Critical Reflection Essay:
How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?
How do your products represent social groups or issues?
How do your products engage with the audience?
How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
The Digipack which I created represents the grunge genre via the use of dark and desaturated colours seen in albums such as Dirt, Bleach and Full Circle, the abstract image reflects not only the theme of the album (a school theme) but also that the school is controlled by some overseer and the dark colours and clothing that can be seen reflect that this figure may be an antagonistic force. In this way, the album cover illustrates the lack of freedom of those caught in the school system as they are figuratively (and literally) in the palm of someone’s hands. The inner panels also further illustrate the grunge energy that I am trying to emulate. The left inside panel features scattered polaroid images (signifier) that reflect carelessness, recklessness and a chaotic atmosphere (signified) (De Saussure). These sensibilities are what Barthes would describe as mythic representation of grunge artists, since these ideas of them are so ingrained in society that it has become a globally accepted view of grunge artists and bands. The right inner panel features the two characters in my music video, the student and the teacher. I positioned them in this way so as to create a visual sense of conflict between them that is reinforced by their opposing philosophical approaches evidenced in the music video. Finally, the back panel features a report card with subpar grades awarded as well as the tracklist incorporated into it. This use of merging the image and tracklist together is something that many grunge bands have done before such as in Dirt (Alice in Chains) where the writing is specifically made to look messy and rough so that it resembles something drawn in the dirt, cleverly tying together the theme and informational aspects of the album.
During the preparation and planning for creating my music video, I decided to research various grunge rock artists such as Alice in Chains, Nirvana and more contemporary bands such as Foo Fighters and Fontaines D.C. The research involved gathering ideas for the basic mise-en-scene (costume, lighting, actions, hair/makeup, props and setting) and following the repertoire of elements (Lacey) to reinforce the grunge aesthetic and feel . For costumes, I specifically took influence from how Kurt Cobain of Nirvana dressed. (A plain t-shirt with an unbuttoned chequered shirt over it and slightly worn jeans), my research also showed that the majority of grunge bands utilise low key lighting and chiaroscuro to reinforce the dark and edgy tone. The props we used were reinforced greatly by Nirvana, we used electric guitars, bass guitars, a drum kit and strewn cables and amps to further reinforce the feeling of an anarchic, careless and modern band that is breaking tradition and moving away from more popular forms of music, such as Pop, Hip Hop and EDM (Electronic Dance Music). Our setting was informed by the name of the original song “School” by Nirvana, as such we decided to base our entire video around the idea of being trapped in school by an oppressive and authoritarian teacher. I used these genre conventions as a basic blueprint (Altman) with which to create a faithful and accurate video that embodies the typical conventions of the grunge genre.
Branding is a specific story that the audience believe and buy into. Something that resonates in the hearts of those who interact with it. In this way, my products create a sense of branding through:
The protagonists ideology on display in my music video, that of wanting to break the shackles of conformity that bind him, would resonate with the values, attitudes and beliefs found in my main audience and as such this would affirm their personal identities, while this strong ideal they hold would make them inclined to interact with others who hold the same beliefs (Social Interaction) (Blumler and Katz).
The social media page reflects the idea of branding through the way in which our stars are presented as brash, unapologetic and anarchic. The social media page makes use of cross media convergence seen in one of our songs being featured in a film and also through the use of collaboration with other artists.
Finally, the digipak conveys the rebellious and abstract spirit of the band through the abstract image on the front pane that introduces the theme and ideals of the album and the band, as well as the two inside panes that reflect their divergent attitude towards objects and ideologies that society holds in high regard, with the photos of fun times for the band being left scattered and strewn implying an abstract narrative as to what happened later on to the person revisiting these photos and the stare down between the authoritarian, oppressive teacher and the rebellious, non-conforming student.
The products I have created engage with the audience through the affirmation of their personal identities within the music video, their desire for entertainment and information seen through the social media page as well as the social interaction with other like minded individuals who follow similar bands, like similar music and have similar values attitudes and beliefs that our digipak enables. (Blumler and Katz). Through all the products we have made we encode our message and themes of social uprising and non-conformity that our audiences decode in their own ways and that allows us to strengthen the parasocial relationship we have with our audience as they adopt our own personal beliefs (Hall). Furthermore, the advantage of our online presence through the social media page makes it far more likely that people of similar tastes and ideologies will meet up and form groups or fandoms, taking back the media from large corporations and pushing our message of standing up against the established traditions of society (Jenkins). The many ways in which our audience can interact and engage with our products also pushes them to make content since in modern times media is becoming much more than a one way broadcast, now our audiences can broadcast back to us, and become prosumers, democratising the media landscape and making it far more participatory. (Shirky).