Genre Research - 'Florence and the Machine'

Florence and the Machine is the UK's newest artist in Indie Rock. It can be described as various genres from different people such as rock and indie, to even soul.


Florence was born on the 28th August 1986 in London and has grown up there her whole life. Florence grew up in a fairly wealthy background and attended The Camber well college of Arts in studying her speciality, music.


Once graduated, she opted straight for starting her own music. The name "Florence and The Machine' comes from Florence's backing band. "The Machine" part of the name came from an idea she created herself when she was a solo artist, before she then came together with her backing band.


Her first album "lungs" reached number 1 in the album chart in UK in 2008 and also reached number 13 in the European charts. Since this big success, Florence and the Machine have been performing at several gigs and concerts around the UK and the globe. In NME Magazine, dated 20 March 2010, Welch revealed further details about her second album. She confirmed she had been in the studio for "a two-week stint with producer Paul Epworth" She claims that much of the inspiration for the second album has been scientific because "a lot of her family are doctors or trying to become doctors, so much of her conversations are fixated on medical stuff." The stint in the studio resulted in two tracks being completed and a new sound being discovered, she revealed that one track that will feature on the album is called "Strangeness and Charm", which she describes as "7 minutes long and relentless". She debuted "Strangeness and Charm" on May 2, 2010 in The Olympia Theatre, Dublin during her Cosmic Love Tour. Florence described the new sound as "dancey, but it's also dark as well" she explained that they also featured "relentless drums and heavy, droning bass." The album is due out in 2011.




This is one of my favourite videos by Florence and The Machine. Although it is very plain and quite simple and only includes a few different types of shots, I really like the subtle lights used in the background to put Florence in the spotlight so that all the audience's concentration is always on her and perhaps this is something we can consider to do in our own music video. To focus on the character themselves, rather then having a set storyline or narrative.

Genre Research - The Streets

Micheal Geoffrey "mike" skinner, normally goes by the name of "the streets" stage name. Born on the "7th November 1978, Mike has been in the music industry since a very young age.


At just 5 years old he started to learn the keyboard and it grew from there. He lived on a suburban council estate in the heart of Birmingham and had a pretty rough upbringing. In the mid 1990's he attended Bourneville Secondary School, but left at just the age of 15 to pursue his music career with no qualifications. However, he soon went straight into producing his own music. His music goes by the genre of contemporary/rap. It included both fast and slow beats and in some songs Mike 'raps/mc's', where as in slower songs such as "we never went to church" where he actually sings along to the lyrics rather then "song-talking".



Between 2000 and 2003 and he worked on his first album "Original Pirate Material" which was nominated for the mercury prize award. It was a success with the public and entered the top 20 in March 2001. It included singles such as "lets push things forward", "has it come to this" and "don't mug yourself". As you can see, by the names of the songs, What mike writes and produces is all true knowledge based and is hoping people will listen to the lyrics carefully as they mean a lot to him.


Between 2004 and 2005, he released his second album "A grand don't come for free" which again went into the top 20. In fact, one of the singles "your fit but don't ya know it" went in at number one in the charts in early 2005. "...Being number one for the first time, was by far the best moment of my life so far..." states Mike.


Since 2005, Mike has gone on to produce another 3 albums "The hardest way to make an easy living", "everything is borrowed" and his current album he is working on in 2010 is "computer blues".

He does lots of charity work and also enjoys doing live performances such as Party in the Park, and various private gigs and supporting work around London.

My favourite video from The Streets its definately the single "your fit but don't ya no it". I love the way that photographs are used as moving images as its from a point of view camera angle so its almost as if we are looking at Mike Skinner's photos. I also like the way how almost no "camera tricks" have been used in that it look like it has been done realistic and modern day and hasn't got anything false like artificial lighting or special effects. I makes the video look cleaner, sharper and crisper and I think it fits this song really well. The best thing about it though is Mike is pretty much playing himself in this video, so it makes it really fun to watch.





Another video by The Streets that I enjoyed was "when you wasn't famous". It has a really good comical edge to the video and made me laugh. Again it isn't a "show off" video as in "oh look at all the special editing techniques we can do" but has still been edited well and shows continuity throughout the video. I enjoy the streets videos so much because I like their music and how the videos really fit the genre and lyrics to their songs. I also think that this video would b able to be achieved as it isn't overly professional and so myself and my group aren't being too over ambitious.

Genre Research - Example

fI have decided to research 3 different artists for my genre research to see what videos are already on the market as I wouldn't want to do anything similar that exists and want it to be all original and unique material that myself and my group eventually come up with.


My first group I have decided to research are a electro/pop solo called "Example". Elliot Greaves was born on 20th June 1982 and grew up in Hammer smith, West London. As a teenager, he used to attend local "rap battles" in this area and this is where he got the name "Example". He attended Royal Holloway University to study film directing. however, after graduating in 2003, he realised that film wasn't the correct industry for him and so went in to a male solo career in singing, writing and producing his own music. Elliot describes his music as "dysfunctional-electro pop"

He has released 3 singles called "wont go quietly" "watch the sun come up" and his brand new single to soon be released in July 2010 "Kick starts". Here is the brad new video for kick starts by Example:



This is an excellent video and a great example to talk about when it comes to having a lot to talk about. The bit i love the most about it is the fact how it has been edited to "best-perfection" and so every image which appears in the screen in perfectly in sync with the pace and speed of the music. This makes it more enjoyable as an audience to watch and is great to look at both the video and to enjoy the excellent song at the same time.

Another part of this video which I really enjoy is the different feet/faces/people that are used so quickly and edited very fast paced so that as an audience we just get a quick flash of it. The feet is the most effective part for me. As soon as the beat in the song begins, we are shown with a pair of feet tapping along. I too immediately found myself tapping to this "catchy" electro/pop beat and so by having the feet on screen beating in time with the music makes the video look a lot sharper and perfected to each precise beat in the song.

This effect is also used in the band "30h!3" my first kiss and also an advert for the famous liquor drink "tia maria". This shows that this "beat"effect is a very contemporary idea and is being a lot. I hope to include a similar effect in our own music video when it comes to editing.







Also, i really like how "example" has such a variety within their music videos. Their first single "watch the sun come up" is an excellent contrast from the newly modernised second single "she wont go quietly" which is filmed mostly at a nightclub.

I really like the "watch the sun come up" video as it goes into animation in black and white every so often and this makes the video look really affective and as if you are being "bought into his world". The black and white breaks up the contrast of the real life images used and I really like it as i haven't seen it in any other music videos before.





"she wont go quietly" is in my mind, what i class to be as a contemporary and up to date sort of music video. I like the fact it is filmed in a club as their is a variety of different lighting and it looks like the people in the video are actually dancing to the song being played. I also like the twist and the end when the girl wakes up and it was all a bad dream!

Genres of Music

On the 23/06/10, we began doing some research in to all the different types of genres of music in order to decided which ones we liked/disliked in order to helping us become one step further to our final decision for our music video which we will be filming in September/October time.

As a class we came up with over 20 different types of genres for example: reggae, RNB, pop, jazz, classical, funky house, rap and so on. This shocked me as I wasn't expecting there to be so many different types of music in the world and I am already started to feel confused as to what genre I would like to use for my final piece this year!

Out of the 20 or so genres we came up with, my favourites to consider would be pop, classics (such as 60's/70's music) or alternative, so something that is unique and different from all the other types of music available on the market. I cant wait to begin my research even further!