Shooting Script

- fridge magnets cartoon style rearranging footage to spell stereo decade.
- Close up of hands, begins to play for piano section.
- Close up of "dont be ashamed" on body.
- mid shot of electric guitar being played.
- Another shot (panning) down past body seeing more writing.
- When singing is about to start, shot of the microphone. the singers face is partly hidden.
- Shot of somneone holding a card infront of their face.
- cut to a mid close up of drums and bands name on the bass drum.
- Quick shots that go with the beat of the song of the cards.
- Cut to a shot of a band memember dancing this footage has a 'cartoon' effect on it.
- Cut to another close up shot of the body writing.
- cut back mid shot of  a band memember.
- cut to shots of the posters on the wall.
- go back to shot of lead singer.
- cut to cards held up.
- back to close up of drums.
- back to body tattoo with postcards scattered round body.
- a sequence of cuts between band playing, body shots and postcards.
- All cuts will go with the beat and be synicornised and will be straight cuts to follow the pace of the music.
-2/3's of the way through the video when a  single cymbal can be heard being hit, for every cymbal strike a image will appear on screen.
- At the end cut from singer to the fridge magnets, they begin to scramble back to their original position at the start.
- Fade to black.

Album Cover Development

After researching indie- pop album covers we went out and took photos to create our cover. Here are a couple of front cover ideas

- This album cover being modern and unique we feel doesn’t show our full potential of what we could do with a front cover. So, therefore we have decided to still include this but inside, this particular photo will appear behind the actual CD and will be visible once the CD is removed.

- This is similar to the other previous one however still lacks something, we still want to include vinyl records but not as the only thing visible on the cover. We might include the postcards which can be seen in the video and the guitar which can be seen on our magazine advert.


Below are some font ideas that we could include on our album cover or within the digipak. Stacking the band name like the one below or scattering them to look like stickers could be a page in the album along with the single vinyl picture.

Copy of Questionnaire

So Cool questionnaire (Circle most relevant to you)

Male     Female

Age?
..........

What is you favourite style of music?
Indie      Rock    Pop    R&B     Heavy Metal    Raggae   Jazz   

Do you watch music videos?

Yes    No

Where do you watch them?

Internet    TV    DVD's   Video Jukeboxes

What is your favourite music channel?

TMF   MTV   4Music   Scuzz   Flava  Kerrang!  Kiss  Q 
Classical FM   VH1  Other.....

How much time do you spend watching music videos in a week?
0-15 mins     16-30 mins   31-60+ mins

Do you buy any other music media?

Magazines   CD's/DVD's   Downloads  Band Merch

What was your most recent purchase?
.............................................................

How much on esimate do you spend on music media a week?
£0-20   £21-£40   £41-60  £61


How do you find out about new releases?
In store  Radio   TV   Internet   Concerts    Magazines

What would you expect to see in a music video? (Circle 2)
The Band      A party     Narrative     Live performance    Fans
studio performance    other..........


What do you feel that a special edition music album should include?
....................................................................................................

What do you expect to see on a magazine advert?
.....................................................................................................

Chosen Idea

After careful consideration we have decided as a group that we can include elements from all three ideas. We have drawn up a storyboard that includes live performance including close ups of the instruments and band members, narrative including short sections that help tell the meaning of the song and artistic shots, including the images of the body with the lyrics of the song written on and the postcards held up by anonymous people that will say things about them. This all together will hopeful prove to be a good video and will reflect the indie-pop genre.

Underdog Management

Two people from Underdog Management. Gemma Reilly and Faye Hunter, came in on two occasions to talk about the music world and their part in the business. They came to our group to talk about our ideas and intentions for the music video. They gave us ideas and inspiration including the idea of filming all three sections at the same time in the same place. They will also be coming in on the 19th November with a stylist to help us with our difficult task of creating the illusion of a tattoo on someone’s body, they have also said they will try and look for a model that is willing for this to be done on them. They are also bringing with them a signed artist that can talk to us about creating a music video. Their help has aided us greatly and has given us hope that what we want to do can be done.

