Research into Music Labels

EMI
EMI Group Limited was a British multinational music recording and publishing company, and electronics device and systems manufacturing company, headquartered in London. The company broke up in 2012 and it was the fourth largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry. It was one of the big four companies (which is now the big three). It's record labels included EMI Records, Parlophone, Virgin Records and Capitol Records. In November 2011 Citigroup who temporarily owned EMI sold its music arm to Vivendi's Universal Music Group for $1.9 billion. EMI administered the publishing rights of over 1.3 million songs - controlling the libraries of artists such as Jay-Z, Beyonce, deadmau5, Dragon, The Prodigy, The Black Eyed Peas, Avicii etc. EMI distributes its artists digitally and physically. They distribute their artists through iTunes and their website, physically they distribute through high street shops, in particular HMV.

Song Music Entertainment
Sony is an American music corporation owned and operated by Sony Corporation. In 2004, SME and Bertelsmann Music Group merged as Sony BMG Music Entertainment. SME is middle-sized out of the big three record companies, with Universal Music Group (the largest) and Warner Music Group. Sony has many labels with different genres. For example, Country has Sony Music Nashville and Arista Nashville, Latin has Sony Music Latin and Classical has Sony Masterworks. They also own independent distributions such as RED Distribution and IODA. Sony distributes its artists digitally and physically. They distribute their artists through iTunes and VEVO and also through their own website, also much like EMI, they physically distribute through high street shops and in particular - HMV.

Rough Trade
Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London. it was formed in 1978 by Geoff Travis who opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove. The record label has successfully promoted and sold many records by punk, very early indie pop and early post-punk bands such as Buzzcocks, The Smiths and Desperate Bicycle. Travis also manages acts and distributes bands such as Scritti Politti and established the label itself, which was formed by left-wing politics and structured as a cooperative. Interest and investment of major labels in the UK indie scene was in the late 1980s as well as overtrading on behalf of Rough Trades distribution wing, led cash flow problems, and eventually to bankruptcy, forcing the label into receivership. However, Travis resurrected the label in the late 90s, finding success with The Libertines, The Stokes and Antony and the Johnsons. Rough Trade's artists and distributed through their record store, as it is an independent label. It is also distributed through social media as a means of advertisement.

Boy Better Know
Boy Better Know is an English grime music collective - a group of musicians, a grime record label and a brand. The collective was formed in North London by JME, his brother Skepta and Wiley. BBK was established in 2005 and is also a clothing line, sweet shop and aline of movie sim cards. BBK distributes their music through social media and independent music shops, as well as digitally distributing through iTunes.

Research of Music Channels

4Music
4Music is a music entertainment channel in the UK, it was launched on 15th August 2008 in replacement of 'The Hits'. It is the only Channel 4 branded channel within the Box Television network. The channel has different programmes such as Today's 4Music Top 10, Fresh Music Top 20, Your Official Top 20 and UKHot40. Both Today's 4Music Top 10 and Fresh Music Top 20 show the biggest and best music videos from the current week and day. 'Your Official Top 20' is a programme that play the publics favourite songs that they have voted for on 4Music's website, however the channel usually play artists that have released at least 20 singles such as Beyonce, Christina Aguilera and The Black Eyed Peas. Similarly to the other 'top' music programmes, 4Music presents UKHot40 as a music video chart based on UK sales only, and documents the top records of the week. The Versus Chart is a programme that is hosted by Matt Littler and Darren Jeffries who side with an artist and show 10 mixed music videos of both artists and then judge who is 'better'. The main ones that they show are ones that have collaborated before to show a fair answer or may not have collaborated then there is only one winner. Examples of these artists are Eminem vs. Kanye West, Britney vs. Christina and Take That vs. Robbie Williams. The channel usually releases songs that are very mainstream and popular, however they have a programme called 4Music Big Ones where they play a selection of pre-released and released singles from all genres such as hip-hop, rock, pop, RnB, Dance, Folk and Indie.



