Primary Research
Survey Monkey Feedback
In the Survey Monkey created as part of our Primary Research, we found that the most common age of people answering the survey were between the age of 18 and 24 (66.67%), the genders completing the survey were split equally (50.00% for both), the most popular music among the people who took our survey is Rock (33.33%) with Pop, Hip-Hop/Grime, Emo and Other all having an equal amount of people who enjoy the types of music (16.67%), most people believe that music does change the way you behave (66.67%) whereas less people felt it doesn't affect the way a person behaves (33.33%), everyone agrees that they feel an emotional connection to their favourite music artist (100.00%), the majority of the people taking the survey said that music makes them feel better when they are feeling down (66.67%) and the genre that most people believe had the biggest impact on young people at its peak was decided to be Punk (50.00%).
Targeted Questionnaire
The sheets above are the Targeted Questionnaire/Interview that we made with questions based on how powerful music can be and how much influence it can have over people and their emotions. The questions are based more around Emo Rap and Grunge in this piece of research specifically in order to get a better understanding of them as genres of music and what it is about them that makes them so appealing to young people of the time in which they reached the peak of their popularity.
Secondary Research
Six Modes of Documentary
GRADE: DISTINCTION
Our Documentary is an Expository Mode Documentary as the Filmmakers, which in this case is us, are making an attempt to discuss particular genres of music (Emo Rap and Grunge) and the way they affect people in a positive way so that people who have a negative opinion on the genres of music may possibly be persuaded to enjoy them or at least respect them for what their music represents and what it means to people who are fans of the music.
History of Documentary
Nanook of the North is considered to be the first documentary in existence.
It was created by Robert J. Flaherty and is about the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of the Canadian north region of Quebec.
It shows that the narrative is an important part of documentaries as it dictates what direction it will go in and what type of message it will end up conveying at the end.
Some scenes in the documentary film have been accused of being fudged and affected in a way that will improve the audience's enjoyment, changing how much entertainment they derive from it.
Dziga Vertov- He hated fictional film and thought it was the opium of the people. He was a Russian-Soviet pioneer of film directing who was well known for his practices/theories that influenced the Cinéma Vérité style of documentary.
Cinéma Vérité combines improvisation with the use of cameras to give an unfiltered look at truths about topics that are often hidden to make it seem like the issue with what is being looked at in a documentary isn't as bad as it seems when in reality it is.
The Nuremberg Rally, the annual rally of the Nazi Party in Germany held from 1923 to 1938, was filmed cinematically and is considered an important part of documentary history, despite the controversial connotations surrounding what was filmed.
"Free Cinema" was originally intended as a marketing gimmick in order to get attention onto independent filmmaking and the films that are made by them.
The Drew Associates were the creators of Direct Cinema, the American version of Cinéma Vérité.
Nick Broomfield- English documentary filmmaker who is known for asking tough questions and influencing many filmmakers of the present day with the way in which there is a lot of self-awareness found in his documentaries.
Watched Documentaries:
Is It Worth It?- Walking Together, Miles Apart (Rob's documentary on homelessness)
1. Caroline- Runs the intervention centre/hostel where homeless people live. The people she homes don't become homeless by choice and they want to get their lives back, not just living on the streets doing nothing all day. (key player)
2. Jo- 32 years old and a recovering drug addict, he lived in the intervention centre/hostel Hulford Court for 4 months. He was in and out of prison for his drug addiction and the last straw was when he passed out from his use of crack two minutes after getting out of prison. He ended up doing well for himself but rejected being interviewed with the staff of the intervention centre as he didn't want to be associated with the place any longer. (key character)
3. Graham- Part of a drug intervention program that works and he is the expert on the topic. He is the person that knows and explains why Jo acts the way that he does.
4. David- He was sleeping rough on the streets for 4 years until he was able to get back on his feet, find a home to live in and become a better uncle to his nephew/nieces after getting off the streets which he ended up on because of killing his girlfriend as a result of his own drunk driving but he is a better person after getting his life back together. (sub plot/success story)
5. Connie- She worked at the intervention centre/hostel for 10 years and worked with Jo since he arrived at the intervention centre/hostel and she considers her relationship with Jo to be a good working relationship. She was essentially Jo's support as part of the intervention programme provided for him.
6. Claire- The manager of the church that takes in homeless people in Leeds.
7. Helena- David's sister who was the one who took care of her children while he was getting himself back to a point where he was in accommodation and at least in the process of becoming a good uncle and a good person again.
