How are music albums promoted using the media?

Target Audience and Album Promotion
LADY GAGA
http://www.ladygaga.com/theremix/
To promote the album 'The Fame', Lady Gaga did several performances worldwide. She also performed on various american television shows and performed in Vietnam for a beauty pageant during the swimsuit competition. Three songs off The Fame were used in the series Gossip Girl and she performed the single 'Pokerface' on American Idol. She also performed on Xfactor and then talked about her upcoming tour. Performing on programmes like these targets the right audiences as people watching are people interested in music and are mostly young people that would go to a concert. Also, news that Gaga would be appearing on the show would have spread so the audience watching are most likely fans. To celebrate the launch of the show Dirty Sexy Money, ABC created a music video of Lady Gaga's song 'Beautiful, Dirty, Rich'.

The album received further promotion from her first headlining concert tour The Fame Ball Tour. For her album 'The Fame Monster' which was combined with The Fame as a deluxe edition, Gaga did a Monster Ball tour over all the main cities in the world. This is targeting an international market. Merchandise such as t-shirts and glasses were sold at these events to promote her album. Alternate versions of the show with minimal variations were planned by Gaga to accommodate different venues to suit the different target audiences. Her concerts and merchandise are mostly aimed at teenage girls to young woman and her many gay fans. The genre of music is pop.

An active twitter and face book account can help promote an artist and is a great modern way to keep fans updated and to advertise upcoming albums, videos, gigs and more.

GREENDAY
http://www.greenday.com/billabong_splash/index.html
Green Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1987. Green Day was originally part of the punk scene.The band's early releases for independent record label Lookout! Records earned it a fan base. As the band have been going since the late 80's I think its hard to say a specific target audience although the majority seems to be teenagers or young adults involved in the punk scene. To promote their albums Greenday go on worldwide tours to promote to as wider audience as possible. This is called global distribution.

Greenday also have a twitter account and a face book which lets them communicate with their fan base and let them know new updates involving the band.

JUSTIN BEIBER
http://www.justinbieberofficial.co.uk/home
The album My World is R&B influenced pop and is compared to the work of artists such as Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Chris Brown. The lyrics are based on coming of age situations and teenage love. This indicates that the target audience is going to be mostly teenage girls as they can relate where as teenage boys wont be so interested in hearing a boy singing about love. The way Justin Bieber is promoted attracts a fan base of girls. During 2009, Bieber went on a tour to promote his debut single, visiting several radio stations and performing exclusively. This included American Top 40 and Radio Disney.The 'My World Tour' was announced on March 13 2010. It started in June and is scheduled to end on December 23rd 2010 in Justin Bieber´s hometown Atlanta. Justin Timberlake was apparently in the running to sign him but he eventually signed with Usher. Usher introduced JB to the industry in April 2009 in LA just after he had finished recording his single "One Time". Usher described Bieber to the crowd as a "young phenomenon". Having Usher as he manager and mentor means he probably gains half of Ushers fan base as well. I think this was a wise move being signed with Usher as he is very successful and has a very large fan base. The songs are mostly inspired by teen romance and typical coming of age situations and the album is R&B influenced pop. The R&B being down to Ushers influence. After the albums release JB became the first solo artist in Billboard history to have at least four singles enter the Top 40of the Hot 100 before his debut album's release. This shows he has aimed at the right target audience and has promoted his album in the right way for his image.

His twitter and face book account update fans on his latest news, new releases and tour dates available.

Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fame
http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/green-day.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21st_Century_Breakdown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_World_(EP)

Time Scedule

Frame number 3 - A boy looking over at someone whilst standing at his locker. Neil is going to play the boy by the locker. He will be wearing a white shirt with a blazer on. This will be filmed in a school corridor with a row of lockers either side.

Frame number 6 - A boy standing at his locker taking his blazer off. Neil is going to be playing this boy wearing the same costume as before but taking his blazer off in the shot. This will be filmed in a school corridor with a row of lockers either side.

Frame number 11 - Two boys dancing. Neil and Sam will be playing these characters and will wear their school uniform. This will be filmed in a school corridor with a row of lockers either side.

Frame number 26 - Boy spinning in the air. Neil will play this character wearing his school uniform. This will be filmed in a school corridor with a row of lockers either side.

A2 Preliminary Task - Music Video Remake

We have been given a task to remake the Britney Spears music video, Hit me baby one more time. Each group has been given 30 seconds each to film and edit. I am in a group of 7 so we have enough people to star in the video and act as the dancers etc and to take turns to film. This consists of myself, Mollee Vasey, Amy Edmonds, Georgia Lansbury, Sam Lai and Neil Kumar as the dancers and Jasmine Bual as Britney Spears. We feel having a big group is an advantage as we can make the video look as realistic as the original as we can have the right number of dancers and we have two boys which are going to play the roles of the boys in our section of the video. The location we have chosen to film in is inside our school as the original video is filmed in a school by some lockers. We have chosen the lockers by the main hall as there is some empty lockers which we will need for our filming and the layout of the lockers looks most like the original set in the video. The props we will need are school uniforms, Jasmine will also need a grey cardigan as that is what Britney wears in the video, and we will need some bags to throw in one of the shots. There will be lip syncing in the video as in the original Britney is lip syncing the words. We need to make sure we get the framing right so in order for us to know how each shot should look we made a storyboard before. The storyboard also included shot types and camera angles so we didn't have to keep watching the video back.

What makes a good music video?

There are three types of music videos. These are Narrative based, Performance based and concept based. A narrative based video is where the video tells a story. A performance based music video is where the artist is shown performing in the video. A concept based music video is where the video has no link to the song and is just various ideas which perhaps match the lyrics.


Narative Based

A example of this is The Decemberists - Military Wives

This video tells a story and shows subtitles to help the audience to understand what is going on. The camera uses closeups to introduce new characters. The video involves instruments and lip syncing which make the characters look like they are playing the tune and actually signing the lyrics which makes it seem more realistic and interesting to watch. The costumes contribute a lot to the story of the video as they are very steriotypical which tells the audience who everyones roles are. The choreography is in time to the beat of the music which makes it look more effective. The lyrics in the song are linked to whats going on in the video which makes the storyline easier to understand and more effective to watch.

Another example of this is Lady Gaga and Beyonce - Telephone

This video is in the style of a mini movie. The start and finsh both feature credits. Subtitles in the video tell the audience what is going on aswell as the acting that goes with the lyrics for example when the prison officer tells Lady Gaga she has a phone call, the music starts playing as she sings the opening of the song to answer the phone using lip syncing. The props and the actors used in it make the story and setting more realistic for example the prison scene. Advertisments of a mobile phone are used which shows synergy. The camera zooms in the phone which makes the audience focus thier attention on it. The dancing goes to the beat of the music which looks effective. The talking between Beyonce and Lady Gaga make the story in the video more realistic and interesting to watch as we understand it more.

Performance Based

An example of this is The White Stripes - The Hardest Button to Button

In this video the artists are playing thier instruments and lip syncing the lyrics so are performing. There is very quick cuts with each beat which matches the tempo of the music. The editing is very jerky which suits the sound of the song and there is no transitions. The costumes which the artists are wearing stand out from the location and setting as it is a bright red against a mostly green background. The idea of the video is very retro which i think portrays the image of the artist as they want to be seen as different and retro.

Another example of this is Kings Of Leon - Sex on Fire
The video starts off as narative based, as the visuals are telling a story which match with the lyrics of the song. The artists lip sync and the camera zooms in on the lead singers face, mainly eyes and mouth, to show expression and that he is the main focus. As we hear the chorus the video turns to performance as the band use instruments and are lip syncing. This gives the impression they are really playing the instruments and singing the lyrics so it feels more realistic. If the band are standing still the camera pans around then so there is always movement.

Concept Based

An example of this is Bjork - Declare Independence.

The beat of the music matches the movements of the video. The beat is very robotic which is portrayed in the robotic style choreography. Also there is visual machinary which is moving to the beat. Bjork is singing in a robotic style, repeating the lyrics, which looks almost as if she is giving the people orders. The dancers are all in sync with eachother and Bjork is lip syncing the lyrics. The lyrics 'Declare independence, dont let them do that to you', is almost like she is telling the people marching.

Another example of a concept based video is OK GO - Here is goes again
The lyrics to this song are very repetitive which suits the idea of the video as this again is very repetitive. The choreography does not link tell a story with the lyrics but is just an idea. The dance moves are in sync with the beat and there is no lip syncing. When there are no lyrics, the dancers stand still until the lyrics start up again. The shot of the video is all mid shot as if a camera is on a tripod filming the dancers. They stay in the same area and never go off camera. They are wearing colourful costumes which makes them stand out against the plain background. This makes the audience focus on them. As the tempo of the music speeds up the dancing speeds up also.
hgsmediaa2.blogspot

Key Features of a music video

-Song/single
-Dancing
-Tells a story
-Artist
-Extras
-Mise en scene
-Product placement
-Instruments
-Lip syncing

What is a music video?

- Advertises music
- Promotes songs and the artist
- Its a visual sense of who the artist is
- Can explain what the song is about

Andrew Goodwin 1992, 'music video is not primarily a commodity form but a promotional one'.

Research Task

We will be researching how artists promote thier music using the media in preparatiom for making a music video.

Coursework Brief
To make a promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promotion video, together with two of the following three options:

1. a website homepage for the band
2. a cover for its realease as part of digipak (CD/DVD package)
3. a magazine advertisement for the digipak

What is a digipack?
The content in a digipack is the same as a usual CD cover, but with the dimentions and folds exactly correct. They can fold in a variety of ways. Others have pockets for booklets, or have two spines and fold in twice.