Record Labels: Major or Independant?

There are 4 record labels that are considered the 'Big Four' these are: Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Group, Sony BMG and Universal music group. These four have dominated the music industry since the late 80s. However, there is increasing popularity, particularly in up and coming music groups and bands to no longer use a large record label; this is for a variety of reasons, most prominent of which is the view that record labels take a huge deal of revenue from the artist, and this has sparked a revolution in artists being independant, rather than using a large label to promote their product. A great example of this is 'Simply Red's' Mick Hucknall. Setting up a personal record label: www.simplyred.com to promote his solo career rather than using a record label, who starting in 1985 with their first hit, ``Holding Back the Years,'' Simply Red reportedly sold more than 45 million albums worldwide in affiliation with their record label Warner Music Group. Hucknall says while he took approximately $32 million during that 14-year period, the record company took in a huge $300 million. 

EMI

EMI are currently the record label for Pink Floyd. However, there has been recent debates over loyalty issues from online sales of Pink Floyd's albums. According to the developer of The Dark Side of the Moon and other top-selling albums, its contract with EMI requires its music to be sold as an entire album, not the single tracks that EMI has permitted iTunes to distribute. Lawyers for Pink Floyd had argued that a clause in the contract "expressly prohibits the sale of albums in any configuration other than the original configuration". This, supposedly has lead to £10m in unpaid royalties to the band. This has lead to a legal battle between Pink Floyd and EMI, resulting in EMI being ordered to pay £40,000 in costs. The band were not present to hear the judgment at the High Court in London.  

Instances such as this have been reflected by bands such as AC/DC, whose albums are not available on itunes. For a brief period Radiohead did not allow their albums to be released on itunes for similar reasons, although the most recent, and popular example of this has been the Beatles, who have now released their entire catalogue to itunes, after a many years of negotiations.

This is Storm Thorgerson's design for Pink Floyd's first album with their new guitarist David Gilmour. The design has become a great icon, and represents Storm's ability to come up with innovative and original ideas.

Storm Thorgerson

Considering that our final piece is not just the music video; but a complete Digipak, this means we need to consider the complete package; and therefore, album artwork. This can not be done without acknowledging the original work of Storm Thorgerson. The creator/photographer of the album artwork Pink Floyd's following albums: 

• The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
• Wish You Were Here (1975)
• Animals (1977)
• A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987)
• Delicate Sound of Thunder (1988)
• Shine On (1992)
• The Division Bell (1994)
• P*U*L*S*E (1995)
• Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81 (2000)
• Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd (2001)
• Oh, by the Way (2007)

The artwork for these vary hugely, and Storm uses a variety of locations and mediums to create these images. The album of which we are focusing on; due to our chosen song being included is The Dark Side of the Moon; his first piece for Pink Floyd. The design bored the dispersive prism, inspired to Storm whilst brainstorming with Aubrey Powell; also employed by Pink Floyd to design the cover. The design represents three elements; the band's stage lighting, the album's lyrics and Richard Wright's request for a "simple and bold" design. The cover itself had no writing or logos, much to the confusion of EMI who expected traditional designs. 

Although it would be near impossible to create the complex and abstract designs that Storm is famous for, these designs need to be considered when designing our Digipak; particularly as the images and designs represent the zeitgeist of when Pink Floyd were in their prime.

'Genrel' Research: Psychedelic Genre

Psychedelic music refers to music styles and genres that are inspired of influenced by the mind-altering experiences that artists may have on psychedelic drugs. This genre began during the 1960s, creating many new recoding techniques and music effects in order to portray the effects that the drugs have. During this period, until the 1970s the genre spread into different music types such as folk, rock, pop and soul, but eventually declined before the 1980s. However, the psychedelic genre helped create many different music genres such as progressive rock - of which Pink Floyd were an outcome. Psychedelic music was somewhat reincarnated during the 1980s to the present day in music genres such as acid and trance music. Music videos of the psychedelic era, often used visual techniques to show the hallucinatory effects of the drugs being taken; these included effects such as kaleidoscope visuals - which is something we could include within our video.

Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk

Permission Request

After trying to contact both Pink Floyd and EMI, in order to request allowance to use their song in our music video, it appears as though there are absolutely no contact details available for either. Therefore, we have been unable to contact either Pink Floyd or EMI to gain authorisation - however, due to the large size of both, I believe they would be extremely uninterested in a A-Level production video and therefore would not reply anyway. Therefore, this is simply a minor problem.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond

Narrative Structure

Whilst planning the narrative of our piece, we tried to follow the conventions, and gain inspiration from the original piece. The song itself is about death, and therefore it was certain this should be included. With this in mind we began planning our narrative structure, and these are our outcomes:

The video will begin with a man, close to death lying limply on a dirty floor. The audience at this point are unaware of why, and where this man is. His background etcetera are not clear.

The video will cut to the same man, returning from a funeral, dressed smartly, looking heavy with emotion and melancholy. 

As the shot continues this person will continue to become excessively distraught, showing elements of violence, coupled with extreme sadness and emotion. However, the audience at this point are still unaware of who's funeral this man has attended, and his connection with them.

The scene will continue, and as the man comes to a complete breakdown he will begin to take drugs; this will be graphically represented. 

Once again the man will come to an emotional breakdown, and the video will fade to both him and a young lady. A montage will portray them as a couple, happily together, though ending in the separation due to the  death of the woman. The audience will now be aware of why this man is distraught.

The video will fade once more to the original shot of the man laying motionless, eventually showing his death, due to an overdose.

This is the basic narrative structure of which we wish to entail. Though complicated, I believe that this will be extremely successful, and hopefully moving if completed correctly and with attention to every detail. 

Target Audience

A difficult question to answer in relation to the music of Pink Floyd is their target audience. The difficulty comes due to the fact that Pink Floyd, atypically, played music purely for their own enjoyment, and did not aim to make their pieces appealing to any mass audience. This is totally different when thinking of modern releases, where it is often the case that the track is manipulated in order to gain total mainstream audiences, thus making it totally profitable. 

However, this said, Pink Floyd still gained massive success throughout their musical career and have attained an epically large audience. Despite not aiming for mainstream success, the band has become hugely inspirational for their prowess as musical legends. However, this still does not mean that Pink Floyd's audiences are mainstream, and therefore, our product needs to follow in the niche footsteps of the band.

Nowadays, it could be said that Floyd's main audience are middle-aged people who have followed their music from a young age, and continue to purchase related media. Therefore, we need to come up with a product that fulfils the desires of these fans, but at the same time, still appealing to younger audiences who are not totally aware of Pink Floyd's music. This can only be achieved with a fresh approach to producing the product; our aim is to create a piece that suits the older audiences as well as the modern allowing us to gain ultimate saleability, and, though not originally intended by the band - unleash their music into mainstream audiences.

Who are Pink Floyd?

"Pink Floyd were an English rock band who achieved worldwide success with their psychedelic and progressive rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful rock music groups of all time. It is estimated that they have sold over 200 million albums worldwide, including 74.5 million certified units in the United States.

The band originally consisted of university students Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Richard Wright and Syd Barrett. Founded in 1965, they first became popular playing in London's underground music scene in the late 1960s. Under Barrett's leadership they released two charting singles, "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play", and a successful début album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967). Guitarist and vocalist David Gilmour joined Pink Floyd several months prior to Barrett's departure from the group due to deteriorating mental health in 1968. Following the loss of their principal songwriter, Pink Floyd bassist and vocalist Roger Waters became the band's lyricist and conceptual leader, with Gilmour assuming lead guitar and sharing lead vocals. With this lineup Pink Floyd achieved worldwide critical and commercial success with The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall."

Song Lyrics

"And I am not frightened of dying, any time will do, I

Don't mind. Why should I be frightened of dying?

There's no reason for it, you've gotta go sometime."

"I never said I was frightened of dying."

These are the minimal amount of lyrics taken from our chosen song The Great Gig in the Sky. Although these lyrics are only spoken, it gives a great idea of the themes referenced within the song - particularly that of death. Originally titled The Mortality Sequence, it is clear to see where this title originated. The song meaning surrounds this idea of death and coping with death - the lack of lyrics help to emphasise the emotion and anger felt throughout the piece. 

Audience Research: Questionnaire Results

question 1	question 2	question 3	question 4
male: 13	10 years or under: 0	yes: 15	drug abuse: 20
female: 20	11 - 14 years: 1	to an extent: 10	psychedelia: 15
prefer not to say: 0	15 - 17 years: 4	no: 8	visual effects: 25
	18 - 20 years: 15		artistic style: 20
	21 - 25 years: 3		intelligent narrative: 5
	26 - 30 years: 0
	31 - 40 years: 3
	41 - 50 years: 6
	51 years or over: 1
question 5	question 6
yes: 12	the powerful narrative was fitting: 5
no: 21	it was too long: 3
	it was too bizarre: 2
	message overpowered the narrative: 2
	other: 0
question 8	question 9	question 7
yes: 21	yes: 28	yes: 20
no: 10	no: 5	no: 11

After completing the questionnaire these are the results that we achieved. These show greatly our target audience's requirements for the psychedelic genre, and therefore we must match these requirements in order to make our music video successful.

