KT: Analysis of Promotional Campaign

Troye Sivan- Wild

Promotional Campaign: Troye Sivan utilised his star image persona on his youtube channel with over 2 million subscribers to promote his EP 'Wild'. He used his celebrity presence on social media to maximise audience exposure to fans in the youtube community as his friends, other social media giants such as 'Zoella' tweeted about the album. Word spread quickly and soon Taylor Swift and Sam Smith were tweeting and instagraming pictures of the single 'Wild'. This promotional campaign utilised Troye's social presence successfully; the artist also posted 10 second teasers of the new songs on the EP before they were released  on his youtube channel, creating a media buzz and excitement for his fans; this drove up pre-release sales for the album.

Institution:

 The genre of this music video is lyrical ambient electronic dance-pop. The record label would create promotional texts to portray Troye Sivan as a talented, relatable artist to his demographic. His music video was made independently and did not have a huge budget, however it portrays signs of high production values due to the high quality video and cinematic effect.

Audience:

This music video would be consumed through  multiple digital platforms such as youtube, vimeo and music TV channels such as MTV. The video has an ambient viewing due to the slight narrative fuzz presented. The multiple lines of action intercut create this and result in a secondary consumption viewing experience.

  

Genre and Narrative:

The forms and conventions evident in this music video are a performance based narrative intercut within a storyline narrative. There are parts of the music video that are amplified and lyrics and the visuals have links, however there are other sections where there is a disjunctive link; both these techniques create an ambient viewing. This video could be considered art as there it contains some independent, artistic shots of the artist and characters in the video. There are slow motion shots that crate an artistic, cinematic effect. This video portrays a very postmodern look as the idea's and actions being shown challenge stereotypical, traditional views; such as the two men kissing/embracing each other.

Taylor Swift - Bad Blood

Promotional Campaign: Taylor Swift employed many strong, female pop artist within the music industry to star on her 'Bad Blood' cover art/digipak to promote the record; reinforcing her genre and metanarrative whilst maximising audience exposure as the other celebrities fans would go over and watch the video as their favourite celebrity features in it.

Media Language:

The message or purpose of this video is to portray female power, the music video takes a feminist approach to violence and power and aims to show that female's have as much control and power as males. The music video challenges traditional norms and values as stereotypically you wouldn't see a woman with a gun in a video, it would be a male. However due to Taylor Swift's rise to fame, she has the control to release a music video featuring many other female celebrities who hold authority and influence over the teenage generation in today's society filled with media outlets. Some visual techniques used to construct this feminist approach are mise en scene props such as guns and bombs, costumes that are black, war/fighting like gear, and dark, expressive makeup. Camera angles such as close up's on the artists face show the power emitting from her and control of the situation. Editing effects such as CGI in post filmic effects show high production values from an industrial made video. There are a few intertextual references in the Bad Blood video as the artist utilised their star status in the industry to feature celebrity friends such as Cara Delevingne, this gives the video more power and provides it with a bigger fan base, maximising views as fans of the other celebrities will watch the video. Taylor Swift uses postmodernist techniques to show intertextuality; there are references to sci-fi films throughout as she replicates a cinematic storyline and viewing effect.

Representation:

The artist (Taylor Swift) is represented to have a star persona, due to her key role in the music video. She is the main character in the video and the audience is positioned with her, throughout the video the viewers are rooting for the artist to complete the task given in the storyline. The star persona constructed within the music video adds to Taylor Swifts metanarrative as it gives her a strong opinion and provides her with a pedestal to portray her opinions on. This helps sell the artists album and ancillary products as it widens her demographic due to the media buzz surrounding the mixed opinions and controversy surrounding the video. This add's to Taylor Swift's star image as it creates more media attention which results in her album receiving more PR. The main social group represented in this music video is, predominantly, young adult females. They are presented to have an air of authority and power; through physical violence. They are challenging stereotypical norms through their actions. Overall they are presented positively and create an ideologically destabilising portrayal. Although the group of females presented are seen to be going against social values and institutions such as the police, due to the suspicion of criminal acts due to the props of guns and explosions, the end view is positive as the music video applauds women who are not afraid to challenge traditional views, leaving a positive, contemporary view.

Digipak Analysis: Troye Sivan "Wild"

Genre:

The genre of the artist is evident within the digipak as the most predominant theme within the digipak is pastel colours and floral patterns. This connotes a calm, soothing feeling which represents the music itself.

Media Language:

Visual techniques used are the rule of thirds; the artists face remains centered within the square and the name at the bottom is also centered, revealing an aesthetically pleasing visual. Another visual technique used is the complimentary tone of colours used; the similar pastel shades are not harsh against each other so blend smoothly. The use of the colour yellow is very on trend, portraying the artist as contemporary. The whole artwork is made to look like a painting; signifying the artist as 'indie'. The use of linguistic devices of the word 'Wild' (the title of the song/album) is painted across the picture, outside of the white box. This signifies that the artist does not follow the rules and as a metaphor paints outside the box, portraying that the album is different from standard, mainstream artists. Intertextuality is used within the digipak as the painting like picture used for the cover art has connoatations of artist, therefore Troye Sivan is making links with art work and artistic devices.

Representation:

The artist is represented as having a star image/persona due to their celebrity status online presence. They are absent yet present in the digipak as the artwork is not directly a photo of themselves, it is a painting. However due to the fact the painting is of them, it makes them present still. This adds to their meta-narrative as it makes audiences want to consume more of their product to find out more information about the artist as they are not fully present.

Institution and Audience:

This print text is consumed by audiences through fan art. The artist, Troye Sivan, created a website where fans could recreate the digipak cover using their own photos of themselves. He did this previously with his earlier album "TRXYE" and reprocated the popular effect with "Wild". This way fans can interact and be part of his album, it also creates free PR as other people will see pictures of the artwork and become aware of the album when they previously were not, this maximised audience exposure and revenue.

The website links with social media such as instgram, facebook and twitter, meaning fans can use photos from their profiles, aswell as uploading the finished artwork with hashtags onto their social media profiles.

The website:  http://wildyourself.troyesivan.com/