Digipak Research

Fall Out Boy- MANIA:

For the final digipak I'll be looking at Mania by Fall Out Boy, whom's website I also researched on. As mentioned previously, as this album is new it's hard to find photos and videos of the album, but below is what I managed to find. This album was released January 2018 and involves a new theme for the band in terms of both music and design.
The colour theme for the whole CD is purple, a vibrant neon colour; and white, which is used for things such as writing and illustrations. This neon purple matches the codes and conventions of an
The front cover is vibrant in this purple colour, featuring what appears to be a room with a window at the end showcasing the waves of the ocean, however this of course is tinted purple to match the overall theme. The edges of the room seem to be lit up by bright white lights, which is also reflected in the title of the album.
The title is white and the word 'Mania', has letter spacing that increases later on in the word. Both the title of the album and the band have a reflection in the floor and ceiling, and they also have this glow around them that makes them look lit up as well. The font is very narrow and not that bold, but this is contrasted by the glow and bright colour.

For the back cover the purple is a lot darker but is still bold, however the writing is no longer white, and I personally feel that it is quite hard to read and don't know if this was done purposely or not.
We can see the track list at the top in columns with small font that isn't very visible. Underneath this we have a picture that looks like paper with sellotape sticking it to the album. The paper is made to look old, with white marks that show where it's been folded and ripped. The writing is the title of the album again, with the same font and letter spacing.
At the bottom is the bar code, and underneath we have the legal information in the same small, dark coloured text, as well as the logo for their record label that they're signed on to.

For the inside of the album, we can see that the purple theme continues, for example with the disc, which is a very dark purple, and has a drawing of two creatures on them on white. These creatures are seen in some of the music videos for the band and are associated with this new album. that they even have names that are included in some of the track names of the album.
The sleeve is darker in colour on the back, with the faces of the four people in the band in a square around the title of the album again.
Overall I feel that in my opinion this album and it's design is quite simple yet unique, and I like the colour theme, the bright colours reflect electropop and are bold, which is what I hope to incorporate into my own digipak.

Digipak Inspiration

Moodboard:

In order to find inspiration and ideas for my digipak, Erika and I went through a handful of artists and google searches and decided that the ones we liked we would put together on a moodboard. This is so that when the time comes to designing my own digipak I can refer to this for ideas which I can manipulate in my own way for my own product.

This photo above was the first set of albums that we managed to find with the general search of "digipaks". What I like in particular is the shapes these artists use, and how there is a picture in the shape, for example with Michael Jackson's "This Is It". For Rihanna I liked the rose imagery and how the disc is a rose, which is also a huge part of Outlex's brand image, my artist.

This photo was when we were thinking of artists in particular that we like and have interesting album covers. I like the Chainsmokers' covers for singles such as "Roses" as I think the box with the painted background is something I would like to try and could suit my artist's image. For "Mania" by Fall Out Boy I like the bright colour and lighting, as neon colours and lights is part of the conceptual imagery in my music video and I might want to incorporate that into my digipak. Overall on this photo I love the bright colours and shapes, they stand out compared to other albums we might see.

This final photo is similar to the last in which we looked up various artists and also went through our own music library to see if there are any covers that stood out to us. Here I like the bright colours in the albums and I really like the fonts, e.g. Bastille and Daft Punk. With Daft Punk I thought about How I could do that text with a roses background, or even with a photo and not text.

Looking up all of these albums helped me to gain more of an idea on what I want to be included in me digipak in terms of colour, text and the props in the photo. I have noticed that the artists aren't on many of these album covers, but instead images associated with them and their album, which is the approach I could use for my digipak.

Fall Out Boy- Website Research

Fall Out Boy are a band that have been producing music since 2001, and have been signed onto multiple record labels such as Uprising and Fueled by Ramen, Island, and DCD2.
Although previously considered to produce music from the genre of rock, Fall Out Boy have gradually altered their music with each album, resulting in their most recent one released January 2018, Mania, being highly electronic as well as having the elements of rock from the older music, so it can be said that their new style of music is electronic rock. This is definitely reflected in their website and music videos, with neon purple being an important colour for them and their new brand image.

