Star Analysis

For this task I am going to research a particular music star, I am choosing to research 'Pink'. From this research I am hoping to grasp the concepts of how she represents herself, visually and through her music. This will help me understand how through music videos, posters, CD covers and such an artist’s builds up a representation of themselves.

Alecia Beth Moore is her birth name, her artist name is Pink, which is spelt P!kn often. The name in itself and how it is spelt shows a quirkiness of the artist, she does not wont to be seen as conventional or the same as other artists. The choice of name is interesting, the public may assume it is because she likes to be feminine; pink is a very stereotypical colour for girls. Pink quoted in an interview that she came across the name Pink when she was young, bullies used to pick on her then call her pink because she blushed. The name was reinforced when a movie came out with a star called 'Mr. Pink, she claims he had a sharp tongue. These reasons for naming herself this clearly represent herself as an artist. She is trying to convey to people the troubles in like, this is a convention of rock genre. She is also trying to convey that she is a tough person who is not shy of coming forward.

She is 32 and from The United States Of America. It seems from a very young age Pink has been interested in music, her father played the guitar and sang music, which inspired her to be a rock star. Her mother comments that from the age of 14 she was writing her own songs, 'they were very black, very deep and almost worrisome'. This statement says a lot about how she expresses herself, her music and her lyrics along with other things seem to help the artist get her feeling and emotions across to people.

Pink was originally an R&B artist, In 2001 she brought out her second single, this single represented the more rock/pop genre of music, which she has continued to use throughout her music career.

MUSIC & LYRICS

Pinks music and lyrics are very expressive; they show a great deal great deal of emotion and character. In her music videos there are often teenage girls who are not conventially pretty, popular or happy the videos also emphasise the problems that come along with this. This is expressing for sympathy towards particular people and encouraging them that they are not alone. It may also relate to things she may have gone through as a young person. In some videos these 'unconventially pretty' girls stand up to stereotypical 'bimbos', skinny, blonde, rich, materialistic and so on. Her song pretty girls represents 'bimbos' in an almost humorous way which comforts young girls whom do not follow these conventions. Her lyrics express a lot about having problems with one’s self, drug abuse, self harm, isolation as so on; this is also represented in her music videos. Pink is a role model for many young girls who have problems and insecurity within themselves, through her music, lyrics, videos and style she helps them to come to terms with themselves as you do not have to be typically 'pretty' to be happy and liked by others. Words and phrases such as misunderstood, less than perfect, escape reality, wrong in all the right ways, punch them in the mouths are used. These all help her to represent herself and her music as very expressive and emotional.

LINKS BELOW TO PINKS MUSIC VIDEOS WHICH WILL SHOW EXAMPLES OF MY ABOVE STATEMENTS:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJWIbIe0N90&feature=related 'Who Knew'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjVNlG5cZyQ&feature=relmfu 'Raise Your Glass'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eocCPDxKq1o&feature=related 'Please Dont Leave'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1bcQMCZ5gU 'Fucking Perfect'

STYLE

Pink does not have a parasitic style, she various from a range of different styles which is part of why she is a unique artist. Her clothing range goes from tomboy/punk to feminine dressed to very sexual clothing to extreme outfits.

TOMBOY/ PUNK

    

FEMININE

  

OUT GOING OUTFITS

  

SEXUAL

  

These collaborations of styles represent Pink as a non conventional artist; she does not stick to stereotypes of her genre. She does not generally dress for Rock, Pop or RnB; instead she puts them all together. However, through researching her style I have noticed some particular trends, in music videos and performances her outfits seem to be more sexy and outgoing. When in public or attending important events, she is dress more like a tomboy or very classy and pretty. This could show that some of her representations are not accurate towards the actual artist. Since Pink got married to Carey Hart in January 2006 she was been seen to be wearing more feminine clothing, dresses and such.
 
HAIR

Pink often changes her hair colour, varies in styles she chooses to wear it, but does not often change the length. If she does it is never longer than her shoulders, it is generally short hair. The colour of her hair also changes often, the most typical hair colour for her is either blonde or pink, but she does mix in other colours such as black, red, green, purple.

Below are some images of Pink's varies hair styles.

 

    

          

Auteur Theory

In this I am going to research a music director, and the themes which they use in their work. Michele Bay is a Hollywood film director, music director and also used to be in advertising, creating adverts and such. This is where he started in his career, from advertising, to music video directing to a Hollywood movie director. For each of his chosen career paths his work has been very successful and has had good responses.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/spout/archives/meat_loaf_michael_bay/

ABOVE IS A REVIEW OFF MICHAEL BAY'S EARLY MUSIC VIDEOS AND DIRECTING. THIS ARTICLE DESCRIBES BAY'S WORK AS 'OUT THERE' BUT VERY GOOD.

