Usher confessions digipack analysis

 The first thing that becomes apparent when analysing the usher digipack is the religious connotations that are plain to see , firstly the name of the album is confessions and aswell as being a religious refference it also indicsates the artists musical intentions and this theme of confession and apology is echoed in the songs on this album , the font used is an austere one and is not dissimilar to fonts used in roman catholic churches , The catholic references continue into the mise en scene as the atrist clearly appears in a confession bothe this use of props indicate some sort of guilt and is parelel to the overall message of the album , The artist is wearing an expensive looking diamond earing this has two different meanings the first is that it is a visible show of wealth and shows the atrists succes and secondly the diamond is a preciouis stone with its own symbolism and that is strength and purity which works as a contrast to the confessional side and shows the artist has a good soul but has possibly done some things he is not proud of.
The back cover brings up several more themes the artist is pictured topless and displays a very athletic physique this serves two purposes firstly it cements the artist into the masculine archetype which is a very important in R&B as so much of the song content is about relationship between man and woman .The second reason the artist is pictured topless is sex appeal which is a must have for any R&B star . The second thing to look at on the back cover is the huge amounts of gold on show this shows his succes in the music genre . Colour plays a very important roll in the back cover with the contrast between light and dark being most evident which shows the contrast between the negative and positive in the atists persona . The track list is moved to the side and requires the reader to turn in in order to read , this helps make the digipack more engaging . A final point on the back cover is the record label name ARISTA is printed in white and is in contrast to the dark surrounding of the rest of the shot .

Digipack analysis drake back cover

 The back cover is of much less importance in Drakes digipack , the theme of black and gold which denotes the duality of his life , the font and letter positioning are of little importance . and the artists record labels appear relatively small . The overall plainness of the back cover of the album is probably to draw more attention to the artist who is on the front cover.

Digipack Analysis Drake front cover

 This photo is the front cover of drakes album entitled take care , the picture has been rigorously organised to convey several key themes , the first and most obvious is the theme of success this is obvious from the amount of gold in the shot , The artist has allot of gold jewellery on he also has golden table pieces and is sitting in front of two expensive looking paintings. All of this misce en scene is deliberate and is indicative of the stars meteoric rise to fame . Although gold is the predominant colour in the picture it is seconded by black this contrast shows another key theme in the drake digipack and that is the negative aspect that his newly found fame has brought him.
Another important aspect of the picture is the artists demeanor he is looking down once again showing the down side to his lifestyle this is a very important theme in the album and is echoed in the lyrical content . The camera shot is a mid shot but the camera angle is neither high or low which says that although the artist is very rich he is no better than anyone else and that money has not made him a better or happier person.
The picture also contains some occultist symbolism which has become almost common place in R&B and rap  the symbol i am talking about is the golden owl which is a symbol said to be used by many secret societies such as the Illuminati although this may appear an obscure reference it is a gimmick widely used by artists of this type of whom jay z is the most prevalent.  

Beyonce music video Halo analysis

In the beginning the the word sound is emphasised as the sound in musical sound stops this is very interesting and is known as inter textuality a possible convention we could use in our song .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnVUHWCynig

The word halo is clearly addressed to the male character in the song .
The lyrics " I've got my angel now " are about relationships and is very relate able for the audience.
When she sings "its written all over your face" she looks at the face of the male actor this represents her seeing something that others do not signifying the intimacy of their relationship.
When singing the line " hit me like a ray of sun" it appears that she is thinking deeply as she is on her own, this gives a sense of introspection suggesting a powerful psychological impact upon meeting this man , the lyric also works  intertextualy as a beam of light hits her face whilst she sings this.
She appears at ease and relaxed with the man in this video which goes against the typically independent and fiercely feminist this shows that she is truly in love and comfortable around this man .  
The lyrics " surrounded by your embrace " she is hugged by the man and this lyric is made visual 

Sound

Rythm and blues started of as blues in the 1940's and has been influenced by many other genres including rock and roll , soul and funk the R&B of today is almost unrecognisable compared to 70 years ago .

