Record Companies Research

Universal Music Group is the largest record label in the world. It releases music that is pop, rock, Rap, R&B, Jazz, Classical and Latin. The record label is split into two divisions, recorded music and music publishing. It releases music in 77 countries, controlling nearly 98% of the music market. It also sells and distributes music videos and DVD’s.

The companies sub record labels include Decca Records, Barclay, Island Def Jam Music Group, Polydor Records and Mercury Music.

Artists signed to this label include Lady Gaga, One Republic, Nicki Minaj, Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Kayne West and Eminem.

Sony Music Entertainment is the second biggest record label in the world. The company was founded in 1929 under the name American Record Corporation (ARC) and initially released rockabilly music, although now they produce records for many different styles. In 2004 Sony entered into a joint venture with the Bertlsmann Music Group to form, Sony BMG Music, however in 2008 Sony bought out Bertlsmann and the company was again known as Sony Music Entertainment.

Its headquarters are in New York but has offices around the world. The company has a number of sub music labels including Columbia, Epic, J-Records, RCA Records, Nashville, Sony Latin and Zomba.

Acts signed to Sony include Pink, Shakira, Kings of Leon, Susan Boyle, Ke$ha and The Script. They also own the rights to music by Elvis and Micheal Jackson.

Warner Music Group is the third largest record label in the world. It is the worlds only public limited trading major record label. Sub-labels include Atlantic records, Rhino records and Warner Music Nashville. They have managed artists such as Frank Sinatra, The Doors, The Bee Gees The Pixies and Van Morrison. Artists currently signed to Warner Music Group include Jason Marz, 30H!3, The Enemy, Gnarls Barkley and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.



EMI is the only privately owned major music company, after being bought by Terra Firma in 2007. EMI owns recording studios, Abbey Road in London and Capitol Studios in Los Angeles. It is the fourth largest record label in the world.

It has a number of sub-record labels including Angel, Blue Note, EMI Classics, EMI CMG, EMI Records Nashville and Capitol. Artists signed to their label include Lily Allen, Bat For Lashes, Gorillaz, Katy Perry, Snoop Dogg, Thirty Seconds to Mars and Kylie Minogue. They also own the rights to classic albums such as Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie), Revolver (The Beatles), Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band (The Beatles), Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd) and A Rush of Blood To The Head (Coldplay).

Album covers- The Stone Roses (The Stone Roses) and Pink Floyd (Harvest)

 

Features of an album cover: Stars face, name of the band, name of the album, connection between the visuals and lyrics, bands logo and record company logo.

Similarities between The Stone Roses and Harvest: Neither of the covers have pictures of the bands on the front. They are relying on the fans of the band recognising the album without having to actually see a picture of the band. For Pink Floyd not appearing on the cover it adds to the mythical nature of the band, they are a band rarely seen and therefore this album add to that star image. The Stone Roses cover is because they were a new band with very little budget. These albums are from bands who are different stages of their career. Both of the covers could suggest something about the music that you are going to hear. They are covers you would expect to see a rock band use rather then a hip hop or pop star use.

　

　The Stone Roses (The Stone Roses)　

Images: Green and white paint splats and lemons. They have kept the album cover simple and have possibly used the quirky feature like the lemons as a way of getting the album noticed rather then having the band on the front cover. The red white and blue is a reference to the French flag, symbolizing the French Unrest in 1968, showing that the band were interested in their being a deeper meaning to their music.

Text: Bold Gold text in the centre, dominating the cover. This could have been done to replace the image of the band, if they are not on the cover at least we know their name.

Relationship between the text and the image: There is both lemons in the text and the image. There is also the relationship between the text and the image because both the text and images are what we possibly expect to see from a rock band. The lemons used in the text and the image also link back to the use of the French flag on the cover. The lemons were used by the people involved in the riots in France, in particular Paris, as a way of protecting themselves from the tear gas. By using symbols that have a stronger more meaningful message it helps assert that they are an indie band.

Functions: In the sleeve of the album cover there is pictures of the band in black and white and they are performing. This could be to reinforce the fact that they are a rock band, who play all their own music. The album sleeve also serves the function of telling us who wrote the songs, produced them, played on them, sung them etc. The fact that the name of the band is big on the album cover could be to replace the fact there is no picture of the band and to get us familiar with the name. The unction of the back of the case is to tell you the name of the songs, helpful if you know the band for one particular song and are looking for it on that album.

Iconography:

There is a union jack on the inside of the cover, signifying that this is a British band. This could also be playing on the traditions of other rock bands such as The Rolling Stones, who also use the Union Jack iconography.

