'Stardom'

As the media has become more and more involved in the representation of 'celebrities' today, we find ourselves questioning what actually is a star? Reality show's such as The X Factor give everyday normal people a chance to fulfil their dreams and try to make it as a pop star. However the ideal image of a pop star has quickly adapted over the years.  A pop star is now more known for what they are wearing and who they are dating than the actual music they produce. This is due to the fact that pop stars today are now promoted by their management to be/act a certain way in order to sell records. This has recently been relevant with Miley Cyrus who started out as a child Disney star and is now facing controversy due to her racy performances and revealing outfits. People aren't talking about her music, they are only interested in her video's, what she is doing and how little she is wearing. Many of the so called stars today haven't made a significant cultural impact on society in which to be classified as true stars.

Stars are constructed images even though they are sometimes portrayed as being real people just to sell records. The social media has also helped pop stars of today gain a wider fan base due to media sites such as twitter which allows them to communicate with their fans making them feel like they have established a real connection with their idol's, therefore presenting them as real people with real emotions.

Sixties Soul

We have decided to go for a more old school/different genre of music as we feel that this will differentiate us from other groups. We have chosen the song 'Please Mr.Postman' from the 60's band 'The Marvelettes'.
We wanted to do a black and white/old fashioned video and thought that this song would be perfect for the vision we had in mind. We haven't yet storyboarded for our music video however we do want to have a performance element as well as a narrative for our production.

I began my research by looking at old sixties video's and looking for what qualities/features each video had. We realised that most of the video's were based on a performance which lacked a variety of shots/angles/camera skills and mise-en-scene. In order to incorporate the old sixties vibe into our video as well as show our skills, we have decided to stick to the conventions of the sixties video and include a performance element in our music video. However we wanted to bring a modern day twist to the old video and so we have decided to have a narrative throughout. I think that this will work well as we are bringing modern day and sixties soul together. Our narrative is purely based on a young couple who have been effected by war. This also fits in with the lyrics of the song, therefore our video will fit in with Andrew Goodwin's music video conventions, the visuals matching the lyrics.

The Jazz Singer

The music industry is always changing and evolving into something bigger. An example of this evolvement is the music video. Nowadays music video's are easily accessible due to the improvement in technology. With just a click of a finger you can access any music video in the world via the like of 'YouTube'. Music video's are also available on our television's with TV channels being dedicated just to stream the latest video's. Artists rely on their music video's in order to establish a name for themselves and increase the popularity of their music.

'The Jazz Singer' is a 1927 American musical film; it was the first motion picture with synchronised dialogue sequences. This was the first time that speech had been synchronised with the picture on the screen and it is responsible for the development of music video's today.

Album Releases

I decided to look at upcoming album releases to help us find out about what we can include on the front cover of our album and what it should look like. 2013 will see the likes of these artists releasing new albums:

• Justin Timberlake The 20/20 Experience Part 2 30th September
• Jason Derulo Tattoos 8th October
• Miley Cyrus Bangerz 8th October
• Katy Perry Prism 22nd October
• Lady Gaga Artpop  11th November
• One Direction Midnight Memories 25th November

These artists are constantly having to improve their music or in some cases completely change the sound that they are famous for in order to keep up with the ever growing music industry.

Starting A2

After 6 weeks off we have just started back to sixth form and are beginning our A2 Courses!
Unfortunately our group has now halved and now only me and Megan will be continuing on to A2:(

At the end of last term we practised making a music video along with the cd cover, insert and magazine advert to go with it. This has allowed us to know what to expect in the upcoming year and will hopefully mean we can improve our skills that we have already developed.

Me and Megan have brainstormed a few idea's and we quite like the idea of doing an old-fashioned music video with an older song as we feel like this will be something not many people will do. We liked the idea of a black and white theme as this will show the age of the genre we choose and will also differ from other groups. However we still haven't decided on a song or a narrative for the video but are hoping to come up with a final idea very soon!