is seen as the father of grime music in the UK. He made a name for himself and then as he got older he entered the pop genre to gain some money as the pop genre has more popularity and target audience. Similarly to Dance Wiv Me and Bonkers, this is the work of a rap artist incorporating elements of the pop genre. It is an accessible song and has achieved mainstream success; it reached Number 1 in the charts. As with many rappers, he got criticized by his core grime fans for choosing money in the pop genre to which he responded ‘If I’m making things like Heatwave then I know that in two seconds theres going to be some screaming grime fans moaning’.

The relationship between lyrics and visuals is illustrative according to Goodwins theory. This is portrayed by the summer and carefree atmosphere of the song. The song lyrics connote a summer feel to match with talk of ice-cream, sun and girls. This is matched with the summer visuals and Wiley has chosen lots of beautiful women in bikinis in his video to give a hedonistic feel and promote his status and reputation; as seen with many rappers. This targets the audience as they enjoy the song because of the happy and summery feel and therefore the video enhances this and contributes to the audiences’ pleasure.

Wileys self-image is promoted throughout the whole video. Theres many shots of him lip-synching the lyrics and dancing; this making the video performance with the frequent concept of summer and party. The video is filled with a lot of jewelry, women and summer themed mise-en-scene. Wiley has done this to portray him being successful in the financial and sexual fields. There is frequent close ups and medium close ups of Wiley to promote himself and to recognize his success with the song.

The notion of looking is used frequently throughout. The women are represented in a highly sexualized way and this is to bring interest to the video for the viewers. Wiley received a lot of criticism for not having many black girls in the video and objectifying women. The objectification of women may be criticized by feminist but it is something frequently seen in music videos; especially rap. Therefore, despite Wiley losing a few fans from feminists he will keep his rappers conventional reputation of being successful and cool

The song doesn't challenge any generic conventions and is extremely stereotypical in the way the artist is promoted. The videos theme is common as seem with ‘Dizzee Rascal - Dance Wiv Me’. Its a popular video reaching Number 1 in the music and video charts. In conclusion, the video is simple but effective in communicating its feel. The video portrays a more mainstream image.

GOODWIN ANALYSIS - WIGGLE (RESEARCH)

Textual Analysis of a Music Video (Jason Derulo - Wiggle) 

Jason Joel Desrouleaux (born September 21, 1989) or Jason Derulo, is an American singer-songwriter and dancer. Since the start of his career as a solo recording artist in 2009, Jason has sold over 30 million singles and has achieved five Top 5 singles. After producing records for several artists and writing songs for Cash Money Records co-founder Birdman, Young Money Entertainment owner Lil Wayne and rapper Diddy, Derulo signed to minor recording label Beluga Heights. ‘Wiggle’ is a song released as the fourth single from his fourth studio album, Talk Dirty (2014) in Europe and North America. The song features American rapper Snoop Dogg.

The song is of the hip hop/ pop genre with an element of trap. Genre is a type of music that features certain repeated conventions and characteristics. Generic conventions in music videos such as the existence of women with provocative clothing on, wide shots of the artist with many women surrounding him and high cut frequency are typical of the hip hop genre.

The video opens with an establishing shot of Jason Derulo in a bed with 8 girls around him, immediately portraying himself as successful with women, which is a very common convention in hip hop videos. It adds to his desirable image and lifestyle that is conveyed to attract envious teenage males, which happens to be his target audience.

There is then a montage of shots depicting a wild, fun atmosphere in which they are situated, with shots of various women in revealing clothing, and of exotic locations and an expensive house. These once again connote his financial success and success with women, consolidating his image.

This is followed by a close up of a woman opening a shoe box with the brand placed in the centre of the shot, showing off expensive brands to the audience, in turn portraying the wealth of the people the artist associates himself with.

The video contains performance elements in which Jason Derulo both dances and sings, representing him as talented as well as successful and wealthy. This will also help to have his audience replicate his dance moves in order to feel like him. 

The clothes worn by the artist are conventional of clothing worn by men in hip hop videos; chains, branded clothing and fashionable attire constructs the artist as desirable.

The relationship between the lyrics and visuals is amplifying because it vaguely explains the lyrics and amplifies them, for example where Jason Derulo says “wiggle wiggle wiggle” and the images are of girls “wiggling” their bottoms, also when Snoop Dogg says “shake it shake it girl” and again the images are of girls shaking their behinds. 

In the video there is frequently reference to notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body - which Goodwin says appears in music videos. Jason Derulo does a lot of looking down the camera, which is noticeably present when he is talking about the women shaking their bottoms and singing about no one girl in particular. In this he attempts to attract a female audience that believe he is talking and connecting to them whilst watching the video, which attracts them to him and promotes further viewing of his video and music.

There is a distinct relationship between the music and visuals present throughout the video, for example when there is a drop in the beat before the whistle there is a dance routine that matches the music in an appropriate manner. This is a generic convention for hip hop videos - which often have some sort of drop present.

