PLANNING - 'She Said' by Sundara Karma Lyric Analysis

Lyric Analysis

This is the lyric analysis for my chosen song. I have broken down the lyrics and written my ideas and what I personally think the lyrics mean. 

'She said' by Sundara Karma - Lyric Analysis by Joseph Reeves on Scribd

GENERIC RESEARCH - Youth Subcultures

Youth Subcultures: What are they now?

Youth Subcultures have changed dramatically in the past two or three decades. In the mid-80's and the 90's youth subcultures were completely different to what they are now. People used to dress based on the music that they chose to listen to, for example there were the punks who clearly listened to punk music such as the Sex Pistols and The Clash. Punks used to have brightly coloured mohicans and wore leather jackets with their own customised studs all over the jacket. There were also metallers who listened to heavy metal music. They would stereotypically wear all black with baggy trousers with silver chains on them. There was a clear link to the youth subcultures and music in the 1980's. Nowadays it is clear that this has changed. There are a few reasons why this may be. One reason could be that the youngsters of today are too concerned about their futures in the current financial climate to be creative. Another reason may be because teens are so satisfied by the plethora of entertainment on offer that they don't need to rebel in the way that they dress.

British youth subcultures were first recognised by an American sociologist named Talcott Parsons who came up with the idea of "youth culture".  Many sociologists worked on subcultures but there was one that really defined Britain. This was Hoggart and Hall who researched different cultures such as Hippies and Skinheads (who are a main part of subcultures in Britain). The Beatles are one of the biggest bands ever from the United Kingdom and they had a huge following. Their crowd were seen as quite outrageous as after one concert they found urine staines on the seats. This shows that the Beatles' fans were quite outgoing and didn't really care what they did and who it affected. Many people thought this was ridiculous but only because they didn't understand the trend of the 60's.

NME and the Death of the Music Press

Music magazines today are now nowhere near as big as they were in the nineties. Q magazine used to be selling three times what it is now. They used to sell around 200,000 copies a month which has now dropped to around 50,000 which is a big loss of customers. NME is the same, selling only 20,000 copies in one week. NME has rebranded completely in the past few months. In August NME sold it's last copy ever. It rebranded and is now a free music magazine as they weren't making enough money to survive. The first copy of the free edition had Rihanna on the front cover who is a pop musician. NME is traditionally and indie rock magazine with Noel Gallagher having been the person on the front cover the most. This is suggesting that NME has tried to appeal to a completely different genre of music by having Rihanna and Taylor Swift on the front cover. The change has completely ruined the experience that the indie, alternative youth subculture used to have before it became free. My genre (indie,alternative rock) now have to suffer as we do not get the pleasure of seeing our favourite bands or rock musicians on the front.

GENERIC RESEARCH - History of Indie Rock Music

History of Indie Rock Music

Indie Rock is a genre of music that was first formed in the 1980s. It initially derived from the term 'independent' which was when bands had a do it yourself attitude and they produced much of their own music and recorded it without being signed to a major record label who controlled when albums and singles should be released. In the 1980s The Smiths were one of the first indie bands to get some form of attention. They signed to Rough Trade which is a famous indie record label.

The Smiths

By the end of the 90s indie rock had developed multiple subgenres as indie rock bands were those who stuck to their independent status. During the 90s alternative music started to slip into the mainstream with the rise of grunge in the USA with bands such as Pearl Jam and Nirvana achieving commercial chart success. In the UK the same was happening with the break through of Britpop with bands like Blur and Oasis who abandoned the regional, small-scale and political elements that were present with indie music in the 1980s.

Blur

In the 2000s music was completely changing and the rise in music technology meant that bands could release their own music withouth being signed to record labels. An example of a band who took advantage of this was the Arctic Monkeys. Commentators have suggested that they "represented the possibility of a change in the way in which new bands are promoted and marketed". This can be seen to be true as many bands and artists now are promoted and marketed through the internet rather than actual live performances.

Arctic Monkeys circa 2006

PRODUCTION - Green Screening

Green Screen

In my first draft I thought of making it fairly psychadelic by having a lot of colours in it. I thought I would film the visualiser on iTunes as it is a fairly unique idea. As I placed this shot into my video I thought it would make it more psychadelic and fit my genre even better if I had it placed behind the main subject and kept it as a running motif so I did.

The first step I took was to drag the footage of the visualiser and place it as the base footage. Doing this meant I would be able to place cutaways above it.

 The next thing I did was to place the footage I wanted to green screen as a cutaway shot. In this example it is my subject miming to the song as if she was saying the lyrics "I don't wanna go out chasing, kinda wanna go out dancing" to show that she is the one who is saying this.

As can be seen there are different effects I can add to this shot. I played around with the split screen but it didn't work for the style of music video so I tried the green screen by simply pressing the button in the top left of the shot.

This is the final process in the green screen effect. I played around with the rubbing effect to try and get the visualiser to be behind the subject. This is the final shot and it can be seen in the first draft of my video at 1:13.

AUDIENCE RESEARCH - Target Audience

Target Audience (Indie)

PRODUCTION - First Draft of Music Video

First Draft

A2 First Draft - 'She Said' Music Video - Joseph Reeves from Joe Reeves on Vimeo.

GENERIC RESEARCH - History of Music Videos

History of Music Videos

History of Music videos from joereeves1999