Lily Allen Merchandise and Products

As mentioned in a previous blog, it is currently becoming more common for record labels to create merchandise to promote their artist. This is no different with Lily Allen. In May 2007, she launched a line of dresses, shoes, and accessories entitled Lily Loves.

Synergy is used as customers who may not have orignally brought Lily's music, but enjoy the range of clothes she is promoting may be influenced by this to then explore Lily's music and find out more about the artist. Therefore this promotes the artist even more.

Lily Allen in the Media

Since Lily Allen's rise to fame, she has appeared on the cover of many magazines both music and gossip themed due to her musical talent and sometimes controversial personal life. Her portrayal in magazines and the tabloid newspapers has not always been positive but nonetheless is still media attention for the artist, keeping them in the spotlight.

Lily in Heat Magazine - Focuses on the personal side of her, in this case her differing hair styles. Although not hugely negative press, the article focuses on a small issue (Lily's hair) to maybe try and demoralise her and have the public judge her.

Lily Allen on the cover of NME- Focuses on the musical AND personal side of her.












Lily on Later With Jools Holland


Allen was included on the NME Cool List for 2006. She was voted the third coolest person of the year in NME Magazine She ranked "Number One Reason to Love '07" and "Hottest Woman of Pop/R&B." in Blender magazine. Evening Standard columnist Nick Cutis wrote that "Lily Allen and Madonna have arguably done more for female equality with their 'unladylike' swearing in public than with their singing careers."
In 2009 she was the subject of cover stories for both Spin Magazine and Q Magazine. MTV said in February 2009 "She seems less like the model of a 21st century pop star and more like the kind of girlfriend you'd have when you're 22 – the awesome kind you'd go backpacking around Europe with, wear a sarong with. She is perfectly imperfect. Which is why she's probably also the most interesting pop star ever created." Allen's album It's Not Me, It's You has been praised for trying to define the times. Allen said that she does not write songs with a big picture in mind. Allen was on Esquire Magazine's list of 60 "Brilliant Brits 2009".

Finishing Storyboarding

On Monday 23rd November, the group finally completed the storyboarding to our music video. The drawings and annotations for each frame were completed and were annotated with camera angles, instuctions and transitions.

Location For Music Video

Although the majority of our scenes are set in the domestic environment of our houses and the familiarity of our own street, we felt as a group to focus some of the scenes in the video beyond this. We considered different parts of London that could reflect the narrative and the personalities of our characters. Finally, the locations we concluded with were:

Camden Town - A place known for Punks and Goths, it reflects the personality of our punk.

The Gym - represents the arrogant character's egotistcal attitude, cares what he looks like.

The Library - reflected the Nerd's hobby of reading.

Making Music Videos

Commissioning The Video
Although the music business changes with alarming speed, one thing remains constant: The record label's responsibility isto its artist's music production and to the marketing and sales of the music. Each label seeks out recording artists they feel will appeal to a wide audience, which, in return, will allow the label to sell a lot of music. The label then negotiates a recording contract with the particular artist. The contract outlines the artist's responsbilities to the record company as well as the company's responsibility to the artist, such as royalties. The label specializes in helping their artists develop the highest possible sales potential through marketing the artists and their music via the Internet, radio play, and television video networks and shows, and then selling their music through a vast array of audio and visual distribution outlets, such as Internet and iTunes and ring tones.

The record label-artist relationship is co-dependant. The reason an artist signs with a record label is three-fold:

1. Firstly, the label advances the artist money to pay for recording their music, aswell as for album artwork and marketing campaigns such as videos and commercials. It may also go towards basic living expenses. It has become increasingly prevalent for the label to negotiate deals that involve merchandising.



2. Secondly, an artist will sign to label due to their vast array of contacts in the music industry, as well as their know how in the business arena. Labels develop and market artists and act as a mentor.



3. Thirdly, the label's prestige is an important factor. Record companies are reliant on artists putting out their albums and artists rely on them too. Labels exist only to promote the artists vision as long as that vision conforms to the label's goal of achieving financial gain through music sales.

Record Company's Role in the Video Project

Although creating music videos is a team process, each record company operates differently. While every department within a label has a specific role in the process of creating the music, certain departments are more involved in the video process than others. Every record company has an Artist & Repertoire department where its executives seek out new talent and sign them to a contract to record exclusively for their label. In return, the artist receives the guidance and financial backing of the A&R team, in addition to sharing in the profits the artist makes for the label. Some of this allows the artist to write, produce and record their music. Some A&R people get involved in the video process and some do not; it depends on the persons, the relationships and the label.

