Print Productions Research

 Little Comets is a fairly similar band to Jungle Doctors (both genre and style). I noted that both the band's album covers are very artistic with a 'childlike art' feel to it. This makes the band seem slightly shadowy as the audience don't have an idea of what they look like. Although they don't have an idea of what the band looks like, the album cover is very artistic and creative which gives off the impression that the album is creative too. Audiences who are interested in the band may be intrigued to listen to or buy the album due to this creative and imaginative feel of the cover. This stretches my idea to explore into artists that design and make very creative paintings which could strongly influence my print production for Jungle Doctors. Some of the songs released from Little Comets are quite cheery and childlike such as 'Dancing Song'. This song from the band strongly links to both of the album covers on the right (In Search of Elusive) as there is a solid relation between the theme of the song and the theme of the album cover. However, in some of the band's songs the lyrics are very poem like. For example, the song 'Worry' has these opening lyrics 
"Her silhouette is bleaker than a cigarette
On a Tuesday morn when I feel humanity slip
From broken hands down to her hips
Realising lethargy in both her eyes"
This creative poem-like theme to the song gives an intelligible artistic feel to it which is incredibly similar to the album cover on the left (Life is Elsewhere).

Foals is another band which is very alike to Jungle Doctors. They also use art for the album covers. The album cover on the right if for the single 'Inhaler'. The lyrics to the song strongly reference narcissism and claustrophobia. It's a very dark song compared to others in which they have released. The view of the person's back looking down strongly signifies this feeling of claustrophobia. The remarkable artwork for both album covers, like Little Comets, makes the band seem extremely expressive and visionary and will appeal to a wide range of audiences. The Foals are also very much into vinyl and dislike Spotify and streaming. This attitude could indicate an unconventional style which may have inspired the bizarre images on their album covers.

These are some other album/single covers of similar artists/bands that give me some ideas for my print production for Jungle Doctors:

Mystery Jets - Twenty One
The grainy, vintage effect of this image is strongly representative of the music genre. The soft blend of red, blue and yellow colours give the picture a softer feel which is strongly appealing. The name of the band and the album are also included in a subtle way which is not to outstanding.

Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History
The name of the band is extremely bold and striking, especially with the astonishing wide eyes of the cat pictures behind the lettering of the band.

 

Theme Park - Two Hours
This album cover is a fairly dark theme, however, the light from the television is drawn onto the astronaut which makes the image rather interesting as it's extremely unusual. The light from the lamp also draws attention to the name of the band and the album name.

 

Afrixa Shoxx

 

 

 

 

Leftfield is a British electronic band formed in 1989 in London, England. From 1989 to 2012, Leftfield was a duo of artists and record producers that consisted of Neil Barnes and Paul Daley (formerly of The Rivals, A Man Called Adam and the Brand New Heavies). In January 2010, Barnes resurrected the band name and having toured the world for a couple of years is now writing new material for a third album. Daley has declined to be involved and is focusing upon his solo career.

Audience –niche why? Underground nature of the genre is represented by the sequences  in the underground car park

The music video shows a clip of the coffee bar Starbucks, suggesting that a contempory audience is the niche group targeted to the music video. The niche group is also specified by the location of the car park, signifying the underground nature of the genre. This niche groups is also due to the controversial issues that Leftfield raises, along with the 'unusual' music genre. The music video also references popular culture due to the scenes of the busy street in New York. The target audience for this music video Africa Shox music video is a primarily male group, aged roughly between 16-25.

  Theme – colonisation of black music by white artists – reference white dancers in car park.

In many different shots there are different references towards conflicts between social and racial groups. The main character is represented in the music video as a zombie type character. This is denoted by the worn out and ripped, dirty clothing that he wears. This could identify that he he’s a second class civilian  He also walks in staggered way through New York demonstrating  the zombie/walking dead characteristics. The way in which the main protagonist acts and dresses throughout the music video makes him seem almost like a barbaric, hateful inhuman. This view towards him is also enriched by the character standing out in front of many white businessmen, expressing slavery.

Mise-en-scene

Camera shots/angles- At the beginning of the music video, there is a shot which appears to look like prison bars. This signifies that the main protagonist is almost a prisoner. This also relates to the idea that he is an African slave held captive.

The colossal city of New York is shot in ways that suggests separation (the business men in suits and the protagonist in his torn clothing). The black individual is distant from the other characters and the shots focus on him and make it seem as if he’s separated from everyone else. As the shots of the protagonist crumbling are shown in New York City it strongly represents the crumbling of society.

Lighting – the first opening shot of the music video is a gloomy time of day with dark lighting. Immediately, this sets the scene and indicates to the audience that it’s a miserable and bleak scene. A police car is allocated driving with it’s flashing lights. This strongly represents the motion of dub step/electronica genre as flashing lights can strongly signify a rave.  When the protagonist in the music video is first showed, he is presented in the darkness of an alleyway.  This immediately signifies a mystery or that something is not right. As he appears from the alleyway, he stumbles into the light and seems blinded by it. This could represent  the African slaves escaping captivity and being released into the bewildered American land.

