Artist Research - Christina Aguilera

Christina Aguilera first started to achieve worldwide success back in 1999 with her singles “Genie in a bottle” but has been in the media spot light since she was a child appearing in programs such as The New Mickey Mouse Club with star of today such as Justine Timberlake and Britney Spare. From a early age Christina knew she was destine to become a star and this didn’t come true until she released her first album under RCA records called “Christina Aguilera” on August 24, 1999. After doing this album Christina gained a huge fan based many filled with teen age girls.
The reason why Christina gained such a huge fan base became can be found in the lyrical content of her album. In her first chart topping single/video “Genie in a bottle” she is portrayed as a sexually repressed young girl who is waiting for a sexual release. This conclusion came from the line “locked up tight for a century of lonely nights”. She later see a young boys who arouses her to the point where she says “My body’s saying let’s go”, even though she is a teenager who is shown to be a girl who can’t control her emotions she later says “my heart is saying no”. But instead of walking away from the situation she later goes back to the boy only to let her hormones control her, we know this because she said, "If you wanna be with me, baby there's a price to pay, I'm a genie in a bottle, You gotta rub me the right way".
This song alone shows themes that the album had to offer and they are sexual repression, teenage emotions and teenage rash thinking. Christina wasn’t a clear role model for girls but with song lyric that are very metaphorically based around sex it is obvious how she was able to appear to her target audiences.
Christina wasn’t happy with the control that RCA records had over her and wanted to change her image which wasn’t later seen until her second album “Stripped”. In this album Christina gain total over her image and how she wanted to be represented as an artist and as a person. This was possible because she had the status and money behind her to leave and go to another record label. She no long wanted to appeal to suburban American she wanted to become more then a pop star know wanted to appeal to wider market such as fans of rhythm and blues, gospel, soul, pop rock, and hip hop.
Christina dramatic change was seen in the song “Dirty” feature Hip-Hop arctic Redman. This song is the perfect example of Christina change in musical direction. The video was Christina first video where she had creative control of what was said and done. This video was responsible for the for the destruction of her “girl next door” image with this video focusing sexuality in an explicit way with showing various sexual fetishes, from mud wrestling to her bum checks on show due to two holes in the back of her trouser .
Even thought this song didn’t receive commercial success in America (getting to position number 48 on billboards 100) where it received mixed messages, outside of America this song again more success for example in the UK this song was number 1 for 3 weeks. Even though she was changing her image she was still able to appeal to the main stream audiences.
Aguilera changed from being a shy girl who didn’t fully know how to express herself to a sexually confident woman. Aguilera shows women as strong and not dependent on males, this is shown in her song "Can't Hold Us Down". In this song Aguilera creates a female empowerment anthem, showing her disgust with the double standards in modern day society. She feels that male stars are respected and worshipped for bragging about their sex lives, but when women like Aguilera try to express their sexuality, they get labelled as hoes.
Aguilera’s influences included Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Nina Simone, Gladys Knight & the Pips and her most inspirational influences was Etta James. Aguilera grew up listening to James since the age of 7 and is the reason behind her passion for vintage jazz and soul music. Aguilera strength as a musical arctic came from watch Madonna and Janet Jackson. Both women are huge international arctic who produce music of what they like and don’t care what the press opinion on them. When performing Christina inspiration came from actors and actress involved in the “Golden age of Hollywood”. These included Julie Andrews form “The Sound of Music" and Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Carole Lombard, Greta Garbo, Veronica Lake. She said she was inspired by their performance due to it having power to leave a person” breathless”. Fashion has also been important to Aguilera and this could been seen back in 2003 where she public expressed an interest in Donateel Versace, later in the following year Versace was involved in the designing of her tour . Aguilera is also a fan of Roberto Cavalli, John Galliano, Marc Jacobs, and Alexander McQueen who have designed dresses that she has worn throughout her career.

Similar Text Analysis - Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga - Just Dance

This music video plays on the conventions of a female pop video. The artist 'Lady Gaga' is clearly showing a rebellious side representing females today. This video is not following the female stereotypes, it is challenging them. The narrative of the song also reflects this idea that a woman is going out, drinking alcohol and not doing what is expected of her although this is not the main focus in the video.

