2. Context
• For my research on the topic I'm going to be looking at a lot of different sources of information. My aim is to have most of it
connect back to each other so I can get the research as comprehensive as possible.
• In order, I'm going to be looking at:
• Mainstream artists that have publicly spoken out against their record labels, (through tweets, interviews, or directly in
their music), and the public reception they got.
• Racism in the music industry , and how record labels can treat people of colour worse than white people.
• Mainstream artists from other countries and genres, and how their record labels can often times be worse than western ones.
• Sexism in the music industry, and a few of the women that have publicly spoken out against their labels, or the industry as a
whole.
• Songs that focus on record labels/the corrupt music industry as a whole, showing off key quotes as examples.
This should all help me make a really good final script, and provide me with enough evidence for the documentary style video
essay I plan on doing that looks at corruption and mistreatments within the music industry.
4. Taylor Swift
• Being one of the most influential people of the 2010's I would've thought that Taylor Swift would've been in complete control of some of her biggest hits. But if you've been
keeping up with her over the last 2 years, you'll realise that that isn't really the case. When she was 15 years old, she signed a record deal with the label 'Big Machine' who had
a different CEO to what it does now. For years she was begging them to let her have access to the master recordings of her first 6 studio albums, but they wouldn't budge, even
though she could absolutely afford it after even her second album. All of this only got worse when the label got a new CEO 'Scooter Braun'. When the transition of this new CEO
happened, Taylor didn't let her disappointment go unheard. She stated that she was never even given the opportunity to purchase the rights to her original master recordings.
• On top of all that she also claimed that Scooter Braun had bullied her in the past and tried to "dismantle her career" and now her entire musical discography belongs to him.
She's said that this is her worst possible case scenario and regrets ever signing to a label at 15 years old. "This is my worst-case scenario. This is what happens when you
sign a deal at 15." Because of all this, she's gone on record a few times to state that she's going to re-record most of her original 6 studio albums since the contract she signed
now makes that legal. This, however, won't change the fact that she's still going to get minimum royalties for the albums that she never 'owned'.
• In the 2019 AMA's (American Music Awards) Taylor was set to win 'Artist of the Decade', however, Big Machine records reached out and told her that she was not allowed
to perform any of her older songs that she recorded when she was still signed to the label. They stated that if she was to go through with performing any of her older songs then
it would be a breach of the agreement. So she was forced to only play her newer songs. In a statement, Taylor said this in response "Scott Borchetta told my team that
they'll allow me to use my music only if I do these things: If I agree to not re-record copycat versions of my songs next year (which is something I'm both legally
allowed to do and looking forward to) and also told my team that I need to stop talking about him and Scooter Braun,"
• In late 2020 Scooter Braun sold the entirety of Taylor Swifts catalogue to a private company called 'Shamrock Holdings' for $300 million. Taylor responded to this on social
media, saying she never even got the chance to buy the rights to her own discography, again. She was trying to negotiate with Scooter, however he demanded that she sign
an NDA stating that she was to never say anything negative about Big Machine, or himself ever again, before she could even get the chance at bidding for her own work. In
response Taylor had this to say: “So I would have to sign a document that would silence me forever before I could even have a chance to bid on my own work,” “My
legal team said that this is absolutely NOT normal, and they’ve never seen an NDA like this presented unless it was to silence an accuser by paying them
off." Taylor wasn't even aware of the initial transaction of her own music that she dedicated her whole life to until the buyers themselves reached out to her.
• Lastly, in early 2020, Big Machine released an album of live Taylor Swift recordings from a radio show she was on in 2008, she didn't know about this, and she did not support
it. In fact, it was her fans that had alerted her to this, which means she was most likely not going to get ANY royalties for this release, or she'd at most get the minimum amount
without being alerted. The label tried to cover up the release as an old 2017 release date, but in actuality they were releasing it new in 2020. She claimed this was a shameless
and transparent attempt at getting more money when revenue was at its lowest because of Covid-19. "It looks to me like Scooter Braun and his financial backers, 23
Capital, Alex Soros and the Soros family and the Carlyle Group have seen the latest balance sheets and realized that paying $330 MILLION for my music wasn't
exactly a wise choice and they need money. In my opinion just another case of shameless greed in the time of coronavirus. So tasteless, but very transparent,"
vs Big Machine
5. Taylor Swift
• Most of the fans were completely unaware of what Taylor was going
through with the label until she made it public to her followers on
Twitter and Instagram.
• When Taylor originally revealed to her fans that Big Machine was
preventing her from performing her older songs at the AMA's, she
asked them to try and find a way to contact Scooter and all the other
higher ups, in hopes that sending masses of her fans in their
direction could sway their decision. Minutes after making the post on
twitter the hashtag "#IStandWithTaylor" was trending worldwide and
was full of people demanding that the label allows her to perform her
older songs, not just now, but for as long as she performs.
• Some of them took it a bit far and took it on themselves to find
the , phone numbers, and more personal information. This
resulted in the family of the higher ups at Big Machine being
threatened, while this is an extreme reaction, and should not have
happened, this was only a few of the fans that were quickly shut
down.
• Now, over a year later Taylor's fans are still talking about her vs Big
Machine, as nothing is yet to come from this drama. The discussion
is always in favour of Taylor and is always *very* against Big
Machine. It's safe to say that no matter the outcome from this, Big
Machine's brand and name will never be as respected as it once
was, even a few years ago.
Big Machine target
audience reaction
6. Bibliography for Taylor Swift
• ABC News. (2019). Taylor Swift's $300M feud over her 'worst case scenario' l Nightline. Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwkTl9NXWk4&ab_channel=ABCNews. Last accessed 19/01/2021.
• Chloe Melas. (2020). Taylor Swift slams former record label for releasing new album. Available: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/24/entertainment/taylor-swift-fight-album-
big-machine-label-group/index.html Taylor Swift slams former record label for releasing new album. Last accessed 19/01/2021.
• Kelly Wynne. (2019). A History of Taylor Swift's Feud With Scooter Braun, Big Machine Label Group Around American Music Awards. Available:
https://www.newsweek.com/history-taylor-swifts-feud-scooter-braun-big-machine-label-group-around-american-music-awards-1473585. Last accessed 19/01/2020.
