Punk Rock - The Jam

The Jam were one of the early punk rock bands in England during the Late 70s, early 80s. While they adopted the "angry young men" attitude and the fast rock tempo, they dressed hugely iconic. Their Smart, neatly tailored suits created the new "Mod revival" image that was big in the 80s, seen recently in the film "This Is England". This was very different to the torn, rebellious clothing that the rock artist of their day wore. The band went on to record 18 consecutive Top 40 singles in the United Kingdom, from their debut in 1977 to their breakup in December 1982, including four number one hits. As of 2007, "That's Entertainment" and "Just Who Is the 5 O'clock Hero?" remained the best-selling import singles of all time in the UK. They released one live album and six studio albums, the last of which, The Gift, hit number one on the UK album charts. When the group split up, their first 15 singles were re-released and all placed within the top 100.

I felt that The Jam would give me a good understanding of the roots of Punk Rock and are a band i am very interested in personally. I enjoy their music and like their image and style which is something i may look to recreate when i form my band to make the music video.

Punk Rock - Summary and Introduction

Short summary of Punk Rock – The first roots of punk rock came about in the fifties or just prior to this, the foundations were laid in the 60s but the movement didn't really start until the mid-70s. The bands in the early years that made it popular were US: Ramones, Patti Smith, Talking Heads UK: Sex Pistols, the Clash, Buzzcocks, The Jam. Punk was inspired by some of the heavier and rawer forms of rock n roll; garage rock, early forms of hard rock, and the experimental rock of bands like the Velvet Underground. Generally, punk rock music is loud, fast, raw, simple, poppy music with a broadly left wing or anarchist political message however there isn’t a definite criteria as these are just generalisations, many bands had no political message to their music and some weren’t massively loud and trashy. The main instruments considered with Punk Rock are electric guitar + bass, drums, vocals. The movement encouraged and inspired new popular music groups; new wave, post-punk, alternative, indie, noise rock and hardcore rock.

The Artists i will be looking at are:
- The Jam
- Blink 182 (90’s teen punk rock era, less hard)

This will give me a range of bands including; The Jam - English old school rockers, Blink 182 - part of the 90s punk era really aimed at teens and is slightly less hardcore, Newer, more modern band adapting the Punk Rock genre to fit today's world.

Which subgenre to choose?

After establishing the genre i am going to pursue, i now need to do research into the many sub genres within it. Rock branches out into many different sounds and styles which all take inspiration from one and another and completely other genres. To find exactly what i am looking for i need to do research on all the different sub genres, bands within these sub genres and the music videos they create.

I have established these sub genres to research thoroughly which will help me find the sound that i feel comfortable continuing the project with:

- Punk Rock
- Alternative Rock
- Indie Pop/Brit pop

Picking my favourite or most comfortable genre will allow me to filter my search for an unsigned band down and this will make the choosing process far easier for me. Also i will have good knowledge on a look i need for my band and the overall music video. To gain deeper understandings of each genre i will be looking at its roots, influences, old bands and the popularity of the genre now in 2010/11.

Music Video and the genre of my choice

Firstly, i am going to begin by purely focusing on the music video element of the coursework. The biggest and most challenging part of the project is that the A2 rules dictate that it has to be a totally unsigned artist/band. I do not know any personal artists so i will need to search around with the resources i have, IE the Internet, to find a suitable candidate to focus my coursework on.

I believe that the best thing to do that will narrow my search, would be to select a genre or angle that i can pursue. This will help me specify my search and find the perfect band for me. The genre i am selecting is of a Rock/Indie bent, because in my head, this is the sort of music i relate heavily with music videos. Also, i will have many influences to help me a long the way because of the huge mainstream and underground/amateur popularity in the genre.

With this genre, i now know that my preference is to represent a band, not just a single artist, because this is what is popular within the genre.

I can now research this line of the industry and get searching for the perfect band and song to do the project on.

Brief and Task objectives

For my A2 Media Studies Coursework i have been given a task to do the following:

Create a promotion package for the release of an album, including a music video (no longer than five minutes in duration) together with;
- A Digi-Pak for its release on CD
- A magazine advertisment for the CD

This is to create a music video portfloio so that i fully understand whats needed for all the types of media involved: film; representation; magazine; image and advertisment.