Looking at artist websites and their layouts

As we are now making our website for our band, we thought it would be beneficial to look at current websites at the moment, and use them for inspiration.
From looking at various websites we found that in general most websites had their navigation bars at the top across the website, links to social media: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and many photos and videos. On many of the websites the artists' image (the image used on all their marketing platforms at the moment for their current album) would be really large at the top of the page, either as a banner or part of the background.
On the homepage there is also usually a lot of information, including a newsfeed, tour dates and a twitter widget, all of which are layed out nicely in columns and boxes, making it easier to read.

We looked at Rihanna's website in particular because that had flash on the website, so making it similar to the flash websites we were creating with Wix. The homepage was really pretty with the photos moving and changing every so often, something which we may like to achieve with Wix. We decided that we would want moving images and transitions for our website, for example for an enter page.

Reflections: Shooting our Music Video

We decided that the best way to film our music video would be to film it during the half term, as we were all free and this meant that we still had time afterwards, for example if we had to reshoot. We shot our music video on the 27th and 28th October, the 27th being our narrative shoot, and the 28th being our performance.
The first shoot day turned out great; we all had a lot of fun and we created a logo and set we were really proud of. It was so much fun painting our logo onto the wall and then onto our actor, especially with all our friends around; on and off camera. We also produced a large replica of our logo onto the plasterboard which we were all incredibly proud of, as it looked pretty, professional and was just how we imagined it. The set was also done really well in my opinion, even though it did take quite a few hours in the morning! We spent a good while taping dust sheets to the walls and ceilings, but I think it worked effetively, producing the 'construction site' look we had in mind.

As we had painted the logo the first day, this meant that we could use it in the background of the second day shoot. Our second day was solely for our performance, meaning it was time for us to truly rock out and be the superstars we always wanted to be! But, as they say, being a popstar is not always as glamourous as it seems, and this was proven by the several cuts and bruises due to guitars and 5 inch heels. But all in all it was an incredible day; we had a lot of fun singing the lyrics and performing as if we were a proper band, and after the shoot, our friend took promo photos of us for our album artwork and website. The photos are all beautiful, and something I am really proud of and can't wait to show everyone!

Initial Ideas for our Music Video: Potential Costumes

We pitched our treatment for our music video for the song Stripper by the Soho Dolls, and after discussing with our teachers and peers, we decided that our 'glam rock' styling seemed like a good idea for our performance aspect of our video. We decided that we didn't want to include too much leather or tight clothing, as we don't want to look too sexy. We wanted to look more edgy and high fashion than anything, still keeping with the predominant colour of black.
Below I've added a picture of some clothes I have at home, and two potential outfits I could wear:

Both outfits include the same belt, skirt and jewellery, but the tops differ. I have decided to wear my black netted skirt and thick studded belt to keep in the 'high end fashion glam rock' theme, and accessorised with multi-chained necklaces, chunky rings, dangly earrings and platform stiletto heels.
The first outfit includes a printed vest top with black and white photographs with red and blue highlights, still keeping in with the rocky theme. This look is more casual and young.
The second outfit though contains a slouchy long sleeve glittery jumper, with horizontal detail. It is quite hard to see that the material is glittery in the image, but the jumper is slightly sparkly, adding to the 'glamour' part of 'glam rock'. The fact that it is quite baggy and the sleeves have been rolled up also reflects the outfit I will be wearing in the paint scene (see below) giving me a slouchy, slightly messy but girly look.

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For the narrative half of our video we will be painting, so as a group we decided that we should wear jumpsuits or dungarees, as painters usually wear full length jumpsuits. However we still wanted to add that high fashion to our outfits, as shown by my outfit choices below:

So for my paint outfit I have chosen to wear denim dungarees, with an oversized pink shirt with the sleeves rolled up. The first outfit shows when I just wear the clothes normally, with both dungaree straps on my shoulders, and my shirt buttoned up. The second outfit however shows that slouchy messy side (as mentioned above with the second performance outfit) with a loose grey tshirt underneath, the pink shirt open and tied in a knot on the side, and one of the dungaree straps fallen on the side.

Initial Ideas for our Group Proposal: Styling

As a group we have had many discussions about the styling of our band, with the song Stripper - Soho Dolls in mind. This is the song which we think we will be doing, and are going to pitch it to our class and the teachers next week.

After listening to the song we thought that it sounded quite rocky but with aspects of pop, goth and synthesisers. Therefore we have thought to style our band in this 'glam rock' or 'goth glam' way: with the main colour being black, but with sparkly glamourous jewellery, making us look more upmarket, girly and approachable. By mixing high street fashion with rocky or goth clothing, we can create a look which suits us best. We have looked at a few outfits/sets on lookbook.nu and polyvore, and I have made a mood board of all the ones i like, shown below. (click to enlarge)

Early Planning & Research: Audience Research

As we have decided on our song: Stripper - Soho Dolls, we can now figure out our target audience.

As an overview, our target audience would be aged 16-24, leaning towards females, as we will be an all female band. They would all be keen listeners of music; listening to music on the go, at home, or watching their favourite music channels. The core audience would prefer genres such as pop/rock and glam rock as this is the genre that the song Stripper would fit under.

