Anna Calvi - Desire

The music video for Anna Calvi's song Desire features a lot of iconography and imagery. In order to pull together an analysis for it, I shall be examining the section 2:00-2:35.


We see a lot of religious symbolism in the song which fits closely with lyrics from the song; she sings of desire being "heavenly", which fits well with images of cherubs, but she also sings of the "fire", which has connotations with hell, just a few moments before, which has obviously strong links with imagery such as that shown in the image to the right, of some kind of skull. The track, when paired with the video, seems to strongly link religion with desire, and the addition of a snake in certain places makes it seem as though she is referring to the Fall, in which Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge through the advice of a snake inspiring the desire to do so within them.

This section seems to focus a lot on a picture which looks relatively non-descript, which appears odd to us as Calvi is singing into the portrait and looking at it with great intent. The slow pan into the picture also creates suspense around this. We feel as though we are about to witness something interesting, but it seems to not come for a long period of time through the drawn out approach. 
The way in which the camera tracks around the back of Calvi as she sings to the painting also creates an essence of voyeurism, (Goodwin, '93), as it seems as though we are looking at her and studying her to find out why she is quite so absorbed in terms of the artwork. 


This voyeurism is also notable in the first few seconds of this section; we see the mantlepiece she is standing opposite from a sideways angle, with her guitar coming into view every now and again; this indicates that we are seeing Calvi in a candid manner, as she idolises the things in front of her. The way in which we only see her hands (very slightly) for less than a second of time reinforces this idea and suggests that the few glimpses we do get of Calvi are almost 'stolen' and not authorised.
There is a skull below the painting, which is interesting as it is a different one to the one seen in the first screengrab. It almost suggests that there is a lot of religious material in the home (the skull is shown in conjunction with the snake and cherub), bringing more meaning to lyrics such as but it's just the devil in me.

 We see why Calvi is so interested in the painting towards the end of the section. Her pupils dilate, which is sign of desire and attraction in humans. They widen as the painting begins to morph into something far more interesting; that is, the blurry grey painting transforms into crashing waves which correspond well with the track, signifying some kind of climax in the song; like a wave, it has built up for a long period of time before coming crashing down in a dramatic manner.

This also is a symbol of pathetic fallacy; a technique often used in literature to suggest an emotion. For instance, when a passage is happy, the weather may be pleasant, and respectively, when a passage features sadness, it may be raining outside. In this situation, the wave crashing suggests anger and very strong emotion. It suggests that this 'desire' Calvi is experiencing is wrong and she is not feeling at ease with it. This is reinforced in the beginning of the section where flies crawl over a garment of clothing, which looks very much like a corset. This also suggests that the desire is wrong, and the fact that it's flies rather than any other insect seems to imply that it is almost disgusting.
The shot shown here  depicts a girl sitting on the bed, her back bare looks incredibly voyeuristic. Lights flash on her skin repeatedly, which makes it seems as though the girl is in the middle of some sort of storm or in a very urban area. The exposure of her skin helps to make her look vulnerable and weak, since she ==//

There are a wide variety of shots used in this piece. There are some moments where the camera seems to be focusing on things other than the main symbols, like Calvi herself, and this is interesting because usually in a music video, these look unnecessary. However, as I previously analysed, these shots that look unrelated actually carry a lot of meaning; for instance, one shot looks to be an unfocused and unsteady shot, half of the wall and half of a room, but on closer inspection, it is very voyeuristic and appears to be showing someone peeping around the wall to see Calvi - as can be seen in the shot to the right here. 
The camera shots seem to change a bit more towards the point in the song where there is a shift of focus away from the repetition of verses and choruses, to a section that seems like a build up to the climax of the song, where she sings "only the lonely". The camera seems to switch between Calvi and a painting on the wall, which helps to suggest that there is a link between Calvi and the painting that she is facing. The camera varies in its distance from Calvi and the painting, getting progressively closer to each between shots, culminating in an extreme close up of Calvi's eye and the entire screen being filled with the painting. The angle remains more or less the same - that is, equal to Calvi, although the camera seems to be slightly tilted when we see the painting. This upwards tilt seems to be putting emphasis on the painting and implying that it has a lot of importance. 
This is something I feel would be well incorporated in my video. This helps to emphasise an important point in the video, and considering how my plot includes a boy turning his back on something that has become such a large part of his life I think it would be helpful to include. 
Angles are incredibly helpful in establishing people's position in regards to others and so I would like to be able to use this in my own work.

