Boys II Men is the most successful R’n’B male vocal group of all time, based on their music sales. They have recorded five number one successes between 1992 and 1997 and have sold more than 60 million albums.

The band were contracted to Motown Records from 1990 to 2000, but then moved to parent label Universal records. After their album in 2000 named Nathan Michael Shawn Wayne, Boys II Men moved over to Arista records. In 2003, Michael McCary left the group due to chronic back problems resulting from scoliosis. As of 2009 Wayna Morris, Shawn Stockman and Nathan Morris continue to tour as a trio.

The Beginning

At the very beginning of their career Boys II Men were known as Unique Attraction and were founded at their high school, Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts in Philadelphia. They found inspiration in New Edition’s harmonies and routines, and eventually renamed the group Boys II Men, after one of New Editions songs.

A year before they released their debut album, they made an appearance on a solo album by Robbie Mychals. They are listed as singing background vocals on the song ‘One Mile From Paradise’.

Cooleyhighharmony

Boys II Men’s first album was released on Motown in 1991 and was produced by Michael Bivins. This album could be seen to be similar to work by Bell Biv Devoe as it included multi-layered sampled backdrops just like theirs, but at the same time featured classic soul styled vocals in place of Bell Biv Devoes’ rapping and heavy singing. This was classed as ‘Hip hop doo wop’ by the group.

From the beginning of the band, all four members of the band were lead singers, avoiding the usual R’n’B group arrangement of one or two lead singers and a few background singers. All band members being lead singers became Boys II Men trademark, and it became typical to hear Wanya Morris’ vibrato heavy tenor, Shawn Stockman’s tenor voice, Nathan Morris’ baritone and Michael McCary’s bass trading bars in each song.

The album’s liner notes also identified nicknames for each of the boys in the band. They were devised as an attempt at marketing. Wayna was ‘Squirt’, Shawn was ‘Slim’. Michael was ‘Bass’ and Nathan was ‘Alex Vanderpool’ after a soap opera character who had a nerdy style.

As time went on Nathan Morris began handling the bands operations and business interests but the group never presented one man as more important than the other.

Cooleyhighharmony was a major success and managed to sell over nine million copies and won the 1992 Grammy Award for Best R’n’B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. The group joined MC Hammer’s high profile 2 Legit 2 Quit tour as an opening act. While travelling the country their tour manager Khalil Roundtree was murdered and the groups future performances ‘It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday’ were dedicated to him.

End of The Road

While they were touring in 1992, Boys II Men recorded their ‘End of the Road’ album for the soundtrack to Eddie Murphy’s film Boomerang. This album also became a record-breaking success remaning at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for thirteen weeks.

II

During 1994 Boys II Men released their second album, several of these tracks became major singles. At the 37^th Grammy Awards on March 1^st 1995 the group won two Grammys, one being Best R’n’B album for ‘II’ whilst the other was Best R’n’B Performance by a Duo or group with vocals for ‘I’ll Make Love to You’.

Inspirations influence and impact

By this time Boys II Men were a popular act worldwide and became Motowns best selling male group act. The members of Boys II Men were particularly noted for their vocal abilities, and helped continue a trend in R’n’B towards an emphasis on emotive singing with significant use of melisma, a trademark of Wayna Morris’ singing.

Many R’n’B competitors began showing obvious inspiration from the band and their singing style. Shai, Soul for Real, Blackstreet, All 4 One and later Dru Hill, Jagged Edge and Az Yet. Boys II Men’s closest competitors were Uptown Records act Jodeci, however their style was more sexually charged and their overall influence of the music industry was not as widespread as Boys II Men’s.

Evolution and label Conflicts

The Motown company issued ‘The Remix Collection’ a completion of remixes from Cooleyhighharmony and II. The group itself opposed the release of the collection, and due to this there was a dispute between the group and the company. Boys II Men then initiated their own recording company ‘Stone Creek’ to be distributed by Epic Records, not Motown.

