Artist Study

Halsey is assigned to two record labels Astralwerks and Capitol Records. Astralwerks is a US record label which primarily focuses on electronic and dance music. Its material distributed via Capitol Music group, also releases materials mostly from EMI Music Australia.
Most popular recent releases have been from deatmau5, Mat Zo, Empire of the Sun and Halsey.

Capitol Records is also an American record label. Capitol Music Group is also a parent company for Capitol Records. They were responsible for modification of albums for American release, bands which they got to work with were The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, etc.

Although she is mostly known in US and UK, she is trying to aim world wide. For example she filmed her music video for the song "Ghost" in Japan and she had some Japanese writing, a girl who was the central protagonist and she also was narrating music video in the beginning in Japanese.

Her most recent album "Badlands" has been a success, starting from 4.5m  up to 31.5m views on YouTube. 

She also got to be featured in some well known artists songs. 

She got nominated on MTV Europe Music Awards, People's Choice Awards and NME Awards in 2016. She also went on VMAs and sang with Chainsmokers, song "Closer".

Her music video are elect pop genre therefore every single one of them has bright lighting, colours featured. Bight hair colours and unusual clothing. 

Her primary audience are female young adults and teenagers her secondary audience are males and  LGBT group as well since in music video "Ghost" she has a romantic relationship with the female protagonist, she also was featured in revealing clothing which was made to target male audience.

Although Halsey in new to this industry her popularity grew a lot during two years. Which may lead her to be word wise singer and be recognised in most country. Also a new music video where she was featured, with Chainsmokers got into "Billboard Hot 100 Charts". More people started to recognise her because of the song "Closer".

Halseys style tends to be grungy and with a pop of bright hair style. Because of her style and her voice and the style of her songs  people compare Halsey to another upcoming singer Melanie Martinez. There were also a lot of fan made mixes with their songs where fans mashup two songs. 

In her YouTube comments people usually talk about her music and compare it to other electro pop genre artists and wanting them to create a music video where all of them will be featured.

Sample Scene

This is my sample scene for my music video. This is a rough version and does not have all the scenes in it. The costumes which I want for my music video haven't arrived yet therefore I have to film it without it. For the locations I had forest, inside the building and the park. However, I still need to film in an abundant  house and the actress entering there. I have put blank spaces in where I don't have the scenes. I also have to film the performer lip-syncing the song. I have filmed it but after it turned up not matching the beat of the song therefore I need to redo that scene.

Improvements 

• For the scene with windows in the house, add curtains to give it horror effect.
• Use matching set of Pjs to make it easier for the audience to recognise.
• Use extreme long shot of loaves passing by to introduce the character in the beginning.
• GoPro high angle shots could be used for the park scenes.
• Make the characters hair look worse to create destroyed effect. 
• Get the song on my phone before starting to record so when lip syncing it cuts to the beat of the song.
• For the running scene in the forest the girl should look scared so I need to direct her more careful to create the right mood otherwise change the character. 

In this scene I used a worms view shot to signify the character being lost. I have used colour correction to follow electro pop conventions. 

For those scenes I have used colour correction, saturation and exposure. I used saturation to make the colours more vibrant and exposure to change the lighting of the colour. 

In the first two scenes I have used black and white effect to create classical horror effect. 

MV Analysis

Starboy - The Weekend

This song is recorded by Canadian singer The Weekend for his upcoming third studio album of the same name, featuring French electronic duo Draft Punk. He handled the majority of the song's production, with McKinney and Crikut serving as co-producers. 

It was released on 22nd September 2016, by XO and Republic Records, as the first single from the album. 

Relationships Between Visuals and Lyrics

Looking at this music video, this is a performance and the concept based video which means that the lyrics do not match the visuals. Looking at the video we can see how the man killed Weekend with his old hairstyle and Weekend with new hair was a thief. He then takes one of the expensive cars of the man he killed and rides away. However the lyrics are about him and relationships. 

Genre Characteristics 

This is an electro pop music which means that there should be a lot of bright lighting such as pink and purple. This music video is a cold tonnes and has fragments of purple, pink, blue and green lighting. They have also used a cross which lights up red. 

Performance, Narrative or and Concept

This music video is a mix between performance and concept with a touch of narrative. We can see the plot of Weekend killing the man, getting a revenge on him and leaving mans' house. We can also see the performance side of it as the singer sings in the house as he passes through the corridors and rooms. 

