Deadlines/Brief

Music videos are so 80s/90s, right? They belong with the era when MTV screened wall-to-wall vids instead of 'reality' TV? Try telling that to the millions who bought Gangnam Style; were they really simply loving the music? 1.6bn (and still climbing) have viewed the video on YT, not to mention the many re-makes (school eg, eg2), viral ads + celeb link-ups (even political protest in Seoul) - and it doesn't matter how legit it is, this nightmare for daydream Beliebers is making a lot of money, even from the parodies + dislikes. All this for a simple dance track that wouldn't have sounded out of place in 1990 ... but had a fun vid. This meme itself was soon displaced by the Harlem Shake. Music vids even cause diseases it seems!
This blog explores every aspect of this most postmodern of media formats, including other print-based promo tools used by the industry, its fast-changing nature, + how fans/audiences create/interact. Posts are primarily written with Media students/educators in mind. Please acknowledge the blog author if using any resources from this blog - Mr Dave Burrowes

Friday 19 February 2016

USEFUL TECHNOLOGIES: Prezi + other PowerPoint alternatives

Something you need to consider for your Evaluation - and use at earlier stages of blogging too.

See this post.

USEFUL TECHNOLOGIES: Free infographics tools

A great option for attractively presenting some of your research and analysis; see this post.

USEFUL TECHNOLOGIES: Google calendar

Great way to show your use of technology as well as to help evidence time management (and organisation of cast to boot if you share this with cast!!!), so just the three assessment criteria this can help with then!

Conal (A2 2014-15) produced his own guide, which you can read here. This group embedded their calendar at the bottom of the blog, a smart idea - I clicked back to December 2014 to get the screenshot below:


Wednesday 17 February 2016

WIX creating a splash or landing page

Many of the online instructions for this refer to the Wix editor which is now termed the old editor as it has fundamentally changed ...

I haven't tested the following out, so if any of these works for you let me know via a comment.

In this 2015 link, the Wix support team reference a specific landing page menu option:
There are also shorter guides here, here (using a splash video), here (using a button workaround) and here.

Bear in mind that you can request technical help from Wix directly!



USEFUL TECHNOLOGIES Soundcloud Divshare + embedding podcasts/MP3s

See this post for a guide on getting an embed code for audio uploads, and on resizing that embedded player.

USEFUL TECHNOLOGIES YouTube tools playlists embedding

See this post for help (previewed below).

Wednesday 3 February 2016

CONVENTIONS Links - points - playlist: videos I've blogged on

NB: Some highly controversial videos are listed, including 'explicit' versions; some descriptions also contain some strong language.


See this post for some quick links on useful videos to consider.

As I've discussed analysed a great many videos, the list below is partial. The initial order reflects the order from the video below, with the 1st 20 selected to highlight some of the very, very many themes when considering not just conventions of but also reception for music videos. Most can be found in a playlist too - a great way to expose yourself to a wider range of videos than you are likely to be familiar with!!!

More details after the list, but the 20 videos featured in the video (several times more in the playlist) are:

  1. Morbid Angel - Existo Vulgore (2012) 
  2. Sepultura - Ratamahatta (1996) 
  3. PIXIES - Velouria (1990) 
  4. Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares to You (1990) 
  5. Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball (Terry Richardson, 2013)
  6. Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball (ChatRoulette, 2013)
  7. Baauer - Harlem Shake (2012) [this is a '10 best of' montage
  8. Depeche Mode - It's No Good (Anton Corbijn, 1997)
  9. Weezer - Buddy Holly (Spike Jonze, 1994)
  10. Guns n'Roses - November Rain (1992)
  11. Bjork - Crystalline (Anton Corbijn, 2013)
  12. Sepultura - Refuse, Resist (1994)
  13. Megadeth - Wake Up Dead (1986)
  14. Pixies - Bagboy (Lamar + Nik, 2013) 
  15. Daft Punk - Da Funk (Spike Jonze, 1995)
  16. Rihanna - Pour It Up (Vincent Haycock, 2013) (EXPLICIT tag)
  17. Fragma - You Are Alive (2001)
  18. Guns n'Roses - Welcome to the Jungle (1987)
  19. Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines (Diane Martel, 2013) [parody]
  20. Lily Allen - Hard Out Here (Christopher Sweeney, 2013) 



Morbid Angel - Existo Vulgore (2012) [post]
You do need to know the conventions ... but there is much more scope to challenge them than with, say, film, as videos like this, and the following Sepultura example, demonstrate. Rammstein and Rage Against the Machine have also produced examples I've blogged on, bringing Snow White and the Beach Boys into the extreme metal genre.


Sepultura - Ratamahatta (1996) [animated] [post]
A great example of turning conventions and expectations on their heads, this is an animated video by the Brazilian hardcore thrashers! You should also take from this that inspiration can come from anywhere, including music genres (and other media, as with Morbid Angel) you may not be a fan of! [Wiki]

Here's a bonus, highly countertypical further example: old-school (these guys were well established pioneers when I was still at school!) death metallers Obituary, who for their latest single have turned to Flash-animation and a Scooby-Doo style cartoon ... be advised though: it is, nonetheless, gory. You can read about it and watch it here.

PIXIES - Velouria (1990) (one-take video) See Wiki and my posts on this.

Miley Cyrus: feminism v post-feminism, exploited or empowered

I don't want these resources to get lost within a very long post, so am re-posting this material. I've considered Gaga in some detail in these terms, and its a key debate you need to address if you're working with a female artist (and arguably even if not!).

The discussion over Cyrus often gets quite frank, mature and sexually explicit treatment. Be aware of this before you click on any of the links below the line.

O'Connor/Cyrus' feminist/post-feminist clash became a major national news story, here on the BBC.

Tuesday 2 February 2016

INDUSTRY Can we judge a hit anymore? Rihanna's Anti


Huge amount you can glean from this:
  • very precise info on how the US industry officially calculates what streams are worth as notional sales
  • an analysis of the confusion over whether Rihanna's new album is a smash hit or a serious flop
  • a range of (often hyperlinked) examples of large-scale tie-ins that's seen Samsung especially pay to distribute 1m copies of various albums (including Anti) - not forgetting the controversial U2/Apple case
  • a new twist on the use of websites as a promotional tool (Rihanna's bewildering recent effort)
  • her full-on use of social media to tease and trail the album ... then delays ... then confusion between streaming company Tidal (she's a major stakeholder) and record label Universal...