First thoughts

Kelly Clarkson album cover- All I Ever Wanted

This is Kelly Clarkson’s album cover. The reason that I’ve decided to look at this album cover is because she is a young pop star, which is what our band are. There are very few female duo pop acts but by looking at solo female pop stars we will get a better idea as to the style of album cover we should create as the albums of a solo female and a female duo is likely to be similar as they are both singing the same genre of music and both trying to attract the same target audience.

This album cover is fairly simple. Like we have seen with the other covers Clarkson features on the cover, with the image dominating the cover. In the image she is wearing fairly casual clothes. This would be something that we would be more likely to do for our cover, mainly because of the budget we have to shoot for our cover. The relaxed costume on the front cover fits in with Kelly Clarkson’s star image because she is not known for looking overly glamorous and she isn’t known for having front covers which are particularly artistic or overly original, tending to stick to simple album covers.

This album cover also features her name on the cover, rather bold and large so that we instantly know whose album this is. The name has proved to be a key feature on the cover of a pop album, meaning that when it comes to creating our album cover we need to have a bold title.

This cover also uses simple block colour in the background. This style would be something that we would consider because it would be a simple look to achieve but would still look effective and still make the album distinctively pop. Colour has also proved key on our cover.

Kylie Minogue Album cover- X

 This is the album cover to Kylie Minogue’s album X. We looked at this album cover because we wanted to look at how pop stars were represented on their album covers, as this is the genre that our video would fit into. As you would expect on this album cover there is a close up of the artist and her name. This is similar to other albums by Kylie Minogue, although of which have a photograph of her and her name as the biggest writing on the album cover, bigger then that of the albums title if it even includes the title at all. This is because they are relying on selling the album on the name of the already well established artist who can be recognised by her first name only. When creating our album cover we feel it is important to have the artists face on it as this is typically what would be expected from a pop band.

Although the background is black there is still a lot of block bold colour on this album cover, suggesting that pop album need to be colourful to play on the market that they are being targeted at, young women. The red line used in the image also matches the red on her nails and lips. This is something that we will take into consideration when creating our album cover.

In this album there is some relationship between the image and the writing as the writing uses the same colours as her name and the way the colour has been used in the image and the writing is similar.

Britney Spears Album Cover- Circus

Like with the other front covers we have looked at for pop stars, the front of Britney Spears albums all fit to what we would expect to see from an album cover, with her face and name appearing on the cover of the album. Again they could be selling the album on the strength pf what she looks like. Like with Christina’s albums the album covers depict how her image has changed. On the first she, like Christina, looks like a typical girl next door, but as the albums progress her looks begin to change.
 

Like Christina she also had an album that was set in a circus. On her album ‘Circus’, there is a mid shot of Britney Spears wearing a frilly pink dress. Around the edge of the album cover there is blue stars and the writing and backdrop makes the album look theatrical. There is a lot of soft colours used in this album cover, from the gold on the backdrop, the light pink on her dress and the light blue in the stars, the only really bright colour is the red in the writing, which means that her name stands out, selling the album more off of who the star is then what is actually on the album and what the album is about.

  

Final Cut express

Final Cut Express is the programme that we are going to use to edit together the video.

The benefits of using this programme is that it is simple to use, which will make it easier for us when it comes to editing our video. It is easy to duplicate shots and put in and out points, so that we can select the parts of each clip that we want to use without difficulty.

The programme also makes it easy for us to put effects on certain shots, something that is going to be useful for our video as we plan to use many effects, so that the video is in keeping with the song and the previous Rogue Traders video to ‘Voodoo Child’.

The programme also allows us to put the videos into different ‘bins’, which will help us organise the many shots that we are likely after shooting.

The programme also allows us to export the video easily when it is finally finished, meaning we are able to up load the video to our blogs and other internet sites.

There is also a number of tutorials on youtube.com which will mean there is an outlet for us to find out how to use the programme if we become stuck.

Oasis-Dont look back in anger

Screen grab showing how the edge of the shot has been blurred
in Dont Look Back in Anger

This is the video for the 1996 Oasis song, Don’t Look Back in Anger, form the album (What‘s the story) morning glory? This video was directed by Nigel Dick, who has also worked on the Guns and Roses videos Sweet Child of Mine, Paradise City and Welcome to the Jungle. He has also worked with the band on their videos for other singles including, Rock and Roll Star, Wonderwall and Champagne Supernova. Using the same director for some of their videos means that there are some similarities in the bands music videos. This is particularly true for the videos to Wonderwall and Don’t look back in anger as they both create the feel that they have been shot on old film as the edge of the shots are blurred. Another similarity between the two videos include that both opening shots are mid-long shots of lone objects, for example in Don’t look back in anger it is a chair and in Wonderwall (below rigt) it is a box.