Evolution was released during 1997 and had very mixed reviews but still sold 3 million copies although this w3as below II’s 12 million and Cooleyhighharmonys 9 million. Only one of the songs from this album reached number one whilst one more made it into the top ten and the follow up track underperformed.

As label problems mounted, health problems also took a toll on the band. While they were on tour to support their Evolution album, Wayna Morris developed a polyp on his vocal cords, and the group was forced to postpone part of their tour.

Nathan Michael Shawn Wayna

In 1999, Motowon’s parent company PolyGram was bought by Universal Music Group. The ‘Nathan Michael Shawn Wayna’ album was their only album for Universal. The album was chiefly written and produced by the group itself an as attempt to update their sound and ward off critics who questioned the groups reliance on Babyface’s hit making song craft.

None of their singles became hits from this album but two received media attention.

Meanwhile Michael McCary was diagnosed with scoliosis, making him unable to dance live at performances. The other three members resorted to having him seated on a stall while they did the dancing themselves.

Full Circle and The Color of Love

Boys II men left Universal in 2001, and the label released a greatest hits collection called Legacy: The Greats Hits Collection, to close out their contract. Boys II Men then moved o to Arista Records in 2002 and began recording their album ‘Full Circle’. For their single ‘The Color of Love’ Arista commissioned a high budget music video, shot in four different locations. One of each Boys shot scenes in Tokyo, Ghana, Puerto Rico and New York. The resulting video had a debut on BET, but failed to have a great effect.

On January 30^th 2003, Michael McCary retired from performing due to ongoing problems with his health and Arista terminated Boys II Men’s contract on April 30^th.

In mid 2007 the group resigned with Universal Records and released the LP Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA through Decca Records. On November the 7^th the group performed on ITV’s talent show, The X Factor.

On February 21^st 2008 the group went on the show ‘Don’t Forget The Lyrics!’ and appeared as guests, playing for charity. After blazing through categories such as Motown, R’n’B and even one named Boys II Men the group won $500,000 and split the sum between two charities. 

Maroon 5 ft. Rihanna- If I Never See Your Face Again

For the first few seconds of the video we see the main singer of Maroon 5 (Adam Levine) and Rihanna sat at a long table. Each of them is sat at one end of the table glaring at each other, close ups and mid-shorts are mainly used in this scene to show the emoticion on the singers faces and their reactions to what is going on. For the duration of the scene we cannot hear the song, all we hear is the ticking of a clock and Rihanna tapping her nails on the table.

 For the first verse of the song we see Maroon 5 stood in a simple red room playing their instruments whilst the leader singer is obviously singing. The band are facing Rihanna and she is sat provocatively on a crème chair in a revealing all in one suit. Extreme long shots are used when looking at the entire band whilst at other times there are close ups of Adam Levine’s face. Mid- shorts are used when Rihanna is sat on the chair whilst long shots are also used to show her posture and stance.

 For the chorus Rihanna gets up off the chair and walks over to the lead singer and is caressing his kneck and walking around him, this shows a sense of tension or attraction between the two. We continuosly cut back to the first scene where the pair at sat at either end of the table but this time Rihanna gets up and moves over to Adam, just like when she gets up when he is with his band.

 For the second verse Rihanna snatches the microphone off of Adam and sings her section of the song. As they do a line each then change they are both snatching the microphone off of each other, which once again shows the tension between the pair. After this scene they then appear to be in a hotel with Rihanna laid on the bed moving around seductively with Adam watching her. Extreme long shots are once again used here so that we get a clear understanding of the attraction between both of them and can see their reactions to one and other in the same scene.

 After this we then see a close up of Adam on a white background whilst singing and then this cuts to Rihanna doing exactly the same. We then see them both sat on a green sofa together with Rihanna sprawled over Adam’s lap. When the final chorus comes in we see both of their heads together on the white background.

 We then cut back to them being in the red room and Rihanna strokes the end of Adam’s guitar which appears to be extremely sexual, we are continuously cutting between the scenes of them in the hotel room, in the red room and at each of the table. The band then begin to play their instruments and the camera focuses in on the instruments and some of the band members faces. For the ending scene Rihanna still remains at the end of the table whilst this time Adam moves over to her but then aggressively pulls her face up by her hair and the video then fades to black and ends.

