Digipak

Our digipak is underway and we are thinking of ideas to use on the digpak that will relate to the song and to our genre.

This is an example of how we want our digipak front cover to look;

And we have one out of six sides to our digipak complete so far it looks like this;

Andrew Goodwin's Theory - How to Analyse Music Videos

Andrew Goodwin identifies five key aspects of music videos that we the audience should look out for, these are;

• Thought Beats - Seeing the Sound
• Narrative and Performance
• The Star Image
• Relation of Visuals to song
• Technical Aspects of Music Video

Thought Beats
First step is to look at the music itself. We must take into account the structure of the song for example Chorus and Verses.
Then we must look at the voice of the song. The artists voice is extremely unique and can form identification or trademarks that work well with the star image. Roland Barthes theory of the Grain of Voice can be related back to this. He sees the singing voice as an expressive instrument and therefore able to make associations of its own.
Lastly, Goodwin also points out the artists mode of address. Songs can be seen as stories and the artist the storyteller, making the music video a two communication device, them telling us a story and us listening to the story.

Narrative and Performance
Some songs fail to give us the complete story/narrative.
We only tend to get a gist of the meaning of the song and then tend to make up our own idea of what is being told.
Goodwin explains that music videos should ignore common narrative. It is important in their role of advertising.
Music videos should have coherent repetability. Narrative and performance work hand in hand. It makes it easier for the audience to watch over and over without losing interest.
The artist acting as both narrator and participant helps to increase the authenticity however the lip synch and other mimed actions remains the heart of the music videos. The audience need to believe that it is real.

Star Image
The star image is another vital aspect of music videos. Meta narrative which is a big story that describes the development of the star over time, it has an important part to play in the music video production process. Example of stars with the right image are Michael Jackson, Madonna and Lady Gaga.

Relation of Visuals to Song
There are three ways in which music videos work to promote a song. These are;

• Illustrate - Music videos can use a set of images to illustrate the meaning of lyrics and genre, this is the most common.
• Amplify - This is similar to repeatability. Meanings and effects are manipulated and constantly shown through the video and drummed into our vision.
• Disjuncture - This is where the meaning of the song is completely ignored.

Audience Theory

Key evidence

The Frankfurt school theorises in the 1920's and 30's that the mass media acted to restrict and control audiences to the benefit of corporate capitalism and governments.

The Bobo Doll Experiment

Very controversial piece of research that apparently proved that children copy violent behaviour. The experiment was carried out in 1961 by Albert Bandura. The experiment was that the children watched a video where an adult violently attacked a clown bobo doll. They were then taken to a room of toys and told they cannot touch the toys. The children were then led to a room with bobo dolls in it. The result was that 88% reacted violently and then 8 months later the same children were taken to the room with the bobo dolls in and 40% reacted still. There are many flaws within the methodology of the experiment.

There are many examples of films and games that have supposedly caused people to copy the violent actions of the films or games. Some of these had been banned but are now on show as society doesn't see them as much of a threat anymore. Examples of these are;

Child Play 3
1993
This film was blamed for the brutal murder of James Bulger.

Man hunt
2004
This game was blamed for the murder of Stefan Pakeerah by his friend Warren LeBlanc.

The Clockwork Orange
1971
This film was blamed for a number of rapes and violent attacks.

Severance
2006
This film was blamed for the murder of Simon Everitt.

The Uses and Gratifications Model

It is still unclear that there is any link between the consumption of violent media and violent behaviour.

It's is also clear that the effects model has many flaws in that many people watch violent movies and they appear not influenced at all. A new theory is needed.

It is the opposite of the effects model.
The audience is active, they use the text they are not actually used by the media.

The audience uses texts for its own gratification and pleasure. The power lies with the audience not with the producers.

This theory emphasis what audiences do with media texts, how and why they use them. They are far from being duped by the media, the audience is free to reject, use or play with media meanings as they see fit.

The audiences use media to satisfy their needs for;
Diversion
Escapism
Information
Pleasure
To compare their lifestyles and relationships
Sexual stimulation

It can help people who have issues like;
Learning
Emotional satisfaction
Relaxation
Help with issues of personal and social identity
Help with issues of aggression and violence. This means that when playing a violent game and being angry the game can help to calm you down.

Suture Theory

This is usually based around classical hollywood narrative, editing, sound and mise-en-scene 'sutures' or positions the audience in certain ways making only one preferred reading possible, however unconscious the audience is of that position.

Basically it makes us all feel what they intended us to feel at the same time.