We have created an indie-rock music campaign, that included social media, music video, and album artwork. The main social issues that were raised throughout our campaign were status and gender. The music video was used as the main tool to identify who is the main in the band and who is the lead singer.
We did so through the use of space by placing a lead slightly in front of the rest band members and by making lighting brighter just on him. Throughout the music video, the lead singer takes most of the frame time, by doing that we are highlighting the fact of his high status in a band.
In social media, the lead is also appearing to be the most important as he is in most of the most either by himself or with the band but takes more space. This way the representation of the lead singer is adhering with what audience members have used to -- the lead singer has the highest status in the band.
To highlight that the lead singer is the most important we have put
the picture where you can see only him on the back cover of the album.
Moving on to the other social group -- gender we made it clear that it is an all-boy band. We made it clear through the use of costumes, to show that boys from the band are rebellious. This way were are adhering stereotype that boys are always wearing jeans and don't care about anything. We have also used dark colors throughout the campaign in order to show the fact that they are dark and mysterious, not just rebellious guys. As well as adhering stereotype of boys being boys, we have also shown the other side of rebellious boys, we have shown them with flowers, that way we subverted the stereotype of boys usually not being romantic and serious. As well as the main social issues we have raised the age issue, such as the fact that we have tried to make a clear representation of the age between 18 to 20 years old, as that is how stereotypical man looks like in such age. We tried to show that through the use of mise-en-scene, such as clothing style, hairstyle -- more inaccurate than most boys/men have.
To highlight that the lead singer is the most important we have put
the picture where you can see only him on the back cover of the album.
Moving on to the other social group -- gender we made it clear that it is an all-boy band. We made it clear through the use of costumes, to show that boys from the band are rebellious. This way were are adhering stereotype that boys are always wearing jeans and don't care about anything. We have also used dark colors throughout the campaign in order to show the fact that they are dark and mysterious, not just rebellious guys. As well as adhering stereotype of boys being boys, we have also shown the other side of rebellious boys, we have shown them with flowers, that way we subverted the stereotype of boys usually not being romantic and serious. As well as the main social issues we have raised the age issue, such as the fact that we have tried to make a clear representation of the age between 18 to 20 years old, as that is how stereotypical man looks like in such age. We tried to show that through the use of mise-en-scene, such as clothing style, hairstyle -- more inaccurate than most boys/men have.
Before creating our final products my group and I have done a lot of research into the genre our future brand was going to be and about what the target audience of the band is going to be. The main target audience for the band and for the music video will be an 18 to the 21-year old audience. The people who are old enough to think about what they are listening to and also about the fact what is the main aim of the song(s) of the artist/band. The most prominent psychographic thing that we have done is that we spoke to our audience through the use of different fonds on the front of the digipack
such a type of fond was used to show rebelliousness and to keep the star image. In order to create a feel of the brand and the connection between all the 3 products we have made a logo, that was on both social media accounts and the digipack. The logo was both dangerous and romantic. In order to connect digipack, social media with the music video we have used the concept of 'street boys'. We have also included logos on all of the social media posts, merch
digipak, this shows that all the products are part of a big campaign. On all four sides of the digipack, there is a connection to either music video or just streets. We did not include the image of any band members on the front cover in order to show that the band is not selling 'them' their main target is to sell the music that they are making. As well as applying research to our products we have also used Richard's Dyer theory of creating a Star image. we have applied the theory that the star (brand) must have its unique selling point, which in our case was the fact that it is a four guy band that is selling its music, not its faces, as most boy bands do.
A theory of Blumler of Uses and Gratifications states that people engage with certain media texts because of different forms of escapism for the audience. The forms that we have used to engage with the audience were a diversion and personal identity. As both of these were represented in our campaign.
A theory of Blumler of Uses and Gratifications states that people engage with certain media texts because of different forms of escapism for the audience. The forms that we have used to engage with the audience were a diversion and personal identity. As both of these were represented in our campaign.
Talking about diversion, our music video can be seen through the fact that band members are boys that are having fun, nothing more, and that they only have this on their mind, no school, no work. In our social media, however, we have shown that the boys can not only be 'the boys' they can also be romantic, which can also be escapism from the mundane, as it is unusual nowadays to see a guy being romantic but in the same time all over the place. 
On our digipack we have tried to use less accurate font to show that the band is not obeying the rules, and that they have its own rules. Which in a way also engages audience to escape from the reality by being like the band members -- rebellious.
Moving on to personal relationship it is fair to say that the most of the engagement with the audience was done by us via social media.
In order to appear more personal and 'like a friend' to a member of audience we have used informal language to write posts, in order to show that the band is as friendly as they look on pictures. There are also many 'live' pictures were used in our social media. To show that the band is posting pictures by themselves. In Digipack we have mostly used the landscapes of the cities to engage with those members of audience that live in urban areas. I believe that we were successful in engaging our products with the audience.
The genre of the band that we have created is indie-rock. In order to understand what are conventions of this genre we have made a research on different bands with this genre, that are now famous. We have researched into first music videos of: The Strokes; Arctic Monkeys; Cage the Elephant and Two Door Cinema Club. We have followed the same color scheme of music video primarily from The Strokes, as their video was dark, but we have also combined it with Arctic Monkeys' first music video were they all were in basement, playing the song. Digipack we have kept as minimalistic as possible in order to sell music, not the band. As it is a first music video and everything else of our band we have decided not to subvert any of conventions. In our whole campaign we have used both, symbolic and technical conventions. Such as, for technical we have used stroking lights
for some hectic parts of the song, in order to show the 'craziness' of the moment in the song. This convention has reflected the fact that the genre is rock, alongside being indie. Talking about symbolic conventions we have filmed the music video partly on the street, to show that these guys do not care about where to film, they cared about how the song will sound. What we have learned from the research, is that most of the indie-rock bands are selling the music, not themselves, as was mentioned earlier. The theme of being 'urban' was carried throughout the whole campaign, especially in social media. in order to highlight the urban theme, we have decided to edit the footage from the streets at a fast speed, so it would look urban and rebellious -- reflecting the genre and style of the band.
for some hectic parts of the song, in order to show the 'craziness' of the moment in the song. This convention has reflected the fact that the genre is rock, alongside being indie. Talking about symbolic conventions we have filmed the music video partly on the street, to show that these guys do not care about where to film, they cared about how the song will sound. What we have learned from the research, is that most of the indie-rock bands are selling the music, not themselves, as was mentioned earlier. The theme of being 'urban' was carried throughout the whole campaign, especially in social media. in order to highlight the urban theme, we have decided to edit the footage from the streets at a fast speed, so it would look urban and rebellious -- reflecting the genre and style of the band.
As it is a newly created band we have followed Andrew Goodwin's theory of the fact that almost all genres follow the same conventions. Such as we have created a narrative to our music video, in order to make this video more interesting. We have also filmed many close-ups of a lead singer to show the importance of that character.