Roots of Hip-Hop

In the beginning there was Africa, and it is from Africa that all today’s black American music, including Jazz, R'n'B, Soul or Electro, is either directly or indirectly descended. The ancient African tribal rhythms and musical traditions survived the shock of the transportation of milllions of Africans as slaves to the Americas, and after 300 years of slavery in the so called “Land of the Free” the sounds of “Old Africa” became the new sounds of black America. Rapping, the rhythmic use of spoken or semi-sung lyrics grew from its roots in the tribal chants and the plantation work songs to become, an integral part of black resistance to an oppresive white society

The protagonist in the music video strongly represents a black slave from Africa with his run down clothes, dirt skin and hair. His zombie like characteristics suggest that he may be a slave zombie from many centuries ago.

These characteristics that strongly root to the African heritage of electro relate to the poem 'Limbo' by Brathwaite. The poem portrays slaves on their uncomfortable journey to America from Africa. ‘Limbo’ is about the hardships and humiliations the slaves had to suffer. It also describes the harsh way they were captured and treated. The poem could replicate the protagonist’s past which is why he comes across so delicate and fragile; trying to look for help from strangers.

Audience

 

The target audience for ‘Africa Shox’ music video is possibly aim at young males aged between 16-25 years. The audience can be seen as a niche group as the electro/techno song isn’t so mainstream and is seen as a slightly unusual music genre.  The niche group is probably almost influenced due to the controversial issues raised by Leftfield.

Photoshop Practicing

I played around with photoshop to get the hang of it and used The Kabeedies as an example. The purpose of this exercise was to test and expand my knowledge on using Photoshop as I will need these skills for when I create my own print productions. I used many of the software's tools to create these examples. One tool which was extremely important in creating these album cover was the lasoo. This tool was used to create a line around the images so that I could transfer them onto a new layer. For example, in the example below, I had to lasoo around the band's head and shoulders to transfer them to the cream coloured background. Another tool I used to complete both of these album covers is the text tool. This allows me to create different texts. In this case 'The Kabeedies Truth' was the only text I used. However, the second example's text is much different as the 'truth' appears much bigger and the red colour is faded out into the background. This text tool is extremely important as it identifies the band on the album cover which lets the audience know who the artist is. These are both my results.

Example 1: 

Example 2:

I much prefer this second example to the first one as it has much more going on. The background effect of the scrunched up paper is very appealing and gives the band a more 'grunge' feel. The lettering over the photographs of the band is a lot more striking and is fairly mysterious. By having this mysterious and striking feel to the album cover this will immediately attract an audience.

Case Study: Audience Profile

Audience Profile

Our target audience for out music video is young white British people aged between 16- 25 who are strongly interested in the rock and indie genre. Our audience are most likely to female, due to the main female character in the music video. Female audiences are also strongly influenced by the lyrics within the song as the song is sung by a male expressed towards a female. Therefore, females are more likely to relate to the lyrics as they may feel that they are being sung to as they listen to the song. I earlier said that the audience are more likely to be British. This is because I believe that British people will be able to identify the location in our music video as it's a very typically British themed location with the arcade, café and beach huts. These are all aspects of location which, particularly, young British people will be able to identify with. We took the location into deep consideration to build and attract our fan base. Additionally, I believe that our audience would be White Caucasian due to the main character.

Other Media Interests

Music

Theme Park is a band that is very similar to our chosen band Jungle Doctors. They are made up of two brothers and 3 friends. Living in London, they've been writing songs since early 2011.

Below is a screenshot from the music video for their song 'Jamaica'. The lead singer is seen located in a run down area with council flats. The lead singer is shown walking through the area in a smart suite; glamourizing the area. This particular scene would attract an audience from a working class region as, usually, in the music industry, areas similar to these are frowned upon and aren't glamorised in this way.

 

 

I managed to carry out some further research into the band and their background. I came across a news article about the upcoming band.

 

 

From the article, it states that Theme Park are strongly influenced by the famous band Talking Heads. Both Theme Park and Talking Heads style is very similar and songs that Theme Park produce are complimentary to Talking Heads. However, Theme Park are not a mimicked version, they create a slightly more modernised tone to their music to attract a wider audience at a young age.

Theme Park's genre is described as Alternative & Indie. Theme Park performed both at Reading and Latitude festivals. Both of which are Indie/Rock/Alternative festivals with a very broad young and 'indie' audience.

This research into similar bands to Jungle Doctors and the specific audiences that appeal to this music helped me and my partner to focus our music video theme on this particular audience of young white British people aged between 16- 25 who are strongly interested in the rock and indie genre.

 

Style

Female 'indie' target audience

 

British young male target audience

I believe that our target audience's style would be very indie/rock/grunge based as this is this indie/rock genre of music strongly influences that particular style amongst young British people. Shops such as TOPSHOP and H&M display clothing of this style which suggest to me that our target audience would shop there. Below is a picture of our band 'Jungle Doctors'. Here they are shown as a very stylish young group of British males who match my idea of the target audience's style. The scruffy hair, denim jackets and floral shirts all signify the indie/grunge look. By the band having this particular style this would encourage the audience to be fairly similar.

Taregt audience style of clothing

Jungle Doctors