My pp on my taste in music for A2 Media Studies

1. M Y M U S I C
E L O I S E S M I T H

2. W H A T I S M Y
F A V O U R I T E G E N R E O F
M U S I C ?
• Due to my love of films, I have quite an eclectic
collection of music, usually that I have found in the
soundtracks of different films that I have enjoyed.
• My favourite genre of music is a tie between pop and
indie music. However, I also enjoy classical music, jazz,
80s music and musicals (sometimes you have got to
have a belt it out to Les Mis!).
• To show how random my music taste is, I listened to the
first five songs that came up on my Spotify. They were
Sorry by Justin Bieber, Jessie’s Girl by Rick Springfield,
Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop by Landon Pigg, Good
Day by Nappy Roots and Son of a Preacher Man by
Dusty Springfield.

3. W H A T I S S O M E O F
Y O U R F A V O U R I T E
A R T I S T S / B A N D S ?
W H Y ?
• It is difficult to choose my
favourite music artists, because
I find my music in films and so,
my music is often written by a
range of artists
• However, if I had to choose, my
favourite artists would be
Benjamin Clementine and
Taylor Swift.

4. T A Y L O R
S W I F T
• I like Taylor Swift’s work
because her songs are so
catchy that so many people
know them, therefore make
her songs fun and enjoyable to
listen to in a group.
• I also like the way her music
videos are funny and
interesting to watch, such as
“Shake it Off”, which had over
1.4 million views.
• https://youtu.be/nfWlot6h_JM

5. B E N J A M I N
C L E M E N T I N E
• However, I like Benjamin Clémentine’s
work because it is very original to listen to,
because of his unique sounding voice. His
songs are also quite relaxing, making them
easy to listen to after a long day at school!
• Benjamin Clémentine is a Mercury Prize
winning, English artist, poet, and a
recording musician from London, England.
He is much less widely popular than Taylor
Swift, but is known for creating interesting
and beautiful pieces of music.
• My favourite music of his is “I Won’t
Complain”, which was used in the newest
Burberry Campaign for Mr Burberry
perfume.

6. D O Y O U O W N
T H E I R
A L B U M ?
• I own the last two of Taylor
Swifts’ albums, because in
particular I prefer her newer
music, because it is less of
the country genre and more
pop.
• Even though I own some of
her old songs, such as “Love
Story”, I was not as
interested in her music then.

7. D O Y O U O W N
T H E I R
A L B U M ?
• I own two of Clémentine’s
albums, Cornerstone (2013)
and At Least for Now (2015).
• He is a relatively new artist
and so has only released
three albums so far.
• I really like the majority of his
work, but usually only listen to
four or five of his songs, which
I think I creatively better.

8. H O W D I D Y O U
F I N D O U T A B O U T
T H E M ?
• I found out about Taylor Swift, because she is so well known, that she
is constantly in the media. Because her songs are often on the radio, I
found it easily to pick up her songs and become familiar with them,
therefore making them more enjoyable for me.
• I only recently found out about Benjamin Clementine, due to his
collaboration with the designer Burberry, who support acoustic singers
and bands and create videos of them on their YouTube channel. I
really loved his music on there and so, researched more of his music
after that.

9. H A V E Y O U E V E R
S E E N T H E M
L I V E ?
• I have never seen either artist
live, since I am not a
particularly big fan of concerts,
because I do not like the huge
crowds.
• However, I think this proves
how important a music video is
for an artist, because it can be
were the majority of their fans
watch them perform, therefore
influence how popular the
artist/band is.

10. W H A T A R E Y O U R T H O U G H T S O N
T H E I R M U S I C V I D E O S ?
• Benjamin Clémentine’s music videos are minimalistic, such as his
Cornerstone music video, which shows him playing the piano and singing
the single. I think this is effective, because it shows the singer’s talent,
because he can hold an audience’s attention for the whole song,
heightening to a viewer that it is the music that is important, rather than
added extras.
• Taylor Swift’s videos are interesting and exciting to watch. Due to the
popularity of the singer, she had a huge budget available to spend and so,
the video is much more flamboyant, because they could afford to add more
bonus features to the video.
• I like both music videos for different reasons, Clémentine’s video is serious
and honest, whereas Swift’s video is quirky and satirical in contrast.

11. D O T H E Y
H A V E A
W E B S I T E ?
• Both of the artists have a official
website,
http://benjaminclementine.com/ and
http://taylorswift.com/
• Taylor Swift’s website is light,
colourful and features lots of pictures
about her life and work. This
empathises the energy and vibrancy
of her music. It has links to her
Twitter, Instagram and album
purchases accounts, showing how
the website is being used to market
her newest album.
• Cleméntine’s website is simplistic,
his photo is the background of the
website, but the website has dark
tones of colour throughout it. This
reflects the honest and simplicity of
his music, showing how he views the
music as the most important.

12. W H A T D O Y O U T H I N K O F T H E I R
I D E O L O G I E S A S A N B A N D / A R T I S T ?
• Cleméntine says he is “an expressionist; I sing what I say, I say what I feel
and I feel what I play by honesty and none other but honesty.” I think this
is important for an artist, because the audience gets a connection with the
artist, since it is real emotion he is singing with. Therefore, Cleméntine’s
honesty makes his music raw and beautiful with emotion.
• Taylor Swift’s says her main ideology is “being herself”. She says it is so
important to her so she can connect with her audience, because there is
nothing fake and covered up in her music. She shows her audience her
“goofy” personality, differing to many famous singers (Nikki Minaj, Miley
Cryus, Beyonce), who use their sexuality as a selling point to an audience.
• Therefore, both singers create their music honestly, in order to make the
emotion they sing about real for the audience.