Thursday, 30 September 2010

Target audience

After studying the Wu Tang Clan Myspace and looking at their fans i discovered that they have a very broad fan base, including a large variety of age groups and people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. The fan base of Wu Tang Clan also doesn't appear to be gender specific, after looking at the group's myspace page it became apparent that both genders share a keen interest in the group.


After viewing their Myspace page i have concluded that the target audience is very diverse and may be fairly hard to categorise.



I have some examples of the diversity of their fans on Myspace which i will demonstrate below.



On the left is male whose age is 42 and on the right is a female who is considerably younger at the age of 28, they are both clearly from different ethnic backgrounds, but despite their many differences there does seem to be one recurring pattern with the fans as a large majority of them are American. This may make



In an article by James Surowiecki evidence is presented that the Hip hop magazine market is growing in popularity (with 'Source magazine' leading the way)  as well as the genre itself. Because Wu Tang Clan have been featured in 'Source Magazine' on numerous occasions  i think it is important to take this expanding target audience into account so i am able to identify them and  target them more efficiently. I think it may also be useful to find out the brands and companies that advertise in this magazine "major advertisers now include DKNY, Calvin Klein, and Perry Ellis" as 'Source' focuses on the same genre as my music video, i think that finding out the demographic for brands advertising within this magazine will help me identify my target audience even further. With evidence both from the following article and the demographic of these brands i have discovered that audience is still diverse but prodomently focuses on males with interest in more streeet orientated music. Although it may be wrong to exclude certain racial groups completely i think i would be wiser to focus on the groups that evidence has shown have a greater interest in the genre such as the african-american social group.


..."But even if the rise to prominence of The Source -- the standard bearer -- and its competitors has been neglected in some circles, plenty of readers and advertisers are taking notice. There are more hip-hop magazines than ever before, they're more popular than ever before, and they're bristling with more ads than ever before, indicating a belief on the part of mainstream advertisers that hip-hop can no longer be seen as a niche market... The Source has seen its paid subscriptions, its single-copy sales, and its total circulation take double-figure jumps. Every month, The Source sells more copies on the newsstands than any other music magazine -- a remarkable 350,000 copies. In 1998, its circulation was up 13 percent (topping 400,000) and its ad pages were up 31 percent, even as the industry as a whole saw ad pages rise just 2.6 percent. Vibe, meanwhile, whose ad pages went up 11 percent in 1998, saw circulation jump almost 20 percent, to 600,650, after a 16 percent rise the year before; after Rolling Stone (circulation 1.25 million), it's the most-read music magazine in America."


The Source.
Age: although hard to catorgrise between(18-40)
Gender: 50/50
Class: C1, C2 and D
Nationality: american
Psychographics: individualists, aspirers and mainstreamers.



Demographics for Rolling Stones magazine.

Since Wu tang clan have featured on the cover of Rolling Stones magazine i thought it would be relevant and useful to find out the demographic of the magazine, the example below shows that there are more male readers of the magazine and that 18-49 year olds are the most likely age group to purchase the magazine. this information will be useful when trying to narrow down our target audience.

I have also obtained some more specific infomation such a marital status, ethnicity and occupation to help filter the target audience even further. Even though Rolling Stones magazine doesn't focus entirely on the same genre that i am researching it will help reinforce information i have already found out about the genres target audience.

Thursday, 23 September 2010

Permission.

 Copyright is very important in the music industry because it enables artists and bands to release their work without worrying about someone trying to steal it, Copyright law allows the artist or band to take legal action against anyone who tries to misuse their work.


Thursday, 16 September 2010

Song choice

My group has decided to create a music video for song "protect ya neck(the jump off)" by the the famous rap group Wu Tang clan. We decided to choose this song since we all have an interest in the genre. Another reason we decided to opt for this genre and song is because we felt we could easily challege media stereotypes related to race and gender. We looked at other artists and groups in this genre such as 'Beastie boys' but felt that we would be able to challenge stereotypes better with the song that we eventually choose.

"Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)"

[INS]
Ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to welcome to you
All the way from the slums of Shaolin
Special uninvited guests
Came in through the back door
Ladies and gentlemen, it's them!

