Question 1: In what was does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Throughout the production of my media products for Blighters, I have used, developed and challenged conventions of the genre using techniques from real media products. I have taken ideas and learnt from these music productions and put that into practice in my own production.

When producing the video for Blighters, I used fast cuts (1.55-1.58 of music video) and lots of close ups of the band (0.55, 1.04, 1.11, 2.04 of music video) to help the audience to identify with the band easily. This style of music video production is part of Goodwin’s theory music analysis theory, with explains why music video’s use numerous close ups of the band at the record labels request, to make the band recognisable to the audience. Furthermore, I used the skateboarding convention to develop the sub-genre of the band. I have used other bands music videos and ancillary texts to help me follow and develop conventions. Three videos were large influences when deciding on the style for the Blighters. I wanted to use the representation of the skate image as this was a market that appealed to the target audience. I found out through research that the target audience would be between the ages of 16 and 25, which is also the age group linked to skateboarding. The youthful and exciting extreme sport also links well with the style of the Blighters, which is also exuberant and fun.

I wanted to use skate footage as the title of the song ‘Boys in Motion’ connotes the sense of movement and freedom and it appeals to the target audience. This use of the song is one part of Goodwin’s music analysis theory, with states that there is a link between the lyrics and the visuals (in this case, the skateboarding). This theory is widely regarded as correct and can be linked to most music videos that are produced in the 21st century. Furthermore, the skateboarding aspects of the production can be used as identification or aspiration, with the audience identifying/wanting to have the freedom that the band and skateboarders have in the production. I found two music videos by Lostprophets (Shinobi Vs. Dragon Ninja) and Sum 41 (Fat Lip) that helped me in filming the skateboarding sectors of the video. These videos used low angle shots of the skaters and the shots were always to the beat, normally when the music was fast. I used these techniques when producing my video, helping to create pace and excitement to the video. For example, at 14 seconds on the music video, I used a low angle shot as a BMX rider goes over the ramp. This shot shows how I have used the skating conventions to appeal to the audience. Furthermore, I have cut to the beat, especially the skateboarding/BMX shots. I looked at music videos of a similar genre for inspiration about cutting to the beat, with the Lostprophets video Shinobi Vs. Dragon Ninja helpful again. The first 20 seconds of the video cuts to the beat of the snare drum, creating great speed and energy to the song. I wanted to create this vibe with my video and used cutting to the beat when the BMX rider cleared the fun box at 1.08 and the skateboarder flipping at 1.33. I cut them to the beat by making sure they landed on a drum beat. The quick cutting during the music video is a standard convention of the Indie-pop scene, as the fast paced music goes well with fast action shots in the video.

The last video that influenced my video for Blighters was by Oren Lavie. In her video for ‘Her Morning Elegance’, she uses a technique called stop motion. I liked this idea as the technique is visually pleasing and helped to make the video recognisable, something that I was keen to achieve at the start of the course. I decided to use this technique at the start of the video, when I introduce the name of the band. I liked the style of the band title so much that I used this for the CD digipack and Advert. I thought this would be a good idea as it would introduce coherence into the production.

Familiarity, or intertextuality, is a key part in the music industry as both music producers and audiences find it helpful. Music producers use familiarity as it offers a house brand and it is a safe way to creating success with a band. Audiences also like familiarity as makes the band easily identifiable and eye catching. Intertextuality is one section of Goodwin’s theory about music analysis and music videos, which I have incorparated in my production. I have used this in two ways in my production, firstly through the newspaper style title on the music video, CD digipack and advert and through close ups of the band during the live performance shots. These two styles of familiarity work well as the title of the band is seen on all products and the audience can easily recognise who the band is.

As well as using live performance in the music video, I wanted to make the video seem familiar and ordinary to make the band easily identifiable with the target audience. To create the effect, I styled the band in a way which would seem regular in any part of the country, going against most conventions of the skate genre. As you can see in the video, the skate park is in a rural location, which could be typically seen in any village or town across the country. Normally in a skate film, tricks and runs are performed in urban locations or at large skate parks as these generally give the best opportunity for skaters to show off their ability. Furthermore, the tricks performed are ones that a skateboarder of average ability could perform, making the video seem quite ordinary.

