Our media products are very conventional to our genre of music, which is Rock. We have shown the rock genre through our video, album cover and website.
For each of our products we have shown how they relate to real media products and the conventions they follow.
VIDEO:
As mentioned in the group discussion video, to show our genre through our video we used technical conventions such as high contrast lighting, moving camera shots and instrumental close ups. We also used performance conventions with the way that the band members played their instruments and interacted with one another. The band performance in our video is similar to the performance in Misery Business by Paramore.
In the video for Misery Business by Paramore, the band perform the song in a room which is just them and their instruments. There are instrumental close ups throughout the performance, which have also been incorporated into our video.
Another convention of Rock music videos we have incoporated into our own video is editing to the beat of the song. In the bridge of our song, there are strong drum sounds which we used to cut our video to the beat.
This is also shown in the video for Misery Business, as the video is cut to the beat during the song. Our video is conventional as it follows the form of music videos as suggested by the theorists Vernallis and Goodwin.
Goodwin identified that all music videos:
- Demonstrate genre characteristics
- Have a relationship between lyrics and visuals
- Have a relationship between music and visuals
- Motifs which recur across the artist's work / 'visual hooks'
- Notion of looking
- Intertextual reference
Vernallis' theory stated that music videos are constructed around 4 key concepts; Narrative, Editing, Camera and Diegesis.
This also applies to our music video:
Our video also uses the gender representation of females in rock videos, as our lead singer is shown to be a strong female character throughout. This is similar to another of Paramore's videos - Playing God. The narrative of this video shows the lead singer to be angry at four males, who she has tied up in the basement. This strong character is something which we have tried to replicate in our video.
Similarly, the representation of the males in this video is also something we tried to replicate. In Playing God, the males are shown to have wronged the lead singer, as they are tied up in her basement. The interactions between the lead singer and the males shows this as she is angrily singing to them. In our own video, we show the lead singer angrily singing at the tied up "boyfriend".
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| Paramore's video (top) shows the lead singer angrily singing at four tied up males. Similarly our video shows the lead singer angrily singing to one "boyfriend" |
ALBUM COVER:
Our album cover also follows the conventions of the rock genre. The front of our album cover shows the lead singer of the band holding a board with the album title on in a 'mugshot' style picture. This connotes the rock genre as it shows the singer to be rebellious and 'against the system'. The album cover for London Calling by The Clash gives an angry and rebellious feel as it shows the guitarist smashing his guitar on the floor. Similarly their single White Riot has a cover which shows rebellion. The cover shows three men standing against a wall with their hands against it, in the position for a police search. This rebellious and angry theme is what we tried to show across our album cover.
The back cover for our album is also very similar in style to that of a real 'rock' cover. There is a picture of the whole band on the back with the song titles above them in rows, as opposed to the convention of other genres where the song titles are in a column down the side of the cover. This style of cover is shown on other back covers such as Florence and the Machine - Lungs, Oasis - Time Flies and Paramore - Riot.
On the inside covers of the album we have images which promote the band both as a whole and as individual members. On the inside cover we have an edited image of the eyes of the four band members, each of them with their own eye colour. This shows the individuality of the four members within the band, as each photo has the same black and white effect and they are all separated by a purple strip. Behind the disc we have the band logo which also emphasises the band as a whole, although the background of the logo is made up of the four eye colours from the other cover. This again shows the individuality of the members within the band.
Our website has the conventions of a debut artist's site but with the 'rock' theme running throughout. On our website we have lots of images of the whole band, as well as images of the band members individually. Our website also has plenty of interactive opportunities for our target audience; there is a comments box on our Gallery page, a Twitter feed which they can 'join the conversation' on the News page, links to Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr and a Competition page. The competition page is especially interactive, as the question isn't the conventional multiple choice. Instead the audience must answer the question "Where does Xen come from?". This ties in with the band identity for Xen, but also gets the audience thinking and relating to the band. As they are a debut artist the website also has recurring opportunities for the audience to 'buy into the band', whether it's merchandise from the band shop or buying the debut single or album.
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| (Top to Bottom) Our Gallery page has a comments box for the audience Our news page gives the audience an opportunity to "Join the conversation" and talk to the band via Twitter The interactive buttons link to the band's Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr accounts The competition page ties together the band identity for Xen, as well as providing interactivity for the audience The shop on the website provides a 'sneak peek' at what the audience can buy in the full shop |
These opportunities are conventional for a debut artist, as I learnt from my research into One Direction's website.
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| See the webstie post here |
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