Haydon's Media Blog

The website went through a variety of stages when designing it. We wanted to try and find a style for our artist through the website and we feel we have done this through the use of darker colours as it keeps synergy with the album colours, however by adding the subtle pinks and whites throughout it still gives a feminine feel. We wanted a slick, polished finish which we believe we have achieved.

Below are some of the ideas we started with - one was for a website which would look similar to Coldplay's website as we liked the idea of having a black background with bold colours as it stands out, therefore we have tried to emulate this with our own style.

Originally, Ben looked to play around with a record disk in the background, but we felt for our artist this would have been too cliché and we find our artist is simple with an edge. Text was always going to be an important part of our website as it makes her website unique and something we have taken from start to finish in the production of the website is font. We managed to find a font which stands out and looks professional.

This image below shows the progression to a more professional, sophisticated look that we ended up with.

Our website is a blog type website because we liked the flow of how you don't have to continually click round the website, what you see is what you get and we feel this reflects the artists young vibe. In comparison to other websites it has everything an industry professional would need.

Home page to sell their latest work
Bio to give people an understanding of the new artist
Links to buy the music
Pictures to help the audience feel more immersed, linking to Dyer's star Image
Talk about people from the video who will be featuring on the tour
A tour page
A contact page

This is a screen recording of the website

All which can be seen with the pictures below:

This is a link to our Website:

http://bigben999.wixsite.com/lovaoffical

Website

Richard Dyer’s star theory is the idea that icons and celebrities are manufactured by institutions for financial gain. He believes that stars are constructed to represent 'real people' experiencing real emotions. Stars are manufactured by the music industry to serve a purpose; to make money out of audience, who respond to various elements of a star’s personality by buying records and becoming fans.

Our website is in conjunction with this theory, because on the homepage the first thing you see is the artist which provides as a focal point for the audience and she is repeatedly shown on nearly every page of the website. The idea of star image is that all artists have an “image” this is clear in the website because of the colours used, they match our digipak as well which creates a synergy which can define our artist. Presenting the website in a blog style way creates a more relaxed feel to the artist so that audiences of her age can find similarities with the artist. The idea of selling the artist is clear on the music page because you are able to purchase music on the website as well as tour tickets which is all aimed and boosting the artist. We added elements of pink which although it contrasts the digi pak it helps to appeal our artist to female audiences while at the same time having many pictures of her dotted across the website will help to sell her to the male audiences meaning that we are able to appeal across the board.

Similar artists that we took inspiration from when it came to the website is Annie Mac. Her website is very animated and vibrant cover which we like as it makes the artist stand out. We also liked the idea of having the cartoon drawing of the artist as it kind of proposes mystery. As well as this, the moving boarders at the side add a very spacious element, as it again attracts the audience because it is almost impossible to ignore them.

Digipak

If you are a star, you’re a commodity which is being sold to an audience. Our audience is 16-25 year olds who like to go clubbing and enjoy night life. In order to sell Løva to her audience, we needed to show some common values that she holds such as; Youthfulness, Rebellion, Sexual magnetism and Originality.

The cigarette represents her rebellious side and appeals to a large proportion of modern day teenagers as they are always trying to find new outlets of expressing themselves and like to break the rules. In the UK, 40% of regular smokers started before the age of 16 and 80% before 18.

Here, our artist is topless and wearing a leather jacket. This creates sexual appeal for a male audience but also creates an idol for women to aspire towards as Løva breathes confidence.

The use of a consistent colour scheme of black, white and grey shows her originality as she doesn’t conform to the bright colours that are associated with teenagers.

Through the use of smoking, we are showing that Løva is ordinary, however, through the video, digipack cover and website she is simultaneously extraordinary as she is a ‘star’. Although people think they can see her, she is never actually there as it is her image that is being shown, not the ‘real’ Løva. For example, when Løva posts an Instagram photo and makes a comment such as “Thank you all for coming to the show”, it isn’t actually her typing and she isn’t even in that location anymore as she is constantly moving. This shows both paradoxes of Richard Dyer’s theory of star image as she is simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary, and she is simultaneously present and absent for the consumer.

Our Digipak is unique because our black and white theme and ‘cover sheet’ aren’t often used in modern pop CD’s. Selena Gomez’s album ‘Revival’ looks very similar to ours in terms of the shots used for the front, inside and back of the CD and her sexualisation is similar to our approach with Løva.

Music Video

Richard Dyer’s theory on star image refers to the term ‘star’ as the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience. A star is an image that is constructed out of a range of materials, for example, advertising, magazines. Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings. The star image is made up of a range of meanings which are attractive to the target audience. Fundamentally, the star image is incoherent, that is incomplete and ‘open’. Dyer says that this is because it is based upon two paradoxes, the star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer and the star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer.

Throughout our ancillary tasks we used a variety of elements to highlight the importance of Richard Dyer’s theory on star image to make our campaign successful. Our major theme throughout the music video was to create a club like vibe with an upcoming performer. The pink,purple and black add a dark girly element to the video, the beauty lighting adds to the artists glossy look which conveys that the artist is simultaneously present due to her emotions during the lip syncing and but also absent due to the way her look is presented the the audience. An example of a particular shot in the music video is on the 8th second where she faces the camera and we see a close up of her lip syncing. When LOVA is in the light corridor it adds to the absence of the artist because this is a very made up and unrealistic setting which adds to the artist's image of being a star.

There are a couple of real media products/texts that are very similar to our final product, for example, Hailee Steinfeld's music video uses very similar concepts that complement her star image. The artist is shown through a very beautifying and slick look which appeals to audience and reinstates Richard Dyer’s idea about the fact that stars are present and absent at the same time. Another similar product that refers to the artists star image would probably be Ariana Grande’s video called Focus, the video is very much focused on portraying the artist in the best spotlight and selling conceptual ideas such as having pastel colours to specific audiences. This is close to what we wanted to do with our color scheme by limiting it to 3 colours in order to appeal to a specific audience that would find them aesthetically pleasing.