This is the Critical Reflection blog for the Comp 3 project.
For our Component 3 we chose the Music Promotion Package Brief, consisting of a Music Video, Digipak, and Social Media page for a fictional artist “Blast”. For our Music Video, we covered Karma Police by Pierce the Veil (2023) which is in the alt/rock genre and targets a young adult demographic (15-25). Our dominant reading is one of anti-establishment, actions have consequences, and justice.
Branding is the act of promoting and communicating products to an audience and is necessary as it informs and commercialises our text to gain traction. According to Richard Dyer, the image is artificially manufactured to reflect the artist’s values, as such, it’s necessary for branding across media texts to be consistent to meet these points and give fans a sense of consistency. Furthermore, the artist's intended values and messages can be seen through the use of semiotics, where meanings are hidden and often implied through visual cues such as colouring and quality.
Similarities occurring specifically in the music video’s narrative scenes and digipak include dark, raw, and gritty colour grading, which gives off expressions of depression, oppression, and conformity. This, coupled with portraying politicians negatively, delivers a connotation of corruption and generally portrays the government negatively, fitting with our intended dominant reading. Furthermore, the consistency of low-quality media texts helps the artist maintain an indie and local image. Although the social media features more lighthearted texts, it still follows the general colour grading and low quality (fig 1), further emphasising the artist’s grassroots, punk, and rebellious identity, which ties the band’s media texts together to become familiar and recognisable to audiences, helping to create a brand identity.
The consistency of including dark and gritty qualities ensures the artist’s products are familiar to fans and solidifies the artist within the alt/rock genre by following its conventions. However, the lighthearted diversion in social media shows the band’s ordinariness, supporting the artist’s identity as youthful, grassroots, and energetic, which helps fans relate to them and presents them as the “people’s band”.
Genre conventions are established themes and elements that are constantly repeated and resemble a genre. According to Steve Neale, these conventions constantly fluctuate through audience expectations and cultural shifts, conforming to conventions may be beneficial as it meets established expectations and gives a sense of familiarity, while subverting allows them to stand out and seem unique. Common alt/rock genre conventions include dark and contrasted colors with raw and lo-fi elements and counter-culture, anti-establishment narratives. (Nirvana - Bleach 1989, Radiohead - My Iron Lung 1994)
Our artist mainly conformed to the genre conventions. Our music video is shown through a grainy, dark green, and grunge filter which reflects the genres conventions of desaturated visuals that reject mainstream polish (fig 2.1). This was done to connote toxicity, corruption, and surveillance, this aesthetic almost resembles CCTV footage which creates a sense of moral decay and compromise by authority, the film grain also encodes authenticity and emotional rawness over commercial polish. These themes are enforced by its negative portrayal of the government by arresting a young journalist which aligns with our intended audience which may spur stronger emotions, solidifying its anti-establishment narratives. Our subversion comes from including saturated colors, to amplify the lo-fi quality.
The digipak mainly uses dark color grading, serving as a visual signifier of alienation and anti-establishment while reinforcing the genres themes of emotional intensity and authenticity by avoiding industrial and mainstream pop bright coloring and aesthetics (fig 2.2). Furthermore, the use of messy chalk writing on the digipak enforces an anti-corporate, DIY, and raw culture by displaying its boldness and imperfections, enforcing the genres themes by resisting corporate polish and emphasizing rebellion and instability over artificialness. The artist heavily conforms to these conventions due to its small size and desire to garner an audience by establishing an identity within the genre. The digipak subverted conventions with the inclusion of the band members with childlike doodles on them and bright coloring to portray their youth and ability to maintain their real identities.
