Tuesday, 27 September 2011

Original Song Ideas

These were few of our original ideas that we were considering using to create our music video.


Rihanna - Hate That I Love You feat. Ne-yo
We were contemplating this song because we liked the fact that it was a duet, so our main artist wouldn't have as many lines to memorise. Also, I like the idea of both the actors singing to each other and including the use of split screening. However, the original video was quite good and we were concerned that ours would become too similar.
 
Drake - I Get Lonely Too
This song is very popular with the male population of our target audience which is what made us consider the song as it gained interest from our audience as well as possible actors. However, due the song being slow paced we decided it would need a narrative to interest out audience. When thinking about the narrative, we found it was hard to come up with an interesting or memorable one.


Chris Brown feat Ester Dean - I Love You
This song we found was catchy and would enable faster editing than the previous two. It doesn't have an original video, which would have helped when creating ours because it wouldn't have resembled the original or been a lot worse than it. Although, we found the beat of the song to differ from usual R&B songs and the chorus was too repetitive.

R&B Music Video Conventions

This is the power point presentation which Billy created, after he researched the conventions of R&B music videos 


 

Chris Brown - Should've Kissed You Lyrics

Why am I mad, I don't get it,
It seems like every time you give me signs,
And I miss it!
I did it again,
I admit it,
I left you standing there,
And now I regret it,



Seems like every time,
I get the chance,
I lose my cool, and I blow it,
And I get all tongue tied,
Lost in your eyes,
I'm a fool, and I know it!



I should've kissed you,
I should've told you,
Told you just how I feel,

And next time I won't stop,
I'll listen to my heart,
Cause what I feel is real!
I should've kissed you,
I should've told you how I feel,
I should've kissed you,
I should've showed you just how I feel,


Now why didn’t I,
Give you my two cents,
A million reasons why I should have,
And it makes no sense,
So here I am,
By myself again,
Stopping for green lights, and Now I know,
I wanna be more than friends,



How come every time I get the chance
I lose my cool and I blow it,
And I get all tongue tied,
Lost in your eyes,
I'm a fool and I know it!
Hey,
I should've kissed you,
I should've told you,
Told you just how I feel,
And next time I won't stop,
I'll listen to my heart,
Cause what I feel is real!
I should've kissed you,
I should've told you how I feel,
I should've kissed you,
I should've showed you just how I feel!


So I turned the car around,
And you were right where I left you,
And your smile said you were feeling me too,
And the moon shined bright,
Cause when your lips met mine,
I finally got it right,
I'll be leaving with you tonight,
And I won't have to say,



I should've kissed you,
I should've told you,
Told you just how I feel,
And next time I won't stop,
I'll listen to my heart,
Cause what I feel is real!
I should've kissed you,
I should've showed you how I feel,
I should've kissed you,
I should've showed you how I feel!



Girl I should've kissed you,
I should've told you told you just how I feel,
And this time I won't stop,
Until I have your heart,
Because what I'm feeling is real.

Final Song Idea

This is the song we've chosen to use to create a music video for, as our ideas are completely different from the original video.

Monday, 19 September 2011

Star Image Analysis - Rihanna

 To understand about the creation and development of an artists star image, I have looked at and analysed the star image of Rihanna, to gain a greater understanding when creating my own artists star image. Rihanna - born Robyn Rihanna Fenty , February 20 1988, in Saint Michael Barbados – began her career in 2005 at the age of 17 with her debut studio album ‘Music of the Sun’, it was the hit single from this album, ‘Pon De Replay’, which gained her fans. Her genres in music include R&B, pop, dancehall, reggae, hip hop and dance. As well being a singer, she is also a songwriter, record producer and actress. Rihanna has had seven successful albums through her 7 year career so far; Music of the Sun, A Girl Like Me, Good Girl Gone Bad, Good Girl Gone Bad: RELOADED, Rated R, LOUD and Talk That Talk.


