As well as having the music power in the charts, Universal bought out EMI for £1.2 billion. Universal said that despite the large-scale enforced sell-off – understood to account for 10% of the new combined business's global revenues and 30% of the existing EMI operation. Universal create music videos as well as the independent labels however they are going to be a lot higher budget due to the amount of revenue the company produces through their music and artists. These could potentially include actual movie actors as well as the artists themselves which makes the videos more appealing to the audiences watching. This is why they create so much income as well.
Sony Music Entertainment also have many famous artists signed to them such as Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus, Paul Simon and Paloma Faith. It was named Sony Music Entertainment in 2008 after 79 years of name changes. It's headquarters are the Sony Building in New York where their products is music and entertainment. The revenue created is $5,672 million and the operating income is $6 billion. It is owned by Sony Corporation which covers all the Sony companies. From 1991-2004 saw the rise of Sony Entertainment and In 1995, Sony and Michael Jackson formed a joint venture which merged Sony's music publishing operations with Jackson's ATV Music to form Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
Ninja Tune has grown into a label that prides itself on producing quality music while serving its artists in a way that no major label would. Satellite offices have opened in Los Angeles and Montreal, and the label has established an excellent reputation and strong networks across the globe. Ninja Tune now also acts as an umbrella for other creative hot houses such as Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder imprint, and the brilliant Werk Discs, the label founded by Actress. In this way, Ninja continues to release uncompromising, forward looking music in the highest quality packaging and most professional fashion. The label's aim is not to be underground, but to win the most exposure possible for the most exciting music there is.
Through doing a research task into the different music labels, I have found out about some of the oligopolies and also an independent label as well. I found out the difference and how much bigger Sony and Universal are compared to Ninja Records. This is evident based on their revenue, the artists that are signed to them and also whether they have any subsidiaries. Throughout this research I found that the independent labels have a lot less power in the market as the oligopolies monopolise the market which leaves the independents to work a way around them instead of trying to push them off the scene. This would be basically impossible as the oligopolies are so much more powerful.
Through doing this I have learnt how to lip sync with original footage and put the actual song over the top using iMovie. I also used the tools on iMovie such as Clip Trimmer to make sure that the people are singing in sync with the actual song so that it looks professional.
Through doing this research into different music video directors I found that the more established and notorious directors were the auteurs and also the ones which have done films as well. These directors seemed to have been nominated for more because of their additional work as a director. As well as this I also learnt that the auteurs transferred their work between film as well as music videos. This is so that the audience can see the transferrable skills of the director. Also, people who like their films are more likely going to like their music videos as well which is good for the music artist.
This Video has both the performance base and the narrative based video in it. This is because Eminem is telling a story through the lyrics and also the video represents that as well. You can see this through the mise en scene. One thing being that the outfit he is wearing in sections of the video. It is patterned like the army which is partly the topic he is rapping about. As well as this there is also effects like on his clothing there is blood which links in with the lyrics again. He is in the hospital praying for his friend not to die. The camera work and editing as well has made it seem like he is wishing for his friend not to die with the special effects that have been used. The camera angle are either an eye line match or a high angle as if he is praying up to god (the camera). The video tells a story about the events he is rapping about.
Yellowcard - Ocean Avenue
This video also has the two elements to them because you have the band Yellowcard playing in the video for the performance base as well as the lead singer playing the lead role in the narrative based part. The whole band are playing in a 'parking lot' which does have some contextual relevance because the video is based on the streets and a car is involved at the end which we don't realise. The narrative part of this video (the story) is that he keeps having a recurring circumstance where he keeps missing the car or in one case being hit by it. Each time he does this scene it gets progressively more positive and at the end he is able to get in the car with the girl. The same mise en scene is used each scene because it is like a flashback. The same 'props' are used each time because of this, such as the homeless man with the trolly, the group of nuns and the car as well. This is different to most videos because usually there is a lot if changes in the mise en scene, camera work and the editing however this idea is juxtaposed because of the style of the narrative.
Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve
The lead singer of The Verve features in the music video the whole way through and the rest of the band come in in the end. This is sort of a performance based video as the band feature in it, however they don't actually play any instruments in the video together. The narrative side to the video is footage of the lead singer walking down a street and bumping into people because he isn't moving or stopping for anyone or anything. There were only 52 cuts in the whole video which when you think about it is very little. They used multiple long takes in the video which made it interesting as well and so we could get a view of the mise en scene and the actions and reactions of the other people in the video after he walks into them. The majority of the camera work was long shots and there were only around 3 or 4 close ups. These were as you can imagine to emphasize the expressions from the people.
