Research into chosen Music Gnere-Miss Georgiou

Research into chosen Music Genre
23/09/2014
Vasil Nikolov

Originally my group had decided to do a song by Lana Del Rey. Originally, I wanted a song that was upbeat and enjoyable to listen to. Thus the song that we chose is "Blue Jeans". I know, that the song is slightly quiet and depressing. However, we agreed to search for a remix  of the song that can make it upbeat and more pleasuring to listen to.
The result was the RAC Remix of the song (Lana Del Rey-Blue Jeans RAC Remix). As it is a remix we now have the task to understand the indie and house genre. This then sounds interesting as most indie songs have the convention to have a love story for their video. Meanwhile, the House/Electro music genre has the convention for the use of bright colours and be more diverse. This is why the songs I have chosen are Ellie Goulding`s "How long will I Love You" and Route 94`s "My Love".  Personally, I don`t like pure indie songs as they are always slow, depressing and tell the story of a girl in a relationship that went bad. This is Why I prefer indie rock such as The Keiser Chiefs. Nevertheless I must analyse the pure indie genre so I have to listen to Miss Goulding and her lovy dovy story.

So let us start with the conventions for the Indie genre. The first one is that indie artists like to use studios, cities, parks or tunnels as they are low budget. The other reason for using such a setting is so their audience can concentrate on the artist (Them) and watch them sing or perform. And here we can see miss Goulding performing on a guitar in a studio. This follows the convention as indie artists use low budget places so their audience can watch mainly them. As said the reason for choosing such a low budget location is so they can make their audience listen to them and not get distracted. Another convention that will be seen later on is that the song is mainly performance based (and slightly narrative). Speaking about it, the use of a mainly performance in a video is another convention that ellie Goulding is following. During several shots (Including the cover picture for the video) the audience would spot Miss Goulding, performing on a guitar. This follows dyer`s theory as it suggests that the artist can do multiple things with which they can impress the audience. And by playing and singing at the same time, Miss Goulding tells the audience that she has more than one tallent, which makes her more than ordinary.

The piece that makes her ordinary is the clothing that she uses, which is very ordinary. This is trying to imply, that she is a down to earth person. Another part from Dyer`s theory which states that "the artist has to be ordinary and at the same time extraordinary". This is further proven in the first 25 seconds of the video in which we see the artist having a mental block while trying to write some lyrics. This suggests that similarly to ordinary people she has problems but it is alsowhy she uses another indie convention which is to use another actor that can help with the narrative side of the story. The convention is also used to promote the use of a sky-blue Volkswagen MK1 Golf GTI and the use of a NOKIA Lunia series. The use of these two products prove one of the parts of another theorist`s view, which is that the artist is used by the record label to promote merchendise and advertise products that have sponsored the production of the video. In this case the audience would be a witness to the use of the Nokia Lumia series, that has the 10 megapixel camera, but also to car fans, the use of a very trendy convertible from the 80`s (The Golf GTI). This would lead to many fans wanting to look cool and not mainstream. The target of any indie artist. I mean if she wanted to have a quirky convertible, she could have had a Mazda mx5, but they are too mainstream. Hence she uses an old convertible which was cool in its own period.

Some people might ask why there is narrative in the video. And the answer is that recent indie artists like to add a narrative snippet to their music video in order to create a relatable for the audience story. The lyrics would be linked with hte video and in my case it does. When she sings "How long will I need you", the male character always helps with something in order to suggest that he will always be needed as he is all she needs.

Interestingly there has been the use of several close-ips on the iconogrpahy used (The VW and Nokia), in order to promote the products. Also the artist has used black and white camera effects when she is performing and standard colours for memories. This links to the convention that indie artist like their videos to be slightly divers. Normally the black and white effects are used for a meomory while current cut is with a normal effect. A part from that, close-sips and mid shots of  the artist have been used to promote the artist (very conventional once again) as they fulfill Goodwin`s theory that the artist should be used as a promotional tool for merchendise.

The target audienec would be mainly females at the age range of 15-19 as they would be experimenting with relationships at the time and would like to wathc a song that talks about relationships. Menahiwl, malles of the same age would be either interesyed in a rap song where the artist is rich and ahs all the girls and cars or be different and listen to rock, indie, rock or electric house. As earlerly mentioned, the artist is represented as being puzzled as she does not know what to do with her relationship. I mena yes she is happy but for how long? When will the next more exciting piece show? This way she becomes an enigma and continues to interest the younger ages, while  older aged music  listeners would not listen to it as they had different values and had a more simple choice of music during their time.