Lyrics analysis

Verse 1

Don’t be ashamed of your body, after all its not ashamed of you

You should have more respect for yourself. Think of the poisitve not the negative

I’m not ashamed of my body, having said that I think its ashamed of me

He's not ashamed but he has done things to his body which he shouldn't of

Verse 2

She’s something, she’s so smooth

He thinks she's special and he likes her

And now she’s in front of me melting

Shes so beautiful shes "melting" infront of him like food in his mouth (metaphor)

Don’t be ashamed of your body, after all its not ashamed of you

Dont be ashamed of what you've done

Chorus

So cool, so cool

He's taking the mic

I bet your friends all think that they are

everyone is cool in their own way. so dont give into pier pressure

So cool, so coolSo cool, so cool

I bet your friends all think that they are

So cool, so cool

Verse 3

She’s something she’s so smooth

And now she’s in front of me naked

She has admitted her feelings for him to him

Verse 1

Chorus

Verse 4

Show me that you’re not afraid

Dont be self conscience

I want to feel your lipstick all over my dirty little face

Show me that you’re not afraid

I want to feel your lipstick all over my dirty little face

he wants to get closer to her

Verse 1

Verse 1

Verse 1

Chorus

Market Research - Questionnaire

After completing our market research we found that the majority of our audience watch music videos. Four people didn’t which meant a number of totals could only be out of sixteen as they couldn’t be answered by the people you didn’t watch music videos. The majority of people asked were aged between 14 and 23 which gave us a good range of ages. Even though we had a good range of ages and gender we found that where people were watching videos and the genre of music they were listening to were very similar. The internet with TV close second were the markets choice for viewing videos, the time spent watching them though isn’t very high, from our questionnaire we concluded the majority of people watched music videos for a maximum of fifteen minutes a week. The internet sight “Youtube” and the channels “TMF” and “4Music” were top for the favourite ones. These channels give their audience more indie, pop, and soft rock music. Finding this out has allowed us to pick a suitable song that can reach and please a greater number of people. The way that the market get hold of material is changing from CD’s to digital downloads from sites such as “Itunes” and “Jamster”, this can been seen in our research, also the way people find out about new releases or material by artists is also changing from radio and magazine to the internet. The amount spent of music on average per person isn’t very high; this could be because of illegal downloading of music which is completely free. Finally the last thing we found from our research was what people thought they should expect to see in a music video, the band, narrative and live performance was rated top. We will use all this information during the process of devising our music video and the making of our digipak album.

Album Ideas

Album Idea 1
Very simple design with an old record disc on a grey background
in the centre there is an orange arrow with the name of the band
"Stereo Decade" on it. This design is modern and matches the indie
genre.


Album Idea 2
This design is more of a retro style. The name of the band is
seen below a large stereo. Again the design is simple but would
stand out to an audience.


Album Idea 3
This album cover style is more of a traditional one. It shows
the band, their name and more colour. This matches other
albums of the same genre.

Ideas Feedback

After presenting our three ideas to the class we received mainly positive feedback.

Idea 1
- They liked the combination of live and narrative.
- The way that we would use close ups on the "members" of the band so that their identity isn't shown was a positive as this meant it doesn't matter who we use.
- During live performance we decided to have close ups so that the audience believes that the instruments are being played professionally.

Idea 2
- The class like the way we would include postcard sized notes held by people saying a thing about them self.

Idea 3
- Idea three was the most controversial. However they still liked the idea, but thought that we could only have close ups of the body and no full length naked shots.

Conclusion
We were told that we should include elements of all three as the second and third ideas couldn't hold up as a video on their own. So that including those two with the first would make a good music video.

