Tropical House Album Artwork Analysis

Sunset Soul is an a compilation album by Ministry of Sound. The majority of the songs are remixes to make them the tropical house genre. One of our song choices I Do by Felix Jaehn I first listened to on this album. 

Genre Music Video Analysis

In this music video for Cheerleader by OMI the scenery and settings connote the house genre. This is as its set on a beach with summer vibes, with iconography such as palm trees and waves. This remixed version of the song was one of the first to be in mainstream charts all over the world, even going to #1. Theres a lot of dancing and performance in the video which is a convention of house music.

Digipak Analysis Video

I filmed a video of my analysis for Lana Del Rey's Honeymoon deluxe edition and Kings of Leon's Only By The Night promotional poster.

Digipak Posters

These posters by Kings of Leon and Nirvana are examples of the poster I need to create for the promotion of my artists album. I analysed the Kings of Leon poster in a video, I have posted. I found it helpful to analyse the poster as it showed me what features I needed to include in my own. These are things such as - artist name
                              - album name
                              - released singles
                              - release date
                           

Examples Of Tropical House Songs

Tropical House Genre

Tropical House is a sub-genre house and deep house music which first came to light in 2010

"it possesses typical house music characteristics, including synthesiser instrumentation, and a 4/4 kick drum pattern. Tropical house differentiates itself from deep house, which can often have a very dark sound, whereas tropical house can be described as having a more uplifting, and relaxing sound.^[8] The tempo of tropical house songs is a little slower than deep house. Tropical house does not use the pumping compression effect of "big room" electro house. It usually includes some tropical instruments such as steel drums or marimba" 

2015 thus far has been a very good year for the tropical house genre, there have been songs which which have gone into the main stream charts; and their artists have became more well known. Examples of these are Kygo, Robin Schulz and Felix Jaehn. Schulz has had #1's worldwide with the songs Waves and Prayer in the C. Many Tropical house artists remix other artists songs, such as Felix Jaehn who remixed OMI's Cheerleader to worldwide success as a #1 single in many many countries. 

Due to the success of the tropical house songs other mainstream artists have started to be influenced by them, such as Justin Bieber and his song What Do You Mean. This shows that tropical house is a progressing genre.

Digipak Specifications

A digipak needs six panels- Front Cover

                                           - Back Cover/ Tracklisting

                                           - CD

                                           - Bonus CD/DVD

                                           - House Style 

                                           - Lyric Book

-A digipak should also indicate the artists unique selling point (USP)
-If the artist is solo then a close-up shot of them is normally on the front cover 

Music Industry Crisis

In the 20th century artists and record labels sold their product as physical objects such as CDs and vinyls. However in the 21st century technology has progressed to a point where product is now downloaded into a device rather than bought as an object.

This has created a crisis in which labels now have to adapt to the changing industry as CD sales continue to fall while downloads rise.

Within shops CDs are pushed to sell less with devices such as mp3's and Apple products being the prime objective to sell. 

In 2009 the four creators of the online site 'Pirate Bay' were sentenced to a year in jail and to pay $2.5 million in damages to companies. 

This shows the negative side effects of the music industry changing as new types of fraud are being being committed so its easier for companies to lose money.

Adorno and Horkhiemers Theory

          

Adorno and Horkhiemer coined the term Culture Industry, this means that the way cultural items are produced is similar to the way consumer goods are mass produced. With an assembly like way of production, the people in charge of producing media can make many singers (example) with the same production team and just present them differently so the public think they are having a choice of who they listen to when in reality they are getting the same controlled message. 

Because of the way media is mass produced and lacking in integrity the people who consume it become adjusted and want the same thing over and over. Some people go against comsuming this mainstream mass produced media, these people are Cultural Elitists.

This applies to our coursework brief as understanding the theory will help us define who our audience will be for our artists, then from there how we can effectivley market our media products to them.

Jay Z 99 Problems Applying Goodwin

Jay Z 99 Problems - the genre of this music video is rap / hip-hop. The convetions of this genre include; baggy /tracksuit clothing, designger brands, money, violence, weapons, crime, prison, objectifying women, urban areas and dancing.

This video includes the majority of these conventions, the whole video is shot in a deprived urban area.  Showing the inhabitants wearing baggy clothing brandishing guns, break danicng, women dancing in bikinis and crimes being comminted. 

Jay Z plays a criminal in the video who gets pulled over for speeding, however he raps about only being pulled over because "I'm young, black and wear my hat down low". The cop who pulls him over is white and so is the lawyer later shown is white too, whereas all the men being inducted into prison are black. This is a topic regulary rapped about in this genre, how black people are subjected to  white privellage. 

The video links music to visuals by having many of the cuts change in time to the beat, also the group of dancers dressed in black dance in unision to the beat. There are many lyrics matched the visuals such as the lyric mentioned prior about the hat and getting pulled over, on screen the video shows Jay Z being pulled over and questioned. The whole video consists of Jay Z so therefore meeting label demands for close ups of the artist. 

Digipak Analysis

An analysis of Mumford and Sons, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Twenty-one Pilots digipaks from their albums.

Goodwin Theory Of Music Videos

1- Music videos display genre characteristics 

2- There are links between lyrics and visuals

3- There are links between music and visuals

4- The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style)

5- There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body

6-There is often inter-textual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc)

Cross Media Presentation

Research Into The History Of Music Videos

Since the 1920s jazz artists have been making short films to accompany their popular songs. Although theses aren't cited as the first music videos. Such as Bessie Smith.

In 1965 folk and country artist Bob Dylan created a video for his song Subterranean Homesick Blues, which was included in D. A. Pennebaker's documentary, Dont Look Back. It is often cited as the creation of the modern music video, and the way of having lyrics on cards is now iconic and parodied.

In the 1970s  TV variety shows such as Top of the Pops showed artists performing their songs. This was a step towards the modern music video as it showed the artists themselves not just related images.


In 1975 Queen released their Bohemian Rhapsody music video and became the first artists to have a pop music video like the ones we know today. The video featured the band members miming in a studio with lighting and effects, combined with clips on them preforming on stage. A combination which is still popular today. There was editing involved with transitions such as fades.

 In 1980 releasing a music video with a single became the standard for all record labels



Michael Jackson is prominent to the history of the music video, in  1983 and 1985 he released two famous and culturally historic videos. Thriller and Scream, with his sister Janet Jackson. Thriller inspired artists to have narrative to their videos, and Scream had the biggest budget for a music video at its time of $7 million.

As technology advanced so did music videos, with effects, bigger budgets, narratives. Which became more readily available as cheaper digital cameras were invented, and the technical codes for music videos were established.