Brand Identity - The Target Audience

Given the nature of my project, what is effectively a nostalgic revival of the seminal 90s Britpop group, I have opened doors to a varied demographic of audiences. For example, those who lived through The Stone Roses' debut and follow-up album would be grown adults currently; and lately there has been a large resurgence of indie bands from the 90s becoming popular in our present day, thus allowing for a younger teen audience. Despite The Stone Roses not being an active studio band since the release of 1995s 'Second Coming' up until 2016s single releases 'All for One' and 'Beautiful Thing' they still have a massive cult following on the debut album along with all their early singles. Masses of fans, young and old, continue to buy tickets for shows that almost instantly become sold out (speaking from experience). Therefore, giving me the job of attempting to create a brand that would appeal to both sides of the spectrum.

I believe that the music itself would simply appeal to the older demographic due to the fact that when The Stone Roses were in their prime they often didn't rely on music videos or promotional material as the music and the whole 'scene' behind the music gained them the cult following they have today. Live performances in famed Manchester club 'The Hacienda' helped The Stone Roses achieve a local following and thus developed the Madchester Rave scene. This therefore allows me to focus on appealing to the younger teenage audience through the use of the Music video and promotional material, given the boom of music videos and the importance behind the audience being able to identify with artist they are listening to. Music videos are even becoming an expression of art alongside the music itself, thus forming a more expressionistic culture around music videos. An example would be the music video for the late David Bowie's 'Blackstar' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszLwBaC4Sw). This music video/short film can be interpreted as having a completely different meaning to the song itself and thus becomes its own entity separate from the music, and an expression of art from the director of the music video.

Brand Identity - Colour Pallette/Design

Most bands/solo artist tend to have a specific color or logo that they are often associated with, for example a British band such as 'The Who' are often associated with the colors represented in the Union Jack flag as this was the primary colors used in the 'Mod' scene; the logo for this 'scene' was used as the band's symbol. These colors were often used in the band's live shows and some of the promotional photo-shoots the band did.

These colors and imagery help make the band distinguishable from others, and thus creating an iconography of sorts for the band that the audience can appeal to. Furthermore, it allows the audience to recognize products associated with this band because of the eye-catching colors. Choosing a specific palette is important as it can determine the image of the band, all the merchandise and general style of the band.

In my case, the imagery associated with The Stone Roses is the famous lemon. Those who lived through the 90s and interested in Britpop would instantly recognize this as The Stone Roses' icon. Furthermore, the use of Jackson Pollock's abstract painting influences is another key symbol of the band. This was a primary feature that was employed in the band's album covers, music videos and promotional shoots.

 

 For my choice of palette, however, I have decided to focus on the lemon imagery for the Album cover and the promotional material as this is by far their most recognizable symbol. I feel as if the Jackson Pollock-inspiration does not fully translate to the audience now as the famous lemon does. Additionally, in the band's current promotion for upcoming tours they employ the use of various lemon inspired designs, thus proving it to be the optimal promotion technique. Keeping in line with my wish to create a minimalistic, conceptual aura around the promotional material I will frequent the use of bright yellows and pale whites as this is not only striking but very reminiscent of The Stone Roses' fame in the 90s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Editing/Shooting - Superimposition

I plan to use this editing technique as a homage of sorts to The Stone Roses' various music videos; additionally it creates a nostalgic sense of the 'psychedelia' to their music and lyricism. An example of this would be in the Sally Cinnamon video in which a majority of the video is various shots of scenery in Manchester; interestingly, the footage is almost all in slow-motion thus adding to the idea of psychedelic genre. The superimposed shots are often layered scenery shots, with one being stationary, and the other being a fast panning shot with a number of lights. It is understandable why an indie band such as The Stone Roses would employ such a primitive editing technique due to the obvious lack of budget in their production. Furthermore, it can create links to their brand identity as a whole; the idea of layering shots can form a link with the artwork, inspired by Jackson Pollock, that band guitarist John Squire illustrates. This artwork follows the theme of frequent layering, as does the superimposition. This editing technique can be seen on many other Stone Roses music videos; one good example being the video for 'I Wanna be adored'. The video employs the same use of slow motion shots and frequent layering. However, it is not just scenery used in this video. The video shows the band performing on an ethereal, purple desert, with a lot of psychedelic-inspired superimposition of individual band members; most notably John Squire playing the guitar. I would like to use a similar superimposition technique in that I will include frequent superimposed guitar playing upon the narrative of the video. Additionally, I have considered including the slow-motion editing as a callback to the artists and the genre.

This is an example of superimposition in an image. As you can see it is the layering of two images atop one another, I feel as if this provides a psychedelic vibe of sorts as it acts upon the visual sense of the video. In cooperation with the use of slow-motion, superimposition can be used to create psychedelic imagery as if it were some illusion on the eye.





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D2qcbu26gs
The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyfRRYlEn68
The Stone Roses - Sally Cinnamon
Both these Stone Roses music videos show heavy usage of superimposition, particularly in IWBA showing the band members playing their instruments across a desert. Sally Cinnamon, however, shows superimposition used with scenery shots and of random people. Both are used on cooperation with the slow motion effect to allow for a psychedelic feel to the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GhoWZ5qTwI
The Smiths - Girlfriend in a Coma
This music video is another from the 80s that heavily employs the use of superimposition.