Dance with the mantis, note the slim chances
Chant this, anthem swing like Pete Sampras
Takin it straight to Big Man On Campus
Brandish your weapon or get dropped to the canvas
Scandalous, made the metro panic
Cause static, with or without the automatic
And while I'm at it, yo, you got cash, pass it
It's drastic, gotta send half to Dirty Bastard

[Raekwon]
Ayo, ayo
Waves is spinnin, blades is spinnin
Slay em in the eighth inning
Stay truck, god stay playin linen
Kill rap, observe the uptowns, ho, feel that
Mink jeans on, seen where the real at
2000 zitos, movin wit a ill ego
For real, for real, ill lines, ill people
Yo, bring it back, 9 more civilians
Pollyin deals, monopoly and bills
Y'all niggas lyin
Caught 300, lab look royal wit a mean stomach
Go broke, all seen, done it
Words from the heavy set
If I don't eat, then we already met
Fly ass bro, liver than coke

[Meth]
Now what Clan you know wit lines this ill?
Bust shots at Big Ben like we got time to kill
Niggas can't gel or I'm just too high to tell
Put on my gasoline boots and walk through hell
Wit 9 generals, 9 ninjas in your video
9 milli blow, semi auto wit no serial
Man metaphysical, I speak for criminals
Who don't pay they bills on time and fuck wit digital
Never seen, smoke a bag of evergreen
My sword got a jones, more heads for the severing
Johnny in the dungeon, takin all bets, throw ya ones in
Scared money don't make money, throw ya guns in

[Masta Killa]
That's word to Jah Mo, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Blowin hydro on a beach wit Tamiko
My gun bullet hollow for you to swallow
Blowin the nozzle, hear it whistle
One in the head, this is code red, man for dead
X amount of lead spray from the barrel
Heat clear the street like Connor O'Carroll
Fully equipped, rifles, banana clip shit
To make my niggas from East New York flip

[Bobby Digital]
Yo, you may catch me in a pair of Polo Skipperys, matching cap
Razor blades in my gums (BOBBY!)
You may catch me in yellow Havana Joe's goose jumper
And my phaser off stun (BOBBY!)
Y'all might just catch me in the park playin chess, studyin math
Signin 7 and a sun (BOBBY!)
But you won't catch me without the ratchet, in the joint
Smoked out, dead broke or off point (BOBBY!)

[Ghostface]
Wallo's comfortable, chocolate frosting
Your socks hangin out, yours is talkin
Rock so steadily, son, I'm still crazy
Sport my old Force MD furs in the 80's
Nat Turners wit burners, Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Taught y'all niggas how to rap, reimburse me
Rothsdale's, ruby red sales, Bloomingdale's, blocks
Ox tails chopped up in Caribbean spots
I'm nice, maxed out, creepin wit the ax out
Murder these bikini bitches, switchin with they backs out

Introduction

Our task for this year is to explore the music video format and study previously made music so that we can eventually create our own. This task will help us develope the skills learnt from our AS coursework.

Monday, 6 September 2010

Exploring music video

Johnny Cash - Hurt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o22eIJDtKho

 This music video has clearly been used to portray the life and memories of the life and memories of the artist Johnny Cash. The extremely personal contents of both the song and video make it even more poignant, showing both past and current footage of the artist really captures the sense of regret and pain that the video is trying to portray. Age representation is key in this video as we view the artists transformation from youth to the very late stages of his life. Many common media stereotypes are that associated with different age groups are used in this video, such as more recent footage showing the artist to be far more vulnerable and feeble in later life.

Beastie Boys - Sabotage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5rRZdiu1UE&ob=av2n

This music video is one of the best examples of a video that despite its low budget is still very effective and entertaining. Although both the costumes and cameras appear cheap they do their part in setting a comedic tone for the video and when combined with great cinematography the video soon becomes  far better than it first appears. Like many music videos of this genre it is likely to appeal to a younger audience due to its less than serious content. It may not be an entirely accurate depiction of law enforcement in America but the video still does well in parodying the genre of  'crime/investigation' television programmes.

Fat Boy Slim - Weapon Of Choice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7Ky5R-vxns&ob=av2e

This music video is fairly hard to place into a genre for the reason that it almost completely unique, it almost immediately contradicts media stereotypes such as old age being associated with lack of energy and enthusiasm as we see a man who the audience may ordinarily associate with these stereotypes and dancing around full of energy, the colours and lighting used also add to this energetic tone. it is because of these qualities that the video may appeal to a wider audience.

Godley and Creme - Cry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxtPRF6NG7I

At the time this video was first released it was considered to be revolutionary because of the advanced  special effects used. although the video may have been created purely to showcase modern technology, the facial expressions of the characters in the video do well at portraying there emotions and reinforce the general tone of the song. The simple cinematography also does a great job of helping the the audience to focus on these emotions.


All these videos have been successful in the past and have been praised for their innovative ideas and cinematogrphy, i has been very useful studying them as it has allowed me to identify what works in a music and what doesn't. I have found that the videos above all have a strong artistic influence and cinematogrphy seems to be an important factor in the success of the video, this is something i can learn from and try to incorparate in my own video. I think it is crucial to make the cinematography as interest and uquice as possible so my video stands out from the rest.