oramafau

[oramafau]

My project - overview

Hey guys! I think it's about time I say a little more about my project. I'd like to study the influence of Tiktok as a mediation tool. 

I’ve been following and diving into Jax’s use of the app, noticing use of trends and use of initiated trends and other phenomena that can arise. 

Jax was first known through her participation in American Idol. Following this, she released a couple of songs, but she never went on the charts and her audience was very little. I don’t think I’m going to talk about her past because I’m focusing on her use of TikTok. And it's only showing that she has had exposure implying a potential existence of an audience. I could compare her mediation process, back then but I don’t think her time on American Idol is relevant. 

How is Jax using TikTok to promote her music? How is being a full-time artist through Tiktok different from regular artist?

hopefully, my inquiry line makes sens.. if not, please hit me up..

Since I'm talking about her use of TikTok, it's only logical that I keep my timeframe from 2020 to 2022 (today)

Primary sources: 

Her TikTok account, 

Youtube account (which doesn’t have much more content as TikTok is her main tool of mediation)

Since lockdown, and the pandemic, she has been posting, as I categorized it, 3 types of videos on Tiktok:

original compositions on diverse (personal) subjects

parodies of hits: Adele songs, Olivia Rodrigo’s song, … (changing lyrics usually as answer, or extension of the original songs meant to make people laugh)

Promotion to her release: Victoria’s Secret which wen on the 100 Billboard chart this year. 

I’ll also dive into her interviews I can find and the ones published on youtube or any other platforms, like the following: 

Jax Talks Victoria’s Secret, Battling Cancer & TikTok (JaxWritesSongs): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07ysYP9rhw8&t=2342s

she talks about her use of social media and how she tries to get a bigger audience and tries to be constant in her posts

Jax Exclusive Interview : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTeejBufdqc

she talks about the musical choices of the writing of Victoria’s Secret

Secondary sources:

I have 3. I hesitated too much, so I'd like to study them more deeply to see which I may or may not discard.

Parodies for a pandemic: coronavirus songs, creativity and lockdown, by Stratton I found on Humanities International Complete. The author talks about the phenomenon of remixing and, editing and the remaking of existing songs and define a new role for the audience to also be creator content instead of being passive listeners. I would add, that it is also a promotion for new artist aside their production. Jax draws the audience to her with the parodic songs she makes. 

“TikTok 'has given new artists a chance’” article

“Something we should look at in the future is how we can fully reflect the creations and the time spent on the platform from users in making videos.”

https://pudding.cool/2022/07/tiktok-story/

This website display information on an investigation of new artists at the beginning of Tiktok and studies whether they signed with record labels if they had only one hit if they became very famous afterward. It is a quantitative study of new artists and their interpretation of the numbers. 

Thank you!

Keep up the good work!

[oramafau]

Did you grow up singing Disney Music?

Recently I watched a video unfolding Disney's music branch strategy and it is crazy how great they developed their system and how good it works. The Disney company has a large spectrum of entertainment production. Its music branch has produced some of the celebrities of our time: Miley Cirus, the Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Olivia Rodrigo, and so on. Some are more famous than others.

The marketing strategies were effective and built hype on their music records, particularly in the Hanna Montana Generation: Miley Cyrus Selena Gomez, Jonas Brothers, and Demi Lovato.

The production of TV series of these young artists has been framing their introduction to the music industry.

It all started with Hanna Montana's first season, a story inspired by previous works. When the series and the music track worked, they slowly introduced Selena Gomez and the Jonas Brothers throughout the show. Demi Lovato was introduced through Camp Rock where she worked with Jonas Brothers. 3 years focusing on introducing everyone, getting them their own show, their own albums... This pattern is still on today.

Their debut interlaced important mediation processes; TV shows, movies, and collaboration with co-stars. The show's and movies' soundtracks helped promote their own songs slowly parting ways with their Disney characters, ending shows, and launching their own career.

After their generation, Disney continued producing new artists. Their methods are not so much different from the blueprint of the Hanna Montana generation: music TV shows, releasing soundtrack AND artist's own work.

(Need I say that the "artist's own work" was controlled by the company to match the company's image? We know how strict Disney is when it comes to the representation of the company... Clear interference between authenticity, creativity, and business!!)

This is an application of the Industry chapter: Transmission From artist to audience in the Negus. Once the success of the shows is secured, the success of the music is expected. But the selling of the music as a "raw material" is submitted to uncertainties in terms of success.