Owen, the lead singer, was styled differently to the other actors in the video as I wanted him to be a role model and stand out. To create this effect, I went for a look that was linked to the casuals and yuppies in the 1980’s (See Evaluation of Actors, Costumes and Locations). This style is very in fashion at the moment and this helps to make the video identifiable. The bassist and drummer dress sense are aimed towards the skater image due to the surrounding of the band and the skateboarding link to the genre. They like to wear jeans and polo shirts, as shown in the production, as they are in-fashion with the target audience of the band at the moment and will inspire the audience to be like those members of the band.

Another way in which I helped the target audience to make the video familiar was in the skateboarding tricks and location. Finally, I wanted to make the video feel fun and fresh, like the style of the band. To do this, I introduced a sense of humour through the location and the surroundings. The location used, in the middle of nowhere, breaks away from the norm of urban locations with huge skate parks and impressive tricks. The humble little skate park in the countryside shows that the band is not routine and are prepared to follow the stereotypical image. Furthermore, the last shot of the band, along with the long distance view of the sheep, shows the fun side to the band and laid back approach.

The laid back approach of the band that I have mentioned above shows the freedom that the band posses. I wanted to focus on this when developing the genre of the band, which is in the Indie-pop sector. The freedom that I have created through their dress sense, live performance/skating shots and humour help to develop the band and make their own identity and not just becoming another Indie-pop band of the 21st century.

During the production of the ancillary and film tasks, I wanted to use the conventions of the Indie-Pop genre, which Blighters taps into. Bands such as Mystery Jets and MGMT are similar to the band in terms of their image and style of music. This genre of music is popular at the moment, with MGMT 2008 album ‘Oracular Spectacular’ selling over 1 million copies worldwide and was nominated for best international album in the 2009 BRIT Awards. Moreover, the band’s image and style of music is aimed towards the 1980’s jerky pop that became popular through artists just as Joy Division and New Order, which I also wanted to divulge into. The genre convention of the Blighters has already been mentioned in terms of their dress style (Yuppies/Casuals) and the ‘shoes gazing’ convention. The style was a big hit in the late 80’s and early 90’s for British Indie-pop artists, where they stood on stage and stared at the floor while they played. The bands that pioneered the ‘shoegaze’ were not about visuals and more to do with the pure sound of the band. I use this convention in my music video, with the lead singer Owen Taylor starring aimlessly and motionless. However, Owen’s dress sense is different to that of the shoegazer’s, as he is much smarter than the scruffy indie-pop bands of the 1980’s. One band that is very similar to that of Owen is Duran Duran, who dresses very smartly, usually in suits or shirts and jackets. During their there heyday, they were seen as the pretty boys of the music industry, just like Owen can be classed as in my music production.

Blighters - Boys In Motion Music Video

Question 4: How Did You Use New Media Technology In The Construction Of Your Print Productions?

Unprocessed Images For CD Digipak/Advert

Below are the four unprocessed pictures that I used for my CD Digipak/advert.

CD front cover and Advert


Inside Left CD Digipak


Inside Right CD Digipak


Back CD Digipak

Question 3: What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback?

Question 2: How Effective is the Combination of your Main Products and Ancillary Texts?

I believe that my video production and ancillary texts work well together to create a house brand for Blighters, using the same techniques on all my ancillary texts and implementing a style throughout my productions, relying on the use of skateboarding and the ‘freedom’ of the target audience. This helps to identify the band in the genre and helps to remind the audience about the band for future references.

After finishing the video production, I decided on my house brand for the ancillary texts. This included the black and white images of skateboarding, the location of the music video shoot and the freedom of the band. These images, which I used as my CD Digipack design, all related the music video and helped to link it together. The front cover of the CD Digipack (which is also used for the advert) is taken at the skate park which I used for the music video production. The image shows the box which the band played on for the live performance shots of the video and is recognisable on the front cover to link the two pieces. This is one of the ways in which I have linked the band through my productions.

Another way that linked my music production and ancillary texts together was by using Jake Mardell for the CD/advert. Jake is part of my group for the music production and was the drummer in that. He is pictured in three of the four CD panes (Front, Inside right, Back). This was ideal for me as we are good friends and both spend a lot of time skateboarding together. This also helped when it came round to shooting the skating shots, as we both were involved in filming/performing the tricks and could bounce ideas off each other for this part of the music production.

I have used many editing techniques during the production of my ancillary texts. I wanted to keep the same basic design throughout to give the pieces a flow. I did this by using three main features of Adobe Photoshop. Firstly, I removed the colour (before and after) from the photos, as they were all taken in colour, to connote a moody setting and feeling to the pieces. I chose to do this as it also links well with the music video, as this was filmed in the fading light of day.

Secondly, I used the lightening effect (before and after) on all the panes to create the ‘halo’ style effect. I used this most on the front cover, covering all four corners and edges. This effect was also used on the three other panes to a lesser extend, covering opposite corners. I used this feature to as I felt the pieces lacked a visual punch when the effect was not used (see lightening effect before and after), which is vital when trying to sell copies of the album in shops. Lastly, I changed the saturation and brightness of each pieces to bring out the images more vividly when printed out.

One of the most obvious ways in which I linked the music video and ancillary texts together was through the use of the Blighters logo, which is used in all three production pieces. The logo, which was created using newspaper cuttings and altered in Adobe Photoshop, is a main feature of all three production pieces. In the music video, it is the first shot of the video as the letters individual enter the shot using stop motion. I think it is one of the most memorable parts to the video and because of this, I decided to use this for my ancillary texts. When using the logo for the CD Digipack and advert, I had to change the colours and saturations to make sure they were not ‘lost’ in the background. I think that this part of my coursework has worked really well as the logo stands out and show the laid back approach of the band.

Overall, I believe that all my production work links together well, using a variety of techniques to make sure the brand of the Blighters is recognisable and catches the eye of the target audience through the music video, CD Digipack and Advert.

Lostprophets - For He's A Jolly Good Felon

Band: Lostprophets
Song Title: For He's A Jolly Good Felon
Release Date: 12/03/2010

I have decided to use this as one of my case studies about the representation of youth in England. This music video uses the stereotypical council estate location, with the youths that live there being chased by the police. This video is easily identifiable with the target audience for the band (between the ages of 14-21)due to the rough urban landscape and behaviour of the males.

The video was filmed in Moss side (Manchester), and features car chases, council estates, plus a very special cameo from none other than Brick Top from the movie Snatch!

Collective Identity Case Studies

I am planning to look into a number of social realist films to show how collective identity can be shown and how the audience can identify with the characters involved. All the films that i will look have been released in the last five years to make sure that an accurate and up-to-date representation is given. The films i plan to review are as follows:
Fish Tank (Released: 2009, Country Of Origin: UK)
This Is England (Released: 2006, Country of Origin: UK)


When looking into these films, i will look into the aspects of the characters, their problems during the film, contemportary issues within the community, the characters attitudes and how the audience can indentify and aspire with the characters.

What Is Collective Indentity?

The collective identity of a person is created through thir sense of belonging to a group or class. This could be through their place of work, religion, family life, peers, social class, E/community (Internet social networking/school/clubs/groups) and aspirations.

A leader in the development of ones identity was Jacques Lacan, a French psychoanalyst. He proposed a theory called the Mirror Stage, which is when a child develop their identity. The Mirror Stage explains the creation of an Ego through the process of identification with ones own image. He showed how a baby can recognise itself in the mirror at around six months. This theory can be used in the media to describe how audiences recognise images on screen, helping to reinforce and define their personal identity and aspirations. When an audience see a character on screen that they like, this could be due to the fact that they can identify with the character or aspire to be like the character, or both.

The media can influence the indentity of a person through many formats and platforms. TV, Film, Radio, Magazines and the internet can affect how we create our own identity, as people can idolise or aspire to be like a famous celebrity. Furthermore, as a result of peer pressure and false advertising, ones identity can be affected in a negative way.

Evaluation of Actors, Costumes and Locations

When producing the video for the Blighters, I wanted to create a video that appealed to the audience and that they could easily identify with. To make sure I did this, I wanted to create an original and familiar Mise-en-scene to encourage the identification of the male audience.

