Copyright In The Music Industry

Copyright is a law which is used by most Governments and in the United Kingdom it is a British Parliamentary law  which is covered by the Copyright, Deigns and Patents Act 1988 which orginated in 1710 to put in place preventing other people using other peoples material without their permission. Copyright is used in the music industry in order to protect artists songs, videos and concepts of which are used in a particular way of which states that it 'gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time.'. This is atime limit of 60 years in the music industry.
 

As we are making a music video its important we get copyright permission off Jason Mraz for the song 'I Won't Give Up' in order to use his song within our coursework. This is essential that we apply for copyright as if we were to use his song without permission this could be classed as an illegal offense due to us prepareing the material to be used in the music industry (officially legally we can use the Fair Use Policy) which could result in a very large fine on top of the infringer paying for court costs, the infringer could also be sentenced to serve time in jail.


Therefore, making this researching and planning into copyright has increased our knowledge about the Music Industry and the way it is controlled to make us fully aware of the punishments. This means that to prevent any of this happening our group we have sent documentation to Altantic Rercords asking for permission to use the Jason Mraz song as they have Jason under contact for any material he produces.

Research Into Your Chosen Artist

The selected music artist which we have chosen to make a music video of is Jason Mraz 'I won't give up', we selected the alternative genre artist because of the results in our survey due to many people preferring to listen to contrasting narratives. The inspiration of the artist shows a different style of filming with the visuals including or challenging stereotypes of the genre. Additionally, the artist uses conventional and unique techniques in his music video which makes him diverse in the music industry. This suggests that our artist will challenging to the normal more mainstream artists such as Rihanna, Example and Chase & Status. Therefore, due to the strong narrative of the artist we can adopt and represent the meaning of our artist in a selected way by concentrating on the idea of the song and not the typically style and conventions of a music genre.


Jason Mraz had international success in the music industry when he released 'Im Yours'. The single peaked at Number 6 in the US BillBoard Hot 100 which gave him his first top 10 single, which led to over 5 million sales of the song, the song topped the Charts in New Zealand and Norway. He was singed to Elektra Records in 2002 of which he had a debut album of 'Waiting for My Rocket to Come' which was a success as a alternative genre artist by the song peaking at Number 15 in the US BillBoard 200. In 2005 he was signed to Atlantic Records part of the Warner Music Group Corporation. After which he produced more affective songs and in 2009, 2010 and 2012 have been nominated for a number of highly sort after awards in the music industry such as Teen choice Award for Best Love song and Song of the Year.

 

I will be looking at both ‘I’m yours ‘and ‘Lucky’ featuring Colbie Caillat, which we both very successful in the music industry and Alternative music genre. Also, the song I’m yours which was his greatest due to sales revenue. The first Jason Mraz song is decided to analysis is ‘I’m Yours’ which was very successful in 5 worldwide country music charts (Venezuela, Sweden, Norway, New Zealand and Israeli) and a large number of US Billboard Charts. The song was in the Hot 100 for 76 weeks which was recording breaking for the most weeks spent on a chart (Breaking LeAnn Rimes song ‘How Do I Live’ in 1998. Therefore, the song remains as Mraz’s biggest hit single in the USA with 9.5 million downloads worldwide. The music video itself was added to YouTube it has been viewed over 100 million times as of July 2011. It was filmed in Hawaii in 2008 with a veteran and famous music video director Darren Doane.

 

 

The songs visuals use a range of mise-en-scene with a variety of locations, costumes and motor vehicles to make the video successful. The costume of which the artist wears is Ray-Ban Sunglasses, straw hat and normal average person T-Shirt and shorts. This suggests that the artist is being very stylish with the designer products and fashionable accessories such as the straw hat which artists such as Bruno Mars and Ed Sheeran have used in their music videos. Jason also wears a backpack in a number of shots to show that he is exploring and the song is the journey which is he taking. This implies that the artist is aiming the music video at 14-25 year olds target audience which is interested in the modern and up-to-date fashion. Through-out the song he only changes t-shirts and shorts to trousers to show that he is travelling a long period of time through a number of countries with different environments and climates. This emphasises that he is exploring across a large amounts of areas. Additionally, is located at a number of different locations in the countries he visits. The lighting is used to emphasis the charm and grace of the nature locations in the country. The video includes a shot of Jason in a plane with no key lighting, this means that the audience only concentrates on the blue sky outside the plane. Therefore, the video mainly looks at the locations and it isn’t as important to have the artist through-out the video because this builds the main image and representation of what the song and music video is conveying to the target audience.

 

 

The video’s opening scene is an overhead shot of a private jet at Lihue Airport on Kauai. It sets up the next scene where Mraz is seated, supposedly, in that same airplane. This implies that he has landed to a new place which he hasn’t previously visited and is starting an adventure to travel and see the world. Also, due to the private jet is illustrates that he could be wealth and can afford to go on exploring visits and buy design products (Ray-Ban’s).  The shot changes to the audience gazing thoughtfully into a fish tank and putting on a backpack, Mraz’s video self-departs an apartment, leaving the unit’s key behind. The location was an actual occupied apartment unit on the North Shore of Oahu. All furnishings belonged to the occupants; this makes the setting affective as a rundown basic hotel which shows that he has gone to a poor/developing country to see the different cultures and limitations which they have with technology, political ideas, traditions and religion. Thirdly, the shot changes to a tracking shot of the music video following Jason exploring in the forest to show that the target audience is on the journey with Jason with the effects of using a hand-held camera for affect. Mraz hops in the back of another late model pick-up truck to a medium shot, this time with a trio of girls.

