Deadlines/Brief

Music videos are so 80s/90s, right? They belong with the era when MTV screened wall-to-wall vids instead of 'reality' TV? Try telling that to the millions who bought Gangnam Style; were they really simply loving the music? 1.6bn (and still climbing) have viewed the video on YT, not to mention the many re-makes (school eg, eg2), viral ads + celeb link-ups (even political protest in Seoul) - and it doesn't matter how legit it is, this nightmare for daydream Beliebers is making a lot of money, even from the parodies + dislikes. All this for a simple dance track that wouldn't have sounded out of place in 1990 ... but had a fun vid. This meme itself was soon displaced by the Harlem Shake. Music vids even cause diseases it seems!
This blog explores every aspect of this most postmodern of media formats, including other print-based promo tools used by the industry, its fast-changing nature, + how fans/audiences create/interact. Posts are primarily written with Media students/educators in mind. Please acknowledge the blog author if using any resources from this blog - Mr Dave Burrowes

Saturday, 19 October 2013

Using INSTAGRAM to promote promos! (Britney, Rhianna etc)

Blogging, FB and Twitter are social/new media frequently mentioned here as tools used by artists/labels to boost acts'/videos profile and distribution.
Another useful site, heavily used by many artists, from the smallest Indie acts to global names, is Instagram...
On August 9, 2012, English musician Ellie Goulding came out with a new music video for her song "Anything Could Happen". The video only contained fan submitted Instagram photographs that used various Instagram filters to represent words or lyrics from the song[63] and over 1200 different photographs were submitted. [Wiki]

Today's acts often use trails or teasers for their vids to try and maximise the publicity and media/social media coverage, with Instagram emerging as a key means of doing so.
There is a downside to this, if clumsily handled, but you probably should consider this stratagem yourself!
It is possible to reveal too much with supposed trails

The downside occurs if the 'trails' for a promo vid effectively deny an audience any suprise, or sense of discovery/novelty, when the final vid is actually released:
In 2013, pop stars seem intent on ruining the surprise element of their videos through their various social-media means. Just look at exhibit one: Rihanna. To put it lightly, Rihanna is a fan of the popular photo-sharing site Instagram. She posted 33 (yes, I've counted) "previews" of her recent video for Pour It Up before it was released. So many, in fact, that when I actually watched the clip, it was all too familiar. When I closed my eyes I could see Rihanna's bum, twerking in a puddle. And Twitter was with me, chorusing "Meh, seen it already" and "Blimey, that's an impractical bra". Justin Bieber, meanwhile, has been teasing his latest video, Heartbreaker, on Instagram since July. I can't wait to not watch it. [Sampson, 2013]
If you've employed this strategy, post a link to your Instagram account as a comment.

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