 In her debut album ‘Music of the Sun’, even though Rihanna was only seventeen, her early image portrayed her as a Diva which gained her a lot of younger female fans and some her own age. The video to her hit single, ‘Pon De Replay’, was both narrative and performances based; set at a party where Rihanna was portrayed as the heroine who saved the night by livening up the dance floor and getting the DJ to ‘turn the music up’.  This is representative of her youth, and the narrative idea associates with regular teenage life. The video to the song ‘If It’s Lovin That You Want’ - situated on a beach, possibly a reference to her Caribbean roots – again includes dancing, further creating her ‘Diva’ image. Here she is dressed in little clothing which associated with females in R&B music videos, as well as the idea of male interest. Despite this, her initial image created conveyed her as sweet and innocent, probably due to her young age.  New York magazine described her early look as: ‘a cookie-cutter teen’.
 Her second album, ‘A Girl Like Me’, contained music quite similar to her first album. The music video for the song ‘Unfaithful’ - a big hit from this album – has more of a narrative aspect than before, where Rihanna is in a relationship but has fallen for someone else, which links to the lyrics of the song. However, she is also shown performing in parts, and some of these scenes are included in the narrative, for example: she wears the same outfit or is in the same location. Rihanna’s image is quite simple and natural in her first two albums, sometimes wearing casual clothes. Her hair and make-up was usually made to appear natural, developing her innocent image.
 In 2007 she released her third album ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’. Suggestive in the title, this album sees a huge change in Rihanna both music and image wise. It features more dance-pop music, with more up-tempo tracks than her previous two albums, enabling the editing and camera movement of her music videos to be at a much faster pace. Her style became more ‘fashion forward’, as she changed her hair to black in a short bob – was a ‘craze’ at the time – and overall she appeared to have more of an edge. The album includes hits such as; ‘Umbrella’ featuring Jay-Z, ‘Don’t Stop The Music’ ‘Shut Up And Drive’ and ‘Hate That I Love You’ featuring Ne-yo. In these songs, it is becoming a pattern that Rihanna is never portrayed as the victim in her videos or lyrics; she is shown to be strong and independent, as well as slightly rebellious, turning her into a positive role model for females. This concept became a huge selling point, as her image increased not only the amount of fans, but also the target audience, as more than just teenagers liked her. A year later this album was re-issued: ‘Good Girl Gone Bad: RELOADED’, which included ‘Take a Bow’, ‘Disturbia’ and ‘If I Never See Your Face Again’ featuring Maroon 5. This album was said to have ‘class, depth and be seriously hard-grinding.’ She underwent a major transformation from just a pretty girl with potential to a star. However, the ‘summery reggae’ of the first two albums was ‘sorely missed’.
 The album ‘Rated R’ was released in 2009. It was mainly a Pop and R&R orientated album, although it included aspects of ‘Hip-Hop’ and ‘Rock’. This album included hits such as: ‘Russian Roulette’, ‘Hard’ and ‘Rude Boy’. Rolling Stones even liked this album and commented on it, saying ‘Rihanna has transformed her sound and made one of the best pop records of the year.’ Both the music and lyrics of this album had a much more dark and angry tone, which had only been associated with her music once before in the song ‘Disturbia’, suggesting that it was a glimpse into the future at what was to become of Rihanna and her music. Not only did her sound transform, her image did too. Her clothing and make-up became darker as well, generally black and sometimes involving leather and heavy eye make-up, obtaining her an even sexier image than before. Increasing this image, her clothing became more extravagant and revealing, which then showed off some of her ‘symbolic’ tattoos.  Also, the darkness adds an air of mystery to her image, suggesting there is more about her than meets the eye. Additionally, she now appears more powerful, developing her image as a woman in control. Again she has undergone another change to her hair style; half blonde and half black, the top left long but the sides and part of the back  shaven, this as well as the excessive styling adds to her new ‘rock’ image. It was said by New York Magazine that ‘she has the ability to shift looks so dramatically and with such ease’.
 ‘LOUD’ the album released in 2010, that Rihanna said was ‘her’; loud, flirty and energetic saw yet another change in both her music and her look. It featured hits such as ‘Only Girl (In The World)’, ‘What’s My Name’, ‘S&M’, ‘California King Bed’ and ‘Man Down’. This album returned to dance hall influenced sounds, it contained more Dance-pop and Up-Tempo songs, however Rihanna said she was ‘not going back, but developing her sounds’. She obtained a more stylish and risqué fashion sense, continued with the minimalistic clothing – which happened to outrage public when she appeared on the family show ‘The X Factor’ – and yet again, made drastic changes to her hair; which was dyed red and often styled in loose curls. She still had an edge, the same as in ‘Rated R’, except her image changed to the total opposite, as now she appeared softer. This album was created after her involvement and the incident with Chris Brown, even though still viewed as a strong, independent woman, this album reflects her more innocently. Whilst the last album cover only had the title and the letter ‘R’ on it, this one only featured the title, showing how notorious and strong an artist she is that she doesn’t need it. She is now associated with much brighter colours, usually red but sometimes pink, showing a different side to her as an artist.
 Her sixth studio album was released in 2011, ‘Talk That Talk’. Rihanna did consider re-issuing the album LOUD, writing that ‘[t]he [Loud era] continues with more new music..’ but decided that her fans needed something ‘brand new’. This album features hits such as ‘We Found Love’ featuring Calvin Harris, ‘You Da One’ and ‘Take Care’ featuring Drake. The narrative in the video to ‘We Found Love’, is associated with her relationship with Chris Brown where she is portrayed as the victim until the end of the video. It features an actor similar to Chris Brown, like Justin Timberlake’s video ‘Cry Me A River’ which featured an actress similar in appearance to Britney Spears. She has returned to using the letter ‘R’ on the cover and this time the title is cleverly shown as a tattoo on her arm, suggestive that this album is more a part of her. This album includes much more musical genres than before, combining a variety of Hip-hop, R&B, Electro House, Electro, Dancehall and Dubstep.

