Assignment-discuss how you constructed an identity for your artist.

    

     

Looking at your print products and ideas for your promotional video, discuss how you constructed an identity for your artist. You should consider issues around gender and youth and discuss how you have challenged or subverted dominant ideology. This should be a discussion of all aspects of mise en scene.

As a record label or producer, trying to construct an image and an identity for an artiste is hard. Trying to have an identity which is ‘new’ ‘original and fresh’ makes an artiste different from the rest even if there are similar artistes in that particular specific genre of music. When trying to construct and identity for an artiste, you need to consider its target audience and whether or not it will appeal to them by their image. This could affect their popularity and also their profits.

From my demographic research, I found that the genre ‘Hardcore/dance’ was the popular choice, so as promoter I know this would be popular however it will be more of a challenge. Given that this is a popular genre, we had to find a track and artiste who hadn’t been realised commercially and also who was unknown. Looking for an artiste, we found ‘Sublime’ who is a new, young female artiste, who fits perfect for our audience profile and fits into a genre of music.

Audience Profile
Age:17-21
Genre: Hardcore/dance
Do you watch music videos: Yes

From research I found that a lot of the ‘hardcore/dance’ tracks were mostly female and had a female vocalist such as styles and breeze- amigos and Breeze vs Lost Witness ft. Naz - Rise Again. The track from ‘sublime’ (walking in the rain) is very fast tempo and has very catchy beats and lyrics. From my questionnaire to the demographic, these were popular features that they enjoyed about this given genre.

However there is a lot of issues around gender and in the ‘hardcore/dance’ female vocalist don’t get enough popularity and status compared to male vocalist. For female vocalist to be successful, their identity has to be seen as a ‘sex image’. Not only must they have a great voice but they must be very proactive, sexy and beautiful. When looking at videos that had female vocalist featured in the video, even though they still had higher status compared to the dancers, they still didn’t have their own identity. In Breeze vs Lost Witness ft. Naz - Rise Again, there were a lot of medium close ups of her body. There weren’t many frames of her face but her body. This proves that not a lot of female vocalist gets a chance to have their own identify in the genre of hardcore. Compared to other well know hardcore artiste, the most popular ones are male such as ‘Darren styles’. There are not a lot of independent female artist who are popular in the hardcore music industry. Therefore for our artiste we will challenge gender by having more frames of the artiste face and not make her seen has a ‘sex symbol’. We will try to make her powerful and empower over the male gender by making her independent. This will be challenging dominant ideology, because we will be overthrowing the dominant class of male gender in the ‘hardcore/dance’ music industry by having a independent, popular female artiste who isn’t categorised in the industry of ‘hardcore/dance’ The synopsise of the music track is for sublime to be getting ready on a night out and forgetting her boyfriend and proving that women can be independent by not having a man by your side.

Looking at ideas for our promotional video of ‘Walking in the rain-Sublime’. We will easily be able to create an image for sublime by following the codes and conventions of ‘hardcore/dance’. Having a target age round 17-21 is young and their may be a lot of problems in making what is suited for that age group. We need to make sure that ‘Sublime’ isn’t seen too sexual, given that the age group will be targeted at 17 however we don’t want to present sublime as ‘old’. Having her young will create an image of something new, fun, exciting and fashionable. This means that older youth won’t be able to so much relate to. From research the CD covers I analyzed were very highly sexualized. The female was usually positioned in the centre usually framed in a medium close up, to show more of the body to appeal the opposite sex. The costume was very skimpy outfits such has bikinis and other revelling costumes. We want to create an image of sublime of an independent woman and not some sex symbol. Ideas such as dress with a slight cleavage would still attract the opposite genre as well as making her attractive and connoting an exciting fun life by being fashionable. We need to bear in mind the youth and target age because we need to consider what’s too revealing. Having a frame of her in medium shot will enable us to show more of features as well as portraying the artiste as a performer by having her in a dance pose.

The music video is following a narrative storyline which will be a lot more engaging for the target age because they won’t be disorientated. One of sublime location will be a bedroom therefore, as a group we need to make sure that there isn’t any inappropriate framing of her getting undressed due to the age group. Having scenes of her putting on make up will appeal her to both genders and make her attractive. There will be dance scenes given that this is a hardcore/dance genre. This will connote a rebellion image and identity for sublime because it will portray her having a fun and exciting life by going clubbing. The lighting will be very flattering; bright neon which is a code and convention we found very common the music videos we researched.

If we follow the codes and conventions of ‘hardcore/dance’ we will be able to create a successful identity for our artiste. By challenging gender, we will be able to create and image which is something new in the hardcore/dance industry which will hopefully make our artiste, unique

 and popular for both genders  .