Component 3: Critical Reflection

Here is the critical reflection for my Component 3 which includes a music video, digipak, and social media. This blog post is written by me (Audrey).

I will be answering these questions for my critical reflection (not by sequence):

1. How do your products represent social groups or issues?

2. How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

3. How do your products engage with the audience?

4. How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

According to the brief set by Cambridge, students must create a promotional package for the release of an album which includes a music video as the major tasks and a social media page and a digipak design as the minor task. My group consists of me (Audrey, Rara, Kalista, and Chelsea to which you can find their blogs in my “My Team” post. As a group, we decided on the song "The Weekend" by BIBI, 88rising that is classified into the pop music genre. Our purpose was to create a reading regarding the personas of the star represented in our music video; innocent vs player which are the binary opposite that drives the narrative of our music video. The song revolves around the theme of young adulthood, love, and feminism. In this essay, I will focus on the production stages and development of our Component 3.

Our fictional star goes by the stage name “Cinta” from “Cinta Kyle” which means ‘Love’ in Indonesian. This is a major factor in our branding that shapes the star’s identity and persona. Branding is important in media as it allows audiences to recognise texts from the same source in order to make connections to it. A recurring theme for our project would be love and romantic relationships. This can be seen through the usage of the color red thoroughly in the texts which connotes romance. In the music video, Cinta is often seen with red colored outfits (fig 1) mainly due to the symbolic meaning of love. Furthermore, the color red is central to the themes conveyed in the digipak (fig 2) which reinforces the audience to follow a dominant reading (Stuart Hall’s Reception Theory) that our star’s persona (and meanings in her songs) is deeply associated with romantic relationships. This would be further implied through the symbolic codes (Barthes) of kiss marks throughout the texts. In the inside sleeves of our digipak design (fig 3), lipstick kiss marks were used to connote a seductive, flirtatious, and cheeky personality of our star. Sabrina Carpenter’s “short n’ sweet” album was our biggest inspiration for the digipak design as her REEL persona shows how she is a charming and flirty figure which was the persona we were trying to give to Cinta. We created a logo (fig 4) that resonates to her REEL persona in the shape of a heart. This creates a sense of identity for our star causing fans of Cinta (our demographic) to be able to recognise their star’s works immediately and may grow a deeper connection with her.

Furthermore, the derivation of love and romantic relationships conveyed as the central message of our texts drove the narrative in our music video. We conformed to the usage of love as a theme for our music video narrative as the conventions made it easier for audiences who enjoy pop music to recognise as according to Neale’s Genre Theory that we must conform these conventions for recognition. But he also states to subvert some conventions to remain interesting to attract new audiences. In this case, we subvert the typical representation of women who are in love in media texts, which tends to be portrayed as passive, devoted, and hopelessly in love. Cinta is portrayed as a ‘player’ in our music video which was revealed in the narratives due to changes in mise-en-scene, in this case costumes. Our star has different sides that are implied through the colors of her clothing. Cinta wore pink outfits and pyjamas (fig 5) to portray an innocent girl look which contradicts the red costumes and a red cup (fig 6), which implicitly symbolises alcohol, that connotes boldness and flirtation which further means how she has a ‘player’ nature. These opposing sides drive the narrative, creating engaging plots, and creates a meaning which was suggested by Levi Strauss’ Binary Opposites Theory.

It is not common for Asians to be centralised in music videos, they’re usually the side characters in many media texts often represented especially for Asian women. This group has been underrepresented in Western pop culture which is an act of othering (according to the post-colonial theory) in order for Western groups to remain in control. However, to attract our demographics (Asians), we have an all-Asian cast as it will resonate more to our target audience. This is due to Blumler and Katz’ Uses and Gratification Theory regarding how audiences consume texts for their personal identity, Asian communities might feel more represented in modern pop culture which encourages deeper connections. Research on the narratives of a pop music video from Southeast Asian singer, NIKI, helped us to avoid negative stereotypes of Asian culture portrayed in modern media texts.

To further attract our audience, we made our star more relatable as seen in the opening scene (fig 7.1 and fig 7.2) where she was introduced by listening to music with a speaker as she was getting ready. This was a usage of Dyer’s Theory of Stardom which portrays ordinariness of the star’s life and her routines that connects her with the audiences more. This was also further showcased in her social media that includes contents that are mixed of both professional and personal. The mix of these tones in contents conveys the star’s persona as a famous pop artist but also revealing her REAL identity through personal posts such as behind-the-scenes (fig 8) creating a positive response from her fans. Moreover, engagement through question and answers (fig 9) and responsive to comments (fig 10) creates a deeper connection with the audience evoking an emotional impact from the star to her fans as it is easier to connect through the global village (McLuhan) evoking rising interests to Cinta as the star from activities conducted through social media.