The first shot is of a young woman, who looks as if she does not care, she is holding a stereo putting it on the side, there are empty cups and bottles of alcohol and records around which makes you think that a party has happened or is happening. The girl presses play on the stereo and the song begins, a close up of the play button on the stereo is used to show this. The establishing shot sets the party scene. The limo appears (a medium shot of this) and 'Lady Gaga' the artist, gets out, this scene is very glamorised and creates the opportunity for young teenage girls and fans to idolise this image. A tracking shot of her walking, just showing her feet follows as she enters the party. A long shot of 'Lady Gaga' is shown, she is wearing black leggings and a black top, she was wearing a pink jacket but in this shot we see her take it off. Her clothing shows her age and could make teenage girls want to look like her, It is also appropriate for the scene that she is in. A high angled shot is used showing the room with people laying everywhere, including the floor, the room is a mess, people are beginning to get up and start the party again. The shot is used to set the scene and show the audience what is happening. Throughout the video there are close ups of 'Lady Gaga', reminding the audience that she is the artist and the main focus in the video.

The lyrics reflect what is happening in the video, this can be done because there is a strong narrative, and a good story to be told. The lyrics ;where are my keys? I lost my phone give us, the audience the idea that she has probably had too much to drink and therefore has misplaced these items. It also shows her carelessness of doing what is expected. In the video there is a medium shot looking through her bag and tipping everything out, we then see her with her phone and a long shot of her keys follows.

Throughout the video there are many performance shots in between the story. In these shots they are mainly close ups, to add effect and keeping to the fast pace of the music and editing. She is standing in the corner of a room with a microphone, singing. She's leaning against a white wall, which has flower patterns on it, the room is very light. This is shown in the photo on the left. These shots are to show she is the one that is singing the song as well as being at the party scene. The way the room that she is in is represented makes the video seem more positive with use of colours and lighting.A medium shot is then used showing the party scene. There are girls with big bottles of alcohol; this is not following the stereotypes of women when it comes to this situation as you would expect it to be a man with the alcohol. the video is an example of post-feminism, women having the opportunity to express themselves more and behave how they want to. This shows the rebellious side of females. This does not follow the generic conventions as you would expect to see this behaviour coming from a man, although this behaviour is being seen more and more so it is becoming more normal and acceptable for women to behave in this way. Gender roles have been challenged and changed in this video to show equality between males and females.

'Lady Gaga' also appears in the video to be dancing with a disco ball in her hand, this is shown in a medium shot. The disco ball is drawing attention to her as she is in the main focus in the scene. She also takes her top off which is a sign of rebellious behaviour, people would not see this as acceptable for a woman to do, but she does it anyway. There is a short scene where a long shot of the artist and two other girls beside her are dancing in the room, this is keeping to the idea of the song but also drawing attention to the artist yet again as she is in the middle of the two girls. A positive message is being put across in this video even though alcohol and being drunk is shown, it is not the main theme in the video. The title 'Just Dance' gives a hint to what the main theme of the video is but there are also aspects which show this too, for example when there is a medium shot of the girl writing 'Dance' on the mirror with lipstick and then kissing the mirror, the random close ups of the stereo, and the amount of dancing that is focused on shows the purpose of the song and the video.

In part of the song there is a male singer, in the video he is sat on the sofa singing, he has many girls around him. This is a very stereotypical image because it shows a common boy fantasy, to be surrounded by a lot of conventionally attractive women. A long shot is used to show this. This view is also challenged at the end of the video when the artist 'Lady Gaga' is in the little pool with two men, this time she has the men around her, not her and other girls around the man. The role has changed here and again a long shot is used to show this.

Editing is used throughout the video but specifically at the end when lots of shots are put together and the pace of the editing is sped up; this creates a great effect to the video and matches the tempo of the song. The last shot is a close up of 'Lady Gaga', she has a blue zig zag on her face and she is covering her left eye, the zig zag on her face shows her individuality. The revealing clothes worn are also showing the idea that women are rebelling. It's portraying the idea that women can now where what they want to whether it is acceptable to everyone else or not. This video is representing young independent women who will do what they want, by challenging what is seen as acceptable and what is expected of them.

Record Label Research

The EMI record label stands for Electrical and musical industries, it is a british company, and is the fourth largest business group in the recording industry. EMI is the only privately- owned major music company, Owned by Terra Firma. The three labels that are larger than EMI are, Sony music entertainment, Warner music group, and Universal music group. They all have smaller companies and labels serving different regions and markets.

In order to make EMI records remain popular and successful, most effectively it is separated into three units which are New Music, Catalogue, and Music Services. These all serve different purposes to keep the business running efficiently. New Music finds and develops new music which will be popular and successful, Catalogue makes the value of EMI's historic and extensive music assets larger.

EMI music publishing is business based on the songs that they have. It is the worlds most creative music plublisher, it includes successful artists/bands who are songwriters for example, James Blunt, The Arctic Monkeys, Alicia Keys, Beyonce, Hinder and many more.

