Research: Posters

To help me design a poster to accompany my music video and digi-pac I've researched and analysed existing poster promoting albums by successful bands.



This poster, advertising Kasabian's album called 'Empire' has a rather basic design. It features the same image that is on the album cover which is a King of Clubs from a pack of playing cards. However the image on the card isn't vertically symmetrical as playing cards usually are, this makes the design interesting and unique. The poster also features the release date in large text at the bottom of the poster so fans know when they can get the album.

This poster for Muse's album 'The Resistance' is similar to Kasabian's poster as it features the same image that is on the front of the album its advertising. However, unlike on the album, the poster has the bands logo in huge writing over the top of it, this makes the poster very noticeable and allows fans to identify the band easily as well as get the band's name out to people who haven't heard of them. The grey background of the poster contrasts greatly with the multicoloured image in the middle; this makes the poster more interesting to look at.

This poster advertising 'Only by the Night' by Kings of Leon is very different to the previous two posters. It's very dark, dramatic and moody compared to the others light colours. The main image features one of the band members playing guitar in the darkness whilst shrouded by smoke and mist, this gives the poster a very mysterious and atmospheric feel to it which will draw interest to the album and make the poster more memorable to fans.

Research: CD Covers

To help me in the design of my Digi-pack I looked at the designs of the CD covers of successful bands so I could judge what makes an interesting design. To get a wider look at conventions of CD covers I analysed the covers of bands from several different genres of music.


Muse - Alternative/ Rock Genre

'Muse' are a alternative rock style band who have a very unique style and sound and see themselves as very artistic. This is reflected through the design which is unique and original which reflects the bands image. The image on the front cover shows a man stood in a multicoloured tunnel stretching through space towards Earth, with a plain grey background behind the image. The bands logo is in the top right of the cover in small writing with the name of the album on the opposite corner. This shows that the band are very well known and don't need to advertise who they are too much as their fans will already know who they are and what the album looks like. The main image reflects the bands image as well as reflecting the futuristic theme of many songs on the album. The tunnel on the main image is made up of many multicoloured hexagons which help make the album stand out strongly on the shelf because of the bright, eye-catching colours. These colours also provide a strong contrast to the dull colour of the images background making the album even more eye-catching and interesting.

Plan B - Rap/Soul/Hip-Hop Genres

Plan B is a rapper who's latest album sees him make a move into more a mature and sophisticated genre of soul music which he combines with his old rap/hip-hop genre. The front cover of this latest album is more typical of the singer's new Soul genre than his old Hip-hop one. It shows the singer (Plan B) sat on an empty stage with his head down and looking depressed, the room is unlit apart from an electric sign on the stage with the singers name and album title which illuminates the singer. This is more typical of Soul music as it is rather moody and shows lots of emotion whereas rap/hip-hop covers tend to be more vibrant and focus on the singers/band. Although Plan B himself is the main focus of the album he is showing himself in a sophisticated manner and is drawing less attention to himself than would be expected by rap artist.

AC/DC - Rock and Roll/Heavy Metal GenresAC/DC are a Rock and Roll band from Australia who are one of the most successful bands of all time. The album covers main focus is the band's name rather than any image. The band's logo is written in a large font across the front of the album with the album title written across the cover just below it. The band don't feel the need for a complex or artistic cover as they are so well known they just need to use their name for people to know who they are and want to buy the CD. They can do this as they already have a huge fan base, but an independent band like the one I'm using for my video will not be well known enough to do this so will have to draw people in with an attractive CD cover design.

Research: The History of the Music Video

To help me in the creation of my music video I researched the history of Music Videos. Below is my essay on my research.

Music videos evolved from short promo videos that would be made to promote new songs. Promo videos became increasingly common during the 60’s and 70’s when television began to devote more airtime and programming towards the music industry with programmes such as “Top of the Pops”. These videos would normally be simple videos of the band performing which they could use on programmes such as Top of the Pops if the band couldn’t be there to perform live.

