The xx

What is their star image?

The xx is an Organic English band. The group consists of three members: Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim and Jamie Smith. Their music genre is indie pop mixed with dream pop. Their style is very original and when paired with impressive talent, this makes them one of the best bands of our generation. Unlike synthetic bands, The xx not only target teenage girls but a much larger segment of sophisticated audience not depending on age.

"Crystalized" was the band's first single therefore this music video played a very significant part in showcasing the band's star image and  connecting with their audience.

The music video starts with a wide shot of the band leaning against the wall that projects blue skies. Throughout the whole music video, miss-en-scene stays the same with projections of the wall and lighting changing.


Editing

The pace of the video is sharp with the angle changing from one band member to another. This editing technique is done to match the pointy, grating music of The xx. The lighting in the video stays dim throughout the video. This makes the band seem mysterious and more indie.


Sound

The music used in the video consists of Sim's and Croft's voices, guitars and electric keyboard making it sound gripping.

Cinematography

Throughout the video, a viewer can observe wide shots representing the whole band leaning against the "changing" wall. There are also close ups of their instruments like Sim's guitar and Smith's keyboards. This to prove to the audience that they are organic performers. The director also pays attention to the background of the wall. 

The Brief

Produce a promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

a website homepage for the band;

a cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package);

a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

History of Popular Music from 1950

The era of modern popular music begins with rock 'n 'roll in the early 1950s. Rock 'n' roll was a revolutionary hybrid of music genres like jazz, blues, country, swing and gospel. This music was primarily played and marketed to African Americans living in urban cities in a still-segregated USA. Like Jazz, rock 'n' roll was associated with sexuality and immortality and was disapproved by the establishment. The lyrics were explicit and the dancing got very dirty. Such acts were frowned upon in wasp societies and white teenagers tended to listen crooners their parents approved of: Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Pat Boone until came Elvis Presley.

With down and dirty rhythm and blues, clean-cut, extremely good-looking white boy Presley quickly gained popularity and was topping every music chart introducing white teenagers to the new era of rock 'n' roll. Presley also impacted television programs like the famous Ed Sullivan Show making it more provocative.

Although Elvis was loved by crowds of teenagers, an older generation did have their fears about the possibility of integration and social changes. Many feared Presley because he was a white boy who sang black music. But once Elvis performed on TV, it was clear that segregationists were fighting a lost cause against rock 'n' roll. Unlike Jazz, rock 'n' roll was loud and proud about black people's soul and rhythm influence.

In conclusion to this, Presley's acknowledgement and his open attitude towards non-white culture represented a revolution of some sort. It helped to open the minds of teenagers who enjoyed his hybrid music and who would later grow up into adulthood increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of segregation.

Idea For A2 Music Video

One of my favorite bands is The Black Keys. Their unique interpretation of Garage Rock mixed with indie rock always intrigued me and inspired me creatively. I think it would be really fun to create a music video using their sound.

The Formula for Future Music Business Models

After watching a fifteen minute presentation, I learned that there is a simple formula that would help create successful businesses:        
                       

                                                         

A fifteen minute presentation by Mike Masnick on Trent Reznor and the Formula for Future Music Business Models

Piracy in Music Industry

As the piracy level is increasing each year, a lot of companies in music industry become affected. With the latest technological devices like the internet, the access to illegal downloading becomes easier and less people are willing to pay for their music. Such action depreciates talented performers thus making it purely unfair.

One of the people who decided to show his disapproval regarding this matter is Lars Ulrich from Metallica. But instead of getting people to stop downloading music illegally, Ulrich got aggressive feedback from the public calling him greedy and money-obsessed. Therefore this could potentially be the reason why this problem isn't often raised by the artists.

Lilly Allen was another artist who dared to voice her opinion. She exclaimed that older successful artists had already the chance to make money before the arrival of digital piracy but the new artists are the ones who truly suffer as they won't be able to make a living from music career. In the same abusive manner as fellow artist Lars Ulrich got, Allen received aggressive responses and even death threats which made her shut down her website.

As Massive Attack pointed out, the amount of illegal downloads on unlicensed sites is purely shocking. It could be 25,000 per site and if you multiply it by all the unlicensed sites in the world, the artist's whole profit is gone! As Noel Gallangher from Oasis put it "it cost me a quarter of a million pounds to make it, you're not getting it for nothing. I want my quarter of a million back."

Something really poignant was mentioned by Billy Corgan when he compared music culture to service culture due to the fact that now people have the choice to either pay or not pay for their music as the technology allows them to. Corgan also realized that nowadays artists have to please and beg the public to come and see them so they could gain some kind of other profit in this tough industry.

Overall this could very be the changing point for music industry as problems with piracy rise and the level of playing field is dropping in favor of an ordinary synthetic pop star.