𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬 ❀ 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞𝐚 𝐓𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐚: Critical Reflection

Here is my critical reflection essay for our Component 3 project. This blog post is written by me (Chelsea).

In accordance with the Cambridge brief for Component 3, students are expected to create a music promotion package of an album, including a music video, an official social media page for the artist and a digipak. My group and I decided to create a fictional Indonesian female pop musical artist with a confident, feminine and attractive personality named “Cinta Kyle” along with her album and debut song called “The Weekend” originally by BIBI and 88rising. Her songs often revolve around the portrayal of complex love relationships, hence it is targeted towards teenagers to young adults aged 16-25 years old.

Branding that is consistent is a crucial element for the artist’s identity in order to create a unique image that resonates with the audience and to create a long lasting impression, therefore conveying an effective message that reflects our main theme of love. We decided to incorporate colours that resonate with this such as red and pink, which ends up becoming our brand’s primary colours. In association with Cinta’s personality, we deliberately styled her in black skirts, red tops along with high-heeled boots, connoting power and love. Her distinct style’s can be seen in her digipak cover (Fig. 1) and her music video’s main performance outfit (Fig. 2). Her kiss trademark featured in her CD cover (Fig. 3) and heart symbol as her main logo along with scenes gesturing the heart (Fig. 4) adds up to her flirty personality on screen persona, and the use of cursive lettering also reflects her femininity. By using the same colour scheme, fonts, tone, and style across our thumbnail and the whole video, we further improve recognition and encourage viewer familiarity and interaction.

Conducting research regarding several music videos allows me to understand the conventions of a pop music genre. We combined narrative and performance to make the music video entertaining and engaging to watch. Our narrative of how she was once a lovergirl but realised throughout her toxic relationship that the only person she could hold on to is herself and did not need validation from other boys, aimed to highlight two aspects of the artist’s persona: innocent (pink outfit, pajamas) and playgirl (red bold outfit, red alcohol cup). We followed the conventions of mostly upbeat and fast paced clips such as quick cuts and match cuts to evoke energy and excitement. Another convention we followed was the usage of direct mode of address, in which the artist looks straight at the camera. This could serve as a way of developing a connection between the artist and the audience, in line with Bulmer and Katz uses and gratifications theory of social relationships. We used creative editing techniques in relation to subvert, including the match cut in the scene where the artist stumbles and falls on the bed (Fig. 5) and the POV shot in which the artist attempts to locate the boys using a heart cutout (Fig. 4). In this way, it will keep the audience engaged.

We primarily focused on how South East Asians are being portrayed, which are commonly underrepresented. Considering that our main target audience is also South-East Asians, casting all people in this race would make them feel seen and affirmed when they see themselves being portrayed in the media, which is linked to the Uses & Gratification theory by Bulmer & Katz of personal identity. Furthermore, Issues such as unrequited love and toxic relationships are commonly discussed in this modern society. The mirror shot in digipak (Fig. 6) may symbolise emotional distance and the desire to be seen. We tried to subvert how men and women are usually portrayed; males are frequently referred to as "players," which usually implies they are insincere, manipulative and untrustworthy. However, we attempted to reverse their roles to show that women can also hold positions of power and control a relationship. This is evident in the music video, between the artist and the main guy (dark coloured shirt) and between her and other guys (white T-shirts) (Fig. 7), suggesting that they are simply "guys" who have no significance for her.

The simplicity of the design and the medium close-up of the artist in the front over, which gives the album identity and makes it easily recognisable for the audience, along with other features like the title, artist identity, tracklist, production company, copyright and institutional information helped us conform to the generic conventions of a pop music digipak. Front covers typically have plain backdrops. Our background is unique since we select a simple background that conveys the essential information rather than images relating to the artist. The usage of red and a cursive font is seen as feminine in order to appeal to our demographic, which encourages self-assurance and empowerment.

The rise of new media has made it easier for our artist to promote her music and increase audience engagement across various social media platforms like Youtube, Instagram and Linktree. We will offer unfiltered, raw moments of Cinta while also boosting promotional content (magazines) in an effort to portray her in a professional and personal way. To make the artist seem more approachable and genuine, informal selfie profile photos and behind-the-scenes photos (Fig. 8) are used to create relatability and authenticity. Her personal side of life fosters deeper connection with the audience, such as her highlights of outfit inspirations, where the audience can be inspired and gain confidence and personal identity from her fashion. According to Clay Shirkey's theory of end of audience, audiences are no longer passive and expect interactive media; for this reason, we use interactive stories by collecting and responding to fans questions using the question box feature (Fig. 9). Moreover, responding to comments establishes a direct connection between the artist and fans which creates a sense of community. The theory by Bulmer and Katz's uses and gratification of social relationship supports that the comment section helps fans to interact with one another to express excitement and reactions for her upcoming album release (Fig. 10).