The first thing we see on the website is the cover for their new album Mania, with a link to purchase or stream the album, and a button to see upcoming tour dates that were released alongside the album. This front page we can see its all purple, a colour associated with the electropop genre, and the edges of this cube that seems to be in the future are also very brightly lit up, contributing to this neon theme. The photo in the middle is of the ocean but has been colour graded to be purple, so everything in the photo has this purple tint that stands out a lot due to its brightness and sharpness of colour.
This is the home page and we have the banner in the corner leading to other parts of the website, but we can also scroll down on this page where there are other promotions for videos and individual songs.

Below is a video of the website when being scrolled through, and how each photo fills up the whole screen, promoting different aspects associated with the band. I put this in a video to show the scrolling motion and how each photo is revealed and how it looks as though they overlap each other. The sections promote the tour and individual songs that have music videos, so as we can see there are links to watch the video and to go onto another platform to download or stream the song. I think that this is a really creative way to scroll through the website and showcase different features associated with the band.

At the bottom of this page we see a section where fans of the band can show off any merchandise that they have bought from the band using a hashtag on the social media platform Instagram. Underneath there are a few example photos that an individual can scroll through to see other fans showing their merch, and it encourages others to do the same so that they could be featured on the official website.

The next section includes all of the social media links as buttons against a purple background, fitting with the new theme of the band. The social media links include Twitter, Facebook, and even Tumblr; and there are also links to platforms in which their music can be listened to, such as Spotify and Youtube. Finally we have links to amazon, apple store and other platforms where music can also be purchased.
As usual we have logos/links for the record label that the band is signed onto, as well as their official logo at the bottom which can be recognised easily by fans. The record label link directs us to the official website of the label, so this website also promotes other artists if clicked on, as we can see other artists signed onto the same label. There are 3 listed below: Island, Crush Music and DCD2 Records.

If we go back to the top of the home page we see a banner with links to other pages, such as "News" and "Videos". The first link is News, and this page consists of a picture of the band at the top, and then we can scroll down to see updates from the band. The updates are about tour, such as performing in China and Reading Festival, as well as on shows such as "Good Morning America". These updates of course promote the band but can promote the festival and TV show that they will be featuring on. This page is good for fans wanting to receive these updates, especially if they want to see the band on tour, and they can also read general news such as announcing that the band's new album reached Number 1 on the Billboard 200.

The next link in the banner is "Tour", in which the layout is very similar to the news page, as we have a title at the top with a picture of the band as a background for the top banner. This page is like any other tour page, with a list of the dates and venues, then a link to buy tickets from Bands in Town, or instead the button can say "sold out" instead and not have a link to another page once the tickers from a particular show have all been sold. This is a world tour called Mania Tour, so there a lot of dates from which the band can gain profit and there is also more of a choice for the audience if there is another venue that isn't sold out that's still close to them. The banner for the tour also as a list of the support acts that will be joining them on different parts of their tour, so they are promoting these smaller bands before the show so that people can listen to them to see if they like them and can familiarise themselves with the songs when it comes to seeing them live before they see Fall Out Boy.

The "Music" link is next, taking us to a different site altogether with a different layout to the previous two pages. Like with other websites, we have links and logos where the audience can both stream and/or buy the band's music. The "play" buttons are associated with sites in which the music can be simply streamed, like Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube. Other links show where music can be downloaded or bought, from sites such as amazon where both a physical and digital copy can be bought. At the top of the page the band's logo appears again, with the caption "Listen to Fall Out Boy's music".

The video link that is next directs us to the platform of YouTube, specifically the band's channel where multiple types of videos can be viewed, from music to tour videos and even behind the scenes videos showing the making of particular music videos.

