Wednesday, 15 December 2010
Steve Bell
Sunday, 31 October 2010
Audience Profile - Reseach into 3 similar artists
Madness
Madness are a British pop/ska bandfrom Camden Town, London, who formed in 1976. The band perform with their most recognised line-up of seven members, althoughthis has occasionally varied slightly over the years of their existence. They were one of the most prominent bands of the late 1970s 2 Tone ska revival.
Madness’ audience in the early days of their formation were predominantly skinheads; members of a British working class subculture that the media often stereotyped as racist (although many skinheads, including the original generation, are non-racist or anti-racist). This sparked much controversy about the band, who were on the receiving end of racist allegations, claiming they too were racists. This however waslater disproved as they denied their skinhead roots, disappointing much of their fan base. Towards the later stages of their careers, although still being predominantly 2 Tone ska, they edged slightly more towards the mainstream pop audience.
They appeal to their audience largely through their roots. They are a well known British ska band, who use their national appeal to draw in audiences who get a feel of patriotism and belongingness from listening to their ‘rock steady’ beats. The media surrounding their music, such as album art and videos, contain a number of generic signifiers relevant to both the ska genre and Britain. For example in their video for one step beyond, they are seen dancing down the British streets, with a red telephone box in the background, a prominent signifier of British culture.
They interact with the audience through the performance of live gigs and festivals, in which they still partake. For example, Madness continue to tour playing most recentlyplaying Birchington-on-Sea Quex Park in Kent with a new set of UK tour dates throughout November and December 2010. Even long after their years in the limelight, they play shows for the fans that have been loyal to their music that has been and still is so iconic to the British ska/pop scene. In a large sense, the way in which they dress plays a large part in their interaction with audiences. Their partially smart dress, with suits, ties, smart shoes, trilbies and of course the large shades worn by Suggs are vital in the establishing of their image. Fans of the ska genre then have an image to aspire to and aim towards by dressing in a similar fashion to achieve this.
[Spunge]
Spunge are a ska punk band from Tewkesbury, England. Through many years of constant touring, Spunge have toured or played alongside with a huge number of moderately successful UK bands and several more famous American ones, such as Greenday. The band formed their initial line-up in July of 1994 and are still actively playing to this day, with the one small exception of the lead singer Alex Copeland no longer playing bass as he did in their early formation years.
Having gained a manager oftheir band after their hit EP success with ‘Kicking Pigeons’, selling over 5000 copies at pub and local gigs, they went on to tour, playing over 300 gigs in 2 years. This suggests that upon their formation and in their early years, the main audience of the band were more of an indie crowd (not used in the modern interpretation meaning a clique!) as opposed to fans of mainstream artists. Due to their majority of gigs being played at small venues such as pubs, the audience that they will have attracted would have been more ‘passionate about unsigned bands’ type of ska punk fan, rather than a typical radio one or heart fm listener for example! The type of person who go to local gigs with friends just because they enjoy the music and atmosphere, regardless of how well known the band is, or if they know all the lyrics.
They mainly interact with their audience through the playing of live gigs. In their early days as an unsigned band of Tewkesbury, this was achieved through local gigs at small venues such as pubs and local venues. As they became more established and went on tour, much larger venues became available as their fan base of ska punk junkies became ever-increasing, going on tour supporting such American galacticos of the music world as Greenday, and more recently hitting venues including The Waterfront of Norwich, whilst headlining a tour of their own.
They broadened the horizons of their target audience with the release of their album ‘That Should Cover It!’ on 23rd February 2004, a compilation of a number of covers of songs by various different artists from numerous different genres, with their own 3rd wave ska twist to them. This meant that fans of other styles were also taking notice, making them much more appealing to a wider range of music fans. Much like madness, their dress sense of (not quite the same as the two-tone ska style of Madness) suspenders, black and white checked accessories and shaved haircuts meant that the ska punk audience of predominant appeal could relate better to them. Even looking at the album art of the majority of their albums, there is a comic book style theme to them, adding a quirky interesting element, hence increasing the appeal of their ska-head fans!