I wanna go to the sun
Hold my life like I've never done
But it's just the devil in me
The devil that's calling as I come undone
The sky is getting dark tonight
Darker than the fear that's gonna pull us apart
The beating is the sound of love
The sound of love is beating like a fevered heart
And it's the fire, the fire, the fire
It's heavenly, heavenly,
Desire, desire
Desire, Desire
I wanna lay in the dust
The dust is gonna fall when I lie
God knows it's just the devil in me
The devil that's taking my hand to the fire
I never wanna leave you now
Leave you like the sun is gonna disappear
But it's just believing now
Believing in my heart is what I've come to fear
And it's the fire, the fire, the fire
It's heavenly, heavenly
Desire, desire
Desire, desire
I've got desire, desire
I've got desire, desire
And only the lonely
Only the lonely fall
Only the lonely
Only the lonely fall
Fall
Oh, and I go to the fire
But God knows it's the sound of, it's the sound of love
It's the beat of my heart that you
Finally beating, it's coming, coming, coming for you
And it's just the devil in me
It's just a door to the devil gathered in disguise
Taking me by the hand
And leading me, leading me off to the fire
And it's the fire, the fire, the fire

It's heavenly, heavenly

Desire, desire

Desire, desire

You don't have to be lost 

(Desire, desire)

You don't have to be lost 

(Desire, desire)

You don't have to be lost 

(Desire, desire)

Edits to text made in blue

G324 - Jessie J Audience Profiling - Survey Analysis

In order to find out some characteristics of Jessie J fans, I created a survey on the online survey service called Surveymonkey. I created a survey that had three qualitative questions and seven quantitative ones.

I posted the link to the site on Facebook, as well as contacting popular Jessie J fan page jessiejheaven.com. They agreed to post the link on their Facebook page and their Twitter, which I feel gave me some more responses. 
In my survey, I got 21 responses. Firstly, I asked the respondents what their gender was. I gave an option for people to opt out of saying, but they all chose to answer. There was 18 female responses, and 3 male ones. 
This supports what I previously wrote about Jessie J's fans being predominantly female. I am glad that I have the male responses however as it shows a little variation in the fan base.

This next question aimed to find out the variety of ages in the sample. I found that there was quite a varied range of ages, although the majority of the fan base was aged 16 to 19. There was also quite a few fans who were aged 12 to 15, but more surprisingly 28 or over; this was not an age range I had expected would be a fan of Jessie J, mainly due to the simple nature of her more popular songs. However, I found from my research when posting the questionnaire that this is in fact something the artist is attempting to challenge in her next album. 


The variety of ages suggests that she although she appeals predominantly to one certain age group in particular, 16 to 19 year olds, certain elements of her music appeal to a variety of audiences.


Next, I queried to find out what kind of radio stations they listened to as I felt this would give me an indication as to any variety in their personalities. A majority of the respondents listened to radio channels that corresponded with Jessie J's musical style, such as Capital, Heart and Kiss. BBC Radio 1 plays slightly more alternative music, and as this was the fourth most popular response it suggests that Jessie J fans do not religiously stick to listening to one genre of music; rock and indie music is frequently given airplay on Radio 1. One respondent also listened to Kerrang!, a radio station that plays much more heavy music, including rock and metal. Also, Radio 2 was listened to as often as this, which often plays older pop music. This contrasts my original opinion on the musical tastes of Jessie J fans; I was under the impression that her fans were entirely pop oriented and were almost rigid in their tastes.