The "Sign Up" links leads to a page with the photo of the band as a banner behind the title. The page encourages you to sign up to receive emails from Universal Music Group (UMG), with possible updates from the band such as new tour dates or a single/album. The page asks for a few details before submitting it and in turn agreeing to the UMG privacy policy, which is also a link before the submit button that fans can read in case they want to know before submitting their information.

The last link for "Store" takes us to a different website which has the band's album cover at the top and logo. We can scroll down through the different products, and they have a variety, from a bath bomb (with the purple theme) to even a snow globe. The products can be clicked on to gain information, and also look at more photos associated with them. As well as these unique products, we also have the classic shirts and also the album, in both vinyl and CD format, which can be bought to have stickers come alongside them. At the bottom we again have the option where fans can share photos of them with their merchandise, which is appropriate considering this is the site for merch and where it can purchased. I like the store as it has the conventional merchandise of on artist, but we also have unique ones that can make them stand out from other artists, and these 'quirky' products might be more memorable to fans due to how different they are to the conventional products.

The website overall is well put together and is very organised and easy to navigate, clearly highlighting each section and promoting their music in multiple ways. From the website it can be said that their target audience is of those of a younger demographic, for example teenagers and young adults. Those who were fans of Fall Out Boy in the 2000's can also still be fans of their new music, incorporating individuals of the age 30+. The website is very bright with the purple theme and the music is lively and has its electronic elements, which can appeal to this younger audience. The section where fans can show off their merchandise mainly consists of those of the younger age as well, supporting what I think their target audience is.

Bastille- Website Research

Link: http://www.bastillebastille.com/

Bastille are a band which make music that is considered to be part of the electropop genre, as well as indie rock. They are signed onto the record label Virgin and have produced two studio albums: Bad Blood (2013) and Wild World (2016).
Their music has a dark undertone to it, also shown in the lyrics, which can be reflected through their music videos and brand image, including website.

On the home page we can immediately see this image with the promotion of a new single produced by the band, with the background photo holding multiple connotations of violence and crime. The photo features the lead singer of the band with blood on his face and clothes and his hands behind his back with handcuffs falling from them, as well as a police officer with a gun and vehicles in the background. The title "World Gone Mad" is the name of a song that they have created for the soundtrack of a film names Bright which stars Will Smith. We learn this from the links associated with the song at the bottom of the photo. The links are all for different platforms where the song can be listened to or bought, promoting it in a variety of ways. The example I have shown below is the Spotify link:

Other features that we can see on this homepage are the social media links in the top right corner of the page, a common feature to be seen on an artist's website. The links lead to a variety of platforms, including the most common ones such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. In the top right corner is also the link to Bastille's Spotify page so that listeners can follow them and listen to their music on this platform. The link to another streaming site, Apple Music is also put as a button below this.
At the bottom of the page are links to the legal information such as the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, as well as naming their record label, Virgin EMI at the bottom. The Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy link leads to a page for Universal Music, which owns the smaller label Virgin, and lists all the appropriate information in sections:

At the bottom is also the contact option for fans of the artist, through the platform of Facebook Messenger, which is shown in a button linking to the corresponding website. This is not an option given instead of the sign up option, as this is still given as a button on the banner at the bottom of the page.
If we click on the arrow on the picture it slides across to transition to another promotion of the last album that they released, Wild World. The links here are different as physical copies can be bought, so the links include those to the HMV website, amazon, and their official store where it can be bought in a box set.

