Music Video Primary &

Secondary Research

Morgan Redman

Primary Research

Sundara Karma: A Young

Understanding

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KdXoNDtpGo

Genre:

o What genre does the song belong to?

o The genre of the music video, as a result of the genre of the song, is

Indie rock with the combination of ideas of youth, pastel and grunge

aesthetics.

Video Type:

o What type of video is going to be produced?

o The video that we intend to create is a hybrid of multiple video types.

o Our video will have a loose base narrative with strong underlying

currents of thematic alongside small introductions of symbolic elements

related to ideas such as representation.

o The genre conventions will conform to that of the indie style.

Conventions:

o What conventions of the genre will be conformed to or subverted?

o A genre convention we plan on subverting is the live performance segment

of the video.

o We will, however, be conforming to costumes, props and shot types. For

instance, we will also employ lots of cuts between close-up shots and

wider shots such as mid two shot as this is a convention often used in

indie music videos. Although, this convention is often used in cohesion

with performance in that a wide angle shot of the band will then cut

into a close up on a hand strumming the guitar or the singer speaking

into the microphone.

o Synchronous shots will be employed to keep in time with the rhythm and

pace of the music where necessary although this can easily be over used

so we may only implement this idea when the pace of the song is highly

significant such as the chorus.

Artist:

o How will the artist be represented?

o Our artists will not be the direct artists responsible for the song that

we plan on using. In our video, instead, we will be employing actors who

will represent the ideologies of our video that we believe are in

cohesion with the lyrics.

o Such representation will be included through the clothing and props

used. We will be conforming to Indie forms of dress such as denim,

oversized jackets, chunky shoes etc.

o Props that we will implement also include cigarettes, alcohol, bonfire,

baseball bat for games, playing cards, powder paints, polaroid camera,

skateboard and other such equipment that will help to convey our

artists/ talent as rebellious fun youths.

o Shots we will use to represent our video and ideas include lots of cuts

between close-ups and shot transitions that keep pace with the music.

For instance, one shot could be a mid two shot of youths sharing a

cigarette and then cut in close-up of the hand holding the cigarette.

This is a replacement of the ideas of a performance video where the

close-up focuses on the performing artist, as we are not including

performance elements.

Representations:

o What representations will be included?

o Representations we plan to include involve various genders in non-

stereotypical roles as questionnaire analysis found that 25% of the

recipients placed it as a 10 in reference to importance.

o Additionally, we also wish to cast actors of various ethnicities and

cultures as we placed high significance upon this even before the

audience reinforced this idea; with 50% placing ethnicity as a 9 or 10

when discussing importance of representation.

o Mostly, our casts age will be teenagers from 16-19 simply due to access

of actors and the target audience of the video despite age

representation not being considered extremely important in the analysis

of the survey.

o Sexuality is also of importance to us and despite our aim to steer clear

of explicit romance in our video, between any sexualities, we aim to

include subtext and implicit ideas of support of the LGBTQ+ community

through symbols such as the pride flag.

Distribution:

o Which record company would release the video?

o The company under which Sundara Karma are signed are RCA Records and

Believe Recordings.

o Other such bands within the same genre are signed to labels including:

300 Entertainment, Grand Jury Music and Virgin Records.

o As a result, it would be likely that a company known for supporting

indie bands would distribute our music video. RCA records are extremely

diverse and support mostly popular music artists as opposed to Indie so

smaller companies would be more likely to support our independent music

video.

Distribution Continued:

o What channel would distribute the music video?

o There are very few, if any, music video channels that relate directly to

the Indie music genre and there are multiple reasons for this; one

reason being that often small independent artists do not have music

videos for their songs. Although, as is more often the case, Independent

artists are not as widely listened to by the masses who follow popular

culture which means that TV, aimed at those who follow popular culture,

do not have the demand for it and therefore do not create the product

this has meant that most Indie artists self-promote on social media and

also by supporting larger artists at gigs within the same genre.

o Despite this, online websites and magazines dedicated to the Indie

lifestyle occasionally promote artists and their music videos. Some

examples are “Under the Radar” magazine and another example is “INDIE”

an independent style magazine that often specialises in promotion of new

upcoming and representative artists. Whilst Indie does not relate

directly to music, a specific example is the “LABEL TO WATCH” or

“PHOTOGRAPHER TO WATCH” posts that promote brands including

representative producers such as Oloapitreps that are a genderfluid

clothing company.