The Specials
The Specials are an English 2 Tone ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry, England. Their music combines a "danceable ska and rocksteady beat with punk's energy and attitude". The group was formed by songwriter/keyboardist Jerry Dammers, with Terry Hall (vocals), Lynval Golding(guitar, vocals) and a rhythm section. Anti-racism was intrinsic to the formation of The Specials (previously The Automatics, The Coventry Automatics, The Special AKA The Coventry Automatics, and The Special AKA), in that they had the aim of integrating black and white communities. It was this push for racial equality that gave them the reputation of having a "more focused and informed political and social stance" than other ska groups.
The audience of The Specials is similar to those of Madness rather than Spunge, in the sense that rather than being more into the whole punk element of the ska genre, they prefer the more classic two tone feel. Because of the whole anti-racism message that the band were trying to get across, they would not have been as predominantly popular with the whole skinhead scene like Madness were, as although they were not strictly speaking racist by any means, some of the minority of the skinhead culture did not promoted racial equality with their views.
The Specials appeal to their audience through not only their music, but also the political views they take. For example, after their song ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ lead to the band becoming relatively popular with anti-Apartheid activists in South Africa. The band wore mod-style 1960s period rude boy outfits including pork pie hats, tonic and mohair suits, and loafers, which gave fans an image to aspire to if they wanted to achieve the same look as the band. This is a way in which they appeal to the fans and shows interaction via dress style. The band have had various break ups and line up shuffles, including a break up in ’84 and reformation in ’96, and further break up in 2001. They are currently still together following another reformation in 2008 ready for their 30-year anniversary tour, and are still playing gigs having this year been touring Europe and America. Gigs being a vital way in which they interact with audience.
From all these artists, I can learn that the best way to appeal to our audience is to ensure that the actors in our video are typically dressed according to the genre. In our case, they must be dressed in ska costume, meaning lots of trilby hats, suits, big boots, Fred Perry shirts and braces! This means that the audience can relate to the band via the costume the actors are wearing in the video. The locations used must also be fitting of the genre, such as the British urban streets as this would appeal to the British audience; they would relate to it easily. Another way to make it appealing to the British ska audience would be to include as many genre and British signifiers as possible, such as the phone box used in Madness’ video ‘One Step Beyond’, which we intend to use combined with a comedy sketch where our actors comically fall out of it. These signifiers give the video a homely, patriotic feel that the audience can relate to.
The Skanx
Our band, The Skanx, fit mainly into the '2 tone' context of ska, which was initially created in the UK the 1970's and uses elements of ska, ska punk and reggae dub to fuse together a brand new sub genre. of the 3 bands i have researched in this post, The Specials and Madness are the bands that fit most into the 2 tone ska sub genre, so i can safely say that The Skanx are most closely related to The Specials and Madness in terms of genre, rather than [Spunge] who are of the later ska revival genre of the 90's called '3rd wave ska', being a different scene to the 2 tone ska scene. This 2 tone ska association is backed up by some of the art used in their videos, which black and white simple checked design is heavily linked with the 2 tone ska scene.
In terms of marketing their band, The Skanx have their own website featuring latest songs, upcoming gigs, background info, band pictures and videos etc. (http://www.theskanxband.co.uk/index.html) This is the primary way in which they market their band to potential fans. Marketing in this way is likely to be less beneficial to a band of the 2 tone ska genre as opposed to one of the 3rd wave revival as fans of such bands as Reel Big Fish and [Spunge] are likely to have a marginally younger target audience who would use the internet on a more regular basis (due to the sub genre being brought about a good 20 years later than 2 tone ska). Despite this, it is still a particularly effective way of appealing to our video's target audience who are likely to also be relatively youthful due to our inclusion of younger actors. The band also play lots of local gigs where they advertise their upcoming performances at small venues such as 'Gipsy Hill Tavern' in London. They also have their self-entitled EP album 'The Skanx' available for download on http://www.208records.co.uk/artists.html where they aim to market themselves to extra effect, and put their music out on the ska scene for fans to purchase.
Thursday, 14 October 2010
Stop motion inspiration
We came across this video on Youtube, which sparked our initial ideas into the possibility of a stop motion animation. We felt that the irony of using monopoly money to portray the economic and political climate at the time ska was at one of it's peaks of popularity in such a way was just too fun and good an idea to pass up!
Still photos are taken of the monopoly pieces/money, and are then moved very gradually differently between each still, with the camera remaining in precisely the same position each time (or the process wouldn't work at all!). These stills are then pieced together to form a motion animation where it appears as though the pieces are moving by themselves. The higher the frame rate in stop motions (the more frames on screen per second), the more smooth the animation will appear. This however is not applicable to our own idea as we are moving each note piece by piece rather than over distance, so it would not be possible to make it appear smooth in such a way as this video does.