Next we move onto the banner that links to different sites or other parts of the website. The first is "Live", which when selected brings up a black background and a box of text with all of the tour dates. These can be scrolled through and also have the link to an external website where the tickets can be bought. There is also the option of "Going", which when clicked on links to the website for Bands in Town, where fans can sign up and receive notifications on future tour dates and can say that they are going to this concert. This feature is expected on a musician's website, even if there isn't an upcoming tour the link is usually still their for when they do release tour dates alongside a new album or just for attending festivals, which is what Bastille appear to be doing here:

The next link in the banner is "Videos" which when selected leads to a banner of thumbnails at the bottom of the page with arrows which you can scroll through. However there is nothing featured at the top of this page, so what I would say as criticism is that a piece of text or a photo would be good to fill up this space. The videos at the bottom are a variety, from music videos to live performances, all presented by vevo. When clicked on the video appears as a pop up rather then directing people to a separate site such as YouTube. From there they still have the choice to scroll via arrows to other videos.

The next link, "Music" has a similar outcome to the video link, as a banner appears at the bottom with covers of albums and singles which people can scroll through, and there isn't anything again at the top of the page. When clicked on a pop up linked with Spotify appears with the track list and an option to play the song, as well as a link to the iTunes store if the audience would rather buy the album than stream it. The option is also available at the bottom of the page to view specific music they have released, such as an EP or Single.

This next link is a common feature on websites in which fans can receive updates on their favourite celebrity or any events that they may be interested in. The "Sign Up" option on this site is a pop up with logos of a variety of social media accounts that an individual can sign up with, from their email to Instagram. At the bottom the Universal logo is featured along with links to legal information again like the privacy policy. From this the audience can receive updates about upcoming music and tours and can feel a part of this community that is the fanbase of Bastille.

The last to links in the banner direct the consumer to a separate site where they can purchase items associated with the band. The link "Store" leads to a separate website in which all of the products sold are the albums, either in a pack, as a CD or even vinyl. At the top is a banner with links to the home page and to music, as well as a brief description about what singles are in each album, with its purpose being to persuade the audience to want to buy them.

The last link, "Merch", leads to another website that is also a store, however it doesn't sell their music but other products such as key-rings, items of clothing, bags and much more that all feature the band's logo or the name of an album. So when bought this benefits both the audience and the band as the audience is satisfied and happy they have merchandise, which when worn or used can promote the band.

The background on this page is their album cover, which links to how most of the merchandise is promoting the new album. There are also links and filters in the top left corner, narrowing the items down to products such as "Books", "T-shirts" and much more.

Overall I feel that although the website clearly matches the conventions of one promoting an artist, it doesn't match the genre of electropop in terms of colour and content. Despite being part of this genre, the band has a lot of dark tones to their music, which is shown throughout their lyrics and music videos, which can also be shown in the website to keep their brand image continuous and recognisable. I like this website and the dark underlying messages, as it reflects my song choice, as when you research further into it you can find out it's about mental health, and my artist's brand image is about erasing negative stigmas around controversial issues. So I thought that using this website I can see how an electropop band emphasised their dark meanings within their song, which is an idea for me when I make my website.

The target audience for Bastille would, like Eden, be teenagers or young adults specifically for their primary audience, as their secondary audience can be individuals that are 30+. These demographic is appropriate as younger individuals might be too young to understand or listen to the dark underlying meanings of the song, as well as it being inappropriate.

EDEN- Website Research

Website:

Link: http://iameden.eu/
Eden is an artist that produces music from the genres electronic dance music, indie pop and dream pop. He is currently signed onto the record label Astrelwerks, with whom he released two albums: i think you think too much of me (2016) and vertigo (2018)
At the top of the website is the artist's name against a background of a sky, which is the brand image for his new album. There is no banner at the top of the website with links to his store, a gallery or other pages from his website, as they are incorporated throughout the home page in different sections as you scroll down. This is uncommon for a website for an artist in the music industry, as the links are usually at the top to make the website easier to navigate and to straight away promote the store and its products. It could be said that Eden's website is laid out like this to encourage the consumers to scroll through the website and to see the other sections of the website they weren't looking for, but may suddenly now be interested in due to scrolling past it.
 The website promotes the recent album vertigo by featuring a photo of a sky, with the name of the album, which is also the same photo used on the front cover of his album. This links to a separate website where people can listen to the music, which is the same website that the "Out Now- Click Here To Listen" button is linked to.
The colour scheme of the website is conventional to the genre of the music, such as dream pop and electronic. The pastel colours can link to dream pop as they are quite soft, and the photo of the sky to me connotes relaxation and curiosity. In terms of electronic the typical colours associated with the genre involve blue, which is shown a lot within the background photo and the album cover of the website.