Idea 3

•Start with close ups of a girl. The girl needs to be a shape that is considered ugly in the eyes of the fashion and modelling.
•There will be writing on her body the words will be negative. Or we can put write the lyrics on her.
•In between these shots there will be shots of the band performing.
•Close to the end of the video we get the same shots of her body but with positive words on her. This corresponds to the lyrics “ Don’t be ashamed of your body”

Idea 2

The song has an important message which I think will appeal to our generation of self image. To express this message I think a good idea would be to film many different people all shapes and sizes holding up pieces of paper to show their fears. Shots of the band playing the song will be intertwined shows two settings, one performance and one narrative.
The shots of the people holding the messages will be very quick.
or we peg the messages on the line or we have the messages displayed behind the band while they are playing.

Idea 1

· Floor shot at person walking past an amp. Only their feet can be seen.
· Cut to a close up of piano keys and persons hand playing the piano.
· Cut back to the amp once the electric guitar begins to play.
· Cut to microphone; pan round to the drums either the symbols or the bass drum.
· Begin to get shots of a girl, not seeing her face. Cut to her walking alone.
· Cut to a group having a laugh. Cuts of party scenes
· Cut back to live performance.

· For the second verse have shots of a couple
· Have shots of the party that has moved on in time people are livelier.
· Mixture of live performance and narrative for the instrumental section
· Near to the end of the song more live performance. At the end camera shot of couple walking into distance.
· Last shot is of the amp.

Indie - Representation

The indie genre is all about being yourself and an individual. The songs produced by the bands show this. For example Oasis was a band that would rebel against the norm to prove a point or to say what they thought. A couple of their songs are about drugs, drink and sex, this is not unusual for indie rock or pop.

The indie movement target teens to early 30's with their unique style of singing and lyrics. Artists such a Jamie T and Lily Allen have become huge just by singing about everyday occurrences and not singing big power ballads like Mariah Carey. Indie-Pop is a British born genre which has now begun branch out into other genres like rap, rock and R&B.

History of the Indie genre

Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music. It originated in the UK around the 1980's. the term 'indie' has been used for some time to describe an artist on an independent labels. Bands like 'The Who' made a big impression on the indie-culture in the 60's before the term indie music fully established itself in the 80's. The 1980's were mainly pop orientated, but once music moved into the 90's band such as Blur and Oasis appeared who were the forerunners of the Britpop movement. Colleges and university acted as a stage for upcoming artists in the 2000's, some bands preformed for free just to get noticed. Most large cities in the UK now boast an indie music scene. America has begun to produce indie bands such as The Killers who are labelled as 'The Best British American Indie Band'.

Information adapted from Lauren Everett's research.

Indie Album Cover and Magazine Research

I have found a selection of indie-pop/rock album covers which we will take influence from in the making of our digi-pak. We are hoping to create an album cover similar to 'The Wombats'.

We have looked at a couple of magazine adverts found in the magazine NME. I liked this one by verve because of its simplicity and neutral style. It is minimalist with only important information on it, making it easily readable by the target market. The band and album name is clearly visible, how to listen and get the music is at the bottom of the page. The importance of the information is told by the size of the font. We are looking at creating a minimalist advert similar to this one. However because of the style of band we will have more colour and more interesting font.

Audience Feedback

We got together a small audience to listen to the song and to read the lyrics. they gave us feedback on what they thought they would see in the video. We will take this into account with our own ideas to devise the video.

Vicky Ashwell

Verse 1 + 2
Film a girl walking downt the street. A boy sees her, P.O.V shot from him looking at her.

Chorus
Girls dancing with friends

Verse 3

Back to the street with footage of the girl

Verse 4
Back to party, the boy tries to talk to her.

Verse 1 End
Ends with the girl kissing camera - red lipstick and she walks away leaving him shocked.



Tom Williamson

Verse 1
People on beach, Someone is standing there alone, ashamed.

Chorus
Party begins on the beach, sunseting.

Verse 3
Shots of body parts to give impression he/she are naked.

Verse 4
Ends with the person who was ashamed being involved and getting someone.

Verse 1 End
Slow motion of people dancing, time has moved on, now night time. camera pulls back form the group and fades out


Stuart Hill

Verse 1
Boy is trying to tell a girl that she should not be ashamed of her body, and that body image isnt everything.

