Planning: Further Research

To inspire our designing process we needed to research the genre of rock music to understand the codes and conventions that we could convert or subvert in our own project.

However, I didn't want to simply research music videos that are similar in style and themes as our chosen song Paramore - but instead wanted to delve deeper through researching several elements of the genre and how the construction of mise en scene can translate across media-platforms.

I decided to research several different advertisement campaigns for different musicians, but the one documented below is for 'St. Vincent'- a band that performs songs of the rock-genre - the genre we've chosen; researching their recent album campaign that shows how a band promotes themselves through related yet varied media forms. Through this extensive research, I've found that each band's promotion is similar in it's execution and I've listed below the common elements that I've found in all of them explained through 'St. Vincent's recent campaign.

• 'Singles' and their accompanying Music Videos

 One of the most important aspects of promoting a new album is releasing a set of 'Singles' to be made for individual purchase. Recently the impact of releasing 'singles' has somewhat dwindled with the popularity of downloads increasing - however the system has adapted by paving the way for more extravagant and expensive music videos that accompany each single in an attempt to capture the millions that form the audience of Internet sites such as Youtube and Television channels such as MTV and Kerrang!. This element is essential in promotion - below is a print screen image that stresses the importance of  making a promotional music video.

Above, a print screen from video-sharing website YouTube, shows how a music video can advertise across media forms; in the video's description it informs the audience of the following: links to the artists official website; a link to purchase the song on iTunes; a link to the nearest venue that the artist is performing at and finally, a link to the Television show (if any) that the song has been featured on.

I went on to find out about how other media-platforms make use of existing media products despite them being a different form of medium; 

• Print Media: Magazine advertisements promote  the newest 'Single' and Album - New Media
• Touring: Including areas of advertisement in Print Media
• Website: Including social-networking links

This exploration of the synergy of media-platforms that help promote a music-video or further, a new-music campaign, helped me understand what I needed to achieve when constructing my ancillary and main tasks.