In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1. Evaluation 1
In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?
Dawid Jurkowski

2. My music video production, was based on the Hip-Hop genre. I have analysed variety of real media products before reaching my final
outcome. As stated in Steve Neale’s theory of ‘repetition and difference’, it’s essential for genres to have differences for the economical
growth of the genre. Hence our decision to use a white Hip-Hop artist in a black culture dominated genre. We have decided to use a
white artist to abandon the idea of ‘Black genre’ and to show that genres are not based on the ‘ethnicity’ but simply on musical
preference. The idea was inspired by Eminem’s song ‘When I’m Gone’. At the start of ‘When I’m Gone’ Eminem is dressed very similar
to our artist ‘Run Down’. Both of them are wearing white shirt and baggy tracksuit to convey the idea of a typical ‘Hip-Hop’ artist fashion
sense. Therefore the clothing choices and hand gestures that are implemented within the music video, conform to generic hip hop
artists; suggestive of the music video being of Hip-Hop origins. However, the clothing choice was also based on our target audience of
young adults and teenagers, as they would wear this type of clothing therefore our audience can relate to ‘Run Down’.

3. Furthermore, we challenged the Hip-Hop genre by declining the expectations of a Hip-Hop music video, therefore our artist is not shown to be
‘flashy’ or ‘rich’ but is mostly shown to be lonely through the lack of friends furthermore the money burning concept is used to convey the idea
that the Hip-Hop lifestyle of drugs is not positive or effective therefore the loss of friends and money. This declines Dyers ‘Pop Star’ theory as
our artist is not presented as a ‘Pop Star’ therefore he is not presented in a ‘flashy’ manner, done so in Hip-Hop video such as ‘Started from the
Bottom’ by Drake. This idea challenges Hip-Hop conventions as Hip-Hop artists are always shown to be ‘flashy’ with a lot of friends and
showing off drugs rather than discrediting them. I believe that challenging Hip-Hop conventions within my music video was successful because
I managed to create a conventional Hip-Hop music video through the personality of the artist and his actions. However still challenging the Hip-
Hop genre by using a white artist from small city which is visible within Neale’s theory of ‘repetition and difference’. However, the use of white
artist from small city of Bedford is essential for my audience as they can relate more to someone like ‘Run Down’ than ‘Jay Z’ a black
mainstream artist from New York. ‘Run Down’ therefore fits to the target audience of young adults and teenagers, which makes him more
relatable to the audience. Therefore on whole, it was essential to present ‘Run Down’ in this manner as audience from UK can relate more to
‘Run Down’ than ‘Jay Z’ from a big city like New York.

4. Our music video uses conventions of real media products visible by the clothing and behaviour of our artist. ‘Run Down’ is dressed in a
conventional Hip-Hop manner; Baggy clothing, Tracksuit, as well as doing drugs and negative lifestyle which is constantly visible in Hip-Hop
videos. In songs such as, ‘Where the Hood at’ we see gang life, drugs, criminal activities visible throughout the video to convey the idea of a
conventional Hip-Hop lifestyle. The same concept is visible within our music video therefore our artist is constantly smoking, and doing rebellious
activities. Even though we used Hip-Hop conventions visible through drugs and rebellious activities, we had challenged the idea by making drug
life seem negative rather than positive as presented within the Hip-Hop music videos. Lastly, my music video conforms to the conventions of
Hip-Hop genre as my lyrics are the creation for my visuals. Which conforms to Goodwin's music video theory ‘Links between music and visuals’.
Visible through the use of eggs within my music video even though they are not essential, but I have decided to implement eggs in my music
video due to the lyrics ‘Scrambled eggs’. Furthermore, my music video has a lot of drugs this is due to a fact that the lyrics of my song contain
‘get high’ therefore the use of drugs to match the lyrics. The use of Goodwin’s theory is used in Eminem’s song ‘headlights’ were the entire video
is based on the lyrics, therefore the same idea is visible within my idea. As the whole song is based around the lyrics therefore the lyrics
produced the visuals. On whole, even though there are some challenges to forms and conventions within my music video, the audience can
clearly understand that my music video belongs to the Hip-Hop genre through the use of simple conventions such as clothing or actions and
small symbols such as drugs etc.

5. My ancillary task of digipak and magazine poster are based on the same concept visually and conventionally. I have re-created the same visuals
on the digipak and the magazine poster to follow the same theme, therefore making my production more easier to recognise by the audience.
Stuart Hall’s ‘reception theory’ states that there are four different types of media text decoded by audience, Dominant, Negotiated, Oppositional
and Aberrant. The Dominant reading of my ancillary task is that drug life is negative and should be abandoned, this is produced through the use
of conventions and symbols both on the digipak and the magazine poster. This is shown through the use of cannabis symbol as well as ‘stone
riders’ hat, which gives the audience a brief detail about our artist. The digipak and magazine poster challenge the conventions of real media
products as my digipak is using bright colours such as Red and Green combined together into one which is not a typical conventions for the Hip-
Hop genre, as most Hip-Hop digipak and magazine posters tend to use dark colours and simplicity. For example 50 Cent’s album ‘Get Rich Or
Die Tryin’ also uses the colour red throughout the digipak however it is presented in a more Hip-Hop conventional manner because of the bullet
on the digipak as well as ‘flashy’ jewellery which straight away tells us that this is a Hip-Hop digipak. On the other hand my digipak and magazine
poster only shows ‘Run Down’ facing backwards with green nature in background which challenges Hip-Hop digipak and magazine poster ideals.
As they tend to have the artist facing toward us with the typical Hip-Hop conventions done so in ‘Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ visible through the bullet
shot as well as jewellery and gang like clothing. I have decided to use the back shot of ‘Run Down’ to convey the idea that he's not proud of his
drug life and negative lifestyle therefore he is hiding from the audience by not revealing the face. My digipak and magazine poster however do
use conventions of real media products by the fact that I have placed a ‘marijuana’ plant as a convention on the front of the poster as well as the
digipak to convey the idea that our artist lifestyle is based around drugs. This is visible throughout Hip-Hop genre as artists tend to use
conventions on their digipak and magazine posters for the audience to decode the song/artist etc. In Wiz Khalifa’s album ‘Rollin Papers’ we see a
male figure made out of smoke shown on the front of the digipak to convey the idea of Wiz Khalifa’s lifestyle and love to drugs. Therefore I
produced a similar concept by placing the ‘marijuana’ plant on my digipak for the audience to decode the lifestyle of our artist by using Hip-Hop
conventions of drugs.

6. The media platform I have used to present my music video was Youtube. This is because Youtube is a very popular platform amongst my
target audience (audience research) of young adults and teenagers as well as being easily accessible and free. This ensured that my
video gained larger popularity, as more people were able to access the video. Furthermore, artists such as Eminem, Drake and 50 Cent
use Youtube as their main platform for presenting their music videos because it’s the most popular platform to view and listen music on
due to the simple access by the audience. The digipak and magazine poster on the other hand were published on blogger, this is
because its free and again easily accessible by my audience. I believe that my digipak and magazine poster could have been presented
in a more effective way for example using social media platforms such as Facebook as it would create larger hype therefore increasing
the fan base.