My Question - How are Radiohead and Thom York using the online age to change the music industry?

See it on the site here.
The presentation has been made slightly less pretty and easy to read by the website. Never mind.

Light and fire

A few of the light and fire effects which have appealed to and inspired me.

http://ae.tutsplus.com/tutorials/vfx/create-an-illuminating-light-painting-effect/

I really like the idea of using something like this in my video because it would let me create something more surreal, using visuals not seen in many music videos. I also like the use of lighting itself, which I find very pretty and for this reason spent time finding the above the videos. The fire and lights flow in a very appealing way to me, twisting and twirling like a ribbon used in a ballet, and perhaps more relevantly, in this music video directed by Spike Jonze. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVrA2mtrHUM

3. Bat For Lashes - Whats a Girl To Do

This intensely original and weird video, directed by Dougal Wilson uses simplicity to create a film both unique and engaging. The camera barely moves in the entire video, and the video is shot to make the audience believe that it was performed in one complete take. The seemingly endless, repetitive song creates a tone of unease which is only strengthened by the sinister and disturbing video. Shot late at night, using the darkness and the road to create the route that the lead singer, Natasha Khan, travels seem endless, mirroring the song This is aided by how she stares constantly at the camera, staring directly at the viewer. The strong lighting clashes against the soft, and weird visuals which could have passed off as a dreamworld. The lighting brings the foreground into sharp focus, and distorts the mood of the video further. The unusual combination of visuals are echoed by the haunting tone to the singer's voice, creating a dreamlike effect, while the main riff has a tone like a fairground ride, which mixes with the powerful, out-of-place drums to create a clashy, unconventional and foreboding tone, which blends perfectly with the mood of the video. Wilson is obviously a pro at managing mood.

The costumed cyclists who emerge almost magically from behind the singer at the chorus are far too out of place and sinister looking to be passed off as children's entertainment. One of these reminds me a lot of Frank the rabbit from the film "Donnie Darko", a film with a similarly creepy tone to the video. This is an opinion confirmed by an interview with the director for a magazine "She had a great brief – she liked ET, especially the bike scene, and Donnie Darko, and 80s looking stuff, and the forest at night." This quote also shows how the artist of the song can have a major input towards a music video, as they know the song best, and therefore the intended themes and ideas behind it, better than anyone else. The never-ending road and costumed characters make the video seem like a nightmare. This is added to with the entry of the two costumed people holding a balloon, which they let fly away; surely a deep, powerful metaphor, but as the video seems to have little or no clear correlation with the lyrics, the intended meaning is near impossible to work out. Another point, where the singer passes a car crash, and yet, as with everything else, she ignores it, and stares straight on at us.

Leeching off other forms of media

Convergence in the music industry is a very regular occurrence - Universal Pictures use Universal Music Group music in their films, Sony Pictures use Sony Music Entertainment music in their films, and Warner Bros. use Warner Music Group music in their films. These are all examples of how companies use cross-media convergence to promote both music and film. However, what is much rarer, and also much more relevant, is when an artist uses footage, old and new, from a film where the track is played for the song's official video. In this case, I am thinking of the appalling band "Paramore", and the equally appalling film, "Twilight". 
TWILIGHT - Paramore Music Video

This video uses shots from the film, cut into shots of the band, shot in a way to appear as if the members are part of the film. Therefore, the video is obviously appealing to the people who enjoyed the film, and on the flip side, people who enjoyed the song will likely watch the video, which serves as a form of advertising. Given that "Twilight" is a film aimed at teenage girls, Paramore must want to be seen primarily as a band that appeals to the same demographic. That the lead singer of the band is a woman, this seems likely, as this connects the audience to the band to the film.

The purpose of music videos

In this post I will explore the purpose of the music video, and how in changing times, music videos have changed, and will continue to.

In short, music videos are created to aid the sales of a song. Since the birth of music television and therefore the growth of interest in the media in the late 70's, major record labels have seen to it that popular, or soon to be popular songs have been given music videos to promote the song. At this time, music television was seen as another way to promote a song, much in the same way as radio, but with the added element of video. This was soon exploited, so that the video part of the song was to be a form of advertising for the band, plastering motifs or faces of the band all over the video. Some videos choose to focus more on being more unconventional, and these sell themselves (and therefore the song) on how unique these are. Little has changed in this respect since then, but a mixture of new technologies and the popularity of a large range of genres and ideas within the industry has led to changes in nearly everything else. With the birth of the Internet, which has led to a more widespread popularity in other genres, which can all be easily and more conveniently viewed online, music television has been less and less popular, to the point where these channels only spend a few hours showing music videos, and focus more on other shows. It is fair to say that we have reached the end of the era of music television stations, in the same way that radio is also meeting its end, for the same reasons, although its deeper roots in society, as well as being a much more unique and convenient way of listening to new music than television mean that it will be several more years before conventional music radio dies.