The documentary was both produced and edited by Rob himself
Watched Documentaries:
For One Night Only and Hasta La Vista
In For One Night Only the three disabled men go to the of the film go to Spain, to a brothel where prostitution is legal in order to help the two men lose their virginity who are being almost mentored by the man who has already been to the brothel. In the film Hasta La Vista, the three protagonists go to Spain to lose their virginity just like in the documentary except for in the film rather than the people assuring they get to their destination safely being Rob and the crew a part of making documentary, it was a woman named Claude whose company they end up growing to enjoy. Also, the characters in the film are younger than the people in the documentary for the most part and they are also Belgian and not English like in the documentary. They end up realizing however that life is about more than sexual intercourse and that they would much rather be there for their friend's last moments of their life.
Watched Documentaries:
Soaked in Bleach
The documentary film is an Expository Documentary about looking into whether Courtney Love (Kurt Cobain's wife) was responsible for his death, framing it as a suicide in order to cover up her being his killer.
The film includes original audio recordings from when then the private investigator was searching their home for a shotgun because of Courtney Love's concerns over Cobain's safety and his mental state too. However, when they arrive to meet Love about what she claims was an issue with credit cards which is partly true, but the main reason she called them was to hire them to look for Cobain as she says he has escaped rehabilitation, has a shotgun and is mentally unstable so they have a big reason to attempt to find him as he poses a threat to members of the public.
It also looks at Kurt Cobain as a person, an artist and a public figure as his personality is looked at in detail in order to see whether his personality to see whether that could have contributed to his death and how his status as a public figure could have made him more susceptible to wanting to end his own life. However, it also looks at how he was perceived as sad and depressed but in reality he was quiet and liked to keep to himself but according to other people in his life, including his lawyer Rosemary Carroll that he wasn't suicidal leading people to believe that his death was a genocide and not a suicide like was eventually decided.
The private investigator who was hired to find Kurt Cobain ended up investigating Courtney Love instead due to the plot holes in the story of the law enforcement that investigated the death of Cobain and the case was opened and closed on the same day which is said to be unimaginable and completely irresponsible of them in retrospect which leads you to believe that it wasn't investigated to the extent it should have been and therefore it gives the documentary film the chance to explore what makes sense and what doesn't about the situation surrounding the case such as his demeanor in general and the fact that the shotgun shell landed on the side where it logically can not land yet it supposedly did which makes no sense.
Contextual Research
What artists inspired the genre of Emo Rap?
There are many rappers that could be considered the creators of Emo Rap or at least the first artists to include musical techniques and lyrical styles that would later become associated with Emo Rap include Kanye West during his 808s and Heartbreak period of his career during which he explores themes ranging from alienation, loss and openness with one's emotions. Kid Cudi is also considered a large influence on the genre of Emo Rap as his music looks into topics such as depression, anxiety and feeling alone which is seen especially on his 2009 album release Man on the Moon: The End of Day. Cudi co-wrote songs on West's 808s and Heartbreak before the release of Man on the Moon: The End of Day, making his influence on Emo Rap and Hip-Hop as a whole undeniable with him also having credits on Drake's So Far Gone, who himself has lyrics that are considered akin to Emo Rap by some.
Who are some of the most well known Emo Rappers?
Although the influences and ideas of what would eventually form Emo Rap were put in place a decade before the genre would arguably hit its peak, the artists of the genre today do not only rely on what was introduced by artist such as Kanye West and Kid Cudi as they also have personal traits of their own that make them distinguishable from other artists a part of the genre and in doing so allowing them to stand out from their musical peers in the process, proving why they should be known as the icons of the genre in the future when it's popularity has faded. For example, there is Juice WRLD with his slightly raspy and somber delivery of his lyrics driven by emotion, XXXTentacion with his versatility to go from aggressive and spite filled delivery to calmer but more self-hating based flows and Lil Uzi Vert who while not exclusively being Emo Rap, is considered to be one of the best of the genre when he lends his uniquely timed and charisma filled lines to a song with an atmosphere and a beat that would make it be considered an Emo Rap song.
How much do the lyrics of Emo Rap songs represent the mental state of the artists creating the music?
Behind the face tattoos and persona of Emo Rappers seems to be lyrics that suggest a seriously dark pain that is sometimes masked with a pain that is a lot more relatable to a wider audience, but what lies beneath it is a lot deeper and a lot darker and in some cases it is not so subtle as some songs openly talk about the pain the artist is experiencing making it easier to ensure the artist doesn't bring harm to themselves intentionally. For example, In the song Star Shopping by Lil Peep the majority of the lyrics are about his troubles in getting the friends and family of a girl he is getting into a relationship with to accept him, but the line "This music's the only thing keepin' the peace when I'm fallin' to pieces" suggests that the pain that Lil Peep feels is tearing him apart on the inside, he's just doing his best not to show it.