Three responses were gathered under the section of "other". One mentioned using music channels in order to listen to music, such as Starz TV, and the other two mentioned less mainstream radio channels, such as Kisstory, a channel that plays "old school" hip hop and dance, and BBC 6 Music, a channel that "brings forward the cutting edge music of today, [and] the iconic and groundbreaking music of the past 40 years". These also suggest that her fans are not as single minded and have a lot of variety in the music they choose to listen to.
I then asked fans about their tastes in magazines, believing it would reveal more about them as to whether or not they were as easy to pinhole as I had originally thought.

 

Reflecting upon the options I provided, I believe I influenced them too heavily with my expectations of the answers I was going to receive. Consequently, I did not provide any answers that were targeted towards male respondents, and I gave answers that were very stereotypical, tabloid, real life or fashion. In the other section, I got answers such as Good Housekeeping and Horse Life, suggesting that the fans read a more varied selection of magazines. I can see from these responses however that a lot of the respondents do in fact read these magazines, and subsequently my predictions were not too incorrect. Magazines like WeLovePop, Reveal and Closer all frequently have stories about artists such as Jessie J, and magazines like Company and Glamour all regularly draw on popular artists to show the latest trends and fashions.

In relation to this, I next asked about the respondents' fashion choices, offering them seven statements to choose from and asking them to select which one they felt they belonged to the most. I assumed that they would be very into fashion and keep up to date with the latest trends. However, the results contradicted this somewhat.
Most of the respondents claimed that they simply wear whatever is comfortable to them. Next, people wore comfortable, cheap clothes that made them feel at ease. This indicates that they do not make their clothing choices based on the preferences of the artists they most listen to. Two respondents wore "clothes [they saw their] favourite artists wear, because they look good". Two people liked to stand out from the crowd, although one was more for fashion reasons, and the other for the point of shocking people. 
Three of my respondents enjoyed wearing unusual clothes that made them look and feel good. These responses are generally in line with my presumptions; that Jessie J fans draw inspiration from her, and that they did not like to blend in with the crowd and they enjoyed having somewhat of an style which they felt was unique to them. I do not think that the graphic I put together showing a variety of clothing choices likely to be worn by fans of the artist is too wrong; although it was my intention to put together an idea of what the fans may typically wear, the hybrid nature of many genres and fashions nowadays in our postmodernist society suggests that they pick and choose which ones they wanted for themselves. 
Following this question was a question about social networking sites. I believed that they would all use social networking sites, because of their age, and as well because of the fact Jessie J is such a popular artist who is likely to use Twitter and Facebook to communicate with her fans.