Having each watched this video we felt that the inclusion of a short stop motion feature could be a brilliant addition to our video, adding a different, quirky element! We then proceeded to experiment with our own monopoly set (Norwich edition for extra detail!), from which our pictures with an explanation are on the previous post.
Monopoly stop motion idea
These are a few shots of our practice run in one of our media lessons, where we experimented with the idea of stop motion by playing around with various arrangements of the money to see how to best form the letters. We captured the footage onto tape and will possibly use the animation in our final video.
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Early Storyboards
Moneygrabber - The Skanx: lyrics
1,2,3,4
numerous huh’s
Oh yeah
Just a money grabber
Come on (x4)
Hey!
Yeah she’s a money grabber out for what she can get
Oh yeah
She’s a money grabber-er-er out for what she can get
Oh yeah
You betta’ watch out or she will get …..
Yeah – e – yeah!
Just a money grabber (x2)
Hey!
Just a money grabber (x2)
Hey!
Just a money grabber (x2)
Hey!
Just a money grabber (x2)
Hey!
Just a money grabber (x2)
Hey!
Just a money grabber (x2)
Hey!
Just a money grabber (x2)
Hey!
Just a money grabber (x2)
Yeah!
She will steal you money and your pride too yeah-e-yeah (x2)
O-yeah you betta’ watch out because she is bad news yeah-e-yeah
You betta’ watch o-o-out because she is bad news yeah!
Many huh’s
Come again, hey (x2)
More huh’s
Instrumental (2.07-2.34)
Huh just a money grabber (x8)
Hey she is poison no no no good for you yeah-e-yeah
She is poison no good no no good for you oh-yeah
She will catch you in her web then you’ll never get loose, yeah-e-yeah
She will catch you in her web and then you’ll never get loose
Huh just a money money grabber, huh huh
Just a money grabber (x2)
Hey hey yeah yarr
Just a money grabber
Yeah yeah yarr
She’s a money grabber
Hey hey
Just another money grabber
Just a money grabber
Hey hey yeah yurr
Hey just a money grabber
Just a money grabber
Hey she’s a money grabber
Just a money grabber ( x10) Together
Just a money grabber (x3)
Money grabber get out of my face, yeah!
Concepts
Our video is going to consist of both concept ideas and shots, as well as performance shots of the actors appearing as the band.
Due to our song being entitled 'MoneyGrabber', it was obvious to us that the main concept that the video would be focused around would be money, featuring a 'moneygrabbing' female character who represents the female lead singer of the band. This factor of our video could be referenced to the completely different yet relevant genre of rap, with Kanye West's song 'Gold Digger', where his main theme is also money-grabbing women!
The main topics of our video are going to be:
- Youth Culture - We will focus on how youth of the ska genre dress, what music they listen to and what their interests are.
- Money - A lot of our footage will be based around this, mainly with the use of monopoly money to present how the youth of the genre have an arrogant approach to the economic situation and are in their own almost 'dream world'
- Recession - A variety of our shots will feature recession-hit businesses, that have been struggling, to highlight the relevance to the genre, as this also links back to when the ska genre was big, when Margaret Thatcher was in power, linked with the poor economic situation this came with.
- Irony - By the use of monopoly money as opposed to real money, this shows how the characters are almost not taking the situation seriously, but are instead all about having fun. Shots of recession-hit businesses linked with the upbeat soundtrack and happy mood of the song is very ironic.
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Monday, 11 October 2010
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
Analysis of a music video: Leftfield – Africa Shox (1999)
The video I shall be analysing for this task will be Leftfield’s 1999 electronica, dub, reggae song, Africa Shox. From the very first scene, you can see that they have used a nurban, inner city setting. Early on in the video, a police car is seen driving past on duty, with it’s flashing lights suggesting thegenre. These bright lights represent those in a club, highly implying the dance/electronic genre. Simply the fact that the video is set in the streets of the city of New York strongly suggests the genre, as dance or electronic is highly linked with urbanisation (as opposed to giving connotations of fields and mountains as some folk music may!). New York itself has strong connections with the genre with it being at theroots of some reggae/dub music. The main actor in the video is very much a misfit in the whole mise-en-scene. His shaggy clothes and general disadvantaged appearance are a contradiction to his big city surroundings as well as breaking the social representation group of electronic fans. There are also some shots that are taken in an underground car park, a very dark, eerie mise-en-scene. This connotes the nature of the roots of the genre, with it being less popular music, yet more dark ‘underground’ music, listened to by the minority.
