Research on an Artist

Lily Allen...

- Allen met her first manager, George Lamb in Ibiza. Allen was rejected by several labels, which she attributed to her drinking and being the daughter of Keith Allen. Lily eventually used her father's connections to get signed to London Records a part of the Warner Music in 2002. When the executive who had signed her left, the label lost interest and she left without releasing the folk songs many of which were written by her father.

- Allen created an account on MySpace and began posting demos in November 2005. The demos attracted thousands of listeners, and 500 limited edition 7" vinyl singles of "LDN" were rush-released, reselling for as much as £40.

- She gained tens of thousands of MySpace friends, which led to The Observer, taking an interest.- In March 2006, OMM included an article about Allen's success through MySpace. She received her first major mainstream coverage, appearing in the magazine's cover story two months later. The success of her songs convinced her label to allow her more creative control over the album and to use some of the songs that she had written instead of forcing her to work with mainstream producers. Allen decided to work with producers Greg Kurstin and Mark Ronson, finishing the rest of the album in two weeks.

- Allen's songs have been downloaded from her MySpace page 19 million times. As at 9 February 2009, Allen had 448,000 MySpace friends. She was the fifth most popular musical act of 2008, according to the social networking site. Allen used her MySpace blog for controversies surrounding her. By February 2009 she had stopped the practice because "It's boring when people just pick stuff up and write about it. People get hurt, people get upset."

- Allen's debut album, Alright, Still, was released as a limited-edition 12" vinyl in the UK on 3 July 2006; the full CD release followed in the UK and the rest of Europe on 17 July 2006. The album features between 11 and 14 tracks (depending on the edition), most of which were previewed on her MySpace page, including the singles "Smile" (the first song she wrote with Future Cut), "LDN", "Knock 'Em Out", and "Alfie". "Friday Night", also included, alongside "Littlest Things" produced by Mark Ronson

- In September 2006, "Smile" was made available on the United States version of iTunes Store.

- By January 2009 the album had sold 960,000 copies in the United Kingdom and 520,000 copies in the United States.

http://www.lilyallenmusic.com/lily/

Taylor Swift and 13

Today Emma pointed out to me and Sophie, that within all of her music videos she mentions about the number 13 or has it written on her somewhere.

Taylor Swift incorporates the 13 within the videos as it is a lucky number for her, even though it is mainly unlucky for everyone else.

I also realised I remembered Taylor Swift using it in the film Valentines Day.

This has now become an iconic feature which Taylor uses.

Planning

Better Than Revenge

Actors/Extra's

Lead: Emma Langschied
"Bitch": Amy Rushmer
Guy: Rhys Lloyd
Extras: Kelsie Bagshaw
Sunil Bedi
Sophie Grayling

Locations

- My bedroom
- Emma's bedroom
- Field
- Taxi

** WE NEED TO KEEP ALL OF THIS IN MIND!! **

Taylor Swift

The images that I have incorporated into this collage of Taylor Swift are all showing different aspects of her as an artist, and in the way in which she markets herself to her target audience.

The top row are images which are from different music videos; the middle image is from Lovestory, and the image on the far right is from the music video Tear drops on my guitar. I put images from music videos on this collage, as that is what we will be making, and so having some ideas of the mise-en-scene and costume which she wears as well as how she has her hair will help encourage ideas for our group.

The images in the middle row are from different album covers and different single covers. As for our artist and song we need to construct an album cover, I thought that it would be best to see what kinds of album she has used an artist, they are all very simplistic and just showing the real innocence and naturalness of her as an artist and a person.

The images on the bottom row are from different magazine covers that she has been involved with. I thought that it would be best to have different album covers incorporated with her image collage as it is showing how she really markets herself. It is showing which sort of magazines she is willing to be a part of of, for example 'Rolling Stones' is a good one to go to, for any musician to be a part of, as well as younger magazine audiences such as 'Sugar' and 'Seventeen'. Taylor Swift is an artist who definitely knows where target audience lies and where she is best to promote herself, and to even be able to gain more fans.

Taylor Swift's official website

http://www.taylorswift.com/

iTune's

I can remember from a few years ago when Taylor was first starting out as an artist, on iTune's I was able to download one of her songs for free, it was called Fifteen. For a starting out artist it is an extremely clever way of advertising themself. If you like the song as a potential audience member, you are very likely to go out and buy an album or keep downloading her songs as it is something that you would listen too.



As I went onto the iTune's online download store, I searched for Taylor Swift and there was a lot for a potential customer to buy. Also in the bottom left of the page I was on (as you can see from the above picture) it said that one of her songs was an iTune's essential.

Taylor Swift - Thug Story

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DFMbLKEjaI&feature=related (The actual video)



Country cutie Taylor Swift's collaboration with rap artist T-Pain - 'Thug Story' - was a highlight of the 2009 CMT Music Awards on Tuesday, June 16. Photo Credit: Jeff Vespa/The Recording Academy/Wireimage / Splash News
June 17, 2009, (Sawf News) - Country cutie Taylor Swift's collaboration with rap artist T-Pain - Thug Story - was a highlight of the 2009 CMT Music Awards on Tuesday, June 16.

The parody on Swift's Love Story is directed by Peter Zavadil.
- http://www.sawfnews.com/entertainment/58501.aspx

This video was purposely made to be played during the CMT Music Awards in 2009. This video is showing the versatility (even if it isn't at it's best) of Taylor as an artist. It helps to show her as a likeable character, and someone who isn't afraid of a challenge or something new.

By Taylor joining T-Pain in this little parody music video it helps to show another way of her advertising herself, even if it isn't for recognition of what she is normally known for.

Film and Tv Career



Taylor Swift hasn't just limited herself to a music career, she has goals and it seems that she is very much so achieving it. She has been in a few films and also been in a few television programmes, this again is helping to show people her versatility and all at such a young age.

OVERALL

From all of this research it seems that Taylor Swift is the kind of singer which as a group we are very much going to want to be doing a music video for.