For this piece of research I am going to look at how Air Traffic marketed and distributed their song 'Shooting Star'. First let's look at how they marketed the song:
Promo music video
Air Traffic released a promotional music .video for the song, to get people into the song. This was done over music channels and the internet, where Youtube is the most popular website for a band to post a promo video onto.
Social Networking
The second way in which Air Traffic market new songs such as 'Shooting Star' is on the social networking sites of Twitter, Facebook and Myspace.
Above is a collection of social networking sites that Air Traffic use to distribute their music. While the band is currently on a break, these pages are still being updated. In the modern age of technology this is a very god way to market your product.
Fans talking about them
Word of mouth is a key tool to market a product! When one person they might just tell there mate, or spread it on a social networking site or forum. In the below picture, I just searched on Twitter for their song and the product is still being talked about years after release - no doubt helping them to generate more and more downloads of the song.
Air Traffic website
In the prime of releasing their album, Air Traffic would have heavily marketed the product on their own website. However, as the band currently are on a break not much is on the website.
Gigs
For me, as the listener, this is the best way for a band to market a song. If they can go out on stage at a gig and do a great performance of a song, a fan is more likely to buy it!
Now lets look at the tools are Air Traffic actually used to distribute and sell their song 'Shooting Star':
iTunes
The biggest way to currently sell a product is probably iTunes, where the song 'Shooting Star' is still being bought. Here is a printscreen proving this:
CD
The second way to distribute the song 'Shooting Star' is through purchases of their physical CD's, as the album or single. This can be instore or over a sight online such as Amazon.
Downloads
This method of selling a music product is similar to on iTunes, but just downloads of any internet site. There are a lot of other websites were you can download music.
At the point of choosing the song we wanted to make a music video for, we had done some research and knew we were doing an indie song. There are a few sub genres of indie however, so we had to make a decision of which of the sub genre we were gonna go for. I actually personally conducted some research on Facebook and posted a question asking people to respond. This is a print screen evidencing this:
As you can say indie rock was the clear winner, so the song to do would definitely be an indie rock one. This is due to the fact I wanted people to actually enjoy the song with the video. Me and my friend stumbled across a song we both like, Shooting Star by Air Traffic. This song was of slow tempo and the lyrics were clear. We both had fresh ideas to bring to the music video so this seemed like a good song to do!
Above is the official promotional music video for the song that my partner Alex Saker and I are going to create our interpretation of. Referring to Andrew Goodwin's theory which has been previously written about on the blog, this video is a hybrid. This means the video is a mix of two music video types. One of which is a conceptual video, where the artist portrays their own concept of the song, and the other is performance as there are many bits of the band singing. The whole video is about a girl this guy is in love with, and see's her as his 'shooting star', however things are falling apart. So this is how Air Traffic must have interpreted the video.
Following the research that I have already conducted I can instantly tell this music is an indie product as soon as the music video begins. The colour scheme of all indie products that I have looked at so far have been grey or bleak, and this one is the same as you can see below:
The picture above is of the opening scene, which is a girl standing still with the wind blowing her through the window, this is all in very slow motion. Throughout the music video it switches between the band performing and slow motion shots of this women in different scenarios. In these first few sentences the girl is looking at what looks like love notes, and is throwing them on the floor. This is an indication that there has been a fall out. Although the lyrics at this point are showing how much the boy loves the girl which is a bit contradictory for the moment. The way everyone is dressed, including the band, isn't particularly indie so this isn't the clearest representation of the genre.
After the opening few scenes of the girl looking though love notes, the video stamps down some branding. There is an image of a lamp smashing and then various other things falling in slow motion and smashing. This is very much in the same style of the album cover I have deconstructed so this lets the viewer know which album the song is off. As the song progresses items are still falling and smashing around a couple who are standing opposite looking at each other. Both people are only in there underwear, which is trying to be romantic showing they have been stripped down to the bear minimum, and it's all about them. Following this there are many more performance scenes of the band, who now have things falling around them and smashing. There is no clear on beat editing but there elements of it, as on big drum notes things seem to hit the floor.
During the next verse, the song is about the male and female meeting up and realising what they have is to good to lose. The clothing worn by the couple at this point is very dark, being either grey or black. These colours not only represent indie well, but connote to the viewer that the couple are discussing serious things. After this the video goes back to the band performing, which can be seen below:
Things are still falling around the band as you can see, and a lot is already on the floor. I think this is trying to relate to the song lyrics as the couple still have issues to resolve. Following this the couple kiss and then the song goes back to the woman at the start. This is when it clicks with the viewer that the boy in the other relationship was the boy that this girl is thinking about. Therefore he was choosing between two girls and as he made bad decisions things fell through and he lost his shooting star.
