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Mikolaj NedzewiczEPQ

2013/2014

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PROJECT COVER SHEET

EXTENDED PROJECT QUALIFICATIONStudent ID Last name First name

20194926 Nedzewicz Mikolaj

Student email Student Contact Number

[email protected] 07860367662

Name of Tutor Tutor Group Name Due Date

Desmond Corlis EPQ Study Group 30th April 2014

I confirm that I have read, understood and followed the guidelines for the EPQ presentation and submission.

I understand that if this project is submitted after the due date, it will incur a penalty for lateness unless I have negotiated an extension previously and I have written confirmation of this extension. Please note the written confirmation must be attached to the submission.

Declaration of originality: The work contained in this project submission, other than that which has been referenced in the correct manner, is that of the author. I understand that, should this declaration be found to be false, disciplinary action could be taken and the penalty imposed in accordance with the College’s policy and rules.

Signature of student_________________________________ Date_______________________

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ASSIGNMENT RECEIPT

Name of student Name of teacherMikolaj Nedzewicz Desmond Corlis

Student Number Date of Submission Time of Submission

20194926 30th April 2014 4pm

College stamp

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Contents:

EPQ Study Skills Analysis…………………………………………………………………....Pages 4 – 6

Project Progression Record…………………………………………………………………..Pages 7 – 17

EPQ Plan and Diary……………………………………………………………………………Pages 18 – 43

Evaluating My Resources……………………………………………………………………..Pages 44 – 58

Initial EPQ Planning Table…………………………………………………………………....Page 59

Possible EPQ Titles……………………………………………………………………………Page 60

Rough Plan of Action………………………………………………………………………….Page 61

Record of Verification of Topic Title Meeting……………………………………………….Page 62 - 65

Research Ideas…………………………………………………………………………………Page 66

Dissertation Plan…………………………………………………………………………….....Page 67

Mid-Project Review……………………………………………………………………………..Page 68

The Dissertation………………………………………………………………………………...Pages 69 - 81

Appendix………………………………………………………………………………………...Pages 82 – 90

Presentation……………………………………………………………………………………..Pages 91 – 93

Audience Reaction……………………………………………………………………………...Pages 94 – 95

Project Evaluation……………………………………………………………………………….Pages 96 – 98

Supervisor Feedback…………………………………………………………………………...Page 99

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EPQ Study Skills Analysis

Planning Always

Usually

Stimes Never Project Supervisor

comments Agreed Actions

I make up and stick to study timetables. Agreed.

Agreed.

Agreed

Yes. Mik has organised himself very well

Agreed.

I timetable definite times and outline specific goals for my research/study time

I study or conduct research when I’m most alert. I avoid activities which tend to interfere with my planned research/study schedule.

I start course/homework assignments well in advance. I would benefit from attending an EPQ time management session.

Yes No

Research Always

Usually



I am comfortable using LRC research facilities. Although you carry out your own

independent research the LRC is also

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useful.

Moodle is clunky and needs streamlining.

This is a must for effective research.

I access the online research resources via Moodle. I use index and contents pages of books, journals or other written sources of information.

I use the Internet to find my sources of information. I would benefit from attending an EPQ research skills session.

Yes No

Reading Always

Usually



I skim read each chapter before I begin ‘deep’ reading. Useful technique to deploy, when pushed

for time.

Agreed. Evidenced in written work.

Agreed. But also consider ancillary points.

Agreed.

Agreed.

I summarise reading material in my own words. I am comfortable with my reading ability I focus on the main point when reading. When reading I distinguish between important and non-important points.

I would benefit from attending an EPQ reading skills session. Yes No

Writing Always

Usually



I am able to express my thoughts well in writing. You have a good talent for expressive

writing.

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Agreed.

Agreed. Work is of a high standard.

Agreed.

I produce academic language in my written pieces of work. I review my writing for grammatical, spelling and grammatical errors.

I produce structured a research reports I keep a bibliography of my research sources. I would benefit from attending an EPQ academic writing skills session.

Yes No

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Project Progression Record

Centre Name Westminster Kingsway College Centre Number 10240

Learner name Mikolaj Nedzewicz Learner Number 20194926

The topic chosen must allow the learner

To be fairly assessed at the standard applicable to the Project level (level 1, 2 or 3). The opportunity to meet comparable demands to those made on other learners working at the same level To meet all of the Learning Outcomes and Assessment Objectives of the Project.

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Activity Date Detail Supervisor’s initials

Comments

The date you started your project

9/9/13 This was the date I decided to begin to start to identify an original and manageable project. I had many initial ideas, so I did a lot of research and thinking. Having decided on ideas I changed my mind about 3 times before I arrived on a final idea.

DC

First thoughts about topic and working title

28/09/13 My first title was “A short 1 Act play” – I thought this was appropriate as it gave me a wide basis to start working. I had made a plan of may possible ideas, but this one appealed to me the most, since it gave me a chance to do something creative, as opposed to my a levels.

DC

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Comments

If completing the Diploma,

is topic relevant to Principal Learning?

If yes

Does the project complement and develop the themes and topics for learners’ principal learning set out in the relevant line of learning criteria?

and/or

does it support learner progression (skills, knowledge, understanding?)

DC

What is the title of the project? This could be phrased as a question, hypothesis or statement.

14/12/13 Why might some musicians want to stay independent from a major record label in the 21st century? How can they stay independent and still be successful?

DC

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Comments

What do you hope to achieve by the time you complete the project?

14/12/13 I hope to have completed a thorough project. Full of research, development, preparation, analysis and co-operation. I hope to come out with a project that has taught me something and has not been a burden but an interesting adventure. I also want to be able to give a successful presentation on the project and show that I can speak freely about what I have done. Lastly, I want to look back at this project and be glad with what I did. I want to be able to say that it was worth the time and effort and most of all it taught me a great deal.

DC

What form will the assessment evidence for the project take?

(ie design, performance, report with findings from an investigation, artefact, [dissertation – level 3 only] )

14/12/13 The final form of the project will be a dissertation. I have chosen to do a dissertation as I believe that essay writing is a skill of mine which I can utilise here to write an extended piece of writing.

DC

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Comments

Have you produced an outline plan to show your project timeline?

23/11/13 I have done an initial plan which is designed to keep me on track. In that, I also set myself specific tasks in the time I have assigned to a particular topic so that I do not stray off the timeline and know what I am doing at all times.

DC

What will you need to achieve your project? eg tools, equipment, techniques and technologies

14/12/13 I will need to be able to use Office computer software to write and edit my dissertation and presentation. I will also need to be very focused as my a-levels restrict the amount of time I can spend on this project, thus I have to be efficient.

DC

Will you or have you used a range of sources for your information?

17/04/14 I have done my best to encompass as wide range of resources as possible, thus I have used the internet, books, magazine articles/interviews, done social and online surveys and interviewed musicians. However, my main focus was on up-to-date data and the internet and my own research provided me with the most up-to-date data.

DC

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Comments

Is the information selected suitable and sufficient to fit the question/task/brief?

17/04/14 Anything which was not directly answering my hypothesis was not included in my dissertation. I believe that the information is suitable because it is clear and to the point, and is sufficient because every point that I have argued in my dissertation was created in evidence rather than backed up by evidence.

DC

Have you identified any links with other areas of study or areas of interest which relate to your project?

17/04/14 In my project, most of the information is solely about what I have set my hypothesis to be. However, throughout the course of the whole project I have considered my other interests such as music videos (which links to my project) as well as theatre and history.

DC

What skills need to be applied to use the information you have collected?

17/04/14 Skills such as quick skim-reading, summarising data and critical thinking are the main skills which need to be applied to the information which I have collected.

DC

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Comments

Did you apply the tools, equipment, techniques and technologies to use the information that has been collected to complete your project?

17/04/14 Yes indeed. I have employed Microsoft Office constantly form many different purposes e.g. Word for my dissertation, PowerPoint for my presentation and Excel for making graphs and pie charts. Furthermore, I had to use my time-management skills as quite often I was pressed for time as a result for mock exams and English coursework.

DC

What outcomes/objectives have you achieved so far (mid-term review)?

28/02/14 1. I have managed to stay on top of work and time

2. I have managed to develop a very interesting project

3. I have successfully developed research skills

DC

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Comments

Evaluation of own learning and performance so far (mid-term review).

28/02/14 I believe that I have worked hard enough to be where I am at the moment and what I am content with what I have achieved so far. This whole experience has allowed me to learn on my mistakes and learn to persevere. However, there is always room for improvement and I believe that I need to make sure that I stay in full control of the project, that I don’t leave any parts out and decided to do them at the end and work even harder and faster to meet all deadlines or even finish early focusing on exams.

DC

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Comments

What have you changed after reviewing your work?

17/04/14 I have almost completed all work now and I am going through a lot of it to make sure that it is all done up to a standard that I am satisfied with. After reviewing my work, the biggest changes that I have made are in my dissertation and presentation. I have redrafted my presentation twice and now working on a third draft. I have also continually changed my presentation as I’ve practiced it to make sure that it is interesting, makes sense and isn’t too long.

DC

Final phase - Do you feel that you have achieved all of the outcomes/objectives of your project?

29/04/14 Yes, I believe that I have achieved most of my objectives. There are always things which could have been done better or differently, but taking into account the big picture I believe that I have worked hard enough to be satisfied with what I have done.

DC

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Comments

Presentation of Portfolio

written section (compulsory, even if the outcome is a performance or artefact)

other evidence can be DVD, photographs, slides, CD, artefact, digital technologies etc

29/04/14 My Portfolio is a Word Processed Document which contains everything from my initial plan to my research and my final outcomes. The final product of my project is a dissertation (this is inside my word document). I decided to write a dissertation because it was the most appropriate thing form that I could present my findings in, but also because I think that essay writing is strength of mine.

DC

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Comments

Describe how you have presented your project to an audience

29/04/14 I created and practiced my presentation a couple of weeks beforehand to make sure that I have enough time to be prepared and to change anything if necessary. When preparing my presentation I read as my tips as possible to be able to give a successful and interesting presentation as possible. Some of the key things I learnt were that there shouldn’t be much writing and that the slides should be more visual to interest the audience and trigger my mind to know what to talk about next. With that done I was fairly confident about my presentation and how I would present it. When I presented my presentation, my EPQ tutor and fellow EPQ students were also there doing theirs. I was the last to go so I had enough time to pick up on some of the skills that other people applied to make sure that my presentation topped theirs. When standing up in front of others, at first I was a bit nervous but when I started off it all went away and I was able to speak with confidence.

DC

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Comments

Have you evaluated your project, taking into account any feedback from your audience?

29/04/14 Yes, I have evaluated my presentation and then I did an overall evaluation of the whole project. I think that doing evaluations is very helpful as it allows a learner to reflect on what they did good and what they did bad and make sure that they improve when they did bad the next time they do another project.

DC

Date of project submission to teacher

30/04/14 As was scheduled right at the beginning of the project, the submission date is the 30th of April so I made sure that all was done by then.

DC

Notes

This form should be used to record the progress of each learner and may also assist in forming a basis and justification for the mark awarded under each assessment criterion (for example, by indicating the level of support needed by the learner).

At Level 3 it is not intended that the supervisor gives any written feedback to the learner in the comments section . Verbal feedback may be given by the supervisor; this should not be recorded on this form. Learners may use the comments section for taking notes.

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EPQ Plan and DiaryTask Proposed

completion date

Actual Completion Date

Proposed actions Outcomes Comments

Create an initial plan

20th September 17th September I want to create my initial plan as the first thing I do so that I have a clear idea of how much time I will have

It took me while to create this plan. Although I had a template of how to complete this plan provided by my college, I took some time to figure out how much time I will allocate for different parts of the project. I had a schedule of deadlines provided by my college as well which roughly outlined when I should start by, when I should be at the mid-way point and when I should be looking to be finishing, but I had to come up with my own time allocations for things like research, writing up, creating a presentation and of course contingency time.

I am really glad that I did this early on and have gotten on with the work quite swiftly as I know that very soon my a level subjects will start to build momentum and I will have less and less time to spend on this project, so getting a good start I believe is vital for success.

Create a mind map of possible titles and areas of interest for doing my EPQ

24th September 21st September I need to create a mind map of possible ideas that I could base my extended project on.

I had no difficulty doing this; it was a simple task of noting down ideas which I came across that would be suitable for this project. What also made this task simple was that I already had some ideas in my head before September and did some research over the summer.

Decide on which topic to base my project on and create a rough plan of action for meeting with supervisor

28th September 28th September Now that I have created a mind map with possible topics to research and base my project on, I will have to decide on one and create a rough plan of action

I decided to go with recording a play but also writing one too. My plan is to write a short play and then record a performance of it. I have made a rough handmade mind map of action to be taken from this point which I have scanned and saved as a word document.

I should have made that plan on Microsoft Word to begin with, which would save me the time of scanning the

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document. However having a physical copy is more useful for a meeting that I will have with my supervisor.

Meet with supervisor

30th September 30th September Meet with my supervisor Dez for the first time and show him my progress and the plan of action I have made for my chose research area

I believe that my first meeting with Dez went down really well. I showed him my action plan and he really liked the fact that I had a clear sense of direction and a unique idea. We discussed where to go from here and he instructed me to complete my Verification of Topic Title Meeting.

I am very happy to have been able to start very well. Hopefully this’ll continue.

Complete the Verification of Topic Title Meeting document

7th October 5th October I have to complete my Verification of Topic Title Meeting and send it to Dez.

I completed this document very swiftly and had no real difficulties. I tried my best to be as clear as possible and write in as much detail as possible.

Find a suitable location for filming

19th October 5th October I will need to have a chat with someone I know that has a multi-purpose media studio about availability. I know that my older brother runs a photography studio; I will get in touch with him to see if he is willing to work with me.

I was successful in my negotiations and will be able to use a studio. It was my brother indeed who agreed to it thus I didn’t have to contact anyone else thanks to which I saved a lot of time and was able to dedicate it towards other tasks. However dates for filming need to be proposed and agreed in advance.

I was glad that I managed to do this quite early because I was worried it would take a long time and it would be hard to find a suitable filming location.

Get in touch and ask potential actors + Camera man

29TH October October 29th I will need to meet with a few people and make some phone calls to ask and convince people that I know and believe are suitable actors to be involved. I will also need to find a suitable camera man who will be willing to

I was successful with obtaining 1 actor so far but hopefully will be able to get another very shortly. Camera man sorted and ready for action when requested.

Hopefully get another actor by the end of November. Camera man lives in Derby but in London for weekend and half terms so

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get involved. schedule needs to be strict.

Talk to my English teacher about any suggestions concerning writing my own play.

8th November 8th November I aim to get helpful advice and tips on how to go about writing my own piece of drama.

My English teacher said that I would be a great and very creative idea, but she made me aware of the possibility of that writing and performing a play would be too time consuming and maybe I should do something which would give me more time do in depth research. She also suggested that I discuss this with my supervisor. She hinted that maybe I should look at Harold Pinter’s plays and have a look in Revision Express which is an a-level English book to learn more about drama.

Discuss my change of plan with my allocated supervisor - Dez

12th November 12th November Having had a discussion with my English teacher, I believe that it is imperative to discuss this with my supervisor and present to him where I stand. I want to hear his opinion.

After lessons I went to see Dez to discuss my project. I told him that instead of writing a play, I would just pick a scene or an extract from a play and get people to perform it. He agreed with what my English teacher suggested. He outlined that writing and filming an already written scene will give me more time to do more, in depth research. I also told Dez I would re-do the Record of Verification of Topic Title Meeting document.

I was worried that Dez would think that I’m lost and don’t know what I’m doing, but he was very supportive and agreed with me.

Change Record of Verification of Topic Title Meeting

12th November 12th November Now knowing I will go ahead with my reformed idea I need to change this document and update it. I will also need to show it to my supervisor next time we meet or email it to him to get confirmation.

