Is Postmodernism becoming more frequent in Music Videos?

Postmodernism is used in Music Video's. For example this newly released Music video called (The Hardest Ever) plays with incorporating a merge of different artists. For example Will.i.am, who is a member of 'Black Eyed Peas', known for his very 'modern', 'techno' music ability. The video features 'Jennifer Lopez', a very standard, american Hip hop singer. The clip also features 'Mick Jagger', lead vocalist and founder of the rock band 'Rolling Stones'. The video mixes different genres into one.The video plays with the use of Nostalgia, traveling back in time, however the clip includes a modern space ship with high technology features to travel back into space. The video mixes from using geometric, scientific themes, which is classed as very 'modern day', the mise en scene at the beginning where everything is white plays on this modern idea, as the colour white symbolises cleanliness, pure and futuristic. The video includes modern props, for example high tech mobile phone, motorbike, jeep and rocket. The mise en scene then changes to what Mick Jagger wore in the 1960's, his statue is very faded which also conveys that they are going back in time. The colour of white then changes to a mix of vibrant bright colours that were known for the time the rocket is traveling back to. The postmodern elements are shown when Mick Jagger begins to sing the song's repeated lyrics, "You can go hard, or you can go home", however he is singing in the the style of how Mick Jagger would sing the song in the 1960's. I believe that Postmodernism will become the future of Music Videos, due to the exciting scientific element of mixing genres!

Within editing GoldBloom's promotional video, I have included an element of self-reflexivity which is used throughout. Self-reflexivity is shown through the edit of speeding which is seen as a constructed text, for example I have used this technique especially at in the opening of the clip, when the camera is finding the band, using imovie I was able to fasten the pace of the footage as the original footage was too slow and slightly boring. Throughout editing, imovie allowed me to bring together bits and pieces of different footage of the band, constructing it's sequences of scenes on the basic of editing techniques. Self reflexivity is also portrayed with the clever use of music editing, for example using the music as a narrative structure, this is shown in the opening when there is a slight pause after the text "GOLDBLOOM", then the use of the beat acts like the 'Que' for the next scene, this portrays that the footage has been constructed. The band's name, "GOLDBLOOM" portrays a significant postmodernism feature of intertextuality. The band originally got inspiration for the band name from the famous actor, 'Jeff GoldBloom', the fact that their band is almost a 'copy' of something else portrays the intertextuality element. After inspiration from 'The Wombats' promo video, I have borrowed specific editing elements from their promotional video, for example the idea of a moving skyline image with text written above image, this idea of creating a piece of work that imitates the style of some previous work, is known as Pastiche. Promotional videos are the development of new mixed-media forms. They are such a form of combining elements of live performance footage with contrasting footage of, for example a band chilling out promoting themselves as individuals as well as musicians.

Postmodern Spiral effect - "A piece of work that imitates the style of previous work" - Pastiche. This is the image of the band in a spiral effect used on the poster as part of their advertising: Can be seen on website...

Band Camp (Media Technologies)

Bandcamp is another site that offers a lot of musician friendly tools to help sell music and merchandise. According to the site, “On Bandcamp albums outsell tracks 5 to 1 (in the rest of the music buying world, tracks outsell albums 16 to 1) On name-your-price albums, fans pay an average of 50% more that whatever you set as your minimum.

GoldBloom have acknowledged that Band Camp is another source to engage and interact with more fans!

http://golddbbloom.bandcamp.com/

Sound Cloud (Media Technologies)

Sound Cloud is an online audio distribution platform, which allows collaboration, promotion and distribution of audio recordings produced in August 2008, allowing musicians to share recordings with each other, and to distribute their music tracks. Sound Cloud has had great success for beginning musicians and new bands, it's popular use, has challenged the dominance of other viral marketing for example, 'My Space'. A key feature of Sound Cloud is that it lets artists upload their music with a distinctive URL. This contrast to 'My Space', which hosts music only on the MySpace site. By allowing sound files to be embedded anywhere, Sound Cloud can be combined with popular viral marketing sites, like Twitter and Facebook to increase it's audience reach.

I have also used sound cloud to create audio files used in this evaluation!

GoldBloom have created their own Sound Cloud account :

www.soundcloud.com/goldbloom

Facebook (Media Technologies)

Facebook offers a very "real" audience and potential fan base for bands and a network that allows you to share important information easily. Information such as upcoming concerts, new music, videos, pictures and links. In today's technology society promoting music has changed from it's original publicity of pinning up flyers on lamp posts and posting flyers through letter boxes, in fact it's a much easier way to promote music these days. Facebook has become such a viral success that the most of the population have a Facebook account. Music artists and bands have acknowledged that their fans are using Facebook, therefore it is a perfect opportunity to promote their music. As a country, we are always wanting 'MORE', in terms of fans and music, hearing their music is just not enough to satisfy. They NEED to know more about the band as individuals, this is where Facebook can portray this personal information through images of the band, knowing what the band are doing, where they are, and what they are doing next, through the access of posting recent 'Statuses' that fans can see. In today's society we have to almost 'stalk' bands to like them and their music. Facebook is also a reliable source to other links, e.g. Bands website and Tour dates.