Above is the album cover for Air Traffic which the song shooting star comes from. Most the indie products I have looked at so far show barely any colour, this album cover is quite colourful though. I think this is because Air Traffic are not established enough to just go with a bleak colour scheme, and would go unnoticed. Having said this, Air Traffic have contradicted this but not having much branding on the front cover. If it wasn't for the words 'Air Traffic' in small font then you could not tell who's album this was. The images used of scattered household items around a disk. String seems to be holding the whole set together, and it looks like if they string broke it would all fall apart. Perhaps this is trying to show the music is cool, creative and 'edgy'. This relaxed and random front cover fits the indie genre well. Having said the cover seems random, there is some relevance. I think the relvance is with the name of the album 'Fractured life'. The products all seem fractured and like the string is holding them together.There are a lot of colours on this album cover, which don't seem to connote much. Although, they could be connoting that the album contains a range of songs, from fast to slow indie rock.
The song that we have decided to do as our final video is Air Traffic - Shooting Star. Below is a print screen of the conversation that took place between Alex Saker and I in order to decide this over Facebook:
Andrew Goodwin was a director of music and organist at Bangor Cathedral for 37 years. He wrote a book, he developed a sense for what makes a good music video. During this time period, he wrote a book called 'Dancing in the Distraction factory' in the year of 1992. In this book he expressed what he thought made a good music video.
Andrew Goodwin put music videos into 4 categories:
Type of video
Description of video
Example
Performance
Videos in which the artist lip syncs to the audio track.
These are the things that Goodwin pointed out should make a good music video:
1) Music video should demonstrate genre characteristics, so basically a music video should represent the genre of the music. For example, in a performance heavy metal video, band members might smash guitars etc.
2) A relationship between lyrics and visuals is common. These can be in 3 different categories:
Illustrative - Mirrors the exactly story of lyrics
Amplifying - Over exaggerates the lyrics
Contradicting - Complete opposite of what the lyrics are saying
3) A relationship between music and visuals.
4) The record label might demand that there are lots of close ups of badges and things like this, to develop the brand.
5) Frequent reference to the notion of looking, like screens within screens and telescoped. Often there is a voyeuristic treatment of one's body, which attracts opposite gender audience.
6) There is often an inter-textual reference to things such as films and tv programs, which increases viewings.
After looking at Andrew Goodwin's theory, I am now going to deconstruct two indie music videos with reference to the theory.
Deconstruction of 'Bloc Party - I Still Remember'
Above is the video for this deconstruction, where the lead singer of Bloc Party walks through a train singing about remembering old times. The music video for this indie rock song falls into Goodwin's category of hybrid. While being mostly performance, there are elements of conceptual. The elements of it being a conceptual music video come from the fact the the song has little to do with someone walking through a train, but this is how Bloc Party have interpreted the song.
When the music video begins with a backwards zoom entering into a moving train, the genre characteristics are hinted at but not immediately evident. You can tell this song might be indie rock because of the home grown camera effect on the video, which makes it slightly grey. In the first carriageway of the train, there is a ticket man on board, on an empty carriageway. This has little relationship to the music at the time, which shows the music video is likely to have conceptual aspects. The train itself is an old train that looks like it needs some maintenance, throughout the video this relates to the main lyrics 'I still remember' as the song is about remembering old times and the train is old. In the next carriageway the lead singer comes into the frame. Around him on the train are his other band members sitting on the seats with their instruments. The notion of looking is only being used by the main singer, as he is staring down the main camera the whole time. This technique makes the viewer only really see the main singer, and they perhaps might not notice people around him. This stamps branding on the video as the lead singer is the one that most people recognise from the band.
As the song progresses it continues to move through carriageways on the train. You can see each carriageway is a different one, because on the doors different numbers are displayed each time. On these carriageways are the same people sat down every time, progressively talking to each other more and getting on better. A visual link between lyrics and video is hard to pick out on a conceptual song, but I think the link is that the lyrics at the time are singing about the development of his relationship with a girl. So, on each train the people's relationships developing links to the lyrics. Eventually after many carriageways, we come to going through carriageways of the whole band standing and performing the song. I think this is here at this point as the brand has been stamped down on the song by now. This performance shows a link between the music and video as the band are playing the music in the video that is on the audio.
Next, the song comes out of the train for the first time. It shows the train from the outside travelling on its rail before progressing through lots of different train windows. On every train are still the lead singer and the same people having fun. Shortly following this there is the first real obvious link between song lyrics and the video. As the lyrics say 'we wrote our names on every train' while the lead singer writes 'Bloc' on the train window, here is a print screen showing that:
This is also a stamp of brand image, visually showing part of the name of the band. After this first solid link between lyrics and visual, it continues to do so. For example, the song lyrics say the word 'monochrome' and the whole video is monochrome as it is all the same sort of colour.
After the whole song up to this point being about remembering good times, it then speaks about regrets. So as the camera continues to zoom out through trains, the scenes on the trains now turn sad. This sadness is portrayed through snow and the lead singer looking glum. As the song progresses, the band now move out of the train. They are in between two moving trains looking on and the concept is that they are remembering the times in the trains. All sort of dramatic scenarios are used, such as the lead singer rowing down a river in between two moving trains. After these emotional scenes he is banging on the door of one the train carriageways, as he wants to be back in them. The song ends with him laying on the grass outside the train looking at the sky. This is a good representation of how the song finishes as the lyrics at the end result in him never getting back what he is remembering. My concluding point is on how the band dress through out the song. The way the band are dressed indicates the genre of music indie, for example skinny jeans. This along with the greyscale colour of the video are the only real ways of visually telling the song is indie.