Verse 2 + Chorus
Girl is pressured by her friends to do things she isnt happy with.

Verse 3
Have a shot of the girl being confident about herself.

Verse 4
Have a tasteful shot of a couple 'making-out'.

Verse 1
Have a zoom out from the couple leaving them alone.


Russell Houlden

Verse 1
Singing about pressure from the media to look good, Live performance.

Verse 2
Goes to narrative footage of people looking different.

Chorus
Shots of friends laughing and messing around believing they are better than everyone.

Verse 3
Shots of the girl and boy begining to talk and having a laugh aswell.

Verse 4
Shot of boy caring for girl, they walk away from the camera into the distance.

Permission Given by the Band

Stereo Decade - So Cool

Are you ready for love. Lalala (Haha can we keep that?)

Verse 1
Don’t be ashamed of your body, after all its not ashamed of you
I’m not ashamed of my body, having said that I think its ashamed of me

Verse 2
She’s something, she’s so smooth
And now she’s in front of me melting
Don’t be ashamed of your body, after all its not ashamed of you

Chorus
So cool, so cool
I bet your friends all think that they are
So cool, so cool
So cool, so cool
I bet your friends all think that they are
So cool, so cool


Verse 3
She’s something she’s so smooth
And now she’s in front of me naked

Verse 1

Chorus

Verse 4
Show me that you’re not afraid
I want to feel your lipstick all over my dirty little face
Show me that you’re not afraid
I want to feel your lipstick all over my dirty little face

Verse 1

Verse 1

Verse 1

Chorus

Music Video Analysis - Shiela by Jamie T

Shiela is a full narrative perferformance and Jamie T is not seen throughout the video, this is unsual as video's are normally made to promote the singer and for fans to see them perform. This is an indie song and the words are sang half spoken similar to a rap. The video begins with a zoom out with a pan from a close up of a bunch of flowers, singing starts almost instantly. The audience should notice that the person lip sincing isnt Jamie T but that Jamie T's voice is played over the footage. For the whole video the camera leads the person along the edge of what i think is the River Thames, these shots are continuous with no cuts, ande he constantly looks that the camera while lip syning. We also get a couple of side shots of him walking, the camera tracks him from a long shot. To show that this is a average night people walk infront of the camera while momenterily blocking the main character while drunk girls scream "London".

The Rule of Thirds is used so that another man can enter the frame and casual breaks out into song. He speaks in received pronunciation. The camera swaps its focus to him while the man we have been previously folowing walks behind him. After his verse he walks off screen to the left leaving the main character alone to sing again. We also gets shots of him not singing however Jamie T continues to sing.

A high angle shot is used to show a homeless man singing another role. There are only a number of different camera angles used in this video, Close-ups, mids and long shots which is similar to other music videos. And interesting twist is revealed at 1:42 when we get a long shot showing that he is singing to no one but it seems he thinks he is. The then walks up to a couple arguing and watches them, they dont notice him which might imply hes not even there. The scream "london" has been enhanced during editing to create moe of an impact.

At the end of the track the actor stops lip syncing while Jamie T continues to sing. The lyrics might reveal why as they are about a death of a girl. The camera pans the show a shrine, he stand looking up and lays the flowers which he has been carrying for the whole video. There is a close up of the note reading "To my darling Sheila love always Dad xx" after that there is silence. The video ends with a shot of him bowing his head, all sound fades out except for police sierns.

So Cool - Timings

A time scale for the song So Cool
0:00-0:05 = Speaking and laughing
0:06-0:13 = Piano begins and lyrics
0:14-0:23 = Guitar plays
0:24-0:29 = Drums and instrumental section, increase in tempo.
0:30-0:39 = Lyrics start up again
0:40-1:12 = Main bulk of the singing
1:13-1:20 = Instrumental solo
1:21-2:35 = Bulk of singing with main tune.
2:36-3:06 = Singing with symbol beat only slows tempo down
3:07-3:31 = Singing with drum beat and guitar begins to texture the beat again.
3:32-3:38 = Silence, end of song.