However, in the song Jocelyn Flores by XXXTentacion he explicitly states that he wants to die, by way of suicide with ten gunshot wounds to his brain and he continues to detail his suicidal thoughts and feelings with no filter essentially so it is virtually impossible to not be able to tell that he is in hostile state of mind due to his extremely negative and blunt verse that he included in this song which makes it a lot easier to prevent him from bringing harm to himself compared to Lil Peep, who died of a drug overdose on 15th November 2017 at the age of only 21 whereas XXXTentacion did die on 18th June 2018 but it was from being assassinated in his car while leaving a motorcycle dealership, being hit by multiple gunshots in the process. Kurt Cobain was his idol and his only real inspiration.
Formative Research
I've had to learn a lot along the way during this project. I've had to learn about the 6 modes of documentary which i never really knew existed, I understood that there was various styles of documentary but i didn't know that they were specifically categorised into different modes. Learning about the different modes and producing a presentation on them has definetley helped me understand them more.
From watching a few of Rob's documentaries and some in my own time I've learned the fundamentals of what makes a good quality documentary, you need good B-roll or stock footage, good questions and information about the subject of the documentary, a good soundtrack to compliment your footage and finally you need an interesting question or subject for your documentary.
Another thing that I've learned that i didn't really think about before hand is that the people you interview shape the narrative and tone of your documentary, unlike a film or a music video where you have complete creative control over what the content is where as in documentaries you can't really control how your subject will respond to your questions or what sort of mood they will create.
Audience Profiling/Theory/Research
Demographics:
Target Age - The target age for our documentary is 24 and under because we made a survey to get some data for our audience and everyone that answered were 24 or younger. However we also feel as though it could be for anyone because we're not making it a documentary that really caters towards that age to the point where people older than that can't be captured by it. We want it to be for anyone that can relate to it really.
Target Gender - We are targeting both genders as emo rap and grime don't cater towards a certain gender and we don't want to be sexist either. We also asked what people's gender was in our survey and be got the same amount of males and females.
Target Race - We are targeting all races because race does not matter, anyone can like whatever they like race doesn't mean anything because the things people go through and what they like are not chosen by their race.
Employment - Considering the age range we're targeting we will be targeting a bit of a mix of people that are employed and unemployed. Quite a considerate amount of people will still be in education however quite a good amount of them will still be employed.
Geo Demographics:
People listen to music when they're emotional all the time as they can relate to it. If they're feeling happy they listen to happy music and if they're sad they listen to sad music. It can also work the opposite way around. If they listen to happy music then it can make them happier and if they listen to sad music it can make them sadder. Some will also let music influence the way they look. Not all the time but quite often they can. There are stereotypes for the way people look due to the music they like and it can be the case but it is also quite often not the case so we don't have a specific way people will look in mind. It can also depend on the artists they like because people will idolize artists quite often and try to look like them in ways. People's actions can be quite often influenced by music however, people will be influenced by the way artists act and by what they say about actions in their music. This is backed up by the two theories - Lasswell's 'Hypodermic Needle Theory' with the idea of people's actions being influenced by the media and also Gerbner's with the idea that constant exposure to media can gradually influence people's beliefs over time.
Article about people's moods being influenced by music:
Psychographic Segmentation:
Linking to Geo Demographics as people will be influenced by music with the way they look and act they will end up fitting into place with people who have been influenced the same as them. The people we become friends with tend to like similar things to us which is why we get along with them so well because we can gel on those things we can talk about those things and experience them together too. We also tend to go out with and marry people who have similar ultimate goals to us and people that we respect so therefore that can come from beliefs as you believe what you hear in the media and you believe each other; the same goes for friends as well. Our jobs can also be influenced by what songs we listen to as well because our jobs tend to be something that we believe we will enjoy or have strong beliefs for so because our actions, entertainment and beliefs are influenced by music that will also feed to what job we get. We also could end up in a job we don't want because media influences you to do certain things which could hold you back or put you in an area that you don't want to be in. Media could essentially mess up your life if you let it lead you down the wrong path with actions and beliefs.
Ethnographic:
There was a study made on some patients (2003-2004). It was a study of the effect of music therapy on mood and anxiety–depression. They observed the effect on the patients listening to music hoping to improve the patient's moods and they managed to actually reduce the patient's anxiety-depression significantly and improve their moods. Therefore this proves that music has effect people's emotions. And the more you listen to it the more it will have an effect on your emotions.
Audience Theory:
For audience theory I took a look at 'The Hierarchy Of Needs' and because music can be quite emotional I felt as though it fitted perfectly with our documentary. Music can be really fulfilling for people, they can relate to it and it can make them feel better, it can help people get a better grasp of their feelings, it can help them to express their feelings and it can also have a big impact on people's relationships and dealing with them too especially when they go wrong. Music can help people get through things and fix situations and it can also inspire people. People will also idolize artists and therefore be fulfilled by things the artists go through/do.
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