 

 

There is a strong relationship between both the visuals and music soundtrack because it builds a stronger flow in the music video, an example of this is the waterfall scene, on Oahu's windward side, was suggested by the girl he's seen conversing with at the skate park—a North Shore resident he and Doane had just met. This means that the music video was mainly used and produced with local knowledge of the area and not created under music industry conventions of the production process. This includes a Long shot of three women jumping into the water in different timings, which is in parallel with the music. This is affective because connections the music with the visuals but making the music flow. Also, the visuals scenes flow with the music to compliant the way that they are represented with the major forests and rivers being shown as beauty. This is similar to the connections between the visuals ad lyrics of the song stating that he gives himself nature and wants to experience to the full - ‘I’m Yours’. The song has a range of close-up of the singer to show that he has happy and joyful emotions due to him enjoying the adventure which he is on to explore a new country to him. Likewise, this raises awareness of the artist in the music industry and alternative genre. Through-out the music video there is notion of looking for the main character because this could illustrate that the viewer has gone on the journey with them and that he is describing his emotions to the audience. Overall, the music video has 15% Narrative, 60% concept and 25% performance due to the main character using simple and limited acting but a strong concept of average person travelling around the world to visit new areas.

 

 

 

The second music video I have decided to analysis is Jason Mraz Featuring Colbie Caillat ‘Lucky’ song, which reached Number 5 in the Belgian Charts and in the Top 100 in the US Billboard for Adult Pop Songs and Adult Contemporary. This suggest that the music video wasn’t as successful compared to ‘I’m Yours’ in the single Chart. However, the successful in two US Billboard Charts suggests that it was successful in gaining sales in such a competitive music market. The song is due to the lyrics is aimed at a target audience of 17-25 year olds both male and female but mainly female, due to the music being of love and young love.

 

 

The music video starts with an establishing shot of the Town Centre of the capital city Bucharest of Romania; this implies that the music video is about contrasting countries or environments. This shot is of a tracking technique which emphasis that the audience is walking around the town, which could suggest that the artist is looking for a person in the village. The shot changes to a medium shot of Jason Mraz in the town centre and then a change of shot to Colbie Caillat on a beach. This illustrates that Jason is looking for her and due to the mise-en-scene of Jason he has come from America due to the stereotypically American business men/mafia style clothes which represent wealth and power. This is in comparison to the peaceful joyful beach of which Colbie is singing because is suggests that they are in love but can’t live with each other due to the different lifestyle which they live. This changes to tracking shots of both artists to show that they are looking in the different locations, this implies that they are in love with each other but searching around to try and get transport to meet or find each other.

 

 

The mise-en-scene of the music video is very affective due to the change of locations for Jason, the location consist of the Town Centre (Bucharest capital of Romania), Beach, Fields, roads and finally rocks. This suggests to the audience that he is travelling to faraway places to find the women he loves. Also, Jason’s costume represents an American Business man which implies that he has traveled to many locations to find the women. Additionally, he is wearing very formal dress similar to the white flowing dress which Colbie is wearing, to imply that he is finding her to ask her hand in marriage. The lyrics ‘Lucky I’m in love with my bestfriend’ suggests that this could be possible due to them already having a strong relationship previously built.   Whilst, trying to find to find her he uses many types of transport which include a classic motorcar (typically a wedding car), sailing boat and walking across the different terrains to find her, so it doesn’t matter how he gets there.

 

 

The music video uses Goodwin’s Theory effectively to make the music video successful. There is very challenging visuals and music compared to many normal alternative music genre music videos. The music video uses editing is fast of the changes of shots with the medium paced music soundtrack, this is unusual compared to many music videos of the music genre and Jason Mraz but is very affective to represent the emotions and confusion of which the characters are going through due to their love. This is different to the music and narrative connection due to the narrative flowing with the Romantic narrative, to attract the audience with a affective pace of the tune and lyrics. The artists use references notion of looking through-out the music video due to both artists singing to the audience. This conveys to the viewer that the artist can be singing able their love for the other artist. The music video uses intertextual reference due to the musical film ‘Mumma Mia’ which was produced in the same style of using the contrasting locations to represent the different  lifestyles which cause problems in relationships. The music video uses this technique to the musical due to it being very successful in the Film and Music industry being nominated in 3 Golden Globe Awards and 2 BAFTA Awards. The music video uses a similar performance base to ‘I’m Yours’ with 5% Narrative, 60% concept and 35% performance.