There are many different artists that belong to EMI records, tehy are all from different genres, examples of these are Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Eva Simons, We The Kings, Peter Doherty, J.Holiday, Coldplay, Iron Maiden, Katy Perry, UB40 and many more. The ranging genres of bands and artists meet many different target audiences creating popularity and success. The different genres range from Pop, Rock, Reggae, and R'n'B and much more.


The History of EMI
EMI records was formed in 1931 from the gramophone company, and since then it has been very successful, growing in the music industry, becoming more popular. EMI scientists invented stereo recording and were involved in the making of the magnetic tape. They were also involved in the invention of electrical television. In 1957 EMI records entered the American market by gaining 96% of the stock of capitol records. As EMI was getting more popular, the company was growing, EMI established a new label in 1969, called Harvest Records, which was a label for the rock genre which was becoming popular at that time. Pink Floyd was one of the signed bands. EMI changed its name to EMI Ltd in 1971 and, in 1973, The Gramophone Company became EMI Records Ltd. in 1993 and 1994 EMI's first music website was created. EMI records also managed to sign Robbie Williams a six album deal paying over £80million which was the biggest recording contract in British History and the second biggest in music history. EMI being the fourth largest record label, wanted to grow by buying Warner Music group, it would have changed the 'big four' to three, this failed as Warner Music Group decided to attempt to buy EMI, they both rejected.

I chose to research this label, a major record label rather than an independant label, because it is one of the four major record labels, so it is well known, it has a history of success and has accomplished things that other record labels havent, for example having the record for biggest recording contract in british history, and the second in music hisotry, which is a very big accomplishment. Also because an artist signed to EMI is Katy Perry which is an artist we did our research on and she is from the same genre as the artist we decided to create the music video for, it has given us the inspiration.

Similar Text Analysis

Music Video Analysis

Usher – you remind me

Nickelback – how you remind me

The music video ‘you remind me’ by usher is a conventional R’n’B video with the dancing and the typical boy likes girl theme. The close up of Ushers face at the beginning represents Usher as the artist. The panning of the escalator with usher and the girl at the top is an interesting camera angle, as if the camera is following them (which is it is), it then cuts to a medium shot of both of them together. The girl is wearing a red top and casual jeans, the red top connates with passion, love, and lust which is connecting the lyrics as Usher likes the girl. Many shot reverse shots are used between them as if they are having a conversation, yet its just Usher singing to her, then there is a jump cut to them sitting at a table which reflected the lyrics as it says ‘we need to sit down, this may take a while’, a shot reverse shot is used again here.

In Nickelback’s song ‘how you remind me’ the classic conventional video is also used just like Ushers video about a boy and girl. The girl in Nickelback’s song is wearing red lipstick as she gets out of the shower, which is obviously mediated as we know she doesn’t actually looks like that when she gets out of the shower, this sexualises her and the voyeurism of her being naked also does this. This makes her aspirational to women, even though she’s just seen for the way she looks, an object, which is also similar to ushers video with the girl just being there and not shown for anything else but her looks. The same way they both use the colour red to portray the same image. Both girls in the videos are conventionally attractive which creates an audience of male viewers.

In Nickelback’s video there are a lot of performance shots, which as usher is an artist not a band he has a different way of showing this as he himself is the only performer, which shows the genre difference and artist/band difference. Nickelback’s video shows the authenticity of their music and is shown to be conventional rock stars; they are playing instruments which show this. When the girl is around the band there is a change in tone, the colour and lighting is affected to add effect to the scene. This emphasises the story, its brighter and more positive when she is around and dull and dark when she is not. This is shown in the picture on the right when she is there, and also shown below when she is not. The use of editing here creates a more obvious way of showing the meaning of the song.

Ushers music video is similar to Nickelback’s with the performance shots as there are shots of usher dancing which shows the type of music (R’n’B) with a mix of long and medium shots. We can hear the ambient sounds of his feet on the ground as he is moving, the splashing of the water on the floor. The audience here these sounds to make the scene more realistic. Throughout the video it cuts back to the shots that had been shown before which reflects the story line, and the lyrics at that particular point. Editing is used in the dancing shots, changing the way the location looks, adding and changing colours, creating effect.

Ushers video ends with a girl and him sitting on the sofa, a close up shot is being used to show them getting close, whereas Nickelback’s video ends with the boy and girl both on their own, dull colouring is used to make the atmosphere negative. Both videos tell a story with the conventional idea of the boy lusting after the girl, but there is a reason why they can’t be together which both videos illustrated. They have different ways of doing this as they are from different genres, but create the same image and portray women to be objects of desire and not shown for other qualities that they may have.