MTV
MTV is an American based cable satellite television channel owned by MTV Networks Music and Logo Group. The channel was launched on August 1st 1981 and its original purpose was to play music videos guided by television personalities known as 'video jockeys' or 'VJs'. In its early years, MTV's main target audience was young adults, however nowadays it's primarily adolescents and teenagers. MTV has created numerous sister channels in the US, which some have become independent. Much of MTV's influence on its audience has been subject to debate for years as they included issues related to censorship and social activism. The original purpose of MTV was to be 'Music Television', playing music videos for 24 hours a day, seven days a week guided by on-air personalities - VJ's. However, the original MTV channel no longer plays music videos 24/7, several of its spin-off channels include MTV Hits and MTV Jams. In addition, viewers can play music videos on demand at MTV.com. MTV continues to support a broad selection of music videos on its international channels as well. Between 1980-94 VJs were fresh-faced young men and women hired to host the channels programme and to introduce music videos that were being played. They would record 'intro' and 'outdo' segments to music videos, along with music news, interviews, concert dates and promotions. Bands from genres such as new wave, hard rock and heavy metal were played mostly on MTV such as, Adam Ant, Blondie, The Police, Culture Club and Prince. They had also played some classic rock artists from the 1980s  such as David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart and The Who. They had also played newly solo artists such as Paul McCartney and Phil Collins. Nowadays, MTV resurrected the long-running series MTV unplugged in 2009 with performances from acts like Adele and Paramore. However there recordings usually only aired in their entirety on MTV's website, yet short slips of the specials are shown on MTV during the AMTV block of music videos in the early morning hours. MTV launched 10 on Top in May 2010, a weekly programme airing on Saturdays and hosted by Lenay Dunn, that counts down the top 10 most trending and talked about topics of the week which generally focused on entertainment. MTV returned the animated series Beavis and Butt-head in October 2011 with new episodes that featured segments in which it's main characters watch and criticise music videos in comparison to the original series that ran from 1993-97. In 2012, MTV debuted Clubland which previously existed as an hour of EDM videos during the AMTV video block. Now MTV mainly focus on programmes such as scripted (Teen Wold and Awkward) and reality (16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom and Paris Hilton's - My New BFF).

VIVA
VIVA is a music video and entertainment channel in the UK and Ireland. The channel was officially launched on the 26th October 2009 by Alexandra Burke, with an exclusive live performance of her single Bad Boys. The channel replaced TMF and is owned by Viacom International Media Networks Europe and was originally a German channel. It i s also the first channel from MTV that is on Freeview. The first music video to be shown on VIVA was Alphabeat's - The Spell in the Official UK Chart Show Top 20. It originally broadcasted for 24 hours a day (currently shown on Freeview) until Nick Jr. was removed from the schedule and its hours were reduced to 09:00 - 06:00. It was then further reduced to 09:00 - 03:00 on 1st August 2011. The unused hours are now used for teleshopping. On 8th October 2014, it was announced that VIVA was to close down on Freeview with all of its content moving to 5* with the channel number being replaced with Viacom owned US channel Spike. The channel mainly shows reality and scripted programmes such as Catfish: The Tv Show, Pretty Little Liars, The Hills, Punk'd, South Park and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. However, the channel does provide an official chart show called The Official UK Chart Show.

The Box
The Box is a television channel in the UK and Ireland. The channel is one of many within The Box Television network, a joint venture between Channel Four Television Corporation and Bauer Media Group. The channel mainly broadcasts music videos, although it also features other music-related programming from 4Music. The channel broadcasts from 07:00-03:00 (or 20 hours) everyday, with teleshopping being shown during the channels downtime. The channel is well known for its First Play feature, where many videos often make their UK or world premiere. This new music is often shown through the Box Fresh show on the channel. Most notably, The Box were recognised for the particular force behind the huge success of the first Spice Girls hit 'Wannabe', playing their first single months before its official release date and helping to launch the group to stardom. Before Emap took ownership within Box Television, the channel was recognised for the wide variety of music from all genres, offering up to 500 videos per week as well as helping to introduce rap and hip-hop onto the UK music scene. The Box now operates from pre-programmed playlists and does not include video selection jukeboxes. From October 2014, The Box started showing programmes such as Trending Music Videos Right Now!, Chart Tracker: What's Hot?, VIP Track of the Week, HotBox, Top 10: Fresh and Future Hitlist, and many more.