The co founders of Facebook realized that alot of the members were using the site to promote themselves. So they created a special type of page for business purposes called Facebook Pages.

The main advantage to starting a separate fan page for the band is the ability to send updates to all of their fans at once, no matter how many fans that they have. With a personal profile, they can send messages to only 20 people at a time. (This is Facebook’s way of keeping spammers from bulk mailing thousands of people at one time)

With a personal profile they can have no more than 5,000 friends. That’s not a problem for most people, but if you’re a popular artist or part of a band, you’ll disappoint a lot of your fans when you reach your limit.

Even if someone is already on the band’s email list or following them in some other way, you want them to connect with the band on Facebook too. It’s all about repetition and giving fans lots of ways to stay in touch with the band.

The band 'GoldBloom' have acknowledges that Facebook is a good way to advertise them, as a band, and a good way to promote their music.

I also used Facebook to keep in touch with the band, sending them my idea's and creative thoughts to seek their opinion and own advice for improvements.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Goldbloom/299291986758077

Viral marketing

Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives technology allows artists to introduce their music to a potentially enormous audience at low cost without necessarily affiliating with a major recording label. The design of digital music software encourages the discovery of new music. This, in turn, creates many opportunities for independent bands (like GoldBloon) Digital services offer the opportunity of exposure to new fans and the possibility of increased sales through online retailers. Artists can also release music more frequently and quickly if it is made available online. Additionally, artists have the option of releasing limited edition, out-of-print, or live material that would be too costly to produce through traditional means.

Bands need to consider VIRAL MARKETING as their biggest selling point in today's music industry. Especially for small, indie bands like GoldBloom, viral marketing is basically their only success for making it Big. The images below show a visual image of viral marketing and how using people (the old way) of promoting music and advertisment is just not enough anymore, the second image is the new social site 'Twitter' and how twitter will properly access more fans than human recommendation. "It will take less that a second for news to spread on the internet, which will then lead to buying albums!"

Genre Research

I have chosen this music video as it represents both a narrative style and involves genre representation. The video includes an intertextual link from Mariah Carey's 'obsessed', which is essentially mocking Eminem, similar to the character of 'Stans' obsessiveness over Eminem. The video is obviously constructed, as 'Dido's' singing has been edited to sound like her song is playing on the radio. The edited sound of scribbling when Stan is writing his letter, and the harsh sound of rain in the background. The 'film-like' music video uses flashbacks to convey the moral and understanding of the plot, this again is using a sense of self-reflexivity. The video clearly states a stereotypical lifestyle of a young, violent teen, who got his young girlfriend pregnant in a council estate house. The plot is set within a Distopian atmosphere, conveyed by dark lighting, flickering of lightbulbs and the use of lightning. By creating the 'Distopian' world, the genre of this clip would suit a scene out of a horror film, due to the mise en scene of a dark, claustrophobia basement, and the abusive storyline. The lyrics of the song are cleverly used to narrate the clip, cleverly rapping but sticking to the moral of the story, which is clearly conveyed. This video was made in the year 2000, targeted at a modern audience, who could relate to the certain lifestyle that is portrayed.

Genre Theory

"Genres are instances of repetition and difference"

Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics, for example: Stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in hip hop. The main genre characteristics of an Indie/friendly grunge music video is the inclusion of a performance element. The video would consist of a display of the band's authentic image and to further emphasise the indie 'Do it yourself' aspect that they are trying to portray to their targeted audience. 'Indie' bands are very image orientated, which is another addition to the genre characteristics, as their 'image' is a major factor, to persuade their fans to want to like them, they should instantly become 'fashion icon's' to their fans.

The band 'Goldbloom' have naturally forwarded the casual, laid back traditional 'Indie Look', which again forwards the 'Do it yourself' approach that Indie bands are known for, and admired for. The band quote: "We just wear what we feel like wearing" This quote stresses the 'Indie' portrayal.

The image on the bottom is an images of a current band called, 'Little Comets', the relaxed, home feel of the 'Mise en Scene' has really inspired me. This themed idea of rehearsing in something as small as one of the band member's bedroom was the look I wanted to portray in my image on the top of 'GoldBloom'. I wanted to create a 'messy' look, to again forward the 'Indie' phrase of 'Do it yourself', making it look easy for fans to do themselves.