Interview with a Music Producer

Emma is a music manager and she publishes music to the audiences she is also a writer and started of as a singer herself before she got to where she is now. She went to a performance art school and did musical theatre but still wanted to become a singer. She also wrote songs for some famous faces such as the spice girls, Craig Davis and Gary Barlow etc. 

She worked with Simon Cowell and his record label Syco and worked closely with him on shows and as a vocal coach for Britains Got Talent and any other shows with Simon involved. She says that it is important to already have a fan base before attempting to sign a record deal because it means less money and work for the label company. She is saying 100 million streams is equal to 500 thousand pounds of the master cut. 

For her company she looks after artists and bands of different genres and she says that she didn't intend to go for this when she started out and that it just kind of happened. This is an example of her using a method like not putting all her eggs in to one basket. 

She claims that Vinyl is making a comeback and that people who made songs a year ago are still putting out vinyl records and keeping the trend going. She also claims that music videos aren't going to be going anywhere because people are able to watch music videos where ever on their phones and it also counts as marketing for the song and streaming revenue meaning that it is not likely for the music video to die out anytime soon also because it is a fun process for the band/artist themselves to create. 

Here is an example of what she does:

This is the original song

This is the remake of the original 

When Ritt made his version of put your records on he first had to ask if he could do a remake of the song and so he got in touch with the music manager of Corinne and the song writers. So when this went viral on TikTok Ritt wont get all the money for the song because he didn't write it and so will get the artist budget of the song but the songwriters and mangers still get payed. So this is an example of what Emma does. 

Band Logos

Logos are a way for a band to advertise themselves in a way where it is very discreet because people will wear the logo on T-shirts and hoodies and so over the years it has become sort of a specific fashion statement. 

Here is a few examples of existing logos:

Panic! At The Disco

Alt-J

Electric Light Orchestra

Here's some logo designs I have made for some preexisting bands:

Linkin Park 

Foo Fighters 

Video Analysis: This is America - Childish Gambino

Childish Gambino is the musical stage for name of American actor, rapper, comedian, writer and producer Donald Glover. 

As Donald Glover, he has a number of mainstream Hollywood movie credits, including playing the young Lando Calrissian in 'Solo: A Star Wars Story'. He is also the voice of Simba in 'The Lion King' remake. 

Glover is also known for successful TV work as well including being part of a golden globe show called 'Atlanta'

A bit of Background:

• 'This is America' was released in the US on 5th May, 2018 to coincide with Donal Glover hosting 'Saturday Night Live', one of America's best known TV show's. 
• In terms of genre, it is hip hop with very deliberate elements of Afrobeat
• The song's release 

Themes:

• Gun crime 
• Race ^^ connection?

Childish Gambino wants to get the black community to understand the type of life they are living 

Talk about the kids throughout the video and dedicate a paragraph 

The kids are always smiling when they come in for their routine

The kids never stop dancing even with everything going on in the background 

Music videos in the 'YouTube' age

 

This was Iron and Wine's (Samuel Erwin Beam's) first ever music video:

• As you can see the style is very basic and there isn't anything that requires a large budget to complete
• It also shows the type of music that he creates and that he creates music which is very soothing and relaxing in a country/folk sort of style
• The monochrome colours help to show that his music is pure and not tainted and is quite a classic type of music 
• Each shot shows like a certain journey that the people take whether if its from a complicated situation to a less complicated one
• The fact that the shots are very short shows that the main focus is his music

The first album cover is normally a way of telling the audience a bit about the artist and what their type of music is

• This album helps to show that the artist is a country/folk singer by the style of the art and the colour of the album
• The fact that there is only a tree on the album is a very common way of showing that this is a country or folk album
• Unlike most first albums Iron and Wine isn't advertised and we don't see him anywhere on the album apart from his name 
• The album does a good job of advertising the artist's name
• Some albums are simplistic and don't show the artist because the main part of the album is for the music to be listened to and enjoyed 
• 
  

Andrew Goodwin

Music Video Convention:

• A link between the lyrics and visuals either metaphorically, symbolically or literally. 

This is an example of a metaphorical style of music video

• A link between the music and the visuals. The visuals reflect the pace, the rhythm and atmosphere of the music. 

• Reflect the common features of the genre of music. 

• Use of intertextual references. Use of other media that the audience might pickup on. 

This video was inspired by the film The Evil Dead

• Notions of 'looking' and voyeurism. Encourage the audience to look at the people in the video by using certain features. (Such as the Male Gaze and the Subversion of Male Gaze)

Reflective of the record label:

• Could reflect issues such as the records label
• Financial Status
• Power/connections
• Other signed artists 
• Global location
• Target audience

Star image is a key focus and this is when you focus on the main artist of the song to help boost sales of the song to the audience wanting the music. 

Goodwin believed that there are different styles of music videos:

• Performance
• Shows the 'making process' of the music video in a studio
• Narrative
• Shows a story
• Concept based
• focuses on the visuals of the video not the narrative or the music itself

This video is an example of a narrative type of video

Dyer's Star Theory

Richard Dyer and his Star Theory:

Richard Dyer was man who came up with the star theory and that a star in the media world is only someone who is made or created by that persons type of media being put out to their audience and that stars are only products of their values and meanings. 

The persona of the star is made up of a lot of qualities that the audience find attractive. Some times the star has an iconic piece of their style which will be a part of their ensemble for a while. 

The image of a star is not permanent and over time can change take Miley Cyrus who went through multiple stages of her stars persona. 

Everything that we see of our stars on TV or social media is created by their management team so it isn't exactly the stars choice of what gets put on to their profile. 

There is also said to be a certain mold for artists nowadays for artists to become a successful Artist:

• Youthfulness
• Rebellion
• Sexual Magnetism
• An anti-authoritarian attitude
• Originality
• Creativity/talent
• Aggression/Anger?
• A disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour 
• Conspicuous consumption of sex, drugs and material goods 
• Success against the odds

Example:

The artist Passenger is someone who focuses on real life and always feels compelled to sing about what is importnat in the world and what issues need peoples attentions brought to them. 

This is him singing one of his best selling albums called 'All the Little Lights' which was released about 9 years ago where he sings about certain issues which are bigger than others like drug use and this album helped to show that he is the voice of the people or at least his star persona is. 

In this post we can see that Passenger is a down to earth kind of guy and isn't a big shot kind of guy and is just your everyday normal person and not a musician all of the time. 

From this album you can see that he isn't afraid of singing about the tough parts of life and he wants to reassure anyone who is going through a rough patch that they aren't the only ones and that everything is going to be ok. 

Social Media Strategies

Social media is an important part of marketing nowadays because most people use it everyday and it is also a new way of spotting new talent for A&R representatives to find the next best seller and it is also the next best thing to get and audience interested into an artist. Take Instagram for example this social media platform is great for sharing what is going on with an artist and also lets the fan base hear a little snippet of there new songs. 

There are three important parts of Social Media Strategies:

1. Engagement (50%)

2. Storytelling (30%)

3. Promotion (20%)

Engagement:

This gets the audience interested into the Artist and helps them to understand what kind of a person this artist might be in person and also what kind of vibe you would get from that Artist. 

Storytelling:

This part is about letting the audience/fan base into some behind the scene footage of an Artist making their music or a music video to help keep them interested in their material and to make sure that they are anticipating the release of the Artists new music. 

Promotion:

Artists can also use social media to promote themselves about anything that might catch the eye of an A&R scout in order for them to get their big break and it is also a free way of them getting their music out into the world. 

Here are some examples of the three parts to the social media strategy: 

Engagement 

Storytelling

Promotion