USEFUL TECHNOLOGIES: Prezi + other PowerPoint alternatives

Something you need to consider for your Evaluation - and use at earlier stages of blogging too.

See this post.

USEFUL TECHNOLOGIES: Free infographics tools

A great option for attractively presenting some of your research and analysis; see this post.

USEFUL TECHNOLOGIES: Google calendar

Great way to show your use of technology as well as to help evidence time management (and organisation of cast to boot if you share this with cast!!!), so just the three assessment criteria this can help with then!

Conal (A2 2014-15) produced his own guide, which you can read here. This group embedded their calendar at the bottom of the blog, a smart idea - I clicked back to December 2014 to get the screenshot below:

WIX creating a splash or landing page

Many of the online instructions for this refer to the Wix editor which is now termed the old editor as it has fundamentally changed ...

I haven't tested the following out, so if any of these works for you let me know via a comment.

In this 2015 link, the Wix support team reference a specific landing page menu option:

There are also shorter guides here, here (using a splash video), here (using a button workaround) and here.

Bear in mind that you can request technical help from Wix directly!

USEFUL TECHNOLOGIES Soundcloud Divshare + embedding podcasts/MP3s

See this post for a guide on getting an embed code for audio uploads, and on resizing that embedded player.

USEFUL TECHNOLOGIES YouTube tools playlists embedding

See this post for help (previewed below).

INDUSTRY GENDER Just 14/139 top figures female

ARTICLE: Who are the most powerful people in music? Jay Z? Kanye? Beyoncé? No, it’s old white men.

WEB Why YouTube vloggers rule youth culture

ARTICLE: Why are YouTube stars so popular?

CONVENTIONS Links - points - playlist: videos I've blogged on

NB: Some highly controversial videos are listed, including 'explicit' versions; some descriptions also contain some strong language.

See this post for some quick links on useful videos to consider.

As I've discussed analysed a great many videos, the list below is partial. The initial order reflects the order from the video below, with the 1st 20 selected to highlight some of the very, very many themes when considering not just conventions of but also reception for music videos. Most can be found in a playlist too - a great way to expose yourself to a wider range of videos than you are likely to be familiar with!!!

More details after the list, but the 20 videos featured in the video (several times more in the playlist) are:

1. Morbid Angel - Existo Vulgore (2012) 
2. Sepultura - Ratamahatta (1996) 
3. PIXIES - Velouria (1990) 
4. Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares to You (1990) 
5. Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball (Terry Richardson, 2013)
6. Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball (ChatRoulette, 2013)
7. Baauer - Harlem Shake (2012) [this is a '10 best of' montage] 
8. Depeche Mode - It's No Good (Anton Corbijn, 1997)
9. Weezer - Buddy Holly (Spike Jonze, 1994)
10. Guns n'Roses - November Rain (1992)
11. Bjork - Crystalline (Anton Corbijn, 2013)
12. Sepultura - Refuse, Resist (1994)
13. Megadeth - Wake Up Dead (1986)
14. Pixies - Bagboy (Lamar + Nik, 2013) 
15. Daft Punk - Da Funk (Spike Jonze, 1995)
16. Rihanna - Pour It Up (Vincent Haycock, 2013) (EXPLICIT tag)
17. Fragma - You Are Alive (2001)
18. Guns n'Roses - Welcome to the Jungle (1987)
19. Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines (Diane Martel, 2013) [parody]
20. Lily Allen - Hard Out Here (Christopher Sweeney, 2013) 

Morbid Angel - Existo Vulgore (2012) [post]
You do need to know the conventions ... but there is much more scope to challenge them than with, say, film, as videos like this, and the following Sepultura example, demonstrate. Rammstein and Rage Against the Machine have also produced examples I've blogged on, bringing Snow White and the Beach Boys into the extreme metal genre.


Sepultura - Ratamahatta (1996) [animated] [post]
A great example of turning conventions and expectations on their heads, this is an animated video by the Brazilian hardcore thrashers! You should also take from this that inspiration can come from anywhere, including music genres (and other media, as with Morbid Angel) you may not be a fan of! [Wiki]

Here's a bonus, highly countertypical further example: old-school (these guys were well established pioneers when I was still at school!) death metallers Obituary, who for their latest single have turned to Flash-animation and a Scooby-Doo style cartoon ... be advised though: it is, nonetheless, gory. You can read about it and watch it here.

PIXIES - Velouria (1990) (one-take video) See Wiki and my posts on this.

Miley Cyrus: feminism v post-feminism, exploited or empowered

I don't want these resources to get lost within a very long post, so am re-posting this material. I've considered Gaga in some detail in these terms, and its a key debate you need to address if you're working with a female artist (and arguably even if not!).

The discussion over Cyrus often gets quite frank, mature and sexually explicit treatment. Be aware of this before you click on any of the links below the line.

O'Connor/Cyrus' feminist/post-feminist clash became a major national news story, here on the BBC.