Stereo Decade Research

Stereo decade originated in East London, Essex. The band members are Jonny Romain, Joe Harvey-Whyte, Joe Porter and Ben Bashi. They are an indie-pop band with apparently catchy lyrics with an up-beat tune, they also include an elctro-acoustic style in their music. They have been touring round the UK trying to find their break however are still unsigned. They have appeared on Radio one to preform a live lounge cover, which was a success. They have a number of songs including Point of View and I Dont Know Why.

Chosen Song - So Cool by Stereo Decade

We found this band on Myspace, They are currently unsigned and have created a group of songs which they have published on their page. We have chosen So Cool, an indie-pop style song. it includes slower paced material as well as fast instrumental sections making it perfect to make a video to. We will soon produce a questionnaire to ask people what they would expect to see in a video for the song. We will also develop our own ideas to produce a storyboard before going to filming. I am going to work with Charlotte Wilson and Lauren Everett to make this video.

Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYZ78FXTdiY

This video begins with different shots of the band members getting ready for a night out, it is quiet slow and matches the pace of the music. In between these shots we get random shots of women walking down a street, there is a range of different shots used including close-ups of their waists and mid-shots of their legs. the timing on these are faster than the one of Fergie and
Will-i-am simply because fans don't want the focus to be taken off the band. We also get a couple of shot of Taboo and Alp.de.ap. So far all these shots are in a dark light, lit with artificial lighting.
I think in my music video i will also use shots of the band with random crowd shots to make the scene more believable and to create more of a party atmosphere.

After the into Will-i-am begins to sing bringing in the narrative into a live style performance, the camera pans and follows him around the space. The transition between the shots begin the quicken, we continue to get flirtatious shots of Fergie. This style seems to be seen in other pop music videos such as The Pussycat Doll and Girls Aloud. And we still see random crowd shots with the use of a handheld camera, this technique i will also try and use in my music video. Another technique i will try to develop is at 1:21 ,Taboo is frozen in mid-air as people walk past him, this is a very abstract section of the video and i really liked it, simply because it has no relevance to the rest of the video.

At 1:31 when the beat gets progressively louder, the transitions between the shot quicken in pace. The band members also begin to interact with the camera by looking straight into the lens, this i will try to use. We continue to get different shots of the crowded party as the night progresses. A technique i liked which they used was shutting the music off for a spilt second, at 2:12 and to shut the video off too by fading the footage to a black screen.

A slow motion technique is used at 2:32, this contrasts with the pace of the music. Handheld camera work become more frequent which make the scene more believable. We also get a slow motion shot Fergie. The scene begins to get darker as they introduce glow in the dark paint and a strobe light is used which helps set the mode of the party. At 3:42 the main beat builds, the footage here is fast, lively and jumpy, we seem to get shots of completely different parties, one rave style and a normal house party, or this could be the same one but at different times of the night. At the end of the video theres a zoom out looking down at "The E.N.D" written in glow sticks. This is also seen at the end of their other video Boom Boom Pow.

Music Video Conventions

What you expect to see in a music video

-Close ups on the band members/artist (especially the lead singer). This is so the audience can see the member(s) because they are the ones they want to see.

-Footage of them playing the instruments or singing (live). This is so that the viewer can see that they can actually play an instrument, these shots are normally close-ups.

-Long/Medium shots of the whole band or artist. These are used to set the scene and to show a bigger area.

-A Narrative to the song. This helps to show the nature of the lyrics and song, making it easier for the audience to understand or make questions about the video as occasionally the video has no link to the song at all.

-Shots to change with the beat of the music. This helps to set the mood of the video. This can results in rapid cuts between scenes, depending on the tempo. If the transitions between scenes are fast it means only straight cuts can be used, not fade in/outs.

-Interesting use of camera types and editing (low/high angles, pans, slow/fast motion etc). This adds an interesting element to the video. Music videos are also a way to show the best of the artists work meaning experimental and different techniques are used. for example the use of blue screen for special effects is used in the black eyed peas video.

