Music

 Monday 3rd October 2022

LO: To research the radio industry

Live Lounge

Case Study:

What do these two terms mean?

Commercial radio - Selling, advertising - make money, mass/large audience

Public Service Radio - BBC - Benefit of the public, not for profit, TV license - funds radio

Reflection - Use more research for the notes

Monday 7th November 2022

LO: To research the case study and artists involved Annotate in detail the examples from the case study

Case Study

Tom Grennan:

Early life and family. Grennan comes from an Irish family. He attended St Thomas More Upper School in Bedford. At the age of 18, he was attacked on the street and was left with four metal plates and screws in his jaw that "still hurt when winter comes".

He is 27 years old.

He is from Bedford.

His genre is Alternative/Indie.

His current/recent songs are:

Let's Go Home Together. Let's Go Home Together

Little Bit of Love. Evering Road

Lionheart (Fearless) Lionheart (Fearless)

Not Over Yet (feat. Tom Grennan)

Memory Lane (feat. Tom Grennan)

By Your Side (feat. Tom Grennan)

All Goes Wrong

Found What I've Been Looking For

Monday 21st November 2022

BBC Radio and audiences

1.) 10 radio networks

2.)  50 regional radio stations

3.) Funded by advertising

4.) Cable and satellite

5.) The Beat - BigR

     Jamz - Bates FM

     JAMZ - BigR

     The Mix - BigR

     Star Country! - BigR

Monday 5th December 2022

LO: To explore the BBC Radio contextual issues and the audience behind the Live Lounge

BBC Radio and audiences

- Entertain young listeners

- 15 to 29 year olds

- Artist emerging (new)

- Live music

- Young adults

In this radio you can see the bright coloured backgrounds so they can show it is a cheerful bunch. They're all smiling to show that they are happy and have a positive impact on the show and the world. Rickie, Melvin and Charlie are almost matching because they are all wearing black, this could say that they are a trio.

PSB license fee debate:

- Mainstream music does not educate or inform

- World problems

- War

- Conflict

- Issues

The advantage on the BBC Vevo is that younger people are attracted to it and the BBC make the radio to be good quality and interesting so it once again attracts more people.

Monday 16th January 2023

Being on two broadcasting channels will help out the band who is trying to reach out a bigger audience.

These presenters a picked because they give good entertainment such as being funny, humorous and serious so it would match all types of audiences who listen to their broadcast.

The live lounge is also the name of a room in the Radio 1 studios where many of the performances are broadcast.

Personal Identity: Relate to the presenters who are a similar age, interests in music. Identify with the artist.

Information: Background information about the artist, up and coming events.

Entertainment: Enjoy the live music.

Social Interaction: People can discuss the performance afterwards.

You can access programs, sport, revision and documentaries.

They mention 1 artist each time they go live because the artist changes each time.

Live performance is regarded as more culturally significant than simply playing records. It is also more expensive.

Stormzy

3 days preparation - wages for the people involved in performance and production.

6 professional singers - employed as backing singers.

Musical director - make a recorded song.

The live lounge appeals to the audience through the presenters and artists because young and old may know who they are.

An example of this is seen by Rickie, Melvin and Charlie on the front cover and the live lounge uses well known words like "bruv", "lad" and "bro".

Wednesday 25th January 2023

Music Videos

Do Now:

1.) Props

2.) People

3.) Singing

4.) Dancing

5.) Backgrounds

LO: To explore the section of the unit and research chosen case studies.

Sk8ter Boi - 2002, Avril Lavigne, rock, pop, pop-punk

Teenage Dirtbag  - 2000 - Wheatus, skater rock

Sk8er Boi

Most of Avril's songs from this era were about real-life situations culled from her personal experience. In this song, it is apparent that the Sk8er Boi is in fact Avril herself, and she has merely swapped the gender to hide the fact that the Sk8er Boi's experience is hers. Image result for what happens in the music video sk8er boi. The song combines punk rock, pop-punk, power pop, and alt-pop styles, which lyrically tells a story told from the singer's viewpoint about her rocker boyfriend and a girl he knew in high school who rejected him because he was a skateboarder and she was a snob. The song is actually a story that "I" (Avril Lavigne) is telling. It is about a skater boy (punk who liked a pretty girl who did ballet, so she was very different from him) though she liked him too. But since her friends didn't like him she turned him down. Five years later, she is a single mother. In the UK, it was released 16 December 2002. 