The man who played the lead singer and guitarist in the music video was Owen Taylor, who loves his music and has been scouted to be a model in the past. The cool image, along with the good looks, makes the audience aspire to be like Owen in the way he dresses and his style. This aspirational idea that Owen conveys is linked with the 1980’s style of the casuals and the yuppies. With 1980’s fashion coming back around again in 2010, the image of casuals is quite common today. The style (jeans and jackets) was created by the working class supporters of Liverpool football club, who travelled Europe with their club. They travelled to style capitals of Europe such as Milan, where they aspired to wear the expensive and fashionable makes on sale. The casuals look is an unconventional style for the skater image, with the casuals being described as pretty boys. The look of the yuppies also has close links to Owen’s style, which involves the blazers, jeans and shoes which he wears in the music video. The yuppies were young and a wealthy business man in the 1980’s who dressed similarly to that of Owen. Furthermore, they would listen to music of the same genre of the Blighters. The indie pop genre, with bands like The Police, was at the forefront of the yuppies culture. Sting, the lead singer of The Police, was a famous role model for the yuppies to aspire to. I have used this example and used this in my music production, with the lead singer taking the aspirational figure.

The bassist and drummer for the filming was taken up by me and Jake Mardell (another member of the group), as it was much easier to have us playing in the band than finding more people due to us always being around when filming. The dress sense and costumes of the bassist and drummer are slightly different to that of Owen, the lead singer. As I wanted the lead to stand out, I dressed the other members of the band in a more casual style. Both me and Jake wear polo shirts, jeans and skate shoes in the shoot. This style connotes more towards the skater image and can be related to the target audience, who mostly wear jeans and polo shirts as they are in-fashion with the target audience of our band at the moment.

The last members of the video are the skateboarders, who fill in between the live performance shots. I decided to use the ordinary look of baggy jeans and hoody to help make the production look authentic. This part of the production is easily identifiable and the dress sense is something that the target audience can relate to. The use of the ordinary look of the skaters makes the video very much an identificational production instead of an aspirational one. The skaters in the production could be seen in any part of the country as the look is popular and quite ordinary. Furthermore, the look of the skaters connotes their way of life. Their clothing isn't very flashy or high maintenance, which is reflected in their life style and this is represented in the target audience. Another way in which the skateboarders are quite ordinary and easily identified with is the tricks that are in the music video. None of the tricks performed take your breath away but are solid. These tricks could be performed by many experienced skateboarders and this makes the video more realistic to ordinary people.

When producing the music video, I wanted to create a male homosocial film. I thought this would be a better way of targeting the audience (mostly male) and helping them to identify with the band/skateboarders easily. Some people will see that as a criticism as I am only focusing on the male audience, but I believe this is best way to create a successful video. If I was to use females in the video, then would most likely be used as objects and show in a poor light. By keeping to the original line up of the band (3 males) and only having male skaters, it makes the video seem more realistic as males are in the band and most likely to use the park for skating. A theory to back this idea up was created by Jacques Lacan, who agree that my music production acts as a mirror for the audience, serving as a mode of identification by which they form their own sense of identity, negotiating who they are with the aspirational figures represented.

The location for the shoot, Hethersett skate park in Norfolk, provides continuity in the fact that the location is an ordinary skate park which could be seen anywhere in the country. However, the location is used for its comedy value as well. As you can see in the video, the skate park seems to be in rural location in the middle of the countryside. Unlike the stereotypical skate scene in an urban city location (see Lostprophets ‘Shinobi Vs Dragon Ninja’ or Sum 41 ‘Fat Lip’) the rural location of a village makes the video identifiable with the ordinary skater in a smaller village or town where this kind of skate park in the shoot is the norm.

After looking at the Lostprophets and Sum 41 videos, I wanted to use skate footage as the title of the song ‘Boys in Motion’ connotes the sense of movement and freedom and it appeals to the target audience, which hopefully will make it a success. Another reason for the use of skateboarding in the music video is also to keep the interest of the audience. If it had just live performance, then the audience would lose interest before the video has finished. When I introduce skateboarding tricks and shots into the video, it should help to keep the audience engaged with the production. Furthermore, the use of skateboarding can be used during the narrative to connote certain lines of the song. Lines such as "Better get used to being lonely", we would shoot the lead skater on his own at the empty skate park. Furthermore, the 'soldier' in this song will be the skateboarder. Another reason for the use of the skateboarding is to show that males are active and this video reinforces that idea. In the media, males in my target audience (16-25) can be seen as lazy and not have enough drive for life. However, this is not true for the majority of the target audience. My video proves that youths can be active and not cause trouble like so many publications make out.