-Interesting settings are used to make the singer or band look more glamorous for example, places like New York, California or London are seen in video.

Music Institutions - 4Music

4Music
Owned by - Box Television
Box Television also own-
Kiss
The box
Magic
Smash Hits
Q
Kerrang!

4Music is available on digital television like Freeview or Sky. 4Music is branded under the channel 4 name and replaced The Hits. The music channel broadcasts 24/7, teleshopping is shown from 5.30am to 8.30am week days and till 8am on weekends. The channel is funded by advertising, after three or four songs there will be a lengthy break where a range of different adverts are shown.

4 Music has a target market of mostly teenagers to late 20's. The music they show is mainly Indie-Rock/Pop. Artists such as The Killers, Lady Gaga, Lily Allen, Paolo Nutini, The Wombats and Mc Fly are played. As well as music videos, this music channel shows exclusive programmes and other programmes such as Orange Unsigned Act which is also shown on its sister channel, Channel 4.

Because 4 Music is linked to Channel 4 you get to watch similar programming, as well as this, presenters on the channel who hold interviews etc are the same as on channel 4 for example Steve Jones and Alexa Chung presented T4 on the Beach semi-exclusively on 4 Music, and then presented highlights of the concert on Channel 4. The result of this meant that 4 Music already has a fan base, people who watched T4, Hollyoaks etc on Channel 4 would also watch 4 Music. This is similar to magazines such as Kerrang who have created a TV channel to accompany their magazine, showing similar music that the buyers of their magazine would like to watch.

Box television is a British company which is half owned by Channel and half owned by The Bauer Media Group. They own the top music channels ; Q, Smash Hits, Kerrang! and Kiss as well as The Box and Magic. This means that they own a large amount of the market increasing their audience and profit. Owning such a large amount of music channels means they can survive with such low viewing figures. Music channel have such low view figures because once the song has finished the viewer will switch over to another channel to find a different song which they like. Box Television owning the biggest names means that the viewer will probably switch over to a channel owned by them.

4 Music figures are :
-Average Daily Reach - 1,295 (000's)
-Average Weekly Reach - 5,493 (000's)
(Results from viewings of at least 3 consecutive minutes)
-Average Weekly Viewing - 6 mins
- Total Weekly Share - 0.4%
(in comparison BBC 1 -20.7%)

Analysis of a Music Video - Beat It by Michael Jackson

You can view the video here-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkGOiS75Lwk

Beat It
Michael Jackson
Released - Feb 14, 1983
Length - 4:19mins

This Music video is different to other one of the same genre. There is a strong link between performance and narrative and is almost like a short film. At the beginning there is 22 seconds of footage which isn't supported with music, which is unusual for music videos, at the very least there is a beat running underneath the action. However, in this one it opens like a film.

There is a narrative to 'Beat It' which is about a fight that is soon about the start, word is spreading and the gang members are being rounded up. We follow the members through a diner, pool hall, and finally a warehouse where the fight is taking place. However, Jackson hearing this heads down to share his views on this unnecessary violence. His performance is strongly linking with the narrative as he dances and sings throughout the narrative sections.

We get many close-ups and mid shots of Michael while he is performing, this is typical of music videos as the fans want to see the artist up close and most of all they want to see them sing the song. This can be seen when Michael is alone in his bedroom, he is always the centre of the shot and not to far away from the camera. On the other hand we get a wider range of shots during the narrative sections, this is so the viewer can see everything that is going on. We get an even mix between performance and narrative throughout the video while Michael dances along to the warehouse. The cuts between each section of footage are straight cuts and they increase in speed to match the pace of music. This is especially dominant during the dance sequence, towards the end of the video as we see the dance from many angles and positions. These shot are now either mid or long shots so that the audience can see the whole dance group as well as Michael.

