18 July 2023 -- Today i discovered that a music video is essential to convey messages to an audience and to generate revenue for the business or individual. The music video of a song is necessary in order to determine what type of audience that is being targeted.
Since my group has been thinking about making a music video on a pop song, I decided to do some research about the genre. For pop music, its aim is usually to attract the general or mainstream audience. Hence it will usually aim to avoid showing controversial topics such as religion or politics. 

This is all necessary to build an audience, which would allow the business to gain revenue which will allow the business or individuals to have enough funding to create more media texts. In my research I have also discovered that an attractive music video could potentially make it easier to sell the music, for example have an increased sales of CDs or concert tickets. 

Moreover, it is also important as it is able to establish a memorable brand that may lead to higher customer loyalty as the brand will be more recognizable. I also found that branding can be created and reinforced in a music video by using consistent symbolism, themes, colors, and tones. 

20 July 2023 — Today I reaffirmed that it takes a lot of work to produce a music video. Creating a music video relies on many different factors in order to ensure that it ends up being a quality product. Location is one of these factors and it is important as it can influence the tone of the video and the types of scenes that can be filmed, for example filming at a graveyard could give a more “Punk” or “Metal” atmosphere. The singers in these music videos are also lip syncing to the songs in order for the audience to focus more on the singer which would make them more recognizable to the audience and hence make them more loyal. 

Lighting is another key factor as it is able to convey emotions, for example cool tone lighting may indicate sadness. A title card is also prevalent in music videos in this day and age as it shows relevant information such as the title of the song, the producer, etc. 

22 July — Today, my classmates and I collaborated on a short practice music video to improve our filming skills. We were split into groups of 3, and for this short exercise the roles available were: actor, editor, and cameraman. I chose to be the cameraman in this exercise when I am the director in my coursework as I wanted to understand the responsibilities of my teammates which  would lead to me being more able to direct them. We chose SZA's "Normal Girl" for this exercise, and my role was in directing and planning the frames and shots.

Handling the camera was a new experience for me, and it took some time to get used to. After three attempts, we finally achieved a result we were satisfied with. 

These are the results:

In this MV, we made sure to follow conventions by making the actress lipsync to the lyrics. We also used cameraworks such as close-up-shots and medium shots to showcase the expression of the actress. 

26 July — Today we researched on the branding of Pop Artists how they make the branding look consistent across their MVs, Digipak, and Social Media.

A prominent example of branding is Taylor Swift’s new album titled “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version”). This album has remakes of songs from her previous album, “Speak Now” as well as showcases new songs that illustrates her journey as an artist. 

The album’s color scheme is mainly focused on royal purple. To bring the audience back in time as it references the dress she wore on the first release of "Speak Now" in 2010. This music video also emphasizes a triadic color palette as it uses purple, orange, and green, this is used to please the audience's eye as well as bring attention to the purple, which is the main theme of the music video. Taylor's posts on social media and story highlights shows a strong purple theme and branding. In her feed it can be noted that she posts about upcoming concert dates and posts relating to her album. 

Optical disc packaging refer to the packaging for optical discs such as CDs or DVDs to prevent them from getting damaged or scratched. Common types include 'jewel cases' or 'digipaks'.  People often criticize jewel cases for being too brittle and thus digipaks are a common alternative. 

A digipak (or digipack) is usually made out of custom-printed cardboard and comes in a rectangular shape. The CD is held in place by plastic trays. The 4 panel container is the most common type, however 6-panel or 8-panel sleeves are sometimes used as well. Digipaks can hold 1 to 4 CDs and it usually contains a booklet and thank you note. 

The album cover is one of the most important parts of the album as it serves as the first impression of the album to the audience. 

Before doing any research, I decided to create an album cover and back cover based on what i THINK they typically look like. For the front cover, I thought that the front cover only includes the artist's face and album title. For the back cover I thought that it only included the album title, artist name, and copyright. I was unsure what to use for the images so I just picked some pictures from my gallery that I liked best and put a sepia/monochrome filter on it. I also tried to bring some elements of branding such as using a red theme and using a template that had a 'ripped paper' effect to make it fit the 'scrapbook' theme I was going for. 

After doing some more research, I discovered the conventions of album covers.

The front and back covers usually have the same theme and uses the same color palettes.

In this album, we can see that there is a consistent theme of using yellow for the fonts and using the same monochromatic and retro filter on the images. 

CD art is the image or artwork displayed on the surface of a CD.  CD art is extremely important as it can help in attracting an audience. An effective CD art can help further establish a sense of branding and make the album and digipak feel more cohesive and interesting. 

After researching, I found some conventions of CD art.

• Album title and artist's name

• Copyright information

• Record label/producer's and distributor's logo

• Sometimes, a track list at the bottom of the CD

However, not all of these conventions are followed by artists. 

These are some examples where some conventions are followed while others are not:

Types of pictures chosen for the CD art:

A CD booklet can have 2 to 32 pages and it usually includes: lyrics, pictures of artists, and a memo from the artist. The dimensions of a CD booklet is usually around 246.97mm x 125.48mm (if we include the bleed). 

Artists create merchandise for a plethora of reasons. 

A reason could be an additional stream of revenue, especially for new artists with limited capital. It could also create a sense of belonging for a community for fans and build fan engagement. Moreover, items like t-shirts, hoodies, and other merchandise with the artist's logo or album artwork may act as walking advertisements, potentially attracting new fans who see them being worn in public. 

From my research, I learned that female artists usually have 2 categories of merchandise: apparel and miscellaneous items. 

For apparel, artists usually sell at least 2 'types of clothing'. Which are usually T-shirts and hoodies, however female artists usually tend to sell crop-tops or tank-tops that are targeted for women as they are usually their primary audience. Also, they tend to sell at least 1 to 2 colors for each design, usually black and/or white.

For miscellaneous items, these usually include generic items such as water bottles, mugs, tote bags, etc. However nowadays artists tend to sell more unique items alongside the generic items. Examples of unique items could include: stickers, lighters, necklaces, and more.

The Instagram profiles of famous artists from the pop or alt-pop genres typically follow similar conventions including: 

• Instagram highlights with a similar theme, with topics like tour and their albums

• Following count from 10 million to 300 million followers, depending on their popularity

• Following from 0 to 600 people, depending on whether the artist wants to be more mysterious or not

• A link in their bio to several other platforms

• Their Instagram bio referencing a lyric from their newest song

• A verified check mark

• A profile picture that is similar in theme with their newest album

• A username that is either: their real name, stage name, or references their newest album

In order to better promote their new album, artists will usually change the way they post on their social media. ⁤⁤Artists do this by posting content relating to their new album while using a consistent color palette with the album to establish a sense of 'branding'. ⁤⁤

The color palette of the posts should fit with the genre of the album and what the artist is aiming to convey with their music . ⁤For example, bright and fun colors (such as yellow, pink, etc.) might be used for upbeat pop albums, while darker colors could be used for darker and more introspective albums with heavier subjects.      

After doing this research, I decided to create a template on what I want my artist's social media page to be like:

I did not want the feed to be completely vibrant red as it may be hard to look at and create an overall visually unappealing profile. So I decided that most of the posts of the artist herself would be partially red instead of fully red as I planned the merch drop, tour dates, and album cover to be mostly, if not fully, red.