Friday 22 May 2009

Year 12 Media - Rough Trade stuff

OK so here's all the lovely bullet points you made in the lesson (we were let down by the 1978-89 group - thanks a lot Ross and Josie!), I hope nobody's panicking about the exam, you will be FINE. Enjoy the break x

Rough Trade 1976/78:

Geoff Travis collected records while traveling across America
Shipped records back which started the Rough Trade shop in 1976
Specialized in different, unusual music
Had an identity, wasn’t after people money
Became HQ for punk due to position in Ladbrook Grove
Mainstream labels began to take notice of shops record selling power
Formed alliance with West Indian community due to local area.
1977- Spiral Scratch put out record with the idea anyone could make a record without record company backing.
Scritti Politti put instruction on record sleeve, DIY manufacturing
1978- Rough Trade started mail-order to individuals and shops; this led to start of the record label.
People were paid equal money to keep simplistic friendly atmosphere.


Rough Trade’s Downfall:

Found it hard to hold onto bands after they had made their breakthrough
Lack of business experience which caused financial problems.
Majors have a bigger finance, better technology, and wider advertising.
Shop was shut in 1982 due to financial problems
Rough trade rights were sold off
1987- Mismanagement
Bad relationship with The smiths. They wanted to leave, but had to stay because they had a contract with Rough Trade. They eventually left in 1986.
As it got bigger and developed Rough Trade lost collective spirit from the audience.
Technology advances, making it harder for them to distribute.
Went Bankrupt in 1991

Rough trade – Re-invention:

In 1991 Geoff Travis and Jeanette Lee set up a shop near the original placing of the shop, to revive rough trade
Started managing Jarvis Cocker from Pulp. Pulp later signed to Island records and reached number 2 in 1995.
Rough trade was re launched in 2000.
They signed The Strokes, who were there biggest signing since The Smiths
June 11th 2002 was bought out by BMG
2006 rough trade celebrated 30 years of Rough Trade. Shops double-album launched a digital store and updated a mail order website.
In July 2007 Sanctuary Records then sold Rough Trade to the Beggars Group making Rough Trade independent once again
Since its rebirth rough trade has released albums by high charting artist such as The strokes, The Libertines, Babyshambles and Belle and Sebastian.
New shop opened in Talbot Road in 2007, it allowed audience not just to buy records/music but to visit the coffee shop, watch live performances stage, exhibition space, and 'snug' internet/workshop corner.
They got there first number one with Duffy “Mercy”.

Rough Trade now:
Still independent.
A much larger organisation that when Geoff and Jeanette started out but still trying to maintain their ethos of non-mainstream, music-that-they-like, treat-the-artist-well, equality-for-all hippyness (don't use that word in the exam!).
CHECK OUT THE 'HISTORY' SECTION OF THE WEBSITE FOR MORE.

Thursday 21 May 2009

Year 10 Essay Question - Dexter Titles

Analyse a television drama title sequence of your choice to discover how it communicates meaning about Genre, Character, Narrative and Style to the audience. You may wish to consider:

  • Cinematography
  • Sound
  • Mise-en-scene
  • Editing

You can use Dexter or choose your own title sequence to analyse. The link for the Dexter sequence is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBN-wXgkUSM

Friday 15 May 2009

Year 10 Homework


You'll find all your blogs now attached to this one as links on the right-hand side so check out how brilliant they're all looking! Homework for this week is to make sure your banner is uploaded to your blod, make sure you have done all the tasks set so far (see posting below) AND write up all class notes. I see Kristina's done a great job on this, but I know she did it first so no copy-and-pasting guys, do it yourself!


BLOG ON KIDS!

Thursday 14 May 2009

Media Studies AS classes, I do feel for you...

As you're all struggling through the practice exam paper I thought I'd try to help you expand your understanding of the music industry and its relationship with audiences. I've found a very interesting website of an online record label that allows audiences to pay whatever they feel a record is worth, taking the Independent ideologies we've seen at Rough Trade to a whole new level. The 'Info' section of the website is very useful and will give you insights into how the industry works and ways in which new technologies are having to be addressed due to audience pressure. Like the founders of Rough Trade, the guy who started Magnatune is a music fan who disagreed with the way things were being done and so decided to do it himself, his own way. The results are interesting. Check it out!

http://magnatune.com/

I've also found some links to articles about Rough Trade which may be of use to you in constructing case studies:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article2401753.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2008/nov/26/rough-trade-records-30

This article looks at Record Shop vs Online buying:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2007/mar/26/canroughtradesnewrecordsh

This article is about an online music company falling foul of outdated licensing laws and begs the question: how will the music industry adapt to survive the digital age?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/feb/11/digitalmusic-downloads

Here's the link to that essay sharing site too:

http://www.coursework.info/AS_and_A_Level/Media_Studies/

Tuesday 12 May 2009

Cover Work Wednesday 13th May

Year 13 periods 3-4
Take a copy of the 'Future of TV' booklet on my desk and spend 30mins making notes/highlighting from it and then one hour writing an answer to the question: To what extent have technological advancements changed the face of British broadcasting in recent years?

Year 11 period 5
Continue preparing exam. You should be doing task 4 and can use the doodle to help, plus there are copies of storyboards on my desk. In the 'To Return' tray on the windowsill are the tasks you gave me for marking yesterday, so you can take those back too.

Please remember that anything you want feedback on for the exam must be given to me by Monday at the latest.