Sunday 31 October 2010
Thursday 21 October 2010
Expectations Of A Music Video
Travis Garland
Genre
Travis Garland's genre is R&B/Pop music. This makes me immediately think of videos which are story based and have high budgets. However with Travis Garland, it is different because at the moment, he has yet to release a video accompanied by a song which he has written by himself. Garland is a cover artist to famous songs in a particular time period whether it be present day or different.
Promotional Videos Already Made
Like I have stated before, Travis Garland has yet to release a music video. The furthest he has gone when promoting his songs is having song playing with a picture of either himself or a location corresponding with the song in the background.
Target Audience
When fans of Travis Garland hear his songs, they will immediately ,sometimes without even realising they are doing it, compare the song that Garland has covered with its original. This makes it somewhat harder for Garland as he needs to be able to change the song in such a way that is equal if not even better than its original.
Below is the promotional video to Travis Garlands cover song 'Airplanes', originally performed B.o.B. This the song which I have chosen to use in my music video.
Genre
Travis Garland's genre is R&B/Pop music. This makes me immediately think of videos which are story based and have high budgets. However with Travis Garland, it is different because at the moment, he has yet to release a video accompanied by a song which he has written by himself. Garland is a cover artist to famous songs in a particular time period whether it be present day or different.
Promotional Videos Already Made
Like I have stated before, Travis Garland has yet to release a music video. The furthest he has gone when promoting his songs is having song playing with a picture of either himself or a location corresponding with the song in the background.
Target Audience
When fans of Travis Garland hear his songs, they will immediately ,sometimes without even realising they are doing it, compare the song that Garland has covered with its original. This makes it somewhat harder for Garland as he needs to be able to change the song in such a way that is equal if not even better than its original.
Below is the promotional video to Travis Garlands cover song 'Airplanes', originally performed B.o.B. This the song which I have chosen to use in my music video.
Friday 15 October 2010
Artist Research
Travis Garland was born on the 26 July 1989 and is an American singer-songwriter. He is best known as a former member of boy band NLT which consisted of Kevin McHale, Justin Joseph Thorne and V Sevani.
Garland was exposed to the arts at a very young age. He started off singing and acting in plays at his local church and went on to attend the School for Performing Arts where he received extensive training in music and theatre. After winning a nationwide acting competition at the age of 14, Garland relocated to Los Angeles where he signed with a manager and agent. He then began going on auditions during the day but spent his nights developing his songwriting, and after a meeting with a friend from Dallas he was asked to join the pop/R&B group, Not Like Them (NLT).
Further down the line, NLT was signed to a major label deal working under the direction of Geffren Records Chairman Ron Fair. With Garland as the front man and one of the lead singers, NLT was put in the studio to collaborate with top producers and songwriters including Pharell,Ne-Yo and Ryan Tedder. The group opened on tour for The Pussycat Dolls and gained a small, but loyal, fan following. In 2007 NLT released their Timbaland produced single 'She Said, I Said' and scored their first Top 40 Hit.
They continued to tour, and caused a female fan girl frenzy headlining a national House of Blues tour. When the group eventually parted and went their separate ways to pursue individual opportunities. Garland shifted his focus back to songwriting, only this time for a solo album.
Currently, Garland is back in the studio recording his first original untitled debut album for Interscope Records. To give him a unique urban pop sound producer Nate Hills, who has worked with Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado, Britney Spears and more, has singed on to produce the record. Garland will be writing and co-writing the majority of the album's tracks himself. Garland's debut album is scheduled for release later this year with 'Believe' as the first single.
Below is a list of all the songs that Travis Garland has covered.
- Airplanes
- Let Me Know
- When You Learn How To Love
- Glow Stick
- Believe
- I Want It All
- Broken
Making Decisions
In our lesson today, we were told to decide on whether we would be working in groups or individually. I have chosen to work on my own because I feel I can achieve more as it will be easier when making certain decisions i.e. song choice etc.
The song that I have chosen is 'Airplanes' by Travis Garland from the album 'Travis Garland - Cover Collection'.
The song that I have chosen is 'Airplanes' by Travis Garland from the album 'Travis Garland - Cover Collection'.
Monday 11 October 2010
Textual Analysis
Artist - The Goo Goo Dolls
Song - Iris
Genre Characteristics?
For the Goo Goo Dolls, their style of genre is Punk. When associating music videos to Punk music, I usually picture the video featuring lavish sets and the artists wearing costumes similar to those of Lady Gaga. However with this music video ,performed by The Goo Goo Dolls who are a punk band, they have kept the costumes simple but effective and have used what seems to be an old tower and a tunnel for the video.
What is the relationship between music and visuals?