• Sean Hollister. (2019). Taylor Swift provoked fans to go after her rivals and now they’re being doxxed. Available: https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/14/20965843/taylor-
swift-fans-doxxed-scooter-braun-scott-borchetta-twitter. Last accessed 19/01/2021.
• Will Lavin. (2020). Taylor Swift responds to Scooter Braun selling her masters:. Available: https://www.nme.com/news/music/scooter-braun-reportedly-sells-taylor-swifts-
big-machine-masters-2818109. Last accessed 19/01/2021.
7. Prince
• Prince is one of the most looked at examples when it comes to fights against record labels. Basically, since the mid-point of his career he'd been publicly battling record labels, comparing
their loss of free will to slavery, and never shied away from discouraging young and upcoming artists from not signing deals, and instead self-publishing. I've looked at some of the key
things that happened between him and his old record labels and have found that his words match that of others that have called out record labels, proving that this has been a major issue in
the music industry, since its inception.
Prince VS his record labels
• Up until the mid 90's everything seemed to be going okay between prince and his label (Warner Music) he even established his own record label which was funded by them right as he
started getting popular. However, the more popular he got, the more he started to question his label, and genuine they were actually treating him. This hit a boiling point in the mid 90's,
(which some say was the height of his popularity when he was seen in public with the word "slave" written across his face. He claimed that because he was signed to warner, they owned
and controlled his name and ANY music that was released under that name. Because of this he changed his name to "Symbol" as an act of rebellion against his label. However, he was
unable to completely break free from this contract, he had to meet a specific amount of album releases under that label, so this was followed by a rapid run of albums, most of them not of
best quality being filled with old studio tapes and offcuts, but after enough were released he was finally free from his record deal.
• After he broke free from Warner Music, he went on to sign a bunch of one-off deals with mostly all of Warner's competitors, he did this from 2001, all the way to 2010 where he finally got
tired of releasing through labels, and instead decided to self-release via a subscription service called 'NPG Music Club' which was later replaced by 'LOtUSFLOW3r' in 2009, which
sold both his music and tickets to his shows.
• In April 2014 he announced that he signed a new record deal with Warner Bros, claiming he was very happy with the negotiations, and felt comfortable going through with the deal. "A
brand-new studio album is on the way and both Warner Bros. Records and Eye are quite pleased with the results of the negotiations and look forward to a fruitful working
relationship." So it's safe to say that all the legal cases must have paid off.
Prince VS the industry
• The more you look into prince, the more you realise what exactly he stood for, even in his final days. He wanted what every artist wants control of his name and everything he ever worked
on. It's what Taylor Swift is fighting for, Prince, however, was MUCH heavier handed in his approach and wasn't afraid of any backlash he might have gotten. He was for the artists 100%
and believed that artists should get paid the amount of work they put in. Which is why when YouTube and other streaming services came along, he was extremely against it, again, along
the same lines as Taylor Swift. At one point he pulled ALL of his music from YouTube and most streaming services, excluding Tidal. As he believed he wasn't getting paid nearly as much
as he should've on those platforms.
• Throughout the years, prince had gone on multiple interviews and talk shows to give his opinions on the industry, record labels, and artist control. "I did all the work I created it so I
felt like it should belong to me" he also saw that record companies should be looked at more like a "delivery service" for music, instead of claiming ownership and taking most of the
royalties. "If they're gonna be a delivery service then that's fine, but even FedEx doesn’t say they own the thing that they ship" He was less against record companies as a whole and was
more against what they do and how they mostly operate, he wanted them to change how they do things, and make everything fairer, which they rarely ever did, "It's not like we're against
them or anything like that, the idea is that we find better ways of working with one another."
8. Target Audience reactions
and the impact of Prince's
stance
Prince's 20+ year squabble with the music
industry was pretty influential and would've
caused more than a few artists from signing
dodgy record deals. He was one of the first artists
to come so passionately for the music industry
and all its short comings. This fight must've been
inspiring to a lot of other artisrts too, because
since then we've seen other massive names call
out their labels without backing down, (Micheal
Jackson, Taylor Swift, Kesha, for example).
Even today people still talk about how prince
made more money for himself then any label ever
could, on the internet I've seen people still
supporting the words of prince that he said over
20 years ago. Some smaller artists even take
from his example and try and follow along with
what he did.
9. Bibliography for Prince
• Eamonn Forde. (2015). Record breaker: a brief history of Prince's contractual controversies. Available:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/aug/10/history-prince-contractual-controversy-warner-paisley-park. Last accessed 21/01/2021.
• iconic. (2008). Prince on Record Labels. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itsRvRvfG4Y&ab_channel=iconic. Last accessed
21/01/2021.
• Marc Hogan. (2016). Here’s Every Battle Prince Waged Against the Internet and the Music Industry. Available:
https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1117-heres-every-battle-prince-waged-against-the-internet-and-the-music-industry/. Last accessed
21/01/2021.
• MIKE CRISOLAGO. (2017). Remembering Prince: 5 Ways He Changed Music Forever. Available: https://www.everythingzoomer.com/arts-
entertainment/2017/06/07/five-ways-prince-changed-music/. Last accessed 21/01/2021.
• SOLOMONZ HUB. (2020). Prince talks Music ownership "What do you really need Record Companies for". Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXawTbQFGjQ&ab_channel=SOLOMONZHUB. Last accessed 21/01/2021.
10. Michael Jackson
• Aside from his music and a few accusations, MJ is quite well known for something else, his infamous fight with his record label, Sony Music Entertainment. It's a pretty well-
known case, and one that still persisted after the death of MJ, with Sony being accused of using an MJ 'soundalike' claiming they were just releasing old unreleased music.
• One of Jackson's main points against the music industry was the racism that lies within it. This all started in 2002 when Jackson was supposed to give
a speech/statement against standard practises in the music industry, and champion for artists rights, he instead came out strong speaking directly against the label that
signed him, and the executive of the label Tommy Mollata. The majority of his comments and attacks were focused on the overall treatment of artists that are people of
colour, people who he shared a struggle with. Jackson claimed that there was an "incredible injustice" going on in the industry and "The recording companies really,
really do conspire against the artists," Being in the industry for so long Jackson would have nothing to gain from lying about this subject, after all, this all happened the
year AFTER MJ released his final studio album "Invisible". Michael also says that if black artists ever stopped touring then they would go hungry, insinuating that black
artists don't get the same treatment that white artists do when they retire. "these artists are always on tour, because if they stop touring, they would go hungry."