Performance Style

This was a performance based video therefore there was a lot of lip syncing. The camera focused on Weekend with different shots such as medium shots, long shots and close ups. All the scenes are central framed to show that he is the central protagonist in the story. We were also abled to see Weekend dancing while he was walking thought the hallways and singing. This type of dancing is very common among male artists. The dancing was simple this was made so the fans could relate and copy the moves right from the screen. 

Looking/Mode of Address

Weekend is looking directly to the camera throughout the video this creates a sense of direct connection with the audience, in this music video we can see how they applied uses and gratifications theory. Looking directly to to the camera Weekend creates a personal relationship with the audience making them feel as if they were there and he is talking to them. 

Mise-en-scene

The first location was a dining room it was an important location as this is the place where the video started. We can Weekend with his old hairstyle tied up to his chair opposite Weekend, this location was important as it anchored the the difference between the two characters.There were also hallways and where different paintings were hang up. Another location was garage where all the expensive cars were. Finally the last location was inside the car somewhere in the roads.

We can see how make up and costumes affected the video. At the start of the video we saw a man in a mask and Weekend tied up. Later using mise-en-scene the audience saw a completely different thing. We saw the man taking his mask off and it was The Weekend with his new hairstyle. This use of mise-en-scene was made to introduce him new hair to his fans in the video. 

Researching Branding (tbc)

Here I have looked at examples from Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, iTunes and Facebook.

This is Halsey's iTunes page where you can purchase her album. The background colour is light clue which matches her hair on the album cover and in the photo she appears on the top right. 

This is her Instagram account where she posts her life events, tours, concerts,etc. Usually artists have a link to their Twitter, Facebook, YouTube pages on their Instagram bio however, she does nor have anything but her name there. 

This summer Halsey had her tour Chicago 2PM-8PM Saturday July 20th and here we can see how she is promoting it through her Twitter

 These are her YouTube and Facebook pages. On there back page and on her profile she has her album "Badlands" cover, she also has a music video of her songs. This was made so that fans can easily find the song.

MV Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga - Bad Romance

This is a Dance/Pop genre music video which is directed by Francis Lawrence who worked along side many artists, creating music videos for them, but is best known for directing three of the four Hunger Games films. Bad Romance is a song by Lady Gaga an American singer who released this song as an ad showcase in October 2009, at Alexander McQueen's show at Paris fashion week. 

Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey came up with the theory of the Male Gaze. She looked at objectification. Where the body is getting broken down into different parts. Laura is a feminist and she is concerned of the pro dominance of the males. 

Lady Gaga is a post-feminist who would disagree with this theory, as she believes that her clothing choices and behaviour gives women sense of freedom. The costumes on the video are revealing which would arguably be to attract male audience. The males in the video are watching Lady Gaga and the rest of the female cast which leader to accentuation of this point and arguable aspects of the male gaze. 

Feminist/Post-Feminist

As a long standing and traditional arguments to call out. Gaga would be found as empowering artist. She believes that all women are ownerships of their own bodies. Gaga claims that she is not a feminist and opens up the image of empowered and liberated women to her fans. 

Normativity

In this music video we were abled to see things which have become normal for people to see. Stereotypes which have been there in media for a long time. We were abled to see thing exaggerated over and over so it became a normative for us. In this case it is Vodka being a stereotype of Russians. Women dancing for men can be arguable as an objectification, For the representation of the audience we can assume that it was strip club set up. This could also be read as Lady Gaga critiquing men. 

Intertextuality 

There were a lot of product placement in this video such as Nemiroff Vodka. Beats headphones, beats logo on the laptops. 

Intertextuality of Katy Perry's music video "California Girls" where Katy is wearing a cream shooting bra. We can see at the end Gaga with a bra shooting fire. 

Stuart Hall Reception Theory

The theory is an active audience theory which sees the audience as being actively engaged in the interpretation of media texts, rather than passive consumers. The idea is that individuals interpret texts in different ways. It demonstrates that even though one message is sent out, that not one understanding received. 

In this music video we can see Lady Gaga wearing revealing costumes but individuals will interpret this look in different ways. Some people would view her being pretty, but others would view her as being attention seeking. 

Andrew Goodwins Theory

Music Videos ignore common narrative as they are essentially advertisements. As consumers, we make up our own meaning of a song in our minds: a music video can anchor meaning and gives the record company/artist a method of anchoring meaning.

Here we can see Lady Gaga's dance routine with elements of dancing from Michael Jackson's Thriller Music Video. 

Pitch 1

Music Video

This is my pitch for my music video, where I will be presenting possible ideas of what to include in my music video.