The results confirmed this assumption. However, not as many used Twitter as I expected them to, with only 11 of 21 respondents using it, compared to 18 of 21 for Facebook. Video and photo sharing websites Vine and Instagram were relatively popular. This allows for artists like Jessie J to communicate with her audience through more personal videos and photos about her life.
As expected, people no longer actively used social networking sites like Myspace and Bebo, and only one respondent used Tagged. None of the respondents did not use any form of social networking; even the child who was under 11.
These results suggest that Jessie J fans are somewhat mature and very sociable.
Then I asked the respondents to choose four activities out of a list of 16 that they most preferred to do in their spare time. I set the questionnaire so that only four results could be selected; no more and no less.
I found from this that listening to music was the most popular activity, with 81% of the sample choosing this as one of their favourite activities. Next, people liked to watch movies, then meet friends. This was closely followed by people who preferred to read books and watch television. No Jessie J fans listed playing video games, playing an instrument or looking online for the latest trends as their favourite. However, there was a definite spread across the answers and clearly some variation in the kind of social activities that fans did. The fact that more fans liked to meet friends than use social networking sites is a positive thing as it suggests that Jessie J fans are positive, friendly people who enjoy spending time with friends. This is something that I suggested may be true based on the stereotyping I did in the previous post on this topic area.
Next were my qualitative questions. In order to analyse these I put some of the responses into Wordle, a free piece of online software that allows you to create word clouds. as a form of content analysis. The question was "What do you most admire about Jessie J?". The words which came up the most frequently are in the largest font; for instance 'awesome', 'charity', 'people', 'fashion' and 'honesty'. These words reflect how people see her as a person and I feel that these reflect them as individuals; for instance, the people who commented on her charity work did not also mention her fashion sense. The people who commented on her being 'awesome' did necessarily not talk about the other words on the cloud, such as 'dedication', 'confident' and 'inspiring'. I think this is important to note as it reflects how different people see her; it may be helpful to know individual responses and hence I went a little more indepth. Surveymonkey has a feature which allows you to see each respondent's answers individually; I chose a respondent who had answered "she does charity work" as a reason why they admired her. This respondent "wore comfortable, cheap clothes". In contrast, another wrote she has an "awesome fashion sense" and this same person declared that they often wore clothes they had seen their favourite artists wear.
I think this is important as it highlights the sort of things which people look for from their favourite artists. Some look to her to see how she is inspirational and committed to charity work, having shaved her head for Red Nose Day. Others look to her as a fashion icon and someone to see as a TV personality on shows such as The Voice. I then looked to see which song of hers they would say was their favourite and found out the following; the two most popular songs were Price Tag and Who You Are. An excerpt of the lyrics from each song are shown here too. I think this is a very important point because as I said in regard to the previous question, it reflects what people look to the artist for. In particular these two songs send messages that often are contradicted in more popular songs. Songs by rap artists and many pop artists brag about wealth and how happy and complete it makes a person feel. For instance the song Billionaire by Travie McCoy and Bruno Mars talks about the positives of having money and about the different kinds of entertainment and fun it offers a person. On the other hand, Jessie J asks "why is everyone so obsessed; money can't by us happiness". The song also asks why we can't "enjoy right now"; Travie McCoy's song states "oh the world better prepare; for when I'm a billionaire". This shows different ways of thinking in popular music, and is most likely a reason why Jessie J is popular for being a little bit different to her industry colleagues.
The second most popular song is Who You Are; the lyrics are also pictured. This song discusses feelings of insecurity and offers support to people who are feeling left out and unusual in their lives, friendships and schools. It is almost inspirational in some aspects, giving messages to these fans that they are not alone and that they do not have to feel bad for feeling that way in the first place.
I think that this shows a lot of her fans see Jessie as a strong role model who, despite her views being unorthodox as far as pop music is concerned, conveys positive messages of strength and honesty to her listeners.
This question leads into the next well. I then asked "Do you think Jessie J is a good role model? Why/why not?".
The overwhelming consensus from this question was "Yes". One person stated they didn't think so, claiming they believed she dressed provocatively.
Upon reading the responses, I think it is clear what Jessie J fans see in their favourite artist and why they have selected her as such. I have inserted the responses here, highlighting in bold some of the key words that they used to justify their reasoning. These include inspirational phrases she has used before. I think that this one sums them all up well: "Never expect, never assume, always work hard and always stay true to who you are".
From these answers I also think that people enjoy listening to Jessie J and have chosen her as a favourite artist because she is a role model to them in many ways; even if they are not acutely aware of her being someone they look up to, their answers here and in the previous qualitative questions reinforce this opinion; they all gave inspirational songs and commented on her in a way that suggests they would perhaps mimic her actions in their own lives (charity work and such).

In conclusion, Jessie J fans are very different in terms of their social lives, fashion sense, gender and age. However, the qualitative questions have revealed that they all like her for very similar reasons. I believe this leads me to the conclusion that people enjoy Jessie J as an artist because of her status as an inspirational and active member of charities. She has had a difficult life, one she spoke about often in songs like Who's Laughing Now, a song that talks about being bullied as a child, and has dedicated herself to raising £1million a year for charities that are 'close to her heart', ones that she became familiar with through difficulties in her youth, such as having a stroke at the age of 18 due to a condition she was diagnosed with at 11.
I think this also suggests to many young fans that they can always be successful no matter what they have dealt with at previous points in their lives. This is a positive message for young people and one that has hopefully reached a lot of her fans.