• Jackson continued on, claiming that the record companies steal, lie, and cheat, especially to black artists "They steal, they cheat, they do everything they can, especially
against the black artists". He then took the fight directly to Mollata saying that he heard him using the N word to refer to a person of colour that worked at the label, he took it
even further when he referred to Tommy as "mean ... a racist ... and very, very, very devilish." A year before this, he was at a fan club, and says that he generated BILLIONS
of dollars for Sony but didn't see anywhere near that amount of money when he got paid. At that same club event he says that every single artist that works with Sony,
especially the black ones, were sad miserable, and often times, overworked.
• He also claimed that Sony didn't promote his final album nearly as well as they should've, the company spent $30,000,000 to make the album, and only $25,000,000 on
promoting it, which for an artist as big as Michael, wasn't really enough especially since the album was supposed to be a HUGE deal, but it ended up only having 2 singles
and one music video. As a result of this, MJ refused to tour the album, outside of 2 anniversary shows in that year.
• After Jackson gave this speech, the fan reaction was pretty undoubtable, 150 fans had gathered outside the Sony Manhattan studio armed with signs that said things
like "Please Sony, stop killing the music," "Terminate Tommy Mottola," and "Invincible Is Unbreakable."
• After his passing, Sony released a posthumous album in 2010 simply called 'Michaeal' this isn't an odd occurrence, it happens with a lot of artists that pass while also having
backlogs of unreleased music. Being Sony, though, they couldn't release this without a major controversy. Many people have claimed that the album has 3 songs on it that
were sung by someone who isn't actually MJ and is actually an impersonator. Those 3 songs were “Breaking News,” “Monster” and “Keep your Head Up” and if you go
and listen to them, and then compare them to even other tracks on the album, it becomes quite clear that the person singing on these tracks, sounds different. It sounds just
close enough for most people to turn a blind eye, but when you notice the difference it becomes uncanny. People claim that these songs were actually performed by Jason
Malachi, a well-known Jackson impersonator, Sony more or less admitted this a few years ago in a statement "The legal battle intensified earlier this month after Sony Music
acknowledged in court that Jackson may not be the main singer on the songs but argued that this would not mean they did not have the right to sell the songs under his
name." Which means that Jackson most likely WROTE the songs, but Sony felt the need to fill in the blanks with a fake, in an attempt to make more money on unreleased
music.
11. The Aftermath of
Jackson VS the
industry.
(Target Audience's
reactions)
• People are still talking about the MJ VS Sony
controversy to this day, many people even speculate that
it was Sony that had him killed out of worry that he was
trying to dismantle their entire company, Kanye west
even tweeted out last year in support of that theory.
• In terms of Sony Music, they still have many different
branches for different genres and country's, they're still
looked at as the bad guys of the music industry by lots of
their signed artists though. Some of them claim that
they're being overworked nearly to the point of collapsing,
they don't pay some of their artists properly, and they only
sign artists that have a large social media footprint, they
don't care about the talent behind the artists.
• Many people still support what MJ had to say about
his label, and just the music industry as a whole, it's the
reason so many people still hold a hatred against Sony
Music and everything they do.
12. Bibliography for Michael Jackson.
• AMY X. WANG . (2018). Did Sony Admit to Releasing Fake Michael Jackson Songs?. Available:
https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/did-sony-admit-to-releasing-fake-michael-jackson-songs-715612/. Last accessed 22/02/2021.
• Haus of Skillz Marketing/Publishing. (2019). Michael jackson exposes sony. Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRFU2SyCCF8&ab_channel=HausofSkillzMarketing%2FPublishing. Last accessed 22/01/2021.
• JANICE WILLIAMS . (2020). What Was the Feud Kanye Mentioned Between Michael Jackson and Tommy Mottola?. Available:
https://www.newsweek.com/kanye-west-michael-jackson-tommy-mottola-1519708. Last accessed 22/01/2021
• JENNIFER VINEYARD. (2002). MICHAEL JACKSON SHOCKS AL SHARPTON BY CALLING TOMMY MOTTOLA A RACIST. Available:
http://www.mtv.com/news/1455976/michael-jackson-shocks-al-sharpton-by-calling-tommy-mottola-a
racist/#:~:text=Michael%20Jackson%20took%20on%20Sony,racist%20conspiracy%20against%20black%20artists.&text. Last accessed
22/01/2021.
14. • The music industry as it is today was more or less built on racism and exploiting black artists out of a lot of the money they should've been getting.
The first wildly successful mainstream music artists were all people of colour. These people, though, were commonly mistreated and mismanaged,
and of course on top of all that, they didn't see a fraction of the money that they were bringing in for the people that were overlooking them. This
became apparent when Elvis rose to fame, a white person doing music that was created and pioneered by people of colour, was getting paid
millions for his music, because more people were more interested in a white guy doing rock n roll, then seeing the original creators doing it,
sometimes better then Elvis was doing it.
• Now in today's industry, the really big acts that are people of colour, don't appear to be mistreated on the surface, they have millions and are
known by everyone, some of the biggest names in music are of different minority groups. But that doesn’t make them a victim any less to the
industry that lured them in. This is something that Michael Jackson tried telling people about nearly 20 years ago now.
Old Town Road
• I think a really good examples of a person of colour being mistreated is Lil Nas X with Old Town Road, most people would agree that the gerne of
the song is Country, the most popular version of the song even HAS a country artist on it as a feature (Billy Ray Cyrus). It goes without saying that
Country is a predominantly white genre, seeing basically no black artists in it. Well, that trend continued when Billboard took the song off the
Country charts because it didn't "embrace enough elements of today’s country music" even though the song was labelled as country and the
entire aesthetic around the record was country too. This doesn't help country's case in not coming across as racist as 2018 'end of year country list'
only had 5 tracks that were led with people of colour on them, and three of them were by the biracial star Kane Brown. In comparison more than
half of Billboards end of year 'Hot 100' songs featured songs with black artists.
• When Billy Ray Cyrus skyrocketed the song with his collaboration, there were signs up in Nashville, only congratulating Billy for featuring on the
song and giving it massive numbers, not one mention of Lil Nas X.
