Audience: Target, Influence and Effect

If talking about audience as a mass figure, there are a lot of questions that can be raised about the power of the media in influencing not just individuals but whole sectors of society. There have been a number of theories over the years about how exactly the media works on the mass audience. Here are some examples:


The Effects: Hypodermic Needle model


This theory grew from a group of German Marxists in the 1930's who witnessed first hand hoe Hitler used propaganda to influence a nation. The Communists in the Soviet Union had a similar impact.
According to the theory the media (propaganda) is like a syringe which injects ideas, attitudes and beliefs into the audience who as a powerless mass have little choice but to be influenced. In other words if you watch something violent you may go and do something violent, if you see a woman washing up on TV you will want to the same yourself if you are a woman and if you are man you will expect women to do the washing up for you.


This theory is particular popular when people have been considering violence in films. Films such as The Exorcist (Friedkin, 1973) and A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick, 1971) which have been banned in the past, partly because of the belief that they might encourage people to copy the crimes within them.


On the other hand no-one has ever claimed that everyone will be affected by these texts in the same way. Many people have therefore seen the theory as simplistic because it does not take into account people's individuality and yet it is still very popular in society, especially for politicians looking for reason to blame why society has become more violent.


Other examples of violent media encouraging violent real life are:

• Brixton/Croydon riots caused "copycat" riots all over Britain.
• James Bulger was murdered by two children supposedly influenced by violent videos.

The Cultivation/Culmination Theory

Because of the difficulty to prove the effects of individual media texts on their audience a more refined version of the theory was created called the cultivation model:

According to this. while any one media text does not have too much effect, years and years of watching more violence will desensitise you to violence or years of watching women being mistreated in soap/dramas will make you less bothered about it in real life. This is called desensitisation. 

It is still difficult to prove and researchers have spent a huge amount of time and effort trying to validate the cultivation theory but with limited success- this of course does not mean that there is not truth in it as an idea. 

Two more theories include:

Identification:

Violence in the media release tension and desires through identification with fictional character sand events (catharsis). Again all the research on this is inconclusive but some psychiatrists claim to have successfully used pornography to help sex offender release their emotions. 

Sensitisation:

Violence in the media can sensitise people to the effects of violence. Obviously opposite to the 2 above. It is again difficult to prove but when filmed in a certain way violence can be so shocking that it puts people off violence and makes them more aware of its consequences.

Music Video Genre

 "A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos date back much further, they came into prominence in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, these works were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip" or "film clip".

Music videos use a wide range of styles of film making techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation and live action. Many music videos do not interpret images from the song's lyrics, making it less literal than expected. Other music videos may be without a set concept, being merely a filmed version of the song's live performance."

Wikipedia

The music video began with the infamous Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. Although this wasn’t the    actual ‘first’ music video, it was the first to be aired on television, filmed using videotapes. The idea of a music video was initially, and obviously to promote the song by providing a decent/interesting video for their audience, also known as a ‘promotional video’. It could be argued that the success of Bohemian Rhapsody as a song, could have given artists the idea to make a music video with each song release.

Music videos then began appearing on television music shows such as Top of the Pops and shortly after, on MTV. MTV is an American television network that broadcasted music videos initially. Since then it has expanded largely, opened many sister channels, and has differentiated away from the ‘music video’ scene, by broadcasting more documentaries and celebrity TV shows. Over time, MTV has gradually opted to air more ‘reality-based’ shows due to the vast advance in technology. The convenience of the internet and such things like YouTube meant that audiences could watch what music videos when and where they want. It’s all becoming the consumer’s choice, not the broadcasters.

Less and less people no longer want to watch a channel showing a variety of music videos, when they can watch whatever they wish elsewhere. MTV then begun to show programmes involving the lives of famous artists and singers. For example, The Osbournes was broadcast in 2002, a reality show that followed singer Ozzy Osbourne and his music-orientated family. They have also tried to expand and keep as wide an audience as possible, by branching out into different channels for different types of music. From then on MTV still remained as a great success, despite the reduction in music videos.

Top of the Pops was a television show, first aired in 1964, which broadcast chart music in the UK. Music videos were generally shown on TOTP when the artists themselves were unable to perform on the live show. The show was a major success for the BBC, as the audience enjoyed the chart countdown, as initially, it was one of the only places the ‘number one single’ could be found at the Sunday evening slot.

MTV could be seen as the catalyst of the effect of the music video. When MTV was first aired in 1981, it was set to be a channel especially for music related programmes. After broadcasting its first music video, Video Killed the Radio Star, it then became apparent of its popularity, and MTV realised that they needed more videos to fill their airtime; and so forth the reputation of the music video began. But after MTV had branched out much larger, the popularity of the music video ‘channels’ as such, began to deteriorate. So the question poses, have music videos lost their influence on us as an audience?

There are many reasons why music videos have suddenly lost effect in the past 10 years. I believe that the main cause is the ‘boom’ in technological development we have seen. Numerous advances such as YouTube, iTunes, mobile phones and Torrents have all taken part in giving the customer exactly what they want, therefore, anything can be watched as of when suits them. Over time, their popularity has expanded further, and the influence of the promotional music video has deteriorated. Although they are still viewed often, they are more seen as a way of promoting the artists appearances, not their music.

