Our artist is a girl band called 'All That Glitters' with a music video called 'No Sleep Tonight'. They are a pop band with a slightly rocky edge. They are still girly however and would fit into the mischievous category rather than good girls. However, they are still a great role model to younger girls and value girl power.
MUSIC VIDEO
Using Conventions
As a mainstream band with a target audience of the 13-16 year old girls demographic, we felt that working with convention was the best way forward as to not alienate the majority of that market segment. With exception, this age bracket will in the majority still be gearing their interests to the mainstream music that surrounds them, therefore our song choice was centered around the principle that we could imagine it in the mainstream. Firstly, it is a pop song with a rocky sound. As you can see from the below chart, 50% of the top UK tracks are pop. This assures us that our track would sell, with the correct portrayal of artist image.
Secondly, the lyrics deal with a common aspect of teenage culture: sex and pursuing the opposite gender. Therefore it would immediately appeal to our target audience, whilst also more loosely appealing to males of the same age.
As a girl band, we not only had to research the pop genre, but more specifically pop GIRL BANDS. We drew inspiration from these artists, drawing good points from each of them to create the girl band we wanted.
Following the conventions of other genres was also highly significant in the actual content of our video, as this was defined by our portrayal of the stereotypes. As a parody, the audience had to recognize the genre stereotypes we were trying to convey with humor which meant abiding religiously to the conventions they would've been aware of and in some ways exaggerating them. This not only included hair, costume and make-up but also mannerisms, shot type and lighting. In the video below I collected some of our references and explained in detail the specifics of our genre representation whilst drawing upon real life examples:
Enlightening our knowledge with the works of theorists Carol Vernallis and Andrew Goodwin, we followed what they determined as the key features of a music video. I would like to emphasize the importance of Andrew Goodwin's intertextuality theory, as that was fundamental to our entire concept as we were referencing the well known stereotypes of the music industry and it's genres. This allowed us to make a music video that was conventional and welcomed by the mainstream. We discuss our use of Goodwin's intertextuality theory and Vernallis' music video convention theory in detail in the video below:
Developing Conventions
One of the things that makes All That Glitters unique is the way that we have created a band identity that presents an unlikely amalgam of genres that have been successful in their own way. For example, girl bands such as Little Mix and The Saturdays do not fail to make it into the mainstream, possessing a slightly sexualised yet still female-friendly image. We believe our band could use these characteristics to bring a pop song with a more rocky sound to the mainstream, as unlike these girl bands we write and compose our own songs with instruments. Males tend to dominate when it comes to rock bands - currently the only well known 'Girls with Guitars' band is Haim who at the same time do not possess the same fun image as All That Glitters. We believe this development of the conventions of artist identity allow the ability to draw maximum success from the industry.
Challenging Conventions
As I mentioned before, we were not attempting to challenge conventions for the majority of our video, particularly emphasizing the different genres to be as stereotypical as possible for the point of being funny. However, us being satirical in itself is actually challenging convention.
According to the 'male gaze' feminist theory, the camera generally puts the audience into the perspective of the heterosexual man. This has given rise to the continually and increasingly sexual portrayal of women within music videos, often living out on the screen what heterosexual males want to see. Not only has this become the unquestioned norm, but it has reached new heights in the current day - with Miley Cyrus breaking Vevo records for her 'Wrecking Ball' video for the obvious reason that she appears naked. Although 'All That Glitters' are sexualised in the sense that we look desirable, we do not take it to a shocking level that would deem us unfavored by our female audience. In fact, we believe that we combat the 'male gaze' by embedding our video with a greater substance that is not sexual power, but wit and satire. This is not the convention. If we consider the satire videos in existence, they are very associated with male artists and directors who have the freedom to venture into other music video types that aren't so reliant on a voyeuristic approach:
Artist - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Artist - Five
The ability to satire also comes from
being confident, a quality in women that is diminished by the industries
pressure to focus on looking desirable. We can learn this particularly from my
last example. Eminem is clearly satirizing against women for many different
'faults' including being fat, being lesbian, being a drug addict and having
large female assets. Although the video was quoted as 'the lowest form of
entertainment', it went on to win Best Hip Hop music video at the 2009 MTV
VMAs. This is precisely the male gaze in action and exhibits how much influence it has in the industry.
In contrast to this video, we believe we successfully use satire as a form of entertainment without alienating any individuals or groups of people. This would be counter productive, as we are trying to engage the female audience who are inevitably the ones satirized against the most. Therefore, we took the approach closer to that of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Five - satirizing what people know to be conventional by taking elements of genre out of context. What I mean by this is that, for example, in Take That's 'Back for Good' video the rain in their faces is seen as a dramatic addition to an emotional song. However, when we mimic the water falling down onto the face of a male boy band member, it becomes apparent that this concept is actually bizarre.
ALBUM COVER
The diagram below shows the conventions we had in mind whilst creating our album cover:
Below is a diagram showing how we used these conventions in our front cover, which we specifically geared towards a debut album. We also wanted our album cover to immediately be recognised as part of our brand.
WEBSITE
The main convention that is present within the industry is the move from linear websites to interactive, audience-involving ones. This benefits both the audience and the industry - the audience can have more fun whilst browsing and learning about their favorite artists, and the industry can put as many purchasing opportunities as possible into the website.
Interactivity was particular important for our band, as we are targeting the audience of teenagers who these days expect it as the norm. It would not be well received to ignore the benefits of web 2.0 so we tried to incorporate this at every opportunity. Our full use of conventions in the website homepage along with industry examples can be seen in the below mindmap:
Other forms/conventions we used within our website were:
- A menu at the top, including drop down menus
- More social media links such as twitter
- The ability to watch music videos
- The ability to comment on every page
- Customisable merchandise
Overall I believe our media product was successful in using, developing and challenging forms and conventions of real media products - contributing to the video's wider success.
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