This brings us into the current age of music videos. The purpose of the video is mainly unchanged, but audiences have grown bored with the generic staples attached to each genre of music, and so directors have branched out, leading to a much wider and more interesting range of videos, either simply making the old more explicit, re-writing the conventions, or doing something completely new and unexpected. With music television largely out of the picture, record labels have turned to online video sites such as Youtube and Myspace Video to market songs. This way, the video can still be used to advertise the band, although which band is advertised is no longer up to a higher power than the audiences - they can choose exactly what they want to see, and if not entertained by the video shown to them to promote a song, they will likely loose interest in both, and move on to another. In this sense, the importance of music videos has grown with competitive marketing. To solve this, sites are being paid to promote a video, so it appears on a homepage, for example. This is one of the two ways videos are being promoted. The other, is to rely on the less conventional, and more interesting videos, which often tell stories to make the audience think. This can be viewed as short films, and so are as such treated online, with the best receiving popularity from the community, and the others ignored. To appeal here, pop culture and unique or interesting ideas are being used, which has led to the music becoming less and less important to the video (videos such as "Windowlicker" by Aphex Twin have very long intros, where a story is introduced before the song begins). This divide in the two 'types' of video is sure to evolve in the future, as the online age becomes more and more dominant.

It is impossible to tell what will happen to the media in the near-future, with new technologies being release ever-regularly. However, in my opinion, music videos as we know them will fade in time, due to the lack of need for them in the online community. Record labels are simply tapping into the popular forms of media, and using them to promote their songs. It was once radio (which still has a specific purposes), and then television (which has far fewer), and is now the Internet. As the Internet gives us the opportunity to listen to music in the background, as well as listening to a visual take on the song, we are given the choice of what we want to listen to. With this, I find it less likely that the simple, "pretty picture" formula will stick, given the more interesting videos out there, and that these videos are simply not needed. The videos which branch out, and do something new, are interesting, and add a lot to the music, or create something completely new and interesting. The Internet has created the choice that the audience has always needed, and now the audience can choose what to do with their time, the interesting and innovative will always shine through.

An extended quick overview of the Big 4 record labels. *Now with future tense!

This graph, taken from Wikipedia, shows the distribution of market shares within the music industry (in 2005, so this graph is slightly out of date). The common term for the five sectors of this distribution is the Big 4, consisting of Warner Music Group, Sony BMG, EMI Group and Universal Music Group, who together own 71.7% (according to the graph) of the shares in the industry. The remaining 28.3% of the shares are owned by other, much smaller, independent labels. 

In the industry, there is a form of partnership between the independents and the Big 4 (the majors). The independents often recruit new talent who show new ideas or genres. If successful, the artist, and therefore the label, will gain money and fame, and at this point, a major is likely to buy out the label. In this way, there is a form of synergy between between the independents and the majors - the independents are a source of new talent. Other record labels will find or produce bands with a similar style to this new success, so to gain profit from the new talent.

It is thought that the ever-expanding Online Age will destroy the music industry, with threats such as streaming and piracy, allowing instant access to music at nearly any time, with very little that the companies can do. I think this is possible, but more likely, the record companies will do as they have for over 200 years - evolve.

Computers and the Internet has changed everything - production, distribution, consumption, advertising - and everything else besides. Production can now be done at home with free software and a low-spec computer. Artists no longer even need a band to compose and record, it can be done alone, easily mixing tracks, or entirely recorded using sound bites. Due to this, recording studios are no longer needed for artists to record tracks, cutting the first of the record label's appealing features away. Next comes distribution. The Internet has made this possible for anyone at any time, with free uploading sites such as Youtube, Myspace for videos/music, as well as specialized sites such as "The 41" or "Band Camp" mainly for smaller bands. This is easy to do, and as a result of this, millions have set up accounts (http://www.myspace.com/tomkatband). The next step, which tends to be the greatest problem, is advertising. With so many small bands floating around, it is very hard to get one noticed, even if they shamelessly advertise their band everywhere they can. This has led to a rise in the number of concerts, as a way to get a band heard about. Indeed, concerts have risen in proportion to albums being sold falling.

