Vox Pop Analysis

Vox Pop Analysis

From our Vox Pop analysis we obtained information from the general public about their favourite music and their favourite genres and also what they like in music promos. We asked about the genre which our audience prefers and this helped us as we got a range of different genres which our audience are interested in. From this we could study into the different genres that are audience are interested in and look at the conventions the chosen genres use and try add these conventions into our music promo if the genre suits our chosen song. 

A good question we asked of our audience was for their favourite music video. This was important to know what people said was their favourite as we could look at the music videos and take ideas from these music videos and potentially incorporate some of the good ideas in these music videos and transform them in a different way and use them in our music promo. This way we know we have tried to take the ideas from our audience and tried to please them from incorporating favourite and interesting features from music videos they are interested in. 

We also asked our audience what they expect to see in a music promo and we got a good range of answer which will help us when developing our music promo as we can ensure these features are thought about and produced to help please our audience. A couple of people came up with the asme answer of good editing techniques and for it to be engaging. We have listened to our audience and made the decision that our music promo needs to produce good editing techniques and this will interest our audience and automatically make it engaging from the exciting editing techniques we plan to produce. There were answers of action and humour that our audience likes to see but our genre we have chosen of 'Indie Pop' isn't a genre associated with humour and more serious nature because of the lyrical and calming nature of the genre, we have justified this problem and humour may not be a feature we may introduce.

Amplification was the most frequent answer that we received when we asked what type of music video our target audience likes to watch. Amplification means a key idea or image is used from the lyrics and that key theme is developed into a concept to make an exciting music promo. It means that a link will always remain between the lyrics and the promo. Our audience likes amplification so we will evaluate our songs lyrics in detail and pick out key ideas to develop to make our music promo amplification so we can please our audience and create a music promo that our audience will enjoy to watch.

Detailed Analysis of a Music Video – Coldplay Paradise

Detailed Analysis of a Music Video – Coldplay Paradise

Camerawork

 

 

 

Editing

 

 

Mise-en-scene

In this music promo from Coldplay they used quite a few different locations to conduct their filming. One of the locations that were used was the Paradise Wildlife Park in London which is used to show the elephant escaping from the zoo. This was one of a number of locations used and another location used was in Cape Town, the Klein Karoo in the Western Cape. We do see an aerial shot of Cape Town and then later on see the elephant (Chris Martin) wandering around Johannesburg as we see him walk past Nelson Mandela bridge. The locations used have been very well thought about and we feel they have been used very effectively as they help the narrative of the lyrics. The locations also portray a sense of reality and the sad truth about wild animals trapped in cages/zoos. The locations used show the difference of a poor life to ‘paradise’ for an elephant. The locations have been used to create the message about caged animals and that animal in the wild (shown on the plains in Johannesburg and Cape Town) elephant are happiest because they are with their families out in the wild.

 

 

The main costume that is used in the Coldplay Paradise music video was the use of the elephant costume throughout that the main character Chris Martin wore. The use of the elephant costume is effective because it represents the truth surrounding elephants and any animals stripped of their freedom. Although Coldplay has portrayed the song in a comical way with the costume but the story behind shows the views of Coldplay and the harsh truth of animals in zoos and represents animals being out in the wild as being their ‘Paradise’.  The lighting in the Coldplay Paradise song isn’t that effective as it hasn’t been used to indicate or create any messages. Although at the start of the music promo there is a sense of low-key lighting and represents a dark, gloomy day in the London setting zoo. Then by the time the elephant reaches Johannesburg the low-key lighting is no longer seen and the natural light represents happiness and as he has reached his paradise this creates the message of happiness for animals in the wild.

Intertextuality is portrayed in this music promo and uses Todorov’s narrative theory in the narrative for Coldplay Paradise. There’s equilibrium used in the promo and this means where everything is balanced. The link with intertextuality is with Coldplay’s own song called ‘Every Teardrop is a Waterfall’. In the Paradise music promo the lyrics “every tear a waterfall” are used and is a reference to one of their other singles and can get the audience to think about that single and then could get the audience to watch the music promo for that single afterwards – a good way to promote their songs/music promos. The meaning behind ‘Every Teardrop is a Waterfall’ is when people are in a negative situation and turning it into a positive. The use of the lyrics in the Paradise music promo helps portray the elephants story because the lyrics come when the elephant is entering the bike shop and this represents the elephant being negative before by a way of getting to his Paradise being hampered because he can’t get their but the positive turn is the bike shop and getting himself a bike to get to his ‘Paradise’.

The lyrics ‘Every tear a waterfall’ is heard across these two shots.

Narrative/Performance

 

The performance/narrative as a whole is very impressive, it uses a variety of locations to help show his travel from the paradise zoo in London to the plains of Africa where he meets his fellow Elephants (other members of Coldplay).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the shot to the left we can see the elephant in the zoo wants to be reunited with the other elephants which will later connote to his happiness when he is reunited.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As seen in the shot to the right we see the Elephant has reached his paradise with the other band members and his happiness. Therefore the Narrative of the whole song is the Elephant trying to reach his paradise. 

