Task 2

Preparing task 2

I was responsible for researching what record label would release our album. I chose Sony Records as our band is a synthetic band that aims its product to a global audience and would probably attract a very wide audience; it therefore needs to be released and promoted by a large record label to reach its audience.

I also had to think about where our band would be advertised. I decided it should be advertised on the side of busses that ran in central London as our target audience are people who like fashion and would tend to shop and live in those fancy areas (e.g. Knightsbridge…)  

I would also advertise the band alongside TV shows that our target audience would watch such as Gossip Girl  

Task 1 Conventions of our website

Our home page

The Saturdays home page

On our home page http://genevievecorich.wix.com/repotage1 we have a wide shot of our band members. This conforms to the conventions of an artist website as it presents the artist to their fans. This is similar to the Saturdays' home page http://www.thesaturdays.co.uk as it has a wide shot of its band members all looking good. However the photo is in black and white. This subverts the form of pop band shots, as they tend to be very colourful to draw the audience’s attention in. We chose to this so as to create a unique feel for our band. 

We also have individual close-up shots of our artists to make the audience relate to them and make them feel closer to the band members.

Our twitter feeds

Little Mix Twitter feeds

We also have live twitter feeds on our home page to keep their fans informed of their every move and thus intensify the connection between the artists and the audience. This is a very common thing on the on line age where social websites are used to create a connection between the artist and his audience. For example Little Mix http://www.little-mix.com/gb/home/ have live twitter feeds on the home page of their website. By doing this we are in a way allowing our audience know more about the artist, promoting them as people rater than untouchable stars.

We have a banner on the top of our home page which links to different areas of the website. This conforms to the conventions of music websites as it is essential to make the website easy to navigate so that every one can access it. 

Our banner

The Saturdays' banner

Little Mix's banner

All three of these banners are located on the top of their respective websites.

The Saturdays' photo page

Our band's photo page

All band websites have photos of their band members in a photo page. This is particularly true for pop girl bands as they want to sell their artists as being very sexy. This expands their target audience. Females will look at them and use them as role models as they will aspire to look like them. A male audience would look at these photos and possibly listen to their music as they will be attracted to them. We have a photo page on our website with attractive photos of our band members as well as performance and behind the scenes shots to create a feel of authenticity. This conforms to the conventions of pop music websites.

The Saturday's photo page http://www.thesaturdays.co.uk/photos/
Our photo page http://genevievecorich.wix.com/repotage1#!photos/c60z

Little Mix music video

Our music video

It is conventional to have embedded the band's latest music video on the home page of the band's website. This is done to allow the audience to access it in the easiest possible way. Music videos are an essential tool used to make the audience feel closer to the band according to Pete Fraser. We also have embedded our music video in our home page thus conforming to the conventions of pop band's websites.

Little Mix News

Little Mix News

The Saturdays News

The Saturdays News

Our band's News

There is always the latest news about the band on the home page of pop artists. By doing this they allow their fans to keep up to date with their latest releases, tours, music videos etc. This allows the audience to have the feeling that they are the first to know what is happening with their favourite artist. We also chose to do this as we want our band's fans to feel like they are close to the band members and thus appreciate them more. Putting the latest news on the home page also allows fans who do not have a lot of time to be able to quickly know about the most recent developments of the band. For fans who have more time there is also always a news page where they can read up on even more news about the band. All these conventions of artist websites can be seen in our website, The Saturdays' website and Little Mix's website.

The Saturdays' News Page

The Saturday's News Page http://www.thesaturdays.co.uk/news/

Little Mix's News Page

Little Mix's News Page http://www.little-mix.com/gb/news

Our band's News Page

Our Band's News Page http://genevievecorich.wix.com/repotage1#!news/cb30

Task 1 Conventions in our music video

A Music Video is an excellent tool to promote the artist as well as the song there fore it is very common to use close-ups of the lead singer.  Having many close ups of the singer in our music video therefore conforms to the conventions of a music video as it helps create the sex symbol of the artist. You can see this in many different music videos (Girls Aloud Something New)

Our Music Video if filled with intertexual references to Robert Palmer’s video Addicted to love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcATvu5f9vE ; According to Pete Fraser and Steve Archer: Not all audiences will necessarily spot a reference and this need not significantly detract from their pleasure in the text itself, but grater pleasure might be delivered by those who recognise the reference and feel flattered by this.



We also used intertextual references to fashion for example the close-ups of shoes and the photo-shoot. This conforms to the conventions of music videos, as it is very common to reference fashion in music videos as the two industries are closely linked.

Our music video, similarly to Robert Palmers touches on the theme of voyeurism. The use of the male gaze is very prominent as it helps create a sexy star image for our band. This also conforms to the conventions of a music video, especially for female bands as it helps promote them to both a female and a male audience. The female audience would like the band as they would aspire to be as attractive as them and the male audience would look at the video as they are all attractive and sexy artists performing.

We used performance shots in our music video. This conforms to the conventions of music videos as, according to Pete Fraser and Steve Archer, the lip-synch close-up and the miming of playing instruments remains at the heart of music videos, as if to assure us that the band really can kick it. 

Task 1 Conventions of the front of my album cover

This is a first draft of our album cover, it is not yet finished as we still need to place the name of the band on it. However you can already see how it conforms to most of the conventions of a girl band album cover.

• It features all of the band members on it
• They are all wearing fashionable clothing
• They all look attractive (making them more appealing to our target audience)

It also fits in with the retro star image of the band as the colours and the font are very retro and they are what you would expect to see on a retro album.