Record labels can be considered a positive or negative depending on perspective. It can also vary a lot depending on various factors. For example, a band getting signed can be a great thing for a band, allowing them to reach new audiences, and hopefully then boost their audience through label-funded CD's or gigs. This can also be a good thing for the audience. However, some bands complain that their record label prevents them from complete creative control, such as choosing songs to go on an album, how the album is released and the marketing scheme of the band. However, the bigger the label, the less they can afford to risk, signing and marketing mainly bands of a similar genre to what is already popular, which many people argue prevents new music from hitting the mainstream. However, you can't really blame the labels for this behavior - its how they make their business work. Even if the current majors' buildings were all nuked and their business destroyed, other labels would strive to gain new bands and generate more money, and eventually would become more famous than others, allowing them to promote bands more heavily, making the most popular music. Personally, I find that piracy is a new way to finally escape this horrible, nihilistic view of the media, and allows another step in how media is distributed, marketed, and produced to be made in a new, more natural (at the moment) way.

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Fell In Love With A Girl

This video, nearly entirely created with Lego blocks and stop-frame animation. This unique idea gives the video a very stylistic look, which's success won many nominations and awards, including the nomination for MTV's coveted "Video of the year".

The video is instantly recognisable as a White Stripes video due to their motif of only using the colours red, white and black on album covers and music videos. This is instantly clear from a a small section of the video. This is cleverly thought out, as without this colour scheme, it would be near impossible to recognise the band, and so the colour scheme is the link between the video and the band, which then allows us to wonder how the band is being represented.

Quoted from Wikipedia - "The White Stripes use a low-fidelity, do-it-yourself approach to writing and recording. Their music features a melding of punk and blues influences and a raw simplicity of composition, arrangement, and performance. The duo is also noted for their fashion and design aesthetic which features a simple colour scheme of red, white, and black." Simplicity, as this article states, is a key feature of the band. Most of their songs are written for two people, and they use very simple chord sequences in their songs. For proof, this song only uses three chords, in the sequence B A G A for the entire song. This is why the use of Lego suits the band so well. Lego is a very simple building tool, the original range only offering a small selection of colours and bricks, as can be seen in the video. Lego is also a very creative tool, allowing the user to create anything at all. The band is also original in the use of the idea. These are the three words I would use to describe how the band is represented in this video, which all tie in with the quote from above.

This use of links between the style, ideas and themes of the band to the video is something I will have to bear in mind when creating my own video, so that my video gives the viewer a conscious and unconscious idea of how the band/individual artists want to be portrayed.

Virtual Insanity

Jamiroquai's video, "Virtual Insanity", is shot nearly entirely in one room, where the singer, Jay Kay dances, Michael Jackson style around the room. So this is not boring, the video employs a unique feature - moving walls (likely inspired by the name of the album containing the song, "Travelling Without Moving"), giving the illusion of frictionless movement, aided by how only the desired objects in the room move. However, it is the deeper meanings the video gives to the song that are truly interesting. After being asked to write down three words which describe the representation of Jay Kay in the video, I listed happy, super-human and mentally disturbed. The first two aspects make the singer seem like the main character in nearly all dancing music videos, and yet, on a deeper level, there are small aspects which grow on the viewer with every time the video is watched, including the unusual attire worn by Jay Kay - a fleece is rarely the pop-star norm, and there is something slightly disconcerting about how casually he wears the hat, which reminds me very much of the mad hatter. The room, in my opinion, represents a place inside the character's head, where the white walls and clinical lighting represent a mental asylum (the room is clearly imitating a padded cell). This changes the "happy, super-human" ideas from before and adds a darker element, which is the key issue when the deeper meanings to the video are uncovered - mental illness of the character. This view of the lead singer affects how we view the band themselves. It would be too rash to call the band 'mentally ill', based on this, but it is easy to assume that the band is quirky and slightly twisted. This all fits in with the word "Insanity" used in the title, proving that my hypothesis cannot be far off. This opinion starts to crawl in with the first viewing of the cockroach, first seen in at the 50 second point as a transition between the main room and the corridor at the end of it. (at this point, it is worth noting that the walls clearly wobble, although this is likely to be a fault with the props, instead of a notable, if pretentious point about 'the walls of reality caving in around him') However, the cockroach is shown to be not just a transition, but a part of the room, and in this case, represents mental illness (cockroaches and other insects commonly being an item of fear for the mentally insane), when it is next seen a few seconds later, easy to miss, when it crawls silently down the right hand wall. Another separating shot, this time showing two cockroaches, hinting at his madness being greater than we thought. However, the singer appears not to notice this in his otherwise perfect 'house', even after one crawls under the wall in the main room. Jay Kay continues a while longer, until the camera tilts upwards to follow a crow which has entered the room and flies out above the camera. This again suggests that the enclosed space Kay has created is not so detached from the outside world. Kay continues dancing, until the room's objects all advance on the camera, where he takes a pose and holds it until pressed up against the camera, where it becomes clear that a slight wide angle lens is being used, slightly distorting his face, the skewed picture reminding us that this reality is only a virtual one, á la title. One last time, the camera rolls downwards, showing us blood leaking down from somewhere out of the frame. The camera rolls up again, and the floor is covered in blood, apparently leaking from the sofas, which is the definitive part of evidence showing the viewer that this virtual insanity is not all it seems. The seemingly oblivious Jay Kay sings to the camera desperately as the walls start leaking blood and the crow once again rises and flies above the camera, as the artist drops the volume, and sings:

