Research: Institutions

The research that is being presented here, is vital in promoting our music video. We develop Def Jam records, what they do as an institution and we also name well known artists in which have been signed by this institution.  This information is important to us as it will develop our coursework massively, and will also promote our media product. Conventionally the institution we have researched, fits perfectly to the genre of R&B as it commonly promotes these types of media products.

Artists within Def Jams records
There are a number of artists that are signed to def jam records, some of which we have researched previously.

Big Sean

Sean Michael Anderson, better known by his stage name Big Sean, is an American rapper. Big Sean signed with Kanye West's GOOD Music in 2007, and then in 2008 signed with Def Jam Recordings.

Neyo :  Shaffer Chimere Smith, better known by his stage name Ne-Yo, is an American R&B recording artist, record producer, dancer and actor. Beginning his career as a songwriter, Ne-Yo penned the hit "Let Me Love You" for singer Mario. 

Kayne West: Kanye Omari West is an American musician, film director and fashion designer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records.

Jay Z: Shawn Corey Carter, better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America.

Audience profile

Lucy is a female who is around the age of 16-20, she is a student with no disabilities and her family status is of middle class. Lucy listens to R&B and prefers it when the music reflects her lifestyle she daily keeps up to date with music releases and music videos. She watches R&B music videos for entertainment and also to see the 'famous' artist. Typically within an R&B video she expects to see minimal clothing, expensive cars and colours of black, white and sepia tones. lucy finds the narrative important to the music video as it is interesting and entertaining, she would rather however the artist to be presented as a character as this helps her to identify the artist within the music video. Lucy would rather have a narrative that mirrors the lyrics within the song and believes that R&B music influences her life in some way.

Summary of research

From all the research i have explored, We commonly don't really learn much about the Artist or character on the CD covers, however i assume this is deliberately presented to create an enigma, as if you want to learn more by listening to the CD itself. The specific use of the Artists included on every CD cover that i have researched  the artists that i have explored are popular within the genre. This mean that  the CD is aimed for the audience and they will recognize the character on the cover. These ingredients are common within the genre as this is commonly presented throughout the CD covers that I have researched. It also expresses that the  genre is generally aimed at a specific target audiences, people who are of a black ethnicity who are young or even matured.

Usually from the music videos that i have researched The most common story presented is about or based around the theme of love for example on of the songs/ music videos i looked into detail is about a male character revealing his love for a female character (although this is not made clear until the end) This research is from the 'with you' music video by the artist Chris Brown. Usually An enigma is presented through the main character within R&B music videos. These specific elements attract target audiences as the song and music video portrays real emotions in which every person goes though this means an audience member can relate to the song and the music video.  

From our audience questionnaires, the most common age from our target audience is around the age of 16-20, some go across the range of 30+ and some cross the range of 10-15. Overall as people who are trying to combine a product for mass audiences we can see that our main target is for 16-20 year olds.

Again from our audience questionnaire we found that females seem to make up the majority of our audiences , however we need to remember that 25% of our audience is made up of males so there will be certain aspects such as girls (with minimal clothing) need to be included within our music video (this is a vital convention within the genre).
From our audience questionnaires we can conclude that  more than half of our audiences watch music videos for entertainment  this means we need to make our media product entertaining.

The research in which we have explored in detail is very important and will have a massive impact onto what music song we choose and how we will present our music video, typically from our audience questionnaires Our audiences expect to see cars, jewellery, a female companion  and black white or sepia tones within an R&B music video. This is extremely helpful information and gives us guidelines into what we will present in our music video!

Audience Analysis

As you can see, our most common age from our target audience is around the age of 16-20, some go across the range of 30+ and some cross the range of 10-15. Overall as people who are trying to combine a product for mass audiences we can see that our main target is for 16-20 year olds.

Females seem to make up the majority of our audiences , however we need to remember that 25% of our audience is made up of males so there will be certain aspects such as girls (with minimal clothing) need to be included within our music video (this is a vital convention within the genre).

We can see that the majority of our audience is middle class, working class however, is not that far behind, so we should aim to please both of these types of audiences.

Here we can see that the majority of our audience is students, however there are also different types of audiences that is presented within this pie chart.

None of our audience has a disability.

R&B is picked as one of the most favoured genres, and we feel as a group that we have made a right choice into developing  this type of music product, as we aim to please our audiences.

Most of our audience believes that the music they listen to reflects their life in some way. We believe as a group that the theme of love is a very strong aspect in this (as everyone believes they have been in love at some point) and our chosen song presents this strongly.

We can see that more than 25% of our audiences keep up to date with there music everyday this means that we must be up to date with our music product but also make sure that our promotion is strong when getting the music video seen by our targeted audiences.

Again we can see that more than 25% of our audiences keep up to date with  new music video releases, this means that as a group we should make sure that our music product is produced and promoted well, so it is instantly noticed.

We can conclude that more than half of our audiences watch music videos for entertainment  this means we need to make our media product entertaining.

Our audiences expect to see cars, jewellery, a female companion  and black white or sepia tones within an R&B music video.

More than half of our audiences believe that the narrative is important to the music video, we also believe this. 

The reason why our audience finds the narrative important is because its interesting/ important, it makes R&B music videos unique, and it makes the audience understand the lyrics more.

The majority of our audience wants the artists to be present within the music video.

The reasons for this, is because it helps to identify the singer/group, makes the video more interesting and it makes the artist his song. 

More than half of our audience would rather have the narrative that mirror the lyrics within a song.