The majority of the song is Narrative based until around 3:20 in where we see the Elephants reunited and start playing on the African Plains but then it cuts to them performing on stage so the last 1 minute is performance based. This is good as it keeps the variety and does add to the narrative as it shows the "Elephants" as being happy to be back together.

 

The performance is quite strange as when they perform on stage they're still wearing their costumes; this is a pretty clever idea as it makes the audience remember their music video but also adds a comical element. The narrative however is performed all over the world this adds to the video as it shows the trip to paradise and his journey, furthermore it offers a variety of locations which keeps the video interesting which would of not been possible if it was only shot in a couple of locations and it would of also weakened. The narrative is used to amplify the song lyrics; they do not directly relate to them like illustration but do have some relevance as the Elephant tries to reach paradise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this screenshot it shows one of the many narratives based shots which help amplify the lyrics as it talks about "Paradise" and we see him travelling to paradise.

As music video's go, Coldplay’s Paradise is pretty strange but is very memorable. The use of the costume really helps bring out the narrative as we see the struggle for him to get to paradise. It's not typical for a music video to be nearly all narrative and for us to see very little of the artists but it work well as the locations help to immerse the audience into the song. The performance at the end is strange as they perform in the elephant masks which for the audience are quite a weird site but again it helps relate to the narrative and tie them together as we could connote that Coldplay's Paradise is performing on stage.

 

 

Vox Pop Music Promo

Band contact

Chosen band/song - KYKO - Animals

Our chosen artist to used is called KYKO, originally as known Scott Verril and he is a 19 year old from London. The artist falls into the Indie Pop genre and has a real resemblance to Bastille in the way he sings and the lyrical content of his music and he is also inspired by The 1975. We found our artist KYKO via SoundCloud and found his song 'Animals' a very good song to use as it filled us with great hope and ideas for creating our own music promo. The Indie Pop genre gives us many ideas from the calm and smooth style that's portrayed. The song 'Animals' certainly adheres these conventions as the song is chilled out but the lyrical content and rhythm constantly changing means that ideas really flow for us and giving us a greater chance to achieve something great.



Music adverts - Magazine and film (Different to genre)

The conventions of a music poster advert are as follows:
- Main artist/band member used - this it to help with people recognising them and remembering them
- Tour dates are very commonly used on music advert posters
- The colours usually reflect the type of genre the artist/band are, e.g. black is represented to gothic/rap music because of the depressing/violent representations the colour black has
- A music advert poster usually has rating from music magazines, explaining what the act is like, this helps sell the artist because they are being recognised from a wide audience

Adverts for music are very similar to movie adverts and this is the same for a film or magazine advert. The conventions of the advert are similar because of the adhering of the convention such as the main actor/artist leading the advert. This is usually the main vocalist in the advert whether it film or magazine. The difference that exist between a film and music adverts is that a film advert is to portray a story to attract audiences where-as music adverts are used to attract audiences instantly through short snippets of sound or eye-catching images. The difference in a magazine advert is also the music advert will have information about album releases and tour dates and in contrast to this film adverts are used to give information about the storyline to really pull their audiences in, a way that music adverts could use to increase popularity/sales.

The images above are both examples of adverts from magazines and they both show the similarities and differences that were clarified above. They both adhere the conventions of using the main actor/artist. The differences are important because the music poster (example on the left) could be representing the genre of music the artist is. The dark colours for the image may have been used to indicate what the artist is as a person and the type of music the artist creates and adhering conventions the artist would be a rap artist because dark colours are associated with rappers because of the violent stereotypes that exist with rappers. Although the typography could suggest that the artist is subverting the convention represented to rappers and could suggest the artist adheres the alternative genre conventions because of the mixture of colours. Although the use of red refers back to the violent representations because of the colour red being strongly linked to blood and danger. A convention that exist with the rap genre is the seriousness of the facial expression in music adverts, whether it be a poster or a film advert. This is a useful convention because it can reflect the type of artist a rapper is and the artist 'Example' adheres this convention from the serious look on his face. The serious look can reflect the lyrics and person the rapper is and it is useful to known an artist by looking into one still image.

In contrast with the movie poster the typography is very little compared to that of a music poster advert, that is because they will want to create a message around the image and not give too much away about the storyline. I think the big difference in the two types of advert between music and film posters/magazines is that the film poster work harder to sell there work as the two poster above prove. The importance is the typography, such as the words on the Johnny English poster 'A little intelligence goes a long way' this is a creative piece of typography because people will read this and try develop a storyline in there heads and will be eager to watch to see what one little slogan was all about. That is a disadvantage for music poster, the typography is busy with the tour dates and not busy pulling in there audiences with exciting slogans to help attract more members to like there artist. This is why as a group we will try incorporate this into our music poster.

Prelim Task