• The genre apparently has been notorious for shutting out women and people of colour, The New York Times describe country as having an
inclusion problem, with their article titled "Kane Brown, Pistol Annies and Country Music's Inclusion Problem. This can be especially damaging
when you realise that, in the USA, country actually takes up the largest radio audience, "favoured by 15% of total listeners (compared to the
10.6% who tune into news and 8% who listen to Top 40 stations)."
• This wasn't the first time it had happened either, this same thing happened to Beyonce at the 2017 Grammys, when her song "Daddy Lessons"
was shut out of all country categories. Nick Murray, (a country music writer) explains that racism in country music, and music in general, has been
around for a long time, and it's good that artists like Lil Nas X are fighting against it “From the beginning of the industry, there’s a long history
of trying to use genre to try to segregate music, and separate black and white artists. Lil Nas X is fighting that.”
15. • In June of 2020, people within the music industry had a massive online conversation surrounding racism in the industry, this conversation followed a
spark in BLM protests after the death of George Floyd, and it's probably the most informal discussion around racism in the industry that you can
find, with both, artists and industry managers giving their opinions and experiences. One industry manager, who's also a person of colour straight up
said “If I don’t want to be exploited by the music business, I know how to not be exploited by the music business — I don’t sign a
contract,” another A&R who remained anonymous said “the record industry does a very good job of keeping black people out of the room,”
Rollingstone describes racism as wealthy white executives profiting off of black artists, while the black artists don't get nearly enough of the profits
they should be getting "These concern the wildly uneven contracts that continue to earn the music business millions of dollars while
passing on only a small amount of that wealth to artists, the myriad techniques a music industry run predominantly by rich white
executives uses to profit off black art"
• A manager said they don't want the corporations to change everything in a day, but they do want them to realise they're in the wrong, and to make a
separate fund that benefits that black artists that they're profiting off. Royce Da 5'9" a well-known rapper that's been with many different record
labels (but is now independent) says that they are ONLY in the business for money, and none of the current labels would actually be standing if
business was fair “Labels are just in the business of making money,” “None of the major labels would even be standing if the business
were fair.” Later in the same interview he also says, “In the music business, the people who know things don’t pass that on — everyone is in
competition with each other,”
• The popular music industry has racism baked into its foundation, this is a fact, for example, the term 'R&B' was made up strictly to replace what was
known as "race music". The charts have pretty much always been separated with race, you have white artists over on the, Rock, Country, and
Pop charts. Meanwhile you'll find mostly black artists on the Rap and R&B charts. White acts also find it easier to move through different genres
without getting penalized as badly as black artists would, for example, Adele moving to R&B, and Post Malone/G-Easy doing rap. Meanwhile if
a black artist tries to make a song in a predominantly white genre, then they get kicked off that genre's charts, Lil Nas X for example.
• Some industry insiders have revealed that black executives remain concentrated in what the industry calls 'urban' departments, which only really
focus on R&B and Rap, while the white executives are free to move around any genre that they please, this remains true even now that Rap and
R&B have taken to dominating sales numbers in the streaming era.
• A black artist said to Rollingstone that anyone who's black and works in the industry knows how bad it is, but if they speak out against anything
then they risk jeopardizing their job and their reputation, they can only do so much since most major labels are still owned and run by white
people “Anyone who works in the industry as an executive or A&R and is black knows how fucked up it is, but doesn’t want to jeopardize
their job or their reputation to fight super hard for a black artist because they know that their job is on the line as well,” “They can only
do so much, because [the major labels are] still run by the same white people.” An A&R also claims that the white executives are just straight
up paid more than the black executives.
16. Racism in the K-Pop industry.
• Tiffany Red, a black American songwriter/artist has written songs for people like Jason Derulo, Zendaya, and K-Pop group NCT 127. On
the 2nd June 2020, she was on a day out, where she encountered the national guard armed with large rifles and other weapons, Red
describes the even as having left her "traumatized". Obviously, she had described the even on social media and returned home to find
that she had received a message from her South Korea music publisher "Ekko Music Rights" she was a little more than disappointed to
find out that it wasn't a message in concern for her well-being or mental state, it was a message in regard to a $66 she wrote for NCT
Dream (one of K-Pops more popular acts). This was the final straw for Red as she had already stopped writing songs for K-Pop as she
felt she wasn't being compensated enough, Ekko Music's lack of care for her situation proved something to Red that she had already
known for a while. K-Pop does not support the lives of black people, despite its reliance on black culture and music. In fact, a large
majority of K-Pop songs are written by songwriters that are people of colour.
• The K-Pop industry is actually one of the most blatantly racist industry's outside of western cultures, where blackface, using
slurs, and aesthetic uses of black culture/ haircuts are all pretty commonly used. BTS, probably the biggest band on the planet right now,
are with Big Hit Entertainment (who have a history of abusing their artists) and the manager of that label even came out and said
that "Black music is the base" of what K-Pop actually is. BTS themselves are most likely not actually racist, in fact, they were the only K-
Pop group last year to donate ($1 million) to BLM related charities when racial divide and tensions were at an all-time high. Many fans,
however, noticed that the K-Pop industry has failed to show a unified support for the BLM movements, which more and more people are
noticing.
• Song writer and producer Micah Powell wrote a song called "Devil" for the K-Pop group "Super Junior" he wrote the song, and even
recorded some vocals in Koren (a language he didn't speak) as well as creating a dance for the song. However, both the dance, and his
vocals, were used in the final song without him actually knowing, and without him collecting any royalties. Until he had to hunt down the
label (SM) himself were they eventually paid him, only $200, for writing the song, as well as making a dance/recording vocal that were
both used without his permission.
• This is all an interesting contrast when you realise that a lot of K-Pop fans are actually people of colour, or fight VERY heavily for equal
rights. So when fans noticed that the labels that manage their favourite artists, they demanded that they speak out on all the issues that
people of colour go through, as well as address their racist and manipulative ways of business. It took 3 weeks, but they managed
to make one of the biggest K-Pop labels (SM Entertainment) make a statement. Although a lot of fans weren't happy, claiming that the
statement "did not hold any weight"
17. Target Audience's reaction to racism in the K-
Pop industry.
