Interview with a Music Manager

 Emma's primary role is a music/artist manager and also works in publishing and writing. She went from a creative (singer) to woking in development to then being a full till music manager, working close to artists. the industry in evolving and becoming independent and the role of a manager is changing with this. 

artist when she was quite young, musical theatre at the west end, development deal when she was a young singer but didn't go the way she wanted. started converging to writing and started earning more money with working with little mixed. publishing deals focusing of publishing briefs and learn a lot from these songs.

Worked with Garry Barlow, Blue and Craig David, writing songs for them. Realised she had to start nurturing artists and working close to them and learning off of them.

Head hunted by psycho entertainment as they wanted to work with her after following her path for a while.  

X factor, Britains got talent, America's for talent  working for Pyco which is Simon Cows company. worked close to the show developing the style of the artist and as a vocal coach. moved into artist development after the artist got off the show. 

Developing established and unestablished artists, e.g. Ellie golding, ed Sheeran

looks after producers as well, more and more people are diversifying across many roles surrounding arises development which is more successful as you are covering a wider audience.

less opportunity than before as labels are looking for a person with a good following therefore having a platform already is very important and old ways of scouting artists is dead. 

went down the root of gathering a large fan base for artist through featuring them with bigger artists. gets approach by people at all different stages and worked on the image they already have or completely rebrand them to match their personal image.

- 100 million streams = £500,000 

created the company, Re-imagen music 

do look at the numbers but second table do use that as something to work on

Each act has to be catered in a different way. Organic side, put music out to make it look authentic or manipulate it more. She was determined to develop artists herself, her roll was getting them in the right sessions with the right producers, with them with studios/gigs. strategies used to be the same but now 

did she plan to have a wide range of artist? she didn't really plan it and her company allowed this to happen. short time money vs long term money - album artists sell to a specific artist (long money). artists who have hit singles (short term money).

her job was getting the product right and selling the brand of the artist but now there is the ability to get more money out of them. Expensive business to get into.

many artists were going to be launched at festivals but with covid they were unable to get recognised.

Is physical still relevant? At gigs people like to come away with a physical but there are much smaller numbers that they are printing now

song coming out digitally through a company

is the music video still relevant - fun to make from the artist perspective, traditionally the music video is important for boosting sales but now a days there not as important for that matter. 

'This is America'

 Gambino

- Donald Gambino is an American actor, rapper, comedian, writer and producer who takes the stage name of Childish Gambino

- He has a number of mainstream Hollywood credits including playing the young Land Calrissian in 'solo: A Star Wars Story'

Dyer and the star theory 

- "stars are commodities, produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings"

- "stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media in order to construct an image for themselves"

Gambino/Glover v Elvis 

- these ideas are not new and in fact have gone through cycles

- both appreciated the benefits of a wide exposure 

'This is America' was released in the US on the 5th of may, 2018 to concede with Donald government hosting 'Saturday night live', one of Americas best known TV shows.

In terms of genre, it is hip hop with very deliberate elements of Afro-beat 

The songs release was not previously announced but instead appeared online while Glover was live on TV during his SNL performance.

Analysis of "This is America" music video

Problems raised:

- gun crime

- race, correlation between the two

- violence

- drugs 

All the shots in the music video 'This is America' are very slow pace tracking shots which have a long duration and smoothly link to one another through either cutting or creating the illusion that the camera is being taken to another setting. The long duration for the shots acts in favour to the viewer as they are able to absorb the enormous amount of detail that is cleverly inserted into each scene whether in the background or centre stage. Many of Gambino's hidden messages take place in the background of the main act, such as rioting, police integration and criminal activity. An example of this is the shot of performing African cultural dancing to the camera whilst cars are pulling up behind him with people running, swinging their arms around in the air in a violent manner. This, along with the majority of the shots, implies the idea of distraction, the idea that as a society we are distracted by entertainment and things of smaller importance, from actually focusing of the real crime and violence problems that have been present within poorer societies for years. 

There are also big references to real life happenings impeded into the visuals. The most obvious one being the reference to the Charleston church shooting. This incident hit America hard as the crime not only took part in a church but was a white supremacist teenager attacking a black congregation. BBC News reported that "Six women and three men, including the church pastor, were killed". This tragedy was clearly represented in the scene where Gambino shoots down the entire choir as they were singing along to the song. This is included as an example of a real world event that has occurred due to the discrimination agains black people in America and the aim to show people the regular, racist acts that happen to people of colour.   

The lyrics to 'This is America' conveys the lower positioning of the black community in the American society and how it's been kept there regardless of the discrimination it brings. A lot of the song feed back to the idea of gun violence, drugs and money within the black community and how white conservatives concentrate on following the narrative of blaming people of colour for the majority of the violence occurring in America. However, these actions are actually a correlation to poverty and is clearly present just the same among white people in poverty, yet is overlooked to benefit conservatives incorrect points of beliefs. Furthermore,  the lyrics, "don't catch you slipping' now" correlates to the idea that people of colour are always on their toes due to always being the first ones to have the blame thrown on them by the police and people of society due to the corrupt police system in America. There is clear reference throughout the lyrics to drugs and money; "grandma told me get you money black man, get you money black man, get your money black man". Lyrics such as these explain how you have to go out as soon as possible and start earning at a young age and if you are unsuccessful, you are forces to turn to other, harsher methods. 

