Keith Negus

The Ideologies of the music industry

• “What I’m looking for is the working act. The real act. The act that can get up on stage and do it. That act will give you career. I signed Black Sabbath umpteen years ago; they are still making records. These are acts that are career acts… Two years ago I started a dance label… now that’s not a career-orientated label. I mean those records are one-off situations and every now and again maybe you’ll get an artist come out of it.”

• “When I first started it was more about going out and finding bands. That method is becoming more and more redundant. More and more these days I find it’s as much about: I sit here and think ‘there’s really a gap in the market for this kind of project…’. I don’t go out to gigs. That’s not how I find my stuff. It comes through various writers and producers. So if a writer comes in he may have some great songs and maybe is looking for a front person. Or maybe I have the front person who I want to launch into the market but I haven’t got the songs. So you put the two together.”

Ideologies of Creativity

• Keith Negus – Producing pop

• Identifies two distinct ways of thinking about potential artists from within the music industry.

• These ideologies shape the way in which the artists’ images and careers are developed, and the way that they are marketed towards specific target audiences.

• The organic ideology of creativity and…

• The synthetic ideology of creativity.

The Organic Ideology of Creativity 1

• A ‘naturalistic’ approach to artists

• The seeds of success are within the artists, who have to be ‘nurtured’ by the record company.

• The image of the artist is ‘enhanced’ by the record company.

• The artist is given time to evolve and progress through their career.

The Organic Ideology of Creativity 2

• Emphasis is given to album sales and the construction of a successful back catalogue.

• Often aimed at older or more sophisticated consumers

• Profits generated by this kind of act tend to be part of a long term strategy by the record company.

The Synthetic Ideology of Creativity 1

• A combinatorial approach to artists and material.

• Executives attempt to construct successful acts out of the artists and the songs at their disposal.

• The image of the artist is often constructed by the record company.

• The artist will be given a short time to prove their success before other combinations will be tried out.

The Synthetic Ideology of Creativity 2

• Emphasis is given to single sales and to promoting first albums.

• Often aimed at younger, less sophisticated audiences.

• Profits generated by this kind of artist tend to be part of an immediate, short term strategy by the record company.

Balancing the Two

• In practice, the success of synthetic acts will fund the development and investment in organic acts.

• Most big record labels will look to balance their roster with a combination of successful synthetic and organic acts to ensure that there are funds available for the day-to-day running of the company as well as long term profit making potential.

Promoting Organic and Synthetic Acts

• There are clear distinctions between the ways in which different types of artist are represented to ensure short term or long term success.

• Organic acts are often sold on their ‘authenticity’, both musically and socially.

• The image of the artist appears ‘unconstructed’ (although, of course, this is in itself a carefully constructed look)

• Synthetic acts are often sold on their ‘look’ or personalities

• The image of the artist is carefully and unashamedly constructed.

Richard Dyer

Stars and Stardom• In order to understand the relationship between the music industry and its audiences, it is important to consider the roles of music star.

• The term ‘star’ refers to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience.

Some common values of music stardom

• Youthfulness

• Rebellion

• Sexual Magnetism

• An anti-authoritarian attitude

• Originality

• Creativity/talent

• Aggression/anger

• A disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour.

• Conspicuous consumption, of sex, drugs and material goods

• Success against the odds

• Dyer has written extensively about the role of stars in film, TV and music.

• Irrespective of the medium, stars have some key features in common: A star is an image, not a real person, that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials (eg. Advertising, magazines etc as well as films [music])

Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings.

• Stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media – magazines, TV, radio, the internet – in order to construct an image for themselves which can be marketed to their target audiences.

• The star image is made up of a range of meanings, which are attractive to the target audience.

• Fundamenally, the star image is incoherent, that is incomplete and ‘open’. Dyer says that this is because it is based upon two key paradoxes.

Paradox 1• The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer.

Paradox 2 • The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer.

The Star Image

• The incoherence of the star image ensures that audiences continually strive to ‘complete’ or to ‘make sense of’ of the image.

• This is achieved by continued consumption of the star through his or her products.

• In the music industry, performance seems to promise the completion of the image, but it is always ultimately unsatisfying.

• This means that fans will go away determined to continue consuming the star in order to carry on attempting to complete their image.

• Finally, the star image can be used to position the consumer in relation to dominant social values (that is hegemony)

• Depending upon the artist, this may mean that the audience are positioned against the mainstream (though only to a limited degree, since they are still consumers within a capitalist system) or within the mainstream, or somewhere in between.

The Star Image QUOTE: Richard Dyer (stars, BFI, 1981)

• “In these terms it can be argued that stars are representations of persons which reinforce, legitimate or occasionally alter the prevalent preconceptions of what it is to be a human being in this society. There is a good deal at stake in such conceptions. On the one hand, our society stresses what makes them like others in the social group/class/gender to which they belong. This individualising stress involves a separation of the person’s “self” from his/her social “roles”, and hence poses the individual against society. On the other hand society suggests that certain norms of behaviour are appropriate to given groups of people, which many people in such groups would now wish to contest (eg. Gays in recent years). Stars are one of the ways in which conceptions of such persons are promulgated.”

Props

Prison Bars - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Cigars - Provided by Jason (Teacher)

Mug-shot boards x3 - Hand made: rectangular pieces of cardboard painted black with white numbers on

Retro silver microphones - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Money (Notes) - Printed and photocopied

Spaghetti - Provided by Jason

Martini Glass-

White Plate - Sourced from school kitchen

Poison Bottle - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Knife and Fork - Sourced from school kitchen

Small Tables(Jazz Club) - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Backdrop for Mug-shot -painted before shoot

Glasses - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Chairs for club- Provided by Theatre/Media department

Bar - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Gun (machine) - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Briefcase - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Desk - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Handcuffs - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Bed - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Storyboarding Editing Process

We had several initial ideas that we drew up storyboards for, one of which was set in a sweet shop. We had army men as the dancers and the 3 band members worked in the old fashioned sweet shop. We had the jazz club scene in with this idea. We wanted our video to have a retro feel, with the old sweet shop and the clothes they were wearing and the uniforms the soldiers had, we were then going to cut to the jazz club which was also set in the 50s.
This is one of the sheets from our storyboard for our original idea:




We came up with the idea of having the narrative being the 3 female jazz band members being 'Crazy in Love' and going round committing brutal murders. We have set our video in 2 main locations, a prison and a jazz club. Cut in between are the murders. We have 5 different murders and after each murder there is a 'cheeky' mug shot of one of the girls who supposedly committed that murder.
We decided to incorporate a dance break into the instrumental part of the song, this is done by the prison guards and prisoners in the prison scene. We filmed shots of each individual shot on the storyboard and cut them together to the timing and beat of the song using Final Cut Pro. Whilst drawing up the storyboard we included drawings, location, action, movement/type, sound, editing and timing of the shots. This will make it easier when we edit the shots together on the timeline. We had to change the length of some of the shots as when we played it back, we found they were not all keeping in time. Shortening the shots and speeding up the tempo, created a much more upbeat and energetic feel to the video, which is what we wanted to create.
This page below is showing how older women would want to see themselves as younger more dangerous, so the fact that these women in the band are portraying what they want to be, is inspirational for them.
This is our final storyboard: