A Power Point presentation to explore how effective the combination of main product and ancillary text is?

Heather Schreuder

Our pop video was of the song ‘Bird Song’ by our manufactured band ‘Lily and the Tealeaves.’

In the video we have our lead singer trapped in a birdcage, the birdcage being a metaphor for her psyche or society. She is trapped by her guilty conscience.

We produced the Digipak by looking through a range of pictures we had taken of our artist and of our set and after a lot of deliberation we decided to produce a cover with the image of the birdcage on the front. This is because it is not to over the top but it is simple enough to catch somebody’s eye. The idea was to help sell the single off the album that would be the original selling point of our artist. So by association they would see that the band that has an album with the song “Bird Song” on it might have a connotation of a birdcage and therefore pick up the album. We decided to add smoke to give the cover a more mysterious, edgy look. This is to enhance the image of our artist as unique and edgy. As for the inside of the Digipak we decided to show the artists face and also show the lyrics of the song. This is so that a consumer can learn the words of their favourite songs and if they go to any of the concerts they will be able to sing along. As well as that we also put in music notes shaped liked birds, again to reinforce the ‘Bird Song’ as the first single off the album. For the back of the album we wrote our all the copyright information and found the island records logo online to stick on the back as well. We did have to change the colours to blend it with the album and as well as that we also added a barcode for authenticity.

We made the magazine advert by getting the original image of a birdcage and creating the same look as the album cover. However we decided to add a picture of our artist to the advert to sell the brand more. As well as that we also added a list of all the tour dates and venues so that the viewer can buy tickets for the tour. The reason we advertise the tour in the magazine advert is because that is where the band makes the most money. We also added the ‘Island Record’ logo to establish again the record company and as well as that we added the website name so fans can buy tickets and help learn more about the artist and possibly buy merchandise.

Each product had its own job and each was working with the others through synergy to: Sell the song, Establish band, Set up star image. The Digipak needs to be interesting enough for people to pick up the album in stores and the magazine advert needs to sell the album as well as the tour dates as that is how the artist makes money. All of these products ultimately create synergy together as they all work together to help sell the artist and their brand.

Carlsson’s Theory of performers in pop videos explains that usually the performers will cover one or more of three categories:

Commercial Exhibition

Televised Bards

Electronic Shaman

Commercial Exhibitionist are artists only concerned in selling/exhibiting themselves. For example; Britney, Lily Allan, Mick Jagger.

Televised Bards are artists who are story tellers and tell a story through their song. For example Eminem.

Electronic Shaman are artists who preach through their songs. For example Bob Dylan or John Lennon from the Beatles with ‘All you need is love’. Or artist who takes on different forms in their image or are not actually shown, for example DJs who want people to focus on their music and not their face.

If anything our artist would be a televised bard as she tells the story of how she killed a bird who found out a secret of her that she didn’t want anybody to know so she killed to bird so he couldn’t spread the secret. Through her lyrics she conveys this story to the listener. These lyrics are seen in the centrefold of our Digipak.

Richard Dyre’s theory of “star image” is relevant to us creating a star as his definition is that: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.

Dyer believes that artist need to have some common values of music stardom such as:

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. He says that a stars name sells a film. For example Robin Williams image is a happy funny comical actor where as in real life he is a manic depressive.

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 ect as well as films [music]) - Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings.

Our artist follows some of Dyers common values such as she is young, has sexual magnetism, originality, creativity/talent and also perhaps success against the odds.

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

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

They have to be reasonably human and try to put across that they do regular things which allows people to relate to them. Our artist can do this as she is vulnerable and reasonably ordinary looking so people can relate to her.

However at the same time they need to be out of reach, untouchable and appear overly talented. Our artist can relate to this as they are a pop star making a pop video which in itself is admirable and also she is in a giant birdcage which is abstract.

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

They must make public appearances on TV, interviews, be in the public sphere, radio and touring.

But yet they need to be absent by taking a break from their appearances by keeping up the illusion of being untouchable.

It is the dislocation between consumer and product.

Levi Strauss’s concept of universal myths is that myths are narratives which belong to cultures rather than individuals and which tend to be passed down generationally.

Strauss identifies a large number of universal social structures for example: the importance of kin, nurturing role of females, taboo on incest ect.

Strauss sees myths as stemming from a human need to make sense of the world, solving our cultural and common dilemmas. Myths offer answers to those dilemmas.

Right and Wrong:In our video we deal with myth of right and wrong through the lyrics of our song. As they suggest a moral dilemma. There is always a universal myth about what is right and wrong in the world. For example it is wrong to kill and steal, it is right to be happy and friendly. Within our video we deal with this myth as she is talking about killing a bird which is morally wrong which challenges conventions.

Nurturing roles of female: A universal myth is that females are kind and caring and are general mother figures and are very nurturing. In our pop video we subvert the idea of this myth as through the lyrics you hear that she is killing a bird and this is then portrayed at the end of the video with the feathers floating everywhere. This challenges the convention of this myth as our artist is becoming the opposite of nurturing otherwise she would have cared for the bird. Instead she is not motherly or nurturing and kill it.