Planning: Copyright Letter.

Planning: Audiences.

It is important to know about audiences when creating a music video because it is easier to know the exact target audience the music video is being produced for. This then helps us decide what to include in our music video because we know what age group, gender, race and audience category to aim our idea to. Also, by having a target audience, we do not have to impress mainstream audiences and only apply conventions of a Hip-Hop/ Rap music video. This will ensure our success when releasing the music video because it will gain popularity from the right audience.

Our target audience for the song "No Role Modelz" by J. Cole can be categorised into age, gender, race, audience category, income bracket/status, and hobbies and interests.

Age: The age group of our target audience is 16-30. This is because there are older themes in the song that is inappropriate for the younger audience. The song portrays themes of love, sex, envy, and anger which are more suitable for the audiences over the age of 16 as these are adult themes.

Gender:  We are targeting both males and females as heartbreak is an universal trait that everyone experiences. Heartbreak is genuinely associated with females however in our music video we will flip this stereotypical ideology and show our male artist dealing with the trials and tribulations of heartbreak. 

Race: We are targeting all ethnic minorities since our artist is from a mixed background .  Hip-Hop/Rap is usually listened to by various cultures and so we will follow these conventions. Because our artist is mixed race this may create a bond with the audience because they'll feel like they can relate to where he is from. 

Audience Category: Our audience category is C2-E which include skilled workers, trades persons (white collar), semi-skilled workers and unskilled manual workers (blue collar) and unemployed, students, pensioners and casual workers. We picked this target audience because they are most likely to be interested in Hip-Hop/Rap, as anyone from the categories A-C1 will usually listen to more classical music or jazz due to their higher job status.

Income bracket/status: The status of our targeted audience is mostly working class due to the genre of the song. It is more likely that working class people listen to Hip-Hop/Rap because the ruling class tend to listen to classic music or jazz. Also, the people in the working class category are not earning much money which meaning their income bracket may be low. This suggests that people that will be most attracted to our music video will be from the working-class.

Audience reaction to your video:

We hope for the audience's reaction to our music video to be positive. We hope that the audience is able to engage with the video and understand whether the video is narrative, performance or concept based. We hope to entertain our audience as we have targeted this video specifically for them so we would want them to be interested. Also, we want the audiences reaction to be positive in ways that they will then also promote the song in other ways, like word of mouth or using social media to give back positive reviews to other audiences. Finally, we hope to gain a loyal fan base by producing this video and to make the artist career more sustainable. 

Why have you identified this group as your target audience?

We have identified this target audience because we have planned each demographic in detail and decided that these are the conventions for the Hip-Hop/Rap genre, therefore, we will follow this. Also, we identified these groups because our questionnaire helped us to also identify the answers to these categories which has benefited us.

Planning: Questionnaire and graphs.

Research: Popular Theory.

Popular music/ culture theory has an influence on us as an audience. It is the way we understand and our attitudes towards things within modern society. These theories discuss and argue how popular culture is created for the masses and how 'true art' is only provided to those of the ruling class that belong to the bourgeoisie. It is like this because theories argue that the lower class of people do not recognise real music so only listen to what is presented to them; more likely this is the same thing over and over again. Even if music for the masses aims to be different, it all ends up sounding the same. The theorists that I have researched are; Antonio Gramsci, The Frankfurt School, Theodor Adorno, The Birmingham School and Dick Hebdige.

Antonio Gramsci...
Gramsci is the creator of the hegemony theory. Hegemony is when the social class of others is looked down upon. This usually suggests that their is power or control from a class that is 'ruling' or of higher importance over the working class. The upper class is seen to have a unique viewpoint of the world and believe that there is an incredible, quite obvious difference between them and the working class. Gramsci believes that the judging of ideology can be effective if and when it connects with the 'common sense' of people. Therefore this is were the idea of the ruling class producing music or art for the masses comes along and proves the theory of their dominance within society.

Frankfurt School...
The theorists behind this argue that culture plays a specific role in cementing audiences into certain situations and transformed culture into an ideology of domination. A 'hypodermic syringe model' was created by the school thats shows that in society they are able to feed audiences what ever they desired. Max Horkheimer encouraged changes within society. Adorno believed that art provides an alternative vision of reality for the audience to feed into.

Theodor Adorno...
Adorno believed that their was a divide between the two social classes. He was strongly influenced by Karl Max and argued that there was a standard production that manipulated the masses of society into being passive. He also believed that there was a pseudo; stating individualisation and how audiences think vary, however this wasn't the case. Theodor Adorno came up with the idea that 'true art' was created for the bourgeoisie as they are higher than the working class and stereotypically listen to genres such as jazz and classical music. This leads to the point of the working class listening to music that is 'dumbed down', this is done bye the ruling class through hegemony.

