Copy Of The Lyrics

Gabbie Hanna - Out Loud

(Say what you mean out loud)

I still taste your presence

Once sweet but it turned sour

Tried to shake your indifference

But it's too late now

I hear you in the quiet

I see you when I'm in the dark

You just couldn't fight for this

But it's not your fault

Say what you mean out loud

Drowning in silence when I'm lost in the crowd

'Cause every sweet thing you never speak

It's deafening, never knowin' what could be

Wish I could show you how

But you're just a ghost now

Your laughter haunts me

Like a ringing in my ear

You left me long ago,

You're still everywhere

I reach out for you

I'm desperate for your warmth

Can you tell me where we went wrong?

At least tell me just to move on

Say what you mean out loud

Drowning in silence when I'm lost in the crowd

'Cause every sweet thing you never speak

It's deafening, never knowin' what could be

Wish I could show you how

But you're just a ghost now

You're just a ghost now

But you're just a ghost, ghost now

You're just a ghost, ghost now, now

But you're just a—

It's time to let it go

You left me all alone

I wanna feel your heartbeat

But it doesn't beat for me no more, no

It's time to let it go

You left me all alone

It's holdin' me down,

It's burnin' me out

I'm beggin' for sound

But I can't bring you back now

Say what you mean out loud

Drowning in silence when I'm lost in the crowd

'Cause every sweet thing you never speak

It's deafening, never knowin' what could be

Wish I could show you how

But you're just a ghost now

You're just a ghost now

(it's time to let it go)

But you're just a ghost, ghost now

(you left me all alone)

You're just a ghost now, now

(it's time to let it go)

But you're just a ghost now

Our Pitch - Gabbie Hanna

Copyright/Gaining Permission

Copyright/Gaining Permission

Copyright and gaining permission is really important in the music industry. The copyright laws help and protect an artist and all their music. This means that other people cannot gain profit without permission from the artists themselves. this can also mean if someone uses an artists music without permission from them,  for example they'll be putting it on youtube, it can be demonised or even taken down.

As a result of this, my partner for this project has emailed the artist of our chosen song, Gabbie Hanna, to gain permission for us to use her song for our coursework. 

Choosing The Track

Choosing The Track

Our chosen track: 

We had chosen to film our own version of Gabbie Hanna's music video for 'Out Loud'. Gabbie is 26 years of age and is a popular Youtuber based in America with over 5 million subscribers.

Me and my partner, Tara, thought that her song was the best decision as we are both very familiar with the artist and we are both fans of her youtube channel. We came to the conclusion that the song is emotional and relatable for most teenage girls, so this way it is easy for us to come up with some ideas for our own video. The song can be interpreted in different ways if you haven't watched the original music video. You wouldn't think that the moral of the video was the guy leaving the girl, but after watching the video you find out that the guy dies. Our general thoughts on this were to go with a similar storyline to Gabbie's but then we decided to completely twist the lyrics.

We had chosen our classmate, Megan, to be our main singer and we think she would play the perfect role as Gabbie as Megan has a background in singing and acting. This is a benefit for us as we think she would portray the different emotions clearly to us and the audience.

A Model Of The Media

Added Value

                                                           Music Video Promo

Music videos can often add value to the songs and in both of the following cases its the video that ensured that the song was a hit record.
Nothing Compares 2U was a minor hit for prince but the Irish singer Sinead O'Connor's cover has proven to be a career defining release mainly because of the video.



The song was written and composed by Prince as a side project and it was later made famous by her cover and it became a worldwide hit in 1990. The video consists of shots of her walking around scenes in Paris and close up shots of her face and near the end of the video, tears roll down her face to show her strong emotion throughout the song.

TAKE ON ME - AHA




The original 'Take On Me' song in 1984 but it took a about two recordings and three different releases to be in the Uk Top Charts and it finally reached number two in October 1985. The song became the only A-Ha song to reach the Billboard hot 100 in the US. The video includes the band in a pencil sketch animation method which is called rotoscoping and it was also combined with live action.

Styles Of Music Video

STYLES OF MUSIC VIDEO

The are many styles of music video that are produced, here are some examples.

Performance:

Performance based music videos are where the act/singers are performing with their own instruments in most/some shots and they could be singing as well as playing instruments.

Coldplay - Hymn For The Weekend



Parody/Pastiche:

This is where the content of the music video is imitating something or someone else.