• The Guardian did a few different interviews with black K-Pop fans, and what they had to say seems to echo that of the black songwriters/producers. One of the people being
interviewed, named Ellie says that she was "offended" by a music video that was released by the music group NCT 127, (which was produced by a number of black producers
and songwriters) the music video features the group being dressed them in clothing which is typically worn by black people in hop-hop, as well as the label making some of the
members wear haircuts that are typically associated with people of colour. Ellie says that the K-Pop industry sees this as “unique and fresh” but that it’s “all been seen before
within the Black community” even dating decades back. She makes it clear that she loves the band, even sleeping on the street 3 different times to see them live in new York city,
but as she states in the interview “I am Black before I am a K-pop stan,” and she wants to see the industry, and labels change their ways.
• Later in the interview Ellie draws attention to a poll that was taken by fans, saying that over 18% of NCT's fans are people of colour, yet the label and even the group “rarely ever
show any remorse when they offend those fans by culturally appropriating, and continue to misstep” She also says that for a recent music video, the label had one of
the members dressing up in a shirt that dawned the confederate flag, and though the fans including Ellie tried to call attention to this by reaching out to the group as well as the
label, nothing really came from it, “despite being emailed, tweeted at and called out [the company] continues to harm Black fans”
• In a different interview with the Guardian Davonna Gilpin who is 27 years old, has a podcast that focuses on K-Pop with her friend (who is also a person of colour) and has been
following the industry for over 12 years, says that while she is a massive fan of the music in the genre, she's noticed that over 12 years of being involved with it, racism is an
industry wide problem, “I’ve noticed during my time as a fan that the concerns of others are almost always acknowledged, but not the concerns of Black people.”
Giving examples of K-Pop companies doing a lot for when they upset people in the Hindu religion by removing an offensive depiction of their god in a 'Blackpink' music video, or
when they apologized for styling a member with a pin with a Japanese slur on it, and delayed an entire album, as well as editing out the pin from the music video and any
photoshoots it was included in. Yet, the video with the confederate flag still remains up, and hasn't even been recognised by the label as an issue, despite fans begging for them
to remove it. “I can’t help but think they’ve seen all the concerns and critiques and choose to ignore it,”
• “I’ve skipped lunch to save up to go to multiple NCT 127 tour stops and buy albums and merch. So on top of how disrespectful it was for SM to not speak up for their
Black employees and collaborators, I felt it was also disrespectful to their Black consumers. If Black lives don’t matter to them then Black dollars, Black music and
Black fashion and style shouldn’t either.” a fan wrote on twitter.
18.
19. Bibliography for racism in the industry.
• ELIAS LEIGHT . (2020). The Music Industry Was Built on Racism. Changing It Will Take More Than Donations. Available: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/music-industry-
racism-1010001/. Last accessed 24/01/2021.
• Elizabeth de Luna. (2020). ‘They use our culture’: the Black creatives and fans holding K-pop accountable. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jul/20/k-pop-black-fans-creatives-
industry-accountable-race. Last accessed 24/01/2021.
• Lisa Respers France. (2019). Lil Nas X is kicked off country chart, leading some to blame racism. Available: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/29/entertainment/lil-nas-x-country/index.html. Last
accessed 24/01/2021.
• Owen Myers. (2019). Fight for your right to yeehaw: Lil Nas X and country’s race problem. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/apr/27/fight-for-your-right-to-yeehaw-lil-nas-x-and-
countrys-race-problem. Last accessed 24/01/2021.
• SANDRA SONG. (2017). We Need to Hold K-Pop Idols Accountable For Their Racist Actions. Available: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/k-pop-idols-accountable-for-racist-actions. Last
accessed 24/01/2021.
21. Slave contracts and abuse.
• K-pop isn't shy of any controversies, it has just as many, if not more drama surrounding it then western genres do. The industry has been countlessly accused of racism, xenophobia, sexism, assult, and overworking it's artists to the point of
complete mental and physical breakdowns. As well as having completely impossible beauty standards that has destroyed the mental health of some k-pop idols, leading to them taking their own lives, this has happened and has been exposed
multiple times in the last few years.
• Slave Contracts
• K-Pop has been exposed time and again for having abusive and dehumanising contracts. In an interview with "SBS" a former K-Pop star "Prince Mak" came forward and gave some insight in what a 'slave contract' actually is. He states that
mega famous groups (like BTS), don't have to worry too much about contracts like these since they make plenty of money for their labels, and so, can have as much creative freedom as they like. Alternatively, unkown K-Pop groups don't have
to worry so much about these contracts because they aren't bringing in any money and as a result their label won't invest any money into them, which also gives them as much creative freedom as possible. He says it's the "half-
famous" groups and idols that need to worry about contracts as bad as this, they feel the full brunt. He says that they have extremely strict diets, they can't date, and they always work over 18-hour days, most often going over 20 hours, and
these groups HAVE to do what the labels tell them to do, otherwise they'll be left with nothing, and most times they're doing all this work for $0 a day, sometimes $2 if they're lucky.
• The contents of these contracts are borderline slavery too, Mak says that K-Pop idols will sign contracts that strip them off all their rights for a time period of 7-15 years, wherein the artists that sign to these contracts have pretty much no free
will, these contracts don't even start until the groups debut though, and K-Pop acts normally debut after a decade long period of training and growing. During all of this time, the studio heads get all of the profits, the ones doing the work get
nothing in return, meanwhile the groups still have to do everything the record studio tells them. In an interview with the website "allkpop" the girl group "Steller" told their story of their rise to fame, one of the members said that they often had to
share one meal because they genuienley couldn't afford anything else "it was a difficult situation to the point that we'd have to share one order of food among all of us"
• Being hospitalized for exhaustion in the K-Pop industry is too common, sometimes it's even overlooked because of how often it happens, a key example of this is the member "Crystal" from the group FX. She's fainted on camera so many
times that some fans have called it her "trademark" some people have even accused her of faking it for attention. This also ties in with the insane weight requirements that K-Pop stars have to put up with, label CEO's will personally hold weigh
in's for their stars to make sure they don't go over a very specific, and almost painfully slim, weight requirement, because of this, many stars simply starve themselves so that they can keep their super slim figures.
• Abusive record labels
• Given how unfairly demanding these contracts are, it's obvious that some K-Pop acts would come out and speak on their experiences within their labels, a few of the key ones that I found were:
• Wooyeop & Taeseon from the group "TRCNG" filed a lawsuit against their record label TS Entertainment for a few very serious allegations, including: Child Abuse, Assault, and Exertion. The two members even had video evidence of TS
Entertainment staff physically abusing them while in the studio.
