Band name

Whilst thinking about the design and look of our digipaks, it is also important to make them look as realistic as possible. As a group we got together and sat around and thought of possible band names.

Though we are basing our band brand around Kings of Leon, it is important to come up with a different name for the band. We had tried using random name generators on various websites before but none of these names suggested got taken much notice of as we did not feel they were good enough. We came up with a short list of band names and eventually decided on "The Mags".

We considered this option before but not seriously. It was only until we looked further into bands similar to our genre and realised that many exsisting bands in this genre have a name involving 'The ....'. For example The Who, The Cure, The Clash..

The Cure's DVD cover with footage of them headlining 9 European music festivals in the summer of 2005.

So our decided band name was 'The Mags', and with a track list sorted, this is bound to speed up the process of designing our digipaks as we have content to involve within it now.

Digipak research

Here are some examples of album covers from bands of a similar genre to Kings of Leon:



Foo Fighters: This album cover shows how random a band from this genres album can be. The image on the front of this album cover doesn't particularly relate to the band. This differs from the typical images you would see on the album cover of an artist from the pop genre.



Kasabian: This is also a good example of a typical band from this genre. It has the band pictured on the front cover. In music videos of bands from this genre there is often performance elements involved showing the members of the band involved.

Here are some more examples of other bands from a similar genre:

Libertines - Up The Bracket:



Primal Scream - Screamdelica

Digipak

A digipak is a recently introduced book-style paperboard with one (or more) plastic trays capable of holding a CD or Dvd attatched inside. Digipaks are being brought in rather than the old style plastic cd cases.

Here is an example of a digipak:

Kings Of Leon

The Band:

Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar - Caleb Followill
Bass - Jared Followill
Lead Guitar - Matthew Followill
Drums - Nathan Followill

Kings Of Leon are an American rock band who formed in Tennessee, USA in 1999. It formed of 3 Brothers, Caleb, Jared and Nathan Followill and their cousin, Matthew Followill. The band's music began as an upbeat blend of blues and southern rock. However the band can now be considered a variety of genres as their sound often changes, they are now referred to as more of a rock or alternative band.

The band achieved real success in the UK where they became hugely loved by the public. They had 9 top 40 singles, and received 2 BRIT Awards in 2008. All three of their albums also reached the top 5 in the UK Albums Chart. Their third album "Because of the Times" also reached the #1 spot. When they released "Only by the Night" in September 2008, they achieved chart success in the USA too. The singles 'Sex on Fire", "Use Somebody" and "Notion" all reached #1. Their fifth album is yet to be released on October 18th in the UK.

The Rock Genre

Our chosen band and song come under the Rock genre so in order to gain a wider understanding about their genre. Rock music is very popular and began to enter the mainstream in the 1960s. It's roots orginate from the 1940/50's rock and roll.

Kings Of Leon are often referred to being more of an alternative rock. Alternative Rock is a genre of rock music that emerged in the 1980's and became more widely popular in the 1990's. Alternative rock is a genre that became more widely popular in the 1980s/1990s. It consists of various subgenres such as Britpop, grunge, gothic rock and indie pop. Alternative rock has sometimes been used as a catch phrase for rock music from the more underground artists in the 1980's.

There were some bands such as "The Cure" and "R.E.M." who managed to achieve commercial success and recognition. However many alternative rock artists during the 1980s were more cult bands that recorded through independent labels and received recognition through word of mouth and college radio stations. The breakthrough of Nirvana and the rise of Britpop movements in the 1990s enabled alternative rock to enter the musical mainstream and many alternative bands began to become commercially successfull.

R.E.M.

At the start of the 1990s, the music industry was full of alternative rock bands who were signed by major labels. Some of these included Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins and Hole. R.E.M.'s success was inspirational for other alternative bands around the 1980's/1990's and they would be a hard band to follow, as they were viewed as one of the most popular bands in the world.

The success of Nirvana led to alternative rock becoming extremely popular in the 1990's. The success of their album Nevermind surprised the music industry but by Christmas 1991 it was selling 400,000 copies a week. It managed to popularize grunge music and alternative rock. The surprise success of their album made it to the commercial radio stations and this opened doors for other bands. Alternative rock found itself in the mainstream and major labels scrambled to sign bands to capatalize the music. Though people were eager to sign the bands, many of the bands rejected success as it conflicted with their rebellious ethic the genre held before they reached the mainstream.

In the 1990's the grunge music from America dominated the British alternative scene and press. In reaction to this some defiant British bands emerged that wished to get rid of the grunge that was overtaking the press and take the public and press by storm. The media branded this seeming movement as "Britpop". This movement is represented by Blur, Oasis, Suede and Pulp. The phenomenon was mainly a rivalry between two main groups, these being Oasis and Blur. The competition was obvious as they would compete by releasing singles on the same day. Blur won "The Battle of Britpop", however Oasis then released their second album "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" which then went on to become the third best-selling album in Britain's history.



