Group: Band name idea

With our names being James, Luca and Timo, we have come to the decision that our boy band is going to be called 'JLT'. Here is an idea for our band logo.



We have used the band name within the star to signify our star image being portrayed.

Reflection on Discussion (Idea's for our video) Group

• Our video is going to consist of mostly performence based filming , with the vast majority of our shots being close ups , conforming to the traditional boy band conventions.


• Saying this , we will include some sort of narrative to increase the chance of our video standing up to repeatability.


• We have not decided yet about how much of our film will be shot in black and white , we are almost certain we will include some but are not sure about which specific shots.


• It is likely our narrative will involve some female presence , but girls will not feature heavily in our video in order to avoid over doing popular stereotypes of as many girls as possibly simply put into the video.


• Our video will explore different camera techniques , we are confident with all equipment and are looking forward to using the equipment to create the desired camera movement , shots that we want.


• Boy band 'love songs' ( like ours ) do not normally have strong lighting , and use shadowing and darker tones to reflect the emotion on the persons face.

LF: Product Analysis

Boy band videos would have ambient and focused viewers. Ambient viewers may choose to consume the music videos through popular music channels such as MTV when the can simply play the music in the background. Music is also a good way to create an enjoyable atmosphere in the background of certain social events. Boy band songs tend to be easy to listen to and are often catchy making the popular on social occasions.


However on the other hand focused viewing would be more associated with dedicated fans who would purposely tune in to watch the new release of a video. Web 2.0 makes videos much more accessible for fans, websites such as YouTube allow fans to purposely view bands videos in a focused manner. Thus if fans wish to view new videos through music channels they are more likely to watch them on mainstream sites such as MTV hits.


Boy Bands are a main stream commercial form of music therefore they need to appeal to a large target audience, therefore I believe media synergy would be the best way of promoting their band image. Large media conglomerates would be the best way to branch out to a very large target audience. A perfect example of a new up and coming boy band are One Direction, they came through the extremely popular X factor show building up a solid fan base before they had even released a record. Nonetheless Simon Cowell took them under his wing with his part owned company Syco. Syco’s parenting company is Sony music entertainment therefore they can distribute all of one directions new song in different form of the media. For instance they can include tracks in recent films or adverts.

Theorist Andrew Goodwin states that features throughout a music video are either evident or absent. The features present throughout the video ‘That’s what makes you beautiful’ by One direction confirm the conventions of the genre. First off all there are lots of close ups of the band members one which especially stands out is the long close up of Harry Styles singing very close to the female actress. This reveals aspects of the bands characteristics of being slightly feimine and knowing how to treat females in a gentle romantic manner. This shot also relates to Roland Barthes work of narrative codes. A certain aspect of an enigma code is created after the shot has ended as the audience may wonder what happens next as the couple of seemingly becoming very close.

However aspects of the video challenge some of Goodwins work. For instance there is no clear dance routine throughout the video maybe re enforcing how one direction are trying to push the stereotypical view on boy band culture, and challenge the way in which they are viewed.

I do not believe this specific video is art, purely an effective way to try and sell the bands image and increase the target audience. The video is very commercial and conforms to normal boy band videos such as breaking the fourth wall to try and connect with the audience, there is a slight narrative to the video nonetheless it is centered around the band almost one hundred percent of the time.

The song embedded above ‘everybody in love’ by JLS, the video is a great tool in creating a star image. Steve archer states that ‘performance is vital to emphasize the supposed original qualities of the performance and we need to believe in the romantic art.’ Not only do the members of the band dominate almost all of the screen time but also there performance is extremely well done, this would infer that in fact JLS are trying to construct a new band image.

Stars need to be idolized, distanced from the public in terms of stardom. However they also need to have a core aesthetic, making them within reach to the public and desired by their fans. The narrative fuzz also helps JLS to construct their star image, the lyrics are sung with a soft tone portraying a meaning of love, which coincides directly with the lyrics ‘everybody in love’ which is also the name of the song making it the primary subject matter.

Furthermore I believe that Barthes symbolic code is present throughout the video and the lyrics proving that the mise en scene along with the lyrics have a deeper meaning as the majority of the fans at the front of the stage are female and have permanently got there hands raised. This could connote that the female fans are in fact not deeply in love but in love with the bands persona and there star image.

Throughout the video only one main social group is represented and that would be young black males as they dominate the screen time. The band are represented positively throughout the video with little challenge to current ideologies associated with typical boy band culture. In order to be a mainstream boy band success being desired by your fans is crucial, therefore the theory of hegemonic masculinity is a constant theme throughout the video.
 All of the band members are clearly attractive and are seen being successful with the opposite sex, these ties in with the whole of the standing crowd being female re enforcing how they are clearly desired. Thus the costume that JLS are performing in coheres with modern day fashion and exaggerates there body form as being attractive and desirable. Seen as all the members of the band or portrayed as being a success men in modern day society may be led to believe that they must try and conform with the visual implications that JLS perceive, and that in modern day society beauty is not only crucial amongst females, but males may now go out of there way to try and perfect they way they look to gain social status.

One of Richard dyer’s paradox’s states that stars need to be seemingly ordinary and extraordinary at the same time throughout music videos.

Nonetheless young females also play a small role during the video. I would say that apart from the dancers in the background and the crowd, young white males are relatively absent from the video however I feel as though JLS still conform to the typical boy band image of being good looking and athletic.