Fairly simple task. Didn’t take me long. I’ve changed the title and other details. Sent it to Dez.

Create a sources table

16th November 16th November I’ll start a sources table where I will note down where I got my resources and how I used them.

I created a sources table on Word and will form now on note down all the resources that I use on there.

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Start further research into how to record

16th November 17th November Start researching how to record a live performance.

I have done some initial research which has already given me a clearer image of what needs to be done. I looked at a book and two websites which are all noted in my sources tables. I just couldn’t find enough time in the same day to do all so I just finished it off on the next day.

Another task which I was able to fit in while I read and studied the plays.

Get hold of and study plays such as “King Lear” by William Shakespeare, Collection of Plays by Harold Pinter and other plays

27th November 27th November I will rent them out of libraries and try to read, or at least skim read pretty quickly in order to be able to decide from which play I am going to film a scene.I have set myself a longer deadline for this task because I have about 5 or more plays/books to read and I will be doing other tasks as I go along.

At first I thought that my college library didn’t have any Harold Pinter plays so I went to my local library to take them out, but they could only order them for me and they would arrive in a week. So I ordered them but it cost me £2.20 – however having spoken to my English teacher, she informed me that the college library did have the plays, just not where they would be expected to be. I rented them out of the college library and had to cancel my order at my local library. Firstly I read King Lear- but I didn’t read the whole play. I read sections and look at particular extracts of the play. I found that Shakespeare doesn’t use many stage directions and that is left up to interpretation of the producer. I read a collection of Harold Pinter plays, which included – “The Birthday Party”, “The Homecoming” and “The Caretaker”. I found that the way Pinter wrote the play, it highlights the importance of dialogue rather than action. Like Shakespeare, Pinter doesn’t use many stage directions. However this sporadic use of stage directions is successfully used for a particular purpose. Less is left for interpretation. I additionally read “The Dumb Show” By Joe Penhall which in a nutshell is a play about journalism and fame. His style is very similar to Pinter’s. Penhall uses the device of spoken colloquial language exceptionally and enlivens the text from the page. I was able to imagine how the scenes would play out on a stage.

There was some down points here as I realised that these plays include many characters which would be difficult because I do not know many actors and I am not in a position to spend a lot of time looking for actors and I am not able to pay them. It could however still work if I find acts or scenes which do not feature many characters.

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Watch “The Birthday Party” and “The Dumb Show”

28th November 28th November I think that watching already made interpretations of these plays would give me a clear understanding of which direction I should be heading.

I managed to find a production of “The Birthday Party” on ‘YouTube’. It was very helpful to see how someone had already interpreted a production of this play and it gave me a clearer image of what I had to accomplish. Unfortunately couldn’t find a production of “The Dumb Show” anywhere, neither to watch on the web, rent or buy. I believe that this was a blow as watching “The Birthday Party” gave a much clearer image of what I had to do.

I did however find a monologue/long turn interpretation from “The Care Taker” on YouTube performed by Colin Firth. This showed me the standard to which a professional production of a play should be done and something to aspire to.

Decide on which play I would like to do a production of. Narrow it down to 2 scripts.

29th November 29th November Select 2 extracts I would like to make into a production.

Having finished reading my selected list of book I decided to pull ahead and decide on scripts I would use for my production. I chose Act 2 of “The Birthday Party” and Act 2, Scene 1 of “The Dumb Show”. I chose these two because I find them both to be the most interesting parts of each play and because they both feature only 3 actors each. They both involve humour and action which I found would fit well and I’d be able to re-create an interesting interpretation of.

Scan, photocopy and thoroughly consider both scripts. Then send them to actor(s) and cameraman.

29th November 29th November Use my scanner to scan the scripts I decided on. Thoroughly analyse both, consider how I could interpret them. Then send them to other involved and wait for their feedback.

It took me a few hours to scan the extracts as there were about 30 sides long each. But having done that I had to combine the pages together and put them in a PDF so that they are easy to send and easily accessible.

Meet with 30th November 30th November After they saw the script, The feedback about the chosen scripts was However I 23

actor(s) and cameraman in order to discuss where to go on further.

we decided that we should hold a meeting to discuss where we go from here.

positive, both my actor Alex and cameraman Leo thought I made a good decision. However Alex came up with some concerns concerning these plays. Just like I did at first, he found that these plays would require 2 plus other additional people to help. He also emphasised the importance of these actors being reliable and capable. I decided that we were not in a position where we could employ any actors or find anyone who would be willing to be involved and be able to learn a script considerably quickly in order for this project to be completed on time and to a high standard. In turn, with the help of my colleagues I decided to postpone this particular project. We used ‘Skype’ to hold this meeting.

decided not to give up on this EPQ, but to try to alter my idea, but keep within my “media production” field and keep on working with my team. The next step was to brainstorm ideas where to go from here.

Brainstorm where to go from here.

1st December 1st December Before meeting my mentor on Monday December the 2nd, I wanted to have a clear sense of direction of where I was going so that without wasting any time and having to wait another 2 weeks I would know what I would do and whether my mentor approved of it.

I brainstormed ideas of what kind of media production I wanted to do. I came up with a list which included short horror story, a discussion podcast or a music video. I decided record an unofficial music video for a particular song. I made this decision because I have dedicated a lot of my time to music, from listening and analysing, going to concerts and creating some of own. Therefore I wanted to do it because it was something that I felt passionate about.

I had no idea what my title would be or what I was going to try to achieve, but I knew that I wanted to head in that direction and knew that my mentor would give me concrete advice. My biggest worry was that it was too late to change my idea.

Meet with Dez my supervisor

2nd December 2nd December Discuss my progress with my project supervisor.

Having presented Dez with what had happened over the last few weeks and updated him on what ground I was standing, we had a long discussion and decided on the following points:

That it wasn’t too late to change my 24

idea That the decision I made was a correct

one That my new plan is not too far off the

scale of my old one, thus my research will be useful

That my new title should be something along the lines of “How does a music video impact of the effect a song has on the audience”

I have to find a suitable song fairly quickly and work efficiently

I have made a Record of Verification of Topic Title Meeting document.

Find suitable people to interview and interview them

13th December 10th December I will attempt to interview people that I know have done music videos in the past, so that I can get an idea of what I have to do and what I can achieve.

I managed to interview 2 people that have done music videos in the past. Firstly, En-Jay who is an old friend. He has done music videos in the past for his drama and media courses. Interviewing him helped me to put a finger on how long it is likely to take to do a good music video and how many people I will need to involve. My second interview was with Kane, who is also a friend of mine- but he has more experience with music, having already produced and released songs and music videos, as well as having recording and song writing contracts with labels. Interviewing Kane allowed me to not just explore music videos but music in general and the current situation. I managed to gather more information about how to go about filming a music video. What I did however find from both was that now music videos are essential, almost mandatory to songs for both functions of promotion and enriching the audience’s experience. I will now have more thoughts on whether music videos are really where I want to go.

Each interview took about 2-3 hours to complete, despite the videos themselves only lasting 15-20 minutes. This is because I wanted to make sure that both the interviewee and participator were on the same lines, there was no confusion and the participator was well informed of what was ahead.

Although I 25

believe that my interviews could have been slightly ‘neater’ and in more depth, I learned a lot, mainly through the pre interview conversation.

Write a post interview summary/reaction

13th December 12th December I will write a brief post interviews summary to explain who I interviewed, what I learnt and my summary.

I wrote down the main points I believed were important and at the end my own reaction. This was a fairly simple task and didn’t take too long. I also decided not to transcribe the interviews as they won’t be actually included in my project, but are essential to my learning experience. I have retained audio versions of the interviews. However, these interviews proved very important in a sense that they made me realise that music videos were not the only thing about music that I found interesting. As I was interviewing these two musicians I couldn’t help but sway towards a possible research topic of independent music, so I decided that I would think about one final change. But I felt like that would be the title which I would find most interesting and is the most achievable.

Think about alternative ideas and come up with a new title.

14th December 14th December Note down thoughts after interviews. Decide what I want my project to be about.

I noted ideas concerning what my new project will be about. After extensive periods of thinking I drafted several new titles for my project and then I narrowed it down to just one which I decided to be my final title. ‘Why might some musicians want to stay independent from a major record label in the 21st century? How can they stay independent and still be successful?’

I’m not happy that I’ve had to change my mind many times as I don’t want my supervisor to think that I don’t know what I’m doing. I am however glad that I am now

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doing what I am especially interested in. I also believe that this will be my final idea for the project.

Re-do and update my Record of Verification of Topic Title Meeting.

14th December 14th December I need to redraft my Record of Verification of Topic Title Meeting and include my new title.

I did it on the same day and it didn’t take very long. I also noted my first ideas for researching and developing my project and the skills that I need to work on.

I decided not to contact my supervisor immediately because I wanted to make sure that this time and this title will be final. I also just preferred to wait until the next meeting because it wasn’t a major change, it was along the same lines as my previous idea so I thought that I could just go ahead with it.

Produce a mind map of what I will research and write about

17th December 28h December I need to produce a mind map, which clearly set out the structure of my project. I will need my discussion points and research points. I will also need to produce a document setting out what and how I will research.

This took a bit longer than I expected but I got there in the end. I ended up replacing it with a detailed plan which I will develop as I do my research so that when it comes to writing my dissertation up it will be simpler as I will have my ideas in one place. But I did manage to create a nicely detailed mind map of what and how I will research.

I struggled to get my ideas to together here and had multiple sheets of paper so there was no point of putting it together for a research mind and a detailed

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plan, therefore I just skipped to the detailed plan.

Research ideas about my title and what I can do in my project.

17th December 17th December I need to do some research now, whilst keeping my epq title in mind.

I used YouTube, Facebook and other internet sources to find interviews of independent artists, while keeping my title in mind. I watched many ‘Hoodie Allen’ interviews. Watching these interviews took me about 3 hours.

This took longer than I expected and would have liked.

I think these were good sources used because there was a lot of relevant information about him and was easily accessible.

Also, it makes sense to look for information that is current on in internet as I don’t think that anyone would write a book about someone who isn’t even famous yet, and having checked I was right.

Continue research into what I will write

21st December 21st December I will continue looking at independent artists to find out what they have to say.

I researched ‘G-Eazy’. Once again I used Facebook, YouTube and other websites. Researching information about him took me approximately about 3/4 hours.


Again, I was 28

very happy with the data I found and especially in these modern days it makes sense to look on the internet, especially for this recent phenomenon.

Finish off researching interviews of independent artists.

23rd December 23rd December Have a look at a few more independent artists.

Lastly, I researched the more popular Macklemore & Ryan Lewis as well as Chance The Rapper. I used YouTube as well as other internet websites and magazines to read and watch various interviews which are all noted in my sources table. Researching these took approximately 2 hours.


I think that the sources I used were apprioprate for the information I was looking for. I found pretty much exactly what I needed.

Research books – see what they have to say.

27th December 27th December Research books for more information on how and why music artists might choose to stay independent from major record labels.

I skimmed 3 books which are all on noted in my sources table. I didn’t go out and rent or buy them; I read them as e-books which was much easier and considerably cheaper. They gave a lot of detail on strategies that people should take when promoting themselves independently.

I didn’t really find too much information in the books, I think I should have dedicated more time to reading the books in more detail, but there was so much information on the internet, so I went with the better source of

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information.

Think of primary research I can do to add more depth to my project.

27th December 27th December I need to think of how I am going to gather primary research for my project.

I created a survey. A survey of 6 questions that relate to my title topic. I want to ask between 10-20 people physically. I also created the same survey online using “SurveyMonkey”. It was free and only took a couple of minutes. The link to it is: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WQVLTBB - I also drafted some questions that I will ask when I interview musicians.

I think using an online based research method is very helpful in this globalised world. It makes it much more easily accessible therefore people are much more likely to participate. I’m not sure whether my online survey will have a representative sample because I was only able to promote and post my survey on my Facebook and twitter pages because that’s as far as my reach goes. I didn’t choose who I want to fill the survey out, but it was only limited to my friends/followers. Additionally, I tried to keep the questions as open ended as possible by allowing people

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https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WQVLTBB

to write their own answers with the exception of my ‘yes or no’ questions. For some questions I provided guidance by giving examples but that was not so that I only get answers which I want, it was so that in case the wording of my questions was too complex, the respondents would be aided.

Send out surveys and wait for responses.

27th December 27th December I need to send out my surveys and wait for responses.

Using the online survey I created on “SurveyMonkey” I posted it on Facebook, Twitter and sent emails. I also emailed a bunch of independent music artists’ and their managers the same survey. These artists included Hoodie Allen, G Eazy, Mackelmore, Mike Stud, Skizzy Mars and many others.

Plan and carry out primary research

30th December 9th January Schedule interviews with as many musicians as I can.

It was difficult to schedule interviews over the festive period as people already had plans and the transport links were poor, therefore it was slightly more difficult and took longer than I expected. I managed to get 3 music artists who are looking to become famous in the future. I interviewed Kane (K.S) on the 3rd of January. I interviewed Alex on the 4th of January. I interviewed En-Jay on the 9th of January. Each interview lasted between 10-30 minutes, but the whole event of meeting the interviewee and chatting to them, introducing them to the topic

I wish I would have been able to predict that it would take longer than predicted because I would have able to get on with other work in the meanwhile.

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and explaining all the details took around 2 hours.

Create a detailed plan of my EPQ.

30th December 28th December I had some time whilst trying to arrange my interviews so I decided that I would create and finalise a detailed plan of my project. Include my primary and secondary research points as well as follow a structure.

I created a mind map of what I will put in my project and the structure of it. It took quite a long time to compose but now hangs on my wall so that I can look at it every day. I took a photo of it on my IPhone. All I have to do now is add my own primary research to it once it’s complete.

I’m really glad I decided to put it on my wall, because every time I look at it I get ideas and I can just add them, but it’s also the fact that it’s there, that keeps me motivated.

Listen to interviews and fill in information

10th January 9th January Once all interviews are complete, I will have to fill in what the respondents answered for every question.

I had to listen to every single interview and note the answers down. It wasn’t like transcribing them because I shortened the answers sometimes or just included the main key words, but it still took a long time. I did this after every single interview so that I wouldn’t have to do them all at once and have a long and annoying experience. I highlighted key quotes.

Overall, I think that my interviews are a valid source as these are people who are independent from major record labels and do music. They are not as “big” as artists I would like to interview, but I think that it is unrealistic for me to interview popular independent musicians and the views of the people that I interview shouldn’t differ too much.

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Decide on a location to go and ask people to fill out my survey in person. Additionally, do a pilot study of my survey.

11th January 10th January Decide where, date and time of where I will conduct my survey. I also need to do a pilot study as some people seemed a little confused at some questions in my online survey.

I decided that I would ask 10 people on Saturday night at Trafalgar Square because that is when people are most likely to be out and about and not in a hurry. Secondly, I would go to a local shopping centre, Bromley The Glades, on a Saturday afternoon and obtain another 10 responses there. My pilot study was conducted with my mother as I knew she didn’t really have any knowledge about independent music, which is also what I expected of most of the people I would ask, thus she was my perfect pilot study person. I found that clearing up what independent music was if the respondent didn’t know helped as they would be able to understand all the questions in context and provide better answers.

Meet with my supervisor

13th January 15th January Meet with my supervisor Dez and discuss with him my progress over Christmas

I met with Dez, along with another supervisor in the college with her students. This gave me a chance to see what others are doing, and what I can do to improve my work. I found that doing a mind map of the development of the project title is good, as well as starting the presentation as you go along to make sure that you don’t forget useful information. I was also informed of the availability of the OCR companion book which can give me a clearer idea of what I need to achieve. I told Dez everything I did, which was recorded in this log as I didn’t see him for a long time, he seemed impressed and advised me start putting my research together and begin to write to make sure that I will have enough time. Mid project review will be in 2 weeks. Dez also suggested that I should send the emails to musicians once again to see if they reply this time. This meeting was extensively long compared to

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other meetings, it went on for almost 2 hours but I didn’t mind that because everything we talked about was extremely useful.