Teenage Dirtbag

Teenage Dirtbag was released February 5, 2001 in the uk. It is about a boy who likes a girl but she likes someone else and he dreams he's with her in the end but he wakes up and it's not true.

This is a story told from the singer's viewpoint about her rocker boyfriend and a girl he knew in high school who rejected him because he was a skateboarder and she was a snob. Five years later, the Sk8er Boi is famous and the girl who rejected him is living a boring, unfulfilled life, ruminating on a time when he was into her. The song is a metaphor about two people who are unlikely to be together when in all reality they should be a couple. Although their outside appearance differs, they have what it takes to be a great team, yet because the girl was too shallow to see what was inside the punk, she missed out on a great guy. This song proves that you should see beyond the outside appearance and get to know a person before judging them. Most of Avril's songs from this era were about real-life situations culled from her personal experience. In this song, it is apparent that the Sk8er Boi is in fact Avril herself, and she has merely swapped the gender to hide the fact that the Sk8er Boi's experience is hers.

The Sk8er image is undoubtedly Avril's‚ and she certainly did rock up MTV. It is also likely that there was a boy in Napanee, Ontario who got a popular musical reminder that he missed his chance with the widely desired superstar - Avril. This was one of the songs Avril wrote with The Matrix, a songwriting trio who also worked on "Complicated," "I'm With You," and two other songs on the album. The Matrix started writing songs for other artists in 1999 when their manager asked them to write one for an Australian band, and they realized it was a great way for them to make a living. After Avril they went on to write hits for Jason Mraz, Liz Phair and Rihanna. Lavigne performed this at the 2003 Grammy awards, where she was nominated for five awards, including Best New Artist, but didn't win any. She and her band wore tuxedos to the show, where they watched Norah Jones win pretty much every award Avril was up for.

The story behind Teenage Dirtbag is quite scary, it comes from a story which one of the band members childhood experiences. There was a murderer in his home town and he did many drugs and wasted his life away and murders someone (his own friend). The murderer was Ricky Kasso. Brendan says: “At the age of ten I had a tape case full of AC/DC. I was already a budding atheist, but it was still a religious place, New York in the 80s, and parents and teachers and clergy kind of descended upon us with this question: are you a devil worshipper? Are you into AC/DC? And the hypocrisy of it and the stench of blame shift... I'm not sure I fully understood the concept of hypocrisy when I was ten but I knew something smelled really funny about the whole thing.”

The music video for "Teenage Dirtbag", directed by Jeff Gordon,[13] is based on the 2000 film Loser, which the song features in, and tells a different story from the film based on the song's lyrics. Jason Biggs plays a nerdy character and Mena Suvari is the love interest who unexpectedly invites the protagonist to an Iron Maiden concert, and in the end scene they dance together on prom night. In some cases, the beginning and the end of the video were deleted: The full version of the video begins with Jason falling asleep while doing his homework and ends with a large glitter ball falling from the ceiling and striking him on the head. He then wakes up, revealing his brief romance with Suvari to have been all a dream. The video was nominated for Best Video at the Kerrang!

Monday 30th January 2023

LO: To understand exam style questions and practise exam technique.

The remit of Radio 1 is to entertain and engage a broad range of young listeners with a distinctive mix of contemporary music and speech. Its target audience is 15-29 year olds and it should also provide some programming for younger teenagers.

Target 15-29 year olds:

- Have young, dynamic presenters with informal speech.

- "Sick" used to describe performances. Other slang used 'big up', 'proper good', 'bruv' and 'bro'.

Q1. OfCom

Q2. BBC

One advantage to listening live is that if there's any competition, or anything happening right now, you can sign up and anything like that.

One advantage to listening online is that you can fast forward/skip or rewind the video.

End Of Topic Assessment

1. Media convention

2. 

3. They form a remix to get the money

1. Radio 1 targets their audience through age and artists, they use popular artists at the time & go for the younger audience; for example 15-29 year olds.

2. They can use music radio stations by ???

3. Radio audiences can be passive by going to one and other stations and radios. They would be active by phoning in and asking.

BBC Radio has to provide a wider range of content by producing live music, commentary and more. They have to support a wider range of artists by showing small artists that no one has heard of, where as other radios don't do that. But Radio 1 provides new/trending hits as well as ones that are old - for the older audience. But as I said, they have most likely played small artists; for example they could have played JVKE when he was a smaller artist.

