Band Research: Zero 7

Nicola's entry

I have chosen to research in to bands that are similar to the kind of music that Lawrence makes as he is not an established artist I need to research in to how bands like him promote themselves.

Zero 7 are a Grammy nominated ambient music duo from the UK comprising of Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker and they use guest vocalists on their tracks such as Tina Dico, Sophie Barker and Mozez. So far they have had four studio albums since 2001; Simple things (2001) When it Falls (2004) The Garden (2006) and Yeah Ghost (2009) and their music has been TV shows such as CSI, Smallville and Sex in the City and coke-cola

Zero 7 use youtube to promote there music, the have their own youtube channel on which they put their pop promos and they also have a link to their website which is promoting their new album “yeah ghost”. Their music videos are quite abstract for example the video for destiny is done in a cartoon style in black and white with tints of red and orange following a girl going about her day and seeing couple and relationships everywhere and then at the end of the music video the black and white turns to colour when the girl is walking down the street towards a café where someone is waiting for her, i think this video works well with the lyrics are the promo shows how couple/relationships work together and how destiny shapes the world around us, this video is more narrative based as we do not see the band performing which a typical convention for this genre of music. this video uses lots of mid shots and panning shots to show the girls travels and point of view shots showing what the girl sees on her way to meet her friend/partner.

Star Image/Construction

With this genre of music the bands are fairly low key and use the internet to do their advertising or use word of mouth to get there music out and Zero 7 are much the same as they use various artists to do the vocals on their tracks and i think this is they way most artists from this genre like to be, they like to remain anonymous and not gain all the fame and just have their music appreciated just for the fact that they make good music.