In terms of linking the lyrics with the visuals, there is one stage in the video where the man is stumbling along and trips, consequently clutching onto a wire fence at the exact moment where the lyrics correspond to said visuals, repeating “let’s get electrified”. This alone implies that the fence itself is an electric one, presenting New York as a metaphorical prison, as if the man is trapped in a life of struggle, misery and confusion whilst others around him continue to ignore his pain. This portrays the city as a dystopia, like a futuristic metropolis inhabited by emotionless robots that ignore the man’s existence, much like the films bladerunner and the matrix. An example of this is in the video where the man’s hand shatters off like porcelain, and looks up to a passer-by with a look seemingly hopeful for reassurance as if hoping to be offered a hand, though is blanked as the passer-by continues walking.
The lead role in the video very much represents how black culture had been falling apart in New York, by the fact that his limbs are literally falling apart and shattering into pieces. The falling apart of this lead character could be a metaphor for how the black culture are being overrun by the white culture of metropolitan life, and how they are having their roots (referring to the reggae/dub music) taken away by the whites, having been the culture who initially came up with it; having their culture robbed from them. A better example of this is how the break dancers in the video are dancing in front of the black character to the music from which originally came from his descendents and roots. This challenges the ethnic stereotype to reggae/dub/electronica music and break dancing as it is typically more partaken in and enjoyed by a black background. The video itself suggests white dominance through such techniques as lowangle shots, which from the lead character’s point of view, imply that the black man is insignificant and being looked down upon. Throughout the video he appears lost and confused, portrayed to the audience via a number of close-up shots. This also suggests white dominance as if he has been swallowed up by the white society, alone and isolated. The message that it is clearly getting across is that being black in America is extremely difficult, to just be noticed in society and to be treated as an equal can seem impossible through the eyes of an ethnic minority.
Monday, 27 September 2010
This is England '86
The Band - The Skanx: Background Info
Thursday, 23 September 2010
Costumes
Because of the fact that our video is of the ska genre (particularly two-tone), we have inevitably decided to aim to follow the genre conventions by dressing our actors in costume that is typical of the two-tone and ska punk genre, based upon other texts such as This is England, and similar artists such as Madness. The aim was to create the image of a genuine two-tone ska band and ska fans.
Two-tone costume
For our actor Jack, we have taken the approach of a two-tone ska fan, and dressed him in very much literal two-tone black and white. The classic black suit with white shirt was a very prominent style worn by adamant ska fans, and is very iconographic of the genre. He is also wearing glasses that can be likened to the likes of Suggs fromMadness (although, admittedly less aviator styled!). The classic ska trilby also featuresprominentlyin our video as it too is very iconic of the genre, and is backed up by the fact it is worn by artists of the two-tone ska genre such as members of The Specials. In terms of footwear we opted for a smarter feel which fits into the category of two-tone ska, and for Jack we avoided the military boot look used by other actors that crosses into the sub genre of ska-punk...
Ska-punk costume
Also featured in The Specials’ video performance for their song ‘Too much too young’ are braces that are very prominent within the genre, which is why we unanimously decided to include them in our costume (worn by myself!). An intertextual reference that can be drawn upon from our video with reference to the braces is Shaun Meadows’ This is England where the main character Shaun is wearing them throughout the film. He also wears Dr Martens boots, which are big military style boots, which we also included in our video worn by two of our actors.
We focused very largely on the costume used in both the film This is England and TV series This is England ’86 as we felt them to both be great examples of the particular style of clothing worn by typical ska fans and potential band members. A combination of Dr Martens boots, Fred Perry shirts, jackets and braces helped us to create the ska image we were aiming for. Despite establishing the fact that our band and song are more predominantly of the two-tone ska genre, we felt that using costume from ska-punk/skinhead influences would also be beneficial to the general appearance of acting band members and overall video itself.
