Week 4: Sound, Image and Music Video

This week we are going to explore some issues around the music industry, image and music video. But first, some in-class work carried over from last week as we ran out of time…

Hopefully everyone has had a chance to look at the readings from the past few weeks. So drawing on the material in those, here are some in-class research tasks for this week, which will hopefully assist you in refining your ideas for your essays:

1. What are some of the main differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0?

2. Think of two changes/shifts that have occurred in the music industry with the development of Web 2.0.

3. Name two companies/organizations/individuals you see as having played an important role in the music industry’s engagement with Web 2.0.

4. Name two ‘gatekeepers’ from the music industry that dominated prior to the development of the internet, and two ‘gatekeepers’ that dominate the contemporary online environment.

Blog work for this week:

So that people can easily follow and keep up to date with your blog, add the RSS Links widget to your blog.

You may also wish to add the Blog Subscription Widget. Change the generic WordPress text to make your blog more unique.

The chances of anyone wanting to search your blog for something are slim, but still, it could be useful to add the Search Widget to your sidebar. You may want to name it something more amusing than the one on here – bonus marks for humour!

For some visual appeal, images are a good addition to any blog. So see if you can insert a couple of images into a blog post for next week. As you will see, there are a few different ways of incorporating an image into a blog post.

Add a Twitter feed to your sidebar. This can be your own Twitter account, one from someone else in the class, or one of a musician/artist of your choosing… or maybe all three if you’re keen. You will see in the sidebar on here that I have a Twitter feed for the account of the awesome Dr Barry Hill.

Music, Video & Image

While we aren’t doing anything so adventurous in Design Studio as making music videos, our discussions of the internet, blogging and the music industry require some consideration of music as it relates to image. The web has radically re-shaped the way we engage with music and image, whether that is in regard to simple still promotional shots, the visual imagery and design of websites, or the viewing of music videos. The continued rise of YouTube and the recent cancellation of Channel 10′s Video Hits are just two examples that signify how consumption patterns have changed.

On your blog you will need to incorporate a short video. This doesn’t need to be technically amazing, but does need to relate to your essay topic, and should run for approximately two minutes. For example, you may wish to post some footage taken on your phone from a gig you have attended. Or you may wish to take some video of you or your band rehearsing. Or you may simply want to sit down at home and talk directly to the camera. Just as long as it relates to your essay discussion in some way.

It is useful to think about how the success of particular songs, albums or artists is linked to image. In the contemporary media landscape we are surrounded by the aural and the visual, and it is often difficult to dissociate one from the other. So with this in mind, it is important to consider how the visual aspects surrounding your own music impact upon the perceptions others have of this music.

While there are many different ways in which image can be portrayed visually, perhaps one of the most important developments for music and image has been music video.

An interesting and informative History of MTV video from WatchMojo.com

Some in-class questions for discussion:

1. How important do you think image is for the contemporary music industry? What are some of the different ways that image can be portrayed? Are there particular styles that place more of an emphasis on image than others? Do we associate any ‘stereotypical’ images with certain styles?

2. What do you think are some of the key music videos of all-time? Do you agree with this Ten Vital Music Videos list?

3. What are some of your earliest memories of music videos?

4. What do you think makes a great music video? And what makes a bad one?

5. Are there any particular artists who you think have harnessed the promotional power of image and/or the music video in effective and interesting ways?

Homework Task:

In preparation for our discussion next week of social media and music blogs, identify 3 key blogs in the Australian music industry (including only one by an artist/band). Explore and explain why they are significant, successful or unique. Describe their sphere of online influence and their strongest online affiliations. Note any unusual or interesting techniques of engagement.

Write a blog post and include ‘Aus Music Blog’ in your subject title. Given that we have 50+ students across the 3 classes, this task should yield a very interesting map of Australian music online.