Death Cab For Cutie - Cath

The video for Death Cab for Cutie's Cath depicts a woman getting married in a church, surrounded by friends and family. There is a past lover there, who seemingly has turned up late for the ceremony, in a last-minute attempt to get her back. The outfits worn in the video are typical for a wedding, helping to set the idea of a traditional, small scale wedding. The emptiness in the church is almost striking; it is a large venue but there are maybe only 30 people there. This suggests almost that people disapprove of the wedding or that it is between people in society who are not well adored. 
The way that the man sits at the back of the church on his own suggests that he may even be part of the problem, as he has purposefully avoided sitting with Cath's friends and family. 
The setting also emphasises the seriousness of the situation that Cath is in. The lyrics of the song reinforce that she has had to make a difficult decision, "'Cos your heart was dying fast/and you didn't know what to do". This is further supported later on in the video.

Before this, however, there are some parts of the video that further aid telling the story. Right at the beginning of the video we see the man running towards something, although at this point we are unaware as to what exactly it is. The close up tracking of his feet helps to show the urgency of the action, through the shakiness of the camera and in the way that there is almost not enough time for transitions and additional shots. It seems quite a childish shot, almost replicating the way we sometimes see children run in video. This could be seen as greatly contrasting Cath's two choices of men; the one she is about to marry and the one who has came to claim her back. 
As he enters the church, the band enters the room into which they are headed in their own journey. As he does this, grass grows in the room and this seems to suggest that he is offering Cath a new lease of life; grass grows in the spring time and the spring time is associated with rebirth and new beginnings. Notably, when he leaves the church later on, the grass disappears. This can be taken to signify the opportunity leaving her; as she has decided to marry the "well intentioned man" instead of the other man vying for her affection. 
Alternatively, his exit from the church can be seen as him leaving her life. Her entire family and friends are there, presumably (from the way they look at her); she also made her critical decision there, and her husband is now there. It is as though he has left her life permanently through his departure.
The music and the visuals are synchronised nicely together, especially upon the man entering the church. The music is not exactly slow, but calmer with only two noticeable instruments being played. However, as he enters the church we hear more instruments being added, and upon the vocals being included, we see far more of the scenario. When the music is played at the beginning, we see only feet and either very close up or far away shots. When there are more instruments and more depth to the tune, we see faces and locations more clearly.
The moment at which Cath and the man kiss is emphasised as being important through the way it is portrayed from several different angles. This is reminiscient of wedding videos in the two upper stills, but also replicates a technique used in performing arts called an essence machine, which is where the same moment is repeated multiple times but with different emphases each time to help make a point about the moment being important by reinforcing it. It seems to help to reinforce how potentially life changing the moment is for Cath, and makes it seem all the more sad when she opts to marry the other man instead, as it looks almost triumphant when they kiss. 
The quick cuts suggest that the video happens in real time, which makes it seem more tense as Cath has the duration of the track to choose what to do.
In terms of editing used in the video, it corresponds with the lyrics. "It seemed that you live in someone else's dream" is met with Cath's face, with faces of the artists over the top, which creates a slightly dreamlike, soft, sleepy look.  She also looks tired, which suggests that she has had a lot of emotional toil inflicted upon her as a result of having to make the decision whether or not to go through with her marriage.