In 1975 the popular rock band “Queen” released their hit song “Bohemian Rhapsody”. The complexity of the song meant that it was very hard to mime successfully, this along with the fact that the band didn’t like to mime on Top of the Pops meant they didn’t want to appear on the show to perform it. This meant their song would instead be played whilst a dance group performed on stage, the group however didn’t like this either so they organised a promo video of the song to be made. The resulting video is widely regarded as the first real music video as it contained original footage of the band, and used special effects and editing to create more of a representation of the song rather than a simple recording of the band performing. This set it out from other promos of the time and other bands also began to create more creative music videos that helped to tell a narrative in the song or simply to entertain.

In 1981 MTV (Music Television) was launched. It played continuous music videos from the bands and songs that were currently topping the charts. It operated similar to a radio Top 40 show with VJ’s (Video-Jockeys) introducing a video before it was played. As the channel gained popularity more record labels recognised the potential of the channel and began to produce more and more extravagant videos for MTV to play. The video for Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” was a huge hit on MTV, this video along with many of Jackson’s other videos helped to increase the popularity of MTV hugely as audiences tuned in to see them. Michael Jackson’s video often showed the singer playing the part of a character in a story representing the song and involved many of his famous dance moves and routines. The most famous of Jackson’s videos was “Thriller”, this video was more of a mini-film lasting a mammoth fourteen minutes in length. The video was a horror film spoof and used special effects to turn Michael Jackson and his dancers into zombies and then turning the singer into a werewolf. The song was hugely popular as was the music video and remains one of the most iconic videos to date. The video helped to show again how a good music video could boost a singers career and album sales.

Since its creation MTV has spawned many sister channels catering for different kinds of music and many other music channels showing music videos have developed. As MTV’s popularity began to soar then channel also began to show regular programming and began to produce its own shows, most of which were based around music and musicians. The growing attraction of MTV and other music channels led to teenagers of the 1990’s onwards being labelled “The MTV Generation” due to their music based lifestyles and their imitation of the behaviour and cultures displayed in music videos, especially those of rap and R&B genres. The music video had a huge impact on society as more than ever music fans could now get an insight into their favourite bands as the videos began to show singers lifestyles, fashion and behaviour.

Research: Analysis of existing music videos

I viewed and analysed successful music videos as part of my research, below is my analysis of three of them

Time is Running Out - Muse
The video features the band performing on a large table in a large dark room. The table is lit with lights around its edges and there are military personnel sat around the table who ignore the bands presence. As the band play the military begin to move together to the beat of the song. As the song progresses the military begin to act stranger and seem to go insane.
Lyrics: The lyrics of the song are not directly linked to the video as it is more performance based rather than narrative based. The song has themes of insanity and panic and the way the military personnel behave reflects this as they begin to march around the table before dancing on it, crawling around it and eventually throwing their papers all over it.
Music: The song features a lot of edgy and fast paste guitar and some heavy drumming. The band is seen performing with their instruments on the table. This gives the effect that they care about their music and want people to know and see that they are good musicians. The military begin to dance in a fast and erratic style matching the music
Genre: The genre of the song is alternative rock. The video is performance based which is typical of the rock genre and also features a dark and surreal setting which is often characteristic of the alternative rock genre. The band are dressed in black and are in a dark environment which is again typical of the genre. The presence of the military personnel who begin to act insane, dance spontaneously and even take their clothes of has strong anti-establishment connotations which is very typical of both rock and alternative rock genres.
Camera: The video contains a lot of close-up shots of the band and their instruments; this shows the band want to be seen as musicians and is highlighting their skills with their instruments. There are also several log shots of the table with the military dancing and the band performing on it, this shows the band are more important than their dancers as they are above them and in a central position, this again shows that the music and performance are more important than the narrative.
Editing: The video contains a lot of fast paced shots and mixes between lots of different shot types, this fits in with the fast paced and erratic nature of the song.
Intertextuality: The video has a reference to the film “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” in its setting, the room the band are in, and the table with its hung lighting are from the film’s war room scenes, this gives the impression that the song is about war and the role of military bosses in ‘round table’ situations like war rooms.

