Critical reflection

  Critical reflection

My campaign is for a 60s inspired classic rock band. They connect to their audience through their carefree attitudes and flirtatious personalities, along with their upbeat and lively music, and adhere to classic male gender stereotypes throughout the campaign. The video shows that they are important and idolised, as there are many closeups of the lead singer in the centre and taking up most of the frame and screen time.

Their Twitter shows their loud and prominent personalities where captions are composed of capital letters and plenty of emojis. The Digipak also adheres to male stereotypes as all the members are hanging out casually in typically manly placed like the woods, and posing naturally, showing how they are ‘lads. This representation is positive towards their image because it projects them as likeable and fun.

Femininity is also shown, but in a different way. Laura Mulvey’s ‘Male Gaze’ theory applies here, where the audience watches media through the eyes of a man: the men in the video can be identified with whereas the women are objectified. There are multiple close up shots of the girls bodies while they’re dancing, in aim to be admired for physical apperance. Their reduced amount of screen time shows that the men are more dominant and important. 

The most prominent demographic the band is aiming to appeal to, are heterosexual, predominantly caucasian teenage girls. The target psychographic group would be fan girls. The music is exciting and easy to dance and sing along to, and the band members are attractive with strong personalities, which would appeal to young girls who would easily idolise them. Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of needs and VALs’ suggests that there is a need for the fans to respect and admire the group. The video was lit very bright throughout, with orange lights and colourful projections to keep the attention of the target audience. The boy’s facial expressions on the DigiPak were either quite serious and sexy or a cheeky flirtatious smile and the social medias show photoshoots where they are relaxed and posing in flattering lighting.

 Representing the band in this way allows their fans to fantasise about getting to know them, whilst always being engaged with their content. 

We have used our media in a way to make sure that our young female demographic feels included and represented throughout the campaign. Committing to a retro aesthetic such as the ‘mod’ style mini dresses of the dancers in the video, is a feature that fangirls may be inspired by and want to imitate, as well as 

the vintage grainy filter and psychedelic font on the DigiPak also contributes to the band’s aesthetic and brand that the audience may be attracted to. The font used on the Digipak was also used for the logo on the kick drum in the music video, and as the profile pictures on the social medias. 

The behind the scenes highlight on Instagram also creates a sense of personal connection with the band, making them feel special and appreciated. 

The theory of uses and gratifications have been developed by McQuail, Blumler and Brown, to show four main groups of gratifications. ‘Personal Relationships’ refers to when the audience experiences a closeness with the artist through their products. Our music video has many closeup shots of the band members faces and them playing their instruments, which allows the audience to have an intimate experience with the artist, and understand their personalities, just like if they had a front row seat at a concert. There are also many clips of the band standing close together and singing with/interacting with each other, and a track shot following the dancers as they flirt with the boys makes them feel more real, and create a sense of intimacy. 

Moreover, our social medias use informal language and slang to address their audience, as well as emojis, creating a friendly relationship dynamic. The use of direct address on posts, such as asking questions, also contributes to a direct connection, making the audience feel appreciated and involved. 

‘Diversion’ is a way for the audience to escape from their own reality and enjoy more stimulating entertainment. For the set of our music video we used bright and colourful lighting on a very simplistic white stage, to capture the mid-century minimalistic aesthetic. Along with colourful costumes and quick cuts of the band moving around the stage, a fun and exciting atmosphere is created, engaging the audience and distracting them from their normal lives. 

The DigPak also contributes to this otherworldly experience, by featuring a funky black and white font that contrasts against the warm and bright costumes and background of the album cover.

 The inclusion of interesting angles of the band also engage the audience as they look at the product longer. 

Steve Neale suggests that genres are made up of ‘repetition and difference.’ Audiences enjoy the consistency of recognisable genre conventions, but also slight differences within the product to keep it exciting. In our music video, we used many conventions of classic rock, starting by creating a video that is a performance, rather than a narrative structure, as this would be what fans would be used to seeing on stage. 

We also made sure the editing of the video complemented the fast tempo by using short clips throughout, and filmed closeups of the band members playing their instruments, followed with a smooth pan up to their face so the audience could recognise which member plays what. These rock conventions were also used by ‘The Rolling Stones’ for their video for ‘Satisfaction’ and ‘The Monkees’, ‘Daydream believer’. They are effective because it helps to match the energy of the song and create consistency with what you are hearing and watching, but also create a ‘star image’ for our artist.

For our digipak, we positioned all of the members very close together on the cover, back and inside left, to communicate their close relationship as a band, and so the audience could clearly see each of their faces, which was inspired by ‘The Beatles’ ‘Rubber Soul’ album cover. We also followed conventions with the social medias, by using the band’s logo as the profile photo, to clearly connect the band and their branding for audiences, like ‘Led Zeppelin’ and again, ‘The Beatles’. 

We also created a behind the scenes highlight which shows the what the band is like off stage so the audience has a chance to see them more intimately than watching their on stage personas. 

We do not have many aspects of our products that go against classic rock conventions, as this is all branding for a new artist, which needs to clearly identify their genre from the start.