Find Your Tribe

Target Research

In the target audience, most of the demographic will be in full time education, further education at either 6th form/college or at university or working. I found this when researching into target audience in other tasks. My music video is both going to be filmed and produced in the United Kingdom, meaning it would be ideally appeal to a UK audience.

I plan to aim the music video at a predominantly male audience, between the ages of 16-25. In the video, I have used the genre conventions of skateboarding, the ‘cool’ male image, along with live performance to appeal to the genre. The target audiences aspirations and interests vary due to their age and gender. They like a diverse range of media because of the wide range of references that I have collected while researching target audiences. These include social networking sites such at Facebook to keep in contact with friends, magazines such as NME and Q to keep up-to-date with the latest news on the music industry and using television programmes (MTV, The Hits and TMF) to keep up to date with the latest music news. Similar artists that would appeal the same audience as the Blighters would be Hockey, Good Shoes and The Maccabees. These bands are similar to Blighters in their style of music, dress sense and how they appeal to the audience.

I have found out that our band, The Blighters, have a target audience around 16-25. This is because they are in the Indie genre, which is big at the moment with this demographic. Indie/rock was two of the most popular when I asked what genres of music the focus group preferred. From my research, I have found out that the 16-25 demographic like to use the internet and radio predominantly to find out about new music and band. I asked my focus group how they found about new bands and if they used band and music websites. My responses suggested that official band websites or their MySpace site were popular with my target audience.

Thanks to this information, we would promote our band through the internet on sites such as YouTube and MySpace. Furthermore, we would want to get the material out to radio stations to further increase our fane base. This would start with local and small radio stations around Norfolk, helping to improve the local audience of the band. If this goes well, then we would look to get the bands material on a national scale. My audience research results suggest that this would be the most successful way to promote The Blighters successfully.

I am going to use this information in the production of my music video for the Blighters, with their song ‘Boys in Motion’. Thanks to this information that I have gathered, I can create a video that can relate to the correct demographic, 16-25. Furthermore, the research I have collected can be used when promoting the band through the advert I produce. I have found out how the target audience consume media and how they found about new music.

I believe I could have made this method better by asking more people to complete this questionnaire. This would have giving me a large depth of answers and responses. Another way that I could have collected more detailed results would have been to ask more searching questions. Finally, next time I would evaluate the difference between male and female responses to see if the Blighters appealed to them similarly.

Media Audience Research Questionnaire

Media Audience Research Questionnaire

I have selected a small group of participants to complete my questionnaire on how people consume and find out about new bands. In my focus group, there are 6 male and 4 female. All questionnaires were filled out through the social networking site Facebook. The returned questionnaires were filled out by friends of mine who have an account on Facebook. These results were collected in October 2009. The purpose of these results were to find out how my target audience like to listen to music and how they purchase music products, whether that may through the internet or thanks to high street shops. Furthermore, I wanted to find out how the focus group found out about new music and bands. This research will also help me when producing my media music video for year 13. Furthermore, the information collected from the questionnaires will help when promoting the band in magazines, over the internet and on television.

Firstly, I wanted to find out about their age group and occupation. The majority of the focus group was in the age bracket 16-20, with 2 of my audience in the age group of 21-25. 8 of my audience were in some kind of educational (6th form, college or university), while I had two replies for employment.



Above is the first questionnaire about their musical tastes. This graph shows their replies to which genres of music they enjoyed to listen to. They could have picked up to 4 different genres for this question. From this graph, I can see that Rock is a popular genre within my focus group. Furthermore, indie (the genre that my unsigned band for my music video) is quite popular, with 4 votes from the replies. This graph shows that the rock/indie culture and drum ‘n’ bass genres are big hits with the 16-25 age group. This was expected as these genres and sub-genres target an audience similar to that of my questionnaire.. This is shown when they play gigs and how buys they music tracks. Below is an example of this.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/gallery/2007/aug/26/1?picture=330634571

This picture was taken at Reading festival in 2007, when British Indie band Bloc Party played. The picture shows that most of the crowd are below 30, as the target audience suggests, and have a variety of males and females watching. This evidence shows that the results I have collected are a true representation of the target audience for the most popular genres in my focus group.



