4 Key Decisions: Track

Track: Shut Up and Dance
Original Artist: Walk The Moon
Track owner: RCA Records (SME subsidiary)

We chose this track, one of Juliette's original choices, because of the upbeat, unique sound, which connoted the indie-pop genre, also helping it stand out in the indie music scene.

We chose this rather than the conventional indie-rock genre because indie-rock saturates the indie music genre, so this track would be more likely to stand out. The upbeat nature of the track would also help to ensure that during filming we don't get overly sick of the song, as it is quite a feel-good track, whereas (as discussed) we thought that we would have gotten tired of an indie-rock track far quicker, which would have made us less productive during production.

The song has multiple elements to it that would allow us to make an interesting music video. For example, from about 1:48 to 2:04, we thought that we could have a possible dance sequence of the couple through the different eras, having introduced the characters and had them get together/shown they were together previously in the video. We also decided that we could have the female lead lip-syncing lines that are meant to be said by her, such as 'Don't you dare look back'.

The different instruments in the song also provide us with the ability to create a performance bed of our band, with bass, drums, guitar, and the lead singer, all of which we can access. We left the synth out as it would have created too many members, and would have been more difficult to 'play' convincingly.

This track would appeal to the target audience as it is part of the indie genre, so this track was found to be suitable. As well as that, all four of our group are part of our core and secondary audience, and though our music tastes vary, we all liked the song. This makes it easier to figure out how to market the band and song to the audience, as we are part of it and can figure out what would appeal to them/us.

The track is owned by RCA records, and we'd therefore need permission to use it. In order to ask permission, we sent them an e-mail, shown below.

Although the e-mail was sent, there was no reply from RCA records stating their acceptance or rejection of our request. We therefore have to continue with our project knowing that this may affect our project when uploading it to YouTube.