Birmingham School...
Stuart Hall was from the School of Birmingham, he was a cultural theorist and sociologist along with Williams and Hoggart. He is credited for broadening cultural studies that mostly link to race and gender. He made contributions to the music industry by stating opinions on the popular music we listen to. Hall also created the reception theory which is the idea of encoding and decoding. Encoding is the definition given to the process where text is created by producers whereas decoding is the process where the audience read, understand and interpret the text in their own way; this is not always how the producer expects them too. This also means that when the audience do read and interpret text, the result of their decoding will depend mostly on their cultural upbringing.

Dick Hebdige...
Dick Hebdige believed that although we believe that sub-cultures were presented as different, they are all the same deep down. He stated that sub-cultures are just little cultures but they are no different because they are all doing the same thing. Hebdige also believed that consumption was an active process, that allows audiences to read into cultural products. Even though subcultures aim to be different, the fact that they are popular amongst the masses challenges this idea showing, really that they are all the same.

Looking at my research and all the different views from the various theorists. I would say that my views lay strongly with the theories of Stuart Hall. I strongly agree with the Reception theory of how things are decoded due to the individuals cultural upbringing. However i do also believe that individuals all interpret things differently and that not one person things exactly the same as the other, this challenges the views that adorno has.

Planning: Final Idea

Song: No Role Modelz – J-Cole

Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap

Target Audience: 16-30

Narrative: Starts off with artist performance on their own, in a simplistic white room. The artist reminisces on his high school days and how he loved a girl. Realised he had to give up because “she don’t want be saved” from the way she is acting around males. After reminiscing on the relationship that they shared she finds herself in a toxic relationship with a different man. The young lady realises that the artist now has money, fame and happiness and now wants him back; however, the artist is no longer interested. The older version of the girl will return at the end to J-Cole and they are standing face to face expressionless. Both the younger and older characters will wear similar clothing in order to portray the representation. There will be a clear use in Todorov’s theory with the equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium.

Characters:

•    J-Cole
•  Older female
• Younger J-Cole
• Younger female

MES:

Lighting & Colour:

• Low-key lighting, top lighting, spot lights
• Grey, blue, green

Setting:

• Bedroom- low key lighting with lamps
• Library - show the old times
• Restaurants
• Alley ways

Costume/Hair/Make-up:

•             J-Cole – To portray simplicity, a plain t-shirt, jeans, bomber jacket, trainers. Jewellery to emphasise the fame.
•            Older female – Jeans, crop top, trainers. Hair, natural and curly. Make-up, simple and natural look to show the natural beauty.
•            The younger J-Cole and Female will wear a similar outfit to represent that they are a younger version of them.

Iconography:

•         Gold chains/Medals/Trophies/Plaques to portray the fame and lifestyle he has adapted to.

Body Language & Facial Expression:

•   Confident body language.
•  Lust being portrayed through body language
•  Angry/frustrated/envy emotions

Theory:

Goodwin:

•         Relationship between lyrics and visuals: Visuals will reflect the lyrics e.g. “she don’t want to be saved” will show him leaving her and not trying any more.
•         Relationship between music and visuals: There will be slow edits/motion to portray the slow pace of the song.
•         Intertextual Reference: There will be references to George Bush and a quote of his will be mentioned. 
•         Notion of looking: There will be close-ups of the younger female character when the artist first sees her, and also at the end when the artist meets her again after several years to portray the lust.
•         Star image motif: There will be close-ups of the artist as he performs the song in his bedroom where the full focus will be on him.
•         Performance, narrative, concept? Our music video will be narrative and performance based.
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Mulvey:

•          Mulvey’s theory doesn’t really apply, but the slight attraction of the girl may cause a ‘male gaze’.

Dyer:

•         In our video, “star image” will be emphasised through the focus on J-Cole as he performs the song/rap.

Adorno:

•          Relation to audience through narrative of people being heartbroken which is a mainstream idea. This applies to the majority of the public as the theme of heartbreak is common in society.

Discuss your final choices in relation to your audience feedback:

We received audience feedback about our final idea which helped us significantly in planning. We found that the audience preferred a narrative rather than a concept based video which was something they could relate to. Also, the audience had stated they would like to see intertextual references as well as the relationship between the lyrics and visuals being strong. Our audience feedback ensured we had researched into the right target audience and finalised our idea.

Why and how is this music video conventional to mainstream music video making?

Our music video would come across conventional because it follows the typical theme of having a narrative that most mainstream videos pursue. Lip syncing is also a huge part of a conventional music video as this is the focus of it. Also, star image is significant because mainstream music videos concentrate on the artist throughout the video which we will follow. Moreover, the relationship between the lyrics and visuals are also a mainstream feature of a music video. We will also follow this to ensure we stick to the mainstream conventions of a music video.