In this video there is some relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with references to beds and summer there is shots of the band laying on beds and of Liam Gallagher surrounded by bright yellow flowers, clearly implying summer. These shots do not necessarily help reinforce the lyrics to the song, nor do they amplify or contradict them but they do however help illustrate what the lyrics are saying. There is also a relationship between the music and the lyrics as there is reoccurring images of guitars and drums, reminding us that this is a rock band, who play their own music. As with most rock bands they are performing in their video, something you would expect of this genre of music. This is shown in there other videos including ones for Wonderwall.

Genre iconography in Wonderwall video.



Genre iconography in Dont Look Back in Anger.

 

In this video there is a reference to voyeurism, although not in the way that we would normally expect to see it in a music video. Instead of us there being a sense that some one is being watched in a sexual way, how Goodwin implies it is normally used in music videos, in this video it is a man who is being watched and instead of the technique being used to make the video seem sexy, it is being used to show that the band is being watched because they are doing something wrong. With the lead singer, Noel Gallagher, looking back at the camera it complies with the image of them having an attitude, something you would expect from a rock band. It also suggests that the band are cocky, an attitude that we expect from them.

Throughout this video there is a lot of use of iconography. In the 1990s the band were synonymous with the Brit Pop scene and this is shown throughout this video. The iconography is mainly centred around British icons, something you would expect from this genre of music. There is a small union jack at the start of the video, a black taxi and a stately home, all things that recognisably British. The fact that Noel Gallagher, lead singer, is wearing a pair of round coloured glasses like John Lennon, a member of The Beatles, another band who were part of an earlier British music movement, the British Invasion in the 1960s, shows another reference to British culture and the bands own admiration for Lennon. The lyrics also mention John Lennon as they say “I’m gonna start a revolution from my bed”, referencing John Lennon’s bed protest in 1969.

John Lennon wearing the round glasses.

'John Lennon glasses' worn in Wonderwall.

'Bed In' refered to in song

Throughout the video for ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ there is a number of close ups of the singer, Noel Gallagher, and his brother Liam, who is the bands front man. There are both shots of them on their own and together, playing on the relationship of the brothers, something that is sometimes focused on in the press. The reason that they have done this is possibly because, as Goodwin tells us, there is often a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close ups.



Kate Bush Album Cover

This is the video to Kate Bush's album the red shoes. This cover with the single image of the shoes, the artist name and name of the album is something that we would consider for our artist. We liked the idea of using shoes on our album cover as they are something that we want as a running theme throughout our video and would therefore be something that we would consider then using on our album cover in the future.

On this album cover there is a relationship between the text and the image used as the album is caused 'The Red Shoes' and there is a pair of red shoes on the album cover. The problem with not using an artists face on the album cover is that the CD may not be recognised as quickly as if they were, this is ok for an established artist like Kate Bush, but when it comes to a new artist you are likely to have their face on it so that we get to know them and so that a 'star-image is built up of the artist'.

Florence and the Machine- Rabbit Heart (Raise it up)

Florence + The Machine - Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)

This is the video to Florence and the Machines single ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up), from their debut album Lungs. The video was directed by Tom Beard and Tabitha Denholm. The pair have also directed other videos for the band including ‘Cosmic Lover’ and ‘You Got the Love’. The video for ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)’ is most similar to the original video to ‘Dog Days are Over’, also directed by Beard and Denholm, with both the videos shot in similar locations and with the lead singer, Florence Welsh being surrounded by a number of colourful characters. Both the videos have a vintage feel to them and one that is quite intimate with the lead singer, which has been aided by the use of close ups. The image that has been created of the lead singer in the videos is something that has been carried over outside of the videos and therefore building a star image. With the help of the videos we would now expect to see big performances from the band, similar to the ones portrayed in the video. The white dress that she is wearing in the video to ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)’, is something that is we would also expect to see in her performances as she often performs in white dresses. Her red hair is also becoming a trademark of hers and the close ups in this video help highlight this.

Close up in Dog Days Are Over, showing how she is surrounded by people in her videos.

Close up in 'Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up), showing how she is surrounded by people.



Wone of her many stage performances in white dresses.



The white dress in the video.

