Research Into Chosen Music Artist - Miss Georgiou.

For my music video me and my group decided to use the song 'Turn Back Time' by Sub Focus. This song belongs to the dance genre and as a group we decided that this would be the best artist to use because their music fitted our initial ideas and we believed that we would be able to create a video which fitted the song really well as the lyrics are easily adaptable to a video.

Sub Focus, or otherwise known as Nick Douwma, is a English electronic music producer who covers numerous genres such as drum and bass, dubstep and electro house which all fall under the umbrella dance genre. Sub Focus belongs to the record labels Ram Records and OWSLA, both of which who are specialised and solely produce music within the dance genre.

 Sub Focus' first notable success came in 2005 when he reached number one in the UK Dance Chart with "X Ray/Scarecrow" which also reached 60 in the UK Singles Chart. He then released his debut studio album on 12th october 2009 which peaked at 51 in the UK Album Chart. In late 2010 came Sub Focus' most successful production to date which was him producing Example's single "Kickstart" which peaked at number 3 in the UK Charts. In 2012 Sub Focus also had success with the release of his single"Tidal Wave" which peaked at number 12 in the UK Charts and was featured in the Mercedes Benz advertising campaign. On May 12th 2013 Sub Focus continued this chart success by releasing Endorphins which reached number 10 in the charts. He then released his fifth single, from his extremely successful album 'Torus', which reached fourteenth in the UK Single Charts. On the 20th December 2013 he then realised his sixth, and last, single from the same album which was 'Turn Back Time' which is the song which me and my group will use for our music video. This song charted before its official release and upon being released continued to rise to tenth in the UK Single Charts which makes it his joint most successful single along with 'Endorphins'. The success of this album led him to play many live shows during 2013 such as Reading and Leeds Festival, Glastonbury, Global Gathering, Bestival and Isle of White Festival. He also completed his own successful UK Tour in 2013.

    

The first video i have chosen to analyse is 'Falling Down' by Sub Focus, which belongs to the dance genre and appeals to the target audience of 16-25 year olds. This is the usual target audience for this genre because its these people who enjoy going out and having a good time, dancing to the fast paced music, more than older people who would stereotypically be interested in a slower genre. During this video the artist is represented as extremely conventional to the dance genre as the video follows him at a festival setting performing and him backstage. Within the video he is also represented as laid back as he seems very calm and composed backstage just before he's about to perform when he should be quite nervous. This connotes that he is been performing for a long while and suggests to the audience that he is a experienced performer. His performances within the video also present him as a good live performer as the audience can be seen enjoying the performance and the use of bright lighting and fast editing add to the festival setting and emphasise the atmosphere. 

Within this video Goodwins theory is evident and used throughout. For example the first element of Goodwins theory which states that 'music videos demonstrate genre characteristics' is applicable as this video is extremely conventional to the dance genre and features almost all the codes and conventions of this genre, such as the bright, flashing lighting, fast paced editing and a conventional setting of a festival. 

Another element of Goodwins theory is 'The demands of the record label will include the needs for lots of close ups' Although this point isn't as evident as the first within this idea it still features at times as the artist can be seen frequently through numerous camera shots and through the use of lots of close ups. This is conventional to the dance genre as they have to make it evident who is performing the song as the DJ's are not performing the song live and therefore the audience may not recognise them as the artist of the song, which is bad for their publicity and forces them to include numerous close ups to ensure they are aware of the artist. The final element of Goodwins theory is whether the video is performance, narrative or concept based, this particular video is solely performance based. A performance based video is when you can see the artist performing the song for a vast segment of the song. This is evident within this video as throughout the whole video you can see the artist performing the song live at a festival. This helps create the conventional dance genre scene in which young people can be seen enjoying themselves and dancing to the upbeat music and video. That links to another element of Goodwins theory which is the relationship between the music and the video. This element of the theory is evident within this video because the song is extremely fast paced which runs parallel to the video which matches the pace of the song. The micro-elements of lighting and editing play a huge role in achieving this as they are both used in a very fast hectic manner; flashing lights are frequently used on stage and added in the editing process, which emphasises the pace and loads of jump cuts are used in quick succession to also create this effect. 

The five mise-en-scene elements which are setting and props, costumes hair & make up, body language & facial expressions, lighting & colour and positioning of characters/objects within the frame are used in a way which is extremely conventional to the dance genre. The setting is evidently extremely conventional to the dance genre as the whole video is set at a festival which is stereotypical associated with the dance genre. This is a stereotypical and conventional setting to the dance genre because the festivals usually focussed on the dance genre which means that many of the target audience who enjoy this genre will attend these festivals and therefore videos which are set in this setting evoke good memories for them, which will mean they enjoy the video more, and also make it more relatable as they have experienced it. The costume, hair and make up used is also conventional as it is casual and basic clothing which is what the artists usually
 wear within the dance genre which differs from other genres who
usually wear theatrical costumes which achieve a completely different effect. The plain costume has little impact but it may make the artist more relatable to the audience if they can be seen wearing affordable clothing which the target audience may use themselves. The body language and facial expressions seen on both the audience and the artist emphasise the joyful atmosphere as they can both be seen with happy and euphoric expressions, which means that the audience watching the video are also prompted to feel that way. The lighting and colour is one of the most recognisable conventions of the dance genre and one of the most successful at creating a specific atmosphere. The lighting which is stereotypically used within the dance genre is usually bright and flashing as it fits in with the fast pace of the song and provokes dancing. This type of lighting is used within this video to a similar effect as it can be seen during the live performance as well as certain lighting elements which have been added, during the editing process to emphasise this effect. To do this they use the bright lighting throughout but during the fast paced periods of the song the lights flash constantly and frequently change in a hectic manner, this flashing lighting then slows for the slow paced parts of the song which emphasis the fast paced elements as the vivid contrast can be seen.

