Summer Research Task

Ellie Goulding

Record Label and Musical History
Ellie Goulding was signed to Polydor records in September 2009 and made her debut single. "Under the Sheets", which was released in the United Kingdom on 15 November 2009, peaking outside the top 40. In October 2009 she toured the UK supporting Little Boots and appeared on Later...with Jools Holland, performing "Under The Sheets" and "Guns and Horses", this raised her profile and her single "Wish I Stayed" was available as a free download as the UK iTunes Store's'Single of the Week' from 22–28 December 2009 making people more aware of her music.
Polydor was well suited to Ellie as the label had similar artists of the same Indie Pop genre such as La Roux, Kate Nash and Duffy who were all successful, which Ellie aspired to be.

Ellie spectacularly rose to fame when her Elton John cover of Your Song became the song to the John Lewis Christmas campaign, the single became Goulding's highest-charting single to date, reaching number two on the UK Singles Chart. The song also charted in some European countries in early 2011, showing her success.

Another milestone in Ellies career was performing at the Royal wedding in April 2011 after being personally requested by the royal family themselves. This proved how far Goulding had come in her career and also showed she even had a fan base within the royal family.

^{How they represent themselves in the media
Ellie Goulding represents herself very modestly in the media, portraying an innocent, wholesome nice girl image who purely just loves music. This innocence is shown through her image of being a clean cut, pretty and slightly quirky young woman who is often represented as an English rose. Pale colours such as white, pink and yellow are commonly used to show this innocence and peaceful image. as the photo shows.}

^{Although Ellie is portrayed innocently she also has a sexy, rebellious side which you can see on the magazine cover of her showing her sexuality and young age and perhaps showing she has a bad side due to her previous turbulent childhood in which she did not get along with her step father. She is also appealing to the male gaze in what she is wearing of revealing shorts and doing a seductive pose.  Ellie also appeals to her young target audience by collaborating with up and coming popular artists such as her feature in Wonderman with Tinie Tempah, this shows she is edgy and cool, and this is a way of increasing her popularity with a younger audience. Also as the magazine cover shows she is posing with a fellow quirky indie pop sensation Marina and the Diamonds, showing she is associated with these artists and as it is a young womens magazine she is appealing to her target audience and gaining more popularity as a result as it is raising her profile.}

Images, colours, symbolism often used in music videos

Ellie manages to portray different images of herself in her music videos. For example in 'The Writer' Ellie is very much an English Rose using pale colours, appearing very angelic and soft and being in a field, showing she is very calm and beautiful like nature. She also uses this uses this natural image so the message behind her music is not distorted, she'd rather be presented simply in order for the main focus to be on her music.

 

Whilst in 'Starry Eyed' Ellie appears to be less natural dressed in glitter, wearing visble makeup and appearing more provocative whilst dancing. This difference represents her as versatile and perhaps attracts both boys and girls towards her which allows her to appeal to a wider audience. Ellie also seems to be smiley and happy in this video, showing the difference between the two songs in rhythm and style. 'Starry Eyed' also features more colour such as blue and gold, making her seem more edgy and making the focus more on herself and trying to fit in the message behind the song by using stars and glitter.

This use of diversity in her music videos makes her more appealing as all fans are catered for, both boys and girls as they are seeing her attractive and fun side but also seeing her serious and natural side which is completely focused on the music in the background. She also wears feminine clothes in order to show who she is as a person but also wears the odd quirky piece to show her fun side.

Music Video Evaluation

I have chosen to evaluate  Gouldings video of Guns And Horses, as it is very different to her other music videos. The song is from her debut album, Lights (2010). It was released digitally on 16 May 2010 and physically the day after as the album's third single.
When asked what "Guns and Horses" was about, Goulding said:

''I wrote "Guns And Horses" about a romance that began online hence the lyric 'you found me, at a screen you sit at permanently'. I wanted the guy to feel more than he did for me but through no fault of his own he couldn't. It's a song about frustration essentially.''

Goulding is simply dressed in a checked shirt and leggings, showing that the attention should be paid to the strong images of war in the video and also showing how she is not involved or associated with it, showing her innocence. The background is in a forest representing Gouldings usual natural image, but this is a misrepresentation as the forest is full of soldiers and smoke and is very dark, showing the dark message of the song which Ellie states is about a bad romance. Strong images are used such as soldiers laying in the grass surrounded by smoke and this is continued with dancing soldiers all brightly dressed surrounding Ellie, suggesting she is peaceful whilst they are not.

A vivid image used in the video is Ellie standing in a patch of flowers showing her peacefulness, this is vivid as the flowers are bright whilst the background is dark, dismal and smoky. This represents Ellie as peaceful but her background is violent and a battlefield, but these flowers are the only bit of peace left.

A mixture of shots have been used for the video, many close ups are used of Ellies face but you can always see the busy background and also a lot of close ups are used of vivid images such as the soldier lying down. A lot of long shots are also used in order to show the scenery and what is happening around Ellie, particularly the dancers. The lighting is very dark in the video although many scenes have bursts of light when Ellie is alone singing, representing a surge of power which represents the meaning of the song of her moving on.

The shots are quite fast pace moving to different frames, in order to show all aspects of Ellies background; the dancers, herself and the powerful images of light and soldiers. A low angle shot is used of Ellie when she is at the flowers as she is surrounded by light and smoke, this shows her frustration and confusion as the camera begins to move around her where a dolly shot is used. Fast pace shots are placed inbetween this camera shot to create emphasis on her surroundings.