During the late 1990's, many alternative rock bands emerged. These included Muse, The Strokes, Interpol and Franz Ferdinand. Popular bands around currently that may come under the alternative rock genre would be bands such as The Killers, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arctic Monkeys and Kings Of Leon. These bands have shown mainstream alternative rock is still good and successfull.

The Drums

Here is "The Drums" video for "Let's Go Surfing".

This video is very simple and would probably be too basic for a coursework piece at A2 because it only captures one camera angle. It shows that making a music video to this type of music is infact do-able because this official video does not have much to it regarding mise-en-scene, etc.

And here is Katy Perry's "California Gurls" music video:

This video is from a completely different genre, pop. There is a blatent difference between these two videos as it would be extremely difficult to make a music video of the standard of "California Gurls". There is lots of Mise-en-scene and superimposed images in the video. The costumes would have cost a lot of money, unlike "The Drums" in their music video who are wearing everyday clothing. Pop artists are often signed by major labels and can achieve success with more ease than artists on an independent label.

These two videos show the contrast between what some indie rock videos may be like and what some pop videos may be like. There is an obvious difference between the two and which would be more possible for students of an A2 standard to make. I chose to research the indie rock genre because of this reason and although not all indie artists have music videos as simple as this one, they do tend to be more do-able than perhaps a pop video.

Indie Rock

Indie rock is a term commonly used for rock music that is produced by small, independant record labels or by artists themselves. The idea of rock music being made independant from major labels began to gain recognition in the UK and in the United States in around the 1980s. It tends to be thougth of as it's own genre of music but it is the terms used to describe its production and distribution, "Independent music".

Indie rock artists release albums on independent record labels (sometimes owned by themselves) and rely on touring through word-of-mouth and independent radio stations, and more recently through internet promotion, using websites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter where thousands of users intereact and it can gain them a lot of recognition. A lot of indie artists switch to major labels mid-career dependant on their success. This makes it difficult to distinguish indie music with mainstream music and can cause huge debate amongst fans. Some bands have always been associated with major labels but may be referred to as 'indie rock bands' because of the way their music sounds.

There is a variety of genres that overlap and are associated with 'Indie rock'. This includes:

indie pop, post-punk revival, dance-punk, indie folk, indietronica, etc.



The beginning of indie rock:

The roots are often refered back to "The Velvet Underground" debut album, released in 1967. The Beach boys 1966 album "Pet Sounds" is also commonly thought of as a starting point, same with the Kinks.


The 1980's:

In the UK, indie charts have been used since the early 1980s. Some examples of very known British indie rock bands from the 1980s were:

- The Smiths

- The Stone Roses

- Happy Mondays

- The Cure



These bands music heavily influenced the 1990's 'Britpop' movement. In the US, the term 'indie rock' was associated with distortion and heavy sounds such as Sonic Youth.



Record Labels:

The following record labels were founded in the 80's and are very renowned for being indie rock record labels:

- Washington DC's Dischord Records (1980)

- Seattles Sub Pop Records (1986)

- Chicago's Touch and Go Records (founded in 1979, released music in 1980's)


1990s:

In the 1990s there were major changes in the alternative rock scene. Grunge bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam broke into the mainstream, achieving chart success commercially. Punk revival bands such as Greenday also gained popularity and were grouped under the alternative label. The meaning of alternative changed and now refered to new music achieving mainstream success. Indie rock then became associated with bands that still remained underground in the music scene.

Current indie bands:
Indie rock is now hugely thought of as a genre by many people (including myself before researching into it.) It is well liked by many people and some artists that would be included in this type of music would be:

- The Maccabee's
- Vampire Weekend
- The Pigeon Detectives
- The Kooks
- Florence and the Machine
- Foals
- The Drums
- Bombay Bicycle Club
- Bloc Party
- Arctic Monkeys

Genre Research

As a class we came up with over 20 different types of music genres which wasn't much of a surprise as there are hundreds of music genres. Throughout time more and more music genres seem to have stemmed off of one another, some collaborating together and some being completely new. There are always new genres emerging into the music scene.

The genres I thought of from the top of my head included: Rock, Alternative, Indie, Pop, Dance, Club, Trance, Drum n Bass, Dubstep, Electro, House, Funky House, RnB, Hip Hop, Folk, Heavy Metal, Punk, Country, Jazz, Blues, Rap, Grime, Garage. These are just a few of very many genres.

When asked to pick a favourite, it proved difficult as I have a very varied music taste and I feel that many bands fit into more than one genre. On the whole though I mostly enjoy Alternative/Rock, Indie, Electro/House and of course some cheesy pop classics.