Feedback on our indie artist

Today we received feedback on the work we had done on our Indie artist, here are the responses from members of our class + target audience.

Positives
+ Good Market Research (twice)
+ Lots of Piccys! :)
+ Good work on tour artwork
+ Love the use of inspiration
+ Nice highlighting & images
+ Awesome detail.. So much detail.
+ You've really gone all out!
+ Good CD artwork and photo stuff. :)
+ 8/10, would read again
+ Very nice
+ Good Research

Negatives
- Not an Indie name
- Too long
- Mainstream idea (name + logo)
- Doesn't have an Indie feel

Although mostly positive feedback, I am disappointed with some of the negative feedback as I don't feel they are justified.

Music video concept

Music video concept

After researching into the music video market for this genre of music, it is clear that there are some stereotypes that we will need to use in order for our artist to appeal to the niche market that is indie music.

The first thing we will need to use is lots of colour. A good example of this is Swim Deep's song Honey ( picture from that video). Colour is something our band has used throughout their portrayal so it is is key we carry this through to our music video's to ensure that fans of the band get a constant feel of their musical style and personality. This will appeal to our target market as it gives a thematic feel to our band and carries through key ideas about our band through their media portrayal

Another thing many indie bands use in their music video's is performance. Close-ups of instruments and the singer(s) are used a lot, to show that the band is more about the music than the image and show they have raw talent. This is something our band should also try to fit into our music video, as it will help show this and appeal to our indie niche target market.

The music video

At the start of our video, a background of a wall will be shown, and the name of our band will appear on it, this is something used by many indie bands to give them an individual identity and allow people to recognize the band as soon as the video is shown.

During every chorus the video will then show the band performing to a small crowd, to show they are independent   with lots of coloured clothing and a coloured backdrop to keep up the thematic imagery throughout our media portrayal of the band. There will also be a lot of close-ups of instruments being played to reinforce the fact our band is more about the music than the image.

During the verse and slower parts of the song, the video will cut to a more narrative part showing the band rolling lots of colourful bouncy balls down a hill in slow motion. This is used to make the video stand out and make our band have a different look to them. It also keeps up the thematic use of colour in our band's representation.

This music video, whilst only being a basic concept, will be very good as the breakout song for our indie band because it shows our band as being both talented and artistic. It also maintains a thematic use of colour and clearly displays Jumpstart as different and independent, something crucial to an indie band

Cover of an original song

Cover of an Original song

Jumpstart will be covering "Lovesick" by Peace.

Why it is suitable for our artist
We have chosen this song, because, as you can see above this song is quite new. This is essential for an indie band as the indie genre moves very quickly with trends, so picking a reasonably new song will ensure they appeal to the small niche market that many bands are also trying to hit. The song also fits into the "Indie-pop" genre, which is the niche that we are trying to appeal to, as it uses some catchy tunes and a repetitive chorus to appeal to the target market.

Another reason for picking this song is that it has had previous musical success, as Peace are a popular indie band and have been nominated for the NME New Music Award. Picking a song that has had previous success is also essential, as we need to know we have a solid base to work on and that we can potentially improve upon the original song and make it appeal to the target market more, hopefully making our band more successful.

How we will adapt it to appeal to our target market

Jumpstart will adapt this song firstly, by changing the vocal sound. Because our band is more northern than Peace, the song will have a different sound as the regional accent is different. This will provide a fresh sound for indie fans to listen to, and hopefully our version will appeal to them more than the original. We will also try to lengthen the song,a little, as it is quite short at only just over 2 minutes, so if we add another chorus or verse then we can make the song longer and hopefully this will help to appeal to our target market, as the song will be more catchy and infectious, and this is something our target market likes.

Press Release Photos

Press Release Photos

Press release photo's are another key area that needs to be specifically tailored to display our band in the exact way that we need them to be shown in. This area is key to making sure our artist seems to be more for the music than the image, and are different to the rest of the music industry.

Gigs

Our band needs to be shown as one that gigs a lot and performs at small venues in their hometown. This is key to their portrayal as it shows them as a band who have risen from their hometown and have not been simply picked up and manufactured. It also makes people want to see them as they have shown that they are good live, and have some natural talent which will be worth them going to see. Having them at small venues also shows that they are an indie band, as it shows that their music is intimate and means something to them, rather than the manufactured music played frequently on the radio and not as much live.

Band Photos

Our band also needs group photo's to portray them as an indie band. This is something nearly all indie bands do, as it allows them to show all the band members together and give them some artistic freedom to show what they are about. Jumpstart would need to use lots of colour in their band picture, as it is a running theme throughout their media portrayal and needs to be reinforced through their band photo. The photo could also be used for magazines etc, such as NME and other indie music magazines.

Daily Life

The band also need some photos in the press of them in their day-to-day lives. This is because it helps to make them relatable, as if they seem detached and "above" everyone else, they will seem too mainstream as this is something mainstream artists do. Indie artists need to be shown as more about the music so pictures of them normally will help to show them as people who don't care about what photo's go in the press.