Digetic sound in music videos

Digetic sound is common at the start of R&B videos an example of this is the start of Miss me by drake , The first piece of digetic sound used is police sirens this is important as crime is a common subtext in R&B ,  the next peice of sound used is the sound of camera flashing showing that the artist has gained fame importance , there is then the sound of fireworks again denoting celebration and success , the final peice of digetic sound is the sound of a petrol bomb being thrown at a wall which signifies originality and independance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRLSQDCkcaA

R&B costume research

From our audience survey we have discovered that the aesthetic style preferred by our targeted audience is a rugged urban one , conventions of this fashion include hooded tops ,  tight fitting, t shirts, designer jumpers and expensive trainers below are some R&B artists whose look we wish to emulate.

  

Interview results presentation

Below is a hyperlink which will take you to a prezi showing our survey results

http://prezi.com/hlbzprwvf7uz/edit/#3

Interview question rethink

After reviewing my interview questions i have decided that the questions i had proposed would not have given us the relevant information we needed therefor i have re written the interview and it will go as follows.

Question 1 - how often do you listen to r&b
Question 2 - do you have a favourite r&b star
Question 3 - do you prefer a song about a journey to success
Question 4 -do you prefer a dressed up formal style or a rugged urban style
Question 5 - do you spend your spare money on cds or downloads
Question 6 - do you think an R&B video should be filmed in an urban or rural environent

youtube audience reasearch age

artist                       age group

Neyo                      18-24
Drake                     18-24
Justin Timberlake    18-24
Rhianna                  18-24
Beyonce                 18-24
Frank Ocean          18-24

From this data collection of contemporary R&B artists we can see that our target group falls completely in the 18-24 year range , backing up the data we received from quantshare and conclusivly finding our target audiences age.

Rhianna man down narrative

The video starts of with an opening sequence of a train station and in it Rhianna shoots a man , this immediatly identifies her as a villain , The next scene is her walking around a town she appears to be freindly and popular and conforms more to Vladimir Propps princess charachter , she is shown smiling and embracing children . The shot then changes to the artist looking upset with dim emotive lighting on a bed , and the lyrics explain her regret for the shooting , the subsequent shots show her throughout the day maintaining the princess role which carries on into the evening , where she is assaulted by what turns out to be the real villain of the story and on learning this rhianna turns from the princess into the hero defeating the villain.

interview questions

1
How regularly do you listen to R&B music ?
2
Do you have disposable income?
3
Would you spend said income on music?
4
Do you have a favourite R&B artist?
5
Do you have a favourite R&B song?
6
What would you expect to see from an R&B video ?
7
Do you prefer song about love or journeys to success
8
Do you prefer a smart dressed up style or a more rugged urban outfit

drake statistics analysis

The demographics found on Quantcast for the artist Drake show us alot about who our target audience is; the first categorie assesed is gender the results showed an almost equal amount of male fans to female fans which is promising as it enables us to make our target audience unisex . The second catagorie was age the results of which were not atall suprising with 18-24 being by far the largest fanbase followed by 18 and under confirming that we are looking at a young adult target audience.The third catergorie was children and the results showed a similar number however there were slightly more fans without children.
The next catagorie was financial status , the most common group was also the poorest which we presume is more to do with the age of the listener than their class.
The education catergorie was interesting with substantionally more people without colledge education listening to drakes music. Finally the categorie dealing with race showed an overwhelming majority of african american fans . In light of this evidence our target audience are black men and women aged 18 - 24 who are childless and did not attend colledge or university.

Conventions of R&B videos

After researching R&B videos i have found several themes and conventions . The first is the appearance of the artist , they are often pictured in smart clothes such as a shirt and suit trousers . There is often a very big emphasis on material wealth with shots of money jewellery and cars being commonplace .
Another convention is the ethnicity of the artist R&B has always been music performed mainly by the black community and most r&b singers are black or mixed race . Other conventions are an emphasis on dancing with the artist often dancing in the video of the songs .
Whilst R&B was originally a music enjoyed by a mainly black audience as its success has grown it has broken racial barriers and is now enjoyed by people of all races. The age group for contemporary R&B is a young audience 13-25 however more traditional rhythm and blues style is likely to be enjoyed by an older audience .

