Music Video Timeline

Unsuccessful Band- The Silent Sundays

The Silent Sundys are a Sheffield based band that were formed in 2006. They took a while to find a comfortable line up and so were not a steady band, meaning that the audience for the band could not get attached to anyone in case they got replaced. The music they make includes fast rhythms and strong rhythmic drumming, excluding quite a vast majority of the public, however their genre of music varies from punk rock to indie and therefore they do appeal to a wide group of people.
They have produced a 10 track studio album and have a successful myspace page. However, in order to succeed and gain more publicity they should showcase their band on open mic nights and produce posters to be shown around Sheffield and then attempt to broaden their horizons by targetting other cities, including London, and eventually after a lot of hard work they may become a very successful indie band.

Record Labels

The most popular, and well known record labels are, Mercury, Island, Hollywood, Universal, Sony, EMI and Warner Music. Most of these record companies own a collection of smaller record labels.

Universal: This is made up of Island Def Jam, Polydor and Mercury. Artists such as Bon Jovi, Blink 182, Eminem, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, U2 and Snow Patrol. Their back catalogue also consists of Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana and Buddy Holly.

Record labels are responsible for an eclectic mix of music and artists.

Advantages: Big budget, pubilicty and services, music can be showcased in other areas (this shows the power that they have over the whole media industry)

Disadvantages: They are controlled by a bigger company, no freedom for artists

Johnny Cash vs Nine Inch Nails

The song 'Hurt' has been interpretated in two very different ways.

Johnny Cash gave his video of 'Hurt' a more emotional meaning. It is a very personal video and reflects over the mistakes in his life. As it was made months before Cash's death, he is shown in a very frail and delicate state in the clips that he is performing the song. Therefore, the genre of this video is performance and narrative, which is shown by the clips from the past.

The clips of his life give the idea that he is apologising for the actions he has done in the past. This then creates a link between the lyrics and the visuals, one of Goodwin's rules. This point is emphasised when the song says "Everyone I know goes away in the end" and the video shows a picture of his mother who has passed away. This makes the video emotional and poigniant, along with the idea that this is his last song.

Towards the end, the editing speeds up, signifying that the end of the song is near, along with the end of his music career and his life. As the music fades, the visuals continue and the camera shows Cash bow his head and close the piano lid. This creates a dramatic atmosphere and ending to his career. Although the song and video itself have a depressing feel, Cash could be trying to end his career and potentially his life on a high.

On the other hand, Nine Inch Nails interpreted the song in a very different way. They were the original writers of the song and, in their video, they seem to focus more on the performance based aspect of music videos, compared to Cash's hybrid of performance and spectacle. 

Ellie Goulding

For our homework, we had to research into the successes of an artist within our genre, which for me is indie. I chose to study Ellie Goulding because I am a fan of her style of music and she has been extremely successful, especially seeing as she has only been in the public eye since 2009. So why is she so successful?

In 2010, Goulding became only the second artist to top both the BBC's annual Sound of... poll, and win the Critics' Choice Award at the BRIT Awards in the same year, following Adele's win of both in 2008.

After signing to Polydor Records, her debut album 'Lights' went on to place at number one on the UK Albums Chart and sold over 620,000 copies.

Before the release of her debut studio album, Goulding won the BBC Sound of 2010 poll, which showcases the critics, broadcasters and music industry insiders' top choices for rising stars and artists for the coming year.

Ellie's cover of Elton John's "Your Song" became her highest-charting single to date, reaching number two.

Goulding has been nominated for many awards such as 2010 MTV Europe Music Awards and 2010 Virgin Media Awards. She has also recently won the 2011 Glamour Magazine Award for Newcomer of the Year. Goulding has proved to be a huge success with not only the general public, but also the people within the music industry itself.