INDUSTRY Can we judge a hit anymore? Rihanna's Anti

Huge amount you can glean from this:

• very precise info on how the US industry officially calculates what streams are worth as notional sales
• an analysis of the confusion over whether Rihanna's new album is a smash hit or a serious flop
• a range of (often hyperlinked) examples of large-scale tie-ins that's seen Samsung especially pay to distribute 1m copies of various albums (including Anti) - not forgetting the controversial U2/Apple case
• a new twist on the use of websites as a promotional tool (Rihanna's bewildering recent effort)
• her full-on use of social media to tease and trail the album ... then delays ... then confusion between streaming company Tidal (she's a major stakeholder) and record label Universal...

ARTICLE: Rihanna's Anti sold fewer than 1,000 copies in a week. Is it a flop?

INDUSTRY How far have revenues fallen?

The article below details the financial struggles of a range of bands - acts with sizeable followings, radio airplay and critical acclaim. At their level, touring and merchandise still aren't really paying the bills, with minimal money coming in from actual record sales.

They note that even the fees for their music being used in ads has steeply declined. The flipside is the potential of digitisation to slash costs and directly engage with (and monetise) an audience.

Just how far have revenues fallen then? The actual figures are quite shocking - from a global $40bn industry to just $14bn in 15 years as digital piracy took off from 1999.

The music industry has been in steady decline since the early 2000s as illegal downloads and then the rise of streaming took gargantuan chunks out of record sales. The situation is not improving, with global revenue for music dipping below $14bn for the first time in 2014. It was $40bn in 1998. 

Understandably this hits artists not shored up by the big labels the hardest. Nothing in music pays what it once did, and the decline will likely continue.

We’re in an industry where over 90% of releases never recoup the money spent on them,” he says. “The industry underwrites failure as a necessary part of its operation and looks to the supercharged successes of a very small number of artists to cover the losses. That’s pretty dysfunctional. The number one challenge facing a new artist is a financial one: become profitable or cease to exist in the medium to long term.”

Wale believes that by thinking on a more realistic scale, and with advances in technology, it is still possible to make an income from music. “I think now, more so than ever, it’s very possible – especially for a solo artist – to make a cottage-industry scale success without any outside help whatsoever. Obviously this has been facilitated greatly by the internet and the emergence of online networks, fan-supported releases and a number of great discovery platforms. All the tools are really there for someone to go out and do it themselves.”

ARTICLE: The long, hard road to rock’n’roll success: ‘We’re essentially skint’

INDUSTRY How Rihanna represents digitised disrupted new norm

Lengthy feature, packed with highly quotable lines (music video has displaced audio for current generation, Rihanna makes money from social media driven sponsor/endorsement contracts than music sales...)

ARTICLE: Up the Anti: how Rihanna rewrote the rules of pop.

RIHANNA bitch video (post-)feminist or misogynist?

The New Statesman columnist was under no doubt this was a misogynistic video

NB: THE VIDEO UNDER DISCUSSION CONTAINS SEXUAL IMAGERY, AS DO SOME OF THE ARTICLES DISCUSSING IT

Feminists fall out over ‘violent, misogynistic’ Rihanna video.

Some reactions

New Statesman.

LoudWire.

Websites I've analysed

All of the following have been analysed in some detail (that's the 'website analysis' tag link)

Lady Gaga UK [my blog post]

Lady Gaga US  [blog]

The Doors  [blog]

Pilgrim (student; pop/Indie band) [blog]

LittleMonsters (Lady Gaga fans) [blog]

Sly Antics (UK Indie band) [blog] - note: by unfortunate coincidence, they changed their website almost within hours of my reviewing what is now their old one!

I've also briefly looked at a range of website banners, top links, basic branding, in this post:

• Adam Ant (US and UK)
• Alt-J
• The 1975
• You Me At Six
• Charlie Puth
• Shawn Mendes
• Bullet For My Valentine
• AC/DC

WEBSITE add games

The website mimics the TV show...

This is a simple example of the sort of feature that can add an edge to your website, make it a richer experience. I've not looked for any examples at this point, I'm not claiming it as a convention, merely an option.

There are lots of apps and web-based tools that will generate a game for you. I've used the Family Fortunes game builder, for example, to test on some British Cinema terminology knowledge (try it here). You could do a quiz based on song lyrics; video screenshots; track titles (name the tracks from album x)...

If you have any suggestions/examples, please leave a brief description and URL as a comment.

Options from the free web-based Family Fortunes game builder

...

Final Cut Pro X getting started

I added some specific tips to the mediatechtips blog: FCPX tag.

I've also added a vodcast in this post, covering most of the basics you need.

FCPX has been around a for a few years now; before doing anything else, I'd check any guides you are about to use reflect the latest version (or the version you are using, which may not be up to date!!!). Use the Wiki.

Apple provides a very clear guide: https://help.apple.com/finalcutpro/mac/10.2/. (I've included the full link as you can see you might need to check for an updated version)

You can also get an Apple manual.

Izzy Video.

Lynda.com.

Larry Jordan.

Atomic Learning.

FCPXworks.

FCP.co.
...

SOCIAL MEDIA MySpace and other failed sites

It is axiomatic that a social media presence is vital for any artist, aspiring or established. The perceived impact of Gaga's Little Monsters or Justin's Beliebers, not to mention any number of supposed bedroom success stories, reinforces this.