VH2
VH2 was a sister channel to VH1 in the UK. It launched in 2003 and slowly became an Indie Rock based music channel, aimed at men in the 25-34 age category focusing on demographics C - E. It mainly showed music, though some documentaries were shown based around the artists VH2 played. VH2 also had many chart shows including Indie 500 weekend, which counted down the top 500 Indie songs, with There is a Light That Never Goes Out by The Smiths topping the chart ahead of songs by artists such as The Stone Roses, Pixies, Oasis, The Cure, The Strokes, Blur and Radiohead. VH2 closed at 6am on 1st August 2006 to make way for MTV Flux due to bandwidth space. During VH2's final days, it basically showed music videos and old MTV indents from the 1980s-90s. MTV Networks stated that because the main source of income for the channel - ring ton advertising, was closing down, the channel had to close.

Artist Research

Beyonce Giselle Knowles-Carter

Beyonce was born on 4th September 1981 and she is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She was born and raised in Houston, Texas, as a child she performed in many singing and dancing competitions. In 1997 she rose to fame and became lead singer of girl group 'Destiny's Child'. Very quickly the group became one of the worlds best selling girl groups of all time. 8 years later in 2005 Destiny's Child split up and Beyonce's solo career began releasing her second solo album in 2006 (B'Day) which contained the hits 'Deja Vu', 'Irreplaceable' and 'Beautiful liar' with Shakira.

Solo Career
Beyonce continued to be extremely popular in her solo career. On the big screen, she starred opposite Jennifer Hudson, Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls.

In 2008, Beyonce married rapper and music mogul Jay-Z in a small, private ceremony in New York City. In addition to acting and performing, Beyonce runs a clothing line called House of Dereon with her mother. She also launched her own fragrance, Heat in 2010. Throughout her career, she has served as a spoke spoken and model for several other brands including L'Oreal and Tommy Hilfiger.


Children
Beyonce and Jay-Z currently have one child named Blue Ivy Carter. She was born on January 7th 2012. When Beyonce announced her pregnancy during a performance at the MTV Video Movie Awards in 2011, Blue Ivy found herself making headlines before she was even born. In fact, there was over 8,800 tweets per second from followers desperate to share the news.

Beyonce's Top 5 Most Listened Songs
1. Irreplaceable 
    Stayed at Number 1 on the Billboard Charts for 10 weeks.
2. Baby Boy
    Stayed at Number 1 for 9 weeks
3. Crazy in Love
    Number 1 for 8 weeks
4. Check on it
    Number 1 for 5 weeks
5. Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)
    Number 1 for 4 weeks

Now, Beyonce is a multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning recording artists who's acclaimed for her thrilling vocals, videos and live shows.

Analysis of Previous Students Work 3

I have referred to the OCR marking criteria while analysing this students work of 'It's Too Late Now'. The students have shown some evidence of technical skills and included muse-en-scene. The students camera movement is very steady even whilst circling the models at the end of the video, yet it is at a very basic level of professionalism. There are various camera angles used throughout the video such as close-up, mid-shot, long-shot and low-angle. Referring back to the OCR marking criteria, the student has used camera angles to a basic level. The student has used artificial and natural lighting which has also been used to a basic level - according to the OCR marking criteria. The narrative of the video is very clear even though it has been performed to a basic level. There are various locations throughout the video which means there has been some thought as to where parts of the video will take place, and therefore the organisation and planning works in their favour. However saying this, some of the locations used are irrelevant and don't have a link with the song as some scenes are filmed at their school. The lip syncing is also very basic along with the editing as some of the short slips have been squashed and therefore deforming the artists. Furthermore, the body language of the models looks very awkward and uncomfortable, showing that they aren't very confident in acting in the music video.

Overall, I would change some of the locations used to film parts of the music video and try to edit the video to a professional level and match the lip syncing with the song more precisely. Finally I would change the artists as they aren't very confident and it shows.