DISTROOOO

(note: I've added hyperlinks for specific examples, so make sure to hover over the text so you don't miss any)

The cool thing about working on a music project like this is that I've spent a good amount of time navigating small communities online that indulge in independent, Internet-based music. This has given me insight and experience over time for figuring out what works and what doesn't -- I have several friends who produce and release music online and I'm definitely going to be taking pointers from them. My distribution for the music itself will therefore be largely online, since I'm mostly aiming for that niche audience that uses the Internet to discover new music. There are several different routes I could take to take advantage of this, including streaming services as well as other forms of integration and post-release promotion. As for the music video itself I'll be posting it on Youtube and promoting it alongside the music itself upon release (I'll go deeper into this in the Soundcloud paragraph).

The main service I'll be looking at is Bandcamp, which has a reputation for hosting independent music, both for streaming and digital download purposes. Users can stream music for free or purchase projects from the artist directly, owning it as a download. I've bought multiple projects from some of my favorite independent artists on Bandcamp, and its provision of digital downloads has made my own personal digital music library much more expansive. Another cool thing about Bandcamp is its exploration and discovery, especially of smaller artists. I've found a few super interesting and underseen projects ranging different genres like breakcore (97997ALMONDS and hsiu) to skramz (Sugar Wounds and Gas Up Yr Hearse!) that I would never have found otherwise. I love being able to support these artists directly, it feels very personal and it's just cool being part of such a niche community. For these reasons I see Bandcamp as the most fitting distribution source for my product, especially if I'm sticking with an ambient / noise route.

My Bandcamp library, not including stuff I've downloaded for free.

Another great service for independent 'Internet music' (as my friends and I have lovingly dubbed the kind of silly music I listen to) is Soundcloud, which has always been a resource used predominantly by hip-hop-adjacent artists as well as different electronic stuff. My friends who produce all base their distribution primarily through Soundcloud, adding links to Bandcamp or Youtube releases in the description. A common technique used by Soundcloud-based artists is including **VIDEO IN DESCRIPTION** or some variation of it in a track title, the video in question usually being on Youtube. This is super commonplace and establishes a pretty much universally accepted bond between posting on Youtube and Soundcloud if you're making a music video. Soundcloud also provides digital downloads, for free this time, but is mostly streaming-focused. It's very accessible and ubiquitous with contemporary independent music, so I'll be posting there as well.

Although this isn't a streaming service, RateYourMusic is also an absolute must for navigating the Internet music sphere. I've found SO MANY of my favorite albums through this website, some of them super recent and some simply being forgotten indie projects from a few decades ago. Its userbase is very passionate about discovering new music, with the site's genre pages and list features making the sharing of new findings a fun and communal experience. Any user can add an artist or project to the database, making it findable to anyone. RYM would be a viable form of promotion after releasing my project, even if it doesn't gain too much traction. Also it's just cool having your music show up somewhere like that.

My RateYourMusic profile (shameless plug)

VISUALSSS

The major task for this project is not making the music itself, rather producing a music video for it. In class last year, we were taught that there are three general types of music videos: the performance, the narrative, and the concept. Usually, the first music video by an artist is the performance type, showcasing and promoting the artist as a figure and introducing them to possible audiences. This type, along with the narrative, is the most common, with the two often being combined as well. The narrative form follows a storyline that often matches the song's lyrics; the third, the concept, is the most abstract, not following a set narrative and taking a highly stylistic / 'artsy' approach. 

The concept video is not normally taken on as the first video for an artist, but I think I'll be taking that risk. Aside from the obvious hurdles of producing the video on my own, the abstract qualities of a concept video would likely be more fitting with the sound of my music. Some of my main stylistic inspirations musically also produce concept videos quite a bit, and it fits with their music really well, much more than a narrative or even performance would. Fuzzy layers of color melding with each other capture the soothing feeling of ambient music and more synth-based witch house, which is one of the main options I'm considering.

