Artist Brainstorm

Green screen analysis Fun.

Notes on the culture industry

Adorno and Horkheimer were two men who developed this definition of the Cultural Industry with their joint theory. They stated that the Cultural industry was just like any industry in the world, a machine that goes through the same process and at the end of the stages is the final piece, a product to sell to the mass market.

They imply that artist is now seen as products; everything is controlled to make them this product to sell to the mass market. The public will love this artist and buy their music, trend or products to do with the artist. And in result, for the creators to all make money.  Everything in the cultural industry is controlled.

 A good example of this is the X factor that each year creates an artist to their liking and unleashes it on the mass market too make as much money as possible for the record label that they have been signed to.

De-comodification of the music industry

Commodity- A commodity is something that can be brought and sold

The music industry is in crisis as with the changing of technology from CDs to digital the commodity that is the music industry has begun to decline at a rapid rate due to things such as illegal download sites and torrent sites, YouTube and the fact that audiences don't have to buy CDs anymore they can just download it straight to their phones means that the industry is losing money.

Jeremy Gilbert stated that: "A commodity always depends on its status and value. On its relative scarcity. Once the reproduction and distribution of the commodity become effectively free, then it loses its value and status."

This is what is happening to the music industry as with digital technology there is an unlimited supply of albums meaning that audiences don't need to buy the album immediately as it will always be available to them via iTunes, also illegal download sites make it free to download albums at the same quality as the versions brought online meaning that many members of an audience will see it as an easier cheaper alternative to buying the CD or downloading it from ITunes.

Major VS. Independent

In this day and age the music industry is dominated by three large conglomerates they are; The universal music group, Sony BMG and Warner music group. there are also several independent record labels that do not posses as much money as the major.The definition of mainstream is the ideas, attitudes, or activities that are shared by most people and regarded as normal or conventional. Therefore, this can be related to the music industry in different ways. 
Major

The Universal Music Group:
The Universal music group (UMG) is the largest is one of the largest music corporations in the world, a subsidiary of  Universal studios in America, in its early days it was known as universal records and was seen as an unimportant subsidiary of universal picture group, who at which time where the most successful movie studio in Hollywood. Some of the artists signed with universal or their subsidiaries these include: Kanye West, 50 Cent, Mariah Carey and Gwen Stefani  

Sony BMG:
Sony BMG was founded on March 3rd 2004, it was a joint venture between the Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann AG and held a 25% stake in the music market. They have offices in more than 30 countries



Independent

Dancing Turtle Records:

Dancing Turtle Records is a London based independent record label set up in 2005. Their releases have a strong leaning towards the genres of indie folk, electronica, experimental, downtempo and world music.

The label has developed and released music from a number of artists from Europe, and as far afield as Japan, West Papua and Brazil, under the banner "music acts without prejudice".The label has raised funds and awareness for human rights charities and other causes.

The label is part of the Dancing Turtle Group; this also incorporates the Dancing Turtle Media and Dancing Turtle Films divisions.

Lex Records:

Lex has a varied musical output. The label is not focused on one particular genre (although most releases are alternative hip hop, alternative rock or electronica) and instead focusses on working with a small group of individual artists, supporting their work. As a result of the small roster, Lex has a low volume of releases, rarely releasing more than three albums annually.

Lex albums are often collaborations between members of the label roster and musicians from elsewhere. These collaborative groups includeDanger Mouse with MF Doom as Danger Doom, Boom Bip with Gruff Rhys as Neon Neon, Jneiro Jarel with Khujo Goodie as Willie Isz, and Jneiro Jarel with MF Doom as JJ DOOM. Forthcoming releases include a new album from Neon Neon and the debut album from Nevermen.

History of the music video

A music video is a piece of film used to accompany a song, modern music videos are usually used as a way to promote an artists.

The earliest recorded music video was created by blues singer, Bessie Smith used in the song Saint Louis blues in 1929 it was unlike any modern day music videos as it had no narrative and featured a dramatised performance of the song.

In 1966 the clip of Bob Dylan performing Subterranean Homesick Blues  filmed by D A Pennebaker was much used. The clip's ironic portrayal of a performance and the seemingly random inclusion of  celebrity Allen Ginsberg  in a non-performing role also became mainstays of the form. In the Video we see Ginsberg holding up cards with selected lyrics written on the cards The clip has been much imitated over the last few decades.

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen in 1975 is considered the beginning of the music video era and set the template for the modern music video, it was the first ever music video to use advanced visual effects such as fade ins/outs, zooms, close ups, cross fading and more.

Goodwin's theory

Andrew Goodwin's theory of media texts claims that their is five characteristics that all music videos either adhere or subvert  the theory.

Five conventions of Goodwin's theory
1. Certain genres of music have certain characteristics

2. There may be references to the notion of looking and vouyeristic (sexual) treatment of the female body.

3. There is a relationship between the music and visuals.

4. the record label will have certain demands that the music video must meet; such as several close ups of the artists.

5. there is often intertextual references to T.V films or other music videos  

Most Music videos follow Goodwin's conventions with the lyrics matching up with the visuals and certain genres having certain characteristics for example with rock music we often see the singer/band performing on a stage.