Final song choice

Discussion of song choice

Record labels logos

Island Records

Island records is a conglomerate record label that was founded in Jamaica and now has three brands in different locations, Island UK, Island US and Island Australia. They have signed artists such as Ariana Grande, Florence and The Machine, Nick Jonas and Catfish and the Bottlemen. The logo has a palm tree which shows the origin of the record label as it was founded in the Caribbean. The black and white colouring is also very effective as the black circle looks like the sun with the white tree appearing like shadowing. The large lettering is also beneficial to the logo as it is clear and eye catching even though it is black. The font is also very timeless in the way that as it is so simple its hard for it to look dated and old fashioned, because it was founded in 1959 and even now over 50 years later it still doesn't look outdated, it still looks moderns and new.

The image it gives is of an island, which gives the feeling of freedom. This could show the potential audience that the music that they create can give you the feeling of escape from their everyday lives. The target audience appears to be a very broad range from 16 to late 30's as the artists also vary from young pop stars like The Vamps to older artists like Annie Lennox.
 

Night Slugs



Night slugs is a very recently made record label that was created in England in 2010 that signs electronic and base music artists. As they are an independent label the artists are not as well known as the previous record label Island Records, as they have artists such as Lil Silva, Kingdom and DJ C. The logo is very vibrant with the bold colours of pink, blue and green which really stand out up against the black outline. As the black outline is so thick its defined more and as its so dark it relates to the name of the label because it gives the image of the night time with the dark sky.

Even though the logo is very eye catching the geometrics of it does make it slightly difficult to read the wording as it is 35 and quite confusing. This would be something we would consider when creating our own logo, as we don't want it to be difficult for people to read. However for this specific record label it is relevant as they specify in base, garage and electronic music, which doesn't really have a clear structure like other genres as a lot of the time its just music and no vocals, so the confusing and lack of structure could be showing how the music that they create also has no fixed or clear arrangement. But as the genre we are focusing on is RnB, this wouldn't be an idea we would carry on to our logo.

As the record label was only recently founded in 2010, 6 years ago, it could potentially look outdated in the years to come, but for this year and society it still very much fits in with the modern look. It could possibly look outdated because of the bright colours, they can often make something look tacky or unprofessional in the future if these types of colours are not popular.
 

Cinematic Music Group

The Cinematic Music Group is a record label in New York City founded in 2007 that focuses on the Hip Hop genre. It includes artists like Mick Jenkins, Joey Bada$$ and Pro Era. As they were created fairly recently 9 years ago usually the logo would look more modern, but this has a very classic feel to it with the image of a vinyl record, which are a very old fashioned way of listening to music. But it suggests that the music produced will have a classic of in some way a traditional hip hop sound. The black and white colouring also fits the old theme that it appears to have. As its very basic and if it was created when records were the main way of listening to music then the logo probably would've been black and white as they wouldn't have had the resources to create colour.

The font of the title is very bold and clear to see because its of a large size. Also the record is not in the shape of a full circle because instead they have chosen it to resemble the 'C' for the word Cinematic which gives it a different twist of the original design.

The target audience for the music produced by this label would be around 18-30 because of the rap styles in the music, but the logo contrasts with this as it would be more suitable for an older audience due to the logo appearing quite old fashioned.

I think the logo is quite plain and dull because even though it has the nice classic feel to it, it doesn't have anything that really catches the eye. I think the thickness of the black outline makes it less effective because everything is outlined so it doesn't show clearly what the main focal point is.
 

Columbia Records

Columbia Records are a record label that is owned by Sony Music Entertainment, it was founded in America in 1887. It the longest running record label in the world and the second most major. It is involved with artists like Beyoncé, Adele, John Legend and Alicia Keys. These artists are the type we would want for our record label as they are part of the Soul RnB genre. As the company has ben around for so many years (129 years) I would expect the logo to look a lot more dated, but it actually still looks fitting for this century. It has an older feel with the font, its very classic but sets a statement. The background colour is a very deep pink, almost a cranberry colour, it really brings our the blackness of the wording and image. It also makes it different from other logos as most of the other record labels have logos with either a white or black background, which makes this one stand out above the rest. The main focal point of the logo is the image above the writing which appear to be just a picture made by them and not a different image I have seen before. It looks a little bit like an eye with the wide oval shape of it and the darker circle in the middle resembling the pupil. Which is quite captivating as it draws the eyes especially with the surrounding circles. In a way the repetition of the circles looks like it could be try to hypnotise the person looking at it which is a very smart idea.
Overall the logo is very bold and unique when compared to other logos I have looked at, but it is definitely the one that I would take more from when creating my own logo, because it has many good characteristics and features that would be good for our genre, target audience and overall look for the artist.

Kehlani Biography

Kehlani

Kehlani Parrish, known as Kehlani in the music industry is a 21 year old R&B, Soul and Hip Hop singer born in Oakland California in 1995. She was born with a unique mix of ethnicities as she is African American, Caucasian, Native American, Spanish, and Filipino Native American. From an early age she was raised by her Aunt due to her father dying and her mother having a drug addiction and being in and out of prison.

From the beginning she wanted to be a dancer, she went to Oakland School For The Arts to achieve her dream of becoming a ballet dancer, but she later on suffered a knee injury which meant she could no longer continue dancing. This then lead to her finding solace in music that she would listen to with her aunt, it would be artists mainly women with soul and passion in their voices which fuelled Kehlani's passion for singing.

As she now had a dream to become a singer, so at the age of 14 she became a part of  a girl group called Poplyfe which was successful in the Bay area where they would perform concerts, which they did for about 2 years. They later went on to be finalists in America's got talent, but unfortunately didn't win, but it got Kehlani noticed by producers. So months later when she decided to start singing again, she found herself trying to do so whilst trying to find somewhere to live due to her being almost homeless. This made it very hard for her to pursue her career seriously as she had no money and no home. As she had no money she found herself having to steal from shops for food.

