A new campaign, Music Matters, which launches today, is bringing people together from across the industry for the first time, to highlight the profound value of music and to educate consumers on how to identify legitimate music services.
Allowing the music to speak for itself, the campaign has commissioned a series of short animated films about inspirational artists who have dedicated their lives to music and contributed to our cultural landscape. The films, including the stories of artists such as Blind Willie Johnson, The Jam, John Martyn, Nick Cave, Sigur Ros, Kate Bush and the Fron Choir, will be carried on supporting artist and organisation websites, with further films scheduled for roll out later in the year.
Music Matters – Sigur Ros (22-3-10) from Music Matters on Vimeo.
Aardman Animations got involved with the project after being approached by Will Anderson (A&R/Visual A&R Manager) at EMI late last year. Three directors from the Multi-Oscar winning animation studio were delighted to make short films for their favourite musicians, Felix Massie directed and animated the Sigur Ros short and Sarah Cox and Emma Lazenby collaborated on the Nick Cave animation.
Cox and Lazenby said of their involvement in the campaign; “We have both been long time fans, Sarah even went to see The Birthday Party in 1983 at the Hacienda. Once we got started however we felt the enormity of the responsibility in depicting someone’s life, particularly someone we admire so much. We sort of wish we had selected someone whose opinion we didn’t value quite so much!”
Massie took influence from Sigur Ros’ album artwork and from the tone of the music to create the style of his film. “I found the story about them traveling up the mountain to record their album and thought it was a funny example of when your passion for something clouds the practicalities of the way you set about doing it. Quite romantic in a way! Making the journey across their landscape fit with the music was really satisfying and it was fun researching all about Iceland. I want to go.”
The Music Matters campaign website, www.whymusicmatters.org goes live on 24 March. It will host all of the films will as well as advice on how to identify legitimate music sites.
The Music Matters campaign is being led by Niamh Byrne (Universal Music/formerly CMO Management managers of Blur and Gorillaz.) “For many people music is the single most important cultural element of their daily lives,” said Byrne, “but as it becomes more available it can become invisible, disposable. Cutting through the debate about technology, transmission and consumption, we want to remind everyone why music matters.”
Music Matters – Blind Willie Johnson (23-3-10) from Music Matters on Vimeo.
CREDITS
The Music Matters campaign is launching with seven films (animators as
listed):
* Blind Willie Johnson Mat Watkins, Beat 13
* The Jam Show & Tell
* John Martyn Elliot Dear
* Nick Cave Sarah Cox & Emma Lazenby
* Sigur Ros Felix Massie
* Kate Bush Elliot Dear
* Fron Choir Treat Studio
The music sites which have signed up to adopt the trust mark include Orange, Nokia, Vodafone, T-Mobile, 02, Music Station, Spotify, We7, MySpace Music, Sky Songs, MTV, Napster, BT Vision, mFlow, Vidzone, Apple, Amazon, Play, Tesco, HMV, 7Digital, ERA, YouTube, Rough Trade (This is an ongoing project and we expect more to follow)
Future Shorts runs the largest monthly live film event the world with over 35,000 people attending and 1 million watching online in over 12 countries, and creates marketing campaigns on behalf of film and music brands. Future Shorts Distributions and agency business commissions, sells and packages short films to multiple buyers. Future Cinema are the pioneers of live cinema and produce the acclaimed Secret Cinema events.
Music Matters Story from Adam Macaulay on Vimeo.
ABOUT AARDMAN
Aardman, based in Bristol (UK), co-founded and run by Peter Lord and David
Sproxton, is a world leader in animation. It produces feature films, television series and television commercials for both the domestic and international market. The studio has won over 400 international awards including 4 Oscars®.
Aardman’s multi-award winning productions are novel, entertaining, brilliantly characterized and full of charm that reflects the unique talent, energy and personal commitment of the very special people who make up the Aardman team. The studio’s work is often imitated and yet the company continues to lead the field producing a rare brand of visually stunning and amusing independent and commercials productions. www.aardman.com
ABOUT EMI MUSIC
EMI Music is one of the world¹s leading music companies, representing artists spanning all musical tastes and genres. Its record labels include Angel, Astralwerks, Blue Note, Capitol, Capitol Latin, Capitol Nashville, EMI Classics, EMI CMG, EMI Records, Manhattan, Mute, Parlophone and Virgin.
