Semiotic Music Video Analysis

'Playing With Fire ft. Labrinth' by Plan B is a song following the narrative of a young boy Jake who joins after he joins a local gang, and is about the consequences of involving yourself in crime and gang culture from an early age.

- The music is written for Plan B's feature film 'Ill Manors' and so the opening of the video is a scene from the film. However, effects have been added to the scene right at the end when the kid punches his friend, to convey the message and relevant imagery in a stronger light.

- Images of fire and smoke are seen throughout the video as a visual metaphor along with how the images are directly linked to the song's lyrics. Scenes of chaos, objects on fire, smoke and council estates intensify the lyric's meanings.

- 'Playing with fire', the song's title is visually represented throughout the video with the footage of stunts carried out with skateboards, roller-skates, BMXs and people on fire. The basketball on fire being thrown into the hoop also connotes this.

- The narrative structure of the video is also heavily linked to the lyrics of the song. "And now that he's rolling with these vexed up thugs" are lyrics in the song which are represented in the video by a scene where the gang he is now associated have kidnapped a man and are interrogating and torturing him. He is influenced by them and joins in with the violence, which a scene also supported by the lyrics "don't have any positive role models in their lives"

Individual Research - Audiences

To find out the interest and habits of the general audience, I conducted a quick survey with generic questions and asked a variety of people who regularly listen to music

From the survey quite a few trends are seen. The younger ages tend to download music illegally a lot more, and consequently consume a greater variety of genres as a result of the larger palette available. Older people consume music in the more traditional way, although there are anomalies. The most common method of listening to music is using a portable device (iPod / iPhone) and the most common time of listening to music is when alone for leisure. 

Individual Research - Influences (Unfinished)

Individual Research - Music Videos Of Interest

The YouTube link is a collection of videos from which I am taking inspiration or just like generally. Seeing as there are quite a few, below is a selection of interesting shots from my favourite videos, or aesthetics of videos which I find visually pleasing. 

TITLES

This style of editing the titles to the beat of the music is really appealing to me. The white text on dark video footage works really well. I would say I prefer the 'Klapp Klapp' GIF, as the font is more stylised and works better with the genre and style of the music video. This is something to bear in mind if / when I use this in my music video.  

ZHU - FADED

These two clips from the music video are GIFs in themselves. I really like the way that the clip plays and then reverses in time with the strobe light effect to give a really cool image. This effect would due really good at capturing the atmosphere at a club or rave scene, which would be good for the dance tracks I have selected.

This slow zoom in isn't a particularly hard shot, but I think that the way the rest of the frame is pitch black is really pretty and looks so good on camera. I like the idea of using darkness illuminated by a single light source, and this could be a style used in my music video. 

THE NAKED AND FAMOUS - YOUNG BLOOD 

This clip represents a theme I'd like to recreate more than a shot. Generally messing about, chaos and mindless destruction of objects can look really cool, especially in slow motion so I'd like to see if I can recreate that.

 

The shots in the dark with minimal lighting are ones in which I think would look amazing, especially in high definition. They add a disorientating and quirky feel to the music video, and I think they would look really good along with the other styles and ideas I plan to use. 

This slow motion style, recording skateboarding or other similar activities is a must have in my video. I just think that the style and way they look when put to music is too good not to use. The setting also has a lot to do with how good the shot turns out, so I'll have to take into consideration where I film the music video.

THE PHARCYDE - DROP

These reversed shots are amazing. I love the way they defy physics, especially the shot containing the water. Generally messing about is a theme of this music video, and I like how the public react in the video to the characters taking their clothes off. I will use something to this effect in my video definitely, using natural public reactions or something similar. 

Individual Research - Websites Of Interest

With the images of music websites that interested me below, some are of the genre which I plan to use my music video whereas others are bands or artists which I personally like and whose website I think work really well. 

The simplicity and minimalist approach of The 1975 website, creating a collection of images which you can scroll through is a great style I think. I also like how the viewer can click on images to enlarge them. The background's opacity decreases to focus on the foreground. The band's image (Black and White) is maintained throughout.

The way in which the AlunaGeorge website advertises the release of the new album on the opening page is quite effective. A large image of the album cover is the backdrop to the site, which is a good idea for an independent artist trying to promote the release of a new album. The header of the page gives a list of web pages in a simple drop down format.

 

The Arctic Monkeys website is all black and white, which complies with the band's image. I think that maintaining band image is important so it would be a good idea with my website to have the colour scheme the same as the band's album. 

Clean bandit's website is again really simplistic yet effective. On entering the site, a closable pop up advertising the band's first album is shown, with a link to iTunes. This is a good promotional tool as it forces the viewer to view the advert, but also allows them to close it. I think the reason it didn't annoy me similar to other pop up adverts is because it's stylised to the website and visually pleasing, which is something to bear in mind. 

Similar to the AlunaGeorge website, Rudimental have used their album cover as the background to their cover page. The minimalist logo they have and the capital lettering makes for a really  stylised page. The layout is well thought out and easy to navigate, which are key features for a website.

