Star Image - Tim Burgess

I will be writing an analysis on how a star image is constructed on the artist Tim Burgess. Tim Burgess is the lead singer of the Indie band "The Charlatans", and has also launched a solo career since.
 
Above and to the right are photos of Tim Burgess during the nineties, the peak of The Charlatans' career.

Tim Burgess has always been the main and key focus of The Charlatans in their over twenty-year period of being active. As with most bands, with Foo Fighters and The Cure being examples, the lead singer has been the lead focus. Tim Burgess has been known for having a range of different hair styles, which have been a signature if his to fans of either himself or the band. He has been known to dye his hair, to change the style and length significantly, promoting him as not only a musician but a style icon also.

A lot of videos from The Charlatans have Tim Burgess focused on as the lead role opposed to the other members of the band. "How High" and "North Country Boy" are examples of that, where Tim is conveyed on camera a lot more than the rest of the band who all play smaller roles in the videos. Often videos from The Charlatans are performance based, with "The Only One I Know" being an example of this. Tim Burgess is again showed a lot more frequently even in the performance based videos as opposed to the rest of the band, to not only show him singing but to use him to promote the band and their videos together.

Many videos from The Charlatans follow a similar trend, with Tim Burgess constantly walking and singing while the band are either performing in other shots or are walking with him but without the camera focused on them. Tim Burgess is portrayed through the videos as being cool and as someone to look up to from an audience, the video to "Just Looking" shows Tim walking alone whilst waving to members of the band that he walks past, the shows the theme of being cool that the videos are trying to portray regarding him. Although Tim Burgess is shown the most out of the band in music videos from The Charlatans, the theme of voyeurism is not common among their videos, this is due to most of the videos from The Charlatans being aimed at males as opposed to females (who the Indie genre is more common with) so Tim Burgess is conveyed through aspiration as opposed to being a sexualised figure.

On the topic of the album covers, some of the albums by The Charlatans figure the entire band, and on occasion Tim Burgess is shown the most on the covers, with "Tellin Stories" being an example of this. Tim Burgess is shown more than the rest of the band on the album covers as he is the most recognisable to the audience, and with him shown on the covers fans are more likely to buy the album as they are more familiar with him, and they will be reminded of the previous music that he has been responsible for.

Above are the albums "Tellin Stories" and "Forever, The Singles" by The Charlatans, Tim Burgess is shown on the far right of "Tellin Stories" and in the upper, middle of "Forever, The Singles" as he is most recognised by audiences.

The official website uses a picture of Tim Burgess in the home page above the "shows" category, which uses the star to promote the band through the website (http://www.thecharlatans.net/). Tim Burgess and The Charlatans have also been included with the "Madchester" music scene, alongside band member such as Noel Gallagher and Ian Brown. Tim Burgess has been known to have a similar style to the other Manchester band members, such as similar clothes, hair style and music, this helps promote not only The Charlatans but Tim Burgess himself as he is heavily linked and associated with the very popular music scene from Manchester, which millions of fans are familiar with.

In regards to mise-en scene, from the over twenty-year period that Tim Burgess has been involved in music, he has always been shown with an Indie-styled look. The clothes that he is seen wearing in numerous music videos include jeans and t-shirts with long hair which is very common across the genre. The streets, hotel rooms and hallways are common settings in music videos from The Charlatans, which are common places where partying, alcohol and smoking are common, which relate to the Indie genre because people who are associated with it such as Tim Burgess and Liam Gallagher are known for being "hard partyers" in real life.

In conclusion, Tim Burgess is used to promote his band "The Charlatans" through his portrayal on album covers and in music videos as he is the most popular person from the band who fans mostly aspire to. Tim Burgess is very much associated and his image is constructed through the Indie genre, his clothes and the fact that he has long hair, albeit he frequently changes it, also represents him as a style icon.

Heart Shaped Box

I will analyse the music video to Nirvana - Heart Shaped Box:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6P0SitRwy8

I have chosen the music video "Heart Shaped Box" by Nirvana to analyse in depth and see the styles and techniques which are used to create meaning and generate a response. The video is abstract while the performance side by the band is also conveyed, with not much of a narrative shown. The video consists of the band performing in a fantasy land which leads the audience into thinking that it is the imagination of the lead singer Kurt Cobain. I have chosen this video in particular to analyse as it is quite obscure and original with lots of parts to analyse in it.

The lead singer of the band (Kurt Cobain) is quite blatantly showcased  as the lead and main figure in the Heart Shaped Box video. The other members, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic are frequently shown in the background through long shots, they are often blurred out also. Kurt Cobain is consistently shown through close ups as fans of the band recognise him as the main man. The lead singer of most bands on most if not all occasions is shown as Cobain is in the Heart Shaped Box video for aspiration of them by the viewer, if you think of bands like Queen with Freddie Mercury or The Beatles with John Lennon as an example.

Although some lyrics of the song, particularly the song name, are sometimes illustrated in the video, the video primarily contradicts the lyrics. The band are however often seen in a Heart Shaped Box, especially at the end of the video, which shows how on occasion the lyrics do illustrate the video. The target audience of the video varies hugely, Nirvana fans in the time of the Grunge era (early 90's) were fully diverse when it comes to age, race and culture, of which Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana targets all.

The mise-en scene of costume in the video is very iconic of a Rock band, particularly that of the Grunge genre. Casual, ripped clothes with long hair were common across all grunge bands when the scene began in Seattle. Instead of wearing fully black costumes with black hair and make up like earlier bands of the 80's adopted, the Grunge scene and Nirvana proved through their various music videos, including Heart Shaped Box that you can wear normal, every day clothes and still be Rockers.

The subject of abortion and babies in general is common in the Heart Shaped box video. The props of the fetuses hanging from the branches half way through the video display this. The album of which the song was from is "in Utero", with numerous pictures of fetuses on the inside cover. The setting in Heart shaped Box is portrayed to show the vision of kurt Cobain, and the fact that at the time he was having his only daughter, the common use of babies and fetuses in his album covers and video's show that his own thoughts and vision was conveyed.

The video promotes the song to a large extent to it's audience. The image of Kurt Cobain which is often used in numerous Nirvana music videos (Smells Like Teen Spirit, In Bloom, Come As You Are) is iconic to viewers and fans of the music. The man on the crucifix and the fantasy land with the little girl and the large woman makes the video original and iconic from others which promotes the song and the band to a wider audience range.

Introduction

This is my A2 Media Studies blog for the 2012/2013 academic year.

This blog will include the planning, development and the evaluation of mine and my groups' music video that will be created. My own personal research will be placed on this blog, including different music video analysis and a star image. The entire planning stages of the video will be conveyed, such as a storyboard and shot list, and developments which may include new ideas and class sessions will also be posted on this blog. Ideas for the concept of our eventual music video will be portrayed, along with different artists who are similar to the music that we chose to compare.

The evaluation of my music video will be split into four different sections, which will all be created on four different technologies. My ancillary texts along with my main texts will be displayed on this blog, along with ideas to convey the progress that I have made over a certain period of time. I will create a Digipak and an advert for my music video, which will also be shown on this blog and will be created using programmes such as 'Photoshop' to coincide with the music video that I will have created.