Music video director - Case study



David Wilson- David Wilsons career in the music video industry began in his widely viewed animated and colourful music videos for Japanese pop stars. He has later combined live action and his fantastic animation skills to create symbolic and unforgettable cartoonish music videos for the likes of Royal Blood in their 'out of the black' music video. Throughout this entire video it encapsulates the audience in a medium of suspense , the video switches from scene to scene with a lot of different genres crossing over throughout , this makes his music videos not only interesting and unique to watch but also entices the audience.

However David's experience doesn't just stop with music video , he also works within the advertising industry creating commercials. Some artists and band he has worked with : Artic monkeys, David guetta, Lady Gaga and Royal blood. He also gained a Grammy nomination for his Arcade fire video 'we exist'.

He has won a number of awards : best director  UK music video awards 2014
Best Editing Uk music video awards 2015 Royal Blood Out of the black


He also was one of the founding members of the True/false film festival. In the seven years this festival has been running it has been gaining more and more attendance.

Applied Audiences

Applied Audiences - Rat Boy

The song we have chosen to do for our A2 media project is Rat Boy - Sign on. The stereotypical audience for this sort of 'indie' genre of music is usually early to late teenagers in school , and feeling the pressure of exams , getting a job , deciding what they are going to do with their lives. I believe Rat Boy as an artist appeals to this particular audience  as he explores and defines the different pathways in life people can take and almost jokes about them especially in his song : 'sign on'. This not only offers an escape to this sort of audience through the medium of music but also gives them a sort of guidance.

The specific target audience would be 14-19 year olds there are specific lines within the song that describe the lives of most 14-19 year olds.' Young, dumb ,living off mum' : this applies to most teenagers within this age range , I believe the song actually offers them support and lets them know it is acceptable to live like that.

'Well I could a done well if things had gone better' , this is almost encouraging this age group to work harder and things will be better , the artist is almost offering his advice to the audience and letting them learn from his mistakes.

On the other hand it could also be encouraging and influencing the audience in a negative way. For example some could take the lyrics in a quite literal way, whereas I believe they are supposed to be taken in quite a jokey way. If taken in a literal way people may believe that to 'sig on' is the easiest option in life and to do this , however further on in the song the artist describes the negatives of this again encouraging the audience to better themselves. 'Can't afford the bus that I used to run for Lurking on the wrong side of the law What for? Once more, never been abroad A week around here's enough to make you crazy' . This set of lyrics demonstrate to the audience all the negatives and hopefully show them that the song is meant to be addressed in a non serious manner.


Overall I believe the audience of Rat Boy are quite easily influenced as they are young and are searching for leadership and definition of what to do with their lives. I believe the artist does a good job of this through the medium of music as he explores different possibilities of peoples lives and helps them to decide without making anything too serious.

Richard Dyers Star Theory applied to The Stone Roses

Richard Dyers star theory is based on the idea that icons and celebrities are purely manufactured by corporations and institutions for the benefit of that company financially.

The theory is split up into 3 different sections :

1. Audiences and institutions
2. Constitutions
3. Hegemony

1: Audiences and Institutions

The idea that stars are made for money purposes alone , a fake character is created for the benefit of the audience. A target audience will be chosen by the corporation and the artists/bands music , attitude and clothing will all be altered depending on this audience. This is all in an effort to make the a recognised household name and create a large following.The stone rose for example : there first manager who was a famous hairdresser from the Manchester area Gareth Evans. He had no interest in music whatsoever and no fashion sense according to the roses. He tried to change their image by getting them onto big time recording labels such as revolver. But he put them in a very unfair contract which restricted the band significantly. He attempted to change the bands appearance to gain them more followers within Manchester's music scene , but the band members decided to stick with how they dressed and this became the signature clothing for the 'madchester' scene. This therefore goes against Richard Dyers theory as the band stuck with how they dresses and did not try to appeal to any audience. They stayed true to their roots so to speak.

2.Constitutions

This idea is slightly similar to the idea of audiences and institutions however this concentrates more on how a company such as a recording label or management label suppresses the artist or artists and changes them into their idea of a star. When applying this to the stone roses the recording labels wanted to change their music slightly they were adamant on putting in clippings of sound that were not recorded live with the song. However the Roses decided against this and just made their music solely on how they wanted it to sound which obviously turned out to be a good decision as they gained many fans in doing so . There first album proceeded to go platinum three times. This shows that bands are better off to be left alone to record their music how they want to , and not how a company believes they should sound.

3.Hegemony

This idea describes the way that politics and the world around us control what we do where we do it and how we do it. Plus the idea that we should all go along with our lives and not stray from the norm. When applying this to the Stone Roses they went completely against this idea and lived their lives how they wanted to. This led to retaliation against their manager , they entered his office in 1990 and proceeded to throw paint all over him and his girlfiend , and aslo smash and cover their cars in paint. This shows to an extreme extent that the roses were not going to live normally and fit in with society and if they thought something was wrong they were going to retaliate against it.

Dick Hebdiges 'Subculture'

 Hebdige argues that style, through the subversion of common objects, allows Britain's subcultures to  separate themselves from the mass culture to which they belong. By defining this separate system of symbols, these subcultures challenge tradition, ignoring the context of the mass culture. In this way, otherwise powerless teenagers can be transformed into the socially significant punk rockers.
Hebdige considers a wide range of subcultures, from the infamous skinheads to Rastafarians to the  mods. He takes an in-depth look at each, considering not only the why they exist, but also  how. He examines the way in which style reflects the subcultures,  internally and in the context of society. In so doing, Hebdige explores concepts which are, at their core, inherently human in nature.Hebdige also briefly talks about mods, skinheads, and glam rockers.

By the 1960’s in Britain, race relations had started to cool and the mod culture was formed. , having an admiration for black culture. Skinheads were formed in contrast to these mods. This “aggressively proletarian group explored the downward spiral of social mobility. Reggae, once appealing to skinheads, started dealing with more and more black issues, which drove them away.

 It is Usually,  the young because teens have more time and opportunities to do things and in the case of punk, the moment was a challenge to the British order. Punks were responding to the idea that there was no better future than the one they were experiencing. Punk began in London at the time of the band the Sex Pistols. Punk showed a significant juxtaposition arising amongst punks and other classes , it was stereotypically the lower classes that became punks and rioted instead of dancing . It was a form of expressing themselves mainly through Anarchy.