The non linear layout of Disclosures website was really easy to navigate. I liked how all the options were on one page rather than having to scroll trough pages. Also the pictures disappeared when you scrolled over them with the cursor, which I found cool.

Individual Research - Album Covers Of Interest

Here is a selection of a few of my favourite album covers. The collection are all very minimalist in their design. A simple font makes up the title, usually consisting of capital lettering. Either a striking photo or interesting picture is used in all, and it is interesting to note that the majority are taken outside a studio.  I will look to find a stylised but minimalist font for my album cover, and for the photo either create an image on photoshop or set up an on-location shoot.

Individual Research - My Ideas

Genres Of Interest

• Dance - This genre is the one I have the most ideas for, however they are the most ambitious of the ones I currently have. I think dance would be a difficult genre to make a music video for but If done well could look amazing.

• Indie Rock - Indie Rock has a lot of potential for a music video, but would require a solid performance from the band and a good track in order to make the music video enjoyable to watch. 

• Drum and Bass - This is a genre which again could be really fun to shoot a music video for, but again I have quite ambitious ideas for singles of this genre I have come across which could prove difficult to film on our budget. 

• Alternative - The Alternative genre is one which I already have a large knowledge of for music videos as this is the genre I listen most. However, I would prefer to see if any of my other ideas are possible before pursuing with this genre as I feel the ideas I have are generic and have been done many times before so it's more of a back-up.  

Suitable Tracks For The Single

1. Phantogram - Don't Move

This track is really upbeat song and I like it a lot. I imagine the music video to involve a lot of slow motion shots of people generally messing about, either on bicycles, skateboards, scooters or running. Other ideas that immediately come to mind are sunsets and parks, teenagers, laughing and dancing.

2. Alpine - Gasoline

This track is also quite upbeat, but brings to mind psychedelic images (kaleidoscopes etc). I would imagine a video for this to also contain a lot of slow motion shots of bicycles/skateboards/roller-skates but I get a more serious feel with this song. I doesn't have the same messing about and happy vibe that 'Phantogram - Don't Move' did. Images that come to mind are close up shots of serious expressions, sunrise/sunset, long roads, no people about. 

3. Movement - Us

Immediately the pace of the song slows down the frame rate for me. When listening to this song I get images of water, floating and a really relaxed atmosphere. Again it has a much more serious tone, maybe even a narrative can be used, especially with the lyrics of the song "Did you believe in us? / Did you believe you believe in trust? / Cause I’ve been thinking it over / And you’re aware that I want you." indicating a relationship of some kind. Anger, dark tones, ultra slow-mo, art house.

4. A Tribe Called Red - Electric Pow Wow Drum

This is the track for which I have the most ambitious idea. The tribal theme is what makes this song I think, so it would only make sense to include tribal references in the video. I thought it would be an idea to make people in the video wear tribal mask, whilst filming them doing various things. The chaotic tone of the song also makes me think of times when injuries or accidents are filmed in slow motion. I am undecided as to how alternating between party scenes and the scenes described above.




5. A Tribe Called Red - Sisters
This track has a more chaotic feel to it that the previous track. Again tribal/club images immediately spring to mind. The build ups within the song could also be played with visually. There is a possibility to have a really fast paced narrative, destruction and chaos, flares and running down the street knocking people over, handheld cam, people in tribal masks, and as the build up begins slow the footage down. When the beat drops, a club/party scene would be shown, and the video could alternate between the two scenes. 


6. Kove - Love For You
This song, even though a dance track, gave me the idea for a narrative style music video. As the song builds up within the first 30 seconds, a short narrative could take place, involving a couple fighting or breaking up, getting to the chorus where the song starts. I have an idea in my head of destruction and a person being really angry, especially with the lyrics "Cause I need you / I want you / Everyday I gotta have you". Either the person in the relationship has discovered something they are upset about or is still upset about a breakup.

Individual Research - Record Labels

The role of a record label
A record label is, on a basic level, responsible for the artist's who are owned by them. Publicity, production of new music, and sales of music is what a record label takes care of, and for doing so take a portion of the artist's profits. On top of this, the record companies (more for their benefit) scout new artists to sign into their label.

Record labels come in all sizes, from small independent labels run by one or two people to huge corporations made up of hundreds of people in dozens of departments. Successful records sell millions of copies and make a lot of money for the record companies.

Seeing as the focus of our project is Independently run music record labels, here are a few examples of some:

FOOL'S GOLD
Brooklyn-based record label Fool’s Gold was founded in 2007 by DJs A-Trak and Nick Catchdubs. Artists under the label include Kid Cudi, Duck Sauce and Drake.

ROUGH TRADE UK
Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London and was formed in 1978 by Geoff Travis. Artists under the label include Arcade Fire, The Libertines, The Strokes and The Mystery Jets.