Our primary target audience are teenagers to young adults (15 - 25), a digitally native group in media who are particularly accustomed to participatory and prosumer culture in media. Aligning with Clay Shirkey’s End of Audience theory, audiences expect interactivity over passively consuming media, the artist does this hrough their discord server, which is popular amongst the intended demographic, where fans are able to interact with each other and the artist while engaging in enunciative productivity with the use of insider jokes and fanspeak (fig 3.1) which strengthens a collective identity, which aligns with the uses and gratification of social relationship which is fulfilled by allowing individuals with like-minded values and beliefs to the band to interact and surround each other, especially with the anti-establishment rhetoric of the music video.
Furthermore, the combined use of discord, direct instagram replies, and personal content constructs (fig 3.2) the artist as relatable instead of a distant and higher class artist and as such creates an appeal through ordinariness, which reduces hierarchy and distance between the artist and fans due to utilising platforms popular amongst the age group instead of other platforms which may be too formal and combined with direct engagement can encourage relatability of pure idolization. This especially helps with the audience's personal identity as individuals may adopt values, and beliefs through repetitive posts from a relatable artist, aligning with the cultivation theory of how repetitive exposure may shape an individual's perspective on society and themselves.
(Fig 1.0)
Genre conventions are established themes and elements that are constantly repeated and resemble a genre. According to Steve Neale, these conventions constantly fluctuate through audience expectations and cultural shifts, conforming to conventions may be beneficial as it meets established expectations and gives a sense of familiarity, while subverting allows them to stand out and seem unique. Common alt/rock genre conventions include dark and contrasted colors with raw and lo-fi elements and counter-culture, anti-establishment narratives. (Nirvana - Bleach 1989, Radiohead - My Iron Lung 1994)
Our artist mainly conformed to the genre conventions. Our music video is shown through a grainy, dark green, and grunge filter which reflects the genres conventions of desaturated visuals that reject mainstream polish (fig 2.1). This was done to connote toxicity, corruption, and surveillance, this aesthetic almost resembles CCTV footage which creates a sense of moral decay and compromise by authority, the film grain also encodes authenticity and emotional rawness over commercial polish. These themes are enforced by its negative portrayal of the government by arresting a young journalist which aligns with our intended audience which may spur stronger emotions, solidifying its anti-establishment narratives. Our subversion comes from including saturated colors, to amplify the lo-fi quality.
The digipak mainly uses dark color grading, serving as a visual signifier of alienation and anti-establishment while reinforcing the genres themes of emotional intensity and authenticity by avoiding industrial and mainstream pop bright coloring and aesthetics (fig 2.2). Furthermore, the use of messy chalk writing on the digipak enforces an anti-corporate, DIY, and raw culture by displaying its boldness and imperfections, enforcing the genres themes by resisting corporate polish and emphasizing rebellion and instability over artificialness. The artist heavily conforms to these conventions due to its small size and desire to garner an audience by establishing an identity within the genre. The digipak subverted conventions with the inclusion of the band members with childlike doodles on them and bright coloring to portray their youth and ability to maintain their real identities.
(Fig 2.1)
(Fig 2.2)
Our primary target audience are teenagers to young adults (15 - 25), a digitally native group in media who are particularly accustomed to participatory and prosumer culture in media. Aligning with Clay Shirkey’s End of Audience theory, audiences expect interactivity over passively consuming media, the artist does this hrough their discord server, which is popular amongst the intended demographic, where fans are able to interact with each other and the artist while engaging in enunciative productivity with the use of insider jokes and fanspeak (fig 3.1) which strengthens a collective identity, which aligns with the uses and gratification of social relationship which is fulfilled by allowing individuals with like-minded values and beliefs to the band to interact and surround each other, especially with the anti-establishment rhetoric of the music video.
Furthermore, the combined use of discord, direct instagram replies, and personal content constructs (fig 3.2) the artist as relatable instead of a distant and higher class artist and as such creates an appeal through ordinariness, which reduces hierarchy and distance between the artist and fans due to utilising platforms popular amongst the age group instead of other platforms which may be too formal and combined with direct engagement can encourage relatability of pure idolization. This especially helps with the audience's personal identity as individuals may adopt values, and beliefs through repetitive posts from a relatable artist, aligning with the cultivation theory of how repetitive exposure may shape an individual's perspective on society and themselves.