• "The East Light" leader, Lee Seokcheol, came out and said that members of the group were victims of assault and abuse from their company, he claimed that members would be hit from staff members with different objects multiple times a day,
the objects being mic stands, and sometimes baseball bats. He said they got abuse like this for simply making easy mistakes during their practise sessions. They also had photos to add to the legitimacy of these claims.
• Yoo So Young, a former member of the group After School, revealed that she was once a victim of sexual abuse from her old CEO. When she was signed to the contract the label CEO threw a party to celebrate, Yoo So Young later revealed
what the CEO said and did to her throughout the night, “He told me, ‘I see you as a woman. I like you. I’m not going to let you go home until you say OK.’ It was an absolute nightmare to me.” The next day, the CEO claims he didn't
remember any of those events claiming that he was drunk, and then terminated her from the contract. “He said, ‘I have no intention of signing you with this agency. Let’s pretend the contract never happened’ and he asked me if
anything else had happened after that. He said he was so drunk he couldn’t remember anything.”
22. Mental health
• Mental health in the K-Pop industry is one of the biggest issues right now. South Korea already has one of the highest suicide rates out of any
other country. One of the biggest reasons for this, is that there's a huge stigma around mental health in South Korea, saying you struggle with
mental issues is basically asking to be ridiculed ostracized, which is something even the government of SK fails to realise. “The stigma
surrounding mental illness is so strong that saying ‘I struggle with a mental health issue’ is equal to saying, ‘Please ridicule and
ostracize me.'” (- Marian Chu).
• Considering all this, it makes sense that K-Pop stars would get the full brunt of the awful mental issues, especially considering that a lot of the
issues stem from the culture’s emphasis on how you are by others. When you consider that K-Pop 'idols' are trained to be a perfect
representation of Korean's, and have dehumanizing contracts, incredibly strict diets, and unlawful work hours, suddenly K-
Pop's overabundance of mental issues suddenly makes sense. They have no time to de-stress and figure out the best way to overcome
mental issues for themselves.
• In an interview former K-Pop idol Park Sang Hee spoke on why he thinks the issue is so prominent, "The hardest thing about being a
celebrity is that it’s a job where you have to constantly show your good side,” “That leads to not being able to talk to anyone and
thinking that you can overcome the problems yourself, believing that you are strong enough. This can lead to such celebrities being
trapped in this disease called depression. This is why I believe so many top stars in the industry fall into depression.” This interview
took place a few days after the suicide of Kim Jonghyun whose death sparked a major conversation surrounding mental health in the K-Pop
industry, fans started a petition demanding that the president of South Korea should implement better support for people that struggle with
mental health in the industry, the petition got 20,000 responses in just under a day.
• What adds to all of this is the amount of bullying and abuse that goes on in K-Pop, bullying was the case with idol Goo Hara who's ex-boyfriend
was threating to release a private video between the two, another case was with idol Sulli who received criticism for being a feminist and not
wearing a bra it got to the point that she even had to beg for the media to be nicer to her and stop jumping to harmful conclusions, the both of
them were found dead not too long after they received these abuses.
26. • Sexism in K-Pop
• Men in the K-Pop industry have much less to worry about then women do. For example, men could get away with wearing the wrong suit, they get more leeway, meanwhile if a female K-Pop star wore the wrong suit
and accidently deviated from her strict expectations then her entire career could be over in a heartbeat. “You can be a top star, but they’ll come after you with pitchforks. These women are stars, yet society is
stacked against them. When police are coming at you, turning a victim into victimiser, it seems like a man can attack a female idol who has top lawyers and a big entertainment company behind her
and still he has more protection.” - A quote from 'Hurt' a well-known K-Pop idol. The labels are much stricter with their female employees, it's well known that some label CEO's sell off members of their female
groups to prostitution, in order for the female artists to carry on working for the label. A K-Pop idol in an interview said that these CEO's almost get no punishment for what they do “police and the authorities tried
to protect those who have power and conceal crimes,” and when they do, it's only a few months of jail time, she also says that female K-Pop idols never really feel safe “In women’s daily lives, nowhere feels
safe.”
• Sexism in western labels
• Taylor Swift did a brief interview in 2019 with CNBC where she mentioned when she first noticed sexism in the music industry, she never noticed it as a teenager when she released her first studio album (she was
16 years old) she speculates that it could be because most men at the time saw her in the same light as their younger nieces or daughters, but when she got older and started to sell out arenas, that's when she saw
a change in men's attitude towards her. “Then I realized that was because I was a kid. Men in the industry saw me as a kid. I was a lanky, scrawny, overexcited young girl who reminded them more of their
little niece or their daughter" “But the second it becomes formidable? As soon as I started playing stadiums — when I started to look like a woman — that wasn’t as cool anymore.”
• Kesha has a well-known battle with her label which I think sums up most women's experience with sexism in the music industry. In 2014 she sued a former mentor of hers, Lukasz Gottwald, with claims that he'd
abused her sexually, mentally, and emotionally, until the point that she nearly lost her life. The aim of the suit was to break Kesha free from her contract with Luke's label, allowing her to walk free amoung other labels
as she chooses, and to ‘get free from my abuser’. The court ruled for her to remain with the contract, and it went in Luke's favour, in reactions fans got the hashtag #IStandWithKesha trending worldwide, and other
female artists came out in support of her. Artists such as Lady Gaga, Lily Allen, Kelly Clarkson and Lorde had all publicly offered their support. Taylor Swift donated $250,000 to help her with any financial needs, and
Adele dedicated her Brit award for best solo female act to her, while also acknowledging the problems faced by other female stars by thanking her record label ‘for embracing the fact that I’m a woman’.
• It's obvious that all the outpour for Kesha had struck a chord with other women in the industry, one of those women were Lady GaGa who came out and said that she was sexually assaulted by an unnamed producer
when she was 19 years old. The fact she kept them unnamed proves that she would've got in trouble if she revealed the persons full identity.
• Lauren Aquilina, a singer/songwriter gave her perspective on how the music industry looks, as a young female artist, she's felt patronised over her writing style, and has felt a constant pressure to change because of
the men in the industry. PRS for Music did a study and found that only 13% of all songwriters are female, which is a tiny number considering that Theres 95,000 in that part of the industry, because of this a lot of
songs written by women aren't taken that seriously, despite talented song writers like Adele and Taylor Swift proving that a lot of the time, women can write songs better than men can.