In 2013 her luck changed, as Nick Cannon the host of America's got Talent when she was on it, contacted her asking if she wanted to be in a rap group, to which she said yes to. However when she got to the studio and discovered the sound and direction the group wanted to have, she had to decline the offer as it was not what she wanted. So she moved back to her home town in Oakland where she made and released her first song 'ANTISUMMERLUV', to which Nick Cannon listened to and then got into contact with her and set her up with an apartment in LA and studio time so she can pursue her career.

The studio time that was given to her allowed her to make her first mix tape in 2014 called Cloud 9, the album was very successful and ranked 28th in the Complex's list of the 50 best albums of 2014. This was a great start to her professional career and led to other chart successes. Only a year later she released her second mixtape called which was an even greater success as it was 5th in the National R&B Hip Hop chart, shortly after this was released she had been signed to a new record label, Atlantic Records. This meant she had finally made it in the music industry even though she had a lot of struggle to get to where she is now.

Although in 2015 everything was going well and prospering, in 2016 Kehlani's personal life was not doing so well. At the beginning of the year he got in a relationship with a NBA star Kyrie Irving, and their relationship was very clear on the media. But they later on broke up with each other, but the public were unaware of this, this lead to her being perceived negatively to the public as a picture of her in a well known artist, PARTYNEXTDOOR's ,bed which appeared like she had cheated. This lead to her attempting suicide shortly after because she didn't want to live with the image the media has created of her. But fortunately she survived and has fully recovered and has started her career again with a song that's even featured in the new film Suicide Squad.

 



Character Mood Board

Character mood board


The image we want for our music video is present in the mood board with images Kehlani herself, many different styles of clothing, makeup ideas and further costumes for the character surrounding the main one. In the mood board I have incorporated many images of Kehlani outside of her music videos, this is because even though she is the artist we have chosen, she also has the style we want our main character to have in our video. Her style is very unique and involves many dark colour which is good for the video because we want to convey a theme of darkness with the message of the song so for her clothing to also be dark would really accentuate the seriousness of the lyrics. Also Kehlani's style gives of a very urban and confident vibe to her, this is good for our main character because as she wants to be loved by a gangster, she needs to fit the image of a gangsters girlfriend. So with the styles that Kehlani has would really suit the stereotypical image of the partner of a gangster, especially with that large hoop earrings, large jewellery and bandanas shown in some of the images.
I have also involved pictures of red and black lips, this is to how the makeup choices for the main character and i have chosen the red to represent the love she wants to receive from a man as red is seen to be the colour of passion and love, but also to show that she is a strong and powerful woman because usually when you see he colour red on anyone it does show that they have confidence to wear such a bold colour, which allow us to show the audience that even though she wants the love off of a man she also can take care of herself. I chose the colour of the black lips however to show the contrast of the love and darkness that comes with loving a gangster because with the passionate love that he will give to her, comes the dangerous side of the relationship.
Another image that we want for our main character is for her to have the similar tattoos that Kehlani has. These include tattoos on te shoulder, arm, back and especially on her hands and finger and possible one or two on her face if the actor is able to have them, because it will definitely show the gangster in her as many gangsters and criminals have tattoos on their body everywhere especially their hands. Fo the tattoos to be on her hands also shows that she isn't trying to hide that she as them, a she is proud of the art. It also shows the commitment to the gangster culture which proves to the audience how much this woman wants to be loved by a true gangster.

Target Audience Mood Board

Target Audience Mood Board

Our target audience is mainly young women with the range from teenager to young adult. The mood board shows many different women and not men because as the chosen artist is a female, it is a lot easy to reach out to female fans as men may reject the idea of listening to a female singer and would typically rather listen to a male artist. Also, women are more likely to feel the emotion that Kehlani has in the song and they may feel empowered by how strong and powerful she is in the video better than men would.

The women in the image are young adults each with different styles, they range from unique clothes to unique hair such as the female with the silver/grey braids. But there are also some generic image involved like the blonde girl wearing the black hat a she is wearing clothing that is seen on many other women. 

I have also added images of brands like Asos, Zara, Topshop and Nike which are clothing stores which would have similar female shoppers as our hopeful audience for our chosen song.

Genre mood board

RnB Soul Mood Board

The chosen genre of music is RnB Soul it encompasses  elements of both passion and  rhythm. The artists vary from Whitney Houston and Beyoncé to  Bryson Tiller and The Weeknd which all have very different sounds but involve the same features to be classed as RnB. This genre is very popular in the current music industry, this could be because as the features of he genre are very broad, it allows these artists to also involve other subgenres of RnB into their music as well as the soul. Fo example one artist shown in the mood board includes Bryson Tiller who has a very unique soul sound and also incorporates rap into his songs, which can make him more popular with a much larger audience because his music is incorporating elements of rap, RnB an soul. The mood board also shows some of the greats that helps in the making of this music being as wanted as it is now, such as Whitney Houston, who has impacted the involvement of soul and rhythm with her songs having her passionate voice with a strong beat behind the lyrics. It also shows artists who are not yet as popular as the singers like Whitney and Beyoncé, such as Kehlani who is a young woman that has a lot of fans but has not yet branched out as much into the same category a the mainstream artists, but her music style is becoming increasingly more popular. Suggest she is an up and coming well known artist for the RnB soul genre of music. 



RnB music videos

To show the RnB music videos that I have analysed I have created a prezi   https://prezi.com/dnz_uft4_4nl/edit/#1_24309637