A-Level Media Studies

Song: Summertime Sadness by Lana Del Rey The song 'Summertime Sadness' is one of the singles released from Lana Del Rey's second studio album 'Born To Die'. Here I will use Goodwin and Vernallis to analyse this song and its conventions. Goodwin The visuals appear to be illustrating/amplifying the lyrics - during the lyrics 'Tonight I wore a red / Dancing in the moonlight pale / The beauty queen hair style / Remove heels, you feel like reborn', the visuals show the actress wearing a red dress, throwing herself down from a high bridge. The lyrics of the song of the song, which are quite dreary and dark, reflects a dim and sad mood and atmosphere. Whilst most the lyrics are not mirrored through the visuals, some are such as the shot of the singer with the shadow of a telephone wire during the lyric 'Telephone wires above' Cinematography - the camera used has significant impact. They appear to have used either a super 8 camera or a grain fil...

Ed Sheeran- Afire Love Things were all good yesterday And then the devil took your memory And if you fell to your death today I hope that heaven is your resting place I heard the doctors put your chest in pain But then that could have been the medicine And now you're lying in the bed again Either way I'll cry with the rest of them Idea 1- Scene starts of with the backs of an older couple sitting down in chairs. In between them is a table with a photo frame on it. A guitar will also be in the frame somewhere. During these lyrics I would have close ups of the artist singing. If he is wearing a shirt or blazer, there will be a rose in his pocket and I will take a close up of it. The artist will also be playing an instrument, either a keyboard or piano and I will take tracking shots and close ups of him playing them. Idea 2- Starts off with a medium shot of an older couple sitting down. One of them presses play on a CD/ cassette player (close up) and c...

Appealing to your audience through generic conventions of music videos for your genre: - Why is genre useful when targeting an audience? Genre is useful for audiences as it allows them to differentiate between the different of music styles and types of narrative they use, allowing them to see what appeals to them the most. - Conventions: What you expect to see? Bright colours high key lighting  close ups of the artist  dancing(?) Cut to the beat link between music/lyrics and visuals  intertextuality  A relationship/ love interest. lip synching - Iconography – Genre indicators The instruments seen- typical pop instruments would include acoustic guitars or pianos.  the artist's costume type  of narrative- performance etc.  Direct mode of address Lana Del Rey - Summertime Sadness  What conventions or elements of iconography are present here and how will this appeal to an audience? Close up of artist and ...

Song Choices Song 1: Ed Sheeran- Afire Love Ed Sheeran's record label is Atlantic Records- a subsidiary of Warner Music Group. Typically, Ed Sheeran's audience consists of males and females with ages ranging from 15- 26 years old. However, it could fit my target audience, 30-49 year olds, as the song discusses a generic theme- love. Ed Sheeran's main musical influences have been The Beatles, Nizlopi and Eminem. The song itself, Afire Love, is a love song based on his grandparents’ relationship and his grandfather's Alzheimer's. Song 2: Drake ft Michael Jackson- Don't Matter to me Drake's record label is Young Money, an imprint of Cash Money Records founded by Lil Wayne, which is distributed by Republic Records which is a division of Universal Music Group . OVO Sound is Drake's own record label alongside two other people and operates as a subsidiary of, and is distributed through, Warner Music Group's Warner Bros. Record...

The brief for this task asks for the artist to be under an established label such as Columbia or Parlophone that is owned by a large conglomerate that targets a mainstream audience of 30-49 year olds. For my research, I have decided to do some research about Warner Music Group, its owner and its subsidiaries. Warner Music Group is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate and is one of the biggest recording companies, the third largest one in the global music industry after Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. Warner Music Group has many subsidiaries including Atlantic Records and Parlophone. The following lists are some of Warner Music Group's subsidiaries and some artists under those labels. Atlantic Records- tends to have quite a few artists whose music are of different genres. Examples include Ed Sheeran, Alec Benjamin, Broods, Gnash, Goody Grace Grouplove and many more. These artists and their genres range from pop music t...

Media Essay: John Berger analyses how men and women are culturally represented. In "Ways of Seeing" Berger claims that the representations of men and women in visual culture entice different 'gazes', different ways in which they are looked at. He states that 'men act women appear, men look at women, women watch themselves being looked at'. The woman is usually posed in a way to please the viewer and the audience, her gaze is meant to entice the viewer, and this notion is the same in modern day advertisements and photographs. Berger states that a woman unconsciously acts in a way knowing she is being viewed. Women are constantly surveyed, and not only by men, but other women too, and also by themselves. Berger states that women were 'depicted in a different way to men - because the "ideal" spectator is always assumed to be male, and the image of the women is designed to flatter him'. This demonstrates that Berger feels that women are ...