Mass Media

Mass Media is a form of media that are consumed by mass viewers, not just a small sector of the media market.

Examples of mass media are:
Social networking
'Pop' music
Soaps
X Factor
News Papers

Using Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds as an example:

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by The Beatles is both part of the majority and minority. When The Beatles first came around in the early 1960's they were classed as being part of the minority audience group, as they were different to any other 1960s music, However during their revelation of psychedelic music they became extremely popular having global appeal. Due to music having a large impact on the music industry for being so different, it attracted a large audience, ironically leaving them to be extremely popular within the music industry and part of a mass media audience.  

However, although these days they are seen to be a revelation to the music industry, many people in todays society do not in fact know who The Beatles are, no longer being played on big radio stations and listened to by a wide audience The Beatles have become less and less well known to the people in todays world leaving them once again to be part of a minority, only really to be known to those who have been brought up with them, or to people who are seen to want to 'stand out'.  This relates to the theorys of Riesman and Hoggart about mass media and minorities and majorities.


Hoggarts theory examines popular music and its impact on vulnerable people - more specifically the working-class youth. Hoggart believes that youths of today only will only sing sounds from the era of their parents and grandparents if they were specifically brought up with it, in some respects The Beatles apply to this. Within todays culture many people are unaware of the sound of The Beatles and are too focused on music in the 'Hit40UK' meaning that mass media such as popular songs 'cannot reach an audience of the size they beed by cutting across class boundaries '. 

Production Companies

Universal Music Group


Universal music is an American music group and is the largest in the music industry owning a huge 31.7 % of the overall market share. Universal Music Group owns a music publisher, Universal Music Publishing Group, which became the world's largest following the BMG Music Publishing in May 2007.
Universal records signs a wide variety of bands such bands as; Blink 182, Jay - Z and Maroon 5. 




Sony Music Entertainment
Sony music entertainment is the second largest global record company in the whole world. Owning 25.61% of the overall market share. Sony is controlled by Sony Corporation of America in the US, subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation.
Sony sign such bands as;Aerosmith, Backstreet Boys and Calvin Harris
Again, this shows us the variety of music that the Sony music entertainment group sign. 












Warner Bros. Records Inc.


Warner Brothers is an American Record Label, founded in 1958. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. Warner Brothers Records is the third highest revenue record label in the world owning 15% of the overall market share of music. 
Warner Brothers Records sign a variety of music from different genres all across
the globe. including such bands as; Biffy Clyro, Cher and Green Day.

The Beatles - The Beatles founded Apple Records in 1960 as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. Originally it was just intended to be used by The Beatles as a creative outlet. However a group of other artists where signed to this label, including Mary Hopkin, James Taylor and Billy Preston. 

Research into A2 media videos from other schools.

We researched different school media videos to get an idea of what is possible when we are doing our own video. We chose this video because it scored very high and generated a big fan base as it was so well done.

http://prezi.com/lkn96r8bbrbq/analysis-of-music-video/

Record Label

The name we have chosen is Fringe Records. We decided to go with a colour theme and design similar to the music that is on the label, matching the psychedelic rock music genre of The Beatles when they created Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

Treatment for music video. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds – The Beatles.

Song: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds                Artist: The Beatles
Characters: 4 males - To play each member of The Beatles
                   Girl - To play main character
                   30 extras - To play various roles as people at parties/ walking down the road.
Location: Party: Megan's house        Wood area: Bentley Lane         Road: White Horse Way

Idea for the video:
When it starts and music is slow in tempo the video begins in reverse In slow motion, Starting with a long shot of main character and zooming in until camera reaches her eye.
It takes the girl back to a party where everyone is dressed up in crazy costumes. The lighting is bright and airy, everything seems infinite. The camera then follows her through the party. There are many close ups of peoples faces.

When the lyric reads 'the girl with kaleidoscope eyes' the screen is then filled with a spiralling pattern. People jump out of her Then the drum beat sounds, and on the last beat the pattern stops and the reversal stops and it shows the girl walking down the street.

To the left of her is four of our friends, dressed up in suits playing the song. She seems different, is staggering everywhere and when she turns to see people they are dressed up, but when she looks again they are back to normal. Everyone is dressed as if it is the 60's, showing the era it which the song was written. The girl looks to the sky and sees birds flying and the clouds moving in speed, all the while miraging shapes appear in a kaleidoscope of colour. Eventually the girl ends up in a forest which is abundant with people dressed up in animal costumes having a tea party. The forest is strung with lights and lanterns.

The girl joins in with the party, all the animals come up to her, touch her, stroke her, get really up in her face. She panics tries to fight them away, but they take her to join the party. She is engulfed by them, then she re-ermerges dressed up as an animal like them. The party continues then, everyone is dancing and camera focuses on the girl, she is stumbling around, eyes wide, physchedelic colours flow everywhere. The end of the song the girl stumbles, she trips and falls to the floor. The camera focuses on the animals around her that close in and stare at her.  The end of the song sees the camera holding a fixed shot on the girls face, she closes her eyes, then opens them and smiles.

Analysis of 'lucy in the sky with diamonds' music video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7F2X3rSSCU

The genre of this track is psychedelic rock(ish) and displays trypical characteristics of this genre through litery-inspired lyrics and quite surreal animations. They use vivid colours and images related to hallucination. The title 'Lucy in the sky with diamonds' refers to LSD a drug quite often connected with this particular genre. The lyrics are very whimsical and the visuals display this with very fantasy-related images which move in a very hypnotic way. The visuals show the animations in brains, which fits in with the lyric 'picture yourself' which infers the whole song is related to imagination and surreal scenarios inside your mind.
The starting verse if the song is quite slow and trance-like. The video relflects this with animations that have moving patterns inside, but are not moving themselves. The clips are editied in time with the music, as when the music increases in tempo the animations change to something which is moving faster.
There are close-ups of the animated version of John Lennon and long shots which show him walking through this surreal world. There are also close-ups of animations which move in time with the music.
I think this video is narrative because it shows a story of John Lennon travelling through a world which matches in pace with the esoterically inspired lyrics. The Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds music video is a snippit from the film Yellow Submarine, and therefore backs up the point of being narritive.
The video that is already created shows an animated world; we have decided to create a 'real life' revision of the song, to recreate the created world by The Beatles.

Prezi on Psychedelic Rock music genre

We decided to create a prezi about the Psychedelic Rock music genre, fitting in with the Genre of our chosen song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by The Beatles.
http://prezi.com/n1nc8bb9qgzw/music-genres-a2-media/

Along with the Prezi we did on Psychedelic Rock, we did some background research on other music genres, giving us greater knowledge and understanding of music genres.
http://prezi.com/fngi5fakgcyf/media-studies-music-genres/