Throughout our campaign there is a clear representation of age, as the group of teenage/young men is shown as impulsive, independent and rebellious with a potential element of risk taking partnered with a bad boy attitude. In the opening shot of the music video with the hand held shot following the lead singer down the corridor his body position and gestures before he opens the door adhere to the stereotype of young men being slouchy and a little bit careless. This is shown not only through the camera with a shaky handheld shot. This presentation is a negative stereotype of teenagers as it suggests a laziness approach to life that suggests they are not in control nor take responsibility. Also, his sighing facial expression followed by his no-care attitude when rolling up his sleeves that is also seen with the whole band as they represent the male teenager in how they prepare for tasks. This adheres to the macho nature of masculinity oh how men are expected to get things done even if it's not desired. The slow cuts in the beginning of the video show this with long shot duration then later on cuts are faster showing how they have embarrassed the task at hand when originally sluggish.
We did this to connect with the audience who may also feel this way sometimes, furthermore the slight low angle of this shot makes the lead look superior and powerful similar to how many young men feel especially when coming of age. This opening scene adds an element of fun to the video while going against norms of everything being generic especially for all male bands through our research into the genre found that debut music videos for similar bands are very one dimensional thus our slow unpredictable opening is immediately contrasted with these fast cuts. In addition, the plain uncluttered set plays into the bare minimum stereotypes of teenage boys as they only have what they need, no extra elements to the set apart from instruments, this representation of mise En scene represents our young/male band and audience. On the social media I posted about issues that younger people are concerned about such as climate change. We created metal water bottles to discourage from single use plastic further connecting the band to the younger generation.
There is also a clear representation of gender within our campaign. Male stereotypes such as the colour adheres to the stereotype of boys liking the colour blue. There is also a hint of purple within this that adds a spin that subverts the traditional view of boys interests. The use of rings on the lead singer subverts the stereotype of traditional masculinity as he wears gold and sparkly rings.
Furthermore the hierarchy shown throughout the campaign represents a traditional male social group with the lead being in charge and in control as the ‘Alpha male’. This is shown on the Digipak as the lead is the only member shown on the digipak showing his status in an all male environment.
When creating a band you also create the band around them that will market them to their audience. Our aim was to create our brand around the Values, attitudes and lifestyles of our target audience of 18-21 year olds with a focus on men. As this demographic are just experiencing independence for the first time we wanted to create this idea of a urban jungle and the dark colours help to add gloom to represent the feelings of leaving the nest. The bands fun/enthusiastic personality helps to soften the blow as they create a sense of unity for their audience.
The Digipak does not show the band on the front covers instead the lead singer only appears on one side of the back cover looking relaxed and enthusiastic. This appeals to the audience as it is clear they are not clearly trying to sell themselves and their image as so many bands do. We instead created the band’s image by using dyer’s star image theory around the fact they care about the music and are passionate about it instead of being in the papers this is further suggested by the lead singer shown holding drumsticks suggesting he’s musical and may play the drums as well. The front cover shows a dark gloomy city ally with a dark red bubble-like font with the band's name. This font is carried throughout the digipak and connotes the potentially lonely and depressing reality of living in city areas especially with the dark background it shows a gloomy reality and helps to create a brand that speaks to our target audience. There is also the bands logo present on the back cover that follows the same colour scene with an image of a flowery bull, this helps the audience to relate the bands logo to other external imagery of bulls and flowers aiding in creating a successful brand and the star image. The logo is also seen on the social media linking these products to the same band and furthermore themes of dark urban settings is carried into the music video as well as through posts on the social media helping to sell the brand as there is recognisable symbol associated with the band.
The social media also follows these patters with the logo being present on the tour poster, as well as the dark urban theme of the majority of the posts. This helps to create a link between the two and subconsciously the audience will link city nightlife with the band creating a successful band that would likely be popular in that scene of young partygoers.
Furthermore, the theme of not only darkness but also the urban nightlife is carried into the music video with a general theme of darkness throughout with strobe elements with fast cuts that have single frame snap images of the band running through a city at night. This helps to reenforce the brand that we see on the digipak and in the social media products interconnecting with each other.
