Class Work : Cultural Industry

Daniel Kelly- A2 Media Studies

·      What is the definition of Cultural industry

Adorno and Horkheimer were two males who developed this definition of the Cultural Industry with their joint theory. They stated that the Cultural industry was just like any industry in the world, it goes through the same process and at the end of the stages is the final piece . A product to sell. They imply that artist is now seen as products; everything is controlled to make them this product to sell to the mass market. The public will love this artist and buy their music, trend or products to do with the artist. And in result,  for the creators to all make money.  Everything in the cultural industry is controlled.

The class task is to find a artist who hasnt been manipulated by the cultural indursty and a artist who has

 A Artist who hasn't been manipulated by the cultural industry

The Weeknd

The Weeknd is the artist i choose who hasnt been manipulated by the cultural industry. His type of music and image hasn't changed from when he was producing music alone to now being signed my a record label. 

 The two photos which are shown are from his first mixtape (Top Left) to his new album brought out in 2013 ,called 'Kiss Land ( Bottom Right) This shows that  his image and everything about him you can see has stayed the same. He hasn't been manipulated.

The weekend created and produced music himself and uploaded them to YouTube. At the beginning when he first started to create his music , he played his songs to a record label but they rejected him so the weekend didn't get signed. 

He then took his songs , and upload them to 'YouTube' a way many artist get recognized in the modern day now. He uploaded 3 songs and eventually a record label noticed him. 

So then we went forward with his career and produced 3 mixtapes and to boost his recognition  'Drake' helped him as he FT in drakes songs. When he signed with a record label ,he created his own record label and signed himself to his own too called XO. This allowed the weeknd not to get changed by the cultural industry  and allow him to be in charge and keep his music the same and keep his own image  as its his own record label.

Furthermore , you cant see a change in the music which the Weeknd has produced. The first link bellow is from his first mixtape and the second link is his latest song. This shows you that the music he has created  hasn't change , it still has a similar tone of music and harmonies ect through out his carer, showing he hasn't been manipulated. Everything about his carer has stayed the same. 

 Youtube Links: 

The Weeknd First Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A85xBaLYWc

The Weeknd Latest Song :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0TaqaxVv_o

A artist who has been manipulated by the cultural industry 

JLS

JLS is a band who I have chosen who has been manipulated by the cultural industry. The reason being is if you see them from the start of their career to how they are now then you can see the major change of their image , music ect due their record label controlling them. JLS started their career on the TV show X-Factor. ( image shown on the right) They got through the final show of x factor but fell at the last hurdle and finished in 2nd place.  The band then got signed up by 'Epic Records' after the xfactor and brought out their fist single beat again. ( Image Bellow) you can see the change of image of the boys due their record label now controls them and uses them as a selling product. They are now similar to a object. You can also see the change of the music of the boys. From their audition to their first single. Shown in the youtube clips at the bottom of the page. 

If you watch both , you can see they are complete opposite , from when they auditioned to now. A complete new style of music they are singing. Due to the record label is now dictating  the type of music for the band to create. 

YouTube Links:

JLS First Audition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrUmZBzZj8Y

JLS First Single: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEYhGhdwMKI

The timeline of the boys you can see a major change in the band from when they first got together , to then getting signed by a record label and controlled. Their image and type of music they produce has incredibly changed. Now the band has split up which could possibly be due they are being manipulated that much , they have ended up falling out or not enjoying thir music any more as the record label has taken control. 

Overall 

Overall , you can see the difference of the two artist. The weeknd image has stayed the same and his music is still similar to his first song he produced in his first mix tape. Showing that he hasn't been manipulated by the cultural industry. Whereas , JLS , you can see major changes in their image and their music. There is a difference from when they first walked into X factor and they had their own image and style of music which they preferred to when they signed with a record label and created their first single . There is a clear difference in the image of the boys and the style of their music. This shows how just signing with a record label can manipulate you and use you as a selling object. 

Audience Profile

What is it about?

This is our audience profile of our band 'Rogues Gallery'
The audience profile is to specificity, in depth, show the main type of people our band will appeal too.
Researching into similar bands , such as the artic monkeys , out audience profile would be similar to there , so we took that into consideration , and had to make ours as similar as possible otherwise , our band wouldn't be appealing to the right target audience.
We went with the main target audience being young males , due to younger generation tend to link in with our similar lifestyle of the night life of partying drinking drugs ect. With the age being young men , we believed that they will mos likely be students either at university or 6 form/college as now you have to stay in education ill your 18 and due to their being no jobs out there , most people tend to stay in further education now. Furthermore , the image of the men will be scruffy looking , very unique with tattoos and facial hair. They like to hang around with their group of 'boys' and have a laugh drinking watching football , going out or playing video games.