A common feature, or even a convention in music videos is the "notion of looking". This is done quite often throughout the video. For instance, at the point in the image shown. It looks almost voyeuristic, with the viewer looking at Cath in a candid manner. It seems as though the cameraman is filming Cath without her consent, especially since it's done through a balcony and Cath is looking away. The same can be said for the next one; which is filmed through an old style looking lens. It replicates the idea of the wedding being filmed and adds a further level to the idea of Cath being surrounded by her family and friends. The way she isn't looking into the camera suggests that she is unaware she is being filmed, or uncomfortable with it, which adds to the lyrics, such as "whispers that it won't last roll up and down the pew", as it infers how uncomfortable she is in getting married.
There is also a part of the video where her friends and family, the priest and the groom are all frozen in time. This is the point where Cath and the other man kiss. This can be seen to suggest that the views of the wedding guests are also frozen in time, traditional and resistant to change. They are encouraging her to marry the "well intentioned man" rather than the scruffy one who turned up late to the ceremony.

Cath..
She stands with a well intentioned man
But she can't relax with his hand on the small of her back
As the flashbulbs burst she holds a smile
Like someone would hold a crying child
Soon everybody will ask what became of you
'Cos your heart was dying fast
And you didn't know what to do
Cath...
It seemed that you live in someone elses' dream
In a hand-me-down wedding dress
With the things that could have been are repressed
but you said your vows and you closed the door
On so many men who would've loved you more
Soon everybody will ask what became of you
'Cos your heart was dying fast
And you didn't know what to do
The whispers that it won't last roll up and down the pews
And if their hearts were dying that fast
They would have done the same as you
And I would have done the same as you

G324: Audience Profile Research Task - Jessie J

For this task I have been asked to create an audience profile for a band or musician based upon assumption and questionnaire results.
I chose to create a profile for Jessie J, since she is a popular, well known artist who has become somewhat established in the industry through her songs and television work.

Assumptions
Interests: They are probably interested in the sort of things that most young girls are; meeting up with friends, socialising, watching movies, going shopping, reading tabloid magazines. Older fans may go clubbing or party somewhat regularly. Her music falls under the Pop genre, which is the more "mainstream" of genres. The outcome of this is that her fans are likely to have more "mainstream" interests; i.e, those that are common for people of that age.
Gender: I think the fans of this artist are predominantly female, because of her lyrics, which seem powerful: Don't lose who you are in the blur of the stars!
Seeing is deceiving, dreaming is believing,
It's okay not to be okay.
Sometimes it's hard to follow your heart.
Tears don't mean you're losing, everybody's bruising,
Just be true to who you are
Lyrics like this are likely to appeal to a more young, insecure female market who are looking for some light in a confusing time in their lives.

Age: I assume that the fans of this artist are probably between the ages of 5 and 25. I feel this is the case because her music style is very young and so is her look. However, some of her songs are quite meaningful so she might appeal to an older audience in this respect.

Fashion: I think that the Jessie J's fans are likely to want to dress like her; in slightly more edgy, bright clothes that make them stand out from the crowd. For instance, in the photo to the left she is wearing clothes that would typically each be a statement piece in an outfit (the hat, gold combat boots and the leather jacket), not all worn together like she is. This kind of edgy style is commonly promoted in young girls magazines nowadays and on the television. A few examples of clothes and motifs associated with this fashion style have been provided below; they are clothes that seem to be common with younger teenagers recently.

Social practices: Fans of Jessie J are probably highly computer literate, making the most of mainstream social networking sites like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to broadcast their musical preferences. They are likely to also use a lot of apps on their phones; such as Whatsapp and
Snapchat.

Fans of this artist are likely to listen to music of the same genre, or the kind of songs they hear on the radio. They may listen to radio stations such as Kiss or Capital FM more than ones that play more varied and alternative music.

In order to get a more valid insight into these areas, I created a survey using Surveymonkey.com to ask about various attributes of Jessie J fans. I contacted one Jessie J fan page, Jessie J Heaven to ask them to publish the link of their website and also asked two twitter accounts to complete the questionnaire. Alongside this, I will post the link to Facebook and on my own Twitter account to try and get as many fans as possible to complete it; I am aiming for at least 15 responses.

