BRANDING/RECORD LABEL RESEARCH

A record label is a brand that is associated with the marketing of music artists, music records and music videos.
Def Jam Recordings
Def Jam recordings is renowned as one of the largest and most successful record labels around. It focusses on the genres of hip-hop and the urban side of music.

Def Jam recordings is owned by 'Universal Music Group.'

Def Jam was founded Russel Simmons, Rick Rubin and LL Cool J who is a hip-hop artist himself so has a large amount of knowledge about the industry from his own experiences.

Jay-Z was signed to this record label and then became part of the running of the record label where he introduced new artists such as Kanye West, Big Sean, Rihanna and Ne-Yo.

The Def Jam recordings logo is a basic black and white, sans serif logo where the capital 'D' and 'J' stand out. As the record label is the hip-hop genre most artists will have their own DJ's so this is relevant if the DJ is the boldest part of the logo.

Def Jam recordings are a large brand where they have signed some of the greatest hip hop artists in the industry which have made them a large and well respected brand. Similarly, the artists signed also help Def Jam recordings to be the big brand that it is today.

As Jay-Z and Kanye West are both part of Def Jam records, this genre of music will be the basis of our music video.

Young Money Entertainment

Young Money Entertainment is a record label that was founded by the rapper Lil Wayne. He runs this record label with the help of one of his friends who has a lot of knowledge about the music industry. The record label expanded from Cash Money Records and is distributed by Republic Records. The genre of music revolves around the genre of rap and hip hop. This is shown by the artists that are signed to the record label, these include Nicki Minaj, Tyga, Drake, Lil Twist and DJ Khaled.

The Young Money Entertainment logo consists of a larger image accompanied with the record labels name situated at the bottom. The main logo that is larger and in bold has the letters 'Y' and 'M' merged into one which represents Young Money. This logo is similar to that of the New York Logo which is in the same font but merged 'N' and 'Y' together, these two logos are very similar. At the bottom of the Young Money logo is a serif, decorative font reads 'Young Money' and beneath that reads 'Entertainment' in a sans serif font which is more serious and looks like more of a statement.

Young Money Entertainment is a similar brand and music genre to our music video and is also a similar genre to Def Jam Recordings. The rap and hip-hop genre is what our music video and song choice is based around.

Victory Records

Victory Records is a record label founded by Tony Brummel in Chicago. Victory Records works with other major music distributors such as Amazon, Best Buy and Hot Topic, music by the artists associated with Victory Records can find their albums and singles on iTunes. Victory Records varies in the genres of the music their artists produce, this makes the distribution of music to an even wider audience where there are more genres of music available.

Streetlight Manifesto, Thursday, Hawthorne Heights and A Day to Remember are all artists that are signed to Victory Records.

The Victory Records logo is quite retro where it seems quite oldfashioned in the layout and colour scheme used. The use of a bulldog also seems quite aggressive where the record label may be showing that they're not scared to compete in the market and that they're record label should be taken seriously. All the text is in sans serif writing and the colour scheme only consists of the colours blue, white and black.

Unlike Def Jam recordings and Young Money Entertainment, Victory Records are not a well established brand where they do not have any major artists signed to their record label. This means they are less known in the music industry and as a result no major artists would sign with this record label.

Island Records

Island Records are a record label founded by Chris Blackwell and Graeme Goodall in Jamaica. It was situated in the UK for a number of years before being taken over by Universal Music Group in 1998. Island Records has various genres from the artists that are signed to the record label, but the genres are mainly rock and pop.

Iggy Azaela, Akon, Fall Out Boy, Rizzle Kicks, Queen and Dizzee Rascal are all music artists that are currently signed to Island Records.

The Island Record logo relates to the name of the record label where the image is a simple black and white picture of a palm tree on an island, with 'ISLAND' written underneath in simple, black, sans serif text. Overall, the logo is not too complex.

Similarly to Def Jam recordings and Young Money Entertainment, Island Records are another well-known, well respected, established brand. Although Island Records focuses on a different genre of music, it is still a big record label that major artists would sign with due to their reputation and brand and how they overall represent themselves in the music industry.

MUSIC CONSUMPTION

SPECIAL EFFECTS RESEARCH

Green Screening

I firstly looked at green screening and different examples of clips from movies where they have used a green screen on a much larger scale to create a bigger, better and much more professional setting. Green screening is used in most movies and videos because it has many benefits if you use it correctly for example it is easier to set up a green screen and change the location rather than going to each location to do each shot and get it right, lets you easily change the background if you decide to go with another idea and lets you be creative with what you can put behind then subject. 

I then looked at different videos on how to set up a green screen, tips when filming and how to edit to help with our video incase we decided to use a green screen. 