 

 

 

Jason Mraz song ‘I’m Yours' and ‘Lucky’ all are typical of Dyer's Theory due to it suggesting that the star is a products of which he has produced these songs for profit and to be successful which means that she has used a range of media forms to do so which her music being played on music channels, youtube and the radio. Also, on chat shows to promote his new song releases, only to potential increase the target audience. Through-out the years of producing material Jason has always promoted himself as ordinary having an average lifestyle which appeals to the audience, with going to usual locations to show that the audience could do this. But, there is a medium shot of Jason surfing in the seas on the beach this shows that he extraordinary and that he has done many activities on his travels using various skills. This means that due to the beautiful locations and concepts of the songs concept he has always been present in her music videos but regularly with changed fashion, style of narrative and mise-en-scene. this suggests that she changes herself to match the audience and follows them and doesn't change the stereotype of her genre.

Research Into The Chosen Music Genre & Sub-Culture Theory

The music genre which we have decided to choose is of the Alternative music genre, the genre emerged from the independent music artists from the 1980's and became widely popular by the 1990s with artists such as Oasis and U2. Additionally, in the present day the music genre is still popular with the music industry with artists such as Muse, Jason Mraz and Blur which have been in the UK music charts through-out the year. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, several alternative rock bands emerged, including The Strokes, Blur, Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, and The Rapture that drew inspiration from the previous Alternative Genre a decade before. Preceded by the success of bands such as The Strokes and The White Stripes earlier in the decade, an influx of new alternative rock bands such as The Killers success in the early 2000s. Owing to the success of these bands, Entertainment Weekly declared in 2004, "After almost a decade of domination by rap-rock and nu-metal bands, mainstream alt-rock is finally good again." The Alternative Music Genre has changed with a new style of artists in the genre such as Ed Sheeran, Jason Mraz and Muse having less of the Punk genre but more Indie genre characteristics to appeal to a more wider and profitable target audience.

The first music video from the alternative music genre was ‘The A-Team’ sung and written by Ed Sheeran. The song reached 2nd in both the Australia and Scotland Music Charts. Also, it was a Top 10 Hit in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom Singles Chart – Official Charts Company, which shows that it was very successful in a number of Music industries across Europe, British Commonwealth and other Asian countries. This music video challenges the normal stereotype of the genre because the artist isn’t in the music video (only as a background character – unknown character) performing a majority of the visuals. This means that it does raise awareness of the artist but due to him not being consisted during the video it means that it doesn’t massive affect promotion. Also, the music video doesn’t have anyone singing through-out the production and therefore there is not lip syncing. The target audience of this music video is 16-35 year olds of both genders because it is from a very popular mainstream artist this means that it has a wide target audience in the Music industry as well as the alternative music genre.


However, the material does visualise the lyrics strongly with a very important and essential meaning to make the music video affective. This illustrates the importance of visualising and in this video it shows the lifestyle of the homeless and the lyrics describe the visuals and looks of the main character and how people act in society. Also, the song is about how she deals with being homeless and the way people look at people who sell the big issue. This opinion is changed after she spends the money which she has been given to succumb to her drug abuse. Overall, the visualizing of the lyrics and narrative are important in representing the meaning behind the video/narrative. The pace of the editing is slow which fits the pace of the music and emotions; this is a great example because the song has a very slow level of editing. This makes the duration of the shots longer, making the video appear slower to match the pace of the songs narrative.

The mise-en-scene of a music video covers 5 key elements to make the material affective and look professional, without this it won’t look realistic to the audience. The mise-en-scene covers all the visuals which are seen in the production of which include settings & props; costume, hair & make-up; facial expression, body language; light, colour and finally positioning of characters/objects within the frame which draws attention to the main character and what she is trying to get from living on the streets. This is used by Ed Sheeran as an indication of the relationship between the people. This means that for our music video we have to make it successful because otherwise the video is likely to fail.  Ed Sheeran’s music video is very basic and simple but very affective and successful. The main character is wearing normal clothes and due to her being homeless she has limited items. The character is represented as homeless due to her selling ‘The Big Issue’. This is also shown by the setting and location of where she is located in the shots, firstly she is on a park bench which implies that she slept ruff and could be homeless with the second being on the streets. This suggests that she is homeless and the song is about her and what she has to do to stay alive. Finally, the last location is where he lives where she can with the small amount of money she has. The props are stereotypically items which show that she is desolate, but an item which is a stereotype is drug abuse. The lighting which makes the location affective is with only using key and back lighting which produces sharp contrasts of light and dark areas, with deep shadows being formed. This highlights the important character and sleeping bag she has to make her look mysterious by shading sections of the face and body. The shot reflects the characters mental state/ hidden emotions of pain and depression. The colours of black and white of which the video is shown in through-out carries certain connotations which may add to the meaning of the scene and video, it can give the video a particular feel, mood and style of which is used for dramatic effect. The music video was made from £20 (Sheeran only bought stockings and a crack pipe), which shows that the idea makes the production successful not the production itself with him saving on Mise-en-scene to reduce his costs. Additionally, his is very important and it should comply with the mood of the song. The song is very negative and sad which means that the lighting complies with the mood of the song by being in black and white which are associated with depression and upset. This is very affective because it means that the lighting and colour can be used to show her emotions which can attract the audience.