Go and actually conduct my social survey in public

18th January 8th February Go to my decided locations on my decided times and conduct my social survey.

The main reason I decided to do this was because as I mentioned above, my online survey lacked validity and I believed that a social survey would be more true to life and would represent a wider section of society. I went to Trafalgar Square on the 11th of January. It was a very intuitive experience. I am not the most confident person therefore I was afraid that that would get in the way, but luckily that was not the case. I managed to get 10 responses and found that people were very nice and polite towards me. Every person I asked kindly answered my questions. I tried to use the stratified sampling technique but that proved quite difficult as for one, there were less people around that I expected and secondly it was hard to determine who the second person was as people kept moving as it was a public place. Nevertheless I tried my best to stick to the method. On the 8th of February, I went to Bromley the Glades where I managed to get another 10 respondents. It was pretty much the same story as on the 11th. Although not as many people were keen to respond to my questions, it was a valuable experience. It didn’t take very long to get the responses and most people were co-operative. The sampling method went down exactly the same this time.

Similarly to my online survey, these results might also not provide a very representative sample. I tried to use the ‘stratified sampling’ method of choosing every second person, however that was difficult because there were some people who did not want to participate and at some stages I was limited with the number of people I could find and had to try to ask every person there is, which compromised my validity. However this sample is much more likely to be representative because these are complete

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strangers and people I met on the street, in contrast to my friends/followers. I’ve also explained this before in reference to my online survey but I’ll do it again, I have tried to keep most of my questions where possible, qualitative. I have tried to focus on making sure my results are as valid as possible. Some questions where I was looking strictly for a ‘yes or no’ answer I made that clear to the respondents by literally asking them yes or no? But on other question I have done my best to allow respondents to come up with their own answers, only

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giving them examples of the types of answers I was looking for when I felt that they really needed it or when I needed to clarify a question.

Analyse all data collected and add it to my plan

20th January 9th February Take all primary research and make sure it’s all collected in graphs and charts, ready to use once I start writing my dissertation.

I did this in bits. Every time I got a set of results, I tried to put it together and analyse it to save myself some time and not have to do it all at the end. But I set myself a deadline for all the data collection to be completed and added to my plan. I found it difficult to stick to my deadline because of my mock exams, and as a result I only managed to finish this task just before a month later than I planned to. Nevertheless, I still believe that I am making good and swift progress and will be able to finish on time. I analysed and combined data from my online survey, social survey and interviews. I used Microsoft Excel for this and presented data in formats which are suitable, but mainly just using bar graphs and pie charts.

I think that the data from my online survey is valid because I have tried to always give people the opportunity to write additionally comments in the ‘others’ box. It is also reliable because these are pre set questions therefore I would be likely to get similar answers, as, shown by my social survey. I like the fact that I managed to get a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data because that will increase validity. I am however disappointed

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that I took so long, but I should have seen the fact that mock exams would prolong the task.

Send emails to musicians again

21st January 21st January Send the same emails and the same questions to the same artists again.

I did this because the last time I sent them was during the Christmas period so it was likely that these people were not working and didn’t see my email. I am running late with a lot of my work at the moment because I have mock exams which have restricted the amount of time I have been able to spend on my EPQ. I also scanned some pages of the book for future reference when I plan my dissertation and start writing. I used my scanner at home to do this and it didn’t take too long.

Read the OCR EPQ companion book to make sure that I am completely on track

22d January 22nd January Read the OCR companion book to see what can help

I rented the book out of my college library on Wednesday the 16th and I gave myself a week to read it. I found it to be very useful and insightful, some parts reassured me that I was on track, but there were also other parts which arose that I will ask my supervisor the next time I see him such as: Did I have to do a detailed initial plan? Or is my plan good enough? Am I evaluating my work enough? When do I start the presentation and what to put in it? I have also recorded the book in my sources table. I used my IPhone to note down these points as I was reading the book.

I was really glad that Dez informed me of the book because I value it as a precious resource which will help me get a better grade.

Read a book on how to write a dissertation - Writing your Dissertation – by: Derek Swetnam

29th January 29th January Read a book on how to write a dissertation and make notes so that I am prepared.

I found this book when I was borrowing the OCR companion book. I though that it would be useful to read it as I have never written a dissertation. I found some extremely helpful information not only how to write my dissertation, but also how to manage my whole project. Tips on how to conduct social surveys to how to keep track of time were covered in

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detail. I found this book to very useful and do believe that reading it will help me. Some of the questions that I started asking myself as I was reading this book were: Is my initial plan detailed enough? Am I evaluating my resources enough? Is there a college requirement of how to write my dissertation? What limitations did my interviews have? It has also prompted to do things such as create a thought mind map of how I came up with my title. Start my presentation as a go along. Keep an edit list. For my social surveys, in the evaluation, admit to not having a great sample.

Create a digital mind map of my plan

31st January 26th January I want to create a digital replica of my plan that is on my wall for security and ease of access reasons.

Again, because of the unfortunate timing of my mock exams, it was difficult for me to find any time to work on my project therefore it was a piece meal process one could say. Whenever I had a bit of time here and there I tried to sneak in a bit of time to work on this project. This is also why many of my tasks are not completed in order because I had to be selective with what I have time for. I started this mind map on Sunday morning of the 26th of January and managed to finish it the same evening. It didn’t take me very long, in fact it took longer to put it on my wall than to do it digitally, probably because most of my sources of qualitative data are in ready-to-use format in my sources table.

I’m glad that I did this before my set deadline, now I need to catch up on my other tasks which I planned to have done earlier but couldn’t. I also believe that it was crucial to make this table because it is easier to access than the one on my wall as I can take it anywhere with me. Also in case anything happens to the one on my wall, I have this as back up, or vice versa.

Evaluate 10th February 17th February Need to create evaluate I have evaluated all my sources, commenting This is a task 38

Resources my resources so that I can show how useful/valid/reliable etc. they are.

on how valid and useful they are. This took me quite a long time, but I wanted to make sure that it was done properly and in detail so I if I ever needed to outline how valid my sources were, I could easily refer back to my evaluations.

I’ve been meaning to complete for a long time but only managed to do it now, which I’m not happy with but I’m glad that it is done now and I can push on. Also this took me so long because I didn’t do it as I was doing my research, If I did, I wouldn’t have to do it all at once. But I am glad that I decide to create a sources table for my work, as that made this task slightly easier.

Meet with Dez 14th February 14th February I need to meet with Dez before half term to ask him some questions which I have come across and schedule a mid-project review

We tried to schedule a date via email several times but something always came up as Dez had quite a busy time and so did I, but luckily, we managed to schedule a meeting right on the last day of college before half term. I asked him all the questions I had and he gave me clear answers which were very helpful. We decided to hold the mid-project review on Tuesday the 25th February 2014 at 11.00am which is the first week back after half term.

Read notes on how to a write dissertation and

20th February 20th February I need to make sure that I know how to write my dissertation, specifically

I read notes that I photocopied from a book I read earlier on called ‘Writing your Dissertation’ by Derek Swetnam. The notes were very

When I started writing my dissertation I

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start it. the structure but also language and other aspects. I also want to start my dissertation today.

helpful and outlined a clear structure of how to write my dissertation. I also started writing my dissertation. I managed to write my introduction.

soon realised that I was going to need to show my references. I watched online tutorials to help me do this and now I know how to do them.

Meet with Dez for Mid Project Review

25th February 28th February Meet with Dez at 11:00 in his office to conduct our mid project review.

There was a fire alarm in the college as I was on my way to meet with Dez therefore we were unable to hold our meeting. I got in touch with Dez and we rescheduled for Friday at 12:30. I showed Dez my work and we discussed everything that I have done until now. The responses were very positive and encouraging. He also advised me to be too critical with myself at this stage.

This was done a bit later than it should have been, however that did not harm my progress therefore the problem is not too important.

Continue writing dissertation. Finish introduction and Methodology. Also start main body.

25th February 25th February I need to kick on with my dissertation now and finish my introduction and methodology and possibly do some of the main body too.

I just managed to polish by introduction and write my methodology section. This took me longer than I expected and I found it difficult to concentrate today therefore my session was not as productive as I would have hoped.

Finish a first draft of the dissertation

26th February 15th March Start and finish a first thorough draft of my dissertation, including the intro, methodology, data analysis, conclusion and appendix.

I managed to get started on Thursday the 27th February and on that day I wrote a substantial amount; I managed to write the first part of my main body which was they ‘why’ part of my question. As time passed I found it difficult to manage my time because my English coursework also required a lot of work, but whenever I could I worked on my EPQ. I managed to finish a first draft on Saturday the 15th of March. This included the whole dissertation as well as an appendix.

On my initial plan, I estimated that I would need to have a first draft done by the 3rd of March and I am late by 12 days. I don’t however think that is the worst outcome in the world; for 2 reasons. 1 –

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this was just an initial plan which I did at the beginning of the project where I only estimated when I would be done. 2 – I didn’t take into account mock exams which took over 2 weeks out of my EPQ time therefore considering all this I am very happy.

Re-draft EPQ, start presentation and meet with Dez.

22nd March 19th March I need to redraft my EPQ for a meeting that I scheduled with Dez for him to have a look at it. I would also like to start the presentation as Dez suggested in the mid project review.

I printed myself a physical copy of the dissertation and read through it numerous times to check for any mistakes. I had to change some parts of the dissertation as they didn’t make sense, but those were just short sentences. After I redrafted it a printed another physical copy to give to Dez. When I met with Dez I gave it to him and we discussed some things. Dez recommended that I start putting all my work together into one big document and continue with my presentation. Also during the meeting I raised my concern of my dissertation being over the 5,000 word limit. We decided to get in touch with OCR.

Continue working on the presentation and start putting all work into 1 document

28th March 8th April Continue working on the presentation and start putting all work into one bad document so that it is ready to be handed in

I have finished a first draft of the presentation. I have about 15 slides and have planned for it to be approximately 12 minutes long. I haven’t however started putting all my work into a folder.

Doing the presentation wasn’t hard at all and didn’t take much time, but I have failed to meet the

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deadline I set myself because I have had some trouble with English coursework, I have moved house over the weekend just passed and I have had a cold, thus my working speed has been hindered. I plan to put all my work together this week.

Meet with Dez 28th March 23rd April Meet with Dez to find out whether OCR replied and decide on what to do about my dissertation exceeding the word limit.

It look a bit of time to schedule a meeting between Dez and myself because I missed a meeting as a result of illness and then there was the Easter break therefore there was no real opportunity to meet for a couple of weeks. However on the first day back after Easter break we managed to hold a meeting. Dez informed me that OCR replied to him concerning exceeding the 5,000 word limit and it turned out that 5,000 words is just a guide, so going a bit above it is not a problem. We also discussed when I should give my presentation. We settled on Monday the 28th at 4:00.

Redraft and Practice Presentation + create a feedback questionnaire

26th April 25th April I need start practicing my presentation, in front of people if possible. As I do that, I need to make changes to it that people suggest to make sure that it makes sense and will get good marks. I also need to

When I practiced my presentation I realised that it was too long, too complicated and too boring so I decided to change it around a little. I added more images, reduced the amount of writing and even added some image and video clips. I also created a feedback questionnaire which I will hand out at the end of my presentation to get some feedback on how the

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create a feedback questionnaire on my presentation that people can fill out at the end.

presentation went.

Give presentation 28th April 28th April After Dez, others students and I decided to do the presentations on Monday 28th April at 4:00 it was time to do them.

Overall, I think that my presentation went down really well. Firstly, I really enjoyed listening to other students talk about their projects and give their presentations as it allowed me get an idea of what it was like for others, not just myself, but also because I was able to compare the amount of effort I put in, the depth of my work and my passion for what I did, with other students. When it came down to doing my own presentation, at first I was a bit nervous but as soon as I started talking that nervousness disappeared. As a result I was able to give a clear and as interesting as possible presentation about my project. The feedback questionnaire I created went down really well, most people gave me high ratings therefore I regard this EPQ as a success. In the end, I really enjoyed this opportunity to give a presentation and the whole project as it prepared me for the kinds of things that I will be doing at university.

One thing that I would have perhaps done better on, is explaining key titles in my slides before moving onto the content of what’s in them to allow the audience to understand what I am talking about easily.

Write up an Audience Reaction Sheet

29th April 29th April Write up an audience reaction sheet to show what was best and what could be improved about the presentation

I wrote up the reaction sheet with considerable depth. I outlined my overall experience, the strengths and what could be improved. I also attached two examples of the feedback questionnaires with answers.

Re-draft the dissertation before final submission

29th April 29th April After getting feedback from Dez and looking through my dissertation , I decided that I had to re-draft my dissertation

I had one last look at the dissertation before I put all the work together to make sure that everything is in place and if any suggestions that Dez made were considered. In the end, there wasn’t really much to change.

Put all work into one document and print it for Dez

30th April 30th April I need to put all of my work into one folder and make sure that it is almost all done and ready for final

I have put all my work into one document to be submitted and printed it off to give to Dez as a physical copy. The project if finished.

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submission.

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Evaluating my ResourcesDATE RESOURCE USED BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF

RESOURCEWHAT WAS I

TRYING TO FIND OUT?

WHAT ARE THE KEY THINGS I HAVE LEARNT FROM THIS RESOURCE?

HOW DO I KNOW THIS RESOURCE IS APPROPRIATE?

7/11/13 http://www.videomaker.com/article/14225-how-to-video-record-live-events

This is a website which gives tips on how to record a play to a high standard.

I was looking for methods/tips/ideas and other pointers on how to record a play to a high standard.

To dedicate time, as the more time you spend the better the outcome will be

Use a tripod and multiple cameras Shoot dress rehearsals Use off-camera microphones

It was one of the first results that came up when I typed my command in the search box on google therefore it must have been popular with people. Additionally it was a website used by many media students/people which had a store, a magazine and a forum therefore it seemed like a genuine source.

7/11/13 http://www.wikihow.com/Film-a-Play

This site gives a list of the equipment needed to record a play professionally. It also gives directives on how to use the equipment professionally. This links to my previous resources as this gives clear instructions on how to use specific equipment.

How to record a play and what I will need for it.

The materials I will need How to use the camera to my

advantage Make sure that the audio is working

properly

It was one of the first results that came up on the search engine, meaning that it is popular and reliable. It is also a website which has instruction for people how to go about various different tasks and people are able to give feedback.

9/11/13 REVISION EXPRESS ENGLISH LANGUAGE & LITERATURE AS & A2

This book gave me specific information on important costumes, props, lights, sound effects and music. It also emphasised the importance of the director’s and actors’ interpretation. This links to my previous resource as now I know which equipment to use for different dramatic effects.

I was trying to find out how to write a play from a perspective of and English a-level student, mainly looking at important features.

The importance of: Costumes Props Lights Sound Effects Music

This is a book used by English a-level students for revision as hinted by the name, but it also used by teachers as a course book, therefore I believe that the resources was appropriate and genuine. It gave me a lot of useful information however it wasn’t of any use due to the change of the focus of my project.

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http://www.wikihow.com/Film-a-Play



http://www.videomaker.com/article/14225-how-to-video-record-live-events



8-25/11/13

‘King Lear’ by William Shakespeare

This is a play by the famous William Shakespeare which I partly studied in my English class but also read for my own pleasure and the purpose of this project. This links to my previous resource as I was able to closely study how Shakespeare used dramatic devices in his plays.

How to write a good play in terms of language, the plot, location, the set, stage directions, symbols, motifs, props and other aspects.

Language and plot are the most important.

