R + P Post 12: Artists/Bands that have influenced my ideas

Jorja Smith

                                                                                     

Jorja is a 19 year old up and coming pop artist who grew up in Walsall, the mid-west of England.
She uses visual references to inspire her music and writes all her lyrics reflecting on real life issues although she said: "I don't like to write about myself. I like listening to people.". The first song she ever wrote was 'Life is a path worth taking', which she wrote in year 7 (aged 11). Her first single "Blue Lights" is based on the black stereotype and was inspired by Dizzie Rascal's 2007 political statement "Sirens".
Her music seems to me to deliver a lot of passion through her lyrics which I think is something very intriguing for young adults to listen to-we don't always just want to listen to (meaningless) pop songs. The track won high-profile admirers such as Stormzy and Skrillex and managed to rack up over a million plays on Soundcloud (October).


She is a breath of fresh air and very creative with her music making which is something we want to portray in our band/artist. We want them to offer something alternative to the every-day music that's already out there.


Most of her music is released on Soundcloud as this is where her audience are most likely to be found-young people of her own age roughly. This is a platform we are very interested in using for our artist/band as it appeals to a very large audience and consumers are able to share music with their followers by 're-posting' it. And she even created a self-made music video for her single 'Where Did I Go?'.
She told Hunger magazine: 

"At the house I’m staying in with my auntie, uncle and cousins – they were all away for the weekend – I noticed the lighting was really good on the stairs where there was a skylight, so I balanced the camera on the banister and just started singing. What I like about the video is that any girl could do it, so I feel like it’s more real and relatable for people."

               

Rihanna

Rihanna, the Bajan singer, song-writer, actress and fashion designer, living in America, just released her eighth album: 'Anti'.  She's aged just 28 but already has a net worth of an estimated (2016) $230 million. Her music covers a variety of genres including Dancehall, Reggae, Pop and Hip-Hop. She is obviously a lot bigger than Jorja Smith and has created an international brand for herself which Smith is very far off, but we really like the attitude Rihanna portrays.


Rihanna has a 'I don't give a f*ck' vibe about her person which is reflected in her lyrics, her out-there style and the way she speaks on social media and in interviews.

Rihanna throwing shade on model and singer Ciara

Rihanna tweets a fan

She has worked with lots of artists including Drake, David Guetta and Kanye West and her music videos often spark controversy from the public.
                                                   
                                                 

Both of these artists will inspire our ideas for our artist/band in terms of attitude, fashion, media platforms and public reputations. 

Rejjie Snow

Rejig Snow, born in Dublin, is aged 23 and released his first mistake in June 2013 which became number one on the iTunes Hip-Hop chart, above Kanye West and Jay Z.

He makes music belonging to both the RnB and Hip-Hop genre.

He is signed to a small-scale label called 300 Entertainment. He has one album called " Dear Annie " and one mistake named " Rejovich ".


Rejjie is renowned for his style. His instagram publicise some of his interest in fashion and culture as he travels the world. He has a total of 83.2k followers so far...

Although he has a huge amount of followers, Rejjie Snow is still a niche style of celebrity who makes music not for everyone and quite different to some of the mainstream music at the moment. He is not verified on Instagram as of yet and posts most of his music on the free platform that is soundcloud. His style, niche music taste and passions for creating his own music will be a big influence when it comes to creating the male of our artist duo.

R + P Post 11: Artist websites that have inspired and influenced my ideas

After researching a few artist and band websites I have come up with a list of conventions they mostly follow:

• Banner/Logo
• Menu Bar
• Search Engine
• Record Label Logo
• Sign-In and Register
• Shop-March and Music 
• Tour info including the option to buy tickets
• Press coverage
• Images and Videos
• Tour footage
• Behind the scenes
• Quizzes/games for the consumer 
• Background about the artists
• 'Contact us'
• social media links for the band/artist
• subscription options

Websites provide a synergised, technologically converged platform where everything is provided for the consumer via one central hub. The artist/record label is able to promote and market their product (the artist) and sell them as a brand along with their music, merchandise etc. 