Underneath this button we can see the logos of various social media ranging from Twitter to Instagram, which link to Eden's profiles on these platforms. The links are placed here so that the consumer can follow the artist on these different forms of social media, this promoting him and his music. It is common for a celebrity to promote their social media on a website, and in turn on these platforms they promote their music and perhaps other forms of social media.


The next section of the website promotes the artists new music video, "float", as well as his new album and tour. Once again a picture of the album cover is featured however this is the full photo with the artist's logo at the bottom. Under this photo we can see multiple links to different platforms from which the album can be purchased (Amazon, Vertigo store, iTunes) or streamed (Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play). The promotion of the tour is another button linking to a separate part of the website with all of the tour dates and locations. On this page  buttons names "Tickets", which once again links to a separate page names Bands in Town where an individual can purchase
them. It is very common for tours to be promoted on a musician's website, so Eden's website matches the conventions of one, as he wants people to see him perform songs from his new album on live.

We can also see that the social media logos appear again underneath a "Join Eden" button which when clicked on brings up a pop up where the consumer can join the community via Google or Facebook, giving them the chance to win tickets to a show. This is a common feature on websites of musicians so that people can receive updates on the artist, such as when their album comes out or if tour dates have been released. It is also common on other websites to offer this option, where people can sign up to 'receive newsletters', such as a clothing website to receive emails about new items of clothing in stock.
This button also appears further down on the home page of the website under a section about merchandise, from which the same pop up appears:

Back on the home page of the website the next section is on merchandise, with photos showing new items of clothing that are linked with the new album. Below these photos is a button called 'Eden Official Merch', and the 'Join Eden' button after that. All of the photos and the official merch button have the same link: Eden's merch page. This page is only small as there is a small amount of merch produced. Again on this website we see the 'Join Eden' option at the top, and his social media links at the bottom of the page. Unlike the home page, this page has a banner under Eden's name with links to "Home", "Music" and "Contact".

In this section there is no text nor are there links, but instead a selection of videos from YouTube. The first three videos are music videos for songs that are on Eden's recent album: crash, gold, and start//end. The last two are separate clips, with the one titled "movement" consisting of a montage of establishing shots and conceptual imagery alongside some fast-paced music. The video is quite mysterious, with only one piece of text at the end stating that "ends are beginnings", and doesn't seem to promote any music.
The last clip has a voiceover of Eden talking about his experiences throughout 2016, which then fades into a song and another montage of clips, e.g. of him performing in concert. On a website for a musician it is common for music videos to be featured, especially ones that are linked to a new album, to promote it so the audience may consider buying it from their store. The last video in particular can promote his tour due to all of the clips featured, making those who watch it want to see him live one day.

The rest of the website consists of more videos of music videos, a message to the audience from the artist talking about how amazing his year and tour experience has been, and some more album and tour promotion. An old album fro 2016 is shown, with both the album cover then further down a track list linked up to Spotify. The tour promotion just consists of posters from previous tours that he has been on and the name of them, to create this nostalgic feel as though the further a person scrolls the more they go back in time.

The website overall matches the conventions for both a musician's website and one that produces music from the genre of electronic music and dream pop
In terms of the target audience, as the music is part of the electronic genre and the website's appearance matches the conventions of this, I would say that the audience are younger, for example teenagers and young adults, as in concert Eden also likes to play music that people can dance to and have fun. 
I chose this website as I like the colour scheme of it and how pastel and subtle it is, and these colours and shots of the sky I could use as an idea for my own website, put perhaps one with sharper colours to make it less relevant to dream pop and more electronic in its look.