Stage directions are not necessarily needed

Characters need to have depth

This is a world-wide famous play by a famous writer and it helped to get more familiar with plays therefore I regard it as appropriate.

8-25/11/13

‘The Caretaker’, ‘The Birthday Party’ and ‘The Homecoming’ by Harold Pinter.

These are plays written by another famous English writer, Harold Pinter. I decided to read them as it was suggested to me by my English teacher and I could use them for my project. This links to my previous resource as I can see clear distinctions between modern and Shakespearean drama.

How to write a good play in terms of language, the plot, location, the set, stage directions, symbols, motifs, props and other aspects.


Language needs to be written how it’s said to sound like “real speech”

Stage directions are not necessarily needed

Characters need to have depth

These are plays written by another famous English writer, Harold Pinter. I decided to read them as it was suggested to me by my English teacher and I could use them for my project.

8-25/11/13

‘The Dumb Show’ by Joe Penhall

This is another play which I read for the purpose of this project. It wasn’t suggested to me by anyone but I found it next to Harold Pinter’s plays so I decided to read it too. Linked by the fact that this is even more modern.

How to write a modern play that would be interesting for the audience.


Language needs to be written how it’s said to sound like “real speech”

Characters need to have depth Humour is difficult to create but it is

very effective

This is a famous play by a famous writer and it helped to get more familiar with plays therefore I regard it as appropriate.

17/12/13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5C1zGbaY9c

This is an interview of ‘Hoodie Allen’ on YouTube. Here he talks about how important technology and the internet are for

What an independent musician thinks is the key to progressing in the

Labels are quick to write independent artists off

YouTube and iTunes are very important for music

This interview takes place after one of Hoodie’s shows and he in answering questions about this music. I find this source to be quite appropriate because although unlike some other interviews,

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5C1zGbaY9c



musicians these days. He also talks about how labels wrote him and the “new wave” hip hop off until it started selling on ITunes.

music industry but staying independent at the same time.

this isn’t by a famous channel, but it does provide me with some answers which I rate to be valuable for my project.

17/12/13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqz34IFYeNQ

Here, ‘Hoodie Allen’ discusses the importance of a fan base. He credits what he has accomplished to his fans. Hoodie claims that record labels only correlate with hits, not fans, therefore he is able to live out his dream. This links to my previous resource because in both Hoodie Allen is discussing record labels never game him a chance.

What an independent musician thinks is the key to progressing in the music industry but staying independent at the same time.

Fans are very or even the most important for independent artists

He doesn’t need a record label to get big as long as he has fans

This is an interview takes place after one of Hoodie’s concerts and is mean to give his fans an opportunity to answer some questions which he answers and which are useful for my project, thus I regard this resource as appropriate. Even though it isn’t an official document or statistic, it is rich qualitative data which most of my project is based on anyway

17/12/13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beWXhCTNK0c

Again ‘Hoodie Allen’, this time discussing the importance of social media, being “the most important tool at our disposal” and how it “breaks down the wall between fans and artists”. Hoodie Allen also mentions that being independent allows an artist to have more control of their music. Linked to other resources as all highlight the importance of fans.


Social media is “the most important tool at our disposal” and it “breaks down the wall between fans and artists”.

Being independent allows an artist to have more control of their music.

This interview is conducted by Fuse TV which is a YouTube based music channel that covers daily music news, stories, interviews and even shows of all kinds of musicians, mostly in the USA. The interviewer is an experienced guy who has interviewed many people in the past and the questions and answers in this interview are both interesting and important for my research.

17/12/13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giTpQgDB0tMA

‘Hoodie Allen’ talks about the importance of collaborating with artist which are similar but also

What an independent musician thinks is the key to

Collaborating with similar artists is important.

Having a fan base is very important

This interview is similar to one I evaluated before as it is also done by Fuse TV. It is the same guy and the same channel, the only difference is that it’s a year or so

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giTpQgDB0tMA



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beWXhCTNK0c



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqz34IFYeNQ



the importance of a fan base. Linked to other resources by the fact that all talk about how to be successful without a major record label.

progressing in the music industry but staying independent at the same time.

later. I find this resource to be mildly appropriate because as interesting and as honest it is, not much of it I can use for my project. But the credibility and validity of it cannot be questioned.

17/12/13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fADKjyg4JaM

Jabari Johnson interviews ‘Hoodie Allen’ and get to know him, I found that his fans are what is most important to him, he wants them to be friends rather than fans. Uses Twitter to communicate. Being resourceful is also important if independent, as money is scarce, it is important to make the most of it. Hoodie used all his money from a tour to make “Chase is on”. Linked to all other Hoodie Allen interviews because this covers all of them in more depth.


Fans are the most important Twitter is a very good way of

keeping in touch with fans If you’re independent, you have to

be very resourceful

This is a documentary by Jabari Johnson. Johnson is a YouTuber who does documentaries of musicians such as Hoodie Allen himself but also Macklemore and Ryan Lewis which I have also used as part of my research. This documentary is about half an hour long therefore it has provided me with a lot of qualitative information which will be very useful in my project. Additionally, Hoodie gets to speak quite a lot and express his views which gives his answers a lot of depth, which makes this source very important.

21/12/13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_qf8LdwNqQ

In this interview, G Eazy emphasises the importance of touring and recording music at the same time. Also outlines the importance of being patient. Links to all Hoodie Allen interviews as both artists are independent and both are trying to become successful.


That an independent artist needs to tour and make music at the same time to stay current

An independent artist needs to be patient and work hard to receive the rewards

This resource is appropriate because, firstly, it has contributed to my research, but this interview is conducted in a way which has allowed G-Eazy to express a lot of his views as openly as he wants to. However because this is an online video, it could have been edited to remove some parts which were important to him but not to the interviewee, but then again this is not someone who is doing something against him, thus this resource is appropriate

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_qf8LdwNqQ



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fADKjyg4JaM



21/12/13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCcUnZ75tcw

Here, G Eazy discusses the importance of touring with other artists that you can learn from and the significance that free music has in building a fan base and bringing people to your show. Links to other G Eazy interviews as all are concerned with methods of becoming famous independently.


It is useful to tour with other artists as you can learn from them

Free music is significant in building a fan base and brining people to a show

This is an interview of is an appropriate resource as it shows G Eazy actually expressing his views by answering questions. It also answered some questions which I wanted to answer in my dissertation therefore I regard it as an appropriate resource.

21/12/13 http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2013/04/g-eazy/7/

In this interview, G Eazy claims that “…There is no glass ceiling for an independent artist…”. This links to other G Eazy interviews as the emphasis is on him being independent from major record labels.


That he is very proud of what he has achieved while being independent

That “there is no ceiling for an independent artist”

This interview was done by the ‘XXL Magazine’ which is a famous music magazine, mostly credited for introducing new music artists in the ‘XXL Freshmen Edition’ which happens once a year; therefore I regard it as an appropriate resource. As well as that some things which were said by him in this interview I regard as very important to my research.

23/12/13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyXf_aKEsyY

In this interview, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis discuss their success as an independent duo and how that has opened the door for other independent artists – “Hopefully, what we have been able to do over the past year is a model for other people to follow, that you do not need a record label, you do not need (you know) a big company behind you, that if the music speaks


That you do not need a big company behind you, that if the music speaks to the people, that’s enough. And the people have spoken”.

This is an interview which takes place at the Grammy nomination awards of 2013 where Macklemore and Ryan Lewis received multiple awards. I find this resource to be both appropriate and inappropriate. It is appropriate because it provides me with some qualitative data which will be useful in my project, however because it was for television purposes it was rather short and probably edited thus it wasn’t as informative as I would have liked it to be.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyXf_aKEsyY



http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2013/04/g-eazy/7/



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCcUnZ75tcw



to the people, that’s enough. And the people have spoken”. This resource links to others as the main agenda is independent music.

23/12/13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JErUzr8GSvU

In this documentary by Jabari Johnson, Macklemore talks about how he needs to “have full creative control” and doesn’t want to “outsource” his tasks because of its not what he wants it to be, then “it’s on him”. Ryan Lewis also highlights that “Maintaining your brand at a certain level independently, is a 70-80 hour a week job” – “You’re sacrificing your life”. Macklemore – “There are people who believe in what I do passionately” -”You can’t take that away from me”. Jabari also did a documentary about Hoodie Allen.


Being independent is very demanding if you want to go all the way to the top

If you want things to be done your way then you have to do it yourself, not outsource it

You are basically sacrificing your life if you want to be independent

This is another documentary by Jabari Johnson who I have mentioned before. I regard this resource as important as unlike most other videos, this one takes us into the life of an independent artist and provides me with some findings which are very important to my project.

23/12/13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1DV7YmEKrk

Here, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis discuss being on the cover of the XXL freshman. Ryan Lewis highlights that they have an “Extremely strong relationship with their fans” and that “Every piece of our brand is literally straight from us”.


By signing to a major record industry, your music loses its identity, and identity is very important to them

For the music to be successful it needs to connect with the fans

This is an interview by HardKnock TV which is at a similar level to Fuse TV, meaning that it is a YouTube channel dedicated to music. I find this resource to be very appropriate as it provides me with some significant qualitative data which I will use for my dissertation.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1DV7YmEKrk



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JErUzr8GSvU



Macklemore demonstrates the importance of the fact that “The music needs to connect with our community of fans” to be successful. When asked about a record deal, Ryan Lewis claims that by signing with a major record label, their music “loses its identity” and “a specific part of us is, that we have an identity”. Macklemore contributes by adding that “They (record labels) don’t get it.” “Coming in and out.” “Getting fired”. This links to when G Eazy gave his reason for staying independent when he mentioned that people like Macklemore that there is no “glass ceiling for an independent artist”.

23/12/13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0-Fn6Qh2lY

In this interview, Macklemore highlights that “The music needs to connect with the fans”. He also emphasises the importance of touring, saying that “we put everything into a live show”. This links to when both Hoodie Allen and G Eazy talked about the importance of fans.


That music needs to connect with the fans

They put everything into a live show

This is an interview which takes place live on air at a radio station called Power 105.1 – this is a radio station in the USA. The source is slightly appropriate as it gifts me with some good finding to use, however the fact that this is a radio station and most radio stations play music from record labels, I don’t think that Macklemore was able to say how he really feels about independent music as he would have liked.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0-Fn6Qh2lY



23/12/13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLEO1sHY7XE

In this interview, I found that Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are the first to release an independent album and get a single to number 1 for the first time in 20 years. Macklemore also conveys the importance of “keeping the intimacy”, whether it is preforming in front of “20 people, 40 people, 60 people and 10,000 people”. This resource links to when G Eazy talked about the importance of touring.


Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are the first to release an independent album and get a single to number 1 for the first time in 20 years

It is important to keep the intimacy with fans no matter of the size of the show

This is interview takes place just after Macklemore and Ryan Lewis performed at the famous Central Park, New York. The interview was also shown online by ABC News which is an American news channel. This clip provides me with data that is for once quantitative and as a result I find this resource to be very valuable.

23/12/13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50l9YTbMLc8

In this interview, the manager of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Zach Quillen talks about his past experiences of “failing” record labels, the importance of “free social media” and the significance of a fan base. This links to my other resources as it gives another reason for why some musicians stay independent. It is also directly answering my research questions.


Record labels have failed in the past and people are now seeing that

Free Social Media is very important A fan base is also very significant

This is an interview which takes place at The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation's Sync Up conference in 2013. The person being interviewed is Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ manager, Zach Quillen which tells some very important facts about how he managed to help them become famous. It is also a conference and the person asking the questions sounds to know what he is talking about and also asks questions which provoke Quillen to give very useful answers. This makes the resource very appropriate.

23/12/13 http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/

In this podcast, Macklemore outlines that staying independent were what helped him becoming big

What an independent musician thinks is the key to

The music industry is changing, people like Mac Miller and himself are showing how it can be done independently

This is interview is not shown as a video or an audio recording therefore some things that were said in that interview might be omitted, nevertheless, the

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http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20130401/03115322523/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50l9YTbMLc8



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLEO1sHY7XE



20130401/03115322523/

and how that was so easily possible. “That the music industry is changing. That it's evolving. And to be at any sort of place where we're at the forefront of that, at the moment, is exciting.” “Mac Miller did it independently. And he had every major label hollering at him with huge seven figure offers and turned it down and still went number one on Billboard.” “With the power of the internet and with the real personal relationship that you can have via social media with your fans...” “It matters that we have YouTube and that has been our greatest resource in terms of connecting, having our identity, creating a brand, showing the world who we are via YouTube. That has been our label.” Macklemore also emphasises the fact that record labels are in decline and there is “no magic button they can push” for an artist to become famous. This links to all my other resources as it focuses solely on independent music like all interviews which I watched.

progressing in the music industry but staying independent at the same time.

YouTube is very important There is no special button a record

label can press to make you famous

answers that Macklemore gives are very useful for my project thus the data found here is very appropriate.

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23/12/13 http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/entertainment-articles/how-macklemore-beleived-in-himself-worked-hard-and-got-rich/

In this article, Brian Warner gives a profile of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis and roughly outlines how they became so big. This links to all my other resources as it helps to give them more credibility. This is because all my other resources just involve independent musicians talking about their own success, but here someone else highlights their achievements.


"The Heist" debuted at #1 on iTunes and #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album sold nearly 80,000 copies in the first week and over 500,000 to date with no signs of slowing down

The single "Thrift Shop" was #1 on Billboard for six weeks in a row has sold 5 million singles in The US, 5 million in Australia and 2 million in New Zealand. It also has been viewed 256 million times on YouTube

“Instead taking the short money, Macklemore formed his own company (appropriately called Macklemore LLC) and decided to release The Heist on his own” “When it came time to find a distributor for the physical (non-iTunes) albums, they hired a company called the Alternative Distribution Alliance (ADA). Even though technically speaking ADA is owned by Warner Music, it's not nearly the same as being distributed by a major label in a few key areas

This is an article which outlines how Macklemore and Ryan Lewis became famous and what they did to get there. It has some hard statistics which I find to be very useful and reliable therefore for me this is a very appropriate resource.

23/12/13 http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/chance-the-rapper-on-staying-independent-its-a-dead-industry-20130927

In this interview, an up-comer, Chance the Rapper is quoted saying - “Have you thought about signing with a label? There's no reason to. It's a dead industry. This links to other resources as it also gives another reason for

What an independent musician thinks is the key to progressing in the music industry but staying independent at

Many musicians now don’t want to sign to record labels

This resource is appropriate because it is an interview from a recognised magazine “Rolling Stone” but the interview is written not recorder therefore his full answer could be omitted where he could have said something which would have put the answer in context.

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http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/chance-the-rapper-on-staying-independent-its-a-dead-industry-20130927



http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/entertainment-articles/how-macklemore-beleived-in-himself-worked-hard-and-got-rich/



why some musicians stay independent.

the same time.

23/12/13 http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.26041/title.chance-the-rapper-says-he-turned-down-tde-signing

In this interview, Chance the Rapper talks about the importance of staying independent. This links to all the other interviews I researched as the focus is on independent music.


Many musicians now don’t want to sign to record labels

This is an interview of a musicians and he is speaking honestly about questions he is asked by the fans. He also answered a lot of my questions which was helpful and made this source appropriate. However it is possible that he could be just saying what he thinks is socially desirable so that he gets a positive public image. Also it is possible that he has been told what to say by his press advisor but he is independent so it is less likely.

27/12/13 How to Open & Operate a Financially Successful Independent Record Label – by: Martha Meada

This book gives details about how to run an independent music business. This links to my other resources as all of them were directly from independent musicians, but this comes from a scholar.