The hair and make-up of the character shows her upset and sadness due to her mascara running. This tells the viewer immediately whether the video is set in the present and the society of which she lives in, which is of a not caring about other citizen’s culture. Therefore, as a result this acts as an instant indicator to the target audience of the characters personality, status and job. This is implied by her status being of the unemployed under skilled due to not status in society but also her leading to prostitution to gain money to live and survive. This is certain due to the costumes she wears being signify certain of hooker and courtesan. The facial expression and body language of the character shows her depression and heart break of where she has ended up in her life to living on the streets of London without any belongings. The expressions provide the audience with a clear indicator of how the character is feeling if someone is depressed or sad we assume they are crying of which we get the same feeling due to the slow paced music. Her body language is also an indication of how the character is feeling towards the other character (people walking past) of unloved and heartbroken. Overall, the mise-en-scene of the music video is very simple and easily filmed but is successful in representing a homeless person and their way of life compared to the viewers. The videos camera shots were very simple but affective using slow paced narrative and tempo to convey the emotions of the character to the target audience. Her positioning on the floor with many low angle shots shows that she is represented lower in society then the average people walking past because they have belongings and homes compared to her. Also, the establishing shot of the style of setting is a long shot of the main character sleeping/lying in a sleeping bag on a bench in the middle of a park, this illustrates that she sleeps there regularly, this camera shot is important because it shows the audience the location of where the music video will be based and implies that the song by Ed Sheeran might be about the character. Thirdly, an essential shot to the meaning of the music video is when the character puts on her hooker clothes, this suggests that she as to do a selected job to fund her essentials to survive and live.  The editing through-out the music video is slow paced with the editing in connection with the style of the music. This means that the audience/viewer listens more to the narrative and shows the emotions which she is trying to represent.


Goodwin’s Theory is used through-out the music video to make it more effective, the genre characteristics of the alternative music genre are similar to the Pop genre however they are more realistic the productions. Therefore, ‘The A-Team’ is a typically music video for the genre due to ‘The A-Team’ is a typically music video for the genre due to the main character having a problem in society due to her social and culture status and therefore her ideas of life, similar to Jason Mraz with the song ‘I won’t give up’ about military injured war veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. This is due to the character living on the streets without any hope of an average life in the community. There is a strong relationship between the lyrics and visuals because the narrative decides her and what she feels like when living on the streets. This means that the viewers can feel the same emotions and pain of which she has from living in the harsh conditions and no living standards. This builds a strong relationship because it increases you knowledge of what large amounts of other people are going through in the community without support. The relationship between and visuals is less connected as the lyrics and visuals but they have a indirect relationship due to the slow paced music and the visuals of the main character building a strong emotion of upset and sadness for the situation that she has been put into by living homeless. The music video has no notion of looking of the main character through-out this could show that the characters lifestyle because due to her not being a celebrities or the mainstream artist Ed Sheeran and just a normal human it shows that people aren’t interested in her in society. The video production has no intertextual references due to the video made before he became a mainstream artist and therefore only spent £20 in making. The visuals of the music video are on a level of 50% on both the narrative and concept which is due to the narrative and concept having a major part of why the music video is so successfully compared to other alternative genre production videos.

Secondly, I have decided to anaylsis U2 song 'With or Without You' which was released in March 1987, the song was Number 1 in Ireland, Canada and the US Billboard Hot 100. Also, the song was 4th in the UK Singles Chart, this shows that the mainstream band was popular world wide in a number of markets and therefore shows that similar to Ed Sheeran's 'The A-Team' that the alternative music genre is very mainstream and popular in the mass market of the music industry shown by the WorldWide Charts of the music markets. The target audience of the music video when the music video was released in 1987 due to the rebellious actions and style it would be aimed at 14-26 year olds with the mise-en-scene challenging the fashions of the old generation.

The conventions of the music video are important and are the essential aspects which the video need to include to be successful. The band play a 100% performance based music video due to the artist only playing the song through-out the video, this means that the band only sing the song and don't build a story around the song, due to the narrative representing the what the artists want to show the audience. The music video is of the band performing on a stage this means that they use a number of shots such as crane shots, pans, close-ups and low angle to represent all areas of the band during the performance. The music video uses the effects of a smoke machine to make the stage location and artist mysterious this is a technique used to represent what the artists emotions are of confusion of whether they are 'With or Without You', which means that it emphasizes the feelings that the artists is trying to convey.

The alternative genre mise-en-scene in this selected music video has dark colours throughout and the use of the simple setting of a concert stage. Similar to many other music video of the genre contain the use of music equipment such as drums and guitars which is why the band members are all the music video performance. Therefore is a lot of emotions portrayed in the emotions of the narrative in the video but not on the facial expressions of the musicians. This challenges the stereotype due to the strong emotions of which the videos story-line portrays compared to other alternative songs. But, similar to Ed Sheeran's 'The A-Team' the people in the performance are not portray happiness as they relate the lyrics and meaning of the song to the story-line and emotions of a major sad event or lifestyle which is happening/happened in their life. The costumes of the band are simple but affective to appeal to their target audience with the majority of the members wears plain tank tops and t-shirts with the main singer having a leather waistcoat. This makes the main singer stand out but during the 1980's the clothes worn by all the band members was very popular which attracted the younger generations to the songs fashion appeal. Also, the artist wear symbols of religion and peace which during that era show that they are rebellious. This is implied by the songs narrative due to them being peaceful and happy but now they are without the person they love, they have turned to rebellion and violence which is conveyed to the audience. Also, the rebellious ideas are showed in the military boots and ear piercing and long hair which suggests that they don't comply with their older generations traditions and ideas. Overall, the mise-en-scene of all the members costumes is very simple and basic but appeals to the audience of the music and attracts them to follow the ideas they are trying to represent. The lighting that is used through-out is only key and back lighting similar to Ed Sheeran's music video because it uses this to create strong outlining shadows.