Audience research

For my audience research, I sent out a questionnaire to around 30 people, in which I asked a variety of questions about music and the genre of electropop, making sure to use both open and closed questions to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data.
I left the questionnaire available for just over a week after sending it off and managed to receive 24 responses, which I have listed below with the questions too:

The results of this question weren't broad as I confined the questionnaire to people in my school. This is because I had a rough idea of what I wanted the demographic of my target audience to be in terms of age. I associate the genre of electropop with the youth, as they can be seen as adventurous and possibly festival goers where they will experience this kind of music. 87.5% of the sample are between 14-17, which I calculated is 21/24, meaning only 3 people in my sample are 18 or over.

Question two in my opinion is similar to one in terms of the purpose and reason for asking. Again I wanted to know what the demographic of my audience was in terms of gender, and I also had an idea due to my possible song choices all consisting of female artists. my predictions came true in the results of the question, in which around 16 people in my sample are female.

From this question onward I started asking questions more suited to the topic of music, with the aim to see how my target audience feel about it, especially the genre electropop. I started with a simple question, as I wanted to find out how much my target audience are into music, and I found out that it was a lot. I made this a closed question to ensure I could use this quantitative data to be represented on a chart, as shown above. It shows that 91.7% of my sample listen to music everyday, which equates to about 22 people out of the 24 that took the survey. None of the participants selected "Never", which shows that music hold at least some aspect in all of the participant's lives.

In this question you can see that I made it so that the participants can choose more than one option for their answer. I did this as there are a variety of platforms in which music can be consumed, and as my prediction of the youth being heavily interested in music being correct, I thought that they would listen to music on more than one platform. YouTube and Spotify were at the top in terms of music consumption, which I found interesting as they are all methods of streaming music. This supports points made that streaming is becoming increasingly popular recently, especially in my target audience. This could be die to the fact that it is more accessible and free to use if a subscription is not paid. Owned copies however still have almost 50% of the sample consuming music in this way, showing that this is still a popular method of listening to music, as the audience can have their own copy on their phones.

"If you answered YouTube, do you watch the music videos when listening to music? (if you did not answer with YT, then select skip)"

I aimed this video to those of the sample who chose YouTube as an option in the previous question. I thought that this question was important considering my final piece is a music video, I want to see if my target audience actually watch the videos when using this platform for music, as my purpose for the music video is for them to watch and pay attention to the narrative within it. The results from this question show that everyone whom this question applied to does watch the music video at some point, whether it be rarely or never. Very few however do always, but again around 11 people (45.8%) do at least sometimes.

In this question I wanted to get more specific to see how many people in my sample would like electropop, and the results showed just what I wanted. 20 people in my sample listen to pop music and almost half listen to electronic music, showing that the sub-genre of electropop is something that could appeal to the majority of my sample, which in turn can be representative to my target audience in general. I did unfortunately have one of my participants use the 'Other' option in an inappropriate manner, giving an answer that had no reference to genres of music.

The next question focused on artists whose music can be categorised into the genre of electropop. The purpose of this question was to see if participants had listen to any electropop, to see how popular and/or well-known it. I made sure beforehand to do research in order to decide which artists I should include in this question. I made sure to include both mainstream artists like The Chainsmokers, as well as elecrtropop artists that may not be as well known but still have a large following, such as the k-pop band BTS. Once again I let the participants tick more than one box, as this is a question that requires them to give information on how much they know about artists from this genre. For this question I only got 22 responses instead of 24; nevertheless the results show that mainstream artists have the highest amount of people listening to them. For example, Calvin Harris, Charlie XCX, and The Chainsmokers all had 18 people tick the box, which is 81.8% of the sample. I included Halsey, the artist who's song I will be using for my music video, and I was pleased to see that she is popular within my sample, with over half of the participants saying that they have at least once listened to her music.