How to become a famous musician independently

“The internet presents some new opportunities, including the ability to stream videos of artists’ performances 24 hours a day to anywhere in the world and vast social networks through which music fans recommend artists to each other”

“As a one man record label with only a handful of stuff, you will have to select the promotional activities that use your time and resources most effectively, find ways to outsource work and recruit volunteers among your family members and fans that want to support you. Major record labels have the financial resources to conduct massive advertising campaigns in multiple locations. You will have to tailor your marketing to

This book is written by people with knowledge about music, however it doesn’t relate too much to my research. It focused too much on being an independent label rather than an individual. And a lot of it is out of date.

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http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.26041/title.chance-the-rapper-says-he-turned-down-tde-signing



reach as much of your audience as you can with a small marketing budget”

27/12/13 The Self-promoting Musician: Strategies for Independent Music Success – by: Peter Spellman

This book gives detailed strategies of how a musician can promote himself/herself. This links to my previous resources as it is another scholar talking about independent music.


How to write a business plan, create press kits, sharpen your business chops

Using the Internet to promote your music

How to customize your demos for maximum exposure

Secrets to getting your music played on the radio

12 things you can do to get the most out of every gig

“Four recording and distribution companies dominate the global industry. Together, they manufacture and distribute over 200 record labels, supplying music wholesalers and retailers with about 80% of the U.S market. They are: Universal Group, Warner Music Group, Sony/BMG entertainment and EMI group. On the other side of the coin, there are over 1,500 indie labels, distributed by nearly 200 independent record distributors and accounting for the remaining 20% of recorded music sales. These of figures, of course, do not include the

This book is written by Peter Spellman, Director of the Career Development Centre at Berklee College of Music and it gives a lot of good tips but is out of date and doesn’t relate too much to my area of study.

27/12/13 International History of the Record Industry – by: Pekka Gronow and Ilpo Saunio

This book explores the history of the music industry over the years and centuries. It focuses on the emergence of equipment and changes in


How modern technology has helped to bring about more music and that it’s more accessible

This book is written by people with knowledge about music, however it doesn’t relate too much to my research therefore it isn’t the most appropriate resource. Quite a lot of the data is out

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technology. This links to my previous resources as it is another scholar talking about independent music.

dated as well.

27/12/13 Online Survey I create an online survey about my independent music project. I asked 6 simple questions to make sure that I get enough responses but also some data which can be presented to back my research up. I managed to get 20 responses. This links to my previous resources its purpose is to answer the same questions about independent music, just from a different perspective.

Why and How might music artists stay independent but also progress in the music industry?I wanted to know how much people knew about independent music and their views on the things independent musicians have talked about

Most people are aware of independent music

Most people aren’t bothered if artists stay independent or sign with a label

The biggest benefit of staying independent it keep control

My surveys were my most appropriate resources as I managed to get some primary data which in some parts serves my research exceptionally well. As well as that, I know that this data is reliable and I can trust it as I found it myself.

3-4-9/01/14

Interviews I interviewed 3 people who are currently independent but trying to make it in the music industry. The questions that I asked them were very similar, with only minor changes. The interviews were structured; however I did allow myself to explore some topics further I felt that they were going to add to my research.

I wanted to get the perspective of actual independent music artists, on how they feel about being independent.

Social Media and Touring are very important

You have to use everything that’s around you

It is first hand primary data which I can trust and adds to the depth of my research therefore I regard this resource as appropriate. However, as much as these guys are independent artists who are trying to make it, they are doing it part time whilst balancing it with college/work therefore they’re not at a level where they have had a lot experience with the music industry.

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This links to my previous resources where I watched interviews, as here I was able to conduct my own interviews. Not only did I have a clear idea what to ask, I knew had to go about it professionally.

11/01/14 and 8/02/14

Social Survey I decided to do a social survey to make sure that I have a wide sample and representative results. I used the same questions as my online survey and asked 20 people in two different locations (‘The Glades’ shopping centre and ‘Trafalgar Square’). This links to my other resources, once again, I was looking to answer the same questions, just form yet another perspective – the British public.

Why and How might music artists stay independent but also progress in the music industry?I wanted to know how much people knew about independent music and their views on the things independent musicians have talked about

That most people don’t know much about independent music

However most people think that record labels are in decline and that they prefer music artists to stay independent

Also most people think that the biggest benefit of an artist staying independent is that they are able to keep full creative control of their work.

My surveys were my most appropriate resources as I managed to get some primary data which in some parts serves my research exceptionally well. As well as that, I know that this data is reliable and I can trust it as I found it myself

15-21/01/14

Extended Project Student Guide – by: Brian Crossland and Patrick Walsh-Atkins

This is the official OCR companion book which clearly sets out what a student needs to do to get a good grade. This links to everything I’ve done in this project as it made me aware of how to approach all of my

How to make sure that I get as good grade as possible for me EPQ

That while doing my EPQ I need to remember to evaluate resources, not just comment on what they are

Always need to plan ahead Show development

This book is written specifically for the purposes of the EPQ therefore it is definitely an appropriate source. It contains information specific to the extended project and has helped to develop a further understanding of what is required of me.

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resources.

22-29/01/14

Writing your Dissertation – by: Derek Swetnam

This is a book that I found next to the OCR book which helped to how to prepare for writing my dissertation. This particularly links to my online & social surveys and interviews as it had a chapter about research and I gained a lot of useful information about how to approach my research.

How to write and manage a successful dissertation

When doing research, if you don’t have a good sample, don’t be depressed by it, own up to it but keep the results

You have to manage your dissertation along with other responsibilities

Always plan well ahead and be conscious of possible things going wrong

It is always good to keep and edit list whilst writing to not lose track

You need a pilot study of a questionnaire

This book is written specifically for the purpose of helping people write a successful dissertation. It is also written by a university tutor from University of Manchester who claims to have a lot of experience, but that could however be his own opinion. Nevertheless, I found this book to be very helpful and gave me a lot of pointers.

Initial EPQ Planning Table

59

Stage of the EPQ Project processNumber of days/weeks needed

Start date End date

STAGE ONE: ResearchIdentify an original and manageable project 4 weeks 9th Sep 10th OctResearch into chosen topic 9 weeks 12th Oct 14th DecSTAGE TWO: Planning your final projectCompose a detailed plan of final project 2 weeks 16th Dec 31st Dec

STAGE THREE: Writing the projectDraft the various sections of the project 4 weeks 1st Jan 31st JanDo additional research where necessary 2 weeks 3rd Feb 17th FebSTAGE FOUR: First draftCompile the first draft of the project 2 weeks 18th Feb 3rd March

Do any additional editing and research 4 weeks 4th March 31st

MarchSTAGE FIVE: Final draftCheck for errors 1 weeks 1st April 8th April

Prepare final submission 2 weeks 8th April 22nd April

Present the project submission to a chosen audience 1 day 23rd April 23rd April

Write up audience reaction information 1 day 25th April 25th April

Final proof-read (by a friend or yourself) and final editing 1 day 25th April 25th April

Compile bibliography 4 days 26th April 29th April

Get the final project bound 4 days 26th April 29th April

Submit your EPQ project 1 day 30th April 30th April

Possible EPQ Titles

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Record a PlayI’ve had an interest in theatre productions ever since seeing Zorro at the Carrick Theatre in London a few years ago. Since then I have really enjoyed drama, especially plays such as King Lear, The Lion King and Macbeth. Additionally to that, I have friends and relatives who have connections to this industry in many different ways, therefore I think that it would be a good and plausible idea to film a play for my extended project.

2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crashThis was obviously a very controversial but most importantly sad event which occurred just before the remembrance of another tragically sad moment in Polish history, therefore there would be plenty to research and write about. Especially for me, as I was born in Poland and lived there for 9 years before eventually settling in the United Kingdom, I found this event as quite shocking. There have been many conspiracy theories about this event and different have expressed different stories and pints of view, thus it would be interesting to dive into this topic and explore what really happened and what led to this tragic event.

EURO 2012This, in contrast to the 2010 plane crash, was a rather positive and encouraging event for the people of Poland. The Euro 2012 saw Poland and Ukraine hosting some of the best nations and footballers in the world within their borders and had a chance to show themselves in a culturally and economically positive light. What I could possibly research is the effect that the Euro 2012 has had on Poland almost 2 years later. I could look at the economic, cultural, political and other changes it could have been a catalyst to.

Independent Music Music has been a large part of my life ever since I was young. I have a strong interest in music which at this point in my life is growing into a passion. But music is a very general word, so to be more precise, I am interested in independent Indie/Hip-Hop music which is developing in the USA but is now beginning to take effect world-wide, pioneered by the likes of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Hoodie Allen and G-Eazy. This is a topic I feel very close to and have affiliated a lot of knowledge too thus my interest is undoubted which could prove to be very handy over the course of a long and demanding project.

USA between 1930s and 1970sThis is also an interest of mine. I find USA between the times of the 1930s to 1970s very fascinating, especially aspects such as migration, crime, economic growth and sexism. I have read many books and watched many films/TV series based on that particular historical period which have really captured my imagination and encapsulated these aspects which in turn has inspired me. Potentially there is a lot to talk about under this heading so I would have to narrow it down probably to just one of the aspects mentioned above or select a title that would somehow enable me to showcase all these aspects in relation to it.

Religious ViolenceIn the 21st century there has been a plethora of global conflict based on religion, in one way or another. Most notable conflict being the War on Terror (although it as based on eradicating terrorism, it has affiliations to religion) but also other examples such as the Sudan-Darfur crisis. I am a Government and Politics student thus this topic would be something which I could get a lot of information about and it is a topic which I am also interested in. This could potentially be an area of research which I would be willing to take on and persevere with as it is an actual interest of mine.

Isle of Dogs Regeneration I did a similar project in GCSE Geography which I really enjoyed and received a really good grade in, and as I result I am quite interested in it. The transformation of the Isle of Dogs from a run-down and poverty stricken area to the heart of British economy sounds very fascinating within itself anyway and with my base knowledge and experience could prove to be a successful project. However I would not want to lose marks or fail the project because this is something which I have already done. But then again, this would not be a replica of what I’ve done before, I could use my prior work and research in order to build on it and develop it in more depth and detail, or alternatively I could change the title but just use that project as part of my research of a much wider idea.

Record of Verification of Topic Title meetingYour first idea for topic/titleWrite and record a play

Your first ideas for researching and developing your project

I would like write my own play and record it therefore I will need to research:Firstly: how to write a play, I will look in book from the college library and online. I will also consult my English teacher.Secondly: how to record a play, I will research online and ask friends and relatives who do media.

Skills which I need to work on

I need to develop managerial skills in order for this project to be successful – I will need to be able to manage people and equipment at the same time. This is important because if I want my play to performed how I want it to, I will need to clearly manage people so that they know how I want them to act.

More importantly, I will need to work on my writing skills. I have some experience of dealing with drama in my English lessons, but that is nowhere near enough to write my own play.

Your Project Supervisor’s feedback and advice

The feedback I received from my mentor was really encouraging. I could see that he took an interest in my topic and tried to be as positive as he could in order to make sure that I am motivated. He did however outline that I will need to dedicate a lot of time to such a project.

Project supervisor signature: DJ Corlis Date: 5th

October 2013

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Record of Verification of Topic Title meetingYour first idea for topic/titleThe difficulties of a small scale production/ re-interpretation a particular scene of a play.

Your first ideas for researching and developing your project

I would like to research into the genre of drama. I will look at contemporary and modern plays. I will research how to work with space, lights and perhaps music, costumes and props. I want to find out how difficult it is to film my own interpretation of a recognised play.


I need to develop managerial skills in order for this project to be successful – I will need to be able to manage people and equipment at the same time.I also need to work on being able to clearly express what it is that I intend to do and how I want it to be done , as a play director I will need to direct actors into doing what I want them to.

Your Project Supervisor’s feedback and advice

The overall feedback was very positive despite that fact that I changed my idea. Dez recognised the problem which I was going to face when writing and recording a play and agreed that recording a scene from a play was a better idea. I found this very useful because I was worried that he might think that I don’t know what I ‘m doing, but he was very supportive.


November 2013

65

Record of Verification of Topic Title meetingFist idea for topic/titleRecord an unofficial music video for a particular song

Fist ideas for researching and developing your project

I want to record an unofficial music video for a song in order to understand the process and the difficulties that someone might face when recording a music video. In order to achieve this, I will need to research:- Online sources for how to record a music video- Interview people who have done music videos in the past in order to ask

them so basic questions and have an idea of what it will be like


- The ability to manage people and time effectively- The ability to use media equipment as well as computer software to produce

a music video- The ability to plan and organise tasks, people and equipment so that I do not

lose track of where I am and be able to meet all deadlines

Project Supervisor’s feedback and advice

Despite the fact that I have now changed my idea a few times, Dez still appears to believe in me and once again he has been very supportive and encouraging. He let me make my points and reasons why made my decision to change and agreed with me. We discussed what I was able to do within this project title and what kind of findings I would be able to achieve.

Project supervisor signature: DJ Corlis Date: 2nd

December 2013

66

Record of Verification of Topic Title meetingFirst idea for topic/title“Why might some musicians want to stay independent form a major record label in the 21st Century? And how can they stay independent and still be successful?”

First ideas for researching and developing your project

I have been interested in music for a long part of my life now – in particular indie rap/hip hop. Music is part of my daily routine and I like to keep up with the work and lives of my favourite artists. Most of my favourite music artists are in fact independent therefore I have developed a sizeable amount of knowledge in this field through watching their interviews, reading articles and even by paying attention to some of their lyrics. In this project I want to find out “Why might music artists stay independent form major record labels? And how can they do it and still be successful?” I will answer this 2 part question in 2 sections. Firstly I will explain in depth the ‘why?’ part of the question then as well in depth, I will answer the ‘how?’ question. I will: Conduct online and social survey Interview up-coming musicians Base my project on information I find by primary and secondary research as

well as examples of artists have done in the past. I will make particular use of 21st century research methods because my whole

project is about a 21st century phenomenonSkills which I need to work on

I need to develop interview skills which will be vital in order to obtain key information.

I also need develop my skills in gathering and presenting data via graphs and charts. I’ve done some graphs and chart at school but here I will be able to take my skills to another level by creating more detailed graphs and linking them to others and explaining them.

Project Supervisor’s feedback and advice

The feedback was very positive and encouraging. At first I thought that maybe the idea was too ambitious or I wasn’t going to be able to get across what I had in mind, but it all worked out and my mentor Dez was extremely helpful and co-operative – understood what it was that I wanted to do and even suggested some other features I could include. I could see that he really took a genuine interest in what I chose to do and was willing to dedicate his time and effort.The advice I was given was to firstly do thorough research and make sure I can handle everything that will be required in order to complete this project.


December 2013

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Research Ideas

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Research Ideas

Books: I will try to use books which will relate to my project. I will also read books which will help me manage my project.

Interviews: Arrange interviews with musicians who are trying to make it in the music industry to get their views about independent music.

Surveys: I will create an online survey and a social survey to obtain results from the public and get their views.

Internet: I will be using sources from the internet, such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, SoundCould and MTV and others which relate to my project and will provide useful information.

Why might some musicians want to stay independent from major record labels in the 21st Century? How can they stay independent and still be successful?

Why?Control/Creativity/True to themselves - Online surveyG Eazy – “There’s a certain pride and satisfaction I get from being able to say at the end of the day that this is something we built…If you make great music and you have the right strategy and the right team, it’s possible.”Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - “loses its identity” and “a specific part of us is, that we have an identity”. Macklemore contributes by adding that “They (record labels) don’t get it.” “Coming in and out.” “Getting fired”. “Signing a record label doesn’t make sense for us at the moment” Chance The Rapper - “Have you thought about signing with a label? There's no reason to. It's a dead industry.”K.S – “Many artists don’t care about the money. It’s about making music and having fans that care”

How? Globalisation/Internet/Social MediaYouTube/Facebook/Twitter/Soundcloud/Instagram/Tumblr/HypeMachine /ITunesHoodie Allen – “Social Media is the most important tool at our disposal” “It breaks down the wall between fans and artists” “130,000 tweets and a heavy percentage of that are replies to fans”Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – “The music industry is changing. It’s evolving. Mac Miller did it independently…social media with your fans” “It matters that we have YouTube…That has been our label” Same Love = 102,000,000 views / Can’t Hold Us = 170,000,000 / Thrift Shop = 472,000,000 / The Heist 2012 = 500,000 copies sold #1 iTunes #2 Billboard / 1st Independent to go #1 for 20 years Zach Quillen – “We didn’t spend a penny on advertisement…We advertised via (free) social media” “Social Media allows us to reach people for free” “We had the internet. Its free!”

