At the beginning of the course, our group had to secure the copyrights to a song in a genre for which we would want to base our project on. We did not know specifically what we wanted to do since there is a wide variety of music, but we agreed on the type of genre to choose from. Rock/Alternative Rock. It covers a broad spectrum, but at least we had an idea of what to research and base our ideas off of in the later planning stage.
History, Origins & Influences:
Rock music is a genre that originated in the 40s/50s and that later became known as 'Rock and Roll'. It was influenced by other music genres such as blues, folk, jazz, rhythm and soul.Alternative rock is one of the many sub-genres that have stemmed from rock. However, it was a result of independent music in the 80s and 90s where underground (not legally commercialised) music became popular through: its diversity, word of mouth and college radio broadcasting. 'Alternative' is a broad term used to describe something that differs greatly in its sound and roots. Hence, sub-genres such as gothic rock and industrial rock came into being.
Representation:
- There are typically 3-5 members in a rock group.
- Rock, unlike pop, also places a higher focus on the music itself, live performance and the authenticity of the band.
- In terms of aesthetics, the bands usually link to the ideology of 'rebellion' and being unique/different.
Therefore, it makes sense that some bands wear different accessories, mix (dark) colours (which are mostly black), wear makeup, etc.
Iconography & Music Videos:
The typical kind of music videos for the rock genre would be centred mostly around performance with some narrative to mimic a live performance that focuses on the band and its brand of music.
Usually for the rock genre, it is normal for the music video to focus on the band as if they were centre stage with high key lighting.
Alternative rock similarly has a focus on the band, but some more than others have a conceptual music video focussing on the meaning of the video and that it is like Andrew Goodwin's idea that it is a visual aid to the lyrics.
After the majority of our research was completed, we each ventured off to discover and contact various artists in order to secure provision for our music video.
Below is a song from indie rock artist Tyler Simmons Dale (ICANDOMUSICME) who we considered doing a music video for this song. He also represents the kind of artist and music that our research covers:
At this stage we had looked at multiple forms of the rock genre and thought that it would be interesting to cover something different and unique compared to traditional rock/alternative rock. This is why our project ended up being about Irish Rock with the band 'Creeds Cross'.
History & Backstory:
It started in the 1960s/70s when the musical culture of Britain spread and gained popularity in different countries. Eventually it reached Ireland and with it came influences such as blues and psychedelic rock. Irish music started to become popular with the creation of Irish 'showbands' which had musicians playing British and American hits in dancehalls and clubs across the country. Being a professional musician in Ireland at the time was the best way of making a living so the musical culture kept on growing.More Detail (A2 Blog)
- AlexResearch about Rock and Irish Rock
My group and I were required to research information about the genre of music which we secured the rights for. In this case it falls under the category of Irish rock , played by creeds cross.
Rock dates back to the 40's / 50's and later became known as rock and roll. Rock had numerous influences ,from blues and jazz, to folk music and soul music.
Through rock sprouted over variations of rock such as alternate rock , this became popular in the 80's and 90's how ever mainstream rocks' lyrics still heavily revolved around the influence of love.
Although lyrics soon began revolving around other meanings such as events (such as rebellions) or emotions.
Rock stereotypically revolves around the music however focusing on the sounds and tends to have between 3 - 5 members in the band on average, with instruments such as the electric guitar and bass guitar , drums and more recently instruments such as the keyboard /piano. Irish rock tends to incorporate more folk orientated instruments such as banjo's or the ukulele.
Originally bands playing music such as Irish rock started off in pubs and halls as a means of making money, and since grew in popularity and grew in notoriety. Some of the original rock bands are as follows,
The Beatles ,Metallica ,Pink Floyd ,ACDC , Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath ,Queen and Nirvana. These bands are highly recognisable through both the older generations and current generations and most likely future generations.
You may realise that often in rock concerts the visual is mainly focused upon the band playing or the instruments rather than a narrative although not to say it does not incorporate or include one.
By Shane O'Reilly
My Research into digipak's
The digipak that we are producing is a 6 panel album cover.
This will consist of internally 3 panels, a centre panel to which the cd will be inserted and two (left and right) panels to which we can remain creative with either inserting pictures of the band or singers or relevant images related to the theme.In addition to this there will be 3 panels, two which will be evident immediately, as this will be the front cover and the back cover and a third (extra cover) which will be appear on the outside once folded out.
This is just a rough template to what the shape of our digipak will look like. This is the digipak viewed from the inside with the centre being where the CD shall be placed.
This is the 3rd exterior panel once folded over once. In this image it is shown to be the extra panel which we can fill with relevant information about the album and/or the narrative behind the inspirations for the song and/or genre of the music.
- A barcode
- Track numbers
- Producer Logo
- Warning (if necessary for explicit content)
- Producer information
- promotions (optional)
- Application compatibility
Genre Research
when doing research, we looked at Andrew Goodwin as a form of guidance for our music video when doing research in to music videos.
By Taro Bedeau
Advertisement Research
In our research we looked at various rock print ads so that we can draw comparison on what they did and how we can apply to our own print advert.
So firstly when conducting the research we found that among advertisement (see pictures above) they consist of showing the band performance or individual members performing. An important aspect of the genre that separates it from other genre such as hip hop, RnB, and pop is that there is a lot more emphasis on the band as it consist of different band members playing different instruments and they want to showcase this.
In the following pictures above we see print advertisement of the band "Bring me the Horizon"and "Green Day". Here we can see the lead singer of both bands at the fore front of the advertisement, which is a consistent theme among media print adverts and they even have a front cover of just the lead singer in the same magazine ad. I believe this is done because what the audience see and more importantly hear is the lead singer so it only makes sense to have at the forefront which is a convention among music print advert.
In this picture we see the album picture on the print advertisement. This is a clear convention among the convention that can be seen across different genres, not just rock, making a theme among music print advert.
Also among print advert is the typography which are constant themes that relate to either the magazine or the artist.
Above is our final draft for our print advertisement which was done using the application "photoshop". Firstly we used a still picture from our music video so that in order to derive a clear link between this print ad and our music video. We also wanted to add a performance based picture as too keep to the convention of rock music.
We also sonly I followed suit by having just the lead singers the focal point rather than the entire band so as to make it clear that this guy is the band leader. Also the typography is in gaelic writing which the Irish audience will be able to draw a direct link. I also made the colours the same as the Irish flag (green,white and orange). and kept it consistent throughout the advertisement music video and digipak.
We also included the album cover in our print advert so as to not only advertise the release date of our album but also what the album cover looks like so that way people know what to look out for when buying it. I included 3 possible ways to purchase the album. I also placed a picture of the album cover so that people will know what to loo out for when buying it.
As well as this I have developed and produced a production logo (bottom right) so as to make it clear what company produced this album.
So through research I have injected what I have learned into my own print advertisement.
By Taro Bedeau
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