How is this music video conventional to your chosen genre?

Our music video is conventional to the Hip-Hop/Rap genres because we will be following the conventions of the genres to ensure this. We chose J-Cole as he is a Hip-Hip/Rap artist who fits well in the genres due to the style of his music. The conventions that we chose to use in our music video are iconography such as gold chains to display the lavish lifestyle. Also, we chose to use attractive females in order to follow the Hip-Hop/Rap convention, however, not sexually which may challenge the convention. Moreover, another convention we will follow is portraying a love story between the artist and a female character which is usually evident in Hip-Hop videos.

How does your music video represent your artist?

Our music video will represent our artist in a unique way due to simplicity we will use. He will be portrayed in simple clothes to show that he is normal and ordinary like his fans. We would prefer to portray him in a humble manner where he is able to show his true self to his fans which will create bonds between the artist and the audience. Also, we want to show that famous people also go through the same problems as the audience. This portrayal of the artist will be beneficial and will ensure success because the audience will be able to stay engaged.

Planning: Initial Ideas

Planning: Initial Idea.  

Song: Run this town – Jay-z ft. Rihanna & Kanye  

Genre: Hip-Hop/ R&B  

Narrative: I envision chaotic scenes that involve large amounts of fire and explosions. I want to work with the themes of gangs and violence. I imagine showing the youth as disruptive and taking a stand, showing that they are powerful. Personally I would like to focus more on the young females and using these stereotypical male-like themes to show them in a more empowered light. Whilst doing this I will also like to challenge the theory of mulvely.  

Narrative Structure: The narrative structure would be performance and concept. I will do this because all there will be slight narrative I still want it to come across slyly abstract and exciting for the target audience.  

Characters: In my video I will use attractive young females however they will not fall into the conventions of the ‘male gaze’ theory. I will show them in a very masculine light so that it empowers them.  

MES:  

• All black clothing  
• Black masks  
• Low-key lighting (red, blue, white)  
• Bats 
• Gas/Smoke  

Setting: Dark, urban streets and areas.  

Application of theory:  

• Will challenge Mulvey’s theory.  
• I will involve intertextual reference of youth being disruptive and chaotic 

Advantages:  

• Mise en Scene would be easy to accomplish  

Disadvantages:  

• Things such as violence and disruptiveness and mayhem may be hard to achieve without harming anyone or getting into trouble.  

Questionnaire: 

Name:  

1. Age:  

15 – 20     20 – 25    25 – 30    30+  

2. Gender:  

                  Male         Female 

3. Occupation: 

Student    employed    unemployed    retired  

4. Which is your preferred genre of music?  

Rock       Pop       Jazz       R&B       Hip – Hop    Classical   

5. Would you like to see women being empowered in an R&B video? 

                   Yes            No  

6. Is all black attire appealing to you? 

                   Yes             No  

7. What themes attract you?  

Love and Romance        Violence     Drugs     Alcohol      Feminism  

8. How would you expect a female R&B artist to be represented?  

9. Would you like to see text in an R&B music video?  

                        Yes              No  

10. What other types of media do you think apply to the R&B genre?  

11. How often do you watch music videos?  

Always      Never      Sometimes  

12. Do you think women should be sexualized in R&B music videos?  

Always      Never     Sometimes 

13. Do you prefer concept, narrative or performance videos?  

Concept/Abstract       Narrative       Performance 

14. Low – key or High – Key lighting?  

                     Low        High     

JOSH'S IDEA...