The camera movements are slow paced with long duration of shots throughout the viruses this is because it keeps the pace of the narrative and music synchronised. This means that the music is more flowed and is easy for the audience to listen to which makes it affective and the narrative more powerful with a meaning. The transitions of these shots is used as fading to make the change of shots more passive compared to a straight cut. However, this changes during the chorus because the pace of of narrative fastens which continues the correct flow of music to the lyrics. The shot changes to black and white frames which is similar to Ed Sheeran's 'The A-Team' which is a stereotype of this genre because it represents the depression and sadness of the artist and the mood of which they are trying the convey to the target audience. The music video uses close-up of the main singer this means that the audience can connect with the artists because then it shows them the emotions which the artist is emphasising in the narrative. The shot changes to a straight panning shot of the band, this implies that the camera is the viewer looking at the whole band and not only the main singer in the band. Also, the camera shot is a eye-line to represent that the audience and artist are on the same level in society and that they both can connect. Finally, the shot changes to a high angle shot of the band when he sings the chorus  'With or Without you'. This suggests that the audience is the person that he is singing about the person of which has rejected him. This is because the viewer is now looking down on the band compared to previous shot.

'With or Without You' uses Goodwin's Theory to increase the potential successful of the music video using the genre characteristics of the music video being mainly located on a band stage. This connects the target audience with the artists which could have seen them at a festival or concert but also that the viewer is watching a concert style music video. The relationship from the lyrics and visuals doesn't have a strong connection due to the location not being of their relationship but on a stage. This means that the only connection between this is the artists emotions of being alone and 'Without her'. Therefore, it has a  indirect connection but isn't affective compared to other alternative music genre artists music videos. On the other hand, this is different to the relationship between the lyrics and the music because the artists paced of the narrative is slow with the music complimenting this but building strong foundations to shows the strong emotions of which this event has had a major impact on this life. Through-out the video production their is the notion of looking due to this representing that the artist potentially singing to the person of which the narrative is about. This increasing the attraction and connection between the audience and artist which makes this very successful due to using emotions and notion of looking to attract the audience to watch the music video material. Their is no intertextual references which makes the audience feel that the artist is average and is not extraordinary and appeals more to them then an 'over the top' music video which doesnt appeal to the target audience.

All of this considered, both the alternative music genre music video production are affective in the way they repsent and show the emotions and meanings of which genre characteristics  they are trying to represent to the audience. Also, they use smiliar techniques and genre to make them successful in the music genre of which they both were very popular in the global music industry Number 1/2 in a number of European and worldwide countries. This means that we can use this information and research that we have learn't to see the affective characteristics and techniques used in the music videos which might be affective in our music video such as using Black and White frames which is used in both music videos which have been researched and studied.

There is a number of sub-culture theories such as McCracken, CCCS and Dick Hebdige which use a selected structure to make the music video successful and affective. Dick Hebidge was a media theorist and sociologist who made theories as resistance against the mainstream of society and the music industry. Hebidge was a student who studied a master's degree at the Centre for Contemporary Culture Studies of which be become influential and best known for the book in sub cultural studies 'Subculture: The Meaning of Style' which was originally implying that although some people think sub-culture only appear to be different but deep down they are the same, he says that if you look into all ideas there is enough richness to warrant renaming 'sub-culture' as 'little cultures'. This means that due to him going to the research centre that he has formed the same theory even after his own judgement and came to the same conclusion.
 

Grant McCracken was the director of the institute of Contemporary Culture and senior lecturer at the Harvard Business School and his theory which is used during the post modern world in the music industry which is full of diversity, dynamism and creative which means that there is more variety in the production of visuals with the narrative of the song. McCraken's theory states that if we look at an array of values and ideologies with the different music genres. Therefore, all the sub-cultures can't come from the same one culture, this idea was written in a number of books 'Culture and Consumption, 'Culture and Consumption II' and 'Chief Culture Officer'. This shows that he has a wealth of experience and ideas that have given him strong knowledge to make a very knowledgeable judgement on cultural ideas of the music industry and genres. Finally, being a lecturer at Harvard Business School means that he could have formed new ideas or changed the theory but didn't which his decision more strong foundations and idealistic.

 

 

The Centre for Contemporary Culture Studies (CCCS) was the research centre of the University of Birmingham which was formed in 1964 with similar theories of Thedor Adorno who believed in music genres becoming 'Standardised'. The theory was that people rebel from the mainstream industry of which it assumes that all sub-cultures come from one culture due to the reaction of mainstream industry. This means that the research centre was able to do in-depth planning and exploration with investigating the genres cultures.