Foo Fighters - Long Road To Ruin




Animation (Stop Motion/Digital):

Peter Gabriel -  Sledgehammer




The stop motion technique is done by stopping the camera then starting the camera repeatedly to gain the animation effect.

Intertextual:

This is where the music video makes references to media texts using other kinds of media text.

Jennifer Lopez - I'm Glad




Live/In concert:

Oasis - Let There Be Love



For these types of music videos, it shows content of the artist(s) performing the song at their concert. It can also be a montage of clips from the current concert or previous concerts.

Narrative Based:

The Killers - Shot At The Night


This is where the music video has a storyline and throughout the sing/music we follow the storyline.


Abstract/Concept:

The Strokes - You Only Live Once


The purpose of these videos are to create a mood or feeling throughout the song in an artistic way.

Audience Reception Theory

AUDIENCE RECEPTION THEORY

The Historical Perspective:

"The Hidden Persuaders" was written by Vance Packard in 1957. 

He discussed the negative impact of mass media products with special references to advertising. He maintained that in cinemas still pictures of certain items, in this case, Coca-Cola, inserted in a film reel increased the volume of drinks sold, as the audience would see the drink and get thirsty. 

Significantly, the audience were not aware of the pictures, however, Packard claimed that subconsciously our brains register them. 

Another example of this can be seeing other images and out register them to have a meaning.

Media Effects Debate:

This is an academic and social debate about wether media has an negative impact on different audience members.

There are two different opposing thoughts:

-Passive Audience Theory: the media does have an effect.

-Active Audience Theory: the media does not have an effect.

Passive Audience Theory:

This theory references to Packard's ideas. The idea is that the media can inject ideas into people's heads like a 'hypodermic syringe'. Being 'passive', the audience has little resistance to media messages. The fear is that audiences will copy what they see on screens. 

Gerbner and Gross:

In 1978, Gerbner and Gross developed the idea of 'Cultivation Theory'

This theory suggests that, over time, repetition of viewing violent acts allows certain ideas and values to become 'normalised'.  Repeated watching of violent films, TV programmes and video games would lead to viewers becoming 'desensitised'. 

Active Audience Theory: 

Active Audience Theory, which can be also known as Uses and Gratification Theory, maintains that audiences do not just receive information passively, but are actively involved. 

The Theory stresses that if the audience does not like a certain media text, they will not consume it. Media producers spend a lot of time making sure their products will appeal to an audience. The audience are seen as active, selecting from a wider range of media texts. The Theory also maintains that audience members make sense of media messages within their own personal and social contexts. 

Some theorists argue that an active audience selects media texts for their own purposes. 

Catharsis - some theorists argue that experiencing violence second-hand through the media can enable us to release violent feelings and actually be more peaceful. 

DigiPak & Magazine Advert

DIGIPAK AND MAGAZINE ADVERT

What is DigiPak?

-A digipak usually consists of a paperboard or card stock material, including one or more plastic trays on the inside meaning the CD comes firmly inside. The digipak is usually used for CD singles or special edition disks.

What is included in the digipak?

-Photographs/Pictures

-The track list of the artists songs in order

-An artist information section

-A logo of the record company 

-Sometimes references to other artists albums

An example analysis of an album cover/small digipak:

Here is another example one of Rhianna's DigiPaks:

BASTILLE DIGIPAK:

 With the design, I specifically like how the name of the artist and album name stand out clearly as it would be easier to identify when a subject is looking to buy it.

MAGAZINE ADVERT:

A magazine advert should include:

-The name of the artist.

-The name of the album or single.

-Sometimes photos of the artist or the artists concepts,

-Sometimes a review of the album or single.

-Sometimes a release date of the album or single. 

Here is a detailed example of a magazine advert for Lana Del Ray:

Sexism In Music Videos

SEXISM IN MUSIC VIDEOS

LAURA MULVEY'S THEORY - MALE GAZE:

This theory shows that the male gaze denies woman human identity, relegating them to the status of objects to be admired for physical appearance. The theory also suggests that women can more often not only watch from a secondary perspective and only view themselves from a mans perspective and only 16% of the media creators are female. However the presence of a woman in mainstream film texts is something that is vital, often, a female character has no real importance to herself, it is how she makes the male feel or act which is the importance. In other words, the female only exists in relation to the male.