Deconstruction of 'Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down'
My second music video deconstruction with reference to Andrew Goodwin's theories is another indie rock song, but this time by Arctic Monkeys. The song is about how the world can change when the sun goes down, and focuses on a woman roaming the streets with nowhere to go. The music video mirrors what the song is about, therefore it falls into Goodwin's category of narrative. Throughout the whole video there is no lip miming with the song at all, so this video is strongly narrative.
Similar to the Bloc Party music video, the colour of the opening pictures is an indicator of what genre the video is. The colour is not quite grey at the start, but bleak. This bleakness has nothing artificial in it, and the natural rawness has a very indie feel. The very first opening picture also indicate brand image. This is due to the fact the album cover for this song, is of very similar style to the image on screen. You can see the similar styles in the picture below:
In this song, the lyrics start immediately, and the visuals match the lyrics straight away. As the lyrics are asking who this girl is, roaming the streets, and the visual is a girl just standing there roaming the streets. The song progresses to sing about a scummy man and how he would rob this girl if given the chance. These lyrics are amplified when shown in the visual, like Goodwin said this is a common feature. The visual is off the man robbing an egg of the woman's plate, but the lyrics are hinting at robbing bigger things. I feel that while stealing an egg is worse than what the lyrics intend, it is still exaggeration as it is playing the lyrics out obviously right in your face. A notion of looking is used of the man looking into the camera in order to further portray the lyrics visually. As the lyrics are about seeing a look in his eyes.
Following the above paragraph the song slows down for a moment, before suddenly picking up pace. This is when the visual matches the instruments in the song as the guitar strums fast, while the visual is from inside a fast moving car. Inside the car you see lots of lights, but nothing clear and bright to keep up the indie genre representation. After a further paragraph about goings on's in this girl's life while the sun is down, the chorus comes in. The band are shown briefly during the chorus putting their instruments in a boot. I think this is done at this point as the chorus is the main but so the band should be in the shot, or they'd lose their branding. When the lyrics begin for another verse there is reference to a Ford Mondeo car. Andrew Goodwin said to talk about recognisable products in the media is a common occurrence in music video's, and a Ford Mondeo is a car which every one would have heard of. The band may have received some revenue from Ford for mentioning their car. The song plays right to the end just representing the lyrics by the visual, like a narrative music video should do.
For part of our target audience research we undertook a questionnaire. Here is a copy of the questionnaire that we used as one of the tools for our TAR:
Who is our target audience for an indie music video?
To conduct research on our target audience, we first had to decide who our target audience is for our final product of an indie music video. The target audience would be anyone who likes indie.
Age
Looking at online forums the general consensus is that indie fans nowadays are between 16-27, so most people that undertook the questionnaire were of this age. However, as you can see below I found on The Telegraph website that many Glastonbury festival goers are over 50, and Glastonbury play a lot of indie.
Taking this into account, 2 people that undertook the questionnaire were over 50.
Gender
The gender of indie fans really can be male or female. However, as most indie bands are male this attracts slightly more of the male audience as they relate to the music. Taking this into account, 60% of questionnaire responses were from males.
Responses to questionnaire
1)
You can see from the table above that most people listen to music daily and a lot of people even listen to music every few hours! The fact that everyone I gained research from listened to music is good, as those are the sort of people which would be interested in a music video. There would be no point asking people questions that don't even like music, as they wouldn't be interested in my final product.
2)
It is important to find out information about the the buying patterns of my target audience, to see where it is best to push my media product. You can see the majoirty of my target audience download or convert music on the internet one way or the other. This would indicate to me that my promo music video would be best released online, going onto Youtube and similar websites. There are however, a few people that still buy physical CD's in store, assuming they don't order online. So in store advertisments for a music video would be important in magazines etc.
3)
The next question that the graph above is representing is how people listen to music. The results on the graph show that listening to music nowadays has become very digital. MP3 is the most popular tool, closely followed by the internet. The only method of listening to music which has stood the test of time from about 50 years ago, is radio. So this shows indie music listeners tend to not use archaic forms.
4)
From the fourth question on the questionnaire we found that the average expenditure of an indie fan on music a year is £109. However, much of the younger indie fans spent hardly anything or even nothing on music per year. This is mostly due to free downloads which have had a big impact on the music industry. Interestingly, woman spent more on music per year than men. I think this could be due to men being more 'tech savvy'.
5)
Next we asked people how they discovered the music they like. The winner was reccomendation, but then if you think about the people that recommended the music than they would have discovered music from one of the other sources eventually. So taking this into account, the radio/TV option is the most important factor in people discovering music they like. This shows indie music is popular nowadays as it is getting airtime on TV and being played on the radio. Other methods were also popular though, including gigs due to many indie bands regularly doing gigs. Print media wasn't a popular method of finding out music that people like which shows we have moved into the digital age.
6+7)
In the penultimate and fnial question, we gathered information on people's favourite indie artist and song. This is because it might help us decide what song to do for our final music video. These were the results:
