Research into Chosen Artist

The song we have chosen for our music video is 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' and it is sung by two artists; Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello. I am going to research about my chosen artists to help me understand their style and target audience so I have an insight of what's expected from the song I have chosen and how they would base their music video around it. Therefore this will help me understand the song and what sort of content I need to include.

Shawn Mendes

Shawn Mendes is a Canadian singer aged 19. He became a singer mainly through social media and gaining popularity through sites like YouTube and Facebook. Therefore through this more and more people discovered him and liked his music and this is what formed his fan base. His genre of music is pop and his style is quite acoustic as he plays guitar. They are often about relationships and are quite catchy and upbeat. He is quite young and good looking so his target audience mostly consists of teenage girls and young adults. However he is also a role model/inspiration to males around his age and younger too because of his style. His style of quite casual and specific, not very outgoing and he doesn't exactly stand out. Its quite a common style for a male his age and looks as if you could buy his clothes from high street stores.

I created this mood page on Shawn Mendes so I can look into who how is visually and how he comes across to his audience. Looking at themes he seems quite basic and fits in with the trends - he doesn't have a specific style to himself and goes with a common style that males his age often go for. He plays guitar so he must play some quite acoustic songs and maybe does covers to songs too in his own version. The facial expressions used throughout range from him smiling and being happy to being worried to him being angry. This shows his songs must include a lot of emotion, as well as his music videos for them. In terms of colours, they are quite dull and dark. The visuals used for him aren't very colourful in terms of what he wears and his surroundings. I believe this is because a lot of his music is quite emotional and about heartbreak so the visuals are dark to set the mood. I know that Shawn Mendes mentioned he hasn't really suffered from heartbreak even though all his music is about it, therefore they can't be about personal experience to him. The reason I think a lot of his songs are about heartbreak is because it allows him to talk about a girl and he can make out the song like he's singing to his audience and that they are the girl he is talking about because his target audience is females. In terms of his style, he is quite young and casual which doesn't make him stand out and more like fit in. Big pop artists like lady gaga, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, and Britney Spears all have their own style that is extreme and unique to make them stand out from the crowd. As Shawn isn't as big of an artist, he needs to keep with the trend to gain popularity before he starts being unique in terms of his look. However he isn't a typical male solo artist as their are some small aspects to him that do make him unique. For example he has a very distinctive voice that's unique so you can easily tell its him singing which allows him to stand out in his own way without being extreme. In terms of his personality, you can tell he is young and happy. He is hardworking because he puts a lot of work into his music for example he has written his own songs and puts a lot into his music videos.

Here are a couple music videos by Shawn Mendes:

Holding me back

Stitches

When I look at the emotion used in both this music videos I can see the similarity in terms of how much emotion is portrayed throughout them. The difference is that in the first music video Shawn is very happy and in love with a girl. But in the second music video he is sad, angry and heartbroken. He is weak and not happy. This shows emotion is key is his music videos to portray the narrative so I need to consider this in my own music video. Both songs are upbeat which work well for music videos as its easier to cut to the beat and work with the pace. In terms of the amount of content used, in the first music video there is a lot because they filmed in all sorts of locations with different equipment and camera angles. However in the second music video its basically filmed in the same location for the whole thing. Personally I think this makes the music video quite boring as your watching the same sort of thing throughout. In terms of narrative there is a lot used in the first music video because it shows him and the girl he is with having a good time and what they have done on their trip to Paris. In the second one there is narrative involved which shows Shawn becoming weak because of the relationship he is in and includes a lot of emotion. In terms of performance

Camila Cabello

Camila Cabello is a 20 year old singer from Havana, Cuba. She is Mexican-Cuban but lives in America now. She is a pop singer and was originally in a girl band called fifth harmony. They became well known by coming third in Americans version of The X Factor. From then on they were very popular and successful and then Camila left the group to become a solo artist. She is a pop artist with a very distinctive voice and her music is normally very up beat and about her personal experiences. Like Shawn, she keeps up with the trends rather than creates them. She's quite young and wears casual clothing like anyone of that age would. Her music videos often include a lot to them in terms of performance and narrative for example when she was in the girl band they would create sets and choreography for the music video. In terms of audience, Camila has a similar target audience to Shawn as she is young and is female so she will have a female fan base who see her as a role model. More specifically, her audience are probably more aimed at teens than people her age in terms of who she is as a person, however with her style of music she attracts quite a broad audience like Shawn because its pop music so its really enjoyable to anyone. Her music is also commonly played a lot and in the charts so a lot of people like her. She used to be in a girl band however she would still have the same sort of fan base because she hasn't changed herself and her style. Also the younger girls who like her would probably still listen to her now. 