"It's all alright". 

2. Jason Forrest - War Photographer

Jason Forrest - War Photographer
by kuSo

It's fairly hard to write about music videos like these, which seem to have no meaning or aim besides being really awesome therefore appealing. So I'm going to write about that.

The song, War Photographer, is a fairly epic rock song, and so the director, Joel Trussell, decided to create visuals to match this, making a video more manly than all of Arnold Schwarzenegger's filmography combined. In the video, two Viking ships battle each other with guitar solos, until they both transform into giant robots, and hit each other around for a bit. I suppose this is a good example of how the genre of music can or should influence the themes of the video, and how the "epic rock song" genre (a title I just made up) should be really epic. Either way, I feel that on a limited budget of non-existent, CGI robots, or even just Vikings playing guitar will be out of my reach. Shame.

1. Unkle - Rabbit In Your Headlights

UNKLE - Rabbit In Your Headlights
by Unkle
This video has been highly acclaimed by critics since its release in 1998. Directed by Jonathan Glazer, the video is particularly interesting due the many ways the film can be interpreted. The video uses diegetic sound over the video, which is fairly unusual for a music video, but that the diegetic sound sometimes growing as loud as the song itself, which suggests that the video is focused on telling a story more than promoting the song, although this story is very visceral and for this reason does not tell the story by a properly constructed plot, but more by the feelings brought up by the happenings of the person the camera follows. I try to avoid using the word character, as really, he has none, and seems to only serve the purpose of interacting with other elements in the film. The video gets more intense with the music, the power of this grows. At the start of the song, the man is only holding up the traffic (which can be thought of as one entity). The traffic then starts to move around him, and as the music grows louder, instruments enter and the song becomes more intense, the cars begin to hit him more and more regularly, either due to him being invisible, inferior or someone the traffic wants to kill. The end of the song, Thom Yorke's signature 30 second long vocal notes enter, and the man throws off his parka and stops, destroying the car before it hits into him.

Motifs In Cover Art

On Andrew Blake's publication "Dancing in the Distraction Factory", he talks about "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)". Artists often incorporate this in CD covers for albums and singles, where the album cover sets a visual theme (often based on the themes of the music), which is often then used for the corresponding singles cover arts. This is an example of synergy, and not only helps to sell music, but also makes it clear from what album a single is derived and vice-versa. Daft Punk, besides being geniuses, (listen to "Alive 2007" for the prime time of your life) are good examples of this. Look at this crude MS paint job for proof - the television screen motif is a distinct visual style, and ties the singles to the album.

Daft Punk are very good examples of this because they also used the anime styled single cover for "Harder Better Faster Stronger" as the visual style for three of their music videos and the musical film "Interstella 5555", which is based on the band.

But it's not just good bands that do this! Oh no, Keane used their undeniably cool cover art design for their singles too.

Note the similar analogous colour schemes, same font and positioning of text and "cutout" effect.

On a simpler level, notice how both bands have completely different styles, and how other bands employ very different themes in their cover art, keeping each one fresh and unique. Cover art is a major selling point for an album, especially today where the Internet makes it easy for shops and artists to display them, and so they must stand out above the rest.

If you too, enjoy looking at pretty colours, check out Autechre and Coldplay's cover arts.

P.S. See what I did there with the Daft Punk song reference?

0. 29 music videos

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/21/monday-inspiration-brilliant-music-videos/

Using this list as a source of quality and interesting music videos, I will write a report on each one, gaining knowledge and ideas for my own music video.

