(Blog 4) History of the music video

History of the pop video

(from Bing Crosby to the Beatles)

 

(Blog 4)

Bing Crosby

• 1940s - biggest star in the world
• Fans saw him in the tv specials

 Bing Crosby

Born on the 3rd May 1903, Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Junior was an american singer and actor whos voice made him one of the most best selling record artist of the 20th century.

Bing Crosby

 

 

 1940's Bing Crosby films and TV specials

 1950's Frank Sinatra

 1950's > 1960's > Elivs Presley - 

Artist(s) Profile

Groundswell (Three days Grace)



Three days grace is a Canadian rock band that was formed in Norwood, Ontario in 1992, formally known as Groundswell.




Unsigned songs and artists Songs that would've been chosen for our music video video
 Reel big fish -Your Girlfriend

Suture

Suture

• Classical Hollywood narrative, editing, sound and miss-en-scene 'sutures' or positions the audience in certain ways making only one preferred reading (reception theory) possible, however unconscious the audience is of that position.
• The theory stems from the literary and film theories of Roland Barthes, Stephen Heath, Laura Mulvey, Kaja Silverman, but was formulated by Daniel Day in his "The Tutor code of classical cinema" (1974)

According to these theories, the audience "stitches" itself into a film, and then filling in the temporal and spatial gaps between scenes with our imaginations. 

This is made all the easier when means, techniques, codes and conventions of film are made "invisible" by the film makers.

Laura Mulvey/Rihanna

Laura Mulvey Theory

Feminist film theory and audiences

Laura Mulvey

Visual pleasure and narrative

Mulvey argues that women have two roles in film: 

1. As an object of erotic desire for the characters.
2. As an object of erotic desire for the audience.

The theory develops as a logical argument:

1. The cinema reflects on our society

2. Therefore the cinema reflects

3. How does a patriarchal society manifest itself in cinema?

The Gaze

The gaze

• The 'gaze' of the cinema is the male 'gaze'.
• The male gaze is active, the female passive
• Within the narrative male characters direct their gaze towards female characters.

The spectator is made to identify with the male gaze, because the cinema films from the optical, as well as libidinal, point of view of the male character. 

Thus three levels of the cinematic gaze-camera, character and spectator - that objectify the female character (triple gaze)

Cinema: audience are watching throughout the camera, the camera is focussed on James Bond (Sean Conary) Bond is looking at the Woman walking out of the water

TRIPLE GAZE

The audience

Camera

James Bond looking at the woman

The woman walking out of the water

Agency

• In the classical hollywood cinema the male protagonist has agency - he is active and powerful
• He is the agent around whom the dramatic action unfolds
• The female character is passive and powerless - she is the object of desire for protagonist and audience.

Rihanna - Shut up and Drive

This video supports Laura Mulveys theory of someone being seen as an object of erotic desires. In this case, it is Rihanna, a mainstream female pop singer who, in this video, is cleaning and fixing cars whilst positioning her self in erotic positions in order to captivate most male audiences. 

(Blog 3) Types of Music (Types of Bands)

Types of music

Artists can be divided into two clear categories; organic and synthetic.

Organic: - The term ' Organic ' is used to describe bands where the music comes first, they make the kind of music they want to make and then the record labels (if they were to be signed) try and sell this music to correct market segment.

Organic music often appeals to a niche, but can appeal to a mass audience too.
Radio head are a good example of an organic band as their music comes first! Other examples of  organic bands/artists are ' The Beatles ' and ' cover drive ', a band from the Caribbean that have had success in the US and the UK.

The Beatles

Radio-head (rock band)









Cover Drive (Soca + Caribbean + Pop band)

Synthetic: - The term ' Synthetic ' refers to the ' X Factor ' methodology and it is the record labels that sit in the driving seat. This means that the record labels are the ones who bring the artists and musicians together in order to make the perfect band.

A gap in the market is identified and then it is exploited by the development of music and often the artist to suit this gap

Money is the ultimate goal in this particular operation. Acts such as "One Direction" are a good example of "manufactured" artists. 

Another example of a manufactured artists are ' The Monkees '. 

One Direction (Modern time Boy-band)

 

The Monkees (Rock band from the 60s)

(Blog 2) Major Record Labels

Major Record Labels



The music industry is dominated by four multi-national corporations. These include;

• Universal - The company that owns popular music artists such as Kanye West and used to own Amy Winehouse
• Sony music - This company owns Pitbull, Bobby Shmurda, SIA, Ti etc
• Warner Brothers Records - WB Records own artists such as Jason Derulo, Cher, Red hot Chili peppers etc
• Virgin records - This company owns musicians and artists such as Emeli Sande, Katy Perry, Jayz and Kanye west.

These are reffered to as ' The Majors '. The majority of these are backed by conglomerates with stakes in other industries such as; Fil, Television and other Electronics.


Major-Independents

Most of these ' Majors ' own, or license, a series of smaller sunsidiary companies in order to reach different kinds of audiences in different kinds of genre.

• Columbia - This company owns artists such as Beyonce, Adele, Calvin Harris, Daft Punk etc.
• Island - 
• Syco
• RCA
• Virgin

Independents

• There are a huge number of small companies with little or no fictional connectiuon to 'the majors'.
• These companies often concentrate on a small number of acts, within specialised niches in the industry
• These are called