Justin Timberlake Star Profile

Justin Timberlake first started in a band called 'N-Sync' in the late 90's at the age of 14. The groups second album 'No Strings Attached' sold over 1 million copies in one day and 2.42 million copies in one week. In addition to a host of Grammy Award nominations, the band performed at the World Series, the Super Bowl and the Olympic Games and sang with artists as successful as Elton John, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Britney Spears. So yeah, the boy band became very popular!

When the group first started they were all about their crazy hair styles. Justin was known for his bright blonde 'noodle' hair.

 

 

 

 

The band sold over 50 million albums in their career. They made 5 official albums, however two extra albums were created years after the band were no longer recording.

 

 

 

The group stopped recording in 2002, and haven't recorded since. In 2007 band member Lance bass confirmed that the band had "definitely broke up". This was then a gateway to Justin's successful solo career.

 

 

Timberlake remained in the genre of hip hop and R&B. He released his first solo album in 2002 'Justified' which contained 5 singles.
At this stage, Timberlake got rid of his bright blonde hair and became eye candy to the female audience. He used this as an advantage, and began using his appearance to sell his music. For example, in music videos he'd pull a smouldering look and dance. At this point he wore a lot of baggy clothing.

















Then in 2006 he released another studio album 'Futuresex/lovesounds'.This was after a two-year break during which Timberlake felt unable to record new material, he returned to collaborating with record producer Timberland. The album entails R&B and pop with techno, funk, and elements of rock. The album received several Grammy Award nominations, including Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album. It has been certified multi-platinum in many countries worldwide, and has sold over ten million copies, with four million in the United States alone. The album included six successful singles.




The album involved number-one singles "SexyBack", "My Love", and "What Goes Around... Comes Around". With each album exceeding sales of seven million copies worldwide, he was known as one of the most commercially successful singers of the decade. From 2007 to 2012, Timberlake focused on his acting career, putting his music career on pause; he held starring roles in the films The Social Network, Bad Teacher, In Time, and Friends with Benefits.

 

However his pause in the music industry made his most recent album a success as people saw it as a 'come back'.  His 2013 album 'The 20/20 Experience' became the best-selling record of the year and spawned hits "Suit & Tie" and "Mirrors", while the latter is preceded by lead single "Take Back the Night" and followed by "Not a Bad Thing". Timberlake's work has earned him nine Grammy Awards and four Emmy Awards.

 

 

JT IS BACK!!!

 

 



Strong Powerful Lady

Kelis is a good example of a strong independent lady. She doesn't just use her appearance to sell her music. The lyrics themselves show her confidence. There are many shots of he standing alone and dancing, this shows her individuality.

Homosexual

At 1:28 there is an example of homosexual. However, it is presented in a sexual way, this is also another example of voyeurism and the male gaze.

Male Gaze

Here is an example of the male gaze, the video purely focuses on the female body, and the movement of it. There are many close ups of parts of the artists and other dancers body parts. This again is another way of catching the attention of males and then helps sell the music. 

However, in a way it objectifies women, presenting them as just sexual objects. 

Exhibitionism

Here is an example of exhibitionism, the artist Nicole Scherzinger is flaunting her body to the camera. This is inviting the camera and audience to watch her. This is also another way in selling the music as it  advertising her looks which then draws more fans in that enjoy watching her.

Female Gaze

 

 

 



 

This is a good example of the female gaze. There are shots of the band with their tops off and dancing, all this attracts the female attention and endorses them to watch it.  

Banana Phone Editing Task

 

Here is my editing task for the song Banana Phone. We worked in groups of three to film each shot experimenting with tracking, cloning and reverse shot. We then edited the clip separately using Adobe Premiere.
I feel that the cloning and reverse worked best, however i would like to improve cloning as you can slightly see parts where lines do not join. Another thing i would like to improve is getting the words to match. When filming we didn't take into consideration on what the words were. We just repeatedly used the chorus for each shot. So at some points in the clip, the words are not in sync with the miming.
The video quality is also very poor, even after exporting it the quality did not improve.
Using the green screen worked well as i was able to place bananas as the background. However, from shadows and creases in the sheet there seems to be a lot of marks on the picture. I could over come this problem by using artificial light and making sure the screen is stretched tightly.  