And  now comes the second side from our music video, which makes me happier as I prefer this genre more than the previous.

The music videos for House music are famous for containing voyeristic immages and refferences to the use of illegal to several ocuntrie substances. The audience becomes a withness 13 seconds from the start of the video. They become a withness to a normal clubbing night in which at 0:28 they see a girl swallowing an odd pill shaped object and at 0:34 a clubber enjoying his drink. Thus from the start we can assume that the target audience is aimed at both genders in the region of 18-25 as they like to go clubbing at that age and such music is very possible to be played by the dj. Usually as the proven in the song, there is a steady bass level while the audience  gets used to the immages that they will see. Also at 0:37 the Dj is seen maintianing the tempo. He is probably used to further prove the idea that the performance part of the video is happening in a disco/club as otherwise, the place looked like a big store depot.

Another code&convention of a House music video is the use of voyeristic immages (seen here at 0:47; 0:55) during the performance. This is partially used to intrigur the male audeince and partially to relate to a club where the ladies are usually dressed in a more attractive manner than on a Monday morning on the way to work. The house music video also contains the convention of having several dance moves ( in a freestyle way), that are usually portrayed in a circle(0:43) and people watching them showcase which supposed to motivate the set audience to dance. And in "My Love", the audience could see a quick low angle shot, portraying a pillar upon which the said circle is danceing followed by a paning shot that displays the clubbers dancing in a similar freestyle way. These two points can relate to Goodwin`s theory as allegedly what the video is trying to say at this point of the song is that if you listen to this band, you will have a lot of fun at the club. This is probably the second reasoon, why the Dj was seen ealrier on.

Interestingly has not followed the convention to use a female to read his lyrics (Just like Disclosure`s F For You ft Mary Jay) and has decided to subvert and use a male artist to sing the lyrics. The most obvious reason is so the osng can also appeal to the female audience as they would be attracted by the way the artist is singing. This supports Dyer`s theory that the audience should want to see the artist one more time and be able to understand him. Thus by using a male voice, the artist opens up his field of vue by trying to intrigue females as well as males to listen to his music.

Another convention that has been followed by the artist is the use of bright colours (Through the use of edditing and in particular the use of special shades) on a dark blackground. As said in the blog in which one analysed "Depeche mode" (similar genre music), the use of bright colours hould be used in ordeer to display hope to the audience and hiddenly to promote the concept that love isi strong. For example (1:55 minutes into the video) before the main character gently ravished the girl, he was snuggling her during a short rain sequencein which rather than the colour of her body to chsnge to a more dark colour such as: brown, it stayed at banana yellow and her nose to tangerine orange (it should have been blue or green as the nose is usually the coldest part of a face). This is used to promote to the audience, the idea that love is like a flame and when maintined it can burn for a long time without it being stopped. Furthermore it should be said that it creates an enigma as the audience would want to watch the video once again in order to fully understand the idea behind the video.

The Mise-En-Scene used (In particular clothing) by the character is very conventional for a house based music video due to have him wearing a sensible set of clothes. Interestingly though, the video goes against Goodwin`s theory that the artist is a marketing tool as the clothing brands cannot be recognised. The main editing styles were a close up on the characters to display how emotionless they were. This is to portray the artist as being relaxed and used to going clubbing. This might suggest that he is equal to each one of us, yet  being able to produce such a good song. This is where he is fullfiling Dyer`s theory more than Goodwin`s.

The iconography that has been used is taboo in many countries but seen in many video clips and movies from America. The use of alcohol, drugs such as pills and medical marijuana suggest that the artist is fullfilling the convention of the use of drugs and alcohol in his video. They would not be unknown to such environment, as clubs these days have the immage for containing such substances. Furthermore, no product placement has been used in the video as once again, the camera filter is simply not allowing the audience to see what their icon is wearing, drinking or smoking.

The video is a mix between performance and concept as we see shots that show people dancing, and then the ones in the rain; against the wall and on the couch.


In Conclusion, from the research of these two music genres, we should be able to easily find our target audience and what elements to use. For example icinigraphy would probably be an Apple product, clothing will be chique but simple, there might be product placement such as a vehicle. Then from the camera shots, we could use the close-ups and then shot reverse shots in order to suggest how the artist or secondary character feels. Most important would probably be the use of filters for when the meomory sequence is innicuated and to use bright colours on a gloomy coloured environment in order to suggest that all is well. Further points might be added once the plan is completed.