Week 3 - Mood Board

This is my mood which we created for our band. For the mood board we associated imaged to do with our band to create this mood board. In the middle of our mood board is our band logo stating the name of the band , with the song we choose to do for our music video. The song we choose is Kasabian - Clubfoot.

Around the logo is a boxing ring , this is because our music video is based around a boxing fight between to men who hate each other due to one man bullied him and made his life hell when he was younger. The boxing ring is a main prop in our music video as when the story is not being told  , it will cut back to us ( the band) performing in the same boxing ring which the two men end up having a fight in towards the end of the music video. ( for more information on our music video check my previous blog post of our music video idea)

The images around the ring is of images associated with the music video/band. We have images of 4 bands which are similar to us:

• The kooks
• Oasis
• The libertines 
• Kasabian.

These bands are most influential to us and the creation of our band as we research into this bands to help us create 'Rogues Gallery'

We placed words around the edge which link into our music video:

• Rock- as its our genre 
• Revenge - as the man is getting revenge for the troubles the other man caused.
• Fight - as the two men have a fight at the end as the resolution

Furthermore we placed images of our band which shows our band image such as

1. Tattoos
2. Brogues
3. Leather jackets
4. Facial Hair

Survey Results

These are the results from the online questionnaire we made on www.surverymonkey.com 

The significance of this is that it shows that we are heading in the right direction , the results we got back suggest that the band name definitely suit the indie rock genre. The music video feedback suggest that the video needs to have some sort of action , making the video exciting and violent .  Our music video fits in with the feedback as our music video is about a fight. Furthermore , the results about the image of the band stated that the public believe we should wear skinny jeans scruffy looking ext. That is the image we are going for. Overall we are pleased with the results as now we can move forward in the progress as the results fit in with what we wanted with the band.

Album Art Work Research

Band artwork research from Northen95

In this slideshow , me and my fellow band members researched into similar indie rock bands like our own and studied their album cover so we can make our own Digi Pak.
We studied these bands and their album covers:

• Kasabian
• The Libertines 
• Arctic Monkeys
• Oasis
• The Kooks

Kasabian

We looked at Kasabian artwork of their first album cover. Here Kasabian used different album covers for different countries they sold the album in. For example , black and white in England. But in america it is black and blue. In my opinion , i personally really like that idea of having different copies for the fans across the globe to go out and buy , as its something special and collectable for the 'super fans'. That idea of having some special and collectable which Kasabian has done by having different album covers , i want to use  when i make my own digi pak . To make my digi pak specials but making it a collectors item for my band.

The Libertines 

We studied 2 album art work of the libertines. The album I am going to discuss is the first image on the  slide show called the 'The Libertines' . The reason why i am only talking about this album is because i really like the image they used for their cover. This is because the image has a significant meaning to as it was the the welcome back concert for pete dohety coming back from prison. It has a strong meaning as the photo was a natural photo their photographer took of the band. That idea of a natural photo for the front cover personally i really like and is something i am looking to use for my digi pak. 

Arctic Monkeys

With the Arctic Monkeys album there is not much from their album cover that i would like to use for my own. The only thing I like is the fact the image they used of their friend smoking a cigarette  shows their rebellious behaviour which is similar my bands personality. In my digi pak i would like a image which shows the behaviour of my band.

Oasis

The oasis album cover has image of the band lazy around in their flat producing music. I really like this image as it gives of a insight of the band lifestyle and how the create their music. I really want a idea similar to this of my band in the studio , working producing the music for this digi pak.

The Kooks

I really like the layout and colour scheme of the kooks first album , and i want to take that into consideration for my album. The balck and white image of the band and then the simple font of black and red personally really works and its effective and stands out. 

Week:2 Band Logo

OUR BAND LOGO

This is the first and current logo for our band. We created this logo in Photoshop by playing around with different tools on the software. Firstly , we want the the website www.dafont.com and chose a simple but bold font which gives of a  masculine feel. We didn't want a font which gives off a soft effect and looks feminine as that will give off the wrong effect about our band.

We choose to put black rectangles going down our logo as it looks like prison bars , which links in with our rebellious lifestyle and  image, with the fists behind the text to give a effect that someone is locked up behind the bars. 

The colour scheme is just simple black and white , nothing fancy or complicated,as from the research of the bands , they all don't have colour in their logo. They all go for a simple black and white colour scheme so we followed the bands we are influenced by.

Brainstorm of ideas for our genre as you can see we covered all the aspects of our genre and we will use this to get an idea of what our band image and video can contain and similar bands such as kasabian. we also believe their is a band and narrative element and this is something we will apply/ However , due to not being one of most popular personal genres we struggled so research is needed /