Questionnaire:

Focus Group:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT5jNmmcMxE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyNykewzE6I

&t=13s

Logo Production:

o We began with initial name drafting and came up with a multitude of

ideas including:

o Blackwater Productions

o Nebula Productions/ Studios

o Orangutan Digital

o Electron Studios

o Ragnarock Productions

o Folkvang Studios

o Phasma Productions

Logo Production:

o I then drafted some designs for our final cut of names:

Logo Production:

o After deciding that on Phasma Productions I drafted another set of logos

to fit the new finalised production company name:

Logo Production:

o We then decided as a group our favourite design from drafts for the

company with our finalised name before I began transitioning it into a

short animated logo to feature at the beginning of our video:

Secondary Research

Target Audience: GEARS

o G.E.A.R.S. relates to audience segmentation demographics within the

categories of gender, ethnicity, age, region and socio-economic group/

status group.

o G: There is no definitive gender that our piece will apply to as it will

feature people of multiple genders.

o E: We are hoping that our music video will be representative of multiple

ethnicities through the casting of our actors and therefore should be

inclusive in reference to the audience (also understood by region whilst

race is considered a distinctive physical feature).

o A: The age of our target audience will be youth of 15 – 19 due to the

nature of our cast. Although, older age groups may be secondary audience

members due to the possibility of reminiscing their own youth.

o R: There will be no specific relation to region or nationality which

would often be exemplified through accent and dialect but there will be

no dialogue in our final piece and thus the region is not an important

section of representation in comparison to another segmentation such as

age.

o S: Due to the age of our target audience it is likely that our socio-

economic target audience would be of the lowest social grade, E,

according to Young and Rubicam’s traditional segmentation model as the

audience of 15-19 year olds are most likely to be students.

Target Audience: Socio-

Economic Class

o Socio-economic class is part of the G.E.A.R.S. audience

segmentation model and was further expanded upon by Young and

Rubicam’s 4C model.

o The 4C model is divide into:

o A: Upper middle class: High managerial, administrative or

professional

o B: Middle class: Intermediate managerial, administrative or

professional

o C1: Lower middle class: Supervisory or clerical, junior

managerial, administrative or professional

o C2: Skilled working class: Skilled manual workers

o D: Working Class: Semi and unskilled manual workers

o E: Lowest: State pensioners or widows (no other earner), casual

or lowest grade workers, students

Target Audience: CAGES

o C.A.G.E.S. relates to audience segmentation within the categories of class, age, gender, ethnicity and sexuality.

o C: There is no exact class bracket for our video in that the actors are of various class statuses although the themes are more often stereotypically associated, either wrongly or rightly, with the working classes. Or, in some cases, the middle class youth expressing a sense of rebellion.

o A: The age of our target audience will be youth of 15 – 19 due to the nature of our cast fitting within that age group and the themes of the video. These themes include alcohol consumption, smoking and relationships. Although, older age groups may be secondary audience members due to the possibility of reminiscing their own youth.

o G: There is no definitive gender that our piece will apply to as it will feature people of multiple genders.

o E: We are hoping that our music video will be representative of multiple ethnicities through the casting of our actors and therefore should be inclusive in reference to the audience.

o S: The representation of sexuality won’t be explicit in means of a relationship featured within our piece as we wanted to focus more so on friends than romance; although, we will be featuring hidden symbolic features such as a pride flag.

Target Audience:

Psychographics

o Psychographic segmentation is a method of dividing target

audience into their social class, lifestyle and personality.

o An example of a psychographic model that can be applied to our

piece is Young and Rubican’s model relating to lifestyle and

audiences in advertising.

o The Explorer: Driven by a need for discovery and/ or challenge

o The Aspirer: Materialistic/ care more about what others think

about

o The Succeeder: Self confidence/ strong goal orientation/

organised

o The Reformer: Values their own independent judgement/ anti

materialistic

o The Mainstream: Largest group/ core need is security/ live in a

daily routine

o The Struggler: Seek escape/live for today few plans for

tomorrow

o The Resigned: Aim to survive/ predominantly older people

Target Audience:

Psychographics Continuedo In relation to Young and Rubicam’s psychographic audience

segmentation model our music video is mots likely to apply to an audience within the categories of:

o The Explorer: This persona is driven by discovery and challenge which links to the protagonists of our video exploring the boundaries of youth and the world whilst experiencing the challenges of a world which has no place for adolescents as is voiced in the song “We Try But We Don’t Fit In” by Day Wave.

o The Reformer: The reformer values subverting the norms of society and materialism which is conveyed through the subculture of youth rebelling as an artificial tribe.

o The Struggler: The struggler’s characteristics include a carpe diem attitude of living in the moment which conforms to Gould’s theory of youth as nihilistic as is conveyed through the reckless smoking and drinking of the protagonists in our music video.

o Whilst the characters are not exact examples of audience representation it is an inference of the target audience. Although, music is often a process of everyday life and thus the audience could be part of ‘The Mainstream’ psychographic model.

