Music Marketing: R&B and Rap

     

Stage 1: Research

    The first stage of the Music Marketing project mainly consisted of research. After receiving the R&B and rap genres, we focused on companies that were popular within this field. Since my group consisted of five members, we decided to have one person write the history on both record labels, and then the other four would research one artist from their respective label. We chose Atlanta Records and Universal Music Group as our companies. I was in charge of researching the rap artist Cardi B. I was able to find a detailed history of her rise to fame and how Atlanta records has impacted her career on her business' website, and later made observations from her social media, primarily Instagram and Twitter. Cardi B maintains a very bold appearance in order to showcase her confidence and pride in her roots, in order to inspire her audience.

Stage 2: Music video planning

    After completing our research chart, we started the planning for our music video. Out of the three songs given, my group decided on using "Cmon Talk" by Bernhoft for the video. We found the song interesting and uplifting, and over all just fun. We started by analyzing the lyrics of the song, and found that Bernhoft speaks about a past relationship with a lover, and wanting to rekindle their love, but expresses a lack of communication between the two. Based off of this, we decided to create a storyline following a man trying to move on from his relationship, and his best friend who does his best to support his friend through this and convinces him that he must move on. 

    I took on the role of co-director with one of my partners. As a group, we decided on name Marz for the band, because mars is said to be the planet of passion, which follows our band's theme. Two of my partners would take on the role of band members, one being the lead singer and guitarist, while the other is the drummer. We were able to get all the shots needed for the video in two days fairly smoothly. In order to properly convey that the singer needed to get over a relationship, I took on the role of the past lover. My partner and I took several photos which conveyed this message, while paying attention to the individual message they give off. In each picture, My character was facing or looking off screen, while the singer's character looks at me. These pictures captures glances which show the relationship between the two, and how the singer was in love with the girl, but she did not care as much about him. We included these pictures in an over the shoulder shot of the singer scrolling through pictures of him and his past lover, then cutting to a close up showing the man being frustrated and rubbing his face.

    Stage 3: Presentation

    I worked with another partner in building the marketing for Marz. I developed an artist Instagram page for the band, where I included pictures introducing the members, "sneak peaks" at Marz' latest title track "Cmon Talk" for their album "Resile," and behind the scenes footage of the music video in order to interact with our audience. We named the album resile because the album was to theoretically have a theme of abandoning toxic relationships and moving forward. I designed an album cover by screenshotting a clip from one of the band shots for the music video, and editing the picture to show a deeper and more vibrant blue color.

    My partner and I at first wanted to center the band around bright flashy colors, creating a fun and energetic attitude. However, after further discussion, we settled on darker, deeper shades of blues and purple, because it created a more mature attitude for the artist. While I created the Instagram, my partner designed a website which included merchandise for fans to purchase.

    After building our PowerPoint, we presented the music video and slides to the class. Overall, I learned how important proper communication is between group members. Miscommunication can lead to confusion in artistic ideas.