On the whole, the majority of teenagers - female and male - are keen users of the internet and social networking, using sites such as Facebook and Twitter daily. This would tie in well with our project and target audience as we will be making a website and also a Facebook and Twitter page, meaning that we will easily be able to target and communicate with our audience.

The majority of teenagers are also big fans on TV, watching many soaps, tv dramas, sci-fi/fantasy shows, comedies.. etc. As our music video will be for the song Stripper and it was featured on Gossip Girl (as shown here), our core target audience will also enjoy watching teenage American TV dramas like that.

Group Proposal: Stripper - Soho Dolls

As a group, Jess W, Charley and I have all decided on a song for our project; Stripper by Soho Dolls. After having a few discussions about different tracks we found that this was a song that we all knew and liked, and thought could make a great music video for.

We actually all first heard this song originally a few years ago as it was featured on the American TV show Gossip Girl, in a scene where they are in a strip club. Below is a video showing the scene where the song was featured (0:55-3:25). As you can see, the song has just been in the background of a scene situated in a burlesque strip club: very obvious and something you would expect.



The song in fact already has a music video, and is actually quite similar to the scene in Gossip Girl. Although this song already has a music video, it is fine to do it for our project as not many people have heard of this song previously or seen the video for it.
Embedded below is the real video, which as said before seems very obvious, as the band are just in a burlesque strip club. We are still currently deciding on our final music video idea and will pitch next week, but at the moment we are thinking of completely changing the music video; playing on the word 'stripper' and creating something unexpected.

Gender Representations: Innocent Female Artists

As a general stereotype for music videos, it is seen that a large majority of music videos show females as sexual objects or objects of desire. Many music videos, especially Pop, R&B and Rap videos include a lot of women in very little clothing, looking sexy and dancing in a sexy, provocative way.
When the artists are male, there is a very large tendancy to have hot women in very little clothing to star opposite them, showing that he is really manly and can almost get any women in the world. This occurs in almost every R&B or Rap video, for example Smack That - Akon ft. Eminem and Gold Digger - Kanye West ft. Jamie Foxx.

And sometimes when the artists are female, they themselves also wear little clothing and dance sexily to target the male audience, especially those in girlbands, for example The Pussycat Dolls and Girlicious. An artist which Jess Rich and I looked at in detail was The Pretty Reckless, with their frontwoman Taylor Momsen. Taylor is only 18 years old, but dresses really provocatively to target the male audience, sexualising her body. It may just be our biased view as girls about the same age, but we thought that this was really bad and derogative, especially in the media, as she is a role model for teenage girls around the world, especially those of which who watch Gossip Girl (where she played a main character for many seasons).

However, some female artists do this more subtly, taking the powerful-but-sexy-woman route. For example, Beyonce is a powerful female icon, and in songs which are all about women being on top such as Run The World (Girls), she still dances in a sexy way and wears clothes that reveal her legs.

So as you can see from above, women are generally viewed as sexual objects or icons. So for our theme, Jess Rich & I wanted to challenge this stereotype and look into the female artists that don't use their body and female attributes to make money, but concentrate more on their music.

We found that there were a few artists in the Pop genre that were in fact innocent anddidn't flaunt their body, for example Leona Lewis, Adele and Kelly Clarkson. And it's not even the fact that they aren't sexy and shouldn't be proud of their bodies, as they are all completely capable of looking beautiful; it's just that they care more about the music being good than looking good.

We looked at Leona's US video for Bleeding Love, A Moment Like This and Footprints In The Sand, all of which where she where's clothes that do not reveal a lot of skin. In the US video for Bleeding Love Leona actually wears a coat for most of the video, and in the other shots of her wearing dresses, they are mostly floor length. This was also shown in A Moment Like This where Leona just stands still on a stage wearing a floor length dress, showing that it's all about the music, not her, and not the performance. And as Footprints In The Sand was actually used for a charity single, Leona's innocence is highlighted, with her wearing minimal makeup and just wearing a simple white tshirt.

Another female artist we looked at was Kelly Clarkson, and her videos for Since U Been Gone and My Life Would Suck Without You. In both videos we see Kelly wearing very simple, basic clothes, ones that which every ordinary girl would wear. This also reflects where she came from; she became an artist due to the TV show American Idol, showing that she is just an ordinary American girl. We looked closely at the video for My Life Would Suck Without You, as it not only shows her innocence, but highlights her power too. In the video we see the story of her relationship with her boyfriend, and see how she throws all his clothes out of the window. Although it doesn't show complete female power over males such as videos like Rihanna's Man Down and S&M, it shows how she has the say and control in the relationship.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, is Adele. She is almost the epitome of not selling your body but selling your music, being a larger and curvier artist in the industry. She was in fact quoted saying 'I like having my hair and face done, but I'm not going to lose weight because someone tells me to. I make music to be a musician not to be on the cover of Playboy.' showing her innocence and female power. This has also been shown through all of her music videos, especially Rolling In The Deep, where she just sits in a chair and sings, not caring about her appearance or performance.

Being females ourselves, after looking at all these strong, innocent female artists, Jess Rich and I both agree that it's still really effective to just sell your music, and not the music and the body. It's okay to be innocent in the industry, in fact, it's actually really successful! All of these female artists have sold millions of records worldwide, showing that you don't have be sexy and dance provocatively to be successful. Of course, it's nice to get a little male attention here and there, but it is just as well to target the same gender and be a positive role model.