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Concept of Identity
Firstly, just to clear up, the traits that are associated with modern ideas of identity are that it is given to you, as if you are born into a particular identity. That it is a stable set of attributes, fixed and very singular; meaning that one’s identity is relatively specific and does not change or shift as they grow older. Post modern views on the other hand, indicate that identity is chosen themselves by a particular person, in the forms of e.g. what media products they enjoy, how they dress, and who their role models are. It is viewed as being shifting, so that a person’s identity can change drastically over relatively short periods of time, depending on their surrounding environment. People are believed to have multiple identities, depending on the groups of people they are with and the company they keep, which is thought to be fragmented and frequently changing. Therefore you can see a clear divide between the two modern and post modern views of identity.
The actual phrase ‘Find Your Tribe’ brings about a number of connotations and implications about today’s youth. It actually implies that people’s social groups are actually more than just a social pass-time, but are of much greater importance being likened to a tribe, a close group that people are accepted into. It also implies that youth are having to ‘find’ a place where they can fit in, most often a social grouping in which the people involved listen to the same music, dress similarly, and have the same media and general interests! The way that it is stated as ‘Find Your Tribe’ is almost phrased as though it is a command, an order that must be followed! Almost as if to imply, if you don’t find somewhere to fit in, you will be left as an outcast.
Michel Maffesoli is a French sociologist, who was the originator of a study entitled ‘the time of tribes’, and believed greatly through his research into identity and social groups that the mass culture of old, where essentially all youth would listen to the same music dress the same etc. has disintegrated. Now youth groups are much more divided and have far more specific interests and opinions. This is a task I had been given to write a short couple of paragraphs of a possible speech that Maffesoli could give getting across his ideas of today’s modern ‘tribes’.
I, Michel Maffesoli, am here today to present to you all a speech, regarding “The Time of Tribes”. So sit back, relax, and absorb my words of wisdom.
It is to my belief that today’s youth no longer all follow each other like one big united group of sheeps in terms of their media culture. Said ‘mass culture’ of mon generation! has disintegrated, and insteads of every peoples listenings, readings and watchings all of the same things, they instead choose to listens, reads and watch what they desire themselves, depending on their clique (other little friends) also choose to do.
The groupings of childrens today is not nearly as sturdy as previous generations; instead of one large brick wall of a solid group, they are instead tiny fragmented leaves, crumpled, worn and torn apart (like brown, crispy autumn leaves, not the lively summer kinds.). if one children is to wear a particular waistcoat, all other childrens in their teeny social groupings will all buy the same waistcoat. If Tiny Stryder is to buy Adidas trainers, all other childrens buy Adidas trainers; like sheeps they are.
Tuesday, 21 September 2010
Soundtrack: The Skanx - Money Grabber
Saturday, 4 September 2010
Potential Actors!
Friends, Jack Sauverin and Isobel Bailey (whom played the female character in our group's AS thriller production) kindly gave up their time over the holidays to come location hunting, and to get some pictures and small pieces of filming in costume for our early footage.
Jack is a large enthusiast of the whole Ska Punk genre and greatly enjoys the music, so would be brilliant to have as part of our cast! Izzy is also interested in the genre, and has a great eye for fashion so would also be an important asset! She is pole position to be playing the role of the woman in our video who is the main, stereotypical 'money grabbing' female. This idea was brought about obviously by the song title itself and lyrics including 'money grabber'.
Madness - One Step Beyond!
Ska/Ska Punk band Madness with their famous song One Step Beyond. Examples of the 'madness walk', an interesting idea that we thought possible to use in our own video, having attempted on our photoshoot in the previous post, shown at around 1:24.
Initial location and costume ideas photoshoot
Attempting the 'Madness Walk' as seen in Madness' video 'One Step Beyond'! We thought this dance to be very appropriate as it is a perfect fit to the ska genre we are researching and is also an example of intertextual reference by referring to the fact that it use used in many madness music videos.
We unanimously agreed that the urban background was iconic of the ska/punk era that we are covering, and hence fits the genre well. The extensive amount of graffiti also merges nicely into the genre.
In terms of costume on the day, we experimented with some iconic army surplus boots, large shirts, braces, trilby hats and smart/casual suits. The styles are iconic of the genre and hold an uncanny likeness to those used by the characters in both the film and tv series 'This is England/'86' directed by Shaun Meadows. This being one of the media products we took ideas and inspiration from. The boots, braces and shirts are extremely similar dress.