(Fig 3.1)
(Fig 3.2)
Our main representation was of a power hungry and authoritarian politician, our dominant reading for them was to be negative and emphasize how they were evil and antagonists, aligning with our songs themes and artists values. The politician was portrayed as large and fat in posture which is done as a stereotypical way to portray gluttony and greed, in this case it connotes their corruption and power hungry attitude, furthermore the use of a low angle (fig 4.1) negatively depicts them as powerful and authoritarian, strengthened by their dark and formal clothing emphasizing them as an authority, which allows audiences to gain a sense of oppression from them, these factors helps audiences clearly decode the politician as evil. However when faced with execution, the politician is hunched (fig 4.2) which may connote fear and the inability to face justice, which is also enforced in a separate high angle scene where they are shown as vulnerable and weak, reducing them to cowardice which may help audiences see them as mere human beings instead of an untouchable divine being, this may erase a sense of total fear from the audience and instead encourage them to rise up.
Another representation was of the journalist, which embodies the oppressed youth and freedom, our dominant reading was for them to be seen positively and as a hero or even a martyr, though their fate is left ambiguous. Compared to the politician, the journalist was kneeled upright and seemed less desperate in the face of punishment (fig 4.3) which positively depicts them as fearless and has no regrets in their pursuit of justice, this juxtaposition portrays the youth as being courageous and more powerful compared to the authority. The journalist's cleaner appearance (clean facial hair) positively portrays them as being a competent individual and when compared to the politician it also carries connotations of health and purity (fig 4.4) , depicting them and the youth in general as being morally clean and honest, compared to the politician who is relatively dirtier, reflecting their morals.
The band is portrayed as conforming to the alt/rock and rebellious conventions to a certain extent, this is shown through their use of dark colored clothing (fig 4.5) which is commonly found in the punk and non-conformity scenes. Despite this, we still depict the stars “natural” persona by making them seem relatively more casual by having less dark makeup and entirely dirty appearances, this is done to depict punk and rebellion as not simply a matter of appearance but also of views and character, allowing everyone to be a member of such scenes even if they do not dress up extensively, and the band justifies this by aligning their views and messages through their music instead.
Stereotypes and implied meanings were used in our music video to conform to the reception theory where we hope audiences can decode our intended dominant reading by emphasizing how they are portrayed, the inclusion of binary opposites through including authority and rebellion also aids drive the narratives conflicts and the general music themes . Furthermore, depicting the journalist positively while also depicting the band to stay true to their personas and identities aligns with David Gauntlett’s identity theory, where these individuals are to an extent kept relatable and authentic, allowing audiences to shape and base their identity around it, mirroring a role model or basis.
The band is portrayed as conforming to the alt/rock and rebellious conventions to a certain extent, this is shown through their use of dark colored clothing (fig 4.5) which is commonly found in the punk and non-conformity scenes. Despite this, we still depict the stars “natural” persona by making them seem relatively more casual by having less dark makeup and entirely dirty appearances, this is done to depict punk and rebellion as not simply a matter of appearance but also of views and character, allowing everyone to be a member of such scenes even if they do not dress up extensively, and the band justifies this by aligning their views and messages through their music instead.
Stereotypes and implied meanings were used in our music video to conform to the reception theory where we hope audiences can decode our intended dominant reading by emphasizing how they are portrayed, the inclusion of binary opposites through including authority and rebellion also aids drive the narratives conflicts and the general music themes . Furthermore, depicting the journalist positively while also depicting the band to stay true to their personas and identities aligns with David Gauntlett’s identity theory, where these individuals are to an extent kept relatable and authentic, allowing audiences to shape and base their identity around it, mirroring a role model or basis.
(Fig 4.1)
(Fig 4.2)
(Fig 4.3)
(Fig 4.4)
(Fig 4.5)
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