Links in the Country genre

There is a clear link between all these similar artists which i have just found out. It has now become apparent to me that there is a pattern occurring within this genre.

The instrument that is typically used is a guitar which is a key element of the Country genre which i have found out in all my similar artists research. With all these artists many of their videos represent freedom and being in the great outdoors and the guitar symbolises that their music is pure and expressive. When being in the outdoors the artists tend to wear casual clothes which shows that people from the genre are very minimal and almost have a sense of being 'naturally' pretty without making too much of an effort. The makeup is normally quite basic, with, the majority of the time a smudge of clear lip gloss and some dark eye makeup. 

In the music videos there is always at least one scene of being outside and there being greenery or a field or something along those lines.

Normally within this particular genre the artists are normally individuals that have been grown up in rural areas and have had economic challenges or some sort of harder upbringing. 

Carrie Underwood- Blown away applied to Stever Archer

Steve Archer is a theorist and i found links between part of his theory and this video by Carrie Underwood. He said that 'Sometimes the artist (especially the singer)will be part of the story, acting as narrator and singing at the same time. 

Storyline:
 This song is about a girl and her father that have a ruined, broken relationship as their mother passed away- there is this clip at the beginning of the video before the song has even started which gives us background info and more of an insight about what her songs about. She sings the song in third person which shows that shes re telling the story which clearly backs up Steve Archers theory about narrative and performance. 

Camera and editing:
There many close up shots of Carrie at the beginning, to show her emotions through clear facial expressions which is captured by the camera. There are also camera shots of panning her feet. Also following her from the front and the side to try and see where shes heading to. As the sung 'daddy was a mean old Mr' there was a crosscut back to him drinking in the house in the black and white coloured shot. Also when she sung 'mamma was an angel in the ground' it cuts to her walking through a graveyard so the narrative is relevant to what was filmed. 

In the video we come to find out that the black and white shots are flashbacks as she is thinking about her dad and how aggressive he was. 

The editing is all made to look very dark, gloomy and show unhappiness. At the beginning they use slow motion for her hair to make her more exaggerated when she was looking at the lightning. There is a use of a time-lapse which gives connotations of her feelings being the same way and how everyday goes by like this. The lightning gets louder as she sings louder to show that shes expressing her feelings of how everythings been 'blown away'. At the end the colour of the shot gets lighter and as she is lip syncing 'blown away ay ay ay' outlines how it was all in the past and she can now look forward. This is shown as the grass is longer and there is now greenery and a dog is walking which is sort of back to normality. 

Costume and props:
Her costume throughout is very minimal- a chequered shirt, jeans and a long cardigan and a pair of brown high leg boots. Her genre is being reflected through her clothing as she wants freedom, so being in the outdoors so an outfit in the outdoors like this is realistic. Her eyes are smokey, this makes us focus on her more as they are extremely eye catching. She sings to the camera a lot throughout the video which shows mystery and that there is more to her. Her cardigan is what brings out her femininity as it is floor length so she retains that still in a subtle way. 

Setting:
There are two main settings in this video- outside,in their house and in the cellar. The house has a black and white picture which portrays bad memories in there in the past and how she feels like a prisoner and outside is in colour, which shows that she has a sense of freedom in her and in the narrative when she's outside she can be closer to her mum who is 'an angel in the ground'. 
Half way through the song as she finds her dad unconscious, the camera isn't black and white any more, its in colour which could mean that her dad was but a bad memory. 

Sound:
Non-diegetic sound is used in some parts of the music video. At the beginning the emphasis of the thunder and lightning the sound over laps the soft music to show that the video will not be as upbeat as this as a 'storm will be coming' and we presume that it will get more downbeat.

Our Artist profile

My Survey monkey

I have made a Survey monkey which will help towards my research!  
Here is a copy of all the questions, when i receive the results, i will put them into a graph so that they will be easy to analyse.

I put it on facebook as i know it is a popular social networking website so many people would be likely to answer my survey questions. 

Radio Stations and Listener profiles Presentation

This is the online presentation i made, i used the programme Sliderocket which was extremely easy to navigate. 

Similar Existing Artist- Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton is a female singer-songwriter, best known for her work in Country music. 

I have looked at her videos on YouTube. Her video 'Backwoods barbie' has both pop and country conventions. The title of the video refers to being in the 'woods' which relates to the country genre as typically 'country' singers all come from very simple backgrounds and enjoy being outdoors and traditional hence the 'woods'. The video uses the pop genre through the use of editing as the effects used are a black and white screen and the main person in the video is in colour.

Information about Taylor Swifts audience

I came across a website which took information off of famous peoples fan pages, facebook pages, twitter and tumblrs. It is basically a massive piece of gathered information taken from the types of people that regularly visit Taylor Swifts Pages. There are a range of people ONLINE that search for Taylor Swift but the majority are females between 18-24. 

This shows the daily visits onto her fan pages. This data is not only taken from people in America, but it is global so counts for most of the world. 

Above is a list of words that Taylor Swifts audiences have also searched. This shows a very feminine range of words which gives us another clear indication that Taylor Swifts audience is made up of mostly females. 

Another interesting observation that there are a variety of ways to access Taylor Swifts pages but technology has a massive influence which could give us a clue that a lot of the younger generation listen to her more as the use of technology comes easier to younger generations generally.