• Lastly, Taylor Swift released a song called "The Man" as a part of her 2019 album "Lover", where she goes into detail about her entire life in the music industry and as a woman would just be easier if she was a man:
"I'm so sick of running as fast I can
Wondering if I'd get there quicker
If I was a man
"They'd say I hustled
Put in the work
They wouldn't shake their heads and question how much of this I deserve"
27. Target Audience reaction to sexism in the industry.
Sexism in the industry is still something
that has some controversy surrounding it.
Although the newer generation of pop
fans are much more accepting and willing
to make a change, theres some that still
dismiss what women have to say as
"overreacting".
However, since my Target Audience is the
people that listen to the artists, I've
noticed that they ALWAYS come to the
defense of female artists when they're
critiqued for speaking out about
their experiences. Whereas a decade or
two ago, the target audince may have
kept quiet because the femminist
movement wasn't taken as seriously as it
is now, it's because of these artists that
their fans feel more comfortable speaking
out about issues like sexism and
inequality.
28. Bibliography for sexism in music
• Carmin Chappell. (2019). Taylor Swift says this was the moment she noticed sexism in the music industry.
Available: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/08/taylor-swift-says-this-was-the-moment-she-woke-up-to-sexism-in-
the-music-industry.html. Last accessed 25/01/2021.
• Clevver News. (2020). Beyonce Calls Out Sexist Music Industry!. Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIXaHdObVps&ab_channel=ClevverNews. Last accessed 25/01/2021.
• MARIE CLAIRE. (2019). How #MeToo shows that we need to acknowledge sexism in the music industry too.
Available: https://www.marieclaire.co.uk/reports/music-industry-sexism-426585. Last accessed 25/01/2021.
• Taylor Swift. (2019). The Man. Self Published
29. A few songs about abusive labels.
Waterparks- Watch What Happens Next
"Got nothing from our label
B*tch, pay me what you owe me
'If you play guitar you can't want things'
And if you really love me
You should want the best for me"
"Can I pay rent? (Sure, but not much
else)
Can I try new sounds? (Go f*ck yourself)
Tell me what I get
Tell me what I earn
Tell me all the things you want
And I will give up me for you"
GZA – Labels
"You gotta read the label
If you don't read the label, you might
get poisoned"
"They know their mics are formed at VIRGIN
And if you ain't boned a mic you couldn't hurt a bee
That's like going to Venus driving a MERCURY
The CAPITOL of this rugged slang is WU-TANG"
Panic! At The Disco- Hey Look Ma I Made It
"All my life, been hustling
And tonight is my appraisal
'Cause I'm a hooker sellin' songs
And my pimp's a record label"
"Ain't you ready for the latest?
In the garden of evil
I'm gonna be the greatest"
30. The Clash- Complete Control
"They said we'd be artistically free when we signed that piece of paper / They
meant let's make lots of money and worry about it later."
Jay-Z- izzo
"Industry is shady, it needs to be taken over
Label owners hate me, I'm raising the status quo up
I'm overcharging n----s for what they did to the Cold Crush
Pay us like you owe us for all the years that you hoed us
We can talk, but money talks, so talk more bucks"
Melanie C- Next Best Superstar
"Make a joke; do the show, where does all the money go?
You're living your dream
Crack a smile in denial; throw your morals on the fire
You're living your dream
Sell your life; sell your soul telling everyone you know
You're living your dream"
31. Songs Bibliography
• Waterparks. (2019). Watch What Happens Next. Hopeless Records.
• Panic! At The Disco. (2018). Hey Look Ma I Made It. Fuelled By Ramen
• Jay-Z. (2001). Izzo. Def Jam.
• The Clash. (1997). Complete Control. Sarm East Studios.
• GZA. (1995). Labels. UMG Recordings.
• Melanie C. (2005). Next Best Superstar. Red Girl Records.
33. PRINCE | A Behind the Scenes Documentary
• This is a 1 hour 16-minute documentary about the musical life of Prince. It goes into detail about everything and tries to hit on every major beat in his life as a musician, while going under the radar for some of the lesser-known parts of his life.
• In terms of editing and presentation, it's what you'd expect to see from a documentary, it has talking head interviews, all of which are at a close up, and all of them are focused on the person being interviewed with a blurred background, this makes for an
aesthetically pleasing shot. There isn't any music playing during this phase, they want you to hear what the person being interviewed has to say. The people being interviewed have the power to completely change the tone of the documentary, people
are more likely to trust a face they can see, instead of words coming from an article, so these people have the potential to sway the facts in any way they want. The lighting is also really good and consistent, even in the locations that are brighter, they
do a good job at controlling the lighting and keeping the brightness roughly the same, you can see the person being interviewed just fine, nothing is too dark, nothing is too bright.
• They use a lot of different images during the commentary segments, sometimes they come in with different editing, for example: earlier on in the video they move past a transition slide, and the very next scene is a transparent close up of prince's
face, it's easy to make out, but you can also see the aesthetically pleasing video moving through him too, while at the same time the picture is very slowly zooming out. Editing like this is often found in documentaries and that's for a reason, it's good to
look at, and it keeps the viewers' attention, having a slow-moving image gives the audience the impression that they should be paying attention to what's being said. They put fast moving filters over the screen to fit with the fast-moving background, the
filters are often very light VHS effects, this stops the image from looking too clean, it also, makes the bright background video easier to look at.
• Music is used in clips for context, or during the commentary scenes. The commentary scenes are just as aesthetically pleasing, they have slow zooming images of prince moving across the screen, with a constantly moving background, something that
looks like scribbles being rearranged and moved about. These commentary scenes are often used for context in what will later be a talking head interview shot, these commentary scenes can last for a few seconds, or up to a few minutes, if they're
longer, though, they make sure to add a few clips in-between the commentary to keep things fresh and to keep up with the pace.
• They have a few transition slides as well, they move the text to fit in with the songs, the font works well with the subject matter of Prince, being in a fancy shot, and the video they use in the background has a purple tint to it, again, a colour that can
easily be associated with prince and his music.
• The commentary is also really good, they don't talk too fast, or too slow, it keeps with the flow of the rest of the product. The voiceover isn't boring, the music in the back ground doesn't overlap it too much they both blend together really well. And it
doesn't stay on any longer than it needs to, it's a good balance of commentary, and 'in person' talking head segments.