Artist Inspiration

Pop sensation. Voice of her generation. Fashion designer. Political activist. Queen of MySpace. Lily Allen has been called all of these things and much much more and at 23 is Britain's most consistently engaged and engaging pop star, as well as one of our must successful. Lily Allen was born in May 1985 in Hammersmith, west London, the daughter of film producer Alison Owen and actor Keith Allen. It was an uncoventional childhood but not one without its compensations, and it made Allen wise beyond her years and tremendously motivated to carve her own place in the world. Raised alongside her sister and brother in Bloomsbury, Shepherd's Bush, Primrose Hill and Islington, she attended 13 different schools in total before abandoning her formal education at 15 and embarking on a teenage odyssey of innocence and experience: clubbing in Ibiza, studying to be a florist, always hoping to break into the entertainment industry.

She knocked on record company doors from the age of 16, and her first deal came in 2002 with Warners, who pushed her in an uncomfortably folky direction. It was two years later, working with producers Future Cut, when Allen began to find her feet as a songwriter. In 2005 she signed to Regal, and frustrated by the slow pace of the music industry, began to post demos on her MySpace page. Meanwhile, a series of live appearances at the Notting Hill nightclub Yo-Yo in the spring of 2006 whetted press and public appetites.

"Smile" was her first compostition, a song so appealing it prompted the producer Mark Ronson to fly her to New York where they collaborated on "The Littlest Things". "Smile" later won a BMI songwriting award. Ronson and Greg Kurstin were the crucial collaborators on "Alright, Still", which eventually sold 2.5 million records, broke into the Billboard top 20 in America , earned Allen 5 BRIT nominations and a spot on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury in 2007.

It wasn't all plain sailing. The backlash, when it came was ferocious. Allen has been frequently and somewhat hysterically pilloried in the tabloids and on gossip websites for her peceived misbehaviour. She has had spats with fellow popstars. Her relationship with the papparazzi might be politely described as fraught. Her private life has been made public. Meanwhile, a series of personal traumas have occasionally threatened to overwhelm her.

Her second album, "Its Not Me, Its You", written and recorded by her and Greg Kurstin began its life in 2007. After a week and a half they had six songs and a new sound had emerged: darker perhaps, definitely dancier, clearly more mature. The album debuted at number 1 in the UK charts.

Allen signed a one year contract to present her own BBC Three TV show entitled Lily Allen and Friends based on the social networking phenomenon that helped to launch her music career. In May 2007 she launched a line of shoes, dresses and accessories called Lily Loves. Lily has taken an interest in environmental and social concerns. She performed at a benefit concert for War Child.

Due to her outspokeness, Allen has been the subject of many controversies. Disparaging remarks about musicians Bob Geldof, Amy Winehouse and Katy Perry have all garnered major press attention. She later said that making fun of other pop stars was due to a lack of confidence. Photos of her drunk and topless at the Cannes Film Festival were also widely covered in the press.

Drawing Storyboard 2 and Discussions

On Monday 9th November lesson our team continued to produce our storyboard. Discussions took place as to what ideas could still be added to the storyboard and for filming, although our storyboard sketches and annotations remain incomplete, the meeting was still productive.

1. The angles of specific scenes, especially the scenes which accompany the sharp beats at the opening of the song. The chosen angles were used to convey a specific attitude. For example the shot of the girl's earring illustrates the character's stylish persona.
2. The iMac software used to edit our music video does not have the specific editing techniques we would like to use for certain shots. This proved a problem for our idea to edit three different takes in one shot so we have decided to change the filming technique of the scene instead.
3. The reliability of the characters and an agreement that if the actors are not available on the filming date, we must find another actor. This is due to the short time period we have to film.

Costume Designs

Our team have discussed the appropriate attire for the protagonist characters in our music video. As our characters are of the stereotypical punk, hunk, geek and girly girl character traits it is important to portray their personality through their costumes.

Reena has studied the iconography of each character and created a montage of images that reflect their implied qualities.

The personality of this character is apparent through her casual clothing which reflect her cool attitude. Like a majority of teenage girls, it is apparent this girl has an interest in fashion.

This is our punk character. His black clothing reflects connotations expressing a sinister appearance. The heavy make up however could act as a disguise, revealing that the character is not at all confident in themselves.

The hunk appears to be similar to the female character with their trendy fashion and modern clothing. But the various designer items have connotations of an arrogant attitude.

This is our geek character. This is because of his old fashioned style, which reflects his lifestyle and personality stereotypically. However his traits change drastically throughout the video as he becomes more confident and eventually makes his transformation as Superman. He is a reference to the character of Clarke Kent in the Superman comics and films.

Characters and Cast

As filming begins as early as in two weeks our team have already begun to discuss and consider the characters in our narrative and the remaining members of the cast. The final decisions are based upon factors such as the ability to stay in role for long periods of time, availablity to film and general image. The general image to us is the most important factor as it is essential the characters appear within the age range of ten to nineteen. This makes them easier for the audience to relate to, so understanding the characters within more depth.

Characters
(Protaganist Characters)

1. Female - Reena Chadee
2. Boy Date (Punk) - Robyn Oliver
3. Boy Date (Hunk) - Mike
4. Boy Date (Geek) - Krishna Mootoosamy

(Characters)

1. Young Boy - Cameron
2. Devil - April McKay
3. Screaming Girl 1 - Laura Fredericks

Drawing Storyboard 1

On Friday 23rd October our team began to draw up our official storyboard from our previous notes. However, we have decided that the information regarding camera angles, movements and transitions would be left blank until a later date due to the idea that there may be last minute changes to this section.

Beginning to Storyboard 2

In our next session, our group met to finish the final outline of the storyboard and make some minor changes to the previous days work.

Beginning to Storyboard

Our team have finally had the chance to begin working on our storyboard for our music video. We had many ideas, but they were general ideas rather than specific which made the ability to begin the storyboard confusing. Therefore we decided to plan our storyboard in a different way that we hadn't used last year at AS. We played the track many times to learn the lyrics and then timed each section, (for example 0.54-1.10) and applied a specific scene to it. However after a while we realised this was becoming time consuming but was still a productive way as it would help us to film the exact details and timing of the scenes aswell as to starting our storyboard off and gaining some clear ideas into how we want our music video to go.

Sound and Vision in Pop/Pop Rock

The relationship between sound and image evident in the use of song and underscore in film is also evident in pop videos. A great deal of research carried out on pop music reveals that pop is concerned with the issues brought up within the narrative. Alf Bjornberg argues that there are two structural aspects to popular music, narrative and epic, both of which are derived from Richard Middleton's studies of popular music, and his distinction between the two categories of musical syntax. In contrast to the narrative category, which priveleges difference, there is what we can call an "epic mode, where the focus is on repetition and varied repetition; and inbetween comes a "lyrical" category".

Bjornberg defines a narrative musical syntax as having "linear" properties, in which there is no repetition in the music so the music is continuously moving forward, while an epic syntax has "circular" properties which is most common in Pop music. He says "...Most popular music depends on repetition of some kind, be they musical riffs or hooks, chords, sequences arranged into sections such as verse and chorus or even vocal repetitions."

The most common kinds of musical syntax evident in pop songs are therefore "epic" or "lyrical" structures, with musical "narrative" structure being much less common. This is the area where the sounds and visuals of pop music videos differ most greatly. General music videos may make great use of linear narratives, but pop music videos are just as likely to make use of a circular visual narrative.

Sound and Vision

The relationship between sound and image evident in the use of song and underscore in film is also evident in pop video, but with one main difference according to Phillip Tagg - "the pop video is a "visualisation of music rather than sonorisation of image". He also suggests that listeners of pop music already "visualise" the music they hear using a series of semantic connections they hear created by the text. A mini-movie therefore appears in the listener's mind, and each version is different, since people react to music differently.

Will Straw sees promotional videos as a threat to the listener's individualtiy and that it seems to take away the responsibility of visualising the music. He states that the use of the music video is "diminishing the interpretive liberty of the individual music listener who, when presented with a promo clip, seems to have visual or narrative interpretations of song lyrics imposed on him or her".

Accoring to Goodwin "the debate about whether or not the video image triumphs over the song itself needs to take account of where the emphasis lies in the visualisation, and whether or not it ILLUSTRATES, AMPLIFIES, or CONTRADICTS the meaning of the song.

Amplification introduces new meanings that do not conflict with the lyrics but that add layers of meanings.



llustration uses visual narrative to tell the story of the song lyric.




Contradiction has the visuals contradicting the narrative of the song.

Interaction With The Audience

Serious attempts have been made to emulate the films; Madonna employed both a movie director and actor Christopher Walken for the clip for Bad Girl (1992), while David Lynch was employed to direct Massive Attack's Unfinished Sympathy in 1990. The trouble is, as is the case with the clips taken from movies, is that the music has very little to do with the images presented. Andrew Goodwin states that "songs are not the movies". He argues that music videos should incorporate lip-synchronization so the performer is addressing the viewer directly, as apposed to the distance between actor and audience in a movie, brought about by ignoring the camera in an attempt to act "more natural". This brings a voyeuristic quality to watching movies that doesn't manifest itself in music video, where lip-synching sees to embrace the viewer, bringing them into the action. An example is Massive Attack's Protection (1995) set in an apartment block, into which we are looking from the outside. Any feeling of intrusion is calmed by the regular appearence of Tracey Thorn who seems to sing directly to us.

Massive Attack - Protection

The Value of Sound in Music Videos

Much of the research on music video makes only fleeting references (if any) to the music, causing one to question the value of sound in music video. Many music videos such as Madonna's Material Girl video from 1985 incorporates iconography and images from Marilyn Monroe's Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend film. There are obvious links between music videos and films, especially considering that many current chart hits are used to promote a movie rather than the the artist's own album. Recent examples are Guns'n'Roses You Could Be Mine from Terminator 2.

This features extensive film footage in their accompaying promo clips, and UB40's (I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You from Silver has been filmed in a style relevant to the themes of voyeurism and hidden cameras that dominate the movie it is taken from. However, music videos that apply film footage and similar filming techniques rarely follow the song lyrics and music.

Guns'n'Roses - You Could Be Mine

UB40 - (I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You

Superman - Barrie Gledden Lyrics

He struts his stuff like his the Mac daddy,

He's one of a kind, invincible and ready,

To take on the world, He's got sex appeal

The man is a dream, the devil did him a deal,

Unstoppable, incredible, irresistible and powerful,

The one and all number one,

He's Superman [superman], he's Superman,

That man's got style, that man's got flare,

Try to compete, oh don't you dare,

He's got the moves, he makes me shiver inside,

And he knows it, yeh he knows it,

Unstoppable, Incredible, Irresistible and Powerful,

The one and all, number one,

He's Superman [superman], he's superman,

He struts his stuff like his the Mac daddy,

He's one of a kind, invincible and ready,

To take on the world, He's got sex appeal

The man is a dream, the devil did him a deal,

That man's got style, that man's got flare,

Try to compete, oh don't you dare,

He's got the moves, he makes me shiver inside,

And he knows it, yeh he knows it,

Unstoppable, Incredible, Irresistible and Powerful,

The one and all, number one,

He's Superman [superman], he's superman,

Superman[superman]

Ehhhhhhhhhhh

C'mon Superman [superman]

Yeh he knows it

[superman]He knows it [superman]

Influences for Music Video

I feel that Blink 182's music video for their song "Always" is a strong influence for my group's own music video. Firstly the narratives are quite similar, in that it features a female protagonist with three males competing for her affections. The frame is cut into three horizontal sections, each portraying a different outcome for each boy. It succeeds in helping the narrative to flow in a unique way and it is something the group would consider when it comes to the final stages of production for our own video.

Narrative in Music Video

After deciding between two songs for our music video, we chose the song ‘Superman by Barry Gledden’, which is an upbeat tune, with a catchy positive chorus and female vocals about the relationship between a girl and her superman lover. We came to this conclusion since the team had brilliant fun and exciting narrative ideas for the lyrics. The lyrics have also given us the opportunity to express the humour in our video, as the lyrics are very metaphorical, and exaggerated. We have created an outline of what we want the narrative in our music video to include.

• Female looking for the right boyfriend.


• She goes on dates with a number of different boys from punks, to gangsters to geeks, in the same restaurant, at the same time on different days!


• The scene in the restaurant remains the same but the boys change, and the roses seem more wilted in each scene.


• But of course she chooses the best looking boy, but he ends up to be the most big headed boy, and doesn’t really care about her.


• However, the Geek that she dated really likes her and is the ‘real superman’. (He is seen in the background of most scenes wearing a baggy superman t-shirt)


• As the video goes on, the geek appears to be better looking.


• The girl begins to notice him again.


• After a number of awful dates with her new boyfriend she is bored and leaves him, he doesn’t care as he is too busy looking at himself.


• Finally she gets with ‘Superman’!


• Want the video to also include animated shots, which have been influenced by legendary comics and Superman cartoons. For example, speech bubbles and signs that stress the sounds

Influencing the Audience

If audience is a mass, it raises all kinds of questions about the power of the media to influence people - not just individuals, but whole sectors of society. There have been a number of theories over the years about how exactly the media work on the mass audeince. Two I will outline are called The Hypodermic Model and The Two Step Flow Model.

The Hypodermic Model

It grew out of what is referred to as The Frankfurt School, a group of German Marxists in the 1930s who witnessed first hand how Hitler used propaganda to influence a nation. According to the theory the media is like a syringe which injects ideas, attitudes and beliefs into the audience who as a powerless mass have little choice but to be influenced - in other words, you watch something violent, you may go and do something violent.

This theory has been particularly popular when people have been considering violence in films. There have been films such as The Exorcist and A Clockwork Orange which have been banned in the past, partly because of a belief that they might encourage people to copy crimes within them. On the other hand no-one has ever really claimed that everyone will be affected by these texts in the same way. Many people have therefore seen the theory as simplistic because it doesn't take any account of people's individuality and yet it is still very popular in society in areas such as politics. Every time a young person does something violent and makes the news, newspapers and MPs will try to link their crime to video violence.

Another interesting example of the theory in action is the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Before every one of his murders, he watched a clip from his favourite film in order to get himself excited. This is the kind of fact that might seem to prove the hypodermic syringe theory.

The Two Step Flow

The Hypodermic model proved too clumsy for media researchers seeking to more precisely explain the relationship between audience and text. As the mass media became an essential part of life in societies around the world and did not reduce populations to a mass of unthinking drones, a more sophisticated explanation was sought.

Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet analysed the voters' decision-making processes during a 1940 presidential campaign and published their results in a paper. Their findings suggested that the information does not flow directly from the text into the mind of is audience unmediated but is filtered through "opinion leaders" who then communicate it to their less active asociates, over whom they have influence. The audience then mediate the information received directly from the media with the ideas and expressed by the opinion leaders, thus being influenced not by a direct process, but by a two step flow.

This diminished the power of the media in the eyes of researchers, and caused them to conclude that social factors were also important in the way in which audiences interpreted texts.

The Cultivation/Culmination Theory

According to this, while any one media text does not have too much effect, it shows that although one viewing may not have a big effect, viewing constantly over time has a greater effect on people’s behaviour, making them desensitised (distanced from ones emotions). Therefore the result being that violence in the media means children become less shocked by real life violence. On the other hand many may become more sensitised, this is where the viewers are shocked by the violence, therefore becoming more aware and emotional.

Gratification Theory

According to this theory, we all have different uses for the media and we make choices over what we want to watch. In other words, when we encounter a media text it is not just some kind of mindless entertainment - we are expecting to gain something from it: some kind of gratification. In this model the individual has the power and they select the media texts that best suit their needs and attempts to satisfy those needs. Researchers have found four kinds of gratifications individuals recieve:

1. Information: we want to find out about society and the world, we want to satisfy our curiosity. This would fit NEWS AND DOCUMENTARIES.
2. Personal Identity: we may watch television in order to look for models for our behaviour. So, for example, we may identify with characters that we see in SOAPS.
3. Intergration and Social Interaction: we use the media in order to find out more about the circumstances of other people and help us to empathise and sympathise with the lives of others.
4. Entertainment: sometimes we simply use the media for enjoyment, relaxtion or just to fill time.

Reception Theory

This theory is based on the idea that the audience create their own image of media texts, meaning that although a number of people watch the same programme, individuals interpret it in their own way. This can be influenced by the our individual upbringing, the mood we are in, the place where we are at the time or all kinds of other factors. David Morley classes the varied readings of people in three groups, which are:

Preferred Reading: what the media producers hope the audience will take from the text.

Oppositional Reading: audiences from outside the target audience may reject the preferred reading, receiving their own alternative message.

Negotiated Reading: audiences acknowledge the preffered reading but modify it to suit their own values and opinions.