A2 Research and understanding summer task. Cheryl Cole

Cheryl Cole; Under The Sun music video



The concept of this video, is Cheryl as a young lady from the 1940's/50's. The video follows her on what appears to be a normal day at first, the theme throughout is very much love, but there is a sense of Cheryl pushing the love away, as there are many men presenting them self to her and she acts uninterested. As the song progresses she begins dancing more, along with a routine with men in the video. The video appears to start in the morning, and towards the end it fades to night time, giving the idea that this is Cheryl's daily routine.

In the first scene of this video Cheryl appears to be in a 'speakeasy' kind of bar, which is old fashioned with a Juke box and 1940/50's style furniture and costumes. This scene is before the music even starts, at the beginning Cheryl is filing her nails, and watching the clock which is ticking loudly, this gives the impression she is bored, or waiting for something to happen. The clock strikes 12 and she makes her way to the old fashioned Juke box, which gives the appearance she is putting her own song on as it starts playing shortly after and she leaves the bar, this shows she is in control of the situation as she puts the song on.

After leaving the bar, Cheryl is dancing/strutting down a street, portraying her has happy and confident, the location is quite scruffy which makes her stand out in bright yellow and pink, making her contrast to the dull grey backgrounds. This links to the song title 'Under The Sun' as she is appearing as a ray of light in the dull town/city.
Also linking to Cheryl's song lyric and name of 'Under The Sun' whilst she sings 'I can see the sun shining through..' The image of the sun appears from behind clouds, giving the impression that the sun is coming out at the same time as she is. This again links her image/role to the sun, implying that she is the metaphorical sun.

After this there are many quick cut shots of Cheryl walking down the street, catching the attention of the men in the video, the fact that the men in the video are attracted to Cheryl is very much a representation of real life as boys and men that watch the music video will be able to relate to the actors in the video as Cheryl is an attractive woman.

Cheryl Cole is very much portrayed as 'the nations sweetheart'. This theme runs throughout her texts, as she always has a very girly, pretty bubbly look about her. In this video in particular Cheryl is shown as the girl next door, meaning the audience's attention is drawn to her. She has simple makeup which makes her look classy in this video, with some bright lipstick which makes her stand out, as well as the clothes which are in a 1950/40's style due to the little piece of material tied around her head, and the long, pencil, high waisted red skirt. In this video Cheryl only has one outfit, meaning it is more simple than her others where she has a few different outfits throughout, this helps tell a story of the video. Other props in the video reflect the 50/40's atmosphere such as the old fashioned cars and the costumes of the other characters in the video. The overall look that is portrayed from this video is innocence and beauty which is clearly shown throughout the aspects of the text.

The camera focuses a lot on close ups of her face, as she is the main priority and the thing that the viewers want to see as Cheryl is the celebrity. The close ups also bring the attention of the audience to how beautiful she looks from all different angles. The video also has long shots of Cheryl walking down the street, showing her whole body, emphasising her womanly figure as it draws the attention towards the main character. There is a close up of Cheryl's bum at the beginning, which does contrast with the idea of innocence and brings a sexy edge to her meaning it would strongly attract the male audience as well as females.

Cheryl also rendezvous with many men in this video, from being lifted to dancing with them. This also expresses the importance of her beauty as it appears she has captured men's hearts in this video. The majority of the other characters in the video are young, good looking men in 50/40's style outfits linking to the male attraction of Cheryl. The male dancers while Cheryl is sitting on the car are all wearing suits and hats, they look very smart whereas Cheryl looks casual implying that they have made the effort for her, making her appealing.

Although in this video, Cheryl is supposed to appear as if she is part of the neighbourhood and blends in, she catches the eye of an old woman watering her plants who gives her a surprised and slightly concerned look, this implies that she has a shock factor about her which could be to do with her beauty, or the fact she is wearing bright clothes which are revealing her stomach. Three young girls are also sitting in the bus stop and they gaze longingly at Cheryl as she struts past them, this shows how girls really do look up too/envy Cheryl.

Cheryl is shown dancing around in the street, leaning on cars and singing which is unrealistic in real life but isn't very outrageous for a usual music video, which could attract viewers, as she does not come across annoying and tacky, the video is fairly down to earth. There are old fashioned style shops shown with balloons and stalls on the street, which all link to the 50/40's theme of the video. The American style diner shown nearer to the end of the video also shows the 50/40's.

In this video, Cheryl shows off some of her tattoos, which contrasts with the feminine girly look to her and makes her appear a bit more edgy as tattoos can be disliked by people, giving the impression she does not care too much about audiences opinion. This may also be to show off the tattoos to show her rebellious side.

There are dull colours in this video, such as the street and the background of where Cheryl is walking and dancing. There are a lot of shows of bright colours such as Cheryls costume, which is shown in pictures above, also the flowers in the beginning of the video which are being arranged by a older woman are bright colours making them stand out, this is shown below. Shop windows shown in the video also have bright colour in them, showing that there are rays of sun/light in the town.



Inlay pictures

These are the images we took and edited to use in the inlay of Daisy May's album. We chose these as the theme of innocence is running through them, with the nature, flowers and trees. Also the picture of the artist with her hands in a praying position is based on one of Britney Spears album covers as she is featured with a similar pose. This portrays the idea of religious innocent girls.

Digi Pack pictures

Our given genre was Pop Princess. After researching ideas and popular conventions of this given genre we took our own pictures for Daisy Mays Digi Pack for the album I need you. This is the back and front of Daisy May the Pop Princesses album.

After researching artists such as Britney Spears we decided that the 'innocent' look is popular for Pop Princess albums. The pictures we used are very simple and do not have a provocative nature to them. The majority of our editing process was simply instagram which had an authentic effect we decided worked well for our chosen images. After deciding the track and album names we edited them over the picture in girly white writing. We chose white as it shows innocence linking with the Pop Princess style. We also included a bar code to make the whole thing appear authentic.

Fonts

We searched through Dafont.com to find some fonts to use for out Pop princess Digi pack and we looked in the 'valentine' section and decided to choose a font called Jellyka - Love and passion. The font is girly, with hearts and swirls so we decided this would be suitable for a Pop princess' album as they very much focus on a young girl audience, and the hearts relate to the 'love' theme. The font will be white so it stands out on the digi pack as the pictures have dark backgrounds. We will use this font throughout out CD.

Our Pop princess album

Our Pop princess is called Daisy May as we decided this is a typically girly, feminine name and the word Daisy has direct connotations with a flower which gives the feel of beauty. We have also included flowers in some of the pictures for the digi pack of the CD which links with the Pop princesses name.
We decided to call our album 'I need you' which is also the name of the first song on the CD. We chose this, as it makes the Pop princess seem innocent and like she needs other people to be there for her. This also links to falling in love and a fairytale theme.

Our song list for the album I need you is:
1. I need you
2. Eclipse
3. Remember me
4. Free
5. I like you
6. Better than Romeo
7. Alone again
8. Kiss the stars Featuring Ronnie G
9. Cradle me
10. Render me speechless

We chose these 10 song names to feature on our album as they are typically girly and feminine. We also have followed through with the theme of love as the majority of these songs refer to it. To get ideas for our songs we looked at typical Pop princess albums such as Taylor Swift and Britney Spears as their songs relate to similar things to ours.

Conventions of a pop princess

'Popular and beautiful young female singer'

'proud, stubborn and individual'

A pop princess can be seen in this day and age as any popular female artist but they have certain stereotypes. Artists such as Mariah Carey are know for being a 'diva' and the 'queen of pop' Kylie epitomizes the idea of a pop princess with her catchy pop songs and glamorous image.

On an album cover, the usual for a pop princess is a close head shot with glamorous hair and make up.

Pop princesses!

These pictures are examples of pop princesses and CD covers including pop princess songs. Popular, young and beautiful singers are classes as 'pop princesses'. The style of music, is evidently pop although some of these girls have been known to have an alternative theme to their songs/albums. Pop princesses are popular, as boys fancy them, and girls want to be them. This means they have appeal for both male and female. Pop princesses often have very girly pictures in their albums and on the cover, this keeps up the 'role model' look causing people to look up to them, and like them.
As you can see from the Pop princesses CD cover, girly colours such as pink, purples and yellows are used. This indicates that the main target audience is girls, probably younger girls that would listen to a lot of pop princess music.

Music video analysis Rihanna Only girl (in the world)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa14VNsdSYM

This video, similarly to Rihanna's other videos portrays a very attractive fun view of the artist. She appears to be in a place like paradise which links to the 'only girl in the world' theme as she is shown as the only girl in this place. The nature of the video is like a fairytale make believe place full of flowers and balloons, these objects are typically feminine. In this video Rihanna wears girly, floaty pink and white clothes, although they are skimpy and show a lot of flesh, this keeps up her 'sexy' reputation. Although this video is different from her others such as 'Rude boy' as she has gone for a more natural, pretty, girly look and theme, whereas in the Rude boy video she looks more raunchy with computer generated images around her. This shows how an artist can re-create their look through a music video. Pastel colours are used in this video, again referring back to the girly side of the video.
The first shot shows her silhouette wearing flowy white clothes, you can instantly recognise her red hair, this introduces the viewer straight away to who the artist is, and what the style of the video is. Throughout this video Rihanna is smiling, and dancing, this contrasts to her other videos such as 'Russian roulette' where the video has a much more serious nature, again linking to the song that is chosen.
Throughout Rihannas videos, they are mostly linked to her lyrics and the sound of the song. This represents the versatility of an artist being able to adapt other styles. Rihanna is clearly the main focus of this video, as she is in every shot, wearing different costumes. This video does tell a mild story, but only the fact that she is the only girl in this world.
In the 'Only girl in the world' video, Rihanna makes a lot of eye contact with the viewer, this is done in both a seductive way, but also an attention grabbing way as it appears she is looking at you.
The edits of this video is purposefully jumpy to go in time with the music, this also makes the video more interesting and although the video is an experience of a 'trippy dream'.

Dyer "A star is manufactured"

Richard Dyer "Star theory" a star is constructed/manufactured.

Dyers Theory applied to a media text.

These two pictures from Beyonce's If I were a boy album show her looking very natural with no makeup and looking very clean and innocent. Due to the look Beyonce was trying to create for this album, she has gone for a subtle look in the pictures. Although in the top picture she appears to be naked with her arms covering herself which is a provocative image to portray therefore she is still trying to appear 'sexy' as it is one of her selling points. The pictures are both in black and white, which makes the pictures look natural, the image of the ocean in the background adds to the beautiful natural feel of the pictures. In both pictures, she is making eye contact with the audience, this could be seen as challenging, although in this circumstance I believe it is to attract attention and enhance the focus to her face. In both pictures she is placed pretty much in the middle, meaning she is the focal point and the font of her name and the album title is very subtle and doesn't overpower the picture of her. The fact that her name is small may portray that her name isn't important, as people will recognise who the artist is by seeing her face.





These two pictures of Beyonce's Single Ladies album are also in black and white, but they differ from the first two pictures. These two pictures of her album covers are much more provocative and sexy as in the first one you can clearly see a silhouette of her body looking very curvy and although she could be naked. This would have been done to create a sense of unknown and mystery to the cover as the audience do not know what she is/isn't wearing. The second picture, again is Beyonce wearing very little clothes, she is showing bum and boobs, meaning the male audience would instantly be attracted. The pose she is doing is also provocative as she looks sultry laying on top of her own name. Differing from the first two pictures, her name stands out more in these two as it is bigger, in the first one it is behind her but still coherent, and the second one she is laying on top of the name, drawing the eye to this. She is clearly wearing a lot more bling and makeup in the second picture here, showing this album is giving off a much more powerful, feminine vibe.





These two examples of two of Beyonce's albums show her versitility and how an artist can completely reform their look/style from one album to another as Beyonce clearly has between these two. The theme is also followed through on the music that is on the album.

Artists as texts

As a person, an artist is not a text, however in his or her complete media product: the image, language of songs and the sound all combine to form 'texts'.
How this appears in the videos, posters, adverts and appearances is just as important- if not more so- than the music.
Artists use the whole digi pack to form a 'text' meaning the layout and design of the front and back of the CD case.

For example, Pinks album cover has a picture of her on the front, which is clearly shown in a fun, quirky way. She is on a rocking horse with her legs in the air which could portray a child like image. This very much links with the albums name 'funhouse'. The style of her album digi pack relates to the style of her videos. The bar code which is on the back of the album is a standard part of any album that is to be sold, which asserts the autnenticity of the album, and also makes it easy for selling purposes. On the back of this album you can also see the use of quirky style fonts and different sizes for the songs. This, again relates to her overall theme of fun along with the pink and yellow colour scheme. The picture used on the front of the album is lighter than the one on the back, this would be to draw the audience to the CD in the first place, and not distract the eye from the writing on the back page. Also the layout of the back page shows that the picture of her is positioned off centre, again ensuring the reader doesn't get distracted from the text. This album cover is portrayed as girly, due to the pinks and the fun, bubbly style to it, the target audience of this album would be mostly female.
I have analysed this photo album, as Pink is a Pop Princess, the research will be helpful towards the planning of my own pop princess we are starting to do in lessons. Analysing her CD covers give me inspiration towards ours, such as the girly images, and pretty colours used. This is a good example of a pop princess album, although Pink does break the rules of a typical 'Pop Princess' as she does not look very innocent in the first picture, she shows her tattoos and a lot of skin, which is unusual for a Pop Princess.