The lighting in this video is quite dark, there is no natural light, only light from street lamps and buildings which helps to set the mood of the video, gangs want to be hidden, and only having their faces lit like at 0:22, helps to show this. Near the end of the video there is more light this is so that the viewer can see the dance sequence. The type of music also helps to show gangs and their personalities, gangs want to look hard by fighting. By having loud electric guitar solos and drums for the bass shows this. Michael Jackson wanted to show that violence doesn't solve anything and used these techniques along with the lyrics to represent this.

Album Cover Analysis - La Roux

La Roux

Label - Polydor
Producers - Elly Jackson, Ben Langmaid

This album cover is quiet typical of the pop/indie genre. The artist(s) are usually featured on the front with very little in the background. Their style is British electropop synth and indie pop, the duo targets teens to early 20's.

This album cover for La Roux is interesting because her face almost looks like a painting as it has been softened and smoothed so much in editing. Elly is central to the cover with the light focusing on her face, darkening the corners, this draws attention to her and also allow the fans to see who sings the songs, even though there are two people in the band we hardly see the other person.

She seems to be gazing at something off the picture and has a very neutral expression. Her extreme and individual hair style helps to show her personality. This photo has been taken in a studio with a red background behind her, this also helps to divert attention to her. The title of the band and album is white, plain and block print at the top. However, i would of preferred the title to be at the bottom because there is empty space.

Album Cover Analysis - Dangerous by Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson's
Dangerous Album
Released Nov 26th, 1991

Includes the famous:
Black and White
Heal the World
Dangerous
Remember the Time

Producers
Michael Jackson
Teddy Riley
Bill Bottrell

Label
Epic

This album by Michael Jackson shows him and his world in a nutshell, This random assortment of images i feel is showing Michael Jackson's vivid imagination. Even though there is so much going on in this front cover the most dominant image is still Michael, yet we only see his eyes and a lock of hair down the middle of his forehead. By the time the album was released fans, and the rest of the world knew who Jackson was, so there was no need for him to be on the front cover like on his previous album, Thriller. He might of chosen to just show his eyes because he felt he had to hide from the world, and this was a symbolic way of saying this. His name is also dominant on the front, unlike the name of the album which is slightly hidden in amongst these images, "dangerous" makes up part of the picture, a gate which leads to a much darker part of the picture with the world at the centre. This is probably signifying what Michael thought about the world at the time, this is also reflected in the song "Heal the World" featured on the album.

Even though there is a lot going on, on the front cover, there is still a limited range of colours; reds, blacks, golds and blues. The fact that there is so much going on, means that you see something new each time you look at it, comparing to art works from the symbolism and surrealism era.

The music on the album is of the pop genre. However this front cover does not assemble something from this genre, if you compare it to other pop bands/artists and their album covers. The target audience for this album would be people that like pop/ disco music, mainly teens. However Michael Jackson's fan base covers across the ages up to late 40's or even 50's.

Front and Back cover for a Jazz Band

From the jazz band albums that i have looked at i have found a number of similarities. I have seen that most are in black and white or have dulled colours like browns and greys. On the front cover you can normally see the main singer of the whole band. The covers are simple and have limited text. I have chosen to follow this trend by having the leading singer of the band on the front with a simple black and white painting on the back with the song names on top of it. I have also included the record label (Sony BMG) and a bar code.

To research jazz bands i firstly used the website Amazon to find a range of album covers, i then researched in depth the ones which i liked by looking at their website.

To design my album cover i firstly used paint to crop and to edit my images i then transferred the images to Microsoft publisher where i then arranged them to make my final product including text and other graphics.

Album Cover For JLS

This album cover is for a pop band called JLS. I have tried to follow the typical definition of a pop band and their image. I looked at similar pop groups like Take That. From this i saw that the band members were the most dominant images of the cover. The cover was also colourful and usually showed their name's logo/text.

For my album cover i chose to have the band members on the bottom with their name and album name above them. I put this on a black background so that your eyes are drawn to them immediately identifying who they are and their type of music. I have also included a flash of colour to compliment the black and to give the cover a professional finish.

