IN THIS POST:
- Criteria
- Critical reflection
Criteria
Critical reflection
(1000 words)
Our first step was researching general industry examples, for video, digipak and social media. General research included SUICIDE SILENCE, Arctic Monkeys and Chris Stapleton until we found our ‘
dark pop’ genre, and looked at Melanie Martinez, Lana Del Rey and finally Billie Eilish. Looking for visual ideas, (and following
Goodwin's conventions) we took inspiration from TRIPTYKON’s
abstract visuals and
narratives (contrasting
Vernallis, |
| TRIPTYKON’s abstract visuals |
suggesting music videos are too short to portray a narrative +
more elliptical). Pixies (
Silver Snail) playfully
deconstructed the conventional video (
Neale’s ‘difference in repetition’ - tweaking genre expectations). We used ‘
colour pop’ (form of
escapism - uses and gratifications), inspired by AJ Tracey (
Rain) and Yoko Oh No (
Love u), with their ‘
camp’ male
protagonist wearing excessive makeup, bows in hair, and extreme lighting). Eilish explores dark themes (through her
‘dark pop’ genre), targeting her youthful female audience, so we contrasted concepts between the above artists.
The couple is
heteronormative, however explore
gender fluidity (
queering) by reducing the male character's presence, with him
lip-syncing to Eilish’ lines
 |
| Melanie Martinez’s doll-like look |
. We applied
Butler’s gender performativity concept, moving away from the
simulacrum (Baudrillard) of Eilish’s brand/genre. We encoded
polysemic potential
feminist/post-feminist readings (after researching Cyrus and Sinead O’Connor Twitter conflict on
queering). This was expressed through costume and makeup, taking Melanie Martinez’s doll-like look (another dark pop artists), including black lipstick, pigtails (through the video and on our digipak) and ‘gummy bear’ earrings.
Laura Mulvey would argue there is
male gaze present, with revealing shots of her bust, although our
protagonist has
agency. This
deconstructionist hyper-feminist look conforms with
Judith Butler’s queer theory. Most of the females clothing was promiscuous and tight-fitting, however, we stuck to some of Eilish’s branding, wearing baggy trousers, rejecting
gender binary. There is arguably
‘female gaze’ connecting to our
secondary male character with shots of his bare chest present.
Eilish conventional avoids any
sexual connotations in her videos despite being common in the ‘dark pop’ genre. Our character wore revealing ‘lingerie’ in bed, low-cut tops, with the
narrative anchoring sexual connotations, with a shot of the couple under the sheets. In this case, the
agency is shared between our couple, most prominent when the male character pushes the female onto the bed, which is a
playful postmodern approach to
 |
| male character pushes the female onto the bed |
gender norms. We chose to hit the generation Z
'woke' zeitgeist while ironically eating fast food after Eilish sparked controversy in a recent
music video (eating fast food in an empty shopping mall).
BBFC’s age rating scheme provides a
voluntary rating for UK artists signed to the '
big 3'. We took this into account and avoided excessive explicit imagery potentially offensive for our
t(w)een audience.
We are aware of lack of diversity, eg no
BAME or disabled characters, however, this was due to covid restrictions. Eilish targets a
globalised brand, therefore we avoided
anchorage of any locations. Inspired by
Madonna, our character wore crucifix earrings; however, this is left
polysemic, with playful lyrics and use of promiscuity. In our video, we incorporated an
easter egg (Invisalign next to the bed),
intertextualising |
| intertextualising The Shining’s twins, with our protagonist doubled on screen |
a prior Eilish reference. Intertextuality links to
Altman’s intellectual puzzles, boosting someone's
cultural capital if a reference is picked up on. The influence was taken from
film,
intertextualising The Shining’s twins, with our
protagonist doubled on screen. We uploaded a
gif of ‘here’s Johnny’ on Twitter to hint at this.
We created 2
logo’s and applied them to our
merchandise,
website,
digipak and
socials. I
photoshopped a collection of contrary
merchandise products, from a record player (engaging an older audience) to a child’s handbag (targeting a 6-10s). Her socials incorporate
filters/themes, often dark and red, tying in the hellish
connotations. I integrated her darker themes together with her relatable teenage content (engaging
identification, uses and gratifications theory).
O’Reilly's Web 2.0 theory suggests the
 |
| We created a diegetic outro, in which our protagonist break's role |
consumer is becoming increasingly more involved in shaping an artist’s
brand. We created a
diegetic outro, in which our
protagonist break's role (Eilish had also done this previously, maintaining her brand).
We produced a
reaction video,
unboxing video and
dance video,
produced by both our
primary and
secondary audience. We released a
lyric video as artists took previous
user-generated content and uploaded them while
monetising them (
Justin Bieber ‘Yummy’).
Eilish is a leading figure on social media, with 106m followers across
Twitter,
Instagram and
TikTok (being 3 social media’s, engaging the most followers), posting relatable content (
Uses and gratifications theory - McQuail). She has been featured on
Vanity Fair and
Rolling Stone |
| She has been featured on Vanity Fair |
which pushed her into the older
secondary target audience. We utilised
personal identity, escapism and social interactions (aspects of this theory). I set up the Instagram ‘BillieTheAvocado2001’, referencing our fans’ nickname (avocado’s), creating a sense of
personal identity. We established an image our
primary audience could identify with, targeting
t(w)eens with the exaggerated
stereotype of the ‘doll’ and
sexualised elements (along with older teen cast) targeted older teen/young adult. The
performativity/playfulness of
gender (Gaga - Bad Romance), help reinforce Eilish’s appeal to the
LGBTQ+ community. The colour pop earlier mentioned provides
escapism.
We used
conventional ‘
t(w)een language (emoji’s, slang,
direct address and hashtagging), with one caption to a fan account repost being, “LOVE THIS!! Thank uuuuuuu @emmyeeeeee this is incredible (fire emoji) (bomb emoji) #new single #okaygirl”. After researching
TikTok  |
| accepted the LGBTQ+ community through our Instagram |
(Ariane Grande), we used a ‘
trend’ to create
audience pleasure, where we use a bed
transition (camera falls into bed, rises up from the other side). We launched competitions and
QnA’s to engage the audience, creating ‘
fan accounts’ to participate. A ‘fan’ says “Where’s the music video you promised us?”, and we replied as Billie Eilish, “don’t worryyy keep patient & u won’t be disappointed!! Xx”. We created a tweet to instil shared experience in the
genre community (
Chandler), writing, “tonight/midnight/stay tuned”. We address the
body image concerns and accepted the
LGBTQ+ community through our
Instagram, retweeting fans discussing body confidence, and reposting a
TikTok (of a
counterhegemonic male wearing makeup), captioned as “@Aaronstray slayyyy honey (heart eyes emoji) everyone can wear makeup y’all #changetheworld”.
