QUESTION 2: HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE

COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT

AND ANCILLARY TEXTS!!

By Denisa Sykaj!

The Task!

As part of our A2 Media coursework we were asked to create a music video production and product two ancillary tasks for this music video. The ancillary tasks were to create a digipack and a magazine advert/poster for our artist and music video and the genre.

BrandingThe term brand is the name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies a specific product, service or business. It also differentiates the identities of products, services, businesses etc. Branding is important because it gives you a chance to make your product, business, services etc different to others and more appealing to others. With successful branding comes four key elements which need to be considered. 1: The big idea – The big idea is the summary of your businesses, products or services quality and what differentiates it from others. This is the starting point. 2: Vision – A long term vision of where you would like you business to end up or the direction it goes in. Your vision could be something huge or something small. 3: Values – your values are other peoples understanding of what your business stands for. 4: Personality – Once your brand is opened up to the world, you will be expressing and showing the personality and the difference of your company through the tone, language and design you use.

Rap/Hip-Hop Branding! Before starting my own products, I

researched rap/hip-hop music brands which I could present my artist with. I found a variety of different music brands which I could express in my own way and differentiate it from the other ones that already exist.

Our Brand Identity Rap/Hip-hop Our brand identity represents rap/hip-hop. We chose this genre as

our brand of music because it is a very popular genre of music and our artist looks like a rapper so we thought it would be the best choice, also because we all wanted to do rap/hip-hop as we are mainly into that genre ourselves. Our artist fits the rapper criteria perfectly, as he is very into his music and is a lyricist himself, he has the characteristics of a rap/hip-hop artist and he looks the part too as his style of clothing is very similar to those existing rap/hip-hop artists. He follows the conventions of an artist of this genre. However, he also challenges the conventions because of his hair which isn't very common to find and also mainly because although he looks the part and can rap , our artist is unique in his own way as he is ‘mocking’ other rap artists, what our artist is about is real life situations and not common existing topics such as girls, cars, houses, money, drugs etc which most rappers talk about.

The Final Products!

Front cover and back of booklet.

Booklet InsertBack cover of album

Advertisement

My Final Music video!

What is my digipack? My digipack is a marketing tool. The purpose of

my digipack is to advertise my artist. To advertise his style, his sound, his character and the genre of his music.

How does my pack effectively market to my target audience? My pack markets to my target audience

because it has a clear identity of the genre that it is. From my gatherings of my audience research I know that representation of a rap/hip-hop cover is an important factor as it reflects on the artist , therefore I made sure that my digipack represented the genre clearly so that it would effectively catch my target audiences attention as my target audience is mainly teenagers between the ages of 17-19. An important factor of my marketing to my targeted audience is also the ‘parental advisory explicit content’ which I used on my cover which conveys a certain age requirement for the content that it holds, as the whole purpose of that sign is it indicates to the audience that it could have inappropriate use of language or perhaps sexual references.

How did you decide which images were suitable for which product?

When beginning to create my own digipack, I had to construct a lot of research in order to make sure my own digipack would follow the correct rap/hip-hop conventions of a real CD album of this genre. Whilst researching it came to my realisation that many of the artists of this genre have either very simple images on there albums were the artist/s is looking at the camera or at something else in the frame or there are very well structured, well- thought images that could include other objects within the frame such as cars, girls, money etc.

Front cover! For my front cover I used an image which

represented my artist in a clear form and also represented his genre clearly. I chose this image for my front cover because it gives of a ‘cool’, rapper look as he is sitting on block stairs which is a common rap/hip-hop convention when it comes to rap/hip-hop. Also it shows his choice of clothing which is another important aspect when it comes to rap/hip-hop as it is a form representation. For example the snapback is a very common feature within the rap/hip-hop genre as many other existing artists wear them. Another reason for my choice to use this image as my front cover is because of the props he has on him, these being his phone and the headphones, these are shown on many occasions during the music video and also on the other photos which were taken.

Booklet Insert! These images were taken on a separate photo

shoot. I decided to use these two images for the booklet because although they are very simple shots, they represent his style and genre. The hat that he is wearing is again as mentioned before a very common accessory which is worn by many artists in the rap industry, also because of his hair which gives him a unique look as not many rappers have this kind of hair. The first side of the booklet I decided to keep quite simple, having a close up of my artist and the text ‘The Saurus Era’ placed on his mouth as he mentions it a lot throughout his lyrics and also because he is advertising himself through his lyrics by saying that this is his era, this is going to be his time to shine and that is what I wanted to interpret. This also challenged the typical conventions of a rap/hip-hop CD album as there are not many artists that have a booklet nor front cover or even a back cover designed this way.

Booklet Insert!! The second page of the booklet I decided to use a long shot image of my artist as I

wanted to show his position/pose, I made him do a slight hand gesture to indicate his musical status as a lot of existing artists have hand gestures ‘Hand signs’ in their music videos and on their advertising packs , this could be either a sign represent a certain area, or ‘tag’ of a person or just for the sake of doing it to meet the conventions. I added a ‘Urban street’ background to the second booklet as I wanted to represent the ‘street’ side of this pack. This again was done to follow the conventions of what rappers do/ talk about in their music, this also was done so that the hand gesture and the background entwine together and look more realistic. I chose specific lyrics to add to this cover so that it links in well with the main image and the background and again so it follows the conventions of a real rap/hip-hop booklet.