(left to right: CRIM3S - MEET ME HALF DEAD, Mount Eerie - Ocean Roar, White Ring - SHAKEN TO SLEEP)

However, there are also examples of performance videos combined with the stylized aspects of a concept. The examples I've seen of this kind usually feature the artist in front of a green screen performing the song with visuals and layering behind / in front of them. This style can work for a load of genres, and would likely be a good direction in terms of marketing since it resonates with the internet-based sensibilities of contemporary audiences. I'll probably be taking this route, depending on if the song I choose for the video is vocal-centered or not (probably not lol). Even still, I think it would be fun to experiment with layering and chroma keying techniques since it just looks so cool every time.

(left to right: Sematary - I HAIL THE NIGHT, Gods Wisdom & Mal Devisa - 2 Lives, Charli XCX - Claws, Crystal Castles - Baptism, Yung Lean - Hurt, YABUJIN - DEAR GATEKEEPER)

I think it's still too early on to start considering what exactly I'll be featuring in the music video, but it's good to look at these options and decide what music route I'm taking based on what's easier to execute. Full list of video inspiration here.

PORTFOLIO PROJECT INTRO!! MUSIC-MAKING FUN

(note: I've added hyperlinks for specific examples, so make sure to hover over the text so you don't miss any)

So I've known since the beginning of the schoolyear when we got introduced to this project that I wanted to go with the music route, producing a music video, social media account, and digipak. However, instead of working with a local artist, I wanted to make the music myself :0

I have a little experience with music production: I've made a few beats / instrumentals before ranging from early 2010s trap / drill to witch house to various other silly things but was never very satisfied with them. I also really like remixing songs by adding chopped-up breakbeats and speeding the song up and adding effects like reverb and gross beat and 10000 layers of delay / flanger / other nonsense (linking an example here, sorry about the mediafire link LOL, I tried embedding it in a little miniplayer but blogger hates me and doesn't allow mp3 embeds anymore I guess??).

I've also been interested in exploring noise music, either softer ambient stuff like lovesliescrushing that bridges into shoegaze / dream pop, or what "most" (relatively, we're talking about a pretty niche community here methinks) people consider noise - i.e. power electronics or prepared guitar stuff. 

I'd like to find a happy medium among all the genres I listed, which I think is pretty achievable considering I've heard similar stuff that combines witch house / early drill / black metal, noise / experimental hip hop, and trance / breakcore to name a few. My main concern is making something substantive that doesn't rely too heavily on trying to emanate my inspirations. I also don't want to fall back completely on using pastiche and pre-existing material (although some of those inspirations do that quite a bit). Since I only technically need to produce one full song for the portfolio project in order to make the music video I'm not too worried about trying to combine all those broad influences and go into a full creative effort, but if I have time I'd definitely like to :)

I've already assembled a playlist of some inspirations which I'll link to here, and I'm looking into possible music video styles that I can feasibly recreate and experiment with. I also have to start thinking about the social media aspect but I think I should be able to do that without much effort. Since I'm going for a more explicitly independent thing than the project assumes most people will take for this option I'm definitely gonna have to be creative with how I build my image and get my music around, but I'm involved enough in these kind of niche subgenre-centered spaces that I think I can figure things out.

POSTMODERNISM IS EPIC LULZ!!!

I've been wanting to go into film studies at a higher level for a few years now, so I was very happy to begin doing so this year in A-level. The entire postmodernism unit we did was very fulfilling for me. While reading the theories of Baudrillard, Jameson, and Hutcheon, I kept thinking back to some of my favorite films, finally having proper terminology to put into analyses I had made during prior watches. Postmodernism felt like the perfect movement for me to study, especially since I got the chance to write about one of my favorite films ever, Resident Evil: Retribution, in the context of postmodern theory for our A-level midterm. 

