Industrial context: Sony music

 

Sony Music began as the American Record Corporation (ARC) and was founded in 1929 through the merging of numerous record companies. ARC was then acquired in 1938 by Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), it was then renamed Columbia Recording Corporation before changing to Columbia Records Inc. in 1947. Columbia Records was very successful in the 50s before launching a sister label- 'Epic Records' in 1953. Sony then entered the picture in November 1987, acquiring CBS Records for $2 billion. Sony then renamed the record company Sony Music Entertainment (SME) in January 1991. 

Labels + Content Divisions- Part of Sony Music Entertainment:

• Columbia Records + Columbia Nashville 
• RCA Records + RCA Records Nashville 
• Epic Records 
• Artista Records + Artista Nashville
• Legacy Recordings 
• Sony Music Latin
• Masterworks 
• RCA Inspiration 
• Provident Label Group 
• Sony Classical
• Global Podcast Divison 

28/03/22- Sony Music home page 

• Harry Styles' new upcoming album 'Harry's House' 
• Jade Thirlwall signing solo deal to RCA Records 
• Bring Me The Horizon + BERWYN win at the NME awards 
• Sony Music wins the Young Music Boss awards 2022

28/03/22- Featured artists and their music/albums 

• Bakar- Nobody's Home
• Bad Boy Chiller Crew- Disrespectful 
• Khalid- Scientific Drive 
• Adele- 30
• French Montana- They Got Amnesia 

Mainstream artists signed to Sony Entertainment Records:

• Beyonce
• Calvin Harris 
• Harry Styles 
• James Arthur 
• J-Lo
• SIA 
• Zayn 

The main audiences of majority of artists signed to Sony Music have a target demographic similar to that of set brief, which was expected. This 16-25 middle market category is identifiably the target of these music producers products.

Some recent music videos from artists signed to Sony:

'My House'- Declan McKenna

'House on Fire'- Mimi Webb

'Oh my God'- Adele

*not all videos above are directly from Sony Music but from content divisions of it eg. Epic records*

Throughout these three music videos, produced from either Sony Music itself or one of their label divisions, there were some consistent and outstanding conventions. In terms of narrative 'House on Fire' withheld a strong storyline with a development in the narrative itself, 'My House' and 'Oh my God' both had a vague narrative in which they developed but focussed more on other aspects rather than a set story. In 'My House' the eccentuted feature was the alternative mine-en-scene and unrealistic props used in which drew attention to what looked like a hand-made scene as well as the secondary character made out of what looked like tissue paper. 'Oh my God' on the other hand focussed heavily on the performance aspect with a large, ethnically diverse group of performers. 'House on Fire' also had efforts towards a diverse set of performers/ actors. All three videos differed largely in terms of mise-en-scene with 'Oh my God' being set in one large hall but developing through with performers, props etc but not actually changing original setting.