BACK COVER!! For my back cover, I decided to keep it simple. Similarly to my front cover, the artist is sitting on the block

of stairs looking at the one of the cameras but not at the audience. He still has the phone and headphones on him as he does on the front cover. My choice of colour (Black & White) was because my music video itself is black and white and I wanted to refer it back to the video as many rap/hip-hop artists of this genre illustrate something from their music video onto their advertisement packs, whether it being the CD Album or the advertisement/poster. I kept it at a tasteful black and white which was balanced well and then added a few logos and signs which normal, realistic covers have, again following normal conventions. The two black bars I kept simple with just the name of the artist and the name of the album and another title which represents the whole album, the artist and his music, this being ‘Saurus Era’. The typography for the album title I used on this cover was a replica of the one used in the actual music video, the reason I chose to use it was because the way it is designed (the tower blocks at the bottom of the text – MY LIFE )as it represent a city view and links in well with the lyrics / message/ plot of the video as my artist is talking about his day to day life. The typography for the song titles is from a website I found which I was able to create and personalise , I thought that the colour I chose would work well with the colours of the actual cover and would blend in well. The whole structure of my CD back cover is a very common conventional way to lay it out as many existing rappers have similar layouts. The branding of my album is also on the back cover ‘MTV’ logo which is a music station of this genre and also House OF Fame logo just under the barcode.

Advertisement!! Before starting my advertisement I constructed

research on advertisements for rap/hip-hop artist's. It came down to two brands which were most popular , ITunes and Amazon. The reason I chose ITunes is because (and I can vouch for this) most teenagers purchase/ listen to music on iTunes and keeping my target audience in mind I know that my artist would be marketed more on here as it is very popular. The typography used for my advertisement I created on a font website as I wanted the name of my artist to be very appealing to the audience and represent his status as a rapper. I used the front and back cover on my advertisement as a brief insight on my artists style, character , looks. I also added lyrics on top of my back cover again to give the audience a brief insight of what kind of music is produced by my artist. The tour dates I positioned on the side of the page as it would go well in order from looking at the front cover to the back cover to the tour dates, I used red and black because these two colours really complement each other and match the criteria of a rapper’s style and conventions.

How are my products linked through representation, costume, props, locations, colour, typography etc ?

My 3 products are all linked for many reasons, one reason being the slogan which I printed all over my digipack and is mentioned frequently in the actual music video. This is ‘THE SAURUS ERA’. This is a form of promoting/advertising my artist and the era in which he will become a world wide known ‘realist of the lyricist that's killin’. When it came down to costume, we made

sure to have his style ‘swag’ very clear and represent it well. The main fashionable accessory which he had in the music video and on my digipack/advertisement is the hat whether it being the black woolly one or the ‘snapback’. Another fashionable style is the pants hanging loose which is a typical common convention/ style used by many artists and the male public as it gives off a ‘cool’ perhaps ‘gangster’ look alongside with the trainers or ‘creps’ street term which is another fashionable item that rappers are keen on.

When it came to props, we only had the beats speaker which was carried throughout the music video, this was an illustration of music as the beats speakers represent music today. We also used it as a replica of the Jukebox which artists used to carry around in the 90’s and that itself was a musical prop sensation. We wanted to bring this back into the music industry except the latest gadget.

Colour : The use of black and white challenges the conventions of a typical rap/hip-hop music video. Before choosing this scheme of colour for our music video, I researched other existing music videos which had similar conventions as the one we wanted to do – this being Black and white. The use of black and white gives it that extra, unique effect and in a way links in well with the story behind the lyrics as he isn't talking about sunshine and happy times but more of the dark, depressing days. The black and white colour illustrates this to a certain extent.

Mise-en-scene: Before the shooting production, we had to choose a variety of locations for our music video. These locations had to match our genre and represent the conventions of a rap/hip-hop music video. The locations we chose are very common in a rap/hip-hop music video, we also wanted to illustrate Andrew Goodwin's theory of which states that there has to be a clear link with the lyrics and the visuals. We chose a block as our main location were the artist is there with his friends as is mentioned in his lyrics, and then goes on to central London outside Gucci which again is mentioned in his lyrics and then on streets in London, near his house.

My artist would more or less be promoted by labels within the rap/hip-hop genre, for example Bad Boy records which have many rap/hip-hop artists signed already then there is Roc Nation which is more about the upcoming artists of the music industry such as K Koke , Rita Ora,

J.Cole and many more.

What label would promote my artist?

Where can I see this artist appearing?My artist would appear mainly on multi – faceted companies which are run by young artists. There are many musical platforms for Urban music – this being rap/hip-hop. These companies help promote the artists individual talents and help them build a fan base for the future. Companies like this usually have artists singing live and free, this being from spontaneous lyrics which they make up there and then to existing lyrics which the public have already heard.

Where would I see the magazine advert ?

There are many music magazines out there for my artist to appear on. However, I think that my artist would mainly appear on magazines of the same genre as him which is Rap/Hip-hop.

And plenty more : Vibe, Hip- hop rocks, Hitlist, Murder Dog, Pound, Situation The , Raw roots .....

CONCLUSION!

To conclude, I believe that our creation followed the conventions of a rap/hip-hop CD album and advertisement. The ancillary tasks also challenged some typical conventions but in a good way adding extra effect on the products, giving it a strong unique look. I believe our products are successful rap/hip-hop products with a strong selling point.