definition of SKA

(this is research copied from http://ska.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_history_of_ska and is not my own writing)

Developed in the late 1950's, ska music originally evolved from the style of Jamaican music that included calypso beats as well as jazz and blues riffs. The genre became known for its scratchy beats, fast tempo and the piano, guitar (and in later stages, horns) as the prevailing instruments.

Ska music became known as the precursor to reggae, and became widely popular in the 1960's. During this time, Jamaica's "Rude Boys" helped spur the popularity of ska music because it was this genre that the subculture preferred to listen to.

Oddly enough however, many of the ska artists during this time actually rejected the rude boys and their violent tendencies, despite the fact that this subculture was said to have come about because of ska.

Pioneers of Ska Music
There are many theories pertaining to the originator of ska music, but it's mostly unclear who was truly responsible for bringing ska music into the limelight. For example, one theory believes ska music became a kind of response to American music. Yet another theory claims that Prince Buster (a.k.a. Cecil Campbell) created ska music.

Whatever the case maybe, the first true ska recordings began in the early 1960's. At the 1964 New York's World Fair, ska music first began to take shape as a popular form of music for many people. Byron Lee and the Dragonaires were the main stage event and performed with other early ska musicians like Prince Buster and Peter Tosh.




Eventually, ska began to change its sound as American music did the same thing. You could hear richer vocals and more of a rocksteady sound during the late 1960's - even the tempo was slower. You could hear the way ska changed by listening to the artists of the time; bands like the Melodians, the Paragons, and Desmond Dekker resembled a rich tapestry of what ska music was slowly evolving into.

The Revival of Ska
As ska music grew to be a popular genre of music, revival bands in the United States started to form. One such band, The Toasters, could effectively be argued as the frontrunner of the ska revival. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Operation Ivy paid homage to ska music by incorporating a distinctly ska sound into their punk music, thereby creating the ska punk genre.

Finally, during the late 1990's, mainstream ska bands began to see a dip in popularity. Despite this fact, there are still several ska-infused bands today who enjoy a good bit of fame, including Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish, and The Slackers.

While several bands have moved away from their ska sound to emulate various forms of punk or rock, still many other bands remain true to the early sounds of ska music.



Read more: http://ska.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_history_of_ska#ixzz0QcQnmTOv

Music video ideas

CAST

* Jake (the drummer of the band)
* around 5 male teenagers who can skateboard (tbc)
* one female teenager who can skateboard

IDEAS

We have decided to film are music video in a linear structure. The video begins with Jake (the drummer of the band) coming out of sound clash with drum sticks with a smaller than you ticket wrapped round them in his hand. A skateboarder then snatches the sticks from him and the camera follows him. There is then a relay effect of different skateboarders snatching the drum sticks. Each skateboarder will be filmed in a famous significant place in norwich, with posters saying 'SMALLER THAN YOU PLAYING TONIGHT' behind them. Then one of the skateboarders gets on a bus (we are still deciding if this should be a sightseeing bus) and puts his headphones in. At this point, the song becomes muffled. he then takes out the headphones as he gets off the bus and the music becomes clear. Jake then snatches them back and goes into the art center, entering a door. when the door shuts, we see a sign that says 'Smaller than you playing here tonight'.


How this fits with the conventions of the SKA genre
Smaller Than You's sound is very fast paced. This will fit in well with the fast pace of skateboarding. Skateboarding itself is oftion associated with SKA and fans of SKA. The history of SKA includes SKA artists rejecting Jamaica's 'Rude Boys' violent tendecies. This is reflected in our music video becuase although at first it seems as though the sticks are being stolen, it is actually an act of contribution and spreading the word about their music (and their gig that night). The fact the the video will end with jake getting his sticks back conforms with SKA history yet challenges the conventions of Rap, Metal and Alternative videos that could be seen as promoting illegal and violent acts.
The passing of the drumsticks from person to person represents the history of ska music and the way it has passed from culture to culture, country to country through different generations. The drumsticks represent the ska genre and it's significant recognisable beat.


PROPS

*drumsticks and elastic band
*smaller than you ticket
*skateboard
*smaller than you posters
*MP3
*5 bus tickets

location ideas for music video.

We want to emphasise the fact that our band are british as a way of appealing to audiences. Norwich is not very well known in the british music industry but the use of regional accents and using home locations has done well for bands such as The Kooks (from Brighton), The Arctic Monkeys (from Sheffield) and Oasis (from Manchester).
Despite this we don't want our music video looking like a tourism home video or too mainstream. We want our video to reflect the urban/underground roots of the Ska genre and therefore will also shoot in places that appeal to alternative music fans, such as around Anglia Square's graffitti and The Forum carpark.