Press Release Stories

Press Release Stories
As part of the publicity for our band we decided to do two press release stories, one which is aimed to be bad publicity and one which is the opposite. We have decided to do this because upon my research, I found that although bad press gets the band noticed, it doesn't encourage the reader to read it as it is already what you would expect from an indie band.

The good publicity story will be that a few weeks after announcing their debut tour "The Homecoming", that the proceeds for said tour, will actually go towards the "Help for Heroes" charity. When the band are interviewed about this, the lead singer responds with "We're doing this not to show that we're true indie and get fans through admiration, but because this is something that means a tremendous deal to me personally in particular losing my dad from his injuries after he returned from Afghanistan." This type of charity work for a band has only really been seen before within a single song towards the end of the year. Perhaps this ultimately shows that Jumpstart are a "real" indie band and are not touring for the money in it.

The bad publicity story is one that is very typical for indie bands with the majority of the bands members being arrested at a party for possession and use of drugs (as demonstrated on the right by the band "I See Stars"). Our band will be caught at a big after party after the 3rd night of their tour "The Homecoming" with possession of Cannabis and will be put in HMP Wakefield prison.
Similar to the image of the left, the female member of the band will tweet out about her experience after being arrested followed by a formal apology to their fans.

Marketing

Marketing

As part of our marketing campaign for our indie artist, We have decided collectively to create some album artwork. This is the album artwork that I have designed for our indie band.
The design is meant to be quite personal for the band but still be quirkyand eye catching. The backdrop that we have decided to use is actually a photo that we have taken of where the band all grew up as friends, this being their debut album shows their roots and that they are proud of them which is a common convention for an indie bands such as the Arctic Monkeys. We have also decided to use a bright coloured filterover the top of the backdrop because it is a typical convention of the indie pop genre that we are targeting, this has been seen in many bands within this genre such as Walk The Moon to show their quirkiness. We also decided that the bands logo should be in a paper cut out so I designed this accordingly to create a raw feel for the album with the use of easy to come by materials and the fact that it's not about the bands image but the music inside, which has been shown with us not including an image of the band but instead their home town (showing that they have not being changed by any success they may have had).

As an extra part to our marketing campaign for our indie band, I decided to create a UK tour for them and the marketing for that tour. Due to this being their first tour after the release of their first album I decided to carry the same theme from the album artwork onto the tour poster. The idea of this being that after the album has being released the tour is now as appropriately named, their homecoming in which the tour slowly gets closer to their hometown of Halifax (which is seen in the album and poster artwork). Again as with the album artwork, the tour poster shows none of the band members within it, showing that they are less image based and more about the music.

The venues that we have chosen for this short tour are some of the smaller venues, we have chosen to do this due to the fact that the band are indie and we feel shouldn't be performing huge sellout arena tours.

Costume, Props and Hair

Costume, Props and Hair

Costume
The costume that our band members will be wearing, although varied from each other, will follow one central style. This style will be particularly inspired by the other bands we researched in the beginning (Walk The Moon and Chvrches).

One style in particular that will be common with our band is the clothing choice of double denim. We feel this style of clothing will be suitable for our indie band as it is a common convention within the indie pop genre and in general with indie bands (as seen with the arctic monkeys on the right).

As well as using the style of double denim we will use a common convention for indie pop bands of colour, by using bright colours in the costume itself we feel that it puts our band in with other indie bands already out there and makes them stand out from the sea of black, white and sepia bands that are popular within the indie market at the moment.

(Right, Walk the Moon with bright coloured clothing)
In terms of specific items of clothing that the costume for our band will entail, we have looked to current indie bands and fashion trends for inspiration.
From this research we discovered that skinny jeans would be an item of clothing that we would like to use due to its popularity in both of these areas. As stated before within the costume section, these skinny jeans could be any colour due to the bright colour style we would use, but also allows dark colours with hitting the double denim style.

Hair
The hair of our band members will play a fairly major part in their appearance as a key part of the costume. In general the band members will have fairly long natural hairstyles that don't seem to be maintained very well as seen quite commonly within indie bands such as The Kooks. With the band consisting of three male members, two of them will have just mid length scruffy hair and the other will have naturally curly hair.
As far the female member of our group, she will again just have a natural hairstyle such as the one on the picture below.

The hair colour of the band members will be very plain with the majority having their hair a very dark brown or a complete died jet black colour. However for diversity within the band one of the males with scruffy hair will also have a ginger coloured tint within his hair such as the one seen in the picture of The Kooks above.





Props
As another part of the appearance of our band, we have decided to use some props, some of these are typical of an indie pop band and some are not so typical.

The first prop our band will have is an acoustic guitar, although acoustic guitars are a common prop within indie bands, ours will be brightly coloured to follow the theme of the band throughout and the conventions of an indie pop band. As well as the guitar being brightly coloured, it has a unique twist of LED lights around the rim of it making it again much brighter, much more effective for concerts in the dark and making the band more recognisable.

Another prop that our band will have will be a giant train carriage, this will work effectively as a stage prop for "The Homecoming" tour as the train symbolises a method of transportation bringing them back home. This prop will be near full size so that the band can use it to perform within for some performances of their songs but also creates a great stage prop center piece.