What music means to me

Dry The River - No Rest

In class, we were played the song 'No Rest' by Dry the River and while closing our eyes we had to visualise a music video.

My idea was located in Spain or a foreign town. There is a tracking shot of the lead singer walking away from the camera. He then leads to a beach, and sings to the camera. There are flashbacks of his past relationship. A grey filter is used over the shots of him walking down the Beach, but brighter colours on the flashbacks. This reflects on his emotions. The brighter days were the ones he spent with her. At then end of the music video he lays flat on the sand, she then comes and lays next to him, and the grey filter is remove, and brighter colours appear.

Others in our class came up with different ideas, here are some examples...

 

• An old peasant searching for gold is then chased by roman soldiers. Its all for love, and wanted the gold to give to his wife.
• A man walking with parts of his body slowly turning to ash. The end of the music video, he ends up as a pile of ash.
• A man in an empty house looking at photos, the house then starts to shake and all the pictures smash in front of him.
• A black and white image of the main vocalist is shown with a dark background, then cuts to a woman walking down the isle. Then turns to colour. She turns around and leaves the main vocalist standing alone.
• A close up of a mans face with the sky behind him. The band playing in the air. A woman then floats past and the man tries to grab her.

 The actual music video below.

 

Tinie Tempah Trampoline music video analysis (R&B)





 

 

In Tinie Tempah's 'Trampoline' music video, the genre is clearly shown as performance purely because the clip entails a lot of dancing. The female figures are presented as nothing but powerless objects. They are there purely to be admired by the audience. However Tinie Tempah presents himself as dominant and influential as he's surrounded by the dancing girls and stands there watching them. Having the women surround him is trying to tell us that women admire him.
  Tinie has the most camera time, this also gives us him more powerful than the other dancers. At 0:09 seconds the artist is standing in the centre of the frame clicking his fingers, in sync to the clicking the light changes. This shows the power he holds within the atmosphere.
 There are many close ups of legs and bums and even a few shots of their bodies with their heads cut out of the frame, this makes their bodies the main focus rather than the women themselves.  This is an example of Andrew Goodwin's theory of voyeurism. However, this is very typical for a song of this genre.

The dancing goes to the beat of the music. The lyrics are being sung to us, this also helps us focus on the main artist.

There is no narrative to the music video, it is purely for entertainment, this is because there is no message within the music video or the lyrics themselves. The artist mainly sings about his fame, money, and women. This is to get the younger generation to idolise him and desire his lifestyle.

Analysis of Lily Allens music video for 'Smile'

 

 

Lily Allen's music video for Smile, is narrative in which it tells us a story about her and her ex boyfriend. Her lyrics are explaining her life when they were together, she explains how she felt broken and lost without him. We can also tell by the expressions on her face, and the switching of shots from her laying in bed with him, to laying in bed on her own. There are also many shots of her consuming junk food, this is seen as the typical way to deal with a break up. However in contrast to these lyrics the music itself is quite quirky and happy. This reflects on her mood and attitude towards the whole situation now and makes us realise that she's over it and just 'smiles'. Although the lyrics do link to the video, for example when she is singing the line 'at first when I see you cry, it makes me smile' we see a smirk appear on her face. Towards the end of the clip, she is seen happier and more powerful. In some way the roles have been switched as she is now the one in control and happy.  The visuals contrasts to the mood of the music as the video itself is quite gritty and the settings are quite grimy looking. For example the run down apartment and café. The characters themselves and what they're wearing are very street and slightly scally looking.
 Lily Allen presents herself as a strong character, rather than an object that is there purely for appearance. The clothes she is wearing are quite casual, this also indicates that this clip isn't performance, but purely narrative as she isn't wearing any over the top clothing.