How? FansHoodie Allen – Hoodie Allen Mondays (HAM), Hoodie Hang, Hoodie Mob, 130,000 tweets “It makes them look a little silly because in general they have written off this new wave hip hop genre in the way that it can generate buzz online, but that won’t translate into sales…So if you go out there and make some real numbers than they think that maybe they should care”Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – “There are people who believe in what I do passionately…You can’t take that away from me” “Music needs to connect with the fans” “If you’re doing something special and starting with some level of audience, then you have all the platforms” “If the music speaks to the people, that’s enough. And the people have spoken” “Extremely strong relationship with our fans” “Every piece of our brand is literally straight from us”

How? Free Music and Touring Hoodie Allen – 4 Mixtapes + other free singles G Eazy – 4 Mixtapes and other free singles / “Big believer in spreading free music” / Free Music at G-Eazy.com/ “Build up a following online by giving it (music) away for free” then “Bring people to the show by giving the music away for free”/ Make money in merch “The record business is declining…Record aren’t selling, but there is still money in touring and merch(andise)” / “You can’t download a concert…You can’t download a t-shirt…The experience is what they can’t take away from you” / Touring 6 months out of the year/ “Record whilst you’re on tour, you’ve got to keep music coming through” / Opened for Drake, Lil Wayne, A$AP and Odd FutureMacklemore & Ryan Lewis - “We put everything into a live show” / The importance of “Keeping the intimacy, whether its performing in front of 20 people, 40 people, 60 people and 10,000 people”

How? Being Resourceful and Hard WorkingHoodie Allen – “Use tour money into making a mixtape” / “Being independent, you need to believe in the decisions you make” / Being patient and making sure that you avoid shortcomings in the future” / “Took all the money from tour and made ‘Chase is on’ song”Ryan Lewis – “Maintaining your brand at a certain level, independently, is a 70/80 hour a week job…You’re sacrificing a normal life”Macklemore – Own ‘U-Haul’ / “It’s on me”K.S – “Record labels can out your face on television, billboards, online etc…When you’re independent, the only difference is that you’ve got to do that yourself” / “I’ve seen people tear their mom’s tights and make pop filters out of them…Its about using what’s around you”Alex – “If you manage to get someone who might be somewhat of an idol to you or someone who is further ahead in success than you, you understand the progress you need to make” Alternative Distribution Alliance – Hired by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis to distribute physical copies of “The Heist” thus put it on shelves / Part of Warner Brothers, but not the same as a label / Ship records for a fee / Does not provide money up front , therefore does not take profit from sales.En-Jay - If you don’t work hard for something then it’s never going to come to you…Unless you’re a really lucky person/”Most things you have in life, you have to go out there and chase…Like I said unless you’re really lucky then lucky you”

Research Statistics Online Survey (20 people)55% aware of Independent Music / 30 % slightly / 15% not 37% think record labels are in decline / 37% unsure / 26% say no 65% are not bothered whether artist has label or not / 30% prefer independent / 5% signed 60% can list independent artists / 40% can’t / Most popular are Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Hoodie Allen , G Eazy and YonasSocial Survey: 60% People aware of IM / 40% are not 60% prefer Indp/ 40% don’t mind / 0% signedWhy? Most control, creativity, freedom and income How? Social Media and Touring. Also good music. 60% agree RC in decline/ 30% no and 30% don’t know

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Mid-project review-Mikolaj NedzewiczSuccesses, failures, additions and/or changes made to project

This project has been very demanding from day one but I have enjoyed the pressure and responsibility. I have tried my very best to follow the plans I had made but to various extents that was not quite possible because you just simply cannot plan for things you don’t expect. As I’ve worked along my plans and ideas I have grown to realise that many ideas and plans are difficult to fulfil exactly as planned but nevertheless it is important to persevere. From my initial idea up to now, I have changed my idea about three times. This is because as I’ve started research into topics I realised that they were unrealistic, not very interesting to me or just that they were not a good idea at all. Now however, I have landed on an idea which I am pretty sure is my final one. I believe this idea to be final because it is one which I hold a strong interest in and was actually an initial idea I wrote down before starting but didn’t go with.

Along the way so far I have had many successes as well as failures. I regard both just as important as successes motivate me keep on going and indicate to me that I am on track, and failures help me to recognise what I need to do and how it needs to be done. I have had successes such as the simple fact that I have managed to stay on top and in control of this project, the fact that I have been able to develop a really interesting project, successes in interviews and surveys and learning new skills such as Harvard referencing. I have also come across some failures such as having to change my ideas and difficulties with managing and working on the project during mock exam period. All of these have provided me with tons of experience and knowledge about such projects and I believe that they have given me an idea of what to expect from university projects which I will undertaking permitting that I go to university.

Outline your planned steps to complete your projectFrom now up to the completion deadline In April 2014, I plan to complete tasks in the following order:

- Write a first draft dissertation- Start and complete my presentation as I go along with the dissertation- Regularly feedback with Dez- Redraft both dissertation and presentation at least twice- Make sure that I am fully prepared for the presentation- Deliver the presentation- Write up evaluations and presentation report- Final check on dissertation- Bind all work together and submit it in accordance with the deadline.

Your Project Supervisor’s main comments and advice at this stageMik, has been working extremely hard over the past few months. He has formulated his ideas and concepts into a clear project title. He has demonstrated excellent organisational skills and very good time management. Mik has shown that he is very capable of independent learning, undertaking different forms of research and compiling data into an interesting and informative report.It was agreed that an additional survey targeted at the Arts department (incorporating music students) would provide a strong discussion point for the projects in terms of how this audience viewed the changes in the music industry.2nd draft to be completed by 21st March 2014.

Presentation – has been discussed and agreed that this should be delivered in front of teacher and students following which a feedback form will be completed.

Changes, clarifications or additions made as a result of your discussion with Project Supervisor at this stage

- Make sure that all work is neatly presented e.g. page numbers, line spacing etc.- Try to get music students in college to answer my survey- Make sure that I have used a wide range of resources and referenced them

Project Supervisor Signature:- D.J.Corlis Date 28/02/2014

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Why might some musicians want to stay independent from a major record label in the 21 st century? How can they stay independent and still be

successful?

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Introduction:

“Four recording and distribution companies dominate the global industry. Together, they manufacture and distribute over 200 record labels, supplying music wholesalers and retailers with about 80% of the U.S market. They are: Universal Group, Warner Music Group, Sony/BMG entertainment and EMI group. On the other side of the coin, there are over 1,500 indie labels, distributed by nearly 200 independent record distributors and accounting for the remaining 20% of recorded music sales. These figures, of course, do not include the thousands of new releases by musicians not affiliated with any distributor who record and release their own music.”1

This project is focused on finding out two things: Firstly, what are the reasons why some musicians might want to stay independent from a record label. Secondly, how can they stay independent, yet still be successful. By definition and for the purposes of this project, musician is a person who is musically talented and/or plays a musical instrument and performs as a profession. Additionally, by definition, a record label is a company that records and sells music. 2 However, for the purposes of this project, being independent from a record label is having complete autonomy and freedom from industries or companies who sponsor musicians, but impose controlling restrictions and take back-end profits.

I had numerous motives for undertaking this project, such my underlying interest in the topic and an increasing trend in independent music, but what motivated me to do it the most, was the fact that I was unable to find any other studies similar to it. There are many books and studies which outline the strategies that an independent musician would need to follow and others which talk about the history of the music business, but I wasn’t able to find any studies which informed why signing with a label is not the best choice and how music can done independently, but still successfully. Moreover, there were no studies which combined this with very contemporary examples of musicians who have or still are in the process of becoming very successful, and that is what I have set out to do. I wanted to seize the opportunity to conduct ground-breaking research and find results which will provide others with a basis to further look into this area of music. I also wanted to use research methods which were very contemporary and widely accessible in the 21 st century to make sure that my research is very up to date, thus for the purposes of this project, I have closely analysed three musicians to show that independent musicians can succeed, but more importantly, to answer my hypothesis question of ‘Why might some musicians want to stay independent from a record label? How can they stay independent and still be successful? These musicians I have studied are: The duo from Seattle that took the world by storm in 2013 and were “The first to release an independent album and get a single to number 1 for the first time in 20 years” 3 - Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. A New York born and based rapper who is bound to blow up - Hoodie Allen. And an up-rising rapper and producer with tons of experience of opening shows for many of the most famous musicians in the world, notably Drake and ASAP Rocky, out of New Orleans - G-Eazy. I have combined this with my own research findings to answer my hypothesis question, but this will be introduced in the methodology section of this project.

1 (Spellman, 2008)2 (Cambridge, n.d.)3 (ABC_News, n.d.)

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Those who are most likely to find this project interesting are people interested in music generally, those who are fans/followers of these specified musicians and those who are looking to become musicians and do so independently. A possible use of this project could be for musicians, to act as a guide of how to become a successful in the music industry independently.

Methodology:

For my project, I really wanted to obtain data which was up to date and would lead me onto ground-breaking conclusions. The reason behind this is the fact that my project explored a topic which in itself was very contemporary therefore using research methods which were modern, seemed to be the best way to go about it, as it just underpinned everything the project was meant to be. I was also avid for my research to be qualitative and practical because the questions I have asked in my hypothesis required answers which were detailed and could be applied to a real life scenario, therefore I had to be very selective with the type of research I was going to look for and conduct myself. Nevertheless, I had to make sure that I have a balance of valid, reliable and representative data; therefore I had to make sure that I encompassed a wide range of resources.

Starting with secondary data, I used focused a lot of my research on interviews of musicians found on the social network site of ‘YouTube’. I watched many interviews of three musicians (briefly explained in the introduction, however a report on each one of them is available in the appendix) which are Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Hoodie Allen and G Eazy. I chose these musicians because they were great examples of the type of independent musicians around at the moment therefore they are able to represent other musicians than just themselves. Another big contributor to my secondary research was online magazine interviews. I researched music magazine articles which involved Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Hoodie Allen and G Eazy talking about their music and the significance of not being signed to a record label. These methods were successful because they provided me with up-to-date and qualitative data, which is the type of data I was mostly after. I also used books such in my research, but this method was not as successful because I was after up-to-date data, which books do not always provide, especially on this 21st century phenomenon. In the end I did use a few books as they provided some useful factual information.

Onto my primary research now. Firstly, I conducted interviews of independent musicians. It was difficult to get hold of musicians which were willing to participate, but I did find some. I interviewed three independent musicians who were in the early stages of their career and looking to gain some sort of publicity. The interviews were a mixture of structured and unstructured. This is because I was looking for qualitative data therefore I found it important to be able explore a specific topic area of possible. In the end, I found this research method to be quite vital as it gave me a wider variety of answers and opinions of musicians. (Full extracts of the interviews are available to view in the appendix along with the list of questions I used. Audio versions are available in the bibliography)

Secondly, I conducted an online and social survey. Until now, all my research data was qualitative thus I felt that it was imperative that I was able to present some statistical data to allow the reader to develop a clearer image of what I am researching, but also to increase the reliability of my research as quantitative factual/statistical data is much more believable than qualitative data. I created an online survey of six questions using a website – www.surveymonkey.com. I was hoping

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http://www.surveymonkey.com/

that this online survey would allow me to reach a wider audience and collect highly representative data, however that was not the case. I only managed to reach people who were either my ‘friends’ or ‘followers’ across social media networks such as ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’ which meant that my sample was unrepresentative and polluted. To counter my problems with representativeness, I used the same set of questions to conduct a social survey. I decided to go to Trafalgar Square and ‘The Glades’ (A shopping centre in South East London: Bromley) in an attempt to gain a wide representation of society. I tried to use the ‘stratified sampling’ technique for my research which involves asking every second person, however not every second person was willing to answer my survey, which made the sampling difficult. In the end I managed to collect 20 results from my online survey and 20 results from my social survey. I found this to be successful method because it allowed me to collect very reliable statistical data, which means that throughout my research I have encompassed all types of research methods and this would give my work credibility. (Full results of both surveys can be viewed in the appendix).

Why might some musicians want to stay independent from a major record label in the 21 st

century?

It is imperative to outline that both questions asked in my hypothesis are just as important as each other. The only reason I have decided to ask the question of ‘why’ rather than ‘how’ first is that it allows me to logically structure this dissertation which in turn makes it easier to understand. The question ‘Why might some musicians want to stay independent from a major record label in the 21 st

century?’ carries the purpose of explaining some of the reasons why musicians might not sign with a record label, from the viewpoint of actual musicians, as well as the public.

To start this off, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis who are one of the three musicians I have studied for this project, have contributed to answering this question in relation to their own situation in an interview for hardknock.tv. In this interview, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis explained that “By signing with a major record label, our music loses its identity, and a specific part of us is that we have an identity”. Then they go on to say that “Signing a record label doesn’t make sense for us at the moment. They (record labels) don’t get it…People coming in and it and getting fired.”4 What Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are trying to get across here is the fact that record labels are such massive industries with so many executives, managers, assistants and many others, which means that it is difficult for them (and probably anyone) to keep their identity, and by identity in this case they mean that the music comes straight from them; not through a host of executives, producers and managers. Consequently the main reason they haven’t signed with a record label is that they won’t be able to produce music that will have their own specific identity, which is clearly very important to them. Thus the first answer to ‘Why might some musicians want to stay independent from a major record label in the 21st century?’ is to retain a specific identity.

Furthermore, G Eazy, another musician which I have studied, has also expressed why he hasn’t signed with a major record label in an interview for XXL Magazine, where he said that “There’s a certain pride and satisfaction I get from being able to say at the end of the day that this is something we built. My entire merchandise inventory is in my living room, and my girl ships that out. She takes

4 (hardknock.tv, n.d.)

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it to the post office and drops off boxes and boxes of t-shirts every day. The studio is in my house. So to say at the end of the day, I walk out on stage in New York, across the country from where I grew up, and play songs that I made in my room, there’s a satisfaction to say that we run the business how we want to. When you got people like Dom Kennedy and you got people like Macklemore who are proving that it’s possible, there’s no ceiling for an independent musician. If you make great music and you have the right strategy and the right team, it’s possible.” 5 Here G Eazy comprehensively describes why he hasn’t signed with a major record label, drawing particular attention to the fact that he has been doing everything by himself or with his team of people which for him is very satisfactory to do without a major record label. Other reasons he gives here are that it allows him to run his business how he wants to and that thanks to people such as Dom Kennedy (rapper) and Macklemore (who has contributed above) who have achieved a high level of success, he can see that “there is no ceiling for an independent musician” which means that he can follow others’ footsteps and achieve as much as he wants, because others have already done so. Consequently, G Eazy answers the question of ‘Why might some musicians want to stay independent from a major record label in the 21st century?’ in terms of being able to achieve as much as they want without a massive team in form of a record label behind them and it providing an musician with satisfaction and pride.

Moreover, when I was conducting interviews with independent musicians, I came across some very interesting answers which also provide reasons why some musicians might want to stay independent from a major record label in the 21st century. K.S who is a producer, singer and songwriter which I interviewed explained that “Many musicians don’t care about the money. It’s about making music and having fans that care”6 which demonstrates the idea that musicians don’t just want to have money and be famous, they also want to be. Additionally, Alex who is a singer and guitar player outlined that “When you sign to a record label, you lose your creativity, whereas if you’re independent, you get to do what the fans want and you’re closer to the fans”. This reason for some staying independent also emphasises the idea of staying independent for the fans, as well as that, it conveys that being independent allows a musician to be more creative. 7 To conclude this part, musicians whom I interviewed answer ‘Why might some musicians want to stay independent from a major record label in the 21st century?’ by saying that they do it for the fans, to be true to themselves and to be able to stay creative.

