Research - Institutional issues

A2 Research

Institutional Issues

There are three main types of music labels in which music videos are funded from and made. These labels are Independent labels (alternative), Major labels (mainstream) and homemade (consumer led) These different labels provide audiences with different styles and grades of music videos, this typically depends on the budget of the company for example a major music label will have a much larger budget compared to an independent label or a homemade label. Smaller labels such as independent companies may go to major labels and ask for funding or the borrowing of certain equipment.

The first type of label we will analyze will be an independent label. An independent label is a company operating without outside funding.  A large majority of new groups and artists will appear first through independent labels. These types of music labels have a history of generating popular music. The independent music label we will be analyzing is ‘Boy Better Know’ this label was founded IN 2005 by Jamie Adenuga who is commonly referred to as ‘JME’. The label consists of a number of popular UK artists such as ‘jammer’, ‘Frisco’, and ‘wiley’. Boy Better Know or BBK have gained their success within the Grime music scene and have often appeared on a number of pirate radio stations. BBK have produced many well known singles such as ‘Private caller’, ‘Duppy’, ‘Too many man’ and ‘Hello good morning’ As well as making their money through a number of singles and performances BBK have also started their own appeal range and their own mobile phone network. The music video we will be analyzing for this record label will be for the track ’10 man roll’ here below is some screen shots of different parts of the video. 

A technique used within an independent music video 

A similar technique used within an independent music video 

Here are two screen shots of the music video for ’10 man roll’ they both show a similar type of editing. The screen shot on the left shows a template of a book with a left side showing a video edit of them singing the track. The writing within the book relates to the genre of music they are singing, this helps to create meaning to the audience telling them that what they are saying is knowledgeable and meaningful.As the article is laid out in a similar manor to a newspaper it also conveys the meaning that they feel that their music is big news and it must be presented to the public. The screenshot on the right shows a similar effect; in this shot it is the screen of the cash machine, which displays the artists singing, this allows having an external effect in this case the boy watching the screen. This can be used to emphases to the audience that what they are saying is important, this is shown by the young boy watching a listening closely. By showing the music video within the cash machine screen it also tells the audience that this genre of music can appear anywhere. This music video comes across professionally made, edits are clean, lip-syncing is on time and props and locations seem to match the song very well. Although this comes across well made it gives the impression that the label funding the music video does not have a large budget compared to a major music label. This can be seen through the lack of more costly effects such as special affects or costly props and locations.

The next type of label I am going to analyze is a major label or otherwise known as mainstream labels, these organizations typically have very large budgets are thus are able to produce high grade music videos with a range of special affects. These music videos will contain effects, props and locations in which we probably either wont be able to purchase or obtain, however I think analyzing these types of labels music videos to be very important as they have a large variety of different styles of music video techniques, these techniques are able to influence our group ideas. The major label I have research is The Warner Music Group, this major label as continuously been in the top 3 or 4 major labels in the past 5 years. This major label was founded in 1958 and its headquarters is situated in New York United States. Being one of the big four music record labels it has signed a large amount of music acts as well as helping to develop subsidiary record labels. One modern day artist that Warner music has singed is Jason Derulo. In 2009 he released his number 1 single of ‘whatcha say’ which sold over 5 million digital downloads.  I feel this track would provide a good standard of music video for what major record labels produce. After analyzing the music video, I took note of a few things. Firstly the picture was sharp and crystal clear, this is likely down to the quality of the camera the label are using and also the software they are using to edit the video. I did also notice that the video was very simple, the video was set within a house. The two characters within the video where they based in different rooms. One thing the music video did do very well is use the effectiveness of light very well, it used a range of lighting effects to emphasize costumes and location to the audience. Even though our music video will be based in more of a darker environment I feel that we could use lighting techniques such as the ones used within this video to emphasize the surrounding environment and character positioning.  

This image displays the use of lighting effects within a major music video

The key differences I found between the different labels were down to the funding they use to finance the music videos they make. The major labels with more funding produced clearing music videos with more expensive location and props. They also tend to use more special effects such as lighting to emphasize meaning within their videos. The research we have carried out has impacted the content of our music video. We have been strongly influenced by the lighting effects and want to use a range of lighting effects within our video to add to the theme of the video.