On the back i have also included their band name again as well as the lead singer. I have done this because he is the most popular band member and would probably be the one the fans want to see. I have also included the X Factor logo to remind fans they were seen on TV and to promote the company.

Music Television in the UK

Music Television started in the USA with the rise of MTV. Europe and the UK followed this trend with thier own version, MTV Europe. The UK has had many spin-offs including, VH1 (Aimed at an older audience) and CMT (Country Music Television) which is aimed at a niche audience. these spin-offs have loosened MTV's grip on the UK market.

Some television channels such as The Box are jukebox channels, where the viewers chose what is played next by calling in or texting a premium phone line to select from a list scrolling at the bottom of the screen. This way, the music channel creates another form of revenue by doing very little themselves.

In 2000, EMAP (East Midland and Allied Press) a magazine which as diversified by going into radio has now decided to add to its only TV asset, The Box, by launching four new channels. These channels are based on existing EMAP magazine brands : Kiss, Kerrang! and Smash Hits, which as launched in 2001. Making channels based on existing brands meant that they already had a ready-made image and audience. Another strategy of using MTV's original cheap programming of streaming videos rather than making their own programmes meant they spent very little in comparison to other channels while still making a profit.

Two further channels, The Hits and Magic were launched in 2002. A year later, Scuzz, The Amp and Flaunt were launched which saw MTV's dominance over music TV decline. This meant MTV had to differentiate itself from other jukebox rivials. The channel began to provide their viewers with original programming such as The Real World and Beavis and Butthead, as well as round the clock videos. Scuzz also began to create their own programs to get ahead of their rival Kerrang! with comedy shows like Mullet Man and Cuddly Snuff. A consequence of MTV offering so many channels and programmes meant that this further fragments its audience lowering the income from advertising. MTV sought to find sponsorship from other companies like Motorola, who is popular and a recognised brand.

Seeing the success of the music channel, GWR launched a classical music channel, Classic FM. This allowed classical music to reach a larger audience, which was mainly targeted at females. Other independent channels such as Channel U began, P-Rock TV weren't so successful as they failed to attract advertisers it went off air in 2003.

At the beginning of 2004, there were 23 English music channels, significantly more than the US.
-Seven from EMAP stations.
-Three from BSkyS - Channel U, The Vault and Chart Show TV.
-Classic FM.
-Nine from Viacom - MTV, MTV2, MTV Base, MTV Hits, MTV Dance, VH1, VH1 Classic, VH2 and TMF.
- Zee Channel

In 2001. Of the 25.2 million households in the UK, 24.6 million had TV's (98%). Of these 6.4 million had satellite and 3.8 million had cable. A total of 10.2 million (over 40%) had access to multichannel TV (Freeview). However the average of weekly viewing for each music channel is very low compared to channels such as BBC, ITV or E4. Six minutes per week spent on music channels compared to the 5 hours per week spent on channels such as BBC. These low figures are because of the less sustained manner in watching music channels, as the audience channel surf in search of videos of interest.

Digi-Paks

definition : is a style of compact disc or DVD packaging and is a registered trademark of AGI Media, a MeadWestvaco Inc. resource.

Characteristics:
-Book style paperboard or card stock outer binding.
-Usually have one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside.
-Digipaks were among the first alternatives to jewel cases to be used by major record companies.
-Because there are no other common names for digipak style packaging made by other companies the term digipak if often used.
- The CD can be held in place either with a plastic tray, card sleeve or a foam disc.

Digipaks pro's
- Jewel case seem to break more than the cardboard digipaks
- Cardboard cases look more professional and high quality
- Digipaks are eye catching
- They are cheap to produce
- Environmentally friendly
- Good to display graphics
- Are premium product
- Have more room to display information/graphics etc.
- Tailor made for each band, film etc.

Con's
- Can tear and rip
- Plastic teeth can break
- More expensive to the customer
- Trays can break
- Cd's can fall out easier
- Can look old and ragged after little use

Examples: