Evaluation Task 2

Keith Negus said that the 'pop music video is used as a promotional tool.' We promoted the Perfect Fall by using visual images in order to market the band despite them being an organic artist. The star image is used to brand the product. Branding is then used by the music industry to create a range of products for audience across a range of genres and musical styles. This is used to create what Anderson calls the Long Tail. A band like ours is aimed at a niche audience, and being an organic band, we regard them as having a long career in the music industry. A way we promoted the music video was having it on our home screen on our website. Everyone that clicked on the website will have seen the video as soon as the website comes on.

Also, we were able to promote our band's digipak on our website and making it available to buy for the consumer. This is encouraging people to spend more money on the merchandise as we have also promoted the band's image and name by selling t-shirts, bennies and jumpers. This is a marketing strategy in order to promote the band through word of mouth as when friends who have similar tastes see it they may want to watch the music video themselves. This helps us market the band as we have a lower budget than other established bands in the market.

Furthermore, in our music video when uploading it onto YouTube, in the video description we used it as a chance to promote the band by including links to the store in the website and also having links to buying the digipak. On the front cover of the digipak I used an image of the band in order to match the historically typical way for marketing a music video. CD digipak covers are crucial artwork which markets the image of the artist before the music is purchased. Music Artist Websites are a common part of any marketing strategy, particularly in the online age.

The visual 'star image' according to Dyer, communicates important messages to the audience. Audiences often associate the look of an artist to a style of music or its genre. We promoted our band and represented them as being rebellious who have formed a subculture by diverting against the norms of mainstream society. We portrayed this by including close ups of the lead singer, Dean, kicking the microphone and used close ups of James, jumping of the stage for his solo; which helped engage the band with the audience.

Websites contain information which publicises and promotes the artists image and a range of information to an audience. Often, this is organised into what Boyd has termed co-option.The website includes a number of images of the band which we thought was essential for an up and coming band so the audience could identify the image of the band to their name. We also used a number of photos of the band in order to reiterate that they are in the Indie-Rock genre. Therefore the pictures of the band were of them showing their individuality but also made to look sexually appealing.

Our website was typical in the sense that we prioritised promoting our band and providing the latest news from the band. They fall into 3 main categories:

1. promotion of single or album released
2. promotion of a tour or live appearance
3. merchandising

My Digipak was carefully constructed so we could focus on introducing 'The Walls' with their debut album. The brand image is one of rebelliousness, but also of old-school rock and roll.
The wall is emblematic of fighting against the system. The wall in Pink Floyd album is a metaphor for going against the system. I therefore used the wall as my background on my digipak as it is symbolic of urban decay. The VALS in our audience are that of being a subculture diverting against mainstream norms who were under the category of rebellion. We also marketed the band on magazines that appeal to our audience getting articles in magazines such as Kerrang and NME.

We would be selling our music on ITunes, make it available on Spotify and by promoting our band on Kerrang we decided that we would give readers a code that they could enter in order to make it available for Kerrang Readers for free. This could help us build our fanbase and get our name heard in the post hardcore community.

We also made a fun version of the interview for audience entertainment...