EDIT: This was not completed due to time constraints caused by the workload of my practical project. About seven of these essays were written.

Music videos

1. A music video I love - Feel Good Inc. by Gorrilaz

This is a music video that has always interested me, and from a media studies point of view, the best thing to look at in this video is the relation between music and visuals (one of Andrew Goodwin's main points in his book, "Dancing in the Distraction Factory"). The rap part of the music video in many ways fits the generic signifiers of rap music in video, entering in an urban landscape, with the sound of sirens and gunshots in the background creating a very dystopic view of the city where the video is set. The camera then takes us away from this, and presents us with a tower above the clouds, labeled with the words "Feel Good Inc.". Inside the tower, we are shown members of the band experiencing the simple pleasures, sex, partying and alcohol, but nothing besides this. The Feel Good Inc. is a place created to satisfy the basic human needs, but gives us nothing else, which is why the main character in the tower, 2D feels the need to escape, but is confined within the tower, shown by the symbolism of the prison-like bars across the window he looks out of and the lyrics by 2D - "You wont get out the county, 'cos you're damn as free". This "trapped" feeling is also shown by the screens we are seen when the camera circles 2D, which represent the media, and how is is confining us to only one way of thinking, and there is nothing we can do. "With your sound you're in the blink, Going to bite the dust, Can't fight with us, With your sound you kill the inc, So don't stop get it, get it, Until you're jet ahead, And watch the way I navigate, Ha ha ha ha" This is rapped at 2D by De La Soul when the screens surround him, telling him that they are too powerful (which is also represented visually by the size and omnicience of the rapper and the cage of screens), and that there is nothing he can do but be forced to enjoy it, like the other band members. This is the bands view of society, so the tower is created as an exadurated microcosm of the group's views. This is all contrasted by the second part of the video and song, which enters as 2D presses his face against the barred window, watching a floating island drift past longingly, where another character, Noodle is relaxing, and playing the guitar, which creates a far softer sound than the harsh rap inside of the tower. The island represents nature and true, fuller pleasures, such as peace and beauty. The mise-en-scene is much prettier here, too, using brighter, lighter colours to suggest a much happier style of living. In the end of the video, 2D gives up, accepting the way of life forced upon him, singing the words "Feel Good" repeatedly as a token to the tower, and to convince himself of a state of mind.

2. A conventional music video - Down With The Sickness by Disturbed
Disturbed - Down with the Sickness (music video)

Besides being totally awesome, this song has the worlds most conventional music video. Almost all heavy metal and other bands with similar genres have videos featuring concert footage of the band, mixed in with the band messing around or playing the song, unlike most other genres of music, which tell a story, and so this video fits the conventions. This genre of music tends to have very dynamic, exciting and powerful live concerts, which are very suited to the genre of music, and therefore the video. The dark mise-en-scene of a hard rock concert also works very well with the dark mood of the music, and the everchanging lighting fits in with the pase and mood of the song, so using footage of concerts is very effective. Using the concert footage engages the audience and makes them feel a part of the crowd, even when sitting at home, which makes the video a form of advertising, as it encourages the . The video is edited so that it is cut very quickly and on the beat, which again adds to the fast and powerful mood the song creates. The video is essentially a form of advertising, selling concert tickets to the audience.

3. An unconventional music video - Second Bad Vilbel by Autechre

Whether this video is unconventional or not is open to debate, given that the genre of music is experimental/electronic, and how few experimental songs are given official videos. Either way, the video is very different from more mainstream music, using fast edits and a blurred/distorted effect to make what would otherwise be very ordinary images very weird and disturbing. Mechanical, futuristic objects and robotsare shown to us, which creates a relationship between the electronic music genre, which obviously has connotations of computers, due to how the music is created, and often the themes of the music. There is a colour scheme to each clip, creating an unnatural, claustrophobic effect. This is often contrasted with a flash of another (often complementary to emphasize the contrast) colour, which keeps the video exciting and interesting, as well as creating the effect that the video is slightly broken, which makes the footage appear more realistic and therefore disturbing. The colour scheme separates our realistic world from this video, but uses familiar settings, such as the underground tunnel, which could have been a metro station, to link the video to reality, leaving the viewer slightly on edge. The fast edits in the video are a result of the unusual and fast tempo and beats in the song, where the director often uses an image for a fraction of a second on an off-beat, to great effect, as it creates a mystery, and makes us feel that something important is happening during these flashes. The enigma of what is happening is withheld throughout, so that a clear plot is never established, and no resolution is reached, leaving the audience thinking about the video after it ends.