Music Industry

The music industry or music business sells compositions, recordings and performances of music. Among the many individuals and organizations that operate within the industry are the musicians who compose and perform the music; the companies and professionals who create and sell recorded music (e.g., music publishers, producers, studios, engineers, record labels, retail and online music stores, performance rights organisations); those that present live music performances (booking agents, promoters, music venues, road crew); professionals who assist musicians with their careers (talent managers, business managers, entertainment lawyers); those who broadcast music (satellite and broadcast radio); journalists; educators; musical instrument manufacturers; as well as many others.


In the first decade of the 21st century consumers began to use computers and computer networks as the primary means to record, distribute, store and play music. This technological shift caused widespread economic changes and fundamentally changed the relationships between artists, record companies, promoters, retail music stores, the technology industry and the consumer. The rise of digital music consumption options contributed to a few fundamental changes in consumption. First the decline of album sales. With the A la carte sales models increasing in popularity, consumers no longer download entire albums but rather choose single songs.


So-called "pure pop" music, such as power pop, features all these elements, utilising electric guitars, drums and bass for instrumentation; in the case of such music, the main goal is usually that of being pleasurable to listen to, rather than having much artistic depth. Pop music is generally thought of as a genre which is commercially recorded and desires to have a mass audience appeal.


Examples of some of this "pure pop" include: 

However Pop is starting to branch into more deep and meaningful sounds that originated from genres such as Soul, RnB and Motown. Artists like Adele, Beyonce  and John Legend are perfect examples of this as it has taken the classic "pop" sound and flipped it whilst remaining in the genre.

Trial Album Cover- Photoshop

I have never used Photoshop before but for this project it will be an essential tool to create my digi-pack and album cover. 

So here is my attempt at an Adele album, re-inventing her album cover for her record 21.

 

Genre Characteristics

The genre I am most interested  and planning to use as the basis for my music video is the Popular (Pop) genre.

The main characteristics include a group or solo artist usually taking in part in a dance routine. Dance is a very important part of the genre becuase the main audience and reception artists are looking for is younger generation dancing, having fun and bringing together people in the music and dance.

Here are some examples of Pop and RnB videos that have incorporated dance into their video resulting in a widely successful record. 

Another characteristic of  Pop videos is the display of materialistic goods, such as nice cars, big houses, expensive jewellery etc. This not only shows the video to be expensive and showing the ideology of living the "better" life. But it also draws audiences who aspire to be like the artist and therefore want to possess the items in the videos. 

Here are some examples of product placement in some Pop videos.

Goodwin's Conventions

•  Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).

This is a perfect example of the first convention, although not part of a girl band J-Lo does have a signature dance routine for this video. The routine is reflected in the audience and crowd in the club. The theme for the video is very characteristic of a Pop/RnB video, being in a club environment, heavy use of lighting and very glamorous clothing for all extra’s and for J-Lo and Pitbull.   

•  There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

Here are some examples of how the lyrics link to the visuals. Many are positive and amplifying  links.

The lyrics for the still above are: "Dance the night away, live your life and stay up on the floor" The still shows the club and the dance floor and at the beginning of the video we see its night so this is a direct link between the lyrics and the main lyrics of the chorus and the video/visual material. 

The lyrics shown for the above still are: "Let me introduce ya, to my party people in the club" This example and many frames before and after show wide sweeping shots of the club floor and people in the club, again showing a direct link between the lyrics and visuals. 

Similarly in the shot above, "Don't stop keeping on moving put your drinks up"  the reflection of the words and the visuals is clearly stated like the previous 2 frames already shown. 

• There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

There is an accent just after this visual in the frame above and the visuals match this with Pitbull's swinging arm.

This frame above in the video shows the music slow down and the visuals match this by the dancers and close ups of J-Lo moving in slow motion before the chorus is brought in with J-Lo's main dance routine.  

• The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).

Frequent close up's of both lead artist (J-Lo) and featuring artist (Pitbull). Typical reason for extreme close up's or body shots to highlight clothing to advertise for a company, for example at the beginning of video we see Swarovski diamonds advertised so a close up of the box made the final edit of the video. 

• There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

• There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

 Along with the clear product placement of BMW and Swarovski, there is a vivid intertextual reference of the James Bond film Goldfinger. Women painted gold, resting on a chaise lounger and a clear Pitbull in tux with golden painted girls surrounding him. Some of the photos below show the similarities in the video. 

A2 Specification

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with the following two:

•a digipak for the album’s release
• a magazine advertisement for the digipak.

This is a coursework unit. Centres must set the brief from the menu below, though they may define more precise details in negotiation with candidates.

From these brief, candidates will produce:

•a media portfolio, comprising a main and ancillary texts; •
•a presentation of their research, planning and evaluation in digital format(s).

The media portfolio will be produced through a combination of two or more of the following media:

•Video
•Print
•Web-based
•Audio
•Games software

Each candidate will evaluate and reflect upon the creative process and their experience of it. Candidates will evaluate their work digitally, this evaluation being guided by the set of key questions below. This evaluation may be done collectively for a group production or individually.

Examples of suitable formats for the evaluation are:

•A blog
•DVD extras
•A podcast
•A PowerPoint
•A Website

In the evaluation the following four questions must be addressed:

•In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
•How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
•What have you learned from your audience feedback?
•How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?