Music Marketing Blog Post #2

My group has finally finished our music marketing project and I will say we have learned a lot throughout the entire process. When my group first received the genre "Rock," we were hesitant that we would not be able to create an eye catching music video. Due to our previous knowledge of old rock, we felt our age group would be naive to the concept of our song. After completing a music research chart where we compared two different record companies that promoted famous rock bands, my group felt more confident in the triumph of our video. We were given four diverse rock songs that we were able to choose from, where we chose the song 'Mother Mother' by Tracy Bonham. We had specific directions to establish a new artist or band and design their own brand. In this case, we went with a young and rebellious rock artist going by the name of Chastity. 

Due to the pandemic, virtual learning has been the only way we are continuing to receive our education, but it does not come without its pros and cons. In order for my group to brainstorm ideas, we had to collaborate over the internet through Microsoft Teams. This was a slight challenge since we had to converse through a messaging group chat where immediate feedback was not attainable. During class time, our teacher gave us periods where we would conjure up plans for our artist and video. After we discussed the specifics of our artist, we drew a storyboard to plan out our music video scene by scene. This consisted of twenty-eight boxes that illustrated how each scene would be shot according to the songs beat and rhythm.  

For our artist, we focused on how we would market and distribute to Chastity's target audience efficiently. Chastity's target audience would appeal from late teenagers to young adults. Since we wanted to attract youthful listeners, we decided to design social media accounts for our artist such as Instagram and Twitter. By using these accounts daily, Chastity will be able to interact with her viewers and stay engaged. These posts contained information about her new single and any updates she would want her listeners to know about. We also created Chastity a website that included her new music video, tour dates, merchandise, and a place to contact her. Creating a shirt with Chastity's album cover and promoting it through her social media accounts, allowed her to elevate her viewers and keep them attentive. 

Moving on to the production aspect of our project, we were able to film and edit within a week. Since we were not able to physically get together to film our video, we designated certain responsibilities to the four of us. Our music video consisted of a young girl (Chastity) struggling with gaining her independence after leaving her home for college. At the beginning of the video, Chastity is seen in bright colorful apparel showcasing her personality as respectful and reserved. Later on, she is seen in a dark sweater with smudgy makeup resulting in her character change. We filmed a copious number of close up shots to elaborate her facial expressions due to the intensity of the song. After all the scenes were shot, my partner and I were in charge of editing the entire video. We worked over the course of four days to arrange the scenes and include a defiant mise-en-scene presence. We also integrated editing techniques such as filters like black and white to represent flashback moments. We also used this filter to emphasize the downward spiral Chastity goes through in the song.

The last step of our project was putting together a PowerPoint to pitch our new branded artist to the class. We made slides that contained information about our genre, the artist, their marketing and distribution plans, and the meaning of the music video. We presented our detailed plan confidently to the class and learned from the critiques that our classmates formed. 

Overall, this project as a whole taught me many things. For instance, I learned how the genre, Rock is prevalent in our time today and can be utilized to create a deeper meaning for some artists. Working in a group of four allowed me to listen to others ideas and learn from what they had to input. By combining all of our notions together we were able to turn our song into an innovative storytelling music video. Planning and brainstorming thoroughly was an aspect I felt helped me truly develop my Cambridge portfolio and set me up for success with future endeavors. 

Examples of the marketing and distribution ideas we used:

Social Media presence-

Internet Presence-

Power Point slide: Music Video-