[oramafau]

A new role for the Audience

Hey guys! I'm kinda just putting this here, in case someone would be willing to. I'm not able to attend the next class, so if any of you would be willing to swift off to groupe 1 with me for the presentation, it'd be great! ^_^ Thanks!

ANYWAY...

I found a very interesting article about TikTok, So I thought I'd share with you a few concepts she develops. It's also related to my project so it might help me brainstorm for my subject at the same time.

TikTok broke-out during the lockdown. She mainly focuses on the "parodic corona-virus music", that is to say, the pieces of music that are brought back and have their lyrics changed to express lockdown situations and feelings. She describes the "endless scrolling system" of the platform as an "intensely involving platform" making people active participants in the culture. She says "The web offers a space where anybody can transform from audience to performer …." Later in her article, she actually reverses the commercial songs to folk songs since people change lyrics as they please keeping the same melody. A form of music that is not necessarily meant to be massively distributed, only viewed online.

This article opened my eyes to what TikTok was really doing to the music industry. Not only it gives new artists a new chance to get into the mainstream thank to the audience, it actually overturns the system, redefining the elements of the music industry; the role of the audience, redefining the role of artists,… Does it only apply to the platform? When the platform is shaping a new kind of popular culture, its effect is already noticeable in the world.

The app offers a new relationship between the audience and music:

the re-mixes of the audience is not new but is spread thank to the platform as any other video app.

the audience changes lyrics to match a situation. Sometimes it creates more political, minorities representation type of lyrics. This is a segment more specific to TikTok.

the audience creates videos from the songs: the audience either uses assimilation, amplification, or disjunction process. A music representation in the hands of the audience can be as numerous as one's imagination.

Of course, this is not the first time the audience is creating content from existing work, but it is the first time it is massively done by non-professionals/the audience itself, increasing consumerism of music, folk music as well as commercial production.

Stratton, Jon, ‘Parodies for a Pandemic: Coronavirus Songs, Creativity and Lockdown’, Cultural Studies, 35.2/3 (2021), 412–31 <https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2021.1898035>

[oramafau]

political - identities

Sorry, I'm so late this week, but here we go!!!

With This week’s topic, I thought of T.Swift political actions. With “You need to calm down”, she stated her political opinion and started a petition to send to congress an “Equality Act” during pride month. In a country where the LGBTQ+ community is considered a taboo, inappropriate, and unaccepted matter in schools and religion and in American society really, she tries to stand up for one’s right to live equally with no regard to gender or sexual orientation with a petition to send to the congress of the country.

As we know today, the laws against the community became harsher afterward. Throughout the entirety of her music, from the lyrics to her music video she encourages tolerance toward others. She risked losing a part of her fans since political subjects often raise tensions, but she has learned to stand for what she believes is right no matter what can happen to her career. But I think that she also gained another audience's support.

Artists have always commented and tried to find a way to express their political views. I used to think that it might ruin their career but it actually can break out more than ever. I also feel like new gay representation music is trending. It's like Disco time, but in a new musical form... make sense?

[oramafau]

Final project time!! - or almost

I thought I'd talk about mediation, especially the use of Tiktok as a mediation tool, the audience as a mediation tool. To illustrate my point, I'll talk about a not-so-famous artist that has had an entry to Billboard 100 with her "Victoria's Secret", Jax (Jackie Miskanic).

This is an artist I have wanted to write about since day one. Her style is peculiar and has a slightly different structure from the typical/standard structure which can be seen as an incomplete structure. She doesn't have many songs recorded, but her lyrics have made their way to a little audience. The hardest thing is that she is consistent but really does music for fun.

Her interview here is showing how the music industry is tough. She tells her journey within the industry and I think I can comment and relate this to the Negus, to demonstrate how TikTok is the new tool for mediation for the young artist who wants to do music for fun and entertainment. I think I can develop the wording of what I want to demonstrate.

Pieces that will help me in my analysis:

Her songs:

"Victoria's Secret"

"Like my father"

Her quick biography:

#Youtube

[oramafau]

Promotion - Trends

Today I'm going to talk about artists using social media to promote their music recently released. With social media, artists can easily promote their songs online. No need for extra advertisment. The fandom does the rest with hashtags, challenges, Tiktok videos, and even reaction videos of fans. Some artists have their preferences in using or not social media, and which they are going to use. Meghan Trainor, Taylor Swift, and Carly Rae Jepsen released their album last Friday and have each their own use of social media I thought I could talk about.

For instance, Taylor Swift released her 10th album "midnights". She challenged her fandom on a Youtube short to share their "anti-hero" characteristics traits (in other words, something that makes us unique) with the hashtag #TSAntiheroChallenge on Youtube Shorts. She has been spending little time on Tiktok but didn't focus on that side of the web to promote her music.