This question reflects a lot what kind of style I will use in my music video, as the results show what would appeal to my audience and what would be expected by them personally. I wanted to let the sample choose more than once box, as I understand that a music video can integrate multiple styles within them, especially in electropop. In the results there was a mixture of percentages for each style, with concept/visuals being the highest with 70.8%. Next came the performance then narrative, both of which had less than 50% of the sample selecting the results. I agree with the results here, as I do believe that visuals make up a big part of electropop videos in terms of the lighting and aesthetic of it (e.g. neon, parties, etc).

For this question I wanted to see if my audience actually felt that a video was necessary for an electropop song, as the previous question stated that only visuals mattered most in terms of style, rather than a narrative that could captivate the audience more- as the lyrics usually tell a story that could be portrayed in the video. The results were both very similar for the two options, almost 50/50. However the majority stated that they felt a music video was needed in order to visualise the artist's song (58.3%).

Like the previous one, this question had very similar results between the two options that I gave. Relating to Goodwin's theory of the 5 key aspects of a music video, a relationship between the visuals and lyrics is listed as one of them. I wanted to see if this was important to my target audience for an electropop music video, however the results were quite balanced. More of the participants however did say 'Yes', that they felt it was important for the video to follow the concept or narrative of the lyrics.


These next questions consist of part two of the questionnaire, where all the questions are open which allows the participants to give their own opinion in as much detail as they want.

The first question of this section relates to the location of the music video, as I believe it is very important in order to contribute to the aesthetic of both the artist and their music. Lots of the results had some kind of performance aspect to it, with answers such as: a club, concert, dance floor, studio, etc. It also has a theme of fun and going out for the night, not caring about any commitments. Other answers also included somewhere underground, outer space and a rooftop. One person in particular stated that it depends on the artist, which I agree with as each artist has their own brand image, which can include a specific location type.


The next question asked the sample what kind of lighting and colour that they would expect to see. My predictions for it would be that there would be a lot of bright colours with high-key lighting, which was reflected in the results, The majority of people said that neon or bright colours would be expected, as well as high key lighting. colours they expect to see in particular include blue, pink, black and purple, with the exception of a few saying rainbow/all colours. This is reflected in current electropop music videos, from which I made my prediction on the answers to this question.



This question unfortunately only got 19 out of the possible 24, however the results that I do have are helpful when it comes to planning my own music video. Props can be vital in music videos, whether it be for the narrative of the video, for conceptual imagery or even to reflect the artist's image. I got a variety of answers, few of which were 'not sure' which put together with those who didn't answer the question, I can understand, as it can be hard to try and think of props that would be in an electropop music video in particular; as there may be more of a focus on location and lighting. This can be supported by an answer from one person in particular, who said that there wouldn't be a lot due to the focus on the performer, but if there were to be props then objects that relate to the lyrics would be appropriate. Other answers for this question include: alcohol, broken cups, streamers, electric guitar, balloons and fire.



In electopop music videos, I feel that costume is very important in contributing to the visual theme, whether it be something dark and moody or bright with neon colours. The results reflected both of these themes, as I got a mixture of responses. Many people referred to festival clothing, with bright colours, also stating for it to be trendy and 'daring'. Few elaborated on this and said it should be vibrant but the main colour should be black, and that it should reflect an outfit worn to the club. Others spoke about how the outfit should just be casual and 'normal', with darker colours such as black and grey. Few people again said that it depends on the artist and their image, as well as the mood of the song, which I think is why I got a variety of responses, as there can be multiple moods to a video.



The last question I asked was about what kind of theme an electropop music video would have, either within the narrative or conceptual imagery. The responses all were very similar and matched my predictions, as fun and love were themes that I too associated with videos from this genre. People also referred to the theme of dancing, youth, living life fully and loving life. I agree with this as the vibe that I want associate does seem carefree and adventurous, like the characters are living their lives to the fullest. The fact that youth was names I'm pleased with as it clearly links to my target audience, and tis theme can appeal to them and their interests and/or aspirations.