In conducting this textual analysis it is evident that camerawork has played a significant role in promoting the artist through the use of close ups on the artists itself which helps construct an image that portrays wealth, success with women, yet also musical and dancing ability. Therefore the purpose of this video is to gain a wider audience, appeal to the existing audience and showcase the capabilities of the artist.

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS - AFTERGLOW (RESEARCH)

Danny O’Brien

Textual Analysis – Afterglow by Wilkinson

 Wilkinson, or as he is better known by his stage name “Wilkinson”, release his first single in 2010. He has however only gained real public appeal as of 2013, with “Afterglow”, his 8^th single being his first to break into the top 40, peaking at number 7. The single was released on 13^th October 2013, as the fourth single of his debut album “Lazers Not Included” also released in October of 2013, on the 28^th. For Afterglow the British drum and bass producer and DJ collaborated with female vocalist Becky Hill, to produce a drum and bass song directed by French director Remy Cayuela. The video is predominantly conceptual based with a strong element of narrative running through it, centring upon the theme of a relationship being compiled into a collection of memories and experiences. It features many of Goodwin’s conventions of music video.

As Steve Neale famously once said “Genre is all about repetition and variation”. Afterglow falls into the Dance genre, as does the music video that accompanies the song, with generic conventions evident, such as multiple scenes of dancing along to the track that is playing. The music video is of a very unique style, subsequently containing fewer generic conventions and scenes that would typically be associated with the dance genre of music videos. The uniqueness differs from a typical dance video that would feature the artist usually playing a gig or festival as the artist does not at all appear in the video. However it still contains youthful actors, locations such as parties and festivals and also slow motions on intimate acts – all generic conventions. These also help to portray the artist Wilkinson in a fun, youthful manner. 

The relationship between lyrics and visuals is amplifying. The visuals on the screen somewhat amplify the lyrics throughout the duration of the video. There is similarity throughout the video in both the lyrics and visuals telling the story of a 5 year relationship that is documented in the visuals with shots of the couple partying, arguing etc. These visuals are amplified by lyrics such as “lights and action, strong attraction” and “someone hold the sunlight back, ‘cause we want this night to last” – these imply that the sunlight metaphorically provides an end or an awakening from this journey, that it is the end of the relationship. The strong attraction is mirrored in the visuals with scenes of a sexual nature that show the intimate connection between the two actors. The video conveys a message to its viewers about valuing life itself and all the experiences we share in it with people, and the importance of enjoying every moment with people, in this particular case of the video with a loved one.

The relationship between the visuals and the music is a both illustrative and explicitly obvious one. There are two main parts to the song, the chorus and the bridge, and the verses. During the verses the music has a slower tempo, is quieter and has a much more down beat tone and feel, whereas in the chorus and bridge the tempo, volume and tone all rapidly crescendo, in doing so creating a far more upbeat, happy sound. The visuals on the screen directly emulate this, exemplified at the beginning of the video for example when the verse starts there is a shot containing the two characters stood still with a slow zoom and long shot duration to make it seemingly slow paced and accompany the slow tempo of the music perfectly. As we come to the first chorus and the crescendo in volume and tempo is present the cut frequency increases with it, following the principle of motivation. Also these scenes are shot with less steady camerawork, from less conventional angles and contain a lot more movement, like in the height of the chorus there is a clip of the two characters spinning around seemingly with a handheld camera shot, wonderfully creating this fast pace to the video that accordingly matches the music.

The image of the artist is something that is portrayed intriguingly. The artist does not feature in the video, nor does he have a particular style in the way that most pop and rap artists do. The main theme and message that is ever present in the music video is about enjoying life, cherishing memories and experiences that we share with the ones. This shows that the artist doesn’t care about whether people think he is cool, or has lots of sex appeal, which in itself sends its own message to the audience about him. It also says that the record label is willing to be original and experiment with interesting ideas such as this conceptual video.

The notion of looking is frequently featured throughout the duration of the video, starting in the very opening shot. The video does have some voyeuristic treatment of the female body in it, but it is kept to a minimal as to not create a sexist portrayal of women or to signify the female featured simply as a piece of meat, or an object. It fits with the male gaze theory, as the video is shown through a heterosexual male’s perspective – with sexual scenes e.g. number of orgasms, shared showers etc. The scene of the fantasy where there are two women present seen intimately kissing is the only shot that could be considered mildly disrespectful.

This is a uniquely gripping and interesting music video that doesn’t challenge any conventions of the dance genre. It contains no intertextual references, which complements its originality and is perhaps why it has gained such critical acclaim.

Afterglow is a conceptual music video with a loose narrative but clear theme and message, portrayed expertly through the use of camera, editing sound and mise en scene. The narrative follows a structure that fits the pace of the music and features narrative progression as the ending stars the seemingly ongoing relationship not ending, contrary to what the audience expect.

In conclusion this an intelligent, though provoking video which accompanies an upbeat, feel good song. The video is used not to promote the image of the artist or of the record label, but to appeal to a wide target audience that can easily go on this journey with the video enabling them to do so, then being pleased by the video they associate this happiness with the song and therefore like the song.

INITIAL IDEAS (PLANNING)