The music does correspond with the visuals in several ways, but first you have to understand what the song is about. The song is about someone who has an invisible identity who no one understands who then finds their true love. They want their true love to know that they exist and that the person is the only one in the world who can understand and love them. This can be seen clearly in the video as it shows a young man watching a girl (his true love) and feeling as though she thinks he is invisible but really she understands him. So there is a definite relationship between the music (lyrics) and the visuals presented in the video.
Are the close-ups of the artist and star image motifs?
During the video, there are close-ups of the artist, this occurs when he is performing with his other band members. Close-ups also occur when the 'story' side of the music video is being shown. The close-ups used in this video aim to make the audience pay more attention to one particular person or one particular object and to also help them i.e. knowing what is happening in a particular scene etc.
Is there any reference to the notion of looking?
There is reference to the notion of looking because during the video the band are seen playing their instruments in a tunnel and nearly every time the lead vocalist is in shot, he is looking straight down the camera, making it feel as though he is looking at the audience, which is an effective way to gain the audiences attention. So yes there is reference to the notion of looking.
Are there any intertextual references?
I think that this is the only video i can recall seeing someone based in an abandoned tower spying on his one true love by using telescopes. Yes it may be random but it does work and does correspond with the music being played. Because no one has done something like this before it makes the music video unique. Because of the music video being unique, it resulted in the song growing in popularity as listeners could easily associate the song with this video.
Song - Iris
Genre Characteristics?
For the Goo Goo Dolls, their style of genre is Punk. When associating music videos to Punk music, I usually picture the video featuring lavish sets and the artists wearing costumes similar to those of Lady Gaga. However with this music video ,performed by The Goo Goo Dolls who are a punk band, they have kept the costumes simple but effective and have used what seems to be an old tower and a tunnel for the video.
What is the relationship between music and visuals?
The music does correspond with the visuals in several ways, but first you have to understand what the song is about. The song is about someone who has an invisible identity who no one understands who then finds their true love. They want their true love to know that they exist and that the person is the only one in the world who can understand and love them. This can be seen clearly in the video as it shows a young man watching a girl (his true love) and feeling as though she thinks he is invisible but really she understands him. So there is a definite relationship between the music (lyrics) and the visuals presented in the video.
Are the close-ups of the artist and star image motifs?
During the video, there are close-ups of the artist, this occurs when he is performing with his other band members. Close-ups also occur when the 'story' side of the music video is being shown. The close-ups used in this video aim to make the audience pay more attention to one particular person or one particular object and to also help them i.e. knowing what is happening in a particular scene etc.
Is there any reference to the notion of looking?
There is reference to the notion of looking because during the video the band are seen playing their instruments in a tunnel and nearly every time the lead vocalist is in shot, he is looking straight down the camera, making it feel as though he is looking at the audience, which is an effective way to gain the audiences attention. So yes there is reference to the notion of looking.
Are there any intertextual references?
I think that this is the only video i can recall seeing someone based in an abandoned tower spying on his one true love by using telescopes. Yes it may be random but it does work and does correspond with the music being played. Because no one has done something like this before it makes the music video unique. Because of the music video being unique, it resulted in the song growing in popularity as listeners could easily associate the song with this video.
Sunday 10 October 2010
Song Choices
When it came to looking at songs to choose for my music video, there were 3 in particular which I wanted to look at in further detail.
Airplanes - Travis Garland
This song is one of my three choices and is a cover of the famous single by B.o.B. There were a couple of reasons why I did not choose the original and they were that firstly there are several verses where the artist is rapping and that would prove to be to difficult to film. Secondly, the song is well known when performed by B.o.B and had a good music video already, so choosing a cover version of the song without the rapping, a not 'well known' artist and no video was a suitable choice.
Name - The Goo Goo Dolls
This song is my second choice, the main reason being is its just easy listening. I could easily listen to the band all day because their music has messages hidden away rather than it being entirely performance based. Its like listening to mini stories when listening to The Goo Goo Dolls. The song is based around the lead singers childhood and dedicates the song to his two sisters who raised him.
Look Through My Eyes - Everlife
This song is also on my list because I simply love listening to the song, I think the melody with the lyrics work fantastically well together, making it a powerful song. Also with the repeating line of 'Look Through My Eyes', when filming, you could show different peoples prospective and how they interpret certain things. This could prove to be a challenging aspect however it would be fun to do.
Airplanes - Travis Garland
This song is one of my three choices and is a cover of the famous single by B.o.B. There were a couple of reasons why I did not choose the original and they were that firstly there are several verses where the artist is rapping and that would prove to be to difficult to film. Secondly, the song is well known when performed by B.o.B and had a good music video already, so choosing a cover version of the song without the rapping, a not 'well known' artist and no video was a suitable choice.