Wednesday 8th February 2023

Wheetus - Narrative and performance and Avril

Lavigne - Performance plus some narrative

The narrative of 'Teenage Dirtbag' is where this boy has a crush on a girl but she doesn't know who he is. She has a boyfriend but he's horrible to the main boy - he is also dating the girl. He's at the prom night and she goes up to him and they spend the night together and get together. But in the end, he wakes up and finds out it was all a dream.

The narrative of 'Sk8er Boi' is about a girl who was completely different to a boy, she was a ballerina and he was a skater. They liked each other but she thinks she's too good for him. But he soon finds a punk girlfriend. But the actual narrative about the music video is that her and her friends/band are putting on an illegal gig. The police come at the end. The skater boy videos the ballerina at first, but then he videos his girlfriend.

Mise-en-scene:

- Setting

- Costume

- Props

- Lighting

- Hair & Make-up

- Colour

- Performance

Taylor Swift - The image shows her in a bath of diamonds, gold, money and jewellery. The bath is gold and this shows her wealth, also her make-up and hair looks as if she's been done up really well. She looks very successful.

Sk8er Boi:

In this music video, for make-up there would be deep black eyeshadow for the main female. She had straight hair with a punk, rock outfit and a cap. Her outfit is typically a skater kid outfit.

The props they used were things like cars, guitars and skateboards.

The setting was a city, there were many people because it was an illegal gig.

The lighting and colour was darkish colours because of punk and rock.

The performance was them smashing cars and having fun on skateboards and doing whatever they want.

Teenage Dirtbag:

In this music video, for make-up they wouldn't really have used anything apart from the girl, she would possibly just have some blush and lipgloss. Possibly eyeshadow. The hair would be up or down for the girl, the hair would always be short for the male. He would sometimes wear a hat, sometimes not. For the prom they would be wearing nice, smart clothes. The girl would have a dress and the boy would have a suit.

For the props, they used everything relevant to school.

Monday 20th February 2023

LO: To reflect on areas to improve in the assessment.

DIRT

Question: 16/1- Good opening to your paragraph, T: 2 explain how it appeals to the audience, 3.Explain how your example from the show ensures that the show meets the remit.

It appeals to the audience by the genre of the music and the age of the music.

Two marks would be given for the opening sentence, which explains how Radio stations target audiences. Two marks would be given for the following sentences, which exemplify different use of targeting in Radio 1 live lounge.

Targets Q3: Make points about how BBV Radio provide wider content on their radio stations, give examples on Radio 1 and why they have to do this linked to the remit.

1. They don't have to attract a wide audience on R1. Target 15 - 29 year olds. For example they use artists that are well known by younger people such as Tom Grennan and Romy.

2. Provides contemporary music currently released mainly. Offers a range of new music. Playlists consist of up to date music.

3. Live Music. Provide a platform for live music. Live lounge featuring un-popular artists like Romy.

- BBC Radio provides a wider range of content than commercial radio for several reasons.

- Firstly Radio 1 provides a platform for smaller artists.

- This example is due to the remit and in particular the fact that Radio 1 target 15 - 29 year olds.

- We can identify this is the live lounge through the type of music they play.

Identify the word that describes a large company which owns a set of companies that produced different media forms. Conglomerate.

Bauer Media owns radio stations as well as magazines. Identify the word that describes adding others areas of business in this way. Diversification.

Identify one source of funding for BBC Radio 1. TV Lisence.

Wednesday 1st March 2023

Mise-En-Scene has 4 elements: 

- The Setting

- Costumes and Makeup

- Lighting

- Characters

They help build mood and atmosphere for the audience.

"Adore You" by Harry Styles (music video) shows mise-en-scene by showing a seaside town, characters are people in the town, a man & a fish. It's probably set in a seaside town to show that the fish belongs in the sea. And even though he adored it, he knew he had to let go. The lighting is dark because it's kind of sad. This could be set around 1970's.

LO: To examine the use of media language in music videos.

The props they use are things like skateboards and cars. The setting is a city. The costumes are rock and skater style. They are doing an illegal gig. 

Avril Lavigne and her friends are dressed like skaters. This is achieved by using skateboards as props and them wearing hats backwards. This could suggest to the audience that they are rebellious. It is set in a city. We are shown this because of the shots of the cars and buildings.

The main guy (the nerd) is dressed with a trapper hat. He is stereotypically the geek because he's wearing a winter coat with an imaiden shirt.