The male gaze leads to hegemonic ideologies within our societies. It is ruling or dominant in a political or social context. 

Gender roles in film: The characters that are seen as the active role are males, the characters that are to be looked at are the females, they are under control of the male gaze and it only exists for visual pleasure and females often slow the narrative down. 

Female objectification is related to the gaze, the person that is gazed at are being objectified, treated as an object whose sole value is to be enjoyed or possessed by the voyeur. Objectified characters are devalued and their humanity removed. 

An example of sexism being used in a music video is Lily Allen's Hard Out Here song. Throughout the video it shows she is attacking sexism and she also attacks Robin Thicke's song and video "Blurred Lines" by quoting some of his lyrics and is definitely showing a parody of her challenging stereotypes of women.

In Robin Thicke's video, it shows a lot of sexism as the lyrics caused the song to be banned from 20 University Student Unions in the USA as lyrics say that men shouldn't take no for an answer and that woman don't mean it when they say it, which shows the songs partly encourages rape. 

Alex Southam - Case Study

Emil Nava

Jamie Thraves Case Study

   Jamie Thraves Case Study

Jamie Thraves is a director for music videos and studied and made short films at university (Royal College of Arts)

He used an award winning short film as a 'calling-card' to get a foot in the door with the video production company Factory Films.

He began shooting three very low budget music videos costing about £5000 each.

As can be seen for many directors in the business, it is a precarious experience where their livelihood it is dependant on each commission. 

Jamie Thraves submitted treatments for his two best known videos and each video was accepted. 

COLDPLAY -THE SCIENTIST

The music video for 'The Scientist' took 3 days to to shoot and it had a budget of £200,000.
The video was filmed normally and then it was pt to be played in reverse. The singer was to learn the song backwards.


JAPANESE POPSTARS - SONG FOR LISA

This song in the most recent song and video Jamie Thraves had worked on. The video had cost about £20,000 and took 2 days to film altogether.


BREAK INTO FILMS:

Jamie has used the music videos to get into the film business and has so far shot three different features. The Low Down, The Cry Of The Owl and Treacle Jr. Jamie's tips on filming a music video are; use the lyrics but try not to be too literal and most importantly, go with the emotion of the lyrics.

KATIE B - BROKEN RECORD -DIRECTED BY JAMIE THRAVES




TOM ODELL - ANOTHER LOVE

Star Theory/Britney

 Star Theory and Britney Spears

STAR THEORY-RICHARD DYER

Richard Dyer believes that artists are constructed through artificial images such as advertising, films, magazines and music. He claims that consumers prefer that their artists to show their true emotions themselves and not be groomed by record labels who try to create a fake image for those artists.  

PROMOTION

Dyer also believes that artists are manufactured to make money for their record labels by appealing to their appropriate target audiences. Because of this, record labels have to market other artists to cater for certain target audiences as there are both 'niche' and 'mainstream' markets. He also claims that specific artists will become trendsetters in the sense that audience members will imitate artists hairstyles and clothing styles. Some artists may have certain religious beliefs and cultural values that the audience may pick up on also, if the artist shares their stuff about it. The internet has also given the audience access to the artists 'personal lives' 

STARS SUPPORT HEGEMONY: 

Stars also support hegemony, which is the leadership or dominance, especially by one state or social group, over others. Gramsci is best known for his theory of cultural hegemony, which describes how states use cultural institutions to maintain power in capitalist societies. An example of this is 'Start from the Bottom' by Drake. 

REPRESENTATION

The music industry promotes and creates artists with clear defined genres, for example different categories such as rock, rap, pop etc. These different genres offer signifiers that relate to the race and gender identities.


BRITNEY SPEARS

Britney Spears raises interesting issues that regard female identity in pop music. She is also initially viewed as a role model for the target audience of teenage girls and from a gender perspective, her identity is placed securely within a male dominated industry that manufactures limited stereotypes of femininity. 

In her early videos, she was surrounded by girly iconography, which consisted of bedroom culture, dolls, dressing up with friends, hanging out, applying makeup, teen pigtails etc. Choreographed dance routines in her early videos create the desire to be part of her 'gang'.