• They have longer sections for the more important parts of Prince's life, like his feud with his record labels have much longer sections then something like the beginning of his life, that's because his label feuds are ultimately more important and honestly
more well-known than Prince's early years as an artist. It's like an order of importance, they plan out what they more engaging parts of Prince's life were, and plan out a longer script for those parts, whereas the smaller, less interesting parts will get
smaller scripts and won't be talked about as much. This could be seen as a bias by some people, but if they spent too much time on everything, then the product would go on for much longer then it really needed to.
• How does the product present information?
• For a documentary like this the information is pretty much all already known and public, maybe the interviews could give a bit more insight that we don't know from their perspective, but for the most part it's all public knowledge. So, these kinds of
documentaries take all the information we know, and they put it in a timeline and re-tell an entire story so that people are FULLY informed, as opposed to them only knowing scraps that they heard from a friend or read online. These can come with
biases sometimes, which is why it's important that documentaries like these show strong evidence and sources for their facts, be it from an interview, video clips, or clips from an article online or from a newspaper, referencing a source is really important
if you want your product to be as true and believable as possible.
• Overall, it's a pretty standard documentary, and its format is what most people will think of when they think of the word 'documentary', but that doesn't make it bad or even boring at all, in fact I found some editing techniques that were really helpful, and I
know how I should start to format information in my own product because of this. I also know how I should structure more of the commentary, and what kind of timing works best, as well as how long I should really keep it going for.
34.
35. How Music Became More Relatable | The Rise Of Bedroom Pop
• This is an interesting video essay, it follows a typical formula of, introducing a topic, explaining what the topic is and a brief history of it, then the host explains the statement or
question that's been raised in the title of the video.
• It's a good formula that works well for commentary, it's harder to do this style with 'in person' shots because the audience will need visual representation, so commentary videos
work better in this case. What I look for out of everything in video essays is the way that they're edited and how the present themselves. Some of them look darker, some of them
look lighter, they always stick to a certain look, and it never really changes throughout the video. This one is no different, it uses A LOT of different brighter colours, mainly to fit with
the theme of 'Bedroom Pop' which already uses pretty bright sounds and aesthetics.
• The editing techniques in this are really unique, though, instead of using a still image of an artist's they'll edit the image to make it look like the subject of the image is actually
moving, they either slowed down a video clip and looped it, or they used Adobe After Effects to create this illusion.
• There's always something moving in this video, like the last documentary, they use a moving background to keep the viewers' attention. Here, though, the creator goes a step
further and makes things within the image move around too, things like text, or the Spotify logo, they also give images this 'wavey' effect that moves along with the background, this
goes on for the entire video which means there isn't really ever a moment of stillness. For example, there will be an image of a 'Bedroom Pop' artist up on the screen, and instead of
only zooming in on the image, the creator will edit it in a way so that everything AROUND the artist is moving around him too (if there isn't something in the image to move around
then the editor will just add in a moving background and make it blend seamlessly with the whole image), as well as zooming in, it's all really visually pleasing and something I want
to try and replicate in my own product.
• The commentary is really good here too, which it needs to be considering the commentary makes up half of the videos that are made like this. It blends in well with the music in the
background (which is also fitting to the subject of the video) it's all just balanced out well enough so that you can hear both the music, and the commentary, and it makes for a good
listening experience.
• Instead of having text come in from the side of a frame, or just having it appear from nowhere, the text in this jumps up from the bottom of the screen and lands smoothly
somewhere across the centre, it's a small trick, and it works really well with the rest of the editing styles. He also puts white text boxes around some texts, if it's something important
like a name, or something the commentator just wants us as the audience to remember.
• Overall, everything the creator does here works very well, all the colours work with the theme of the video, the music works with the commentary and also compliments the
visuals, all the editing is kept fresh and different, and the narrator does a good job at making the subject of Bedroom Pop sound really interesting. Some of the key things that I've
taken away from this are, putting text boarders around some of the text that's more important, having an always moving product which keeps the viewers engaged, challenge the
genre and introduce some new editing styles that aren't normally used in video essay's, and mix the audio levels so that everything is easy to listen to, don't have music and
commentary constantly overlapping one another.
38. • Looking back on the research, I have a pretty good idea on what I want to include in my final project. For the video, I'm going to blend the
typical style of talking head documentaries, with the newer style of video essay's, there should be a pretty good balance between the two,
and neither one should drag on for too long. I should make a story board for how I'm going to format all the points I want to make, since both
products tend to have more screen time for the more important facts, whereas the ones that aren't as impactful are normally blown off right
from the start, and only have a minute or two of screen time. In the storyboard I should specify what sections are going to be shot in person,
and which ones will be dedicated to commentary. The lighting needs to be consistent throughout the in person shoots too, I want the lighting
to be just in-between 'dark' and 'light' because I think that way it would be easier for the camera to focus only on me, and the background
can be slightly out of focus, which is the exact effect I'm looking for.
• If I'm going to include music in the product, then it should be relevant to whatever the topic I'm discussing is, for example, I shouldn't have a
rap background, if the topic I'm discussing is K-Pop, the music should be more in line for what K-Pop sounds like.
• There is a lot of topics I discussed, and if I were to include them all, then the product would drag on much longer then it would need to, so
I'm going to read through all my research slides and pick out the information that I think is the most important and will stick with people the
most. If I end up thinking that the script is too short, then I can come back here and include some facts that didn't initially make the cut. The
most important things I plan on including are, key quotes from artists, clips and interview footage to back up my points, pictures that
provide visual representation, and also songs that talk about corrupt record labels, as well as fan reception. These are the things that I think I
HAVE to include, but there's obviously going to be some things in-between that.
• I'm probably going to include individual key examples of artists as well, and in those cases, I'll go from the most well-known cases down to
the lesser-known cases, with more time being spent on the more well-known cases, since that's what most documentaries and video essays
tend to do.
• Lastly, having this amount of planning does mean that some problems can come up, some key things being, keeping the lighting consistent,
not using too much music that would otherwise get me in trouble, the script can easily become repetitive and boring if I don't proofread it
every few lines, and the editing can start to feel boring if I don't try and new styles every so often.
• Most of the solutions there are pretty simple, like not using too many well-known songs, having a strategy for the lighting, keeping camera
angles fresh and original, and looking up different editing styles that I can include. Anything more complicated than that I plan on addressing
in the future.