Song: The main song I had in mind was Tory Lanez - Diego which consists of a combination of the R&B and Hip Hop genre. The song portrays the idea of 'being the new Tony Montana' which is an intertextual reference to the movie Scarface.
Narrative: Concept Based/Performance - My idea mainly covers a concept based music video with some performance of the star artist. Therefore the camera would linger mainly around the artist, the majority of the video, making him the main focus. In addition to this, I would then include the use of young attractive females acting promiscuously towards the artist portraying the stereotypical idea of a Hip Hop artist representing someone who all the ladies want.Narrative Structure: The narrative structure would differ from scene to scene. Meaning that their will be a simultaneous edit, combining scenes from three different locations (Party, underground location, bedroom). Therefore the structure of this video would be conventional to the Hip Hip/R&B genre because it would contain the repetitive use of attractive and luxurious locations with beautiful females and expensive iconography (Cars, jewellery, clothes etc.) which represent the stereotypes of artist using the basic idea in music videos over and over again.Representation of Artists/Characters: Due to the song portraying the idea of 'being the new/modern day wealthy icon (Tony Montana), I would include scenes or flashing images from the film 'Scarface' to match the lyrics. As far as matching the visuals; I will make my artist dress in luxurious 'classical' clothing e.g suits, fur, coats, trench coat and top hats mimicking the character of Tony Montana in which, this way a connection with lyrics and visuals will be displayed (Goodwin's Theory).Mise En Scene (MES):Costume: All White, Tony Montana costume.Colour: Their will be a consistent use of the colour white ONLY on the artist to represent the wealth and 'significance'. In addition to this, I would include the editing of making some of the scenes black and white to portray the time period of 'Scarface'Lighting: High key, focusing on my artist to represent the iconic role being portrayed with the additional use of low key lighting which would represent that underground and 'illegal activity' atmosphere.Setting: Their will be edits transitioning from three locations: Central London, mansion, underground area e.g. abandoned warehouse or under a tunnel.Body language & Facial Expressions: The body language and facial expressions i will direct my artist to display would be the conventional 'cocky' and slouching posture, with exaggerated facial expressions that rap artist usually do as well as throwing hand gestures to represent their aggressive and flashy characteristics.Iconography: Generally I will also use the cliched background atmosphere of attractive cars and objects (jewellery, drugs, clothes etc). For the use of drugs i will use a close up of a females lips with them smoking, to portray the idea of smoking weed.Target Audience: 

• Ages from 16 - 30

• Both male and female

• Stereotypical black race who tend to prefer the genre of R&B/Hip Hop

• Occupation: C2 - E class

AMANI'S IDEA...
Song: 67 (Dimzy, ASAP, Liquez, Smallz, Monkey and LD) Lock Arff REMIX
Genre: UK Trap
Narrative: A gang (67) do illegal activities and avoiding the police whilst doing so police tape off the road (lock off) as a result.
Narrative structure: Performance/Narrative based.

Characters: Performers (Dimzy, ASAP, Liquez, Smallz, Monkey and LD)Police officers would also be needed.Female back dancers.

MES:* Tracksuits, hoodies, bomber jackets. (Black/dark clothing.)* Ski mask/face wear.* Police uniforms.* Female clothing that plays on the male gaze.* Contraband iconography. (Drugs and guns.)* Low-key/Dim lighting.

Application of theory:Laura Mulvey – The male gaze.Dyer – Star Image.Goodwin – Lyrics connected to visuals.

Advantages:* Slow-paced instrumental and beats means slow paced editing. (Easier and still affective.)* Slow lyrics mean easier lip syncing.* Easy MES costume clothing.
Disadvantages:* Swearing and explicit lyrics must be censored which dulls the effect of the music video. (No clean version to this soundtrack.)* Multiple star performances means it’s harder to do the music video.* It is hard to recreate illegal activity and the usage of real illegal items is banned during the risk assessment. Making it harder to link the visuals to the lyrics as we can display this.
KATIE'S IDEA...

Song: "Run This Town" by Rihanna (Trap Remix)

Genre: RnB and Hip Hop

Narrative: First shot of a group of girls standing together representing feminism. Throughout the video one main girl being 'Rihanna' to lead and mess boys around for example, cheating on them ad playing them around. Shots of a group of girls also walking down street together wearing tight clothes, being attractive however, not in a sexual way. Being a 'squad' - what boys would do. Causing problems in public, being the stereotypical boy. Challenging expectations of girls as they are playing boys around when this is a typical action from males. Also, challenging the expectation of girls being 'lady like' and portraying them as the one who wears the 'trousers'.
Narrative Structure: Performance/Narrative based.
Characters:

• Main girl for the role of Rihanna. 

• Group of girls behind her (backup dancers).

MES: Black tight clothing (leather), dark make-up (purple lipstick), low-key lighting (car lights shining on the girls), lighters, fires.
Application of Theory: Mulvey - against this idea of 'sexy', more feminism. Goodwin - matches the idea of the pace of music matching the visuals. This is because the edits will match all the beats in the song. Dyer - the idea of 'star' image as the camera will be focused on Rihanna.

Advantages: 

• The beats of the song will match the fast pace edits.

• The costume and make-up easy to provide.

• Narrative is easy to portray.

Disadvantages:

• The location may be hard to find. E.g. a car park, however will need permission for this.

• Many characters (back-up dancers) may be hard to find and control such a large amount of people.

• May be hard to use iconography such as lighters in order to show burning objects due to the location.

Target Audience:

• 14-25

• Both genders

• Occupation - C2-E

We realised as group that being a group of four would be challenging due to a complex timetable that was inconvenient to all members of the group. Therefore I decided to split from the group and work in a pair with Katie.