Here is the next question that I asked for my participants. The pie chart reveals how the focus group purchased their music tracks and albums, with internet downloads coming out top with over half of the votes. These results would have been very different compared to 5 years ago. The explosion of the internet has created a whole new sector for the music industry to sell and distribute music, where you can purchase individual songs and albums to your computer or laptop from sites such as iTunes, Amazon and HMV. Unlike the former, Amazon and HMV sell CD’s as well, having moved into the download business as consumer demand grew. Furthermore, internet sales of music is expected to overtake the ‘old fashioned’ method of by a CD by 2012 according to study by Forrester Research (Feb 2008). The survey was undertaken in the USA and Canada and involved 5000 participants. Forrester’s information has suggested that the annual growth rate of digital downloads will be at around 23% per year. I think that the dominance of internet downloads is slightly surprising as CD sales are still higher than internet sales. One reason for this is because the technology of purchase downloads is still relatively new, with some people older people sticking with their ‘old fashioned’ methods of listening to music (CD, Tape, Vinyl). I myself still buy CD’s as I prefer to be able to hold the product that I have bought compared to the music track on your computer.



This next Pie chart is in response to the question about how often the participants in my questionnaire watch music television channels such as TMF and The Hits. These music channels show music videos to showcase and promote an artists new song. Music Channels can be a used effectively to help promote the artists song to the correct target audience. This could happen by promoting it on a certain genre of music channel. Due to satellite television, there are now 20 or 30 music channels on offer, all with different genres of music. Examples of this include Kerrang (Rock/Metal), MTV Dance (R&B, Drum ‘n’ bass etc) and VH1 Classic (Older music, 80’s and 90’s music videos).

Television music channels are popular with the participants in my focus group. 9 of the 10 people who replied claimed they watched these channels, with 4 people saying they watched on a daily basis, while 3 people watched it 3 times a week and 2 watched it once a week. From these results, the females watched the music channels less, with 2 replies for 3 times a week and 2 for once a week. This shows that girls from the target audience tend to watch music channels less than males.



Radio is another great example of promoting your music to a wide audience. As you can see, radio is very popular from my results. The Pie chart shows that 9 out of the 10 people listen to the radio at least once a week, with 6 of those listening to it everyday. This shows that radio is a great way to promote new material if your target audience is similar to the people who have answered in this questionnaire. I was not surprised by the results from this questionnaire, as radio shows are highly popular with people in this demographic. However, I am an outlier in the results as I tend not to listen to the radio regularly, preferring to choose what music I listen to from my collection. Another factor is that I do not own a radio in my bedroom, which is where I normally listen to my music.


The next two questions I asked were over the use of the internet and if they use it to its full potential. Firstly, I asked them if they used the internet to find out about a music band through a social networking site, sites including MySpace, Facebook etc. I received 6 replies saying that they had used a social networking site for that purpose, while the other 4 had not done the same. This questionnaire shows the versatility of the internet and social networking sites. Furthermore, social networking sites, especially MySpace, make it so much easier to promote new music and more importantly unsigned artists and bands world wide.

The next question I asked them about was if they used music file sharing websites to consume music. They could be achieved in several ways through video hosting website YouTube or music specific hosting websites Spotify and Last F.M. YoutTube works by users uploading videos to the sites and are free to be watched by anyone. These videos may include new video or new songs without a video to showcase new talent. Spotify and Last F.M work a little differently as they are music specific. They offer thousands of tracks which you can listen to over the internet. You never own these songs, but they are free to listen to, making music easy to access and free if you have an internet connection. My results showed that 7 of the participants used a file sharing website to listen to music, while the other 3 did not. Music sharing is new phenomenon which has only recently taken off. However, my results show the popularity of this form of music consumption already.



Above is the next question I put forward to my audience. This question asked which music devices they owned. As you can see, everyone in my focus group a computer or laptop, with 9 of the people involved owning a mobile phone and a MP3 player/Ipod. The two most likely devices to play music I expected were the MP3 player/iPod and the computer. This graph would have looked completely different due to the then dominance of the CD player and technology such as Vinyl and the tape player still popular. However, the tape player is now redundant technology thanks to the emergence of the MP3 player at the start of the 21st century. As expected, MP3 players are highly popular as you can keep them in your pocket and listen to thousands of tracks were ever you are. Furthermore, the younger demographic are more likely to use MP3 players and iPods as they have been brought up with the technology. The older generation may still use the technology that they used when they were growing up, preferring a CD walkman or Vinyl record player against music downloads when listening to music.



Another question that I asked was if the focus went to gigs, and if so, how many times a year. From the responses I received, 7 said that they did go to gigs, while the other 3 did not. Of the 7 people who went to gigs, I asked them how many times they went and the graph above shows the answers to this. As you can see, I had a varied number of different answers. 2 participants only went to 1 or 2 gigs a year. Furthermore, I had one person who went to 3 or 4 a year, while 2 people chose the 5 to 6 option and I had one reply for 9-10 and 11+. This wide variety of answers shows that gigs are popular with the focus group. Gigs on numerous occasions shows the target audience of that group and this is shown with the picture on page 2 of my evaluation. The people who have answered for the higher options of this question show that they have a wider musical taste and like to attend gigs as it pure form of the bands material.



Here is the last question in my questionnaire. I asked my audience how they found out about new music and material. As the Pie chart shows, radio and the internet are the most popular ways of finding out this information. The radio is an excellent place to find out about new music and the DJ has full control over what is being played and therefore, offers listeners the chance to listen to bands and artists that may not have listened to before. After hearing a band or artist on the radio, you may then want to find out more about the band on their MySpace page or on their own webpage. Other ways that my focus group found out about new music included word of mouth, music magazines such as Q and NME and gigs which bands have played at. These results are not surprising as I expected the internet and radio to be the largest factors for when audiences are accessing popular music.

Blighters Print Production Video

CD Advert: Final Idea

Here is my final idea for advertising Blighters. I have made this creation using Adobe Photoshop and the size of the piece is A4.

When creating the CD panes, they were my only design concepts. This was also the case for the Advert. The only differences I have made along the way is the size of fonts and the placement of these. To begin with, I had the tour details and special offers at the top, with the reviews and ratings at the bottom. I reversed these details as I wanted the reviews and ratings to be the first thing they saw, with people reading from top to bottom. This hopefully will entice the audience to take a second look at the band.

I wanted to keep the same front cover design for the advert to make the target audience remember the band when in shops or on the Internet. As well as the front cover, i have used the same type of font to keep the 'house design' the same throughout the products i have created.

I used the same techniques as on the CD digipack for the advert, only enlarging the design to fit the A4 size. Like all adverts in magazines or on billboards, the design includes quotes and ratings from music magazines. This should hopefully prove that the Blighters are a good band and the target audience may want to buy the CD. I have used the music magazines NME and Q as i think that the target audience are most likely to read these magazines.

Another way I have tried to entice the audience is by offering the album at a reduced price at selected stores. These shops, HMV and iTunes, are the two biggest retailers for music and is the ideal place to showcase and sell music. The logo's which I have used help to catch the eye of the audience and hopefully they will by the product.

When looking through music magazines at adverts for new albums, i found that some also advertise their UK tours. This would is now the main way for bands to create a profit when producing music, thus making an important part when advertising the band. I have included a web address at the top of the advert promoting the bands UK tour.

CD Digipack Final Design

Here are my four panes that I have produced for the CD Digipack using Adobe Photoshop. In ascending order are the front cover, inside left, inside right and back cover.









When creating this piece of the coursework, I changed little from my initial ideas as these are them! One of the tweaks that I have made along the way has been the font for the front and back cover. I found this font on the website www.dafont.com and the typeface is called Birth of a Hero. I chose this font as it stood out on the website and i thought it would appeal to the genre. Furthermore, the font is open and quite fresh, but the distressed looks give it a grunge/rock look which targets the audience.

The other change i made along the way was the brightness and contrast of the pictures after i printed them out onto paper. To create the effect for the front cover, I used a rendering future on Photoshop called lighting effects. This has also been used on the inside right and back pictures to a lesser extent. The effect creates the halo style picture with the black background. I have used this on the other two pieces but have stretched the circle so it only covers the respective corners. With all the photos, I removed the colour as they all were colour photos taken on my 2.0 megapixel camera phone. I have then played around with the brightness and contrast to make the black and white colour more vivid.

