BTEC: Research Task People Just Do Nothing

People Just Do Nothing

‘People just do nothing’ is a television series on the BBC that has a story line involving characters that run a fictional grime and garage radio station called KURUPT FM. The program turned out to be a big success for BBC3 and actors involved in the fictional radio station have toured around the UK and Ibiza, also performing on shows such as Radio 1. My research will aim on analysing the viability of making a grime and garage KURUPT FM album for release.

Currently in the UK there are many grime and garage music acts; such as Boy Better Know, Skepta, Wiley, Roll Deep and Lethal Bizzle. Grime is a genre of music, which originated in the early 2000’s in London, through pirate radio stations just like KURUPT FM from ‘People just do nothing’. This genre tries to combines elements from dance and electro music to achieve a unique style.

Eventually acts like Dizzee Rascal managed to bring mainstream media attention to the music around 2003-2004. Stations like Radio 1 Extra and Kiss FM aired grime and garage music and attracted a younger audience of listeners. One of the biggest milestones from the development of grime music was the addition of the ‘Best Grime’ category, which was first, launched on BBC1 in 2005.

Grime and garage music has been very successful in the UK a growth from London occurred through the years of early 2000’s. The genre spread to big cities like Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Leeds. In the UK the grime scene is still growing, groups like Roll Deep and Boy Better Know are touring around the nation, whilst acts like Dizzee Rascal are playing at music festivals such as Glastonbury, Radio 1’s Big Weekender, Fusion Festival, Wireless Fest, Reading and Leeds.

Garage developed as a genre a few years earlier compared to grime music, but both genres usually stand side by side in the music industry. Contrastingly, garage was developed from another type of music, which was very popular during the 90’s that were ‘jungle’. Jungle is a type of electric music and was often played at raves. Garage music also began to develop into dubstep, this genre became popular around 2009 and eventually affected the US where artists like Skrillex emerged and produced music enjoyed by mainstream audiences.

Currently there are few popular grime artists in the music business; according to AOTY (albumoftheyear.org) the top 2 albums in 2016 are Skepta – Konnichiwa and Brood Ma – Daze.

Although there are many more compilation albums on sale with collections of the most loved songs produced by grime and garage artists every year. A reason for this may be that artists in this genre need platforms to show their music off to fans of the genre.

A release of music used and related to the TV show, ‘People just do nothing’ could thrive in this market as not only does it offer a compilation album, but also more of a brand and meaning behind the album. Due to the success of the show and tours around the UK and Ibiza, the group gained a reputation to the fans, plus they have strong links with the BBC. These factors would make advertising and marketing easier for the album as people already recognize the product and are already fans of the music. It would be likely that once the album is released the actors would get a BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge spot, which would increase promotion even more.

On the other hand, opponents could say that the idea is bad and the craze and popularity for garage and grime music has passed long ago. In the UK probably some of the most notable artists are Dizzee Rascal, Wiley and Plan B, all of these artists have not released an album in a while.

The image below shows Wiley’s discography; from the year 2004 Wiley has released an album every year without fail until the year of 2014. Since then Wiley has only released EP’s or been featured on tracks. This could be an indicator that recently money isn’t being spent much on grime artists because the audience is decreased.

Artist Dizzee Rascal shows the same pattern almost; except for he has less album releases compared to Wiley. He hasn’t released music or an album since 2013. Plan B hasn’t released an album since 2012 either.

Quantitative methods measure the statistical and mathematical data collected through practical experiments, surveys, and questionnaire and computer techniques. This allows analysis’s to be made but with the evidence of statistics percentages and numerical data. This method of research provides general information, which can be used to support a hypothesis or conclusion.

In the area of sound and TV quantitative research can be in the form of viewer ratings, sales, profits, website hits and BARB/RAJAR figures for shows.

Quantitative research is normally carried out before quantitative research is produced as it provides understanding of peoples opinions and underlying reasons behind the research. Instead of creating statistics and percentages, this research forms reasons behind why people have created these stats.  

Performing quantitative research gives more flexibility to the research in order to find out more about the participant and maximize quality and accuracy of research.

The show has been reviewed by various names in media, like; The Telegraph, The Guardian, IMBD, Vodzilla and Huffington Post. All of these reviews say positive things about the show, journalist for The Telegraph, Gerard O’Donovan said ‘it was a lot funnier than much of what passes for comedy and on BBC3.

Presentation for Album Proposal

BTEC Unit 3: Research Techniques in Creative Industries

Above is the link required to access my video for the research techniques in creative industries.