These are the reasons as to why they would not have a narrative within the music video.

More than half of our targeted audience stated that the music they listen to has an impact or influences their life in some kind of way.

Audience Questionnaire

Summary of analysing adverts!

Image: Commonly with the R&B advertisements, the image is ‘crisp’ for example the Florida advert, the beard presented on the Artists face us unusual but clear lined and really presents the smooth edge R&B has as a genre.  The camera shots are usually mid shots however there is a long shot when looking at the advertisement of Chris Browns new album, this presents the Artist on the cover; he is not however looking directly at the screen similarly with Florida’s advertisement where in contrast to the other R&B artists, they are looking directly at the screen (Including the target audience in the advertisement- drawing them in). The colour is commonly of blacks, greys, blues, I assume that this connotes the fresh modern image of R&B and also connotes the money in the genre and the artists.

Copy: The fonts presented, are in the colour of white or silver- This again connotes the money side of the genre, and again the fresh modern look. Specifically the font presented on the Florida album, the F is edited into a gun showing a different side to the R&B genre.  Possibly this connotes a bad boy image to the genre and also is commonly associated with black people also; and this is a common representation with R&B genre. However the fonts used are often ‘crisp’ ‘clear’ and easy to read- especially the female artists they seem to be more simple than the males font used on their advertisements for their albums.

Genre:  In every single advertisement the artists is presented, all of which are of a black ethnicity, this represents the R&B genre massively as this is the most common aspect presented throughout the whole of my research into the specific genre. The mid shots of the artist connote the genre and the colours used on the advertisements the grey scale and the black and white effects, and also there costume used in their image- connotes the fresh modernised look the genre likes to present to their target audiences. However the Rihanna advertisement seems to stand out for me, as although conventions of colour and shots stay true to the genre, the artist’s image seems to be more Goth, rockery. This could represent the artist to going against the conventions even though she is a well-known R&B singer.

Connotation: The secondary level of communication for me is possibly the image of the Artist and the titles and subtitles; meaning they attract the target audiences for one. The artist’s image as a whole represents the albums entirely, and so it is vital that they are included in the advertisements. This means that audiences will recognise and want to buy the album.

Target audience: Personally I feel that the target audiences are around the same age of the artists and also could possibly for young adults. As the images they present when referring to Beyoncé’s album, she is practically half naked with her clothing; this could be too explicit for young children; and could possibly mean she is presented her body to attract male audiences.  Rihanna from her image presented on her advertisement she could possibly be trying to reach out to different target audience’s such as the ‘rockers’ or even ‘Goth’ as her image connotes this type of stereotype, this means audiences could relate to artists and want to listen to what her story is in her music.

Mode of Address: I feel that the mood is created through the colours that are presented the dark colours connote the modernised look to the genre, however most of the songs within R&B genre have uplifting versus where they have meaning and depth. Again the presentation of the artists in the advertisements have an effect on the mood of the album, for example Rihanna looks incredibly strange for an R&B artists, and her well known status means this will draw in attention from audiences. I also feel that the audiences are spoken to through the images of the Artist especially with the female advertisements; the artists are directly looking at the shot, meaning looking at the audience. This includes them in the album and also draws them in too!

Title: The titles of the albums have massive effects; and this is only what is presented on the advertisements. For example the presentation of Florida’s album suggests a gangster side to R&B as a genre as a gun edit is presented as the F on the album and this has unique connotations of gangster lifestyles and bad boy images. The effect of this is huge, as this could attract audiences who are intrigued by this lifestyle and wants an insight to it.

Star: Dyer's star theory suggests that 'a star is an image and not a real person that is constructed  (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials eg. magazines, advertising as well as films.' 
The terms "pop performer" and "pop star" have become interchangeable so in media terms they are not the same thing. The study of stars as media texts/components of media texts demands that the distinction be made between those who are simply known for performing pop music and those who are known for being pop stars, who have an identity or persona which is not restricted solely to their musicianship. For the artists that i have researched we can see, that these artists have definitely been presented as an image and we can see clearly that this image has been carefully constructed to the genre. The stars have been used to promote the artists and the album, there images and presentations on whether they look good sells the albums/ singles.

Representation: The artists are of black ethnicity- this connotes the R&B genre, especially as this is the most common convention within the genre. The genders within the advertisements are mixed as we have two male artists and two female artists however we can draw up differences with how they present themselves. The male artists like to look ‘cool’ and are not usually looking at the screen in the advertisements however the female artists look at the screen, and are presented as ‘hot’ or in Rihanna’s case slightly ‘intriguing’. The class presented seems to be of upper as we know these artists are rich; however they seem to have their own version of upper- as the black ethnicity, presents a kind of hip hop fresh modernised way of living.

Other: From the advertisement we don’t receive anything about the Artist other than there image on the album and when the release date is of the album- its short and sweet straight to the point. The enigma is created through the new images of the artists what they wear? How it is presented? Whether the artist looks different to what her old album looked like. The image is vital in order for audiences to be attracted and be interested to hear the new sound the artists has made. This particularly combines and attracts new audiences as fans, wait for new albums and follow the artists so they expect to see something ‘fresh’ and different about the artists so they get to experience another aspect of the artist. These ingredients are common within the genre as there intended target audience sees the modern fresh lifestyle that perhaps they will never experience however the music brings them into this type of world. The advertisements attracts audiences and makes the album well known in order for money to be made and for the artists to being known and more promoted within the industry.