Star Theory Richard Dyer

Stars As Constructions

Dyer believes artists are constructed through artificial images such as advertising, films, magazines and music. He claims that consumers prefer artist to convey their true emotions themselves and not be groomed by record labels who try to create a fake image for them. A "real" artist can can use this as their unique selling point.

Industry and Audiences 

Dyer also believes that stars are manufactured to make money for their record labels by appealing to . target audiences. As a result of this, record labels have to cater different artists for certain target audiences as there are both niche and whole markets. Examples of record labels doing this can be seen through mirror branding, both  Rage against the machine

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Purpose of a music promo video

This is a link to my node map

http://www.spicynodes.org/db/nodemap/0/2/e/2/061b35dfdc61cd539e038b19dbc2.xml

Are Andrew Goodwin's theories supported or not supported?

Andrew Godwin has identified the following features of music videos.
" Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics" e.g stage performances in metal videos and dance routines for boy/girl bands.
This video is typical of metal bands. The video agrees with Godwins theory as it shows that there was a big stage performance.Even the characteristics of the musicions is very typical of metal bans, with all of them having long hair and tattoos.

Both music videos from jls and the pussycat dolls are typical boy/girl band videos. Both videos agree with Goodwin's theory because they both have dance routines. This could lead to people imitating the dance moves the that could eventually result to an increase of sales. We could also in infer that every individual is wearing completely different clothes. This was not just a coincidence, this happens so that could appeal to multiple types of audiences which would also lead to an increase in sales. Also in these videos, there are multiple times where the are close up shots on the group members. This to show that they are good looking which would attract the male and female audience.

Goodwin also said that "there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals(either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)". This music video by Rihanna clearly agrees with Goodwin's theory as in the video you can see rain while the lyrics involves umbrellas and rain.

A Brief History of the Pop Video

A Brief History of the Pop Video

During the 1950's, and out brake of swinging pop music came to existence through Elvis Presley. Due to the copyright
infringement, radio stations could not play records. This lead to workers of the radio station singing the songs instead of the radio station playing the official version of the song.

After a few years the law was changer to allow radio stations such as radio Caroline and radio London to play the records a few hours a week. This was known as 'Needle Time'. But meanwhile pirate stations were going a few miles out of the country to set up their own radio stations to illegally play official records.

During the decade of the sixties, English music became dominant over the world because of a group called the Beatles. This was the group who revolutionized pop music making the 1960's the "swinging sixties". The idea of radio London and radio Caroline lead to the formation of BBC Radio 1. BBC also made something known as "Top of the Pops". As the Beatles always number 1 in the charts, the were the most wanted music artists to go on top of the pops. Artist who went on top of the pops mimed their songs. So instead, the Beatles produced shrt films to please their fans and to and to promote their songs e.g "Paperback Winter".

Case study 1 – Jamie Thraves

Thraves was making films while he was in higher education, and used an award-winning short film to secure his place within the video production company Factory Films. When Thraves began shooting music videos, they made at a low budget of approximately £5,000 each. When record labels want to make a music video, a commissioner sends the track to 5-10 directors, and they submit their own take on what the video could look like. Thraves and many other directors have to bid their ideas on each video,trying to get there work noticed which their not getting any money for. Once the production company have chosen the idea the, that director is told to construct the video and is salaried for their work. This is how Jamie Thraves has had the opportunity to make his previous music videos. For many directors, this model of work is viewed as a precarious existence where livelihood is dependant on each commission. Jamie Thraves submitted treatments for his two best known videos and each was accepted

.Jamie Thraves has made two memorable music videos. The first of which was Just by Radiohead, which had a £100,000 budget and was shot in only three days. The other is The Scientist by Coldplay which had double the budget and was shot in the same amount of time. The Scientist was an extremely clever video in which Thraves used the lyric "Back to the Start" to create a backwards narrative, slowly revealing to the viewer it was a car crash which caused the character to lose his girlfriend. As the video starts at the aftermath of the crash and rewinds to the events preceding the crash, Chris Martin, the lead singer had to learn the backwards mouth movements to the lyrics of the song, while doing everything else normally to give the allusion that he was singing the song even when the footage was reversed. This took a lot of rehearsing, and resulted in a very effective video, thanks to Thraves' idea. The non-linear narrative of the video is an ideal hook to keep the viewers excited, as they slowly learn exactly what is going on. Hooks are most prominent in Thraves' videos and serve an equally important purpose in Just.

Just is different to The Scientist in the respect that it doesn't bear much relation to the lyrics of the song, "You do it to Yourself". The video was filmed new Liverpool Street Station in London and features the band playing the song in an apartment while looking down at events going on in the street. Here, Thraves has inserted an interesting narrative to capture the audience's imagination which seems quite dull at first, but gains momentum as more characters within the video become interested in the events taking place. Here, an avarage-looking businessman is walking down the street when suddenly, he lies down on the pavement. Another man trips over the first and initially thinks he's hurt... why else would he be lying on the ground? The man responds that he is fine and would rather be left alone, but the first man pushes further and demands why is he lying down again. As more people approach and ask what's wrong, the man continues to refuse to speak. Eventually, after the arrival of a policeman and much persecution from the first man, the man laying on the floor finally gives in.