Hyro Da Hero - Sleeping Giants

This is the first song that was released from Hyro Da Hero's first studio album, Birth, School, Work, Death. It was directed by sitcomsoldiers.com, a music production company who have previously directed videos for The Blackout, While She Sleeps and Of Mice and Men.
This artist defines himself as being a rap-rock artist. I could not see many dominating characteristics of this genre in a broader sense, although through looking at the two genres separately I was able to find some common themes. For instance, the artist raps into the camera more often than not, looking straight into it a lot of the time. The entire video is also quite high energy and fast paced, common of many rock videos. It also shows the artist and the band, another convention of this genre.

There are several points in this video when the lyrics and the visuals have something in similar with one another. For instance, at this point in the video, (1:09), the lyrics are "when we let the blind lead the blind; we fall off the cliff at the same time", which is echoed directly through the person falling off the stage. The face is covered as well which resonates the comment about being blind, although the lyrics are probably more in a metaphorical sense than a literal one. It also occurs later on in the song, where he uses these lyrics: "get off your butt and do something; end a war, start a war, fight the peace, lie to me; stop running around so silently". At this point he has caused some chaos in the situation, interrupting the worker's mundane lives by throwing their carefully shuffled and ordered papers up into the air, causing them to panic and fluster. This suggests the artist's presence is causing change in their lives; some of them move less robotically then they do in the beginning.

There is some relationship between the music and the video which emphasises the music to some extent. For instance, throughout most of the video the music is fast paced and the visuals coincide with this, cutting quickly and showing the people moving in accordance to this. In contrast, when the music slows, as if to create tension before the next verse, the people move much slower and there are no cuts between scenarios.

There are a lot of close ups of the artist. He sings into the camera very frequently, adding to the notion of looking as he performs to the camera. He sings into the camera in both of his guises; in his Malcom X-esque gear and then his more stereotypical rap-rock clothing of a tight t-shirt, 'snapback' and his trousers. I feel like this probably shows his versatility as an artist and the way that he changes constantly between outfits emphasises this. He does this frequent change between smart and casual in another video which backs this point up. You can also see the logo behind him in the performance scenarios, on the drum kit, for example.

In relation to the notion of looking, there are shots every 45 seconds or so which show the masked figures in a fisheye style; this is style often used to suggest looking through a camera, perhaps as a nod to CCTV filming everyone's lives. Throughout the video it almost suggests the changes they go through as a result of the artist's presence; they dance in these shots. Their movements are rigid and robotic in the initial few, but then progress into being much more unique, loose and interesting, supporting many of the implied messages in the video.

There may be intertextual references in this video; if so, they are very succint. There is one notable reference; this may not be entirely reliable. I read somewhere previously that there is inspiration from Malcolm X in this video, suggesting why he dresses in certain ways in certain parts; there is some noticeable similarities in dress, as well as the messages of change that he is trying to get through to the people - this is supported in the image. Although it may be coincidental, they are both wearing similar shaped glasses (although Hyro Da Hero's are tinted black) have a similar hand gesture, and are both wearing suits.

G324: Tribes

In order to find out which "tribe" I was in, I went to this website, run by Channel 4.
Upon taking the survey, I was informed that I was a "Young Alt".

According to the short video that follows the survey, I am "butterflies, experimenters, wide eyed to the world", who "definitely [doesn't] want to be considered mainstream".
I think the tribe does somewhat reflect my musical preference; "alt" is shortened for alternative, which is apt to describe my musical tastes; it does not fit into one set group, much like "Young Alts".
However a lot of the other phrases in the tribes video do not necessarily describe musical taste particularly well - the video comments on Kurt Cobain and music from NME.

G324: Audience Profile Research Task

The Lafontaines
The Lafontaines are a Scottish hip-hop/rock/pop band, from Motherwell.

They are currently unsigned, although they have somewhat of a cult following as a result of tours with bands like Sonic Boom Six and 3OH!3, despite differing musical styles.
They recently performed at the Classic Grand in Glasgow.