Throughout the entire music video, children are very present and included not only in the dance routines but also behind the scene of the main event. for example, kids are used on multiple occasions after the gun scenes to collect the gun in a red cloth. this conveys the idea that children are fully included in violence at an early age and are born into the violence. It further highlight their knowledge into guns and the idea that they know to have care with them with cloth and almost treasure them. Furthermore, this exposure of violence and misery to children is juxtaposed with the scenes of children performing ancient cultural African dancing with smiles spread across their faces. These shots express the idea of love and happiness that comes with their desire for their culture and the idea that it is a comfortable escape from the real world problems of discrimination that they are about to grow up in. Lastly, displayed in many of the shots, children are present among chaos. In one of the dancing scenes there is a perceiving of a sort of riot taking place in the background of the shot, whilst the children remain unfazed by the chaos. This brings me to believe the idea that children are not only thrown into a violent lifestyle at a young age but it is the norm for them and they are eligible of staying clear of it and focusing on the task at hand. 

"contraband" - making money through this  

Set in a empty warehouse - comment about what's happened to American society 

James brown reference with one of the dance moves

Loyle Carner, The Isle of Arran

The music video for loyle Carner's 2016 release of 'The Isle of Arran' links to the theory of the lyrics matching the visuals. In his song the lyrics go, "my mother said there's no love until you show some", whereby the visuals mirror this accusation with a shot of his mother doing that such thing. Furthermore, both the lyrics and the visuals convey a sense of importance of family orientation for Loyle Carner. We see clips of him with he's family (wife and newborn) among other families which highlights his soft personality. The overall filming and editing of the music video conveys such of a wealth behind it, due to the cleaver use of CGI and clean, neatness of each shot. Lastly, I feel that Carner, though his family orientated videos, breaks the stereotypical vibe of the music video that 'normally' come with rap music. He focuses the attention of the video more only what he loves in life and what made him (his family), rather than showing off his belongings and flexing his wealth. Although this song belongs to the second album Carner released, it was still a very early release in his career and reflects him well as an individual. 

I feel this album cover represents Loyle Carner himself and his music very well. A lot of his songs are based around his family with the visuals also matching this family orientation. The album cover exaggerated this idea of family and support through blood relations even more. It creates a calm atmosphere across the album and gives a relatable sense to the audience in terms of family love. Furthermore, the effect applied on top of the photo creates an old tint to the shot which compliments his 90's style rap.  

Andrew Goodwin

Music video convention theory

A link between the lyrics and the visuals 

- Artists link their music videos to their lyrics and play them out as they are sung 

A link between the music and the visuals

- often the pace/movement of the visuals mirror the beat of the music and work in sync with one another

Reflect the common features of the genre of the music

- e.g., pop music would clearly convey the genre through bright, fun colours along with energetic dancing and stereotypical 'pretty' artists

Use of intertextual references 

- often, producers use references to well known movies when conducting a music video for their artist. This increases the interest into the videos and people are able to make this correlation 

Notions of looking and voyeurism 

- the idea that 'male gaze' is a very strong element that attracts an audience. By objectifying women and using them in a sexual way through there clothes and dancing you are able to use the 'male gaze' to your advantage 

Demands of the record label evident in the visuals

- 

Star image a key focus

- many people come to watch the music video just for the artists appearance in it. By spot lighting the artist in the music video, you are able to attract these people 

Performance based/ narrative based/ concept based 

- Filming the artist performing naturally in a studio/ creating a lory line that you base the video upon/ making the video more abstract and interesting  

Star Theory, Richard Dyer

Richard Dyer 

Dyer has written extensively about the role of stars in film, TV and music 

The star as a construction:

• A star is constructed and becomes more of an image than a real person, this image is created revolving   round their target audience 
• They are being constructed and sold through all the different medias   
• It may be based on real things and personality traits but is still a fake image 

The star as a commodity:  

• Stars are commodities, their identities are sold rather than their products
• Stars depend on a range of subsidiary media, TV, radio, the intranet, in order to construct an image to target their audience
• The stronger the image, the easier they are to sell 
• A few artists out there that refuse to be part of a label because they don’t want their image being controlled
• The star image is made up of a range of meanings which are attractive to the target audience  

The star as an ideology:

• Sometimes the band or the artists actually represent the values and beliefs of what their selling
• Sold on their image    

Fundamentally, the image of the stars is incoherent, meaning it is incomplete and always open for change. This is because it is based upon two key paradoxes.  

Paradox 1   

“the star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer” e.g., someone to idolise but also to relate to     

Paradox 2  

“the star must be simultaneous present and absent for the consumer” e.g., they don’t want the audience to become sick of them yet there has to be enough of them to be constantly remembered     

  

Social Media

Engagement Post  

'Tell the Story' Post

Promotion Post

 

Development of an Artist