Name - The Goo Goo Dolls
This song is my second choice, the main reason being is its just easy listening. I could easily listen to the band all day because their music has messages hidden away rather than it being entirely performance based. Its like listening to mini stories when listening to The Goo Goo Dolls. The song is based around the lead singers childhood and dedicates the song to his two sisters who raised him.
Look Through My Eyes - Everlife
This song is also on my list because I simply love listening to the song, I think the melody with the lyrics work fantastically well together, making it a powerful song. Also with the repeating line of 'Look Through My Eyes', when filming, you could show different peoples prospective and how they interpret certain things. This could prove to be a challenging aspect however it would be fun to do.
The Gadget Show
Today I watched an episode of the Gadget Show which showed two presenters, Suzi and Jason, create music videos for two artists, Fightstar and Har Mar Superstar. This episode had shown how Suzy and Jason went about creating these videos, Suzi went down the route of using professional equipment i.e. lighting, cranes, crew. Whereas Jason used consumer tech and his surroundings like a skate park, ways in which to support the camera and having a few stunt doubles.
Whilst watching the show, This is what I learnt. There are three main categories in music video, Performance, Story and Gimmick. Performance is where you have the Artist performing the song chosen with or without instruments, Suzi chose this category. Jason went for a different approach and chose to have a story based video. Having a story based video basically does what it says on the tin. It tells a story about an event in someones life which may be influential i.e. their past, relationships etc. Gimmick based videos are usually one-shot parodies of certain songs and are made just for entertainment purposes. This type of music video has proved to be extremely popular in the online community, especially video sharing sites such as YouTube, Metacafe etc.
Coming back to The Gadget Show, when it came down to judging who's music video was 'the best', Suzi came out on top because her music video did look professional, mainly because of the equipment she used. However Jason's video was a good attempt, using 'off the shelf' equipment which can be accessed by everyone. It just shows that money may not be everything in a music video, but it sure does help.
Whilst watching the show, This is what I learnt. There are three main categories in music video, Performance, Story and Gimmick. Performance is where you have the Artist performing the song chosen with or without instruments, Suzi chose this category. Jason went for a different approach and chose to have a story based video. Having a story based video basically does what it says on the tin. It tells a story about an event in someones life which may be influential i.e. their past, relationships etc. Gimmick based videos are usually one-shot parodies of certain songs and are made just for entertainment purposes. This type of music video has proved to be extremely popular in the online community, especially video sharing sites such as YouTube, Metacafe etc.
Coming back to The Gadget Show, when it came down to judging who's music video was 'the best', Suzi came out on top because her music video did look professional, mainly because of the equipment she used. However Jason's video was a good attempt, using 'off the shelf' equipment which can be accessed by everyone. It just shows that money may not be everything in a music video, but it sure does help.
Friday 1 October 2010
My Musical Taste
Explain and illustrate with examples your personal musical preferences.
When listening to music, I try to look out for the meaning/hidden messages in the songs whether it be about personal situations or current affairs. So when narrowing down my musical preferences, I find it hard because there are so many genres to like out there. However I have chosen three songs which I enjoy listening to.
Look Through My Eyes - Phil Collins - Pop
This song is based around other peoples views on topics or even life. Its saying that you should think and also take into account other peoples views and not just your own.
Where Is The Love - Black Eyed Peas - R&B
This particular songs 'hidden message' can be found in the lyrics. Its stating how people are only care for themselves and not to others i.e. referring to poverty. So they are questioning 'Where Is The Love'.
America - Razorlight - Indie rock
I find this song to be interesting as the meaning in the song is about someones feeling of isolation and boredom because of American culture. However, because of the message, I have found whilst listening to the song that it can be referred to the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers.
When listening to music, I try to look out for the meaning/hidden messages in the songs whether it be about personal situations or current affairs. So when narrowing down my musical preferences, I find it hard because there are so many genres to like out there. However I have chosen three songs which I enjoy listening to.
Look Through My Eyes - Phil Collins - Pop
This song is based around other peoples views on topics or even life. Its saying that you should think and also take into account other peoples views and not just your own.
Where Is The Love - Black Eyed Peas - R&B
This particular songs 'hidden message' can be found in the lyrics. Its stating how people are only care for themselves and not to others i.e. referring to poverty. So they are questioning 'Where Is The Love'.
America - Razorlight - Indie rock
I find this song to be interesting as the meaning in the song is about someones feeling of isolation and boredom because of American culture. However, because of the message, I have found whilst listening to the song that it can be referred to the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers.
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