Independent- ‘4AD’
Established in ‘1979’
Genre Focus: Indie Pop, Electronic, Underground American
Rock
‘As
one fourth of the Beggars Group, 4AD is a British independent record label that
was started by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent in 1979. It was initially
created to serve as a "testing ground" for parent company Beggars
Banque Records. The idea was that new acts would spend at least one year with
4AD, and if they achieved a certain level of succss during that period, they
would then "graduate up" to Beggars Banquet. Only one group actually
followed that program.
In the mid '80s the label focused mostly
on underground Amercian rock acts. These bands would include the likes of
Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, and The Pixies. Since that time, 4AD has evolved
to represent a variety of acts from a mixed bag of genres. The current roster
includes Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Blood Diamonds, Bon Iver, David Byrne
& St. Vincent, Grimes, Purity Ring, SpaceGhostPurrp, The National, and Twin
Shadow.’
For
example an artist signed to the label is ‘Daughter’ – indie folk band
On
the artist section – there is a big picture of the lead singer of the band with
information on the band. There is then a section to hear some music through the
label website, followed by news regarding the band and then finally their music
albums and videos.
Looking
at an example of the Bands Videos
Daughter – Still
Even though the video looks professional, you can tell by
just the first 20 seconds that it is a low budget video which could be filmed
in a day or so. Having said this, a simplistic video for a slow, low tempo song
works to ‘Daughter’s advantage. If it was a high budget video it would have too
much going on at once and then perhaps loose that sense of realism to it.
The cheap looking video makes it seem more relatable and
real. The location as well – Inside someone’s house; relatable – real settings
(convention of indie videos)
The lighting used is a cool blue – making the video seem
more cold and icy linking to the icy lyrics ‘It’s spiralling down, Biting words
like a wolf howling’
Major Record Label
Comparison
Virgin
Virgin Records, Ltd. is a record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powelland Tom Newman in 1972. The company
grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, The Human League, Culture Club, Simple Minds, Lenny Kravitz, dc
Talk, The Smashing Pumpkins, Mike Oldfield, Spice Girls and more on their list of artists.
‘Bastille’ an indie pop/indie rock band
are signed to Virgin.
When visiting Vrigin Record Label’s
website the first thing that came up was a huge picture of Bastille and an
exclusive performance they had done.
I select the artist page and the first
thing that appears is ‘Bastille’ – clearly a band Virgin are trying to gain
recognition for.
The artist page has a link which does
not have an artist page for Bastille however takes you directly to their
website.
Looking
at an example of the Bands Videos – Compared to an independent record label
Bastille – Things We Lost In The Fire
The music video is located in Luthuania
(looks like a desert) straight away, it seems that video is high budget and
very professional. It loses its sense of realism and reality as the location is
something not many of Bastille’s audience members can relate too. In the video
we see all band members in a car, as well as a hound on top of a car and the
same car seen drag racing. The same car is shown in the album cover of the
bands album
Compared to the independent video by
Daughter, the difference in budget is clearly noticeable. However it seems like
having a huge budget video doesn’t always mean having a better video. Due to
the realism and relatable factor of Daughter’s video, it comes across as a much
better video.
How the Record Label impacts Views?
Being signed to Virgin Records, with vast amount of promotion, and a
high budge video Bastille have over 24 million views on Youtube.
With daughter far behind with just over 4 million