The second video i have chosen to analyse is 'Turn It Around' by Sub Focus. Although being made by the same artist as the first video i studied, this video is extremely different to that video and is much more unconventional than the first, but does, in parts, feature some conventional elements. Although it differs from the first video I believe the second video does appeal to the same target audience of 16-25 year olds but it appeals to them in a completely different manner. Rather than using a conventional video, which the target audience enjoys, this video uses a more diverse video to appeal to the audience. To do this they use a interesting narrative which keeps the audience enticed throughout as they follow this young girl on her journey in Asia and are keen to find out how the storyline progresses and what happens to this focal character. This is a different way to appeal to the same target audience as they have made it less relatable and joyful but instead gone for a more depressing narrative which causes the audience to feel sympathetic towards the pivotal character. As i had previously mentioned this video is mainly a narrative style video as the whole video is focussed around one character and the storyline is based are what she does as she adventures in Asia in evidently a uncomfortable setting. The narrative shows this young Japanese women as she initially is seen in a peaceful setting in a rural area before she drastically changes this setting and travels to the mainland bright city centre where she is seen roaming the busy, bright streets and experiencing a club setting before she then retreats back to the initial tranquil 

setting where she is seen screaming. Despite this i also believe that this video has concept based elements as the narrative isn't extremely clear and i believe it has numerous hidden messages and connotes many things which are not clear within the video itself. I believe the hidden message of this video is that the girl is a bit of a outcast and not your stereotypical girl of this age and she initially is part of the rural community and doesn't venture into the normal Japanese lifestyle. She then wants to change this and this is shown through her spitting off the bridge which i believe is representative of her spitting on her current lifestyle. She then flees this lifestyle and travels to the big city, during this part if the video she is presented as extremely uncomfortable and looks to be very lost in this city. Following these isolated emotions she then quickly retreats to her initial rural setting where she repeatedly, passionately screams. I believe this big finale scene is representative of her frustration that she isn't able to adapt to this normal society and is instead a outcast. Because of this fact that the video is narrative and concept based rather than performance based the artist is represented in a completely different way to the first video. The artist isn't directly represented at all within the video as he doesn't feature but i believe the fact that he used this specific style of video presents him as creative and innovative because he has created a diverse video and gone against the majority of the codes and conventions of the dance genre which demonstrates his ability to be original and unique and go against the stereotypical video. Creating a diverse video rather than a conventional video may be viewed as more creative because a artist knows what to include if they create a conventional video as they have seen other artists do this within the genre, where as if they create a diverse video the content has to be all original and all unique ideas. 

Unlike the first video from Sub Focus, which is more conventional, this video does not feature much inclusion of Goodwins Theory. The first point of Goodwins Theory states music videos tend to demonstrate typical genre characteristics, this element of Goodwins Theory isn't obviously present within this video as it is a diverse video therefore the artist deliberately aimed to include as little conventions as possible to ensure that the video is completely unique and diverse. Despite this, this video does feature certain scenes, within its diverse narrative, which are conventional to the dance genre. During these scenes the focal character goes into a nightclub; these scenes are extremely conventional to the dance genre as this is the stereotypical setting of a dance video so the fact that it is set in this setting makes the scene conventional as all the micro-elements within this setting are each conventional to the dance genre. One of these convention which the dance genre is famous for is the lighting used. The lighting used within this scene is conventional to the genre as it is bright and flashing and makes it evident they are in a club. This lighting also causes another convention which feature within this video which is the dancing; dancing can be seen by the people within the scene which is associated with the dance genre as that type of music and usually the video as well causes the audience to dance. Another element of Goodwins theory which features within this video is the relationship between music and visuals, although this point isn't applicable to the entire video it does apply to the start of the video as the pace of the song matches the pace of the video, as during the slow start of the song the video is slow paced and follows her as she peacefully explores the city but as the song gets faster so does the video as she enters the club during the fast paced part of the song, during this fast paced part of the song the characters are dancing and both the lighting and editing are much quicker than previously which makes it match the song.

Contrastingly to the first video the five miss-en-scene elements; setting and props, costumes hair & make up, body language & facial expressions, lighting & colour and positioning of characters/objects within the frame are used to a completely different effect to create this diverse video. The first element of setting and props used is both conventional and unconventional as there are numerous settings used. The video starts off in a forest setting in which the character can be seen in a tunnel and on a bridge but in a rural green area, this type of setting is unconventional to the dance genre as it is stereotypically set in urban areas specifically clubs rather than a rural forest. This is because the forest it stereotypically associated with peacefulness and calmness which is the exact opposite to what the dance genre aims to create as they try to make there videos as upbeat as possible and in some situations creating a hectic and chaotic video. Despite this the narrative then progresses which shows the focal character leave this forest setting and travel to a more conventional setting of a big city. A city is a rather conventional setting as it is more fast paced than a rural setting as there are lots of people rushing about which results in the music linking to the visuals. The lighting used within the city is also some-what conventional to the genre as it is all bright artificial lighting which is what is usually used within the dance genre. Another setting which is used within this video and is extremely conventional to the dance genre is the club setting. This setting is the most conventional of all setting within the dance genre and is what is stereotypically used within all dance video because each micro-element within this setting helps achieve the atmosphere which the genre aims to create and prompts the audience to dance. 

To conclude this research into the artist which we have chosen (Sub Focus) will be extremely helpful within the planning process of our music video as it has given us numerous ideas and loads of inspirations of what this particular artist usually uses and the effect it has on the audience. It has given us knowledge on how to manipulate specific micro-elements to have the most effect on the audience at a specific part of a song and what appeals to Sub Focus' specific target audience and what to include to make a successful video within this genre.