Rihanna:

Rihanna's website and brand is evidently very focused on image and fashion. This comes across in her very visual website featuring a hoard of pictures on the home page of her wearing her FentyXPuma collection and images from her concerts.

The website is very easy to navigate around as the left-hand-side bar stays visible on every page. There is a consistent black and white color scheme which keeps the atmosphere sheek and ordered.

One feature of the website that I hadn't seen before on other websites, was the 'Rihanna now' tab. By clicking on this tab, it brings up a calendar of all every event Rihanna-related happening right now or in the future. I think this is a very interesting idea which we could take inspiration from for our website.
I also really like how every social media page is listed on the side bar; this makes it so quick and easy to get to these pages and will therefore get more people involved.

               

After our research, we now know we want our artist/band website to do the following:

• sell the artist as a brand
• sell their music
• be very visual - photos AND videos
• be informative - tour dates, music release dates, clothing lines, interviews, new partnerships
• credit the institution
• be very interactive and easily accessible 
• sell merch

R + P Post 10: Album covers that have inspired and influenced my ideas

Conventions of an album cover:

• album title
• artist/band name
• focal image, often of the band/artist or of an identifiable symbol for the band/artist
• barcode
• track list (on back)
• release dat/period
• copyright small print
• Parental Advisory?
• visual motif
• colour theme
• institutional information
• general credits
• booklet/extra content
• website and/or contact info
• promo stickers

The purpose of an album cover is, primarily, to sell the product but also to INFORM and ENTERTAIN. It needs to be visually pleasing and attractive enough that it will stand out to the consumer and make them want to either pick it up or click on it. to find out more. 

We will be creating a debut album so it is important we also sell the artist/band as a new product on the market; we need to create an identity for them which is attractive for our particular TA. Our cover needs to have visual links to the musical content in our album-it can't tell a different story to the music. 

I gathered together a variety of albums but with the same concept in the back of my mind:colour. I found the following...

Acid Rap - Chance the Rapper

Kanye West - Graduation

FKA Twigs - LP1

 The colours in all three albums are incredibly striking and beautiful which we will take influence from. However, the FKA Twigs album does not follow the usual conventions of an album cover; it has no wording etc on it. We will not be going in that same direction as we feel it is very important to have this key info visible for the audience.

I personally studied Mika's debut album Life In Cartoon Motion.

 Here are some pages from our project notebook where we shared some ideas on paper.

In conclusion, on our album cover we definitely want to include:

• A bold album title
• A bold artist name, perhaps bigger font than the album title
• All the typical conventions of a debut cover as explained in this post
• A focal image of our artist/band which creates their identity
• A clear link between the visuals on our cover with the music

R + P Post 9: Music videos that have inspired and influenced my ideas

As a group, we were all very influenced by the music video for Chase and Status - Blk&Blu. We love the iconic London city feel to it which we feel makes the music more relatable and enjoyable, as we can recognise locations.


         

This music video has a clear and interesting but simple storyline; a group of four friends (2 girls and 2 boys) who know each other from school win some money beating an older man at a game of pool. They decide to go out clubbing to spend the money where, unfortunately, the main boy bumps into the man he beat at pool...who isn't very happy. The video closes with a wide shot of Alexandra Palace, a North London location.

Aspects we would like to take from this video to inspire our ideas:

• beginning, middle and end storyline
• end on a positive note
• use of London locations, or at least create the atmosphere which can only be London
• montage editing style - choppy and random (to an extent)
• handheld camera-more gritty and realistic

Aspects we don't want to influence our ideas:

• although this video features only narrative and it works, we want to include performance aspects as we won't be able to create a storyline as substancial as the one they've created
• we don't want to attempt to create a club/party scene like theirs as it won't look as believable with our limited resources/budget

Other music videos that influenced our ideas include...