Whereas, Meghan Trainor mainly focuses on Tiktok to promote her songs. More casually and informally, she also tries to start Tiktok trends off her songs way before the official release of the album. Actually, she doesn't use the platform only to promote her songs but she publishes personal moments of her life as well.

As for Carly Rae Jepsen, she doesn't seem to use any social media for anything close to it.

Music is an important part, if not the most important element on Youtube and other social media. Today, everyone consumes music through them, therefore, it's become an important part of mediation. Not only mediation but is also part of the "musical circle" mentioned by Negus in chapter one, in which content creators play an influential role. And I thought it was interesting to note that artists can re-invent themselves as content creators.

To link it to this week's chapter, or try at least, I could say that these tools are modern, but use the same principle of mediation as before. I don't think it's changes genres, but it might have changed the way artists write their lyrics, to possibly bond with the audience more, and share more personal subjects. But this is a subject that would need more reflection on.

[oramafau]

"gender role" or "a different vocabulary for men and women"

The music industry is no exception to double standards, and we are more and more aware of that because women in the industry have spoken up for their rights to be respected as women but also as human beings and as artists. Some have denounced inequalities of opportunity, especially in certain genres, and certain styles as we've seen in class this week. The point in the Negus I would like to illustrate is the principle of association between "biological sex determination" and social and cultural construction of gender, or in other words the "gender role'"

Something "The man" by Taylor Swift illustrates. Her song is a satirical work destined to speak up about double standards, and masculine abuse of power, in general as well as in the industry of entertainment. She refers to all sorts of issues women face professionally and in their personal and private lives. In her video, she "transforms" into a toxic man who is praised for his immoral, childish, and self-centered behavior. Her video is full of references to men that have, in one way or another, wronged her (all are part of the entertainment industry.)

The moral of her song is that, if I were a man, I would be THE MAN, all she doesn't have is the body, the "sex determination". Because the industry, and I would even say society in general associates gender with a certain image, and attitude. This is the applied principle of "gender role", where women are to be associated with a certain image as well as men. The artist has expressed her experience of it within the industry. During an interview, she simply called it a "different vocabulary for men and women in the music industry". This casts light on inequalities within the industry. If any society or industry is meritocratic, well the one she lives and works in is not.

Taylor writes about her personal love stories and she is labeled as an annoying, self-centered songwriter. She gets into an argument with Kim and Kanye West and she gets the label of a snake. What's this need of labeling women into categories?

Taylor used to run with the mindset of "gender role" at the beginning of her career, where she wouldn't share her opinions, so she wouldn't be labeled. But being the pretty nice girl IS a label too and she saw this. I feel like in a way, disappointment from the industry is one of the things that changed her style and that more and more got her into the "speak loud and stand for yourself" side of the industry. Also, I feel like the fact that she owns her songs now, and she's become independent that she is not scared to be authentic while being herself and not matching this "genre role". Good revenge on the industry.

#Youtube

[oramafau]

Lyric videos - Skillet

One of the bands I liked listening to earlier in my life, was an alternative rock band called Skillet. I liked their unique style of mixing violin and rock. With this week's subject, I realized that I had never really watched or focused on any of their official videos. I only paid attention to their official lyric videos.

The presentation of music, or the way a piece of music is sung, always sets the mood in which the lyrics take another meaning. Usually, the videos mean to amplify the lyrics, convey additional feelings, and set a specific mood. For Alternative rock (and maybe rock in general), there will be, almost always, the band performing with passion, with a chosen background, usually with indexes of fire (whether it's a representation of fireworks for celebration or a representation of a feeling of being overwhelmed or else.)

I'd like to talk about the lyrical videos that developed probably at the beginning of YouTube. Youtube and social media have allowed a new sort of Home Karaoke Night, which I love. I remember the time when fans used to do it and misspelled or misunderstood the lyrics, which sometimes changed the meaning of the songs. Today, we sometimes have "official lyric videos" made by the artists/production. Most of them are very representative of the albums.

Skillet, an alternative rock band, edited their own animated lyrical videos for 2 of their songs from the same album; "Rise" and "we're not gonna die tonight", animating the main character of the album which is a little girl. Are they the only ones who have done this? No idea, but it made me wonder why they did it. I think that the official videos and the lyric official videos complete each other in a way. But can we say that it's an alternative to the videos? If so, why?