Questionnaire, Vox Pops Interview & Evaluation

Questionnaires are important when looking into producing a music video to make sure that you have reliable research and planning to match the video to the correct target audience and making the material including the genre characteristics that match the audience which the video would appeal to the most people. The questionnaire has for example ‘Do you like seeing C.G.I in the video?’. This is important because many new releases to the music industry have included C.G.I in their material which means that the result will mean that we will need to match the music video on what the audience (General Public) wants to see in a music video.

The group surveyed 40 random selection people of the general public, which meant that each member of the group had 10 people to ask. This meant that the result would be a range of opinions because we are all from different areas in area (Loughton, Chigwell, Buckhurst Hill and Woodford). This meant that we would have an overall opinion compared to a selected area that would normally only listen to a music genre or artist. We believed that this was very important because then are material would appeal to a large target audience from different geographical areas and therefore potential be from different cultures, ideas and traditions. Therefore, this will hopefully attract a bigger market from the genre to listen to the song. I decided to create spreadsheet charts and graphs from the questionnaire results because it meant that the group could visually, understand and look at the relative information and make a decision easier due to the result found about the music video which we are going to produce.

‘Are you Male or Female?’ is our gender question because we wanted to appeal to the female genre because we believe that in recent years there has been more of a target market for songs that are mainly aimed at women. Therefore, we selected the amount of women as 25, but there will be a selection of males that want to watch the artist’s music so we will cater for them additionally. This was essential because without appealing to both audiences this will be limited to the target market the product has to the amount of viewers.

The question of ‘How old are you?’ was of wide selection of ages because we want to appeal the music at a wide target audience and this means that it will need to have selected genre characteristics and mise-en-scene which may offend or harm a range of audiences such as the artists Eminem or Rihanna. We had a larger amount of people aged 17-35 because this is the audience which has the biggest target audience market and be the most popular and profitable for the music video that we will be producing for the most profitable market in the music industry. Also, the market means that due to the group members being in the target audience age range means that we can include our ideas which appeal to us in a music video so this suggests we can us are preferred characteristics through-out the video.

'What is your favourite Genre?' is an important question for the questionnaire because the results relates to the music genre we select due to the amount of target audience/market which listen to the music video. Also, the results show what the majority of the general public of all age ranges listen to in the music industry this helps us gain a better understanding for what song genre/music video would appeal to the widest target audience. The results have suggested that 45% of the people surveyed want/listen to the Alternative music genre which includes artists such as U2, Blur and Oasis which are some of the greatest bands of all time. This means that artists of this genre are typically very popular and have a wide audience. These results means that the music videos for this genre have a wide range of genre characteristics this is beneficial to us because we can use only the ideas which are relative to the style of song and the narrative and story of which the artist wants to convey to the target audience.

'Do you like new releases?' this is an important question which relates to the age of the music video because it shows the majority of people that listen and watch music videos prefer songs which aren't modern in the charts of the overall music industry or a selected music genre. This implies that having a song that is recently released or in the charts isn't essential in terms of appeal to the target audience. Additionally, the research will be used in our music video production because it shows that older music releases then chart singles also appeal still to the target audience of which will be aiming the material towards in the market.

'What emotions do you like the artist to convey?' results would have a direct affect on my music video because this question is what the target audience wants the production to represent. Also, the results will show the style and mood of the songs narrative, so the results will affect the meaning of the song also whether it is about love, death, sadness or Happiness. This means that it is a major question that will make it successful and aim to the target audience and has a massive affect on the way we represent the songs narrative via the visuals in the music video.

'What tempo do you look for in a music video?' is an important question because it will show our group a major aspect which the video has to be like, for example Ed Sherran typically has a slow paced music in his narrative to make it emotional and give the target audience a connection to the song. Also, the pace helps in making the video sucessful due to it making the relationship between the tempo and emtions that the artist wants to represent strong.The results mean that we will aim the song to have a slow paced narrative and typically a love, romance or sadness emotion because the material will challenge sucessful videos in the market.  


'Do you like seeing the artists lifestyle?' was decided to get research about because we believed that many music genre characteristics from a variety of genres have the artists lifestyle. The results showed that this is a very popular idea which increase the amount of people watching the music video because they want to see and be like the artist. Also, the audience of the 21st Century believe that the music industry has a large amount of roles models and we think that we must represent the artist in the production. Therefore, we will apeal more to the target audience which think that showing them the artists lifestyle, this implies that in comparison to the narrative and visuals it will mean that they will look at them like role models not just in the music industry but in general.

Vox Pops Interviews we believe is important when surveying the general public that the group have not just the results but their opinions of what they want in a music video because then it means that we can include what they want in our music video. Also, the research increase our knowledge of the results and implies that we have a better understand and knowledge of the large market of our production material. The Vox Pops interview is a visual video which made the group have a better understanding of what the target audience wanted in the music video and talked about their feelings for the selected question compared to questionnaire which only asks for one answer questions.


All of this considered, the research task went very well with the entire group knowing it was an essential part of the making and planning of the music video. This meant that we had a more detail prospective on the target audience and the characteristics which needed to be included in the music video production to appeal to the market which the material would be in due to the music genre. Also, the Vox Pops interview shows us the look and image of which are target audience/viewers for example Gothic genre audience stereotypically have black hair, Goth clothes and crazy make-up.

