Music Record labels

Differences between major and independent record labels

Major record label is where they are very powerful, successful, big and have a lot of money to spend. They chose the artist they want and idolise them to how they want them to look and how they think they will best self and earn the money. they would also supply the artist with the equipment and essential stuff. Independent record label is a small label that don't have as much money as an major record label and chose's the artist due to their talent. They rely on the talent of the artist to make the label big or known. The artist would have to provide for their own for example their own equipment.

The big 3

Warner music group

Warner Music group also known as Warner music are an big American record label that is global. It was founded in 1985 and is worth about $2.87 billion. It is part of the big Three and is the third most largest global music industry. It is the largest American owned music conglomerate. It has operations in more than 50 countries world wide. The company operates some of the largest and successful record labels such as Warner bros records, Parlophone records and Atlantic records. It owns Warner chappell music which is a large music publishing company.


Universal music group

Universal music group also known as UMG recording is the worlds largest music record label in the world. It was founded in 1934. It is a French owned multinational music corporation. It is a subsidiary for Vivendi which is a conglomerate. Vivendi is an French multinational mass media and telecommunication company. UMG owns universal music publishing group which is the worlds second largest publishing record label in the world. Its headquarters is located in Santa Monica, California. It is worth $6.552 billion. UMG owns Interscope records, capital music group and Def Jam records.
 

Sony music entertainment

Sony Music entertainment is a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony corporation. It was founded in 1929 as American record corporation but in 1991 was renamed to Sony Music Entertainment (SME). It is the Seconds worlds biggest record label/ music company. It is worth $4.89 billion. Sony music entertainment owns Columbia records, RCA records and Kemosabe records.


Independent record labels

Ram Records

Ram records is an independent record label that was founded in 1992 by Andy C. It is one of the major labels specialising drum and bass. It is a multi award winning organisation. The company is known throughout clubs and is well know for its song club nights. Rams attendees tripled from 1000 to 3000 people within 2 months.

Big scary monsters recording company

Big scary monsters recording company was founded in 2002 by Kevin Douch. It is located in England, Oxford. Its genres include Alternative rock, indie rock, post rock, math rock and punk.The record label is known for its artists such as Minus the bear, Cursive, Tall ships, Kevin Devine, Pulled apart by horses and Gnarwolves. 

Music industry crisis

Changing tech

Internet has made the music industry have to adapt because of the issue of downloading. CD sales are falling each year because of downloading. In 2009 as much as 95% of the music was downloaded or illegally downloaded. Four men behind file sharing sites pirate bay were sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay £2.5 million in damages for helping people download games films and music for nothing.

HMV vs ITunes

Simon Fox said that within three years technology would become its single biggest product category ahead of DVDs and CDs. 25% of the floor space in HMV to MP3 players, tablets, computers and head phones where as the CDs are going out of date and becoming defunct formats such as Vinyl and tapes. He said that head phones market was worth £150 million with Dr Dre's Beats selling for more than £300 million. Now is worth £1 billion after being bought by Apple.

De commodification 

Decommodification is when you can view a product as an entitlement rather than having to pay for the product. A commodity is an item where it can be bought or sold. Decommodification product would be removed from the market.

How to combat Decommodification you would have to consider all of the platforms that an artist can be exhibited on for example DVDs, CDs, downloads, iTunes and apps. You would have to make your product unique so that people would buy it and not illegally download it or view it for nothing. CDs are getting out of date now and becoming less known, people wouldn't want to buy these products if you could get them for free online.     

Music video Dappy

Postmodernism is a shortcut to mass audience

Postmodernism

The Definition for postmodernism is a Style and concept in the arts characterized by a distrust of theories and ideologies and by the drawing of attention to conventions. Postmodernists say that we are constantly immersed in media. They say we are immersed in it 24/7 when we are at work, at home, out and about. Media representations and reality are becoming blurred and invisible to us.  We can no longer tell the difference between media to reality so basically the media reality is becoming the new reality. Others say that postmodern is where the representations get remixed, remastered, played around with, turned into a parody. This is where people make texts deliberately.