Exam Style Question

How and why do the two music videos you have studied use setting and costume effectively?

The music videos for Avril Lavgine's Sk8er Boi and Wheatus' Teenage Dirtbag use setting and costume achieve similar effects. For example Sk8er Boi uses the setting of a city and an illegal gig is going on. They chose this scene because that's where skaters would go, to a city. Sk8er Boi uses skater costumes like backwards hats, props being skateboards & they wear rock bracelets. They use these to show how punk they are. Teenage Dirtbag uses the setting of an american high school. They used this because the word "teenage" links with school. The main character is seen as the geeky loser. The popular boy looks like the stereotypically attractive, tall jock. For the costumes, the nerd wears a trapper hat and an imaiden shirt. He is the only one that wears this so you can tell he stands out as the geek. The jock wears a letterman jacket which is a popular american boy stereotype. These two music videos are similar by teenage characters and the genres. They are different because the Sk8er Boi main character is popular whereas the Teenage Dirtbag main character is known as a loser.

Camerawork

S - Shot type

A - Angle type

M - Movement type

Monday 6th March 2023

LO: To research the case study and artists involved Annotate in detail the examples from the case study.

Lizzo

- Lizzo is her stage name

- 34 years old

- Detroit

- Hip Hop

- Grammy award

- Truth Hurts 2017/2019

- American

Lizzo's music primarily incorporates hip hop, and is also infused with genres such as soul, R&B and funk-pop. As she began to garner attention for her collaborations, Lizzo also worked on solo material, which she described as “feel-good music.” Backed by an upbeat sound, her songs often feature positive—and occasionally humorous—lyrics that touch on such issues as race, body confidence, and low self-esteem. Some of her newest songs are "About Damn Time" , "Grrrls" , "Special" , "2 Be Loved (I Am Ready)" and more. Her biggest hit is "Truth Hurts" originally released September 19, 2017, by Nice Life Recording Company and Atlantic Records, but then re-released as a radio single in 2019. Lizzo is 34 years old and has been in the music industry for 10+ years. She is an American singer born in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Lizzo is her stage name, her real name is Melissa Viviane Jefferson.

She won 4 grammy awards in 2020 & 2023.

Original song: Special - covers topics of injustice, gender inequality?

Cover song: Sam Smith, Unholy, caused controversy when it first came out in terms of the video and acknowledge topical issues in society.

Guest name and info: Lizzo - background info above - talks about her clothing brand, 'business woman'.

Informs, educates and entertains: 4th time appearing on the live lounge. Entertains through her comical responses to questions - 'it's a tune' informs she plays the fluteand shows her skills.

Quotes: 'I'm a business woman' abbreviation of words by presenters, slang used. E.g 'amazing'.

Innovative show: 3 presenters, varied artists, Lizzo really successful and famous, still interested in play the live lounge even after 4th.

Lizzo shared her information about her collaborations and tour. Entertains - through comedy with presenters.

Wednesday 8th March 2023

LO: To explore how camerawork is used to create meaning in music videos.

The camera shot used for this is canted low angle. This builds to the affect of the fact that they are on kids vehicles, so they look bigger. By looking at the picture you see that the main person is Billie Eilish because she's riding a red car where as everyone else is riding bikes. The clothes match her car as well. She is also seen as the main person because she's at the front & in the middle. They might be singing about friendship if you look at the picture.

The connotations of the setting looks like a desert. This could represent her being alone - she could be singing about this. There are no people around her which represents loneliness. The shot is a long shot & a wide shot. This could also show that it's hot & in the middle of no where.

Teenage Dirtbag - More naturalistic

Sk8er Boi - Not natural

1. Shot name: POV

    Why used?: To look more realistic

    Why used here?: He likes the skater girl

2. Shot name: Wide 7 long shot

    Why used?: To show that he has no friends

    Why used here?: To show that There's no one around him

3. Shot name: Long shot

    Why used?: To show she has people around her

    Why used here?: To show that she's popular and everyone loves her

4. Shot name: Low angle

    Why used?: To show he's the jock

    Why used here?: To show that he's popular

5. Shot name: Close up canted

    Why used?: To show she's in control of the situation

    Why used here?: To show the style of the video

This matches the genre because it's all about pop n rock. The shots I saw ion Sk8er Boi was things like low angle, mid shot and long shot. Sk8er Boi is a fast, thrilling, chaotic music video.

The music video of Teenage Dirtbag is natural and smooth. It's calming and slow.

