Country Music Marketing #2

Research, Brainstorming, and Planning

When first introduced to the country genre our group was not the most intrigued as it was not something we particularly loved and felt like it did not represent our acquired tastes. Nonetheless, we triumphed on and proceeded to go on a "Journee" that is country music. We first did our research by creating a music marketing chart to see what a real artist in the industry looked like and how we could model our talent after a successful artist. We formed a google doc and got to work spending about a week on the chart itself. With good preparation comes great success so we became the most prepared that we could be. Within the music marketing chart we researched the history of two major production companies, Warner Bros. Music Nashville and Sony Music Nashville (Nashville is the home of country apparently). But not only that, we looked at a few of their most famous artists and how they marketed them. For example Blake Shelton is features at the top of Sony Music Nashville's home page on their website. Linked to that is his social media platforms as well as he newly released album and streaming services that have them. The use of cross media convergence cought our attention and we especially made note within the use of Facebook (Meta) and how popularized that was.

However, we saw one major flaw within the genre and why it wasn't as popular worldwide. It was OVERDONE. Many of the melodies, vocals, and instrumentals people had heard a thousand times and it prevented the genre from gaining more traction. So instead we chose to modernize country with the use of Neotraditional Country. Neotraditional country removes the cliche background tracks with newer instruments while keeping the same traditional vocals. In order to get a better understanding of this we pointed towards artists like Grammy Award-winning Steve Earle, and modern country star Carrie Underwood. Each were known for their modernized approach to country with a neotraditional country.

Now that we knew what we wanted to get out of the project we finally put pen to paper to come up with an artist that would sell. Journee Fae was the name we chose so that we could play on the word Journee in multiple cases, in addition the name is memorable so people can have her stuck on their mind. One thing that we did during the planning phase was map out how we were going to market, distribute, and brand Journee and what marketing techniques were other successful artists using that we did not think of. We came to the conclusion (and were required) to make a music video to brand our artist and introduce her to the world. We began storyboarding to come up with a plot that was modern and relatable while also using the traditional vocals of country. After storyboarding and coming up with how we wanted her to be portrayed on camera we were ready to film. 

Production/Postproduction

We chose to go with a music video entitled 'Need You Now' that involved storytelling and not the artistic route, however there are artistic elements within our piece. We chose to storytell because we wanted Journee to be a relatable artist not some industry plant that was just like every other artist. We wanted her uniqueness and character to be shown in a deliberate manner so as to raise the audiences awareness of the kind of person she is. Speaking of audience, while creating the music video we kept in mind our target audience of 30-60 years old. While also trying to bring in younger viewers because of what we were going for in our neocountry campaign which is why the story is revolving around a teenage girl going through heartbreak. It is something almost everyone has went through and is part of all audiences some more than others. We used blue color in the starting shots to evoke a sense of sadness and depression and worked with tight camera angles to show her anger and underlying pain with the break up. One thing that we struggled with in the production was making the story fully cohesive. While it was clear she was upset about a guy we never specified the b
reak up or that she wanted to see him again. The only thing that was driving the story was the lyrics, which is not a good thing. Overall though we combated that problem with important shots of the boy and her face to establish the connection between the two and the longing for one another that they have. We chose to end the video with a shot of both of them looking at one another from across the street symbolizing their attraction for each other while at the same time evoking a sense of distance both literally and metaphorically.

Editing was the easiest part of our project. There were not many problems due to all of the meticulous planning we did in the beginning. Something that helped a lot was the storyboard which took our piece to the next level and made all of the shots very easy to place. The only thing to really complain about is the difficulty of syncing the mouth with the words of the song. However, there is no way around it and that is just the work of editing. The timeline was relatively short with a little over a minute. While the piece was not very long, we believe it added substance to the character and might prompt people to become more open-minded about the country genre. We didn't deviate too far from tradition because she is a new artist but over time we marketed her to break norms and become a newer generation of country that is not bound by the same audio techniques and instruments. 

Presentation

The last step was to present. We took a lot of the brainstorming from the beginning and put them into google slides. We maintained big picture items and made sure not to overdo the slides with information as it is hard to read and bad for the presentation. We created slides for each group member to speak from and presented the information clearly and concisely. We created the slides to be more interactive so we liked all of Journee's social media such as Instagram, twitter, and facebook. We also created merch that we linked to the powerpoint in order for us to discuss her branding and revenue. We even went as far as to dress up for the occasion wearing country outfits. Every part of the project was meticulously planned out for a successful campaign.

While the project was not 100% perfect we did learn a lot about marketing and music videos. The big take away from this is that a great marketing campaign always starts from great planning and knowing your market. Doing your research is not only important for presenting but also to create something that will actually work in the real world. While country still isn't my favorite genre I can say that there is somewhat an appreciation for the people behind the stars.