Jean Baudrillard
       
Jean Baudrillard come up with the idea of Hyperreality and simulacra/ simulation. When a sign loses its relation to reality it then begins to simulate a simulation. Simulation is when some representation replaces the real thing that was being represented, so the representation becomes more important tan the real thing. Hyperreality means that the division between reality and simulation is no more, and that it is getting mixed up where the simulation is becoming the reality. An example of Hyperreality would be celebrities where they have entered the Hyperreal world. This is where celebrities cant interact with normal people and to live a life of fantasy.

Examples

Ariana problems parody

Ariana problems

Jay Z analysis Notes

Goodwin's theory

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (stage performance)
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals 
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artists and artist may develop motifs which recur across their work a visual style 
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body
6.  There is often intertextual reference (films, to music videos)

 Jay Z 99 problems

Notes

• Women in bikinis, over sexualised
• Race representations for example police where white, people in suits where white and people in jail and the hood mostly black
• Rough looking clubs showing that the area is bad
• There is a gritty narrative showing what the hood is really like
• Pace of the editing is cut to the pace of the song 
• Fast pace editing matches agression
• When jay z says bout being black he points to his skin 
• Long shots of women/ mid shots showing that they aren't that important
• Not much emphasis on Jay z showing that he is already well known/ established artist so doesn't need that much attention
• Synchronous relationship Rapping fast and editing in time with the rapping 
• Police are shown as negative
• The area is gritty so it shows that the place is negative
• Uses the area where Jay z is from 

Notes (2)

3 types of intertextuality

Homage: Imitation is the highest form of flattery
Pastiche: Using the imagery of one text to make a comment about another
Parody: Taking the Mickey

Post modernism  and the music video

Characterised by the self conscious use of earlier styles and conventions, a mixing of different artistic styles and media. Post modernism becomes the new by referring to the old. It invents new stuff by copying the old.

Stages

Experimental-Post modern- cannon (goes around in a circle)

Experimental stage: where there genre attempts to establish trends
Cannon stage: works within those trends to fix them into our cultural understanding 
Postmodernism: looks at the trends mixes them up and creates a new trend or adds something new

Goodwin's theory

Goodwin's theory

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (stage performance)
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals 
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artists and artist may develop motifs which recur across their work a visual style 
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body
6.  There is often intertextual reference (films, to music videos)

Technical codes

Cinematography 

Camera movement, angle and shot distance all need to be analysed. How the camera is used and how images are sequenced will have a significant impact upon meaning. Camera movement accompany movement of performer e.g. walking, dancing. May also be used to create a more dynamic feel to stage performance. Close up in tv creates a sense of  for thew viewer. It also emphasizes half of the commodity on scale (not just the song, but the artists and particularly the voice).

Editing


Most common form of editing associated with the music promo is fast cut montage, rendering many of the images impossible to grasp on first viewing thus ensuring multiple viewing. Slow pace and gentler transitions to establish mood. Often enhancing the editing images are digital effects which play with the original images to offer different kinds of pleasure for the audience.
Examples: split screens, colourisation, block buster film style, CGI

Development of technical codes

The key innovation in the development of the modern music video was of course video recordings and editing processes, development of effects such as chroma-key, green/blue screen. High quality colour video tape recorders and portable video cameras enabled artists to produce promos quickly and cheaply.
  

Notes (1)

• Music videos have been around since the 1920s.
• Many Jazz artist such as Bessie Smith made short film as a music video
• One of the first modern music video was Don't look back which was made in 1965 by Bob Dylan.
• In the 1970s tv shows was a great way to promote artists.
• Short music videos where called promos and soon replaced live performances or artists

Bohemian Rhapsody

This video was released in 1975 by queen and was a ground breaking video and marked the beginning of the video era. It was one of the first to use advanced visual effects.

We watched the music video and analysed it a little.

Cut

fade 

dissolve 

live performance

honey comb effect

silhouette 

Intertextual reference: can add a meaning to a text as well as fulfilling an important role for audiences.
Stylistically: By imitating the style of a film or television genre, video game, cartoon. 

Brief

In Media studies A2 the brief we have been given is to create a promotional package for the release of an Album. This should include a music promo video, Digipak for the album release and a advertisement for the album.