the xx

The xx have a very unique and interesting image ; they dress mostly in black , this is indicative of there melancholic style of performance but at the same time challenging certain steryotypes about black clothing as the music is incredibly soft and has very little in common with death metal , heavy rock or punk , although it could be argued that there is some gothic influence in style it is a alltogethr different .Another reason the xx choose to wear black is because the emphasis is not really on the band but on the storys and emotions of the songs ,and they wear black to emphasise this .
                                                     
The xx are a very emotive band and another huge part of there image is the idea of contrast , they have a joint lead of a boy and a girl and this gives a  rare and convincing impression of the same song being sung by a couple with contrasting views and emotions ; this can be seen clearly if one looks at there album art , the blackness of the artists clothes contrasted with vast flashes of colour and once again depicts the intensity of the subject matter.
                                    

The xx are often presented as an evolutionary band with a unique style unlike many of there indie counterparts they have ditched the check shirts and vintage denim for a much more minimalistic , artistic and profound style , where many indie bands videos more conventional ways of telling a story the xx puch boundaries for example there most recent released video consists solely of  an undisclosed liquid under a microscope
                              


There live performances echoe there modern and minimalist style , they do not have huge light displays or video screens behind them instead preffering to stay with the theme of contrast often performing in dim lighting with two illuminated white x's

                              

youve got the love shots

Font choice

The font we chose was called good morning afternoon it is a very modern font with an urban feel which is perfect for the choice of music and style that we wish to portray .

birdy people help the people video analysis

The first shot is a panoramic shot of central London early in the morning , it works as an establishing shot and not only does it say that the video is shot in london it also introduces birdy as a british artist by including some of londons most famous landmarks canary warf , tower bridge as well as a iconic black cab . The shot is in black and white and signifies the sadness of the song , The second shot is an intorductory shot of the artist on a bus it is a close up and gives the impression of an everyday normal girl.This is followed by several matched cuts alternating between shots of London and the artist.Followed by a sustained close up of the artist . followed again by several shots of people including old men and possibly homeless people playing homage to the original video by the cherry ghosts . The footage of the old people signifies how much london and society as a whole has changed in one lifetime. The matched cuts continue and are now slow motion shots of busy london streets filled with the people the song is about. Diversity is a key feature in this video and it is carefully orchestrated to show the diversity of age , ethnicity , sexuality and ability and therefore highlighting the important message of unity that is the main point of the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmLNs6zQIHo

mumford and sons digipack analysis

Mumford and sons are another very interesting band when it comes to image , they invest all of there efforts into having an old fahioned rural look to go with there genre of music , as a contempory band this is very rare and is orchestrated to set them apart from the rest of the mainstream music industry and does just that , the dress choice is often so archaic that it takes on an almost fancy dress like quality . The setting is also important ; the shop they are standing in is a relatively old building once again conforming to the fact that there genre is a very old one and they also appear to be in an affluent area based on the clean streets well kept shops and architecture . The back cover continues the theme of age and affluence the pleasant well kept house is pictured in a very artistic fashion connoting the bands indie artistic credentials .

 the cover art of kid cudi's breakthrough album offers many incites to the type of music he makes and the image he tries to portray , The shot of the artists face is in profile and is intentionally looking away from the camera because it conveys a sense of isolation and detachment from reality that separates him from the mainstream rap movement . the fact that he is not central to the shot also shows that he wants the messages of his songs to be more important than his own image. His face is angled down which deonetes sadness a key feature as many of the songs are about  the death of his father when he was young . the moon takes up the most part of the front cover and is another denotion of isolation with the artist reffering to himself as the man on the moon to say he feels like he is from another planet . the writing is almost sci fi like and links in with the space theme . the sunglasses and perental advisory signs are also very important in this case as they portray the artist as edgy and is essential as many of his songs reffer to drug use.

The back of the album is also very interesting the art is a copy of the front done in simple monotone colours showing that the album has some very deep and dark content cover , it also copies the true nature of the moon having a dark side as it is the dark side of the album , the font is plain and provides contrast , but much more interestingly the track list is divided into five acts which shows that he sees his album as a way of telling a story and once again tries to break away from conventional rap by adding a dramatic addition to the album cover.