Let's take the "we're not gonna die tonight". Already, spreading hope from the title, right? The video conveys an atmosphere of despair and at the same time of hope. The surrounding whiteness in all the different scenes, and the nice clothes the band wears … are symbols of hope and of life when death is near, which is what the song is about. There's a dimension of amplification between the lyrics and the visual items.

The lyric video animates a fight between a lion and a girl versus a hydra, the mythical beast who seems impossible to beat. The words are fairly easy to remember and repetitive, and yet, they appear bolded dark red (like blood) and take all the space they can on the screen, even sometimes covering the main interest of the animation at specific moments. There is still an amplification of the words by the visual.

In case you didn't know they are a Christian rock band the lyrics combined with the symbols in the videos point directly to Christianity and the hope in religious beliefs: Christ's 'flatline', the one that died for humanity to live again, and "takes your life back" and "you fight back". You got the point! There is no interest in telling how it refers to Christianity right now.

The question I have is the following: Why?! Did the band want to emphasize and keep both videos specific, but different for each, visual representation? How is this relevant to my 'karaoke' time? Could it be another method of printing words into the mind of the audience, especially with an important message of hope, knowing that the band values and builds their whole music around their beliefs? If it was a marketing method, more people would use it, right? So, I think it must be more of a question of printing a message in people's hearts like ecclesiastics do, but in their own way.

Usually, lyric videos are a way to enjoy a good social time, or a way to not only get the "hook" part right but the whole song right. Here, the band got to keep important visual elements to keep an amplification effect as long as there is visual support.

#Youtube

[oramafau]

Taylor Swift

There is an artist I think of when I hear about the music industry; Taylor Swift. This successful woman has climbed up the ladder of the industry and has proved her creativity by changing genres with ease from country music, to pop and to folk. To me, she has polished the industry and the industry has polished her.

She went from the young woman who had only an interest in singing her love songs to this success machine, confident, involved businesswoman, with political opinions who dare speak up to change things whenever she felt the need. She has expressed her opinions through her songs, or simply during interviews.

She tried to change the culture within the industry for the artists. To name a few, she has raised issues in the industry such as double standards for men and women with "the man"(2019). She also managed to improve the conditions of artists on a couple of music platforms; Spotify and Apple Music Play and refused the platforms to play her songs until they change their policies. I guess her fame did not leave the services the choice but to change their policy.

She also reaches out to her audience and redefines the relationship between the singer to the audience. In 2020, she attempted to negotiate ownership over the first 6 albums she co-wrote in Big Machine. After failure, she decided to record the songs to have a full master. This matter is still in process, songs have been released, and, decisions are being made with the support and advice of her fanbase the swifties - advice she apparently takes seriously into account.

These are very few examples of her work and her accomplishments. She in fact has influenced the industry in many other ways, and I think that she has embraced the system of the pop industry. She always manages to create her own type of songs that are good commerce and become hits. Some say that she has conquered the industry. To me, she's become an artist with only her imagination as the limit.

[oramafau]

K-pop in the mainstream

Today I thought I’d talk about K-pop. I’m not a real K-pop fan. For the little I listen to, I owe it to my sister and Just dance parties. But I know it’s become a big deal in the US in the last decades.

The success of PSY’s funny and catchy Gangnam style and the handsome boy band BTS has shaken US pop culture. Some say that the US audience has slowly opened up to a new horizon: a world where English is not the main language, a world where the social standards are shaken, a new vision of music and boy bands… a new expression of identity and art. Kpop has found an audience, and that audience has got bigger over time leading the artists to enter the mainstream of the US and win music awards since 2013. Kpop conquered its audience in the continent over time.

I’m going to use BlackPink as an example. A famous Korean girl band of mixed cultures was created in 2016. In 4 years, they debuted smashing records. They are the first 1st female K-pop group to perform in Coachella, with a Netflix movie of their career. Each of the members brings their style and mastership to the table: Jennie the raper, Lisa the dancing queen, and the two amazing vocalists Jisoo and Rose. 3 of them have produced solos and it’s like listening to a dismantled piece of their songs as a group.

No one could have predicted that the group's recipe of art would conquer the heart of the audience as fast as it did: catchy beats, expression of fiery and successful women. The videos are full of paradoxes of glimmering tanks, and beauty versus chaos, all with impressive and meticulously prepared choreography and so many other themes always leading to the main theme of feelings and power of women.

Like any artist, they work with famous beauty brands. They have produced with US pop singers Clearly, the group narrowed down the trends. Bounding tie with fans through tours, but also vlogs. For their last song they released, they challenged dancers and fans to reproduce a piece of their production. There is a real effort to create a relationship with the blinks/the fans.

#SoundCloud