I don't feel like the design of this flyer really reflects the group's music at this stage; some of their songs are not entirely serious and the design of the flyer makes them seem like a much more established group, with a much more defined, classy style.
However it makes them seem quite simplistic, which is reflected in their music - they are straightforward with their message.
The artwork for their EP, Light Up The Background, is quite simplistic as well. I feel like this makes them rely more on their individual style and following than their image, mainly because upon looking at their artwork and flyers, they do not seem to be the sort of band who would make such music.

At their Classic Grand show, the band performed wearing suits, a far cry from their usual get up of casual t-shirts and jeans. This seems to be their way of creating a more recognisable imagine for themselves and trying to find their niche; how many hip-hop artists perform wearing a shirt and braces?

I don't feel like The Lafontaines' image reflects them very much as artists of their genre. It breaks typical conventions of rap music; they don't have scantily-clad women in their videos, don't rap about violence, sex and drugs, and don't wear the sort of clothes one expects to see in a video by such an artist.

A more comprehensive look into the fans of The LaFontaines can be found here. 

Hyro Da Hero
This Texan rap-rock artist is a solo outfit. He is a relatively new artist, who has toured with many groups in the last few years, such as The Blackout, Deftones, Letlive and All That Remains.

He released his first studio album, Birth, School, Work, Death in 2011. It has quite unique album artwork for an artist in the rap side of his genre; it is reminiscent of some heavier styles of rock music, despite the fact that is not what a lot of his songs sound like at all.
I don't think his image relies on many gimmicks; his costume onstage is rather casual. I think this reflects his music - he is not trying too hard to make the two styles work together.
Artwork for his album can be seen to the left, in Digipak format, which may be helpful for my work later on.
I think it incorporates iconography that is stereotypically associated with the two genres his music fits into. For instance, the blades that can be seen in the inside of the digipak, an icon that is commonly used when it comes to rap music. It also has a large skull, which is more typically associated with rock music.
I think Hyro has a more established image for himself and his musical style has not changed as he has become more known either.


3OH!3
This band is technically classed as being electropop but many of their tracks have roots in hip-hop.
They are a more well established band than the previous two, with three studio albums, with the covers all echoing a particular motif that has been carried through the group since day one - the hand gesture/sign. It is featured on all the covers of their tracks, to differing degrees each time. For instance, the silhouette-esqe style one shown here is actually the front cover for their first album. Recently, they released a new album, which features the same icon. It is carried through in their live performances too; as can be seen in the photograph below, the crowd often replicate the sign themselves.
Their music is not very serious and does not carry strong messages like that of The Lafontaines and Hyro Da Hero.
3OH!3 have an image of making music that has little artistic value and is more suited to "college parties", despite the fact that some of their tracks have a lot of meaning behind them. There are a lot of reasons for this; unlike some artists the members have almost all their photoshoots in a jokey, odd manner and a lot of their videos echo this - they have little in common with the lyrics of the track. A good example of this is shown in the video below for their song, "Touchin' On My". Their videos rely a lot more on concept rather than being performance or narrative based, although there is often a strong performance element to them.


Audience Profiling
Stereotypically, this music is not held in high esteem by many people and hence the stereotypical image of people who like this music is negative due to bands such as Limp Bizkit and Hollywood Undead making the fusion of rap, rock and hip-hop seem undesirable.
Fashion choices of these sorts of people are likely to be darker, with logos on their clothes and probably with dyed dark hair.
Although highly stereotypical, it is often thought that these sorts of people spend their leisure time hanging around in public places, drinking (3OH!3 fans in particular are often thought to spend a lot of time partying) and causing trouble.
Socio-economically, there is probably no set group which fans fit into. It is possibly more common that these people will be of a lower social grade, as commonly believed is true of rap fans.
The audience for this kind of music probably goes to a lot of live performances too, since this kind of music translates well into this kind of environment as it is energetic and fun.