I learnt by watching videos on green screening that there are many things to think about for example a very basic thing that you need to make sure of is that you are wearing clothes that are not close to the colour of your screen in the background otherwise your subject will not be clear or seen when you add a background. When setting up the green screen you need to make sure that there are no creases and an even colour green screen which may cause shadows and also use lighting so that your subject is not dark and against the background making it even. When you come to actually shooting the video use a fast shutter speed to make sure that there is no motion blurring and therefore making it harder to key and mixed with your background. When editing you need to make sure you get rid of anything that isnt meant to be there around the subject to make it look more realist to the background but make sure you dont get rid of any of the person to make it look unnatural. By changing the colour, lighting and saturation you can make the person match the background even better. 

I then looked at different special effects, editing techniques and tutorials on how to use and edit using Final Cut Pro by watching a variety of different videos on youtube. It has really helped me to gain a better understanding of how to use the software and things we need to think about when we come to editing our video. I firstly looked at a videos on the basic things for example how to insert videos and also what keyboard methods I could use to make it easier and quicker when it comes to using Final Cut Pro. I then looked at a video talking about the positives and negitives of final cut pro to gain a better understanding before looking at more videos on how to use the software in more detail for example how to cut and move clips and changing the colour.

 

 

 

AUDIENCE PROFILES

The target audience for the Rock music genre currently in the music industry ranges from the age of 20-45 where typically older audiences listen to rock music, but as well a large amount of younger audiences say this is their favourite genre, saying they like the films school of rock, including Jack Black.

Name: Ben

Age: 23

Occupation: Unemployed, buskin everyday from 2-4pm

Hobbies: playing guitar, hanging out with friends, listening to music and creating his own rock music on his computer at home.

Ben is typical of someone from the Rock genre of music as his interest portray his choice in music as well as the appearance he has of himself. He typically wears black leather jackets, converse shoes, jeans as well as having long blonde hair with a bandana in.

The target audience for R&B music genre in the music industry currently is the age range of 16-30 whereby R&B music can be appealing to both younger and older audiences. A large amount of R&B music is liked throughout all age groups as R&B is a main part of the genres of music we hear on a daily basis, e.g. on the radio.

Name: Andre

Age: 19

Occupation: backing dancer and vocalist

Hobbies: singing, dancing, increasing his abilities in order to make it in the R&B genre of music, fashion

Andre is typical of someone from the R&B genre of music as he is well dressed, takes pride in his appearance and his hobbies include all of the main aspects which are stereotypical of someone from the genre.

 

The target audience for the Country genre of music currently in the music industry today is the ages from 24 to 60 years of age. This is because Country music is typically more liked and appreciated by the older audience who understand the lyrics and the meaning of the song, although saying this many younger audiences like Country music, this may be from the fact they were brought up listening to the music from a child.

Name: Barry

Age: 49

Occupation: Lorry driver

Hobbies: gardening, singing, helping others.

Barry is typical of someone in the country genre of music as he is portrayed as caring and nice, no violence is shown in country music. Also his clothing is typical as he is wearing a shirt, with jeans and a cowboy hat which is stereotypical.

The target audience of the Pop genre of music is from the ages of 12-21. The age range starts quite young as when people start listening to music from a young age this is their preference of genre of music, it isn’t too extreme as rock nor too old styled as country music. The age range does increase where it is still popular within the industry although not too popular that is appealing to older people past 21 years old. 

Name: Ellie

Age: 14 years old

Occupation: still in education

Hobbies: collecting posters and magazines of favorite artists, listening to music.

Ellie is typical of someone from the Pop genre as she is quite young in age as well as being quite sweet and naive.

The target audience of Rap/Hip-Hop is 16-25 years old. This is where this age starts to experiment with different genres of music they may have not been allowed to listen to before. This genre includes swearing and violent thoughts, which are not suitable for younger audiences. Rap/Hip-hop genre represents what actually happens in the real world and is very truthful about the events happening in the world today, e.g. death, drugs.

 

Name: Josh

Age: 19

Occupation: college studying musical theatre

Hobbies: making music, dance and singing

Josh is stereotypical of someone from the Rap/Hip-Hop genre as he is of a different ethnicity, which is the main stereotype. He is older and is more able to understand rap as its own genre and understand the topics covered.

RESEARCHING MUSIC LABELS

Music labels are a brand or trademark connected with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Music labels are often publishing companies that control productions, manufacturing, distribution, promotions and enforcing copyright for sound recordings and music videos.

The major music labels manage well know artists, these are Warner Music Group, EMI, Sony Music Entertainment and Universal music group.