Audience Research: Questionnaire

Before undertaking our filming we created the questionnaire as shown above. This was to gain knowledge about both who are target audience are, and also how to appeal to them. The results from this will hopefully give us a key idea of the elements we should emphasise; for example the use of narrative. If we use this data whilst creating our piece, both in the prinicipal photography stages and also the editing, we will capture the widest possible audience for our piece; satisfying a wide range of people of different ages and from different backgrounds.

Song Themes

In order for our music video to be successfully, there are a variety of criteria that we must fulfil. One of which is satisfying the themes that are particularly associated with both Pink Floyd, and our choice of song: Great Gig in the Sky. 


The themes that this song emphasises are of death and unhappiness, and these are constantly thrown at the audience through the strong use of narrative throughout the whole 4:47. Great Gig in the Sky, was named both "The Mortality Sequence" and "The Religion Song" throughout recording of the track. Therefore, it must be our aim to recreate and follow these themes. 


As mentioned, the narrative of the piece is particularly strong in giving a flow of emotion throughout the track, and these are particularly great given the great passion and voice of Clare Torry. The song itself has no lyrics, however this does not take away from the song; in my opinion, the absence adds to the despair and distraught that is being represented by the vocal.

Final Storyboard (If images appear faint please tilt screen back)

This is the finalised storyboard for our music video. We believe we have included everything possible in order for the piece to match the psychedelic genre we are aiming for - and if followed directly the video will fulfil all of our expectations. We have shaped this storyboard from both our personal expectations, but also from the audience feedback that we have gained.

Song Structure & Timing

Here are our brief notes taken on the timing of the song The Great Gig in the Sky. The emotion of the song changes frequently throughout the piece, and it was extremely important that we matched this with the visuals taking place. It's also very important to understand the timing of the song so that we can film adequate footage for each section. As the notes show, from 0:00-1:07 there is a great build up and tension is felt. Here we planned that the sequence should show our protagonist close to the end; almost dead with possible references to a cemetery, and possibly him coming back from this location. From 1:07-2:23 the mood of the song heightens and the piece comes to a mid-climax. Here we wish to show our character wiht an outburst of anger - hitting walls and throwing objects around his house to help suggest the emotion he is feeling - backed up with the song. From 2:23-3:30 we wish to show our protagonist taking narcotics, almost as a solution for this anger. 3:30-4:05 the sequence will change to a flashback like sequence, showing our character with his girlfriend/wife, engaging in happiness, thus suggesting to the audience the cause of our protagonists anger, violence and depression. From 4:05 until the end of the song the sequence will come back to the house of the protagonist, showing him closer and closer to death until he eventually dies, keeping within the emotions that the song entails.

Song Choice

After much discussion, as a group we have picked, with deliberation, the song we wish to create a music video for. Pink Floyd's 'Great Gig In The Sky' follows not only the heavy psychedelic themes we were aiming for, it also incorporates a powerful narrative structure. Our focus on a psychedelic piece was firstly out of our musical taste, but also to allow us to include interesting and unusual uses of cinematography throughout our piece. This would not appear out of place within this genre of music, as the psychedelic genre reflects the zeitgeist of the 1960s - 1970s due to the strong involvement of hallucinogenic drugs. The strong narrative is also particularly helpful; allowing us to follow this in creating a powerful piece to match the constant emotion felt whilst listening to the strong vocals in sections of the song.

Song Choices?

As a group it has been extremely difficult to find songs that we all agree on, due to our differing tastes of music. However, we have finally come up with a list of 3 different songs that we would all be happy to work with, and these are: Beetlebum; by Blur, Welcome to the Jungle; by Guns 'n' Roses, and The Great Gig in the Sky; by Pink Floyd.

After researching these songs we were interested to find that all 3 have references to drug abuse, particularly that of heroin. Therefore, we have decided that our video will be based around the psychedelic genre, thus allowing us to use interesting visual effects within our music video.

Related Video: Mr Brownstone

Related Video: Beetlebum