Just Lose It – Eminem
The video is narrative driven and shows Eminem and an actor portraying Michael Jackson on disastrous nights out at a club. The video is very satirical and pokes fun and many celebrities, most notably Michael Jackson.
Lyrics: The video is narrative driven and the song and video interlink constantly as the lyrics often describe what is happening in the video, for example, the line “Dre, ah ah ah, beer goggles, blind, I’m just trying to unwind.” Accompanies a scene where Eminem drunkenly hit’s on the rapper ‘Dr. Dre.’
Music: The song features a bouncy and upbeat backing track which is reflected in the satirical nature of the video. In the video there a several scenes with dancers performing street dance style routines that are typical o rap music videos.
Genre: ‘Just Lose It’ is a rap song and follows many conventions of its genre. There are lots of fast-cut scenes and there are several appearances by celebrities and other rappers which is common in rap videos. Eminem wears tracksuits, baggy clothes and lots of jewellery which all have connotations of rap. The video follows lots of rap genre conventions such as having the rapper heavily featured in the video and performing straight into the camera.
Camera: The video uses a wide variety of shots in its narrative. It uses wide, long and establishing shots to show audiences and the inside of the club. It uses medium and close up shots to show characters, dancers and Eminem himself. At several points Eminem raps directly into the camera giving the impression that he is looking the viewer straight in the face and performing directly to them, this technique is often used in rap videos and is typical of the genre.
Editing: The video uses fast paced montages to try and make the viewer watch the video again to see what happens in the montage. It also uses blurring to give the impression of drunkenness.
Intertextuality: The video and song are very satirical and therefore contain lots of references to other media and celebrities. The video features cameos from Paris Hilton, Dr Dre and Erik Estrada. It also features actors playing several other celebrities such as, MC Hammer, and Michael Jackson as well as making a reference to the film “Bad Santa”.

Vindaloo – Fat Les
‘Vindaloo’ is a nonsensical football song written for the 1998 World Cup in support of the England national team, it’s a parody of football chants sang at games. The video features a large group of odd characters and minor celebrities following a man down a street whilst chanting the song.
Lyrics: The lyrics to the song are mainly nonsense, for example “Can I introduce you please, to a lump of cheddar cheese, knit one, pearl one, drop one, curl one, kick it”. The song also features heavy repetition of the words “na na na na na na na vindaloo” in a manner similar to a football chant. The songs random and odd lyrics are reflected in the odd collection of characters in the video, sumo wrestlers, hockey players, French maids, a waiter behaving like a chicken and French onion seller.
Music: The music is a repetitive chanting tune similar to those heard at football games, the main character walks in time to this tune as he walks down the street, the other characters jump around and pump their arms in time to the music, this again reflects the nature of football fans singing chants.
Genre: Vindaloo is a comedy/football chant genre song; its video reflects this in its random and humours nature. The video parodies the video for “Bittersweet symphony” by ‘The Verve’ in which a man walks down a street barging into everyone he comes across. Parodies of other music videos are common in the comedy genre.
Camera: The camera uses a lot of close ups of different characters and they often chant straight at the camera, this helps to create a playful nature to the video as the viewer feels like they are in the crowd with the characters. There are often long shots and tracking shots of the crowd following the lead character which helps to show its size.
Editing: The video contains a lot of quick shots of the gathering crowd, this makes the viewer want to watch again to try and pick out individuals in the crowd and to try and find the numerous celebrities in the video.
Intertextuality: The video makes references to numerous TV shows and characters through the costumes of the background actors, for example, the TV show St Trinians. The video is a parody of “Bittersweet symphony” by ‘The Verve’ and features an actor playing Richard Ashcroft, the lead singer of The Verve who is featured in the bittersweet video. In the Verve’s song Ashcroft walk down a street in a perfect straight line, barging into people and knocking them over, and climbing over car bonnets as thy interrupt his path. The vindaloo video features the actor playing Ashcroft attempting the same journey but getting foiled at every turn, people barge into him rather than the other way round, a car pulls back just before he leaps on it making him fall over and he get’s hit in the head by several footballs.

A-level Project Brief

For my A-Level media I have to create a promotional package for the release of a music single. Included in this package was a music video which formed the main part of the project, I worked on this part with another student and we produced the video together.
The other parts of the project were a magazine advert advertising the single and a Digi-Pac which the CD single would be sold in.

The course required the band chosen to be an unsigned act and they must have given us full permission to use their song in our project.

I was also asked to produce an electronic presentation in order to show the research, planning and development of my project. I decide to make mine on this blog as it is a simple to use service that's easy to view and also allows me to include audio and video in my presentation if I wish.