Behind the Scenes of Anastatica

Music Marketing Check Up 1

Music Marketing (First Check-In)

The Music Marketing Project is an all-encompassing challenge that sees us creating an artist, promotional music video, and building a brand for ourselves through various forms of marketing. So far, the project has required every aspect of the AICE Media Studies course content that we have learned hitherto, and will continue to further challenge us in this way.

Our group was assigned the genres Hip-Hop/Funk for research. This was foreign territory for us, as half of the group hardly listen to music, and the other half (who love music) hardly listen to these genres. Also, finding modern artists who fall under the "funk" genre is hard when looking at major record labels. For this reason, we decided on two hip-hop artists under bigger labels (Childish Gambino and Kendrick Lamar) and two funk artists; one under a major label and one under an independent label (Anderson Paak. and Louis Cole, respectively). I personally focused on Louis Cole, as I was familiar with his music but unfamiliar with his marketing strategies, which were especially unique being under an independent label (Brainfeeder). It was very insightful to analyze the strategies and habits utilized within the promotion of more independent and alternative music, as I envisioned our group's fictional artist falling under this umbrella.

I was, in fact, right. Moving into the next phase of our project, we received multiple songs under the Hip-Hop and Funk genres. There were two that instantly caught our attention: Me and Your Mama by Childish Gambino and Breathing Underwater by Hiatus Kaiyote. At first listen, our minds lit up and we started shooting around amazing ideas for both songs, which had wildly different tones. However, we ultimately decided that the ever-changing funk-jazz fusion masterpiece that was Breathing Underwater would be the best choice for what our group wanted in our music video. The hypnotic and rhythmic nature of the song combined with its abrupt changes within its own sound created an interesting soundscape to explore within a more artistically charged promotional music video.

We began by analyzing the lyrics of the song to form a general theme and tone for the video. Next, we listed the shots we had originally planned for the video and built off them, forming the story within the video. The story (much less of a story and more of a constant theme) is of a person who is seeking love, as love and human connection is the only way this person can fulfill their full potential. This is illustrated through them reaching out to those who surround them. However, this person cannot seem to fully connect to anyone. The opening shot shows the main subject alone, and curled into themselves on the floor, not unlike an Anastatica, the name of our song. Anastatica, also known as the Rose of Jericho, appears withered, similar to a human who has been long stripped of any meaningful human connection. This is a major theme in the original song. This is the aspect of the song we wanted to focus on in our music video.

Moving forward, we are looking to fully solidify our shot plan we have for the video and start to think more in-depth about our music group's identity. So far, we have established a name and logo for our band (Fractals), a four-piece out of Los Angeles, California. We are fleshing out our digital marketing, which will comprise of an Instagram and TikTok account (for now), which will have band photoshoots, clips from our promotional music video, clips from live shows, clips from our day to day lives, fan interactions, merch advertisement, tour advertisement, etc. We plan to further develop this identity, however, as getting fully into the mindset of this band (which includes their origins, individual personalities, etc.) will allow us to fully realize our band's potential and needs within our marketing schemes. This next step will also include creating merchandise, as well as designing a website for our band's information and merchandise.

We will be filming over the next few days and look to finish up the final touches on our band's marketing and identity within the next day or two. Editing will most likely fall into the hands of myself, as I have the most experience with an editing software. However, I also have a vision, and so do my group members. I am excited to fulfill our vision together.

            -Jd