My surveys also provide some useful explanations as to why some musicians stay independent, but from the view of the public as opposed to musicians. Some of the reasons found here are similar to those found in previous paragraphs, but some are completely new and different. When I asked the public why they think that some musicians might want to stay independent, and I found that the most common justification across both surveys was: ‘to have more control’. In my online survey (see Figure 1) ‘more control’ and ‘staying true to themselves’ were the most common answers, whereas in my social survey (see Figure 2) I found that the most common answers given were also ‘more control’ and ‘to be themselves’, however there were also some other answers which scored quite high such as ‘creativity’, ‘freedom’ and ‘income’. These results encapsulate some of the general opinions of the public on why some musicians might want to stay independent from a record label in the 21st century.

5 (XXL, n.d.)6 (K.S, n.d.)7 (Alex, n.d.)

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My social survey indicates that when asked ‘Do you prefer when musicians stay independent or sign with a major record label?’ 60% of the people I surveyed answered ‘independent’ (see Figure 4). This exhibits that it is socially desirable for musicians to be independent rather sign with a label. In fact, 0% of people answered that they prefer musicians to be ‘signed’ (see Figure 4) which further reinforces my point. This could therefore mean that the reason why some musicians might want to stay independent from a record label in the 21 st century is to please the public and do what the people and their fans perhaps want. However, the evidence that my online survey produced somewhat contradicts this point to an extent in that it shows that only 30% of the people surveyed preferred musicians to be ‘independent’, whereas 65% of the people were ‘not bothered’ and 5% people preferred ‘signed’ musicians (see Figure 3). This weaken my interpretation that musicians stay independent as that is what is socially desirable, as these statistics show that people feel indifferent whether musicians are signed by a record label or not.

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0

2

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10Online Survey

Figure 1

0123456789

Social Survey

Figure 2

Independent SignedNo preference

Social Survey

Figure 4

How can they stay independent and still be successful?

In this part of the question, I will look at how can musicians stay independent and still be successful. I will do that using the musicians which I studied, as well as primary information which I collected myself. For the purposes of answering this question as clearly as possible, I have categorised the studied musicians’ answers given during interviews and statistics which I collected myself, under subheadings such as ‘The Fans’ and ‘Free Music and Touring’.

Globalisation, Internet and Social Media

Globalisation is the process of the world becoming increasingly interconnected and integrated as a result of technological advances. The internet is a global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities, consisting of interconnected networks using standardized communication protocols8. Social Media are websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking9. The significance of these three mechanisms is that thanks to the process of globalisation, they allow musicians to share music and contact the fans via state of the art internet websites and social media networks such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and SoundCloud. Martha Meada in ‘How to Open & Operate a Financially Successful Independent Record Label’ said that “The internet presents some new opportunities, including the ability to stream videos of musicians’ performances 24 hours a day to anywhere in the world and vast social networks through which music fans recommend musicians to each other”10. This point demonstrates the importance of social media such as YouTube which allows for this to happen, and furthermore, it conveys that it a new and easy way of spreading music and building up a following, which in turn means that a record label is not necessary, as musicians can build up a fan base without cast injections of cash for advertisement. A musician whom I studied, Hoodie Allen, in an interview for Fuse TV, outlined that “Social Media is the most important tool at our disposal” and that “It breaks down the wall between fans and musicians” later adding that he has made about

8 (Oxford, n.d.)9 (Oxford, n.d.)10 (Meada, 2011)

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Figure 3

Independent SignedNot bothered

Online Survey

“130,000 tweets and a heavy percentage of that are replies to fans”11. Here Hoodie Allen highlights how crucial it is for him and his music that he is able to use social media to get close to his fans, which in turn has enabled him to be where he is today. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis add to this in an interview for Techdirt by saying that “…the music industry is changing. That it's evolving. And to be at any sort of place where we're at the forefront of that, at the moment, is exciting…With the power of the internet and with the real personal relationship that you can have via social media with your fans...It matters that we have YouTube and that has been our greatest resource in terms of connecting, having our identity, creating a brand, showing the world who we are via YouTube. That has been our label.” This emphasises the importance of the social media site of YouTube and how it “has been our greatest resource in terms of connecting, having our identity, creating a brand, showing the world who we are” and how “That has been our (their) label”. Furthermore, their manager Zach Quillen, at The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation's Sync Up conference, talked about how he managed to get Macklemore and Ryan Lewis to become so big, saying that “We didn’t spend a penny on advertisement…we advertised via (free) social media” and that “Social Media allows us to reach people for free”. This shows that not only has social media revolutionised the way musicians can get their music across to people and advertise themselves much more easily, it is free! This has in turn decreased the need for a record label as most of its functions have been replaced by the internet and social media. Likewise, my both my social survey (see Figure 6) and online survey results support this view (see Figure 5). To sum up this lengthy paragraph and answer my question of ‘How can musicians stay independent and still be successful?’ Globalisation, Internet and Social media have enabled musicians to reach more people than ever before for free which has opened up a route for being successful in the music industry without a major record label.

Free Music and Touring

According to G-Eazy, giving away music for free and touring is the ultimate combination to success. G-Eazy, who currently has 4 free mixtapes and other free music out on his website for anyone to access, is a “Big believer in spreading free music”. During an interview for The Adventurous 500, he revealed that his strategy is to “Bring people to the show by giving the music away for free”. His justification behind this is that “The record business is declining…records aren’t selling, but there is still money in touring and merchandise.” Therefore it is essential to build up a fan base by getting your music across to as many people as possible for free, however he still believes that there will be 11 (Fuse TV, n.d.)

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YesNoNot Sure

Social Survey: Are record labels in decline?

YesNoOther/Not sure

Online Survey: Are record labels in decline?

Figure 5Figure 6

an incentive for people to come to his shows because “You can’t download a concert…You can’t download a t-shirt…The experience is what they can’t take away from you.” 12 G-Eazy conveys that an upcoming independent musician should give his music away for free to people so that he can become increasingly recognised and the music can spread, however the profit will come from concerts, touring and merchandise. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis share the same view, and in a post show interview for ABC News they added that “We put everything into a live show” and highlight the importance of “Keeping the intimacy, whether it’s performing in front of 20 people, 40 people, 60 people and 10,000 people”. 13This shows the kind of mind set that independent musicians have and the emphasis they place upon touring and live shows, as it is one of the major sources of income for them, it can promote them if people enjoy their concerts and can be a great experience for everyone involved. Furthermore, one of my interview participants, Alex, when asked about the importance of free music replied “Of course it is (a good idea), it expands your audience because people don’t want to pay for the music if they don’t know who the musician is, and if it’s free, they can just listen to it whenever they want” 14. In many ways this is similar to G-Eazy’s point about building your fan base my giving music away for free, as Alex points out, people “don’t want to pay for music if they don’t know who the musician is”.

The Fans

A good example of how important fans are for independent musicians is when Hoodie Allen attempted to get on the Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show. The Tonight Show is an accredited American late night talk show which has won awards such as People's Choice Award for Favourite Late Night Talk Show Host 2013 and Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Talk Show 2012. It is hosted by Jimmy Fallon who is comedian, actor and musician. An article by www.slate.com outlined that “When rapper Hoodie Allen wanted to get on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, he didn’t go through managers and publicists to set up an appearance. Instead, he called upon a group of people he believed could get the job done quickly: his dedicated Twitter followers.” Hoodie Allen used the social media sites of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to get the attention of Jimmy Fallon by making a video where he said “I am a DIY hip hop musician from New York City. I’m currently on a sold out tour of the United States of America. I have no record label, I have no manager. All of this has been possible by the support of my fans. My fans mean the world to me and I know that it would mean the world to them if I could make my national television debut on your show”. He then he shows a montage of his show where his fans are screaming for Hoodie to be on the Jimmy Fallon show. His fans then took to twitter (another social networking site) and tweeted Jimmy Fallon thousands of times. 15 As a result, 5 days later, Jimmy Fallon tweeted this:

12 (The Adventurous, n.d.)13 (ABC_News, n.d.)14 (Alex, n.d.)15 (Slate, n.d.)

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critics'_Choice_Television_Award_for_Best_Talk_Show

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/39th_People's_Choice_Awards

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/39th_People's_Choice_Awards

Figure 7

This example shows how crucial fans can be because without them, an independent musician would find it hard to get on a prestigious show like that without managers, booking agencies, promotion teams and the list can go on. This doesn’t just apply to television shows, fans are the reason why independent musicians can do just about anything. Without fans an musician would not be able make music, sell the music, promote themselves or go on tours. Furthermore, Macklemore also contributes to this in a documentary about him where he says that “There are people who believe in what I do passionately…You can’t take that away from me” which demonstrates how key fans are for him, but he continues by saying that “If you’re doing something special and starting with some level of audience, then you have all the platforms”.16 This really paints a picture of the importance independent musicians place on fans and how much they believe in them; they really have all the faith in the world in their fans. ‘How can musicians stay independent and still be successful?’ In light of what we have just discussed, they can do that by caring about the fans and having faith in them.

Being Resourceful and Hardworking

This is probably the most obvious, yet undervalued means of achieving success as an independent musician. We will briefly focus on working hard and then explore being resourceful in more detail. Starting with working hard, Ryan Lewis states that “Maintaining your brand at a certain level, independently, is a 70/80 hour a week job…You’re sacrificing a normal life” 17. This gives us an indication of how demanding it is to be an independent musician, considering a typical job is usually around 40 hours a week and this is almost double that. It is essential to work hard, En-Jay pointed out when I interviewed him “If you don’t work hard for something then it’s never going to come to you…Unless you’re a really lucky person. Most things you have in life, you have to go out there and chase…Like I said unless you’re really lucky then lucky you”18. One could argue that this can be applied to pretty much everything in life, which is in fact true, but it can be very well applied to this scenario because if one does not work hard, one will not be able to reach their full potential and achieve something; at least that’s what this society tells us.

16 (Jabari_Johnson, n.d.)17 (Jabari_Johnson, n.d.)18 (En-Jay, n.d.)

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Onto being resourceful now and just to be clear, in this context, when I mean being resourceful, I mean to be able to use everything around you and make the most of what you have to achieve success. Martha Meada in ‘How to Open & Operate a Financially Successful Independent Record Label’ points out that “As a one man record label with only a handful of stuff, you will have to select the promotional activities that use your time and resources most effectively, find ways to outsource work and recruit volunteers among your family members and fans that want to support you. Major record labels have the financial resources to conduct massive advertising campaigns in multiple locations. You will have to tailor your marketing to reach as much of your audience as you can with a small marketing budget”19. This is echoed by K.S who claimed that “Record labels can out your face on television, billboards, online etc…When you’re independent, the only difference is that you’ve got to do that yourself”. Then went on to say “I’ve seen people tear their mom’s tights and make pop filters out of them…It’s about using what’s around you”20. This really goes to show in particular how resourceful an independent musician has to be as he is unable to rely on money to get his name heard or music recorded, thus is forced to innovate in other ways.

Additionally, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were extremely resourceful with the strategy they employed to promote their album “The Heist” which went straight to #1 on iTunes and sold over half a million copies to this day.21 They decided to hire the Alternative Distribution Alliance (ADA) which is a branch of the Warner Brothers Company, to distributed physical copies of their album to stores and shelves. This was not like signing with a record label because ADA does not provide an initial fee and then take back-end profits; instead, they ship records for a fee.22 This really shows not only how resourceful Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were and how that helped them to achieve masses of success, but it also how record labels are increasingly unable to manipulate and control musicians, thus more are staying independent. In the end it did provide Warner Brothers with a lot of money as the album sales went through the roof, but could have probably seen that number quadruple had they been able to convince Macklemore and Ryan Lewis to sign to their record label. Once again we return to the initial question ‘How can musicians stay independent and still be successful?’ we can say that the combination of working hard but also being resourceful can help to bring about success in abundance and can be seen as just as important, if not more important, than the means discussed earlier such as social media, free music and touring.

Conclusion

At the beginning of this project, I set out to discover ‘Why might some musicians want to stay independent from a major record label in the 21st century? How can they stay independent and still be successful?’ Since the title consists of two questions, I decided to answer each one in separate sections which has allowed me to go into depth as well as provide clear answers for both questions. To answer the first part of my question ‘Why might some musicians want to stay independent from a major record label in the 21st century?’ I would have to conclude by saying that it is because staying independent allows musicians to express their music how they want to, without major constraints or impositions; and be proud of that too. This leads onto the second part of my question that is: ‘How

19 (Meada, 2011)20 (K.S, n.d.)21 (Warner, n.d.)22 (Warner, n.d.)

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can they stay independent and still be successful?’ Which I conclude by saying that by making the most of the process of globalisation, musicians have been able to employ strategies and resources such as social media which has allowed them to share free music and organise events, which were not available, say, 30 years ago. Overall, I believe that this research contains considerable depth and can act as a good foundation for musicians that might want to take the ‘independent route’ in the music business. However, as with any piece of research, it can always be improved. If someone was to take this research and attempt to build on it, I would recommend getting in touch and interviewing some independent musicians who have achieved a high measure of success (perhaps those I have used in my research; which I did attempt to get in touch with but was unable to get a response) and gathering a larger amount of data than I have managed to, perhaps interviewing/surveying a wider sample and obtaining more ‘hard statistics’ than I have managed to. I wish I had been able to do that myself, because I believe that would have made my research much more credit worthy, but I had neither enough time or resources to manage such research. To sum up, I believe that my project is a successful foundation to build on, thus it could be more successful.

Bibliography

ABC_News, n.d. [Online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLEO1sHY7XE

Alex, I. o., n.d. [Online] Available at: https://soundcloud.com/mikolaj-afc-nedzewicz/alex-independent-music

Anon., n.d. [Online] Available at: https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=ieORIQ2rWLJM2M&tbnid=-KSUxyvXWFYe4M:&ved=0CAQQjB0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcaitlinleppert.wordpress.com%2F&ei=2iQWU5jRIIGLhQeRt4GIBg&bvm=bv.62286460,d.bGQ&psig=AFQjCNH2b1c3h-1Eg62zV

Cambridge, D., n.d. [Online] Available at: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/record-label

En-Jay, I. o., n.d. [Online] Available at: https://soundcloud.com/mikolaj-afc-nedzewicz/en-jay-independent-music

Fuse TV, n.d. [Online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beWXhCTNK0c

hardknock.tv, n.d. [Online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1DV7YmEKrk

Jabari_Johnson, n.d. [Online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JErUzr8GSvU

K.S, I. o., n.d. [Online] Available at: https://soundcloud.com/mikolaj-afc-nedzewicz/kane-independent-music

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Meada, M., 2011. How to Open & Operate a Financially Successful Independent Record Label. s.l.:Atlantic Publishing Company .

New_School, n.d. [Online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5C1zGbaY9c

Oxford, D., n.d. [Online] Available at: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/social-media

Oxford, D., n.d. [Online] Available at: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/Internet

Slate, n.d. [Online] Available at: http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/04/17/hoodie_allen_on_jimmy_fallon_rapper_uses_twitter_and_youtube_in_bid_for.html

Soanes, C. & Hawker, S., 2005. Compact English Dictionary of Current English. 3 ed. s.l.:Oxford University Press.

Spellman, P., 2008. The Self-promoting Musician: Strategies for Independent Music Success. 2 ed. s.l.:Berklee Press.