Significant places in norwich or cultural signifiers we could use are:

The Norwich Cathedral



The Castle Museum



The Forum



The Norwich Market



We also want places in norwich that represent the music scene, such as:

Sound Clash



Norwich Arts Center



Places that reflect the urban/alternative Ska genre:

The Forum carpark

Anglia Square



This planning map from google shows the way our locations are in walking distance from each other and our all around Norwich city center. This is useful for us as it means we don't have to arrange transport to and from our locations.



Other Location Details:

The graffitti in Anglia Square has recently been painted over so we plan to ask permission to draw our own graffitti with a pen that will wash off with water.

We need to be very careful when filming our cast skateboarding down The Forum carpark and plan to do this early in the morning when it is not busy as it could otherwise be very dangerous. One member of our group will also look out for cars that are turning in.

We will also need to ask Norwich Art Center for permission to film Jake walking in and out as this may take a few takes and could disturb the people inside.

Ideas For Our Unsigned Band Music Video

We originally came up with 3 unsigned bands to make a music video for: Annie Stevenson, Pistolas and Smaller than you.
However, we then found out that Pistolas are no longer a band and so we were left between choosing Smaller than you, a local band we went to school with, and Annie Stevenson, who we found through searching the internet (websites we used included MySpace and Channel4music).

Why Annie Stevenson would be a good choice:
1) her accoustic music is very much a genre all of us in my group like. Therefore we are familliar with the conventions of the genre and would probably enjoy doing the project more than if we enjoy the genre.
2) although unsigned her music is of a very high standard of quality. This would give the music video a more professional look.

Why Annie Stevenson could be a bad choice:
1) She doesn't live in Norfolk, therefore it would be very difficult to film her live or get her to appear in the video, something our whole group have been keen on doing since the begginning of the project.
2) Unlike smaller than you, we don't know her. This could make it hard to represent her personality accurately, we could misjudge the meanings of her songs, we don't know who influenced her, etc.
3) It is difficult to place a certain genre on her. Althought this individuality obviously appeals to a big audience, it would be difficult to follow generic conventions.

We decided the cons outweighed the pros, and instead went for Smaller Than you.

We chose Smaller than you for the following reasons:
* We know the band members and so we are aware of the bands style, etc.
* The band members are local so it would be possible to feature them in our music video if we wanted to.
* We are familiar with the music and like it, so it is easier for us to choose a song and we will enjoy the coursework more if we like the music.
* They fit in nicely with the SKA genre. This gives us a genre to work around and explore the conventions of.

We have chosen to do the song 'who knew' because the lyrics are versitile and have already inspired us with some ideas.

M.I.A "paper planes" official music video analysis

Directed by Bernard Gouley, who is also famous for some of 50cents music videos, M.I.A uses her music video to represent her views of immigration and the problems that occurred whilst she tried to obtain her Visa. M.I.A was born in London but moved to Sri Lanka. Her father hid from the Sri Lankan government as he was found a member of the Tamil tigers. There are direct influences of this seen in the music video.

1) Media forms and conventions

Though M.I.A labels the genre of her music as ‘other’, there is an obvious Hip-hop influence in the track. This is reflected in the video by the use many generic characteristics within the mise-en-scene. The costumes (tracksuits with hoods up, gold jewellery and converse), the unglamorous representation of New York, the close ups of the singer alone singing straight into the camera as though she is addressing the audience, and the image of her and four dancers who appear to be her friends doing Hip-hop dancing along a crowded street are all conventions of a Hip-hop music video and reflect the influence the genre has had on the track. The fast editing also reflects the alternative style of her music.







(singing alone straight into the camera)






(HipHop dancing along the streets of NewYork)






There is a direct link between the singer’s very political words that feature in the track and the music video. The video features repeated images of transport, such paper planes flying over New York city, (an obvious direct link to the title of the song), a skull and crossbones (the track features the line “pirate skulls and bones”, taxis, vans and a suitcase. These reflect the negative view M.I.A holds on migration laws.




(the recurring skull and crossbones image)



M.I.A connotes the struggle of immigrants in the video and uses it as “protest music for a globalised world”. The song is ironic, with the lyrics mocking the corruption and consumerism of more developed countries such as America. This is reflected in the video with images such as a till being opened with money being counted (in connection to the cash register sound effects), images of lines of gold watches and M.I.A selling sandwiches to the people of New York from a van.




(images of money and gold watches)




There are also many images related to communication, such as advertisements of phone deals. This, I suspect, is used to reflect the difficulty M.I.A faced in trying to contact her father while he was hiding, and links to the lyrics “hit me on my burner pre-paid wireless”.





(one example of the images relating to communication)




At the beginning of the video the still images cut to another in time with the slow beat. They then change into a fast movement pace as M.I.A begins to sing.
Gouley uses black and white when filming the transport in the city. However when M.I.A and the dancers walk on the street it becomes very colourful. This represents the recognisable colourful identity of M.I.A compared to the plain people and streets of New York.