This goes on to Laura Mulvey's theory. Her theory relates to classic Hollywood cinema. We can also apply some of her ideas to our work on the pop video. Her videos can also relate to Laura's theory of the male gaze, where women are viewed as the objects of the male's erotic desire. It also shows that men are active and women are passive.

HIT ME BABY ONE MORE TIME (1998)




Britney's songs and video narratives express teen girl identity and the concerns and reflections. Also when it comes to gender debates, Britney's music videos are a polysemic text, which is a text that has multiple meanings.

HOLD IT AGAINST ME (2011)

This video consists of Britney rejecting her 'constructed image'

Branding - Lady Gaga/Adele

BRANDING - LADY GAGA & ADELE

LADY GAGA:

Lady Gaga is a singer that is mostly present as a sexual figure as she mostly dresses in tight and revealing clothes. Some of her album covers are photographs of her placed in a revealing positions and sometimes wears inappropriate clothing. Her audience in this case would appear to be more older and less mature.

In her music videos, using "Applause" or "Telephone" as some examples, she has limiting clothing on which could potentially target the male audience specifically and could be her unique selling point as she appears as a sexual figure. In her music videos she shows she's strong and independent, and gives the message that she doesn't need any men in her life but she still doesn't mind the male attention she is getting.

             

ADELE:

Adele is seen as the opposite of Lady Gaga. Adele's music portrays more emotions and narrative and can be personal to her life. A lot of her songs produced are about love or breakups and are never seen sexually. Adele's album covers are really simple, they show a lot of emotion, being mostly colourless.

As Adele's music videos and songs are really mature, this could be her unique selling point. Her music videos, using "Someone Like You" and "Hello" are usually slow and dark themed which adds the the emotion behind the song.

           

This shows that Adele is very different than Lady Gaga, she does't use sexual figure in order to capture audience, she uses her sentimental music for her audience which is also suitable for younger women.

Spice Girls and Katy Perry

                                                        Spice Girls and Katy Perry

The formation of Spice Girls:

During the mid 1900's, a family management team; Bob Herbert, Chris Herbert and Lindsey Casbon set about to create a girl group to compete with popular boy groups that had dominated pop music at that time.




Selling The Spice Girls:

The Spice Girls were sold to us as a group of friends, just goofing off and making top-selling singles
together.
They were actually a carefully selected group of strangers chosen, after hundreds of auditions.
They had endless merchandising and sponsorship deals, and were involved with everything from
Pepsi ads to Polaroid ads to Barbie-style Spice Girls dolls.
Everything about them—including their Scary/Posh/Sporty/etc. nicknames was under the control of men or corporations. 
(“Ginger Spice”) almost didn’t make it into the group, because she looked older than the other girls; when they asked her age, she reportedly said, “I’m as old as you want me to be. I’ll be 10 with big boobs if you want.”


Creating A Band:

Often, artists/groups are sold as a brand and the music video acts as the product of the brand in the hope that the audience will be inspired to buy the product from them. For some artists the ‘image’ is of greater importance than the quality of the product. The Spice Girls are a good example of this.

Other times it is the song and the meaning of the song that is sold, and the artists ‘image’ has little to do with the sale of the song.

Katy Perry - How Her Pop Videos Reflect A Brand That Appeals To Her Target Audience And Reflect Her Private Life. 

Her target audience are mostly young girls aged 14 to 17.

She is like a sister or a friend, she reflects some anxieties her young audience has and can be someone for them to admire.

Katy Perry, like most artists, uses her life to create her brand. This had started when she had gotten together with Russell Brand and then his relationship led her astray from what she was actually trying to show in her music and videos and the lyrics of her songs. Her music had changed from being sexual, but not threatening, to have a lot of sex appeal. It took her a few years to see what she was doing and the decided that she was going to go back to the way she was before.





In 2008, she released the song 'Hot 'n' Cold' which gave her brand:

In 2009, Katy meet Russell Brand and her song 'I Kissed a Girl"

Katy then gets married to Russell on the 23rd October, then after releases songs 'Firework' and 'California Girls'. California Girls received a lot of criticism because it was shown as a more 'sexy' image.

In 2012, Russell divorced with Katy on the 30th of December she says she had contemplated suicide after the effect it had on her.

In 2013, she released the songs 'wide awake' and 'roar' which showed her previous image was returning and how it was building up because of the pain from her divorce.

Her timeline shows that she has let go of her previous image the Russell's impact had created.