Techdirt, n.d. [Online] Available at: http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20130401/03115322523/

The Adventurous, 5., n.d. [Online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCcUnZ75tcw

Warner, B., n.d. [Online] Available at: http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/entertainment-articles/how-macklemore-beleived-in-himself-worked-hard-and-got-rich/

XXL, M., n.d. [Online] Available at: http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2013/04/g-eazy/7/

Appendix

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Macklemore and Ryan Lewis:

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Macklemore and Ryan Lewis:

G-Eazy:

Gerald Earl Gillum (born May 24, 1989) better known by his stage name G-Eazy is an independent American rapper, songwriter and producer. He has released 7 mixtapes, many singles and is due to release his highly anticipated debut album ‘These Thing Happen’ in 2014. G-Eazy was raised in Oakland, California in the USA, but later attended Loyola University of New Orleans, where he studied and produced music. His mixtapes ‘The Outsider’, ‘Endless Summer’ and ‘Must Be Nice’ are the most notable of his works. G-Eazy has a history of opening shows for artists such as Drake, Lil Wayne and A$AP Rocky, as well as embarking on 4 nationwide tours, with a 5 th one currently on the road.

More information at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-Eazy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop_production

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songwriter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapping

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop_music

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Hoodie Allen:

Steven Markowitz (born August 19, 1988), better known by his stage name Hoodie Allen, is an independent American hip-hop artist, singer, and rapper. Hoodie was born in New York City and was raised in Long Island. Later on he went on to study marketing and Finance at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he started making and recording music; he graduated in 2010. After graduating, Hoodie was recording music and working at google at the same time, but was able to quickly quit google and pursue a music career. Since then, he has released 4 mixtapes and 3 EPs (which include iTunes number 1’s such as ‘All American’ and ‘Crew Cuts’) and is due to release his debut album in 2014. Furthermore, Hoodie Allen has headlined 6 tours, including a recent nation-wide ‘Party With Your Friends Tour’ as well as 2 over-seas tours to the United Kingdom.

More information at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoodie_Allen

Independent Music Interview Questions: Independent Music Social & Online Survey Questions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapper

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip-hop

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States

Independent Music Interview – Example

1. Are you aware of what independent music is?

- Yeah I am. Independent music is kind of what I am going through right now. It’s not being signed by a record label.

2. Can you list some current musicians who are independent from major record labels?

- G Eazy/Hoodie Allen/KYLE./Childish Gambino/Macklemore and Ryan Lewis

3. Why do you think some music artists might want to stay independent from a major record label?

- When you sign to a record label, you lose your creativity/You get to what the fans want and you’re closer to the fans

4. How can artists stay independent as well as progress in the music industry?

- Staying in touch with your fans/Touring/Giving the fans what they want/Producing good music

5. Do you want to stay independent from a major record label?

- If it allows me to stay creative, the yeah sure, but if I get creativity whilst being signed to a record label then I’ll sign to a record label.

6. Why is that?

- If it allows me to stay creative, the yeah sure, but if I get creativity whilst being signed to a record label then I’ll sign to a record label.

7. As a music artist, outline the importance of:

Globalisation

- Allows you to put your music out to the people – free with a cost/Allows you to stay in touch with the fans

Social Media

- You get to understand what the fans want/Talk to the fans/Promote your music through Soundcloud, twitter and the rest

Free music

- “Of course it is(a good idea), it expands your audience because people don’t want to pay for the music if they don’t know who the artist is, and if its free, they can just listen to it whenever they want”

A fan base

A specific identity

- “If you don’t have a specific identity, you lose yourself within a crowd of people. But if you do have that identity it will make you stand out and people will know you for that type of music and the way you are”

Touring

- Expands fan base/interacting with fans personally and giving back to them

Being resourceful and hardworking

- If you’re not hard working then you don’t deserve because you’re not putting the hours in to make good music/Being resourceful allows you to express yourself and your hard work to the fans and new people

Reciprocity with people around you

- If you collaborate, you get a new batch of fans/ You can change your music a bit with the person you’re working with/It’s really all about getting new fans and reaching out to more people/”If you manage to get someone to maybe be somewhat of an Idol to you or someone who is further ahead in success than you, you understand the progress you need to make”

8. Do you think that record labels are in decline?

- I don’t think they are thanks to the promotion they have/ Not many people are aware of independent artists, but their all aware of the big artists like Drake and others/ “Independent music has still not fully broken away even though you have the likes of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis”/Record labels are still big at the moment/ It’s really all about the money

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Online Survey Results

87

Yes No Slightly0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Are you aware of independent music?

Yes No0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Can you list some independent musicians?

88

Macklem

ore an

d Ryan Le

wisG Ea

zy

Skizzy

Mars

Chance

The R

apper

Mike St

udTh

e XX

Kings of Le

on

Lykke

Li

Jon Coonor

Shivz

Dots K.S

Megan

Nicole

(Until last

month)J C

ook

Dean Rav

en

Jared

Evan

DJ Carn

age

Jon Bellion

Krept &

Konan(Befo

re ge

tting sign

ed re

cently

)0

0.51

1.52

2.53

3.54

4.5

List of independent musicians

Independent Signed Not bothered0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Do you prefer when musicians stay independent or sign with a major record label?

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More Contro

l

Creativit

yPrid

e

Satisfa

ction

Failed

label

record

s

More rec

ognition

To av

oid being a

"sell-

out"

Can't g

et sig

ned

Stay t

rue to th

emsel

ves

More inco

me

Avoid in

terfer

ence

with m

usic

To do th

ings their

own way

More fre

edom

0123456789

10

Why do you think some musicians might want to stay independent? (e.g. more control, failed record

labels, more income, identity)

Socia

l Med

ia

Free M

usic

Valuing f

ans

Tourin

g

Advertisin

g/Promotion

Stayin

g in co

ntrol

Experi

menting

Dedica

tion and time

By doing w

hat they

do best

Don’t know/N

ot sure

0123456789

10

How do you think music artists are able to stay in-dependent? What can they do to stay independent but still recognised? (e.g. – touring, promotion, so-

cial media, globalisation, dedication)

Yes No Other/Not sure0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

Do you think that record labels are in decline?

Social Survey Results

*Same questions as online survey

90

Are you aware of Independent Music?YesNo

Can you list some independent mu-sicians?YesNo

Independent SignedNo preference

Control

Creativit

y Prid

e

More Inco

me

Freed

om

More Reco

gnition & Righ

ts

Work Hard

er

For T

he Fan

s

To Be T

hemesl

ves

No Pressure

From In

dustry

Avoid Bein

g Commerc

ialise

d0123456789

91

Socia

l Med

ia

Tourin

g

Work Hard

Make S

acrifices

Make G

ood/Qualit

y Music

Dedica

tion

Faith In

Fans

Networks

and Contac

ts

Sprea

ding the W

ord0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

YesNoNot Sure

Presentation

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Audience Reaction

Overall

I am satisfied with how the presentation went. I learnt a lot and there were many positives to be taken out at the end of the day. This was a very positive experience because it gave me a small scale preview of the kinds of things I can expect to do at university and in future emplyment, but also it allowed me to work independently and learn how to give a successful presentation. I believe that doing the presentation, as well as the whole project, independently has allowed to develop my research skills and reach a new level of independent study. This is because I knew that this presentation was important and it was up to me whether it was going to be good or not, therefore I was more motivated and pressured to make sure that I do everything to the best of my ability, to maximise my chances of getting a high grade. Furthermore, it was a genuinely pleasant experience to do something different and more interesting than my a-levels as it allowed me to be creative, think outside the box and I was motivated because I held an interest in what I was talking about.

Strengths

My project was about something I was genuinely interested in therefore it allowed me to talk with real passion and show off what I have managed to learn and put together throughout this project.

I made my presentation interesting by adding video clips and visuals where appropriate. This was successful because on the feedback questionnaires everyone noted that to be one of the best things that I did.

I spoke of the top of my head and with confidence, without any extra notes or cards. This was also noticed and lauded in my questionnaire feedback therefore I regard it as a success because it takes into account the interests of the audience, but also because it was the first time I ever did it.

What could be improved/ what would I do differently next time?

My presentation could have been better had I kept more eye contact with my audience. This was outlined in the feedback questionnaire and I thought it was quite fair because looking back I did tend to just look at the people in front of me or the screen. However, I do believe that this is something which will improve as I do more presentations and my confidence goes up

Although it wasn’t noted in the feedback questionnaire, I believe that I should have made myself a bit clearer at times, especially when I moved between sections and maybe didn’t make that obvious enough.

Another thing which would have made my presentation better would be to have less writing on the board and more information coming straight from me. Although I did this to an extent, I believe that the less writing on the board the better, especially if I give academic presentations at university or employment where I will need to be persuasive, I will need to talk more than read from the board.

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Project Evaluation

Planning Process:

Right at the beginning of the project I created an initial plan with key dates and deadlines to make sure that I have something to refer to and I am constantly reminded of when certain parts of the project need to be done by. This proved to be an important document as I was able to always refer to it and knew when all the deadlines were. This helped to keep on track and meet all deadlines. I also used it with my diary and always checked my initial plan against my diary to see if I am on track, behind or ahead of schedule. T

My dairy is probably the most important document (apart from the dissertation itself) in my whole project. It shows how my project, and I as a person, developed in these last 7/8 months. It dates back to September 2013 where I started doing my initial plan and ideas and runs right up to the end of April where I finished the project. It contains almost every single decision that I made, the reasons for it and whether I was satisfied with that or not. Recording everything in my diary is not only useful for looking back months and years later, but it was also useful during the project when for some reasons I had to track back because I forgot something, but nothing was lost because it was all there.

Another thing which I did when I started this project was that I made a mind-map of possible ideas that I could do for this project. I had about 7 ideas drafted with some detail of possible research areas. I found this document particularly useful because when I changed ideas, I was always able to refer back to this document to look for ideas.

Being able to plan ahead and learning to make up deadlines which will guide me I believe is a vital skill which will help me at university and employment as I will be faced with many more projects such as this and I will need to work according to plans to ensure that I am working efficiently.

Time Management:

As with anything, being able to manage time wisely and effectively is one of the most important skills an individual can have. During the course of this project I really learnt what proper time management is, how difficult it is and how crucial it is. Having to balance my time between a-levels and the EPQ was obviously very demanding, more than I had expected. At first I found it quite difficult to manage my time, I felt like I had given myself too much work and thrown myself into too deep water, but as time went on and I found it more and more interesting and I was able to estimate the length of tasks more accurately I started to manage my time effectively. Overall, I believe that I managed my time effectively, and I back that up with the simple indication to the fact that I have done everything on time and met the deadlines. Of course, there were times when managing the EPQ when doing my a-levels was difficult, for example when I was doing mock exams and coursework at the same time, I barely managed to do anything for the EPQ, but luckily I worked ahead before my mock exams and coursework. One thing that I could have done better was to have started earlier. I only started to really focus on my EPQ in September and that meant that I had lost time during the summer leading up to it, to really think on my ideas and let them mature before I put action into them. As a result of the lack of time I gave myself for ideas, I ended up changing my idea about 3 times because I had no time to really think on them. As a result, I have learnt how fundamental the ability to manage time is as poor time management makes everything a lot harder and good time management does not only mean less stress but also better quality of work as one is able to concentrate better and not worry about deadlines as much. This will definitely help me at university and more importantly employment because I will be expected to manage my own

97

time effectively to complete tasks and nobody will manage my time for me like at school, therefore gaining such first-hand experience has taught me a lot about time management.

Research:

I am satisfied with the research that I managed to do, but I do believe that it could have been better. To start off on a good note, I have managed to include a wide variety of research in my project, ranging for primary to secondary, from qualitative to quantitative. I have watched interviews, read articles and books, created my own online and social surveys and interviewed musicians. Having such a wide scope of resources has allowed to grasp a wider understanding of what I was researching and it gave my project credibility, because it wasn’t just solely focused on one type of data. However, my biggest drawbacks were my research samples. My surveys only had 20 people each and I probably didn’t study as many musicians as I could have. There are reasons why I chose to study some musicians rather than others and I have justified that in my dissertation with reasons such as a lack of time and the need for in depth rather than in breadth data. I also believe that if I had more time I would have been able to spend more time on gathering more ‘hard statistics’ which would have increased my project’s credibility but also would have given the reader and the audience of my presentation a clearer image of what I was researching and what I found. Overall, I am happy with my research especially because I was able to use research skills I learnt in sociology about sampling and the purpose of methods, and such transferrable skills will be crucial at university when I will have to write my final dissertation.

Dissertation:

I believe that my dissertation is well structured and fairly simple to understand. I have covered main sections such as the introduction, methodology, data analysis and conclusion in considerable depth and I’ve managed to fit around the approximate length guidelines to make sure that I explain everything in enough depth but not in excess at the same time. Also, importantly, I read a book called ‘Writing Your Own Dissertation’ by Derek Swetnam which was a massive help and gave me a clear idea of what is expected of a dissertation. However, there are some things which could have been done better. For example, I struggled to make my introduction concise but also detailed at the same time, I could have made some sections of my dissertation, much clearer and I could have been more concise at times. I do however believe that writing this dissertation has prepared me for university as I now know what I can expect when I get there and will be able to do it better because I already have some experience.

Presentation:

The presentation went according to plan. I managed to say everything I wanted to, I managed to make it interesting for the audience (judging by the amount of questions I was asked at the end) and I managed to speak with some confidence. However, I believe that speaking with more confidence, making everything much clearer and easier to understand, making more eye contact and more practice beforehand would have made my presentation much more effective. Also, in the future, putting less on the slides and saying more myself is something which I would like to work on because that is what I will be expected to do as university and most likely if employment if I end up working in my aspired field of international relations.

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Overall Project:

Overall, I am happy with what I have achieved. I have researched something which I find interesting and have managed to produce a document where that has been captured. I have really enjoyed the experience, the ups and downs, the opportunity to do something different to my a-levels and to work independently and the chance to work with my EPQ tutor and my fellow EPQ students. Apart from that, it has allowed me to work on a personal interest which I have been fuelled by for many years and which thanks to this project, I am seriously considering to follow through with more research or a personal experience.

If I had to do the extended project again, firstly I would have started earlier because it would have allowed me to have thought about my ideas more before starting them which in turn would have meant that I wouldn’t change my mind so many times. I would have spent more time on thinking through ideas and researching them in more depth before starting and I would have planned more contingency time by taking into account coursework and mock exams. Secondly, I would have tried to get in touch more with independent musicians via social media to not only gather more results and have more data, but to show how the music industry as evolved as a result of social media.

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Presentation – Project Supervisor feedback

End of project review – Project Supervisor feedback.

Mikolaj has produced an exceptional piece of work. He has shown maturity and commitment to this very demanding piece of work. Mikolaj has demonstrated a keen eye for detail and has communicated his thoughts and ideas with clarity. He has a real flair for independent research which is testament to his excellent organisational skills.

Mikolaj has demonstrated a willingness to learn and work outside of his comfort zone by embarking on a project which is completely alien to his studies.

I am confident that with additional time Mikolaj will be able to extend his research and produce a comprehensive study of this very interesting area of the music industry.

Signed:- D.J. Corlis

100

Mikolaj demonstrated a very fluid and engaging style with his audience. He produced a very good supporting pack of materials to assist the audience in getting a feel for his project on why some artist remain independent from record labels and how such artists can be successful. This was a fascinating presentation which included a variety of techniques ranging from audio clips, slides, and paper documents. The media was utilised expertly which made for a compelling presentation that encouraged audience participation on the key issues and themes.

Mikolaj spoke with confidence about this aspect of the music industry. It was very encouraging to note that he intends to pursue his passion for music in tandem with his university studies both as a hobby and maybe even a business venture in the future.

In the final analysis Mikolaj delivered and excellent 15 minute presentation, which highlighted his in-depth independent research, use of multimedia and excellent communication skills.

Signed :- D.J. Corlis

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