The Neighbourhood - Sweater Weather
In this video it is primarily performance based because there isn't really a story (beginning, middle, end) to it. The lyrics match with the visuals which tell a story however this wouldn't be classed as a narrative video. The band feature in the video the whole time which would suggest this is a performance based video however they don't actually play the music and perform as a band. This video is different to the others as it is footage which has just been built around their music in the style and genre which matches it best so that it represents the band in the way they want. It is also a video which promotes their style and 'outlook' with their fashion, tattoos and piercings. This falls under mise en scene and the editing with the black and white effect matches and links in with the mise en scene.
Through doing this task I have learnt and found out about how a lot of music videos are different, a lot are the same and some of them are completely unique. However, looking at the narrative and performance based videos only, I found that the best videos were the ones which incorporated both the elements in and the ones which were strongly narrative, turned out to be the better, more engaging videos. Overall I think I have found that when I do my music video I will be doing a narrative based video because you can be the most experimental, but they are the most engaging.
Through doing this task I found out a lot about how the internet revolutionised the way people consume music as well as many other forms of media production. The internet with sites like YouTube, Vevo and iTunes all put the Music Television scene under a lot of pressure with sites like Viva having to cut down on their broadcasting hours because they found people aren't watching them as much as they used to. This is because people would rather view what they want when they wanted on the internet. YouTube is one of, if not the main music video viewing website on the internet and it isa very lucrative outlet for music videos.
Advertising makes it very easy for YouTube to make money, something which I
have learnt music labels are very much aware of - and the creation of Vevo
allowing them to make even more, simply by sticking with the most popular music
video outlet.
Through doing this task I found that the artists both do and don't have to be dressed relevantly based on the genre of their music. In the Eminem video 'Without Me' he is portraying a superhero and plays various different characters in different outfits. This is a comical video which portrays Eminem as not taking himself seriously. This is both good and bad because it makes the video interesting however, people might not know what he is like in his more serious videos. As well as this video, I found that the more serious videos such as Jay-Z's Holy Grail, which he portrays himself as a bit of a gangster in, is an accurate portrayal and also a recurring one because he has promoted himself in this way before in other videos. I found that no matter what the genre of the music is, the videos don't have to relate to the music or be serious to portray the artist in a good way. As long as the music video is entertaining for the target audience of that genre then people are going to like it. The clothing and mise en scene are important factors of a music video but they don't HAVE to relate or be a stereotypical outfit of that genre or artist.
Through doing this task I have learnt a lot about what the audiences like to see in a music video, expect to see and also what they don't want to see. I asked a large number of different people of various ages and they all enlightened me into what they think should be included in a music video. Examples of these things would be a storyline or a narrative based video so that it keeps the audience engaged. One of my questions was about which type of video people liked to watch out of performance and narrative based videos and the majority answered with narrative. This has helped me in my decision on which type of video I will make. As well as the storyline, people also said they wanted to see something eye catching such as interesting editing or camera angles. This way the actual song doesn't actually have to be that good for people to watch the video because they are drawn in from the interesting style of the video.
One thing that I found out was that the audience expect to see something interesting such as animation or special effects so that the video isn't boring. An example genre of this is dubstep or drum'n'bass music. This is because generally there isn't much lyrics so a montage of animated effects can be used as a music video. As well as this my research taught me that they expect to see interesting and exciting camera angles and editing techniques to grab the audiences attention otherwise the videos are boring. What people said they don't want to see is a video is boring transitions, camera angles and editing techniques. I found out that the video doesn't really have to relate to the music, as long as it's entertaining it doesn't matter what is in it. This is why it can't be boring.
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Through doing this questionnaire for people to answer, i was able to find out what age my audience would be, what their interests are in music videos and also what they think makes a good music video. i was able to obtain different answers from many different people and through these people I found that the majority of my audience that answered was 17 - 20 year olds, who all seemed to watch music videos. this is good because through this they are able to give me some strong feedback on different music videos and what is good and bad about them. I found out why they watch music videos and this was good information to find out because i can use this to incorporate it into my music video. Through these answers I am able to see which ones were the most popular and then see if I can make my music video this watchable. Other questions in my questionnaire such as what makes a music video appealing is also helpful because these are usually codes and conventions of a music video which audiences pick out, and through these answers I will be able to see if they are things I can include in my music video. Other information I tried to gather was whether audiences prefer narrative or performance based videos. This is important because we need to incorporate both of these elements into our video and seeing which ones audiences prefer will mean we can make a decision on which one to make the video most like. Through these answers I was able to obtain information on what makes a video good, alluring and appealing as well as finding out which types of music videos audiences enjoy the most. I will be able to use this information when it comes to panning our music video.
Through doing this research I have learnt and discovered what I want to include in my music video and I got to identify what the codes and conventions of a narrative music video is so it makes it easier for me to make sure I include the main ones. The main ones being a clear and simple story line for the audience to follow. Make it engaging by using interesting camera angles and editing techniques so that it isn't boring. I also learnt that I have got to do a relatively fast paced song so that this is possible to do all these things otherwise the transitions and editing will be boring and people will lose interest really quickly.