There is a relationship between both the visuals and the lyrics, particularly at the start when she sings “looking glass so shiny and new”, she is looking through something that is shiny and new, and as the song says “how quickly the glamour fades”, the object also disappears from view, symbolising that she is now seeing this work for real. There is also a reference between the music and the visuals as we see a harpist playing and also hear him on the soundtrack. The harp is something that features in a number of her videos and performances also, notably her show at the 2010 BRIT awards.

"Looking glass so shiny and new"

Harp used in the video.

Harp used in the performance at the BRITS.

Close up in 'Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)'

Close up used in 'Cosmic Love'

 One inter-textual reference is that of religion and offerings. She is giving herself up for slaughter, hence why she is put in a white coffin and left to float in a lake, like a story we would expect in the bible or other religious books. The main inter-textual reference is that of Alice and Wonderland. In the lyrics she sings about “the looking glass”, something associated with the Alice in Wonderland novel and film, as Alice falls through the looking glass. The other reference to Alice in Wonderland is that she appears to be at the mad hatter tea party in the video. She is playing the role of Alice, giving her some vulnerability.

Mad Hatter's tea party in 'Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)'

Mad Hatter's tea party in Alice in Wonderland



According to Goodwin there is a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close ups of the main artist or vocalist to sustain the establish star-text as a way of the music video assisting in the sale of the single and album. This is the case in this video as there are a number of close ups of the lead singer, which show her as we would expect to see her, performing with bright red hair. Similar close ups are also used in her videos for ‘Cosmic Love’.

Music channels

Owners: Viacom

Other MTV channels owned by Viacom and what they show: MTV Base (RnB), MTV Classic (Old music and music videos), MTV Dance (Dance Music), MTV Hits (chart songs), MTV Rocks (Rock music), MTV Shows (Reality shows such as The Hills and Pimp My Ride, Cartoons such as South Park) and MTVNHD (Showing shows such as Making the Performance and Jukebox London in HD). 

MTV was launched at 12:01 on the 1 August 1981, with the words Ladies and Gentlemen, rock and roll, emphasizing that the channel was to play predominately rock music in its early days. Over the years as demand for new types of music and the emergence of artists such as Michael Jackson, the channel began to play new genres of music and thus the different channels were created to fit different viewers needs and wants. 

Being owned by Viacom shows that MTV is a corporate brand, meaning that they have a duty to play songs that are going to sell and are going to get people to watch them, possibly the reason why MTV have channels such as MTV Hits and MTV Shows, to show programs and music that is commercially successful. Despite this they do still show new music and less commercial music on MTV Base, MTV Dance and show local bands on channels such as Jukebox London. 

Owners: Viacom

Other VH1 channels owned by Viacom and what they show: VH1 Classic (Older songs and Storytellers with people such as Bruce Springstein)and VH1 Soul (Music by Soul Singer such as R.Kelly, Fantasia and MAry J Blige, shows such as Soul Stage and Storytellers with artists such as Jay Z). 

VH1 is a sister channel to MTV. Like MTV they are owned by the large corporate brand, Viacom, meaning there is pressure to play music by commercially successful acts but by creating new channels such as VH1 Classic and VH1 Soul they have managed to have channels that cater for peoples particular wants when it comes to listening to music channels. Whilst MTV has a much younger audience, VH1 is aimed at an older demographic. 

Owners: Viacom 

What it shows: Re-runs of The Hills, They City Laguna Beach and South Park, Suck My Pop, Teen Mum, Super Sweet Sixteen and Two and a Half Men. 

The channels was launched in 2009, with a live exclusive performance of Alexandra Burkes 'Bad Boys'. VIVA is a sister channel of MTV, hence why it shows a lot of the channels re-runs. The show has gathered popularity by showing the re-runs of popular shows and well known presenters such as Kimberly Walsh , a member of Girls Aloud. 

Owners: Box Television group
What they show:

4Music was launched in 15 August 2008 and is aired in the United Kingdom. The channel is aimed at a young audience, tapping into the fan base that sister channel, Channel 4, has with its show T4. T4 and the channel feature many of the same programmes and use the same presenters.

Today’s music Top 10 and The Crush KFC Crushems. Re-runs of Keeping up with the Kardashians, Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami and Snoop Doggs Fatherhood.

Owners:
What it shows:
The channel is famous for often being the first to launch songs and artists, most notably the Spice Girls first single Wannabe. Much of the programme is similar to 4Music as they are owned by the same company. The Crush with KFC Krushems, Hit 40 UK, Bring on the weekend!, Video Airplay: Top 20 and VIP Tracks of the Week. The Box Television group.