Charlotte Irving Research

Music Videos
Music Videos represent an artist and support a song which could generally make lyrics more understandable.
There are three different types of music videos a producer could follow and this comes down into categories of Performance; when artist or representative mimes lyrics to portray they are singing. Concept based is a video than can be portrayed into anything you see individually and narrative is a music video following a storyline. Concept and narrative based music videos do not necessarily need to include performance, there are other ways such as subliminal messages within the music video to portray the main character acting is the artist.
All music videos include editing to create a professional look, depending on the genre and style of music whether it be slow or fast. Editing is at its best to match the style of music for example a dance video would stereotypically use fast editing. As well as edits camera shots, movement and angles are best to match the style of music. Kate Nash ‘The Nicest Thing’ is a slow dreamy song so slow editing, fades and camera shots were subtle whilst all moving at the same pace.
Mise en Scene; Props, Costume, Location – These factors are all part of mise en scene, they make up a music video and characteristics of the artist. Within Kate Nash – ‘The Nicest Thing’ myself and my group have stereotypically chosen props such as toy hearts (magical), diary and juggles, costumes were chosen to match the Indie culture and locations where we thought suited the music video, we chose public locations such as Alexandra Palace and Covent Gd. As we believe Indie represents uniqueness yet ordinary people.
Colour and lighting was natural as all scenes were set outside. The characters within ‘The Nicest Thing’ were kept minimal at two people however I believe Indie Pop represents groups and festivals/ ‘get together’ comes to mind. On the other hand going back to matching the style of music, ‘The Nicest Thing’ is slow and well suited.

Research into Indie Pop (Genre)
Kate Nash is a 22 year old female British based music artist. Kate Nash’s style of music consists of including her thoughts and feelings revolved around everyday life realism with a hint of magic.
Lily Allen is a 25 year old female British based music artist. Comparisons to Nash, they are both welsh and both produce and play a part in the Indie culture.
I believe both artists are upfront with their thoughts and feelings whereas compared to male artists they do not want to be too involved and seem sensitive.
Kate Nash is signed to an independent record label whereas Lily Allen is signed to Warner Music. Both artists started out solely and were founded on social networking site MySpace.

Target Audience

Subculture Theory
Mainstream Music: Mainstream music is music that the majority general public listen to in terms of popularity. It is said by Hebdige that individual preferences to music is become of experience, what people come across, see, hear etc. Popular genres such as RnB and Pop are commonly used in the media so in return people tend to listen to what they have heard before, same types of genres etc.
Subcultures: Subcultures are subsidiary to mainstream music James mccraken says the post-modern world is full of diversity, dynamism and creativity. It was once either the choice of two mainstream or James Dean, now the world has transformed into accepting subcultures.

Dyers Star Theory is split up into two paradoxes.
Paradox 1 – Dyer states that a music artist representative must be ordinary and extraordinary. Music artists must be ordinary to allow audiences to relate and feel involved, however extraordinary to create a level of aspiration with the audience – something they would like to amount to or follow through beliefs.
Paradox 2 – Dyer states that a music artist should be absent and present at the same time. Reasons for absence – So the audience crave the artist and their material, with absence the audience will most likely want more. Presence so the audience become familiar with the artist particularly with new artists, presence makes audiences hard to forget a name with a face.

Grant McCraken believes... The post modern world is full of diversity, dynamism and creativity. McCraken says that if we look at the array of values, and ideologies then we cant say all sub cultures come from one culture. CCCS’s view ignores this. It assumes that all subcultures come from one culture creation.
Hebdige came to the conclusion that although some people think subcultures only appear to be different but deep down they are all the same, he says if you look deeper there is enough richness to warrant renaming ‘subcultures’ as ‘little cultures.’
So what is youth sub-culture? – A group of people who are united through a common value system and tastes (clothes, music, politics etc.) A group positioned outside mainstream (which isn’t necessarily popular.)

Richard Dyer ‘Stars & Stardom’
The term ‘star’ refers to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performers to a large and loyal audience.
Common values of Music Stardom:
Being Youthful – Being young and youthful means being fresh and energetic, younger performers are most likely to give off better performances down to their youthful energy therefore some believe being young equals success. Artist ‘Madonna’ currently 51 years of age believes she still has her youth in which the way she acts/dances, dresses and performs portrays that she is younger than what she is.
Being Rebellious – Artists such as Chris Brown have done rebellious acts that have had the potential in losing fans, on the other hand his rebellious acts could have been done for credibility.
Sexual Magnetism – The majority of artists try to attract fans by creating a sexy image both male and female artists and all ages, e.g. Britney Spears even in her younger years of innocence, being sexy does sell.
Originality – All artists try to target and approach audiences by being individual and original with trends and ideas ranging from clothing or style of voice an example of this is artist ‘T-Pain’ his music is edited using auto-tone, this originally comes from T-pain as to what he is known for.
Agression/ Anger – Rock Star
Success against the odds – Famous celebrities such as J-Lo ‘from the bronx’ and Cheryl Cole coming from a working class background have had success against the odds where they have come from barely anything to something. Audiences take note of this and are inspired as such where they can relate and have hope that one day it could be them or someone they know.
Richard Dyer has written extensively about the role of stars in film, TV and music. Stars have some key features in common – A star is an image not a real person. A star is made to look how the media chooses this can be done in forms of magazines, costumes worn, films etc. Media Spectacle. Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings.
- Stars depend opon a range of subsidiary media – magazines, TV, radio, the internet.
- The star image is incoherant – open opinion – always something to learn.

Must be around for the media.
Must be abit distance so you want to see them again.
The incoherance of the star image ensures that audiences continually strive to ‘complete’ or to make sense of the image.
Hegemony – Is the dominant idea.

Lyric Analysis

Kate Nash - Development of the artist 'Kate Nash'

Kate Nash is a 22 years old British female singer and songwriter from London. Kate had always been interested in music in her early years of childhood following onto her teenage years which reflected through her keen interests in learning how to play different musical instruments such as the piano and guitar.
Kate Nash knew music was what she wanted to base her career on, and she took her passion seriously. Kate had been rejected from other theatre schools before she then went on to studying Theatre at the BRIT School for performing arts and technology in South London. Kate had been writing her own songs from the beginning, and little did she know when she first decided to book a gig at a local bar in Harrow ‘Trinity’ to give a small audience an insight as to what she has to offer, it was the start of something big to come (career wise).
In 2007 Kate Nash had a hit single ‘Foundations’ which made it to #2 in the UK charts, which then led onto her success album ‘Made Of Bricks’ platinum selling UK number one. Kate Nash was signed by Moshi Moshi Records, all down to her recognition on social networking website ‘MySpace’.
Kate Nash’s music genre is classed as ‘Indie Pop’. Being in the music industry Kate has a unique and likeable streak about her. She has always been compared to Lily Allen as they have many similarities in terms of music styles and not to mention how they gained fame.

Kate Nash – Foundations 2007

Kate Nash - Pumpkin Soup