Evaluation Task 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

The promotion of music is rarely all about the music. The music industry uses visual images as a key part of its marketing strategy.  This is historically true for the marketing of the pop music video. 

Keith Negus argues that the ‘pop music video is used as a promotional tool’. 

The star image is used to brand the product. Branding is then used by the music industry to create a range of products for audiences across a range of genres and musical styles (Classical to Rap to Heavy Metal). 

CD digipak covers are crucial artwork which markets the image of the artist, before the music is purchased. Music artist websites are a common part of any marketing strategy, particularly in the online age. CD digipaks are carefully constructed according to convention to communicate certain messages about the artist. Images may consist of album cover, artwork, photographs of the band artist, graphics and texts. 

All music websites are about promotion and information provided to the audience.  

They fall into three main categories:

• Promotion of single or album release
• Promotion of a tour or live appearance
• Merchandising - posters of an artists or band, sales of T-shirts etc.

Websites contain information which publicises and promotes the artist image and a range of information to an audience – or its fan base.  Often this is organised into what Boyd has termed co-option. 

The visual ‘star image’ according to Dyer, communicates important messages to the audience.  Audiences often associate the look of an artist to a style of music and it’s genre. Some audiences idolise bands and singers, and see them as sex symbols, fashion icons and celebrities.  Media marketing of the pop star image have become iconic and famous.  Iconic images have helped retain the popularity of existing and legendary artists.

Evalution Task 1 - Conclusion

Conventions are generally the accepted ways of doing something. Conventions can be used, supported, reiterated.  They can be challenged to deliberately broke to subvert conventions. In evaluation of the question set I feel that I have drawn on the conventions of media products in my own campaign.  The use of these conventions is evident in the construction of my own products, for example the way we have a DJ performing his song on decks with pretty lady dancers around him. This is supported by my own research onto other DJ artists music videos and even some pop artists of our generation.  At the same time I have sought to develop and been able to challenge conventions, for example, I have added a edgy side to the DJ as he is dressed in his own kind of style (dreads, hip jackets and trousers). As for the dancers, they were essentially dressed by painting colours on them which is challenging the normal conventions of having girls dressed in girly things such as mini skirts and tights. I feel I have achieved this to differentiate my product in a competitive music industry market and I have attempted to challenge audience expectations, bring something new to the media forms.  Media Conventions are ultimately relied upon for communicating the right message to the intended audience, but also deviate from these expectations helps sell the star image that I wanted to promote. Audiences produce meaning from the interaction of the conventional material in a text, and their understanding of conventions, for example, the would enjoy the dancing that takes place in the video and might thrive to be one.

Evalution Task 1- In what ways does your website use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real websites?

Our website for Fragment adheres to the conventions of any DJ artist that would also appeal to a younger, more hip audience democratic. We used a many large, effective images on our website so that it is not text heavy and simple to use by all audience members. We aimed to make it as aesthetically pleasing as possible so that it was interesting to view, drawing the audience in and giving them a desire to read more about the artist.  Similarly to Zardonic's website, there is a lot of black and white images with the occasional blast of colour.  The objects, fonts and details to all the websites demonstrated above go adhere to the stereotype and conventions of DJ artists as demonstrated through the images of the artists performing to a large crowd. This is similar to the way we approached the design of the website as the other successful artists seem to draw their audiences in through this technique. We wanted to incorporate at least one detail that compliments the digipak and the music video, this being the incorporation of the patterns and shots of Jonty with the 'Blood for Mercy' jacket to complement the aesthetics of the DJ's website. All of the contact pages need to be easy to access and view so that the audience know exactly where and when the artist is performing.

Evaluation Task 1 - In what ways does my digipak use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real digipak's?

These CD front covers all follow the same kind of conventions as mine as they all have an aspect of strangeness in them. Ultimately the strange and unusual bit of the cover is what appeals to the audience and makes them buy the album. I like the way these covers seem to be ‘fragmented’ in some way or another and have an image of the artist on, whether it be distorted or normal. The ‘Unplugged’ album cover is different and has only decks on the front however it has the aspect or fragment that I like and the idea of sections that, as a whole, create one image. On the other hand, the majority of these covers do challenge conventions as they are not exactly ‘pretty’ and attractive images. In my opinion the more strange and unconventional the cover is, the more likely some one is going to be more inquisitive about it. My album cover is more unconventional then conventional due to the mystery about it has to it, drawing in the target audience and bringing something new and original to the industry.These CD front covers all follow the same kind of conventions as mine as they all have an aspect of strangeness in them. Ultimately the strange and unusual bit of the cover is what appeals to the audience and makes them buy the album. I like the way these covers seem to be ‘fragmented’ in some way or another and have an image of the artist on, whether it be distorted or normal. The ‘Unplugged’ album cover is different and has only decks on the front however it has the aspect or fragment that I like and the idea of sections that, as a whole, create one image. On the other hand, the majority of these covers do challenge conventions as they are not exactly ‘pretty’ and attractive images. In my opinion the more strange and unconventional the cover is, the more likely some one is going to be more inquisitive about it. My album cover is more unconventional then conventional due to the mystery about it has to it, drawing in the target audience and bringing something new and original to the industry.

Evaluation task 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation Task 1 -Introduction

A convention is a way in which something is already done. In my music video, I followed the conventions of a stereotypical electronic kind of music video with the artificial strobed and coloured lights flashing constantly. It is not so much adhering to a pop video as we had less of the lip syncing and typical girly look but rather a more mature, funky style. For our website I wanted to portray more of a cool DJ personality to the public eye and the same goes for the digipak artwork, therefore working on designs that are aesthetically pleasing and that link in with the name 'Fragment'. An example of this is that the DJ's known signature is a separated, edgy, disconnected design which can be intertextual when audience members create prosumer activity. Moreover, the performance element in our video was all about Jonty on the decks with girl dancers performing around him which is adhering to a typical DJ, club themed kind of music video. In this task, I am going to compare my music video, digipak and website to other pop artists videos, albums and websites and see whether they adhere to the same conventions or subvert them.