Corporation - SonyME, Finders Keepers Records

I shall be looking at the music industry with Sony Music Entertainment (SonyME) and Finders Keepers Records. I will argue that global institutions dominate the music industry but smaller companies often can cater to Niche audiences more successfully as they often understand their audience better than large global institutions. I will be examine how models of production, distribution and consumption have changed from the past to the present and the implications of future developments. I will argue that technological convergence has had a massive effect on the music industry and how illegal downloading has meant that sales in the music industry has dropped. However,the growing boom in DIY 'Remix' Culture' (Web 2.0/Sound-Cloud) brought about by cheap digital technology has meant that the music industry is moving swiftly in a direction that has seen some roles become redundant.


; I will be looking at the global institution that dominates the UK market. It is a large multinational global corporation, which is part of an oligopoly. There are four major labels that dominate the music industry – EMI, Universal and Warner with SongME being the 2nd largest music corporation (22% Share). They are a castle industry and a conglomerate with other business holding in Electronics, Films and Finance with Music being one of their largest areas. They are an example of a converged mutli-national media institution because they control not only the music production but make the technology – mobile phones, MP3 players an Blu-Ray discs (this is vertical integration). The audiences they appeal to have a broad commercial appeal – they target their audience’s by the use of subsidiary labels – three of the largest are RCA, Columbia and EPIC Records. Secondary research I did showed that each subsidiary ha a target audience – EPIC Record artists appeals to an older audience with artists like Michael Jackson, Columbia Records appeal to a younger rock audience and have artist like Kings of Leon and Kassabian, where RCA appeals to a young R&B/Urban audience with artists like Shakira and Beyonce.

They successfully use Synergy to cross promote their different services – an example of synergy is Foo Fighters on RCA being used on Guitar Hero – a video game designed for the Sony PlayStation. They also use Sony artists in mainstream films made by Sony pictures such as Will Smith – a Columbia records artist, being used on the ‘Men In Black’ soundtrack. All of these artists have a board commercial appeal for a wide audience. In the past SonyME have merged with other subsidiary labels by buying them out (Which is Horizontal Integration). SonyME own hundreds of subsidiary labels however they have had recently been sued by many labels and have had to consolidate their music labels into just RCA Records. Globally the Sony Corporation is losing a lot of money and this partly is due to the effects of illegal downloading. SonyME are looking to the future and have recently struck deals with many new web 2.0 web companies such as Youtube and Vevo which allows audience to watch SonyME musicians online. The Sony Qriocity Film and Music on demand is a new service, which allows audiences to access Sony Music and films through an online shop (Many music high street shops have closed) similar to the Apple product iTunes to maximise its profits as CD and DVD sales are rapidly declining in demand. The music industry has changed dramatically with the rise of cheap digital technology and smaller record labels can reduce costs by using the internet to target their audiences, Sony still are the cutting edge technology manufacturers of which had in the previous decades popular products such as the Sony Walkman, Discman and PlayStation made their reputation. However, technology convergence has meant that the multi-functionality of mobile phones has become a huge growth market and SonyME are well placed to use Synergy of their music artists and knowledge of the music industry to push their music onto the audience of both the target audience of the songs and the products which they produce.

Finders Keepers Records are a small industry run by three people in Manchester who do everything themselves, where as a major label would have many different departments. They cater to a Niche Market that Sony ME cant not reach with their mainstream artist. They are a re-issue label who release obscure film soundtrack music, and other types of world music. Their audience is 'DJ's, record collectors and music producers' and they often only release records in small batches of 200-300 by mail order through their websites shop. They rely on word of mouth and reviews in music magazines to reach their audience. Finders keepers could not motivated like SonyME and their running costs unlike SonyME are small. Finders Keepers also have subsidiary label to cater for different audiences - 'Twisted Nerve' is a subsidiary for local Manchester bands that they promote. Finder Keepers licensee old records and often re-design the artwork which is done in house. They know their audience prefers physical Vinyl records/CD's with detailed sleeve notes rather than downloads. They will also work with independent record shops and other online retailers like BoomKat. Technological convergence effects them less but illegal downloading has had an impact on their small sales.

The UK music industry is dominated by the 4 companies EMI, Universal, Warner and. This means that the majority of artists in the UK Music Market are on these record labels and have a standardized format of which will make the artists affective and make the label money in the music industry. Therefore, as a result the music genres of artists has a framework of which will make the artist make sales an SonyME d be successful for the record label. Thedor Adorno in the 1930's predicted that Jazz music was becoming 'standardized' the same is true of the artists that SonyME work with as they are only interested in commercial artists. This means that the popular music industry is watered down of creativity and innovation. Niche Markets are often not catered for by SonyME but by the independent record labels such as Finders Keepers Records. Independent record labels are successful as major label but due to the size of the corporation being not as large with artists, sales and employment is means that on the scale they are proportionally successful with the amount of revenue received by sales. But, using independent labels to build a stronger fan base to expand into the market such as Soulja Boy who made 'Crank That' from the independent label Mr. Coolipark, the song made Number 1 in the US BillBoard Hot 100 and Rap songs with Number 2 in the UK and New Zealand music Charts. This shows that independent record label artists can become very popular and be in the Singles Charts in a range of countries. Independent record labels offer Niche Market items with music being aimed at DJ's, Record collectors and music producers which are only released in small batches of 200-300. In the past big record labels would act as 'gatekeepers' and only permit access to the music industry of commercial artists. However, due to audiences becoming more active they produce music and share globally often building an audience and bypassing major record labels all together. and