The fakery of most bedroom successes, their apparent viral success actually fuelled by major record labels' spending, and the pronouncement by the ever tedious Ed Sheeran that he's taking a break from social media to focus on his ... 'art', indicate a flipside to the argument that web 2.0 sites offer a key opportunity and disruption of the established distribution and marketing route through record labels.

Keen has also established an academic narrative against the intrusive, exploitative nature of these data-mining sites who profit from selling user data.

The articles below (with some strong language) are a useful reminder of the volatility of social media, with dominant sites completely disappearing once they lose their fashionability or zeitgeisty status.

See Ello, is anybody there? Alternative social networks abound for the peachy-keen

RIP Friends Reunited – but what else is lurking in the social media graveyard?

INDUSTRY Universal acclaim down to marketing spend

A truly angry article, packed with useful detail on the monopolised music industry and how the biggest player, Universal, used its vast resources to seal influential critic awards.

A sample quote:

Add in similar costs for a TV and radio plugger, to get the music aired in public and make voters feel that said act really is the kind of label priority worth voting for, and the same again for an online marketing team to make things appear “viral” and “organic”, and you will be lucky to get much change out of £100,000. Labels say that the cost of developing and launching a new mainstream pop act today can be anywhere between £500,000 and £1m. With winning the tastemaker polls seen as the blue chip moment in a launch campaign, it’s clear why an increasing number of chips from a decreasing number of bettors are being stacked on the side of the BBC’s roulette wheel.

ARTICLE: How do you become music's next big thing? You hope your record label will spend, spend, spend.

REPRESENTATION play gender bingo with Britney, Miley + coupla Daves

Heteronormative, objectifying; male gaze of Axl Rose?

Below: a playlist of various videos which are useful to demonstrate or at least discuss a range of gender representation terms and concepts. As the two fields are so interwoven, terms on sexuality are also included. Task instructions are also included.

SOME USEFUL TAGS ON THIS BLOG:
There is much more you can discover beyond the short, sharp snapshot of this selection and task.
Judith Butler;
Guns n Roses;
Lady Gaga;
Katy Perry;
Depeche Mode;
feminism;
(post) hetero-normativity;
(post) Miley: feminist or post-feminist?;

Is there a better example of misogyny? Read post here.

CONVENTIONS A guide to blogging your research

TBC - this is a NEW guide, replacing the previous post/paper guide

In a new series of posts I will break down the major themes/assessment criteria for Research and Planning in particular into four sections:

WHY is this required/important
WHEN should I do this
WHAT posts/content should I create
WITHIN what do I include within these

I will go on to suggest further sub-headings and themes to explore.

WHY
This impacts on several R+P assessment criteria, most directly on 'research into similar products'.

VINYL Record player Amazon's top Xmas seller

A strong sign of the widening resurgence of vinyl: Amazon's top-selling audio equipment over the Xmas period was a cheap record player, with built-in speakers and software for ripping records. (SOURCE)

WEB 2.0 Ed's sheer art attack post-internet?

A mention in one Guardian article does not make for an established neologism* (post-internet), and the term strikes me as clumsily broad, but I expect some term will gain currency to describe the abandonment of social media by some artists. *neologism = a new word

That word SOME is important - we're not yet seeing any mass scale downing of virtual tools, and Indie or unsigned acts largely continue to find it a fairly vital tool, while global acts with tentpole level global distribution also continue to see it as a central marketing and branding strand.

I recommend reading Elberse's Blockbusters for informative studies of how Jay-Z and Gaga pushed social media interaction alongside a range of deals to get their albums sold in networks such as Starbucks.

The story here is that Ed Sheeran has announced he's taking a break from social media, which by most accounts made him a star in the first place, so there's some loyalty to his audience!

Sadly, he's not taking a break from making tedious music, the idea is to focus on his music and the experience of tours.

If Led Zeppelin could go to a Welsh farm to produce a classic album, and Peter Gabriel produce perfect pop in another rural studio, then surely Sheeran ... will produce more stadium filling tedium. And you'll just have to rely on the mainstream media to hear about it. Apart from the fans and their UGC and their tour pics and clips... I'm already getting an 'eadache thinking about it...

Guardian: Post-internet: has the bubble burst on pop's social media strategy?

 

Wu Tang Clan aint nuthin to ruck with

If you haven't heard of this story, it's a unique tale of how a major rap act monetised their latest recording, picking up much valuable publicity along the way.

They auctioned the exclusive rights to the only one copy produced, netting $2m - some of which they then gave to charity after it emerged that the buyer was a much-hated pharma millionaire.

On the upside, they apparently inserted a legal clause that allows Bill Murray to steal it back!!! (Or the band, thus the lyrically intertextualising post title for those who have failed to Enter the 38 Chambers)

SOURCE: Indie.

Album cover art animated

PLEASE NOTE: This video would be rated 18 for gore if it was submitted to the BBFC. NSFW.

If you're okay with the adult content, this is one means to quickly learn about a range of classic album art and maybe pick up some ideas.

It is also an exceptional example of UGC, and must have taken many, many painstaking hours to produce!

https://youtu.be/hQaaVTBSGoU