Sunday, 18 September 2011

Textual Analysis of Chris Brown feat. Justin Bieber - Next To You

  Whilst trying to further my knowledge of the conventions of music videos - typically R&B videos as that is my chosen genre - such as intertextual references and the reltionship between lyrics and visuals,I am analysing the music video ‘Next To You’, sung by Chris Brown and Justin Bieber, and directed by Colin Tilley. The genre of this music video is R&B combined with Pop. Some examples of the broad R&B characteristics the video has would be the dancing and the artists heroic portrayal


In the first verse, which Chris Brown sings, his movements imitate the lyrics and therefore the lyrics are being illustrated by the visuals Whereas, when Justin Bieber sings it shows clips of the girl in his lyrics, so even though it’s a different technique, the visuals are still connected with the lyrics. The main story in the video, is that the world is ending, which the chorus to the song is about;
“One day when the sky is falling, I’ll be standing right next to you, right next to you.Nothing will ever come between us, cause I’ll be standing right next to you, right next to you.”
Therefore, the lyrics to the chorus are being amplified by the visuals and also explain the narrative, which both Chris and Justin are trying to find their girls before the world ends.
 In the scene changes, or even just the change of camera shot/angle, the cutting almost always matches the music. For example; there is a drum beat in the background of the song, and at the start of the video the cutting only ever occurs on a drum beat. Also, the pace of the editing generally matches the pace of the song, such as the start of the chorus is quite up beat so the editing is rather fast. However, referring back to the editing in the beginning, even though the music was quite slow, the scene changes seemed quite sudden, although this could be an effect used to amplify the narrative instead of the relation between the music and visuals. Another important aspect displaying the music using the visuals, is towards the end of the video when the volume decreases, ambience noise is added and then the music is rewound when Chris Brown decides to and then jumps over the split in the earth.
 Both Justin and Chris are well known singers, so their videos don’t need to promote them fame-wise. This is usually why a lot of close ups are used in music videos, either to promote the artist or promote a new look. Therefore, I think the director found using close-ups wasn’t necessary, whereas portraying both artists as ‘heroes’ or ‘romantics’ would help their image more. This is because of Chris Brown’s recent unpopularity due to the situation with Rihanna, it would be beneficial to have him conveyed as a loving, heroic character. While it might benefit Justin Bieber, because being displayed as a romantic, courageous boyfriend, would make him appear mature and counteract people’s view of him as a ‘child’. Chris Brown is featured dancing, in various sections of the video, which is a characteristic of his image as an artist, so even though this video is been used to show a change, his dancing image has remained. Justin on the other hand, usually looks deep into the camera in his music videos when singing about a girl and this motif has been featured a few times in this video too. Even though this narrative is completely different, to that of any music videos either artist has had, it still includes Chris chasing after a girl, similar to his video to ‘Yo.. (excuse me miss)’ and a girl looking for Justin, like in his video ‘One Less Lonely Girl’.
 This video could have intertextual references to a number of films based on the end of the world, such as 2012. Also, both the song and video could be relating to the conspiracies of the world ending in 2012. However, there are no direct or obvious references. The video also includes little voyeurism, as there are no screens within screens and no characters featured have been sexually displayed.
 The video is mainly narrative based, told in chronological order although includes a few flashbacks. It has a section as the beginning, before the song begins, showing scenes between the two couples, including Justin’s girlfriend been taken away by her father. According to ‘Todorov’s Theory’, this would be the equilibrium, flashbacks of this are used later on in the video. During this section before the song, the ‘Disequilibrium’ occurs, when explosions and earthquakes etc. start to happen. Once the music starts the narrative begins, I think this video skips the ‘recognition stage’ as it would have come immediately with the disequilibrium. The next stage would be ‘Reparation’, where Chris Brown is looking for his girlfriend and Justin Bieber stays on the rooftop where his girlfriend left him. The ‘New Equilibrium’ would be when Chris Brown is reunited with his girlfriend and Justin’s makes her wake back to him on the roof top. When applying ‘Propp’s Theory’ Justin and Chris would be the heroes, as the artist is usually conveyed as the hero. The main girls in the video would be the princesses, and Justin’s girlfriend’s Dad would be the villain in his case. ‘Levi-Strauss’ Theory’ cannot really be applied to this video, as there are no right and wrong, however Justin could be seen as the ‘right’ side whilst his girlfriend’s Dad could be the ‘wrong’ side. Although, because of the section before the music and the flashbacks, were are able to see examples of ‘past and present’, as well as ‘normal and past’, with the beginning and flashbacks being the past and normal, whilst the rest of the video is the ‘strange and present’. Despite the main idea of the video being narrative based, there as short sections which are performance-based.  Where Justin and Chris are either singing or dancing, sometimes alone or together in the streets. Also, towards the end, half way through what would be the ‘New Equilibrium’, other people dance with them on the street, making it more performance than narrative.

