2. What have you learned about your
genre from your research?
Throughout my research I have been able to discover the various similarities
that the singer songwriters have. For example they are always the centre of
attention, whether it be on the front of their digipack cover or being the centre
shot in their music videos. This can be seen on Leona Lewis’ digipack cover,
because she takes up almost all of the front cover. Also all of the singer
songwriter’s music is usually based on what has happened in their lives, in most
cases love or emotion which is very common because most singer songwriter’s
make more money from their music when talking about past experiences. This
can be seen on Pink’s music video, because she displays her anger through her
‘So What’ single about the break up with her boyfriend. The singer songwriters
also usually tend to play an instrument within their music, for example Ed
Sheeran plays the guitar and Marina and The Diamonds plays the piano.
3. What similarities and common ideas could
you find within the digipacks and adverts?
When researching the digipacks and Adverts, I discovered that the most
common idea that was used was the branding that the artists displayed. This
would have been used to make the audience recognise the artists by not only
their music, but also the way they have been branded. For example the
branding shown on my first advert deconstruction shows the same font used on
Tynchy Stryder’s digipack as he is known for, like on the picture displayed.
This is the same case with Pink’s digipack, because her branding is writing her
name like this: ‘P!nk’ and she shows this on her digipack front cover.
This is proven to be a very successful way to brand the artists,
because images, fonts and colours are easy things for people to
memorise.
4. What similarities and common ideas
could you find with the music videos?
Within my music video deconstruction there were various different similarities
and common ideas that I found, like the artist being centre of attention which is
shown in all of the music video deconstructions as they are the focus in most
shots. Also three out of the four videos show a story or pictures which match the
song in hand. For example Ed Sheeran’s ‘Drunk’ video shows him being in a
club and drinking, also Pink’s ‘So What’ video shows her rebelling and cutting
down a tree with her and her boyfriends name on, which matches her song being
about anger against her boyfriend. Finally Colbie Caillat’s ‘Bubbly’ video shows
her and a man, percieved as her boyfriend being together and looking in
love, which matches the song being about her falling in love with someone.
Another common idea found in the music videos was that they all showed part
of the artist’s personality, by matching their clothing to their music. For example
Ed Sheeran is never dressed up; wearing jeans and a t-shirt, showing him to be
quite a laid back artist, and also matches his music which is very chilled. This is
the same with Pink, because her videos show her to wear some ‘wacky’ outfits
which matches her crazy personality, and her attitude based music.
5. Does your chosen singer songwriter support
or challenge the ideas you found within your
genre?
• The songer songwriter we have chosen supports the ideas I have discovered
within the genre, for example being the main focus in her music videos.
Evidence of this is in her ‘Primadonna’ single music video.
• On her digipack covers she is again the centre of
attention, for example on her ‘Hollywood’ digipack
front cover she is centred in the middle.
• Her name has also got its own
branding font so her fans can
recognise her name.
6. I also recognised that Marina’s music is based around love and emotion, which
was one of the common ideas discovered that singer songwriters tend to do. For
example this can be found in her single ‘Radioactive’ which says the lyrics ‘My
heart is nuclear, love is all I fear’. This also has the possibility to be showing
another common idea which was that singer songwriter’s music is about past
experience, therefore in this case Marina may be talking about a love from her
past. A challenge that the artist sets towards the singer songwriter common ideas
is that not all of her songs follow this idea. For example her song ‘Obsessions’ is
about the everyday obsessions that humans have, one part of the song says ‘I
want to erase every nasty thought that bugs me everyday of the week’. This
shows the challenge against the common idea of singer songwriter’s songs always
being about love and emotion, because instead this song is about human
problems. However, it still has the possibility to have the common idea of how
singer songwriters use past experience in their songs, because the lyrics ‘I want
to erase every nasty thought that bugs me everyday of the week’ is personal to
Marina and therefore may be a past experience of hers.
