Charly Houston is an unsigned artist, fifteen years old of age and from Glasgow. She has been playing guitar for 8 years now, she also plays drums and keyboard. Charly writes acoustic music with deep, personal and meaningful lyrics which definately shines through her songs. She has three EPs: Saint, Famous and Paper People.
Charly, even though how young she is, know what she wants and is prepared to give it her all " I love music and I want to make a change in the industry, and at least have my shot at this."
"Stop me if you think you've heard this one before" came from the album 'Strangeways, Here we Come' in 1987, the song originally was going to be released as a single and there was also a music video to accompany it. The music video included shots from the iconic Salford Lads Club, all the actors were dressed and had their hair styled like Morrisey (the lead singer) as they cycled around famous places in Salford Manchester. However there was contraversey over both song and video because of the lyric "plan a mass murder" as the media were still sensitive over the Hungerford massacare; and because some people thought elements of the video resembled organised crime.
Despite everything this was the band's most successful single in the UK; and after all publicity is good publicity.
To find a song for the coursework, we looked on unsigned.com for acoustic artists that's when we found Charly Houston. We asked to use her song 'Paper People' which we found on Youtube and she gave us permission to use her song; both Ellie and I are very excited and are beginning to brainstorm some ideas.
Unsigned.com is a website that unsigned artists can register an account which allows them to upload their tracks allowing them to get exposure. Unsigned.com is owned by First Beat Media Inc who are an online company "committed to being the best source of information to discover unsigned artists." There are thousands of unsigned artists registered online, there are a wide range of genres for any vistor to choose from; as well as many songs waiting to be heard!
You can get to know the artist/ band a little more on their page as you can read about them, see photos which have been uploaded. You can also leave comments and become a 'fan' if desired - making the website very interactive.
Video Games The music video was directed and edited by Lana del Rey, the video itself contains clips of skateboaders, shots from old movies, cartoons and paparazzi footage. In between these clips are shots of Lana singing which she filmed on her webcam.
The video was a huge success late 2011 and effectively launched her music career. Since 'Video Games' she has done more music videos including: 'Born to Die' 'Blue Jeans' (both directed by Yoann Lemoine) 'National Anthem' 'Summertime Sadness' and her recent video to promote her latest single 'Blue Velvet.'
Blue Velvet
This is her take on the original version by Bobbie Vinton. The music video was shot which the actors and herself are seen wearing her new clothes range she designed for H&M, the video was apart of her advertising campaign promoting both her clothes and new single. The video itself is rather random and makes little sense, I would say it's more about a fashion statement than a music video statement. But the video does achieve its purpose: marketing both the artist and her upcoming fashion range.
My favourite music video has to be Pixie Lott's "Cry me out."The reason why I love the video is because I like the use of black and white shots, it has a certain class to it, the old/golden Hollywood feel, the slight gothic element, the ballet dance sequences and how the singer looks bold/ strong yet beautiful. In every scene/shot you can't help but keep your focus on Pixie because she stands out with her blonde 'bombshell' hair, her amazing costumes and she is mostly in the centre of the scene which directs the audiences attention.
Whenever I listen to this song the images/shots that come to my mind is when Pixie is singing infront of the mirror, when she's walking down the hall past the ballet dancers and the close-up shots of her by the pool at the end. Directed by Jake Nava (who also directed Adele 'Someone like You,' Kayne West 'Monster' and Beyonce's 'Single Ladies' and 'Crazy in Love'), overall the video is very pop and appeals to its teen audience, both male and female, effectively.