The four CD designs have either iconic, indexical and symbolic connotations or denotations. The creations are iconic as they are photos, thus looking like the thing it refers to. Furthermore, the pictures have indexical connotations which connote a certain value. The front and back cover connote the boys in motion, with Jake Mardell flying through the air with his skateboard, i.e. in motion. The symbolic element of these images show the freedom and individualism that the target audience have at this age. The inside left picture in particular represents this.

I used the image of the skate park as it is a great iconic image for the band. The location was used for the video shoot and this helps to link the CD and video together nicely. Moreover, I think the picture is very strong and striking as it shows the unconventional side to the band due to the rural location and the emptiness of the skate park.

Hockey: Mind Chaos

I am reviewing the 2009 album produced by US pop band Hockey. Their album, named ‘Mind Chaos’ and can be linked with Blighters, the band that I am promoting for this course. The setup of the band and genre of the Portland, Oregon band is similar to that of Blighters, with a pop/indie genre of music, popular at the moment in the charts.

The cover of the album, matches the title of the album ‘Mind Chaos’ very well. The front cover is split up into for sections and each box has absolute chaos inside. Each of the boxes is made up of modern art drawings, using cut out pieces of paper to create the name. The four different pieces of art do not mean or reveal anything, equalling chaos, like the title.

I think this kind of artwork would appeal to the target audience of Hockey as it different from the norm and makes it stand out when in a shop against other CD’s. It is certainly a colourful and vibrant front cover. The target audience, females and males between the ages of 16-25 could relate to the artwork as it very youthful in is appearance. The back cover of the album uses this same kind of quirky artwork in its font and background design. Everything used in the artwork looks very unprofessional, with the corners of the CD being coloured in roughly and Blu tack used to stick the lettering for the title down. The lettering used for the CD song list is very irregular, with some smaller and some larger letters used.

I think this design for the CD connotes the fun that the band had producing this record. When this was produced, the band was still an unsigned band only know to a few hundred people. This is important as they could create whatever they wanted and make it as amateurish as they wanted. The fun that the design connotes also is shown through their music, which is very much up beat and something you could dance to.

Bloc Party: Intimacy

Above is third album produced by English band Bloc Party called ‘Intimacy’. The genre of this band is similar to that of Blighters, aimed at an age group of 16-25, with a predominately male target audience. The album, which was released in 2008, received good reviews in the media, with a 4 star rating on iTunes and .

The cover for this album displays the title of the album, ‘Intimacy’, perfectly in my opinion. The front artwork shows two mouths just about to kiss, showing the intimacy and affection between them. Not only does the artwork fit in with the title, the bands lyrics convey the intimacy of lead singer Kele Okereke’s, who wrote many of the tracks. The albums that they have produced are in stark contrast to their presence, which is shy and very withheld when being interviewed on camera. Many of the songs in the album are like diary notes, full of emotion, self loathing and very personal. Bloc Party push the boundaries of their genre and this album is the most adventurous yet. It combines both the genre of rock and electronic into a blend of music that is moody and dark yet can easily be used in a dance club.

The colours used on artwork of Intimacy convey the dark side to the bands image, as the saturation on faces is very pale, with the dark nothingness between them. However, the lips are so rich in colour and help to bring the two people together, as a couple. The back cover also shows how dark and depressing this album can be at times, with a just a black background with the album details on top.

The style of design used for the album is a plastic Super Jewel Box, which is now being used as a replacement for the original clear plastic case. The album artwork works well in the case, with a good feel and look to the album making it pleasing on the eye. Furthermore, this is the easiest way to produce and distribute CD albums, which would come into account when producing an album selling in the millions.

I think issues that ‘Intimacy’ deals with about emotions work well with the target audience, as they can relate to the bands lryics in real life experiences. The dark and moody side to this album is often how teenagers, especially males, are conveyed in the public eye. Furthermore, the self-loathing in which the lyrics include can often be linked to the target audience, with a lot of changes happening in life between the ages of 16-25.