XL RECORDINGS

XL Recordings is a British independent record label owned by Richard Russell and was originated in 1989. The label was launched in 1989 to release rave and dance music, but eventual became associated with a variety of genres through artists including The Prodigy, The White Stripes, Dizzie Rascal, M.I.A, Adele and many more. Sales of Adele's 21 helped increase XL Recordings' bank balance from £3million to £32million in the space of 12 months. The Label currently has studios in both London and New York.

Individual Research - What Is Selling Well?

Top Rated Singles of 2014 in order of how long they stayed in the UK's top 10 official hottest records chart

Music of the Pop genre, featuring artists such as Pharrell Williams, Clean Bandit and OneRepublic, is the best selling, with 10 of the 18 artists' singles being of this genre. There are a few Rap artists such as Eminem and Pitbull, and Acoustic music features a lot too (Ed Sheeran, George Ezra)

The highest selling singles of the 21st Century 

The top selling singles chart indicates that, similar to previous observations of data involving music sales and current popular music, the best selling tracks are feelgood dance and pop tracks. It's also quite interesting to see the highest singles are by American music artists. 

This table just highlights how much the Pop genre dominates sales of music in the UK. Listening to the songs, all have quite a repetitive beat with a catchy chorus, which is generic of current Pop songs and is probably the reason they do so well. 

BBCs official highest selling singles chart as of date 

The list of the current music charts shows the variety of music that UK consumers listen to. Dance seems to be the current favorite genre in the UK, with all the top three songs being of this genre. Pop/RnB is also present with 3 tracks also in the top 10. 

Individual Research - Current Trends In Popular Music

As the table to the left shows, the album sales have constantly been highest for the Rock and Pop genres, indicating that these genres are most popular within the UK. Analysing the data for the lower down the table shows that in the last year, the Dance and MOR/Easy genres have seen a significant increase in sales, with other genres like R&B and lesser know genres seeing a decline. From this data, I would conclude that choosing Rock or Pop for the genre of my music project would be the most reliable as there is such a huge market for them, however seeing as the Dance is becoming more popular over the years, it could be that choosing Dance music is a risk that could be worth taking seeing as success and profit are the main objectives.

The singles sales chart shows similar patterns to the ones I observed from the album sales chart. Pop and Rock are still the dominant genres, however it is interesting to note that Dance and R&B genre singles are a lot more popular than their genre's album sales. Streaming statistics also show Rock and Pop genres to be the highest ranking, again Dance and R&B close behind. Dance seems to be the most rapidly increasing of all the genres so based on this evidence, it would be a good choice for the current project.

As you can see with the current Spotify music charts and YouTube's 'Popular Music Videos' chart trends from statistics in the tables above are pretty much identical. The top tracks 'Prayer in C' and 'LaLaLa' are both Pop/Dance tracks, verifying the trend.

Individual Research - My Music Consumption

Listening to music has always been a huge part of my day to day life, and I'd go as far to say it's a necessity of mine to listen to music regularly. I don't have a set routine of listening to music and pretty much listen to it when I can, but it tends to be I listen to music the most when I'm alone as a way of escaping. I don't have a favorite genre of music either really. Working and exercising I listen to a lot of music to focus myself, but what I'm doing doesn't affect what I listen to, as long as it's music I like. Aside from listening to music during leisure activities, I also like listening to music as a social activity, either at parties or events. In my opinion, all music is better when played out loud, compared to listening to it using headphones and at a high volume, although this does depend on the quality of the sound system. The music genre is affected when it's a social occasion as it's tailored to the people I'm with and their music choices also, not just my own.

Meaningful Songs - Childhood
I think the reason that my music taste is so varied is because I was brought up listening to such a wide range of genres, from reggae to old school RnB and also classic house. Creamfields and Bob Marley records were always played at my parents parties and occasionally on long drives, and seem to be the artists who stick in my memory the most, probably as they were the only choice of CDs and iPod technology was recent and expensive at the time. My favorite song though would have to be Playgroup '50 Ways To Leave Your Lover', purely because I still listen to it regularly 10 years down the line.

Meaningful Songs - Early Teens 

Early teens I began creating my own collection of music rather than just picking up stuff my parents had listened to. Gorillaz and Muse I remember as being some of the artists I listened to most, but I think that Amy Winehouse's track 'He Can Only Hold Her' was one of my favorites off her album 'Back to Black' which is still one of my favorite albums to date. It again reminds me of car journeys, singing along

Meaningful Songs - Now

This is a really hard choice, purely because I get addicted to listening to songs and artists and have them on repeat or playlists constantly for weeks at a time, so how meaningful  a song is bias to the time of the question. Jungle, Band of Skulls, AlunaGeorge, Lewis Watson, Southern, the list is (pretty much) endless. I also tend to only have a favourite artists at one time, rather than a favourite song, but I'd have to say the track and artist I listen to most, regardless, is Hocus Pocus by Jamie T, and he's hands down one of all time favourite artists.