The negative mainstream reception of and around the Resident Evil films honestly makes me sad because of how perfect they are as examples of postmodernism, especially in our contemporary postmodernist age with a growing interest in VR and full immersion in digital spaces. I feel that looking at these films through that lens specifically could lead to a much-needed critical reappraisal, and I'm really glad I was able to offer my take on this in my midterm essay. The whole postmodernism unit and that case study also got me thinking about how many 21st century films should be reappraised in this way. There's an abundance of cinema from the past 25 years that is rife with the anticapitalist commentaries and hyperreal digital atmospheres theorized by the postmodernists, critically and commercially shunned and written off as overindulgent, insubstantial vulgarities.

Some of my favorite examples are Michael Mann's Miami Vice and Christopher Nolan's Tenet, both of which have received criticism for unintelligible dialogue and being style-over-substance pieces with an air of pretentiousness and egoism. Both of these films indulge in their maximalist atmospheres and subvert action conventions while simultaneously holding true to them, taking everything to the furthest extent possible. The former oversaturates the style and campiness of the source material and lives in a perpetual state of aesthetics and opulence, akin to the similarly reviled Showgirls (1995) and Psycho (1998). It uses pastiche in a way that is upheld and advanced by Mann's manipulation of the buddy-cop/noir paradigm: almost twofold what he had already achieved in 1995's Heat. Tenet is almost self-parodying in its incomprehensible plot and time-warp motif. Nolan takes what he is known for -- definitively postmodern pieces that deal with simulacra and human emotion expressed through layers of hyperreality -- and throws sensibility to the wind. Dialogue offering a bombardment of exposition (barely audible at times, the sound design feels purposely disruptive; this was meant to be viewed in a theatre) with a slow-moving and indiscernible plot that leaves the viewer stranded, near-drowning. Nolan's reputation for confusing, "meta" films allows him to indulge in postmodernist traits to such a high level without the restraints of genre or expectation: thus is the fate of the vulgar auteur.

Seems like I went on a tangent there. Oopsies! But my point is, this unit gave me the tools and outlet to further express my ideas on film and other media I consume. I'm more excited than ever to go to college for film studies, maybe even pursue this as a career :D

IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE SUMMER (WINTER?) OF AUREA

New year, new blog. I am so excited!

This year in A Level we worked on a film distribution project, in which we received a short story written by creative writing students and were challenged to plan a film adaptation of it, complete with trailers and a distribution plan. My group was assigned a story based on the game Among Us, which would've been pretty awesome a year ago when Among Us still had meme status. This was just stale. Putting the less-than-ideal subject matter aside, the project still didn't exactly work out. BOO! HISS!

My group got the initial idea figured out and we worked on researching films in the same vein -- 80s scifi-horror-comedy revival -- such as Malignant and Cabin in the Woods. I also had in mind Possessor and Scream as well as the original 80s inspirations like Evil Dead, the Thing, Alien, and the Fly. The research was fun: I love movies, and it's always cool finding out behind-the-scenes stuff like marketing and distribution specifics. Fleshing out the aesthetics for our film was my favorite part, I love brainstorming stuff like that and the concept we were working with seemed perfect for that kind of pastiche overindulgent FUN that doesn't take itself too seriously.

The research went smoothly, but this is when problems arose. I took a week off school because I got sick with a cold (EPIC FAIL) and then another week off for my mental health (EPIC WIN). One of my group members was also quarantined during this time, so we weren't able to actually film or produce anything. We were left with just the slideshow presentation and the key art, which isn't the worst case possible I guess. I just would've really loved to make those ideas come to life, especially something that seemed so fun to create. But the situation just wasn't in our favor. 

I definitely could've handled Rodrigo and I's absences better: more communication and planning, etc. Circumstances were messy all around. Next time I'll be sure not to let that happen! I'm also going to be working on the portfolio project by myself (trollface) but hopefully that'll turn out better than this. I find working in groups can be difficult for me because it's hard to arrange everything with everyone staying on the same page and contributing the same amount of time/effort (which is fine!), so working on my own terms should be easier to handle.