PLANNING:
ARTIST IMAGE
Genre ideas:
The genre of our music video is Indie Jazz/Blues, therefore, we intend
to follow the main conventions as well as challenge some of them, by making our
artist conventional to other jazz and blues artists, such as Lana Del Rey, Amy
Winehouse and Paloma Faith who are artists that have an original style of
performing. Similarly, our artist will also reflect originality, through our
use of mise en scene. We will ensure that our artist looks confident and
professional at first through her body language and facial expressions. Then
through the use of make-up (that she will smudge) and the iconography of
alcohol, we will portray her as a disheartened and sorrowful person which
people struggling with addiction and emotional issues can relate to. However,
we will also challenge stereotypes by allowing our artist to fulfil her
self-disruptive longings through the song and themes, which is not evident in
all Jazz and blues music videos, due to artists following conventions. By
challenging genre conventions, we are likely to make the artist more successful
and popular due to them becoming more noticeable by their fans, and the
mainstream audience.
Morals and Values:
We want our artist to cause controversy in her morals because the Indie
genre in well known to be controversial and left-wing in their representations.
We want to attract our target audience through the true and original artist, which
will show that they carry their own values and are not afraid to stand up for
them, even if it makes them different form the mass. It is important that the
artist is able to portray her own persona to match Dyer’s theory of ‘ordinary
and extra-ordinary’, because then we will attract and appeal to everyday people.
She should also be able to express her true self to the audience by being open
about personal issues and addictions as people will be able to feel like they
are not alone and can look up to celebrities that struggle.
Media perception:
Our artist is inspired by Amy Winehouse and Lana Del Rey. Both of these
stars are respected within the industry and media. Therefore, she will be
identified as a good performer in the industry rather than a fully established
star. This is due to her lacking ultimate popularity and not being noticed by a
mainstream audience. As a result, our artist will be perceived as niche, rather
than mainstream, as she will express her different views and values which may
be viewed as intense and sincere by certain audiences. Also, she will not be in
the public eye as much as the mainstream artists, due to her being relatable to
the audience though her normality and lack of consistent fame. Moreover, our
artist will express her true self to the audience, rather than being portrayed
as 'fake', which is important when it comes to the audience forming an opinion
about an artist. Amy Winehouse and Lana Del Rey similarly expresses their true
self to the audience through their unique image which is evident in the media,
newspapers and magazines and are not afraid of the critique for their action as
they have their loyal fan base.
Similar Artists:
·
Lana Del Rey
·
Paloma Faith
·
Amy Winehouse
These solo female artists have inspired us when constructing our own
female performer. We want our artist to have a sophisticated look at first to
assert her class. However, when the audience look closer they will be able to
see a softer side to her, as if seeing different ‘layers’ to the artist and see
her in various ways. This will help to add originality to the artist and get
rid of monotony as the audience is always displayed to a different side of her
and everyone will be able to identify with the performer.
In our
production we want our artist to dress like a classy woman who is clearly
financially stable and doesn’t lack money/ possessions etc. This will create a
sense of superiority and intimidation from her and the audience will admire and
aspire to be like her. However, during the music video, she will reject all
that and show that she doesn’t truly care for her possessions but wants love and
companionship. This challenges conventions as typically people long for wealth
and success but she actively rejects that. This is typical of an indie/ blues
artist as conventionally many niche artists often repel the mainstream values
and chose to live by their own individualistic morals. Similarly, to the
costume, the artist will also have a classy make up, consisting of light facial
and eye highlights but red lips, similarly to Lana. However, during the video,
she will smudge it away to imply her rejection of 
Our Artist:
In our production we plan to create an accurate image of a typical indie
blues artist to fulfil audience expectations. We decided to use myself as the
artist because we believe that I will be able to fulfil the role of an indie blues
artist. I will take on the role of an unhappy woman who is longing for
companionship. In order to reflect that she will have a miserable facial
expression and a wretched body language. I will convey controversial values and
challenge some mainstream conventions which will fit the indie/ blues genre. In
addition, I look old enough to be the character we want to portray but at the
same time I have a young look which will bring older and younger audiences
together. Lastly I have experience in acting which will help me to convey the
role of the main artist and portray a realistic character to the audience.
Link to Theory:
- · Hebdige: First off, audience engagement can be applied to our product. Engagement is linked to Hebdige theory. He stated that different people can react in different ways to the same stimuli, or a media product in this particular case. This can be linked to his subculture theory and how different groups of people react similarly within their group but differently to other groups, if exposed to the same media text. This means that audience has the power to engage in different media in their own individualistic way, based on their own memories or traits. This makes them an active consumer who can make their own choices and decisions. This is common for indie genre as such niche genre has a loyal fan base who actively selects to listen to such music as they are not fed with it from the media. Furthermore, the artist could be categorized into a subculture as she is clearly an individual who isn’t afraid to reject common values. For example, she rejects money and wealth for the sake of her own wellbeing and emotional happiness.
- · Goodwin: Our idea will be associated with Goodwin's theory as we will follow the features he has identified which include: genre characteristics will be conveyed through the artist’s costume. The star will have their own individual image, with dark attributes from the makeup, and a mysterious persona from her body language and facial expressions.
- · Aristotle: The themes of youth, morality and consumerism are very common within today’s society and people will be able to identify with it. The theme of youth will evoke audience’s emotion as they will feel nostalgic about their own past, which will gain the artist a sympathetic response. The idea of morality will engage the audience as they will be able to judge the decisions the artist makes and actively respond to the product. Lastly the theme of consumerism is very applicable to today’s society. Clearly the artist is rejecting all her possessions and shows that products are not important and don’t give you happiness.
- · Dyer: Our artist will be portrayed as a performer as she will promote her moral ideologies throughout the music video. As suggested by Dyer ‘A star should be ordinary and extraordinary’, meaning that we will portray our artist as someone the audience will be able to relate to, for example her drug addiction and emotional issues, but extraordinary because she will be a talented singer.
- · Mulvey: We will not utilize Mulvey’s theory or ‘Male Gaze’ as the artist will not expose her attributes for heterosexual males and the camera will not linger around her assets. This is conventional for an indie/ blues music video because niche genres often promote equality and value the music instead of body selling.
Conclusion:
Planning our artist representation has been extremely beneficial for us,
as we now have a clear idea of how we want our artist to be portrayed, which is
to express her difficult situation. We are also now more aware of which similar
artists we want our artist to reflect which is Lana Del Rey, Paloma Faith and
Amy Winehouse who all differ from mainstream artists and can create controversy
at times through their truthful and varying representation. Now that we
are aware of this, we will ensure our artist is portrayed in the correct way,
making her niche but also mainstream, through media perception which will allow
the audience to notice her and the fact that she has her own style of music and
an original persona. Creating the right artist image is important in the long
term as the audience should be able to identify the artist from the offset,
identifying their beliefs, values and persona, which should not continuously
change as it could turn the audience against the artist. Without planning our
artist representation, we would not be able to link our artist to certain theories
such as Goodwin and Hebdige who promote important factors within their
theories, that should be evident within all music videos. Therefore, by
planning our artist representation, we have now identified which
characteristics our artist will follow and which theories will apply to her
role.
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