The camera movement in Sk8er Boi is messy and chaotic. For example, at one point in the video theres camerawork that shows a point of view shot. This shows that you can see how realistic it is. The chaotic camerawork fits the tone of the song because it's about punk rock.

The camera movement in Teenage Dirtbag is smooth and calming apart from the parts that show the band (usually). At one point, theres a prom scene and the song is quieter and smoother. This tells us it's more of a calm song. The smooth camerawork fits the tone of song because it's punk rock but it's quite easy-going.

For Sk8er Boi, the music producers use camerawork to help it more realistic/chaotic. It also helps to construct the identity of an artist/band by showing that this is the sort of music they're in to. Sk8er Boi shows this by making the mise-en-scene noticeable. For example the clothes could represent the artist in real life. This could be their type of music they produce. They may also be in to the fact that they are punk rock. This suggests they have no limits and just don't care.

Wednesday 22nd March 2023

LO: To explore how sound and editing are used to create meaning in music videos

Diegetic:

Sound that originates from within the video or film's world

Non-Diegetic:

Any type of sound that does not specifically exist within the world of the film itself

Teenage Dirtbag: We can hear 1 diegetic sound which is a car crashing into a bike.

S8er Boi: At the beginning we hear the sound of traffic and spray cans falling over. And at the end we hear a helicopter and police cars. This adds realism and lets us know its set in the city before it even starts. We also hear sirens and her smashing a car window. Its very anti-establishment which is going against the rules.

Editing

- Order of shots/shotchoices

- Continuity

- Transitions

- Shot duration

- Pace and rhythm

- Special effects

Teenage Dirtbag has longer shots because of the narrative.

Sk8er Boi has much shorter clips.

Teenage Dirtbag; Slowmo, warp transition to show its a dream and disco ball falling is special effects to break the dream.

Sk8er Boi is set in a city. Teenage Dirtbag is set in a school. His outfit sticks out from everyone else so show he's the main character. Sk8er Boi has a main character but they all dress the same. You can see that the two music videos are different because one is at a fast pace and one is at a slow pace. The clips are shorter in Sk8er Boi. In Teenage Dirtbag they make the clips longer because of the narrative. It shows more of a detailed story. Sk8er Boi has shorter and faster clips because it can tell a story by small clips. But not in the same way that Teenage Dirtbag does. The fast clips in Sk8er Boi match the theme of the illegal gig and punk, skater video.

Wednesday 19th April 2023

LO: To explore how representations are constructed in music videos

Stereotypes:

Male - Physically strong, in charge of women, gets higher jobs. Good at sports. The colour blue. Short hair.

Woman - Physically weaker, feminine and not good at sports. Lots of makeup, housework. Long hair.

Avril Lavigne has been represented as a punk, tom boy. She is seen as quirky, naughty and ant-establishment.

The genre is punk rock. This has been represented by the clothes, song and characters.

They have been represented as teenagers by showing they're still in school but don't obey the law - which is stereotypical for a teen.

The urban setting has been represented as a city.

The gender would usually be male (stereotypically) but the main antagonist was a female because she proved girls can be like that too.

She is shown as straight.

Teenage Dirtbag'a main character have been represented as a male nerd.

The band are seen as immature and youngish.

The high school is a typical school, with populars.

The genders are a mix which is accurate for schools.

The sexuality is straight.

Monday 20th May 2024

- Offcom

- BBC

- Broadcasting which benefits the public

- Convergence

In Teenage Dirtbag the representation of stereotypes is in the music video. For example the jock, nerd and jocks girlfriend. We also see the representations of a school and teens. In Sk8er Boi we see anti-stereotypes because there is a skater girl. There is also a representation of teens, rebellion and cities.

Radio 1 attracts a wide ranged audience by certain music they show. If it's old music from the 60s, 70s etc, then it would attract the older audience. However if it was showing young, popular music, it would attract the younger audience. They get their money from adverts. The adverts match the target audience.

Live Lounge

Rickie, Melvin and Charley - presenters

Mojo magazine - gothic hairstyles - alternative - pale makeup palette - 70s/80s - dark coloured clothes

Contexts:

- Changes in gender roles

- Attitudes to sexuality

- Multiculturalism

- Celebrity culture

- Consumerism

- Masthead (typography)

- Colour palette

- Coverline - lexis

- Main image

- Layout

In conclusion, the media language used for this is all different things like colour palette, layout, main image etc.