BBHMM - Rihanna (directed by Megaforce) - we loved the use of vibrant/rich colour and how it gave a retro style to it

American Boy - Kanye West and Estelle (directed by Syndrome) - we love to use of split screens and want to use this in our video to show the unity between our two band members

                      

R + P Post 8: Possible tracks for the single

In our first group project meeting we sat down and went through lots of songs on YouTube which I noted down in my media folder. We really wanted to pick a song from a non-mainstream genre and ideally the artist would be London based.

We started by looking at Mura Masa - What If I Go :


             

Positives:

• Feel good/upbeat and light-hearted
• Use of Electronic sounds-genre is 'Dance/Electronic'
• Musical sounds with potential to cut shots to (cutaways can be incorporated)
• Song builds up with a start, middle and bridge
• Lasts exactly 3 minutes

Negatives:

• Same kind of beat the whole way through the song-could be restrictive
• Lyrics could be restrictive-about relationships
• Repetitive
• When listening to the song without the video we didn't like it as much-a bit boring

Chase and Status Blk&Blu :

            

Positives:

• Electronic sounds-urban feel (genre is Dance/Electronic)
• Lyrics open for interpretation
• We all like the song and are familiar with it

Negatives:

• Song doesn't really build up
• Being very familiar with the music video might make it hard to keep it out of mind when making our own video
• Too long-would have to cut it down

AlunaGeorge - I Remember

Positives:

• Electronica of genre
• AlunaGeorge is a more niche artist so won't seem like a parody video

Negatives:

• Repetitive 
• Too long (4.50) - would have to cut it down
• We want a more happy/uplifting song - this one's quite depressing 

R + P Post 7: Record labels of interest

The record label an artist is signed to is hugely important in terms of choosing one which possesses the correct style and image that the artist wants to promote through their music. It is also important in the sense that they will be funding the artist's projects so one with sufficient funds and one which is established is also hugely beneficial. 

The three major record companies are Universal Music, Sony Music and Warner Music, however each of these organisations are 'parent' labels to smaller record labels which they own, such as Island Records whose 'parent' is Universal. 

British Phonographic Industry tells us that there are a number of roles which need to be fulfilled in order to discover talent, produce a record, market and distribute that single/album and finally, deliver the music product to the fans. 

This is a long process which requires tactical and creative strategies along with thinking outside of the box. 

Firstly, I'm interested in Island Records, a record label originating from Jamaica, located in London, New York and Santa Monica. The label has signed artists from Ariana Grande and Drake to Kiko Bun and Rizzle Kicks. The label was founded by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall and Leslie Kong in Jamaica,1952 but has been based in the UK since 1962.Island had a major influence on the progressive UK music scene in the early 1970s. 

Since AlunaGeorge is already in partnership with Island Records and her style is what we have taken a lot of inspiration for our artist from, this seems the best record label for us to choose. It is a UK based record label and has also signed artists such a Rizzle Kicks. The fact that Rizzle Kicks are in partnership with them also, 

R + P Post 6: Current trends in popular music

Two very different opinions from well established song-writers and producers, however I think both opinions are very true.

We can see how early 2000s and 90s influences are coming through not only with music, such as the garage scene, drum and bass/jungle and old hip-hop and R&B, but also through fashion.

At the same time, electronic music is definitely in-the-now with artists such as Calvin Harris, who's debut single "This is What You Came For" reached number 2 on the UK singles chart and number 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100.  The single also won "Best Male Video" at the MTV music awards.

I had a look at some of the top charts and below are my findings:

The Singles Chart Top 100..

The number one single is of the genre Electronic Pop/Electronica so this really proves what Erik Hermanson had to say about the future of music.

Official Albums Chart Top 100..

The number one album, in contrast, is a British Indie Pop band followed by Alternative Rock artists, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Evidently, these genres are very different to those present in the top 100 singles. One theory is that the 'album-buying generation' are the older half of the population who are listening to more data genres/bands.