(The contrast between the plain black and white streets of NewYork and the difference in colour when M.I.A enters it.



Despite some cultural signifiers such as buildings and a bridge, the video does not glamorise the aspects of New York that it is famous for. The video is critical of the culture of New York (and America).
The narrative structure is concept based and repetitive. This reflects the way the track’s purpose is to give out a political message.
As well as intertextuality within the track (M.I.A uses The Clash’s ‘straight to hell’) it is also included in the video, where two of the Beastie Boys play a cameo type role, being sold sandwiches. This is another way of showing the kind of music that has had an effect on the artist.
There has also been some controversy when it comes to the arguable intertextuality of the Tamil Tigers within the video. It is argued by some critics that the subtle images of tigers (such as the tiger on one of the dancers t-shirts, and I have also noticed she wears tiger print converse at the beginning of the video) is a way of M.I.A supporting the terrorist group Tamil Tigers that her father was wanted by the Sri Lankan government for being a part of.

2) Representation.

The representation of America and other big, developed countries is represented negatively and in direct link to capitalism and consumerism. This links to the lyrics “Lethal poison for the system”. The video appears to represent M.I.A as a very unthreatening immigrant working in the USA. It appears to challenge many people’s perceptions that immigrants are dangerous and rather represents consumerism as the threatening part of society (for example to close ups of tills and money, while M.I.A is smiling and selling food). The video is realistic because it uses images the audience are familiar with, such as streets, money and watches. This appeals to the audience as they can identify with what they are being shown.
M.I.A is promoted by the video through the use of close ups. The track was really what made the artist become more well known and therefore the close ups of her face help the audience to remember her. M.I.A is presented as a slightly controversial, modern artist. The editing and message of the song is edgy and this appeals to people who are interested in the alternative genre. The conventions of a Hip-hop video I previously mentioned appeal to audiences interested in Hip-hop.
The video has some similarities to her other music videos. For example, both ‘Sunshowers’ and ‘Jimmy’ present M.I.A within different ethnicities. The video for ‘Jimmy’ features M.IA in a Bollywood-style setting, while ‘Sunshowers’ features her within a tribe in a jungle. However, in the video for “Jimmy” M.I.A is presented in a more sexualised way, in a more revealing outfit and dancing with other females. This could be seen as a way of showing how difficult female artists find success without being sexualised, as it appears as though an alternative route to appealing to audiences has been taken after the ‘Paper Planes’ video.
A non consumerist, alternative and anti establishment political view point is communicated in the video. This can be seen in the negative representation of images of dollar bills, gold watches and a bleak city (before M.I.A enters it).
The video reflects the political arguments within contemporary society such as immigration and consumerism and the concerns and opinions M.I.A holds within reference to these.

3) Audience
I researched the age of the fans on M.I.A's MySpace. Out of the first random 20 I found, the age range was between 26 and 37. One user comment on the LastFM message board for M.I.A fans said that a song “makes me want to gyrate my hips around the room”. This is particularly interesting as in comparison to most other female artist M.I.A is one of the least sexualised in the music video I have been studying. This also shows that despite the intelligence and intertextuality within her music, M.I.A still has a feel good factor. Another comment read, “All my fam thinks im crazy cause ur music is so different and they have not heard of such a thing. Its amazing really big inspiration, I sometimes plan to be the Hispanic M.I.A!” This shows how audiences find how alternative the music is as an appealing trait of the music, and the way that M.I.A deals with culture within her music and videos appeals to those of different ethnicities.
However, the video for ‘Paper Planes’ and the controversy of suspicions that it promotes the terrorist group Tamil Tigers has dissatisfied some audiences. For example, one comment on the You tube posting of the music video said “LOL @ MIA, the tigers are dead!”. This shows how some people will be put off by the artist because they relate the music to terrorism.
Audiences can access M.I.A’s music through file sharing, downloads, Cds, music channels such as MTV, radio and You tube.

4) institutions
M.I.A is signed to the record label XL. Other artists signed up to this label include a wide range of genres from Vampire weekend to Adele to Dizzee Rascal. This reflects how the outlet is good for M.I.A as she does not conform to one type of genre to appeal to audiences, and obviously neither does the label. It won the “music week” best independent label award.


5) Technology
M.I.A first became known by file sharing her songs ‘Sunshowers’ and ‘Galang’. Her fame has also relied on the radio playing her songs and making money from Itunes downloads and Cd sales.

Audience research filmed questionairre

We questioned and filmed a range of people to find out about audience consumption and musical preferences.
We tried to ask a range of generations and both males and females to get the most accurate and specific conclusions. We asked and filmed people in the city center as this tends to have a large range of different people.