Narrative Analysis of Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River

 So I can gain knowledge about narratives in music videos, typically R&B related videos, I will be analysing the music video of ‘Cry Me A River’, sung by Justin Timberlake and directed by Francis Lawrence, in terms of narrative. Whilst referring to the three main theorists; Tzvetan Todorov, Claude Levi-Strauss and Vladimir Propp.






 Tzvetan Todorov’s theory is the ‘Five Conventional Stages’. In which the story and plot occur in chronological order, as it is linear.  The first stage is ‘Equilibrium’, which is the sense of everything being normal. The second stage is ‘Disequilibrium’, this is when an event occurs to destroy the ‘Equilibrium’. The third stage is ‘Recognition’, where the main characters realise there is something wrong, which is followed by ‘Reparation’, the fourth stage where the main characters try to restore equilibrium. Finally, it ends on the fifth stage, ‘New Equilibrium’ when things have been returned to normal or almost normal. In the video to ‘Cry Me A River’, the story does not begin on an equilibrium therefore this theory doesn’t completely apply to this video. The video begins on Justin watching his ex-girlfriend leave her house with a man, from a parked car. The narration appears restricted at first, giving us little information but the lyrics tell us that his girlfriend possibly cheated and left him;
“I already know, I found out from him” and “Why did you leave me, all alone”.
Many references in the video were made to Justin’s real life ex-girlfriend Britney Spears, such as the fairy figurine represents the fairy tattoo on her back. When being related to the theory, I think the video would start on ‘Reparation’, because the lyrics and him breaking into his ex-girlfriend’s house suggests he is trying to get a little revenge, which then automatically rules out the first three stages. The ‘New Equilibrium’ would be after the shower scene at the very end, when his ex-girlfriend realises someone was in the house and finds her television playing the tape of Justin kissing another girl on her own bed.
The theory of Claude Levi-Strauss is that one side is represented as the right side, who the audience can identify with and support, whilst the other side is the opposite. The lyrics show signs of past and present,
Past example: “You told me you love me, Why did you leave me, all alone.”
Present example: “ Now you tell me you need me, When you call me on the phone.”
However, past and present is not visible in the video. The idea of good and evil is portrayed between the characters of Justin and his ex-girlfriend, as the audience support Justin but will automatically dislike her. The opposite of normal and strange could be applied to Justin’s movements, as when he walks this can be seen as normal whilst some of his ‘dancing’ may be pictured as strange, for example when he jumps and walks across a counter.
Vladimir Propp’s theory is about the characters included in a narrative-based music video. This theory states that certain characters appear in music videos; a hero who seeks something, a villain who obstructs the hero, a princess who will the heroes reward, the princess’ father who will give the rewards, a donor who will provide the hero with help and information, a helper to help the hero, a false hero and a dispatcher who sends the hero on a quest. In this music video, the theory only slightly applies. Despite Justin breaking into his ex-girlfriend’s house, he would be the hero as he is the artist, however the video does portray him as heartbroken rather than malicious. The villain would be his ex-girlfriend, as the lyrics teach use she cheated and then left him, even though she isn’t seen obstructing Justin in the actual video, this supports my earlier belief that the video begins on the ‘Reparation’ stage. Timbaland would be a helper, as he drives Justin and the new girl, to the ex-girlfriend’s house. The new girl, who Justin films himself kissing on his ex-girlfriend’s bed, could be seen as the princess. Alternatively, the manner in which she arrives, they behave and she leaves suggests their relationship is strictly business, therefore she too could be a helper. Only four people actually feature in this video, so the rest of Propps theory cannot apply.