Target Audience:

Photographic Examples

Target Audience:

Photographic Examples

Target Audience:

Photographic Examples

Target Audience:

Photographic Examples

Target Audience:

Photographic Examples

Target Audience:

Photographic Examples

Target Audience:

Photographic Examples

Target Audience:

Photographic Examples

Target Audience:

Photographic Examples

Case Study: RCA Records

o Artist: Nothing But Thieves

o Album: ‘Nothing But Thieves’ (Self Titled)

o Released: 2015

o Genre: Indie rock, alternative rock, psychedelic rock,

experimental rock, math rock, noise rock and dance punk

o Video Type: Narrative, some elements of symbolic

o Sound: Compared to ‘The Neighbourhood’, ‘Radiohead’ and ‘Foals’

Case Study: Key Visuals

o The artists themselves only feature briefly in video through the use of

the TV screen so key visuals revolve more so around the protagonists and

symbols.

The first image features the

symbolic sign of the

crucifix.

This links to the theory of

women and domesticity that

places females as housewives

or mothers. It also links to

Vern and Bonnie Bullough

(1993) with the feminine

gender role as the mother.

Case Study: Key Visuals

o The artists themselves only feature briefly in video through the use of

the TV screen so key visuals revolve more so around the protagonists and

symbols.

This image features the

performance aspect of the

video which could infer the

influence of media on youth.

The above image shows the

youth smoking to get high in

an attempt to see his dead

mother. It conveys youth as

self-destructive as part of

Ann Gould’s youth theory.

Case Study: Other Artists

o RCA records have an eclectic blend of music genres represented under

their label some of which include:

o David Bowie (Art rock, new wave, pop rock, glam rock)

o Kodaline (Indie rock, indie pop, folk rock)

o Foo Fighters (Alternative rock, post-grunge, hard rock)

o Wolf Alice (Alternative rock)

o Kings of Leon (Indie rock, alternative rock, garage rock)

o Walk The Moon (Pop rock, indie pop, dance-rock)

o Britney Spears (Pop, dance, electropop)

o Ke$ha (Synthpop, electropop, pop-rap, dance)

o Justin Timberlake (Dance-pop)

o Labrinth (Contemporary R&B, hip hop)

o Miley Cyrus (Pop)

Case Study: RCA and Indie

o In what way do some of the outlined artists fit the genre?

o Artists including Kodaline and Kings of Leon both fall under the overlapping titles

of indie despite also falling underneath other titles such as rock.

o How does their image meet the audience expectations, are they stereotypical or

counter stereotypes?

o Sundara Karma themselves do not conform to gender stereotypes in that the lead

singer Oscar Lulu often wears make-up including eyeliner and clothing such as fur

coats. One single titled ‘Flame’ features cover art with two of the four members of

the band dressed as females in a family portrait.

o David Bowie also did not conform to most conventions of the time but aligned more

so with glam rock conventions of males wearing glam make-up including the Ziggy

Stardust period.

o What ideas on the visuals could be applied to your video?

o We could include ideas of subverting costume and prop conventions of most music

videos and conform to ideas such as challenging gender ideologies whether with the

means of make-up.

Case Study: Other Record

Companies

o Catfish and the Bottlemen: Cocoon

o Island Records (Universal Music Group, founder Chris Blackwell, 1959)

o Communion (American independent company, founder Ben Lovett, 2006)

o Moose Blood: Gum

o Hopeless Records (American independent company, distributor Alternative

Distribution Alliance, 1993)

o No Sleep Records (American independent company, founder Chris Hansen,

2006)

o The Vaccines: Post Break-Up Sex

o Columbia Records (Sony Music Entertainment, 1888)

o Marshall Teller Records (Independent company, founded and run singularly

by Marshall Teller originally a member of the band ‘Great Ytene’, 2010)

Case Study: Artist Images

http://faroutmagazine.co.uk/sundara-karma-are-setting-

the-week-alight-with-flame/

http://notionmagazine.com/tag/sundara-karma/

http://www.clashmusic.com/features/sundara-karma-

review-the-singles

http://www.1883magazine.com/music-features/music-

features/sundara-karma