Universal Music group was founded in 1934 as Decca Records USA and is one of the largest American music corporations. The institution is located globally, in Los Angeles, Hollywood, New York, London, France and more.  Universal Music group have signed a number of well known artists for a variety of different genres, these being artists such as 50 cent, Akon, Amy Winehouse, Coldpaly and Kanye West. UMG  operates as a subsidiary company and owns Universal Music Publishing Group, this being the second largest publishing company in the world.

Warner Music group is another American major global record company, headquartered in the city of New York. he cooperation is know as one of the 'big three' recording companies, signing artists such as  Gnarls Barkley, Cher, Madonna, Muse, Frank Sinatra and many more. The institution was founded in 1958 as Waner Bros. Records. with over 3,000 employees, and a revenue of  $2.7 billion. in 2010 Warner formed a partnership with MTV networks, this being another major cooperation that overtook Vevo (currently a music channel) as the top online music video sharing network. Showing the combination between record labels and other medias such as television also known as media convergence.

There are three main types of Labels produced, this being Vanity Labels where the artist will control nothing more than the usage of the name on the label, Sublabel which refers to group artists, and finally Independent recored labels (or indie), that release any non-mainstream music regardless of large corporations. Within the music industry, upcoming arts are becoming increasingly reliant on record labels to widen their target audience and consumers, to distribute their newest products among a largely spread area. When researching music/record labels it shows that with the advanced technology like the internet, hard copies of CD sales are plummeting, therefore, need to move with other media technologies to distirbute their products to suit their target audience.

MAKING THE VIDEO

 

 

 

 

From watching the making of, tips and how to videos i learn some key things we need to include when it comes to planning, filming and editing our video. I feel researching into how other people have made music videos will really help when we come to making our own video. Firstly we need to think of is what the consept of our video is going to be by listening to the song and lyrics over and over again to figure what it is that we want and weather it will go with the tone and theme of the song. Then we need to plan in depth what we are going to film by doing a story board, where the locations are going to be, when we are going to film, who will be in it our video and their information and what equipment and props we will need to film. By planning we will be more organised when it comes to filming our video and will know exactly what we need to get shots of,  where and how long for. The main thing we need to do when we are filming is to make sure we have plentey of shots of what we need so that we have alot to work with when we start to edit as if we do not have enough we would have to go back to the locations with out equipment adn actors to re film. Another thing i learnt that would help to make the lip syncing look better is to have the music playing while you are filming so it becomes easier to sync up when we are editing. Then finally when we come to editing we need to be sure that we know how to use Final Cut Pro properly to  get the most out of it. I noticed that usually in music videos the cut between clips is in time and with the beat of the music, the lip syncing is in time with the music and there are many diffrent second long clips that cup between eachother.  

OTHER STUDENTS MUSIC VIDEO ANALYSIS

 

 

ANALYSIS OF MUSIC WEBSITES

These are examples of different music websites of well know artists such as Beyonce, Olly Murs and Bastille.

Own Analysis of Music Website

Own layout of a music webpage

Showing what a typical website would include and what is expected in a website 

POSTER ANALYSIS

When analyzing Olly Murs poster, it is clear to the audience he is seen as the stereotypical ladies man with his overall appearance and positioning.
 

The way the photographers have arranged the artist suggest he is a playful cheeky person, as the image is slightly tilted, giving the image a different perspective. However they have chosen to dress the celebrity in smart clothing and shows him holding his hat, which suggests to the target audience he is a gentleman.

They have also included his logo, it shows the letters O and M with a hat resting on the top, it is clear they have positioned the artist with the same look.
 

The artist is positioned against a plain blue background, with text in a white san serif font, making a clear juxtaposition/contrast between the two.

One direction are a stereotypical teenage boy band, this poster portrays this as they a dresses quite young in bright coloured clothes. They all have similar facial expressions of happy smiles which can be used to reflect their personalities.
 

The logo represents the bands name, the colour red is often used to symbolize love, this can be seen as the band get a lot of female attention.

 

They have used a serif font, this could be to emphasis that they are of the younger generation. The font for the logo is quite edgy to.

 

In comparison with the other posters (shown above) The Beatles poster is shown as plain with a black and white edit. The four males are shown walking down a street in smart suits, the positioning (walking along) could suggest the journey they have been through in the music career and how they are expressing this to their target audience.

 

Looking at this poster, the overall appearance gives the impression they have a target audience of the older generation as there is not use of eye catching colours to anchor its audience.

 

The logo uses a san serif font, it is shown in black to stand out against the white background. As The Beatles are a very famous band, the logo (along with other artists logos) will be used on various other products to represent the band, expand over forms of media and to bring further income to the institutions. The black and white effects gives a mature overall appearance of the band.