Bay has directed music videos for musicians such as, Tina Tuner, Aerosmith and Donny Osmond. Like all directors Micheale Bay has particular techniques when directing music videos:
 A strong narrative structure appears in a lot of his music videos, a good example of this is Meatloaf’s video ' I Would Do Anything for Love'. The narrative behind the video is a love story about man who loves a woman. Bay takes the phrase ' I would do anything for love' and very artistically shows the passion of the meaning. Audiences attention is grabbed from the very beginning, the location, props, costume and make-up all make the video interesting and worth watching.

 This video turns a simple saying ' I would do anything for love' and illustrates beautifully and artistically the passion behind the saying. The story line is about who is in love, and would do anything, but not one thing. Enigma is instantly arisen as to what it is the man would not do. The collaboration locations, variety of shots & camera angles, make up & costume all make a brilliant video. The video is packed with different themes, action, romance, magic and seduction, he is able to make this collaboration work well. 

ROMANCE: Love story of a man and women, the contrast between the two entices the audience. The female is beautiful and elegant; she is dressed in a white dress which symbolises purity and good. However, the man is dark and mysterious; he is wearing a black cloak and has strange marks on his face, as if not human. The dark colours symbolising evil.

ACTION: There is a fair amount of action in this video for a 'love story', the movie starts off with a police chase, and a car is driven through a brick wall into the house the man drove to. The house is dark and gloomy; it could be passed as an old church or a haunted house. There is a contrast again here as the original location of the women was calm and bring, there was trees and flowers in the back ground. The director’s use of shots and camera positions all add to the intensity of the scene when the man is watching the women from the woods.

SEDCTION: Seduction & sexuality is a trademark of the director, in many of his videos has seductive or sexy scenes appear. Normally in the terms of the admiration of the female form. A scene in this video is of a lesbian love scene which happens in the house where the man is, the female followed his here. Some critics called this scene 'random' and assumed it was just a sexual scene to illustrate his style. However, I believe this could be more than random. Throughout the film, the women has been represented as pure and good, and the man as bad, it could be more than a coincidence that when she goes into his house that the women engages in such an activity.

MAGIC: The make-up of the male portrays him as not exactly human; he has long dark fingernails like a witch, and unusual markings on his face. There are other things in the video that suggests the man had powers beyond mortal extent. A scene is show of him surrounded by lit candles in a room, this use of props gives a mystical feeling, in the same scene the man looks into a cup and see's the women, moving, looking around as she is in real life. The man makes things move in the movie without touching them, a chair moves across the room and a bed floats into the air with the women on it.

After watching other music videos directed by Michael Bay i have noticed other conventions which he uses. His use of lighting and colour is apparent; he particularly likes to use black and white colours and flashing lights. He uses a wide range of shots and angles.

Genre Research

For my research and planning, I decided to research the codes and conventions of the genre my partner and I have chosen. The genre we have chosen to base our A2 coursework on in rock/new wave.

New Wave is a sub genre of alternative rock, it is influences by a number of different genres, and these include punk rock and indie rock. New Wave music emerged in Britain in the late 1970's. Some artists/bands which come under the genre of New wave/Rock are The Killers, Keane, Linkin Park and The Kaiser Chiefs. The music has many origins including pop orientated music that is not mainstream. Alternative Rock is a catch-all phrase for underground rock music which descended from punk rock; this genre includes New Wave music.

New Wave & Rock music both focus on similar things to heavy metal and punk; these include topics which highlight concerns for society. Drug abuse, addiction, poverty, greed, depression, racism, corruptness of government are just a few of these social concerns which appear in many different genres of music. Even though they follow similar conventions in their lyrics they represent these issues in a more sensible, calmer light. They manage to grab a much larger audience as they focus on these issues in a different way to heavy mental. Instead of scary music, lyrics, costumes and make-up, the artists are dressed casually, sometimes in elaborate costumes, but they do not represent death or depression in their own costumes.

Ultravox are a British New Wave rock band. Their costume is quite casual and laidback. New Wave Rock bands can also have typically bright and 'out-there costumes'.






In music videos, New Wave Rock tends to be performance based as well as narrative based. Lips syncing and instrumental scenes are generally used together for the performance based parts of the video; there are often cuts between the narrative and performance. In nearly all videos of this genre guitars are used as an important instrument. The performance part of the videos are an artist or band lip syncing and playing their instruments. The narrative part follows are story; they show a strong enthuses of social concern.