We designed our campaign to engage with our target audience of 18-21 year olds with a focus on men due to the demographic of the band. We used all tree of our products to engage our audience through appealing to them is different ways.
Through our social media we built personal relationships between the audience and the band. We used Bloomers theory of Uses and gratifications by sparking social interaction to build a sense of immediacy that made the audience feel involved with the band as if they are along for the ride. This engaged audiences as they feel a closer connection to the band as they have more personal information as well as feeling like their opinions are valid to the band. Posts and story’s on the social media as seen below asking about where people are from followed by the bands home town. In addition posts asked audience feelings on the new album such as their favourite song. The audience were also asked if they had any questions for their appearance on a radio show. The modes of address is direct with an informal execution e.g. ‘what’s your favourite song in the album?’ And ‘ catch us tonight in the live lounge’, this makes the interactions feel personal from the band instead of generic robot like interactions that of a record label for example.
The digipak also engages the audience through further creating the personal relationship with band as on the back we have hand written signatures of the band members as seen previously. This gives the audience physical copies with a personal element that the band has done themselves, this further engages the audiences as they feel more connected as well as invested in the band.
In our music video, we engage our audience by creating a personal identity, as a large section of the video is photos of the band running through urban areas at night pared with a intense strobe. This allows our audience to see their own lives in the band as those within our young target audience can see themselves in the same place and may have done the same things. This engages the audience as they can associate with the text as it shows a realistic setting and characters that the audience can engaged and relate to that they may experience themselves. The audience will then share these products with their peers who likely share the same ideology’s and personal identity, this will further engage a wider audience as their identity is verified as well as the band being almost a mascot of that identity that further engages them internally with the audience. This links to the social media where the costumes are very relatable and ordinary, further establishing the star image of the band being ordinary and extraordinary as their appearance is relatable and ordinary to the younger target audience further engages the audience as they create their personal identity and the personal relationships and the bands friendship is shown throughout further engaging groups together.
Through my research into the conventions of the indie/rock genre I was able to see the general conventions of the genre. As a new band we felt it’s important that conventions are clear in order to establish a successful debut release into a highly saturated market. I researched four bands; Arctic Monkeys, The strokes, Two door cinema club and cage the elephant. I looked at similarities and differences between them in mise-en-scen, camera, sound and editing found that in the genre of indie/rock there are no real clear conventions as bands can create their own image while still having a mouldable formula to follow in oppose to other genres such as pop in which there are clear conventions to follow. Godwin’s theory of of genre conventions suggests that there are typical conventions of music videos regardless of the genre.
In our music video, the arrangement of the band members follows genre conventions as through my respect I found that the bands follow a generic arrangement with the drummer at the back with and lead singer in front with both guitarists either side, this is what we did with our band in the music video as it has a live performance look. Furthermore we adhered to the conventions of camera as I found that shots common in the genre are wide (showing the whole band) with close ups of each member more focused on the lead introducing them. We adhered to genre conventions by having cuts on beat and using a shaky hectic feel with the strobe single frame sections that matched to the song, this was found through research and therefore we followed editing conventions with cuts on beat.
On the digipak, we followed genre conventions as through research non of the bands had the band on the front cover for example as you would find in other genres, they either had some picture or a form of artwork in some cases a mix of the two. Although we did subvert this slightly by having the lead singer appear on the back cover as well as the bands signatures that gave a more personal feel to the album then other bands. We also had the album name integrated into the image as well as the track list not being the main focus of the back cover this adhered to the conventions of the genre as the abstract theme is followed.
The social media of bands within the genre is mainly performance based posters with visually pleasing artwork along with performance promotions. We adhered to these elements as we have strong performance based posts on both accounts along with promotion of performances and appearances. As the bands respected are already established we subverted some conventions as we released a new band we wanted to create their image first with more personal posts of the bands life promoting the band members more then just the music that is uncommon in the genre as the main focus is on the music.