MUSIC CHANNELS

 

MTV is an American television channel based in New York City. The purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by television personalities. In its early years MTV’s main target demographic was young adults, but in recent years MTV broadcasts are primarily targeted to teenagers and adolescents. MTV has numerous extra channels attached to MTV itself this was in order to expand what is on offer; the extra channels play a variety of different genres. The extra channels include MTV Base, MTV Dance, MTV Rocks, MTV classic and MTV music.

The purpose of MTV was to play music 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But in recent years the amount of music videos MTV play has decreased where other technology was introduced which took the main way people watched music videos e.g. on youtube. This was due to MTV realizing they could make more money from non-music programming without the problem of privacy. MTV now play different programmes such as Teen Mom and Jersey Shore for a wider audience spread.

MTV appeals to a certain audience of mainly teenagers from around 16-19 more than any other age group, this is due to the TV shows it now plays which is demographically targeted towards the younger generation. 

4Music is a music and entertainment channel in the UK and is available on some digital television providers in the Republic of Ireland. The channel was launched on the 15th of August 2008, which replaced The Hits. 4Music appeals to a certain audience, where the target audience for 4Music is for the age group of 16-34 year olds, this is because it shows the top chart music videos, which are the main interest of this age group. 4Music play a variety of programmes which include 4Music Top 10, Fresh Music Top 20 and Your Official Top 20, the genres played are usually R&B, Pop, Hip-Hop tracks as these are the most common genres seen in the top 40 charts, these particular genres are played as they are the most popular within the music industry. There are certain time intervals where everyday the same programmes are shown, such as at 1.30pm The UK Music Video Charts are shown, at 2.20pm Midweek Mix Up are shown and at 4.00pm the UKHot40 are shown. Similar to MTV, 4Music also plays other television programmes for a wider viewing audience, they play programmes such as Keeping up with the Kardashians, Khloe and Lamar and Peep Show.

BRANDING

ONE DIRECTION

•One direction are a brand in the music industry whereby they use social media websites like twitter and facebook to interact with their fans, they have their own merchandise where they sell products such as t-shirts, hoodies, posters and bracelets.

•They have their own website where information about them and their concerts are contained, this is also available in different languages in order to cater for international fans. Also if you are from New Zealand you can pick the NZ option where you can read about One Direction in New Zealand.

•As well as these One Direction have their newest development out now, which are dolls made of each band member available for their fans to purchase.

The branding of the logo represents the band members in One Direction. The logo is bright and fun and the main colour is red which represents love and seems like romantic and nice, which the band members represent themselves as throughout the media.  

The font used in the logo is serif where there is an effect on the logo which does not look posh and looks more childlike which the band members are, this logo would therefore appeal more to the audience. The white and red are binary opposites making the writing of the logo be the main attention. This logo can be found on all One direction merchandise which makes it easy to identify the bands merchandise.                       

 

BRITNEY SPEARS 

• Britney spears has been in the media for many years, during this she has produces various things in order to become a brand within the media.

• She has produced many different perfumes which are mainly pink and blue colour showing a childlike and less sophisticated image of herself.

• As well as perfumes, Britney Spears has many merchandise available of herself to buy, these include main images of her and her name. Items such as hats are also available.

 • Britney spears’ logo was made to represent herself as an artist which also includes aspects of her personality.

• Her logo seems very girly where she has her name in a serif font which looks like a signature, the logo is in a pale pink colour which would be expected from her as an artist.
The logo is placed on a love heart which immediately implies that Britney Spears as an artist in the music industry who is very girly. 

This logo and in various different forms can be found on her merchandise. 

   


BEYONCE

 

• Beyonce is an international superstar where she is loved and respected all over the world, therefore as her empire expanded being a role model and great singer she became a brand within the media.

• Beyonce has her own website where news and events, her music and her clothes are situated.

• Beyonce has her own fragrances available to buy, has been the face for many make up products such as L'Oreal and her newest events are having a clothing line with H&M and advertising the Pepsi advert.

• The branding of Beyonces logo represents her as an artist and her personality as it is a classy black and white logo. The simple logo is not over complicated as it doesn’t have to be as Beyonce herself is already a known superstar.

 • The writing is sans serif which again portrays the idea of simplicity, class and sophistication.

 • Her main logo can be found on her merchandise but on her merchandise the main logo does not always have to be the main focus, this is because her merchandise can be identified as her own regardless whether the logo is there or not.

By looking at different brands of various artists currently in the music industry have influence me into thinking about my own brand for my artist and music video. I would not want a brand which seems very teenager and childlike like One direction, nor for it to seem too girly that it does not appeal to a wider demographic like Britney Spears. I would probably edge towards a brand similar to that of Beyonce, which is shown as sophisticated, classy and well respected.