Censorship - Eminem

Censorship of music is when a country can stop a song or video from being broadcast on the radio or Television. In the United Kingdom the Minister of Information has an approved regulatory authority called Ofcom which looks across television, radio, telecoms and postal sector which they look at all media forms and judge whether it should be banned due to racism, language, morals or events which in the interests of the British citizens and consumers might find harmful or offensive. The look through all complaints by viewers or listeners of media forms of which are produced in films, music or music videos. This means that music artists have to make a piece of work which doesn’t break the barriers otherwise it will be stopped for example Rihanna cause controversy with her music video ‘We Found Love’ which included Drug smoking, shoplifting, gambling, sex and drinking alcoholic drinks which meant that it was banned from the mass audience and could only be viewed with permission.

The Rap genre artists push the barriers because a lot of their music is representing and showing the audience the life or a story which has affected. This means that for example Eminem says that its freedom of speech and entertainment which shouldn’t be taken seriously but show what people go through in their lives, he believed that if someone takes the music he produces enough to act on a selected song then they would do so anyway. Also, if parents look after their children and show them guidance of how to not live your life or drugs, sex and drinking then society wouldn’t be affected by the popular music genre.

Shady Records is Eminem’s Record Label of which he founded so that he has no risk of losing a contact due to things included in a music video and he can say what he wants because he owns the label and he is very popular with high sale revenue for the style of music he produces.

The music videos he produces normally push the boundaries of all other mainstream Rap artists due to the Record Label, this means that Music Channels like MTV have to encourage positive issues and not harmful things to society of which means that they don’t play his videos on a regular basis or skip them in the Chart songs because due to MTV having a large range of target audience of all genres selected words may offend and loose the channel viewers. This is different to AKA music channel which only show the Rap Genre music which is a Niche market of the music industry but has a large amount of viewers. This means that the channel regular can show the videos because he is a massive mainstream artist of whom lots of people want to watch and listen to his material.

Radio stations are similar to music channels however, the artist like Eminem and Cee-Loo Green make Radio edits so that it can be listened to by all the audience of the radio. This means that parents don’t have to worry about the radio influencing what might come out to a child’s mouth without them knowing the meaning. Additionally, the station might lose viewers unless they have a clean version due to the large amount of ages and target audience which listen to stations like Radio 1, Capital FM, Heart or Magic. This is different to stations like Kiss or kerrange who have a small target audience due to it being a Niche Market to that the station as a large amount of boundary breaking issues due to what the target audience want to listen to on the radio.

Eminem is typically aimed at a teenage audience with many of his target audience finding him popular, of which they might think that censorship doesn’t let the artist express their emotions and that the audience cant connect with the artists thoughts. This suggests that it will decrease popularity for his music because people wont believe his meaning in the music video. On the other hand, many of his audience believe that he has good music and this is shown by the mount of awards he has achieved but doesn’t need to talk about celebrities or issues which may offend many with hidden meanings with reference to looks, religion, beliefs or personally. This suggests that the artist’s music can be popular without the need to include inappropriate comments which means that it causes negative impression to the album and can cause problems with the sales revenue or popular of a selected song due to a small amount of narrative.

Eminem can be looked at as a role model not due to his language or style of inadequate music videos but that it doesn’t matter where you come from you can still entrain and become famous even if you have a criminal record or a poor life style e.g. failed at school, family died or signal parent. This means that he is a role model for all people that have no achievements or ambitions, which they wish to be successful in the music industry.

The target audience of Eminem’s material are normal teenagers due to the songs narrative being rebellious of which the audience want to be like, this means that most parents will be mostly against Rap genre music including Eminem’s material of which implies that the language and visuals are unnecessary for not needing to do so, which might cause them copy language or copy what he does in the visuals of the music videos such as space bound when he shoots himself or talking about committing suicide. However, parents may believe that they are only lyrics and a video of entrainment which shows the life of someone with nothing, if you bring up your children correctly then it won’t affect them but improve the way people act and other lives which haven’t been so easy in society and the community.

Another example of a band which has had their music censored is The Killers song 'Mr Brightside', which includes a large amount of adult language and humor. This means that they produced an additional radio edit which wasn't exploit to appeal to the younger audience and so that it could be listened to on the radio. As a result of the songs narrative and visuals being censored it led to being Number 1 in the UK Indie Charts. Therefore, if a song is censored it is likely to be more successful in the market but don't convey fully what the artist was trying to represent in the music video.



Overall, the artists which produce material which has a large amount of offensive or harmful issues has many different opinions whether it should be promoted due to it being seen by people it might offend or change in society. Therefore, in the UK the Government have Ofcom which regulate and censor all material from artists like Eminem or Rihanna.I think that all of the music industry should apply to censorship because I believe that a lot of the music material which is produced in the 21st Century they have become very explicit. This can be dangerous for society and the younger community because music artists are now role models and using bad language, drugs, drink and sex means that ideas, beliefs and traditions change.