I created a mood board on Camila Cabello so I can get some visuals of what shes like, what her style is, etc. In terms of her theme, she is quite young and has a cute girly look to her. She shows a lot of confidence in her shoots and on stage as she acts with the style of music and if good at the performance aspect of her job. In terms of colours, I can see a lot of vibrant colours in her costumes/outfits and covers which draws a lot of attention to her and makes her stand out. The colours are bright but not specific. In terms of her style she is quite girly and fits in with the trends but she wears them in her own way which makes her wear them well. For example the outfit she wore on stand with the red top and white trousers, I know at the moment these trousers with the lace up legs are in fashion at the moment. However they are baggy and white with black lace where as at the moment the fashion is black and tight trousers with black lace. Therefore she is made the fashion her own style. This allows her to set trends as well and draw in a target audience. On stage, because she used to be in a group, they would wear similar costumes to match each other and have a theme. An example of this is the blue outfit she wears in the image on the bottom row. It looks like it was made for her to perform in as it isn't really something you would wear out in public but something for performing in. In terms of personality, when I look at these images, I can tell she is quite girly because she wears outfits that are considered girly like skater skirts and heels. However I can also tell she is quite confident because of the way she dances and holds herself on stage. She appears quite expressive and looks like she is having a good time on stage and she puts a lot into her shoots and shows emotion in her pictures. For example the photo in the top left she looks quite fierce and confident.
Here are a couple music videos by Camlia Cabello:

Havana

Crying in the club

When comparing these music videos I have noticed that they are completely different styles of pop songs in terms of how upbeat they are and their themes. Havana is very upbeat and has quite a cultural theme to it because its about a place. Crying in the club is quite emotional so its slower paced to make it suit the mood of the song. Both songs contain a lot of performance aspects as in Havana Camila stands on a stage and sings then she dances during the rap part. In Crying in the club she lip syncs the song in a room and dances to it. In terms of narrative they are very different as Havana contains a lot more narrative than Crying in the club which doesn't show a story at all it just expresses emotion. Havana has a whole story within the music video showing a girl watching a film (which is actually herself) called 'Camila in Havana' about love and it shows her performing in a club. This version of Camila inspires the realistic Camila to be like her. At the beginning shes watching a film with Camila who is a telenovela actress and has just walked in on her lover with her best friend and her maid. I like how much narrative has been put into this music video because I think its a good amount to keep someone intrigued with the story and want to watch the whole thing. However I don't think I would have a huge story at the beginning before the music begins in my music video because I would rather show the story within the performance to the music otherwise there will be too much content. In terms of target audience I feel like Havana will be liked by a more broad audience because its upbeat and catchy compared to Crying in the Club which is more slow and emotional. Yet I do think both music videos target the same audience which is young females - teenagers / young adults. In Havana i see this because shes a young girl who wants to watch a film so she has to sneak out to go to the cinema which is what a young may do or relate to. In Crying in the Club its a slightly older audience but what she wears and how she dances will attract a younger audience. Her age plays a huge role in the type of audience she attracts because people her age and younger will see her as an inspiration for trends and confidence but also a role model.

Overall by doing this research on my chosen artists this has allowed me to understand who my chosen artists are in terms of their style, target audience, personality, theme, etc. This has allowed me to learn about how they attract their target audience/fan base and see what people like about them. I could make use of this by considering the style, costumes, themes, etc for my own music video and the people we will have playing the artists. This will help guide me to draw in the correct target audience and work in a similar style to these types of artists.