Institutional Research

4AD

This is an independ british record label. The label gained popularity when releasing albums from post-punk, gothic rock, electronic and experimental. In it was founded in the year of 1980 and continued its success to the early 2000s releasing albums from artists including Bon Iver, Lush and The Breeders. The record label now forms part of the Beggars Group with others labels like Rough Trade, Matador, XL and XL Imprint. 

Distribution

For a number of years, 4AD did not distribute to anywhere outside the UK however, it did have willing distributors in other countries. For example, PolyGram which is a subsidiary of Vertigo Records- Canada, Virgin Records- France and Nippon Columbia- Japan. In the USA 4AD's records sold well however it has always been a challening market for the label. Only a small percentage of 4AD's acts had deal to license their records in America which made it very difficult for them to distribute it their. 

Props

Representation Of Age

The representation of age is becoming decreasingly uncommon over the years as the representation of gender is portrayed a lot more in recent music videos. There is a variety of ages which are represented in the videos. Depending on the song or the genre of the song the video is for, there could be stereotypes or counter stereotypes of age. 

It is noticeable in recent music videos how videos which do have a representation of age they either support existing stereotypes or contradict them. The stereotypical representation of the younger generation mainly consists of them being carefree, chaotic and lively. In most of the video's they're drinking and partying. However, in one of Justin Beiber's video's he's helping the less fortunate which is contradicting the stereotype. 

The elderly are stereotyped massively. They are seen to be slow, dull and boring. However, in modesteps music video called sunlight there is a display of counter-stereotypical older generation because of the use of drugs and alcohol. This again contradicts the stereotypes of age in music videos. 

Analysis Of Music Video

One direction- Best Song Ever

- Opens with establishing shot featuring the hollywood sign- this tells us where it is set.     Hollywood= galmorous associations 

- Humorous- convey personalities

- First 30 seconds= band are in a meeting to discuss their music video (humerous)

- Each band member transforms into a character

- A scene with all members jumping into eachother= childish= family friendly

- One Direction are very famous therefore have many fans= scene where everyones wanting to take pics with them.

Similarities Of Pop Music Videos

I watched 5 different music videos to find similarities between each of them.

1) Love yourself- Justin Beiber

2) Diamonds- Rihanna

3) Chandelier- Sia

4) See you again- Wiz Khalifa/ Charlie Puth

5) Part of me- Katy Perry

Similarities

- Shots of black and white

- End scenes= music stops= scene carries on

- Lighting= quite dim

- Convey meaning/ message= narrative

- Link between lyrics and visuals 

- Close up of singers (diegetic sound)

- Costume links to video but mainly casual clothes

- A few unusual settings

Representation Of Ethnicity

There are many different representations of ethnicities in music videos. Starting off with pop artists, many of the artists are seen to be white. For example, the most popular pop artists Adele, Lady Gaga, Justin Beiber, Katy Perry etc all come from the same ethnic background. However, some of the artists have been known to act black in their videos and some female artists have been represented to be innocent and weak. This is evident in Shake It Off by Taylor Swift. In this video Swift sings 'white men run the show, black men play support, all the women get mostly naked, and black women get to hold up the bottom of the objectification pile.' Lyrics like these have had a common increase over the years. 

Rap music is mainly sung by black music artists like Cardi B, Nicki Minaj, Rae Sremmurd, Jay Z, Kanye West. According to some people, the kind of songs that are sung by black artists are seen to be explicit promoting bad behaviour and hate. In addition, a huge amount of wealth is shown in majority of the videos like expensive cars, drugs and gold jewellery. This is apparent in music videos like Money Machine by Gucci Mane. Even the name of the song and artist show wealth, Gucci being one of the most expensive designers and money being the most popular means of exchange. However, they do try and subvert the stereotypes of black people as they may be suggesting crime is good for no reason. 

In contrast to the above, some rap music is sung by white artists. At first this was not taken seriously in the music industry but everything changed when Eminem came along. Eminem is one of the most popular artists who raps about his personal experiences however they can be violent and homophobic which can raise questions in society. Another popular artist is Macklemore who raps about the diffference between wealthy and poor.

Target Audience

- The main listeners of pop music are aged between 16 and 21. 

- Pop is the most mainstream genre which is listened to. 

- Mainly targetted at girls

E.g) Little Mix, One Direction