Sophie Muller was born in London, United Kingdom but spent her early years growing up on the Isle Of Man. After she had finished secondary school she returned to London to attend Central St Martin’s and gained a Foundation Diploma in Art.

Her first taste of professional film came around as working as a third assistant on the horror/thriller “Company of Wolves”. She was then honoured when working for Internation Film and Video for her editing, producing and directing skills. She has directed over a hundred music videos and won a Grammy when working with Annie Lennox for the Diva video album.

She has directed seven No Doubt, Six solo videos for Gwen Stefani and Seven Sophie Ellis Bextor videos. When No Doubt won an award at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1997 she said that “On the set Sophie Muller is humble and simple, but she knows what she wants and knows when she gets it.” Sophie Muller says that her only ambition is to continue directing to her own high standards and never grow bored.

Directed Beyonce-Déjà vu

The video was created in New Orleans, Lousinia in June 2006. The footage features couture- inspired

Outfits, vigorous footwork and sexually themed routines. Reactions ot the video were mixed, Slant Magazine commented it is “more thematic and though provoking than the videos for ‘Baby boy’ and ‘Naughty Girl’.” More than 2000 Beyonce fans signed a petition for a re-shoot of the video, complaing of a lack of theme, dizzying editing and over the top wardrobe choice. The video was also said to be very suggestive of sexual activies when Beyonce is dancing around or near Jay-Z.

Whoa whoa,

whooa

whoa

Ey

I was picking up your clothes in the closet (closet)

I was about to throw your jeans in the washer (washer)

‘Till I saw a piece of paper saying Tasha (Tasha)

I gotta say I found this a bit shockin (shockin)

It’s on receipts to tell you went shoppin (shoppin)

You bought some Nike shoes

But why you buying stockings?

After reading the opening of the song I picture Rihanna in a large house in casual clothes in an American house sluggishly moving around and picking up clothes and tidying up. The camera would then trail behind Rihanna as she makes her way down to the cellar with a basket full of clothes where she reaches into a jean pocket and sees the piece of paper saying ‘Tasha’. Her face seems confused and she then reaches into the back pocket of the jeans and discovers a receipt for stockings and places a hand over her mouth and puts the receipt in her own pocket.

Boy how could you lie to me

Thought you would die for me

I’m not acceptin another apology

After 3 years, Imma let it go

I ain’t standin around crying no more

Got your bags packed sitting by the door

Ima leave your heart broken on the floor

For this section of the song I can imagine Rihanna’s other half walking into a dark house and turning the light on to discover Rihanna sitting on a chair saying these song lyrics to the man. As she does so he tries to hold her hand and reassure her that he has not been up to anything but she is continously pushing him away and walks out the house firmly shutting the door behind her.

[Chorus] : Rihanna

You’re gonna be in the emergency room

I’m standing by your bed

and so tempted to pull out your I.V

You’re gonna be in the emergency room

I’m fighting with myself

I can’t hurt you even though you hurt me

You’re gonna be in the emergency room

Tryin to call a nurse but nobody can help you now

Let me see you try to live without me

Now where’s your heartbeat

Flat line on the EKG

I can then picture the man in a hospital bed in a critical condition with lots of wires and machines around him. Rihanna would be sat by his bed whilst he has his eyes shut in deep thought, the scene then changes to RIhanna imagining herself going to pull IV out with her boyfriend begging and pleading. After this RIhanna is then bought back to reality by a nurse who walks into the room and taps her on the shoulder.

I was home late at night watching TV

Got a call from my girl saying “RiRi

Saw your man in the club

i thought he was out of town doing business

said that he’d be back in three weeks?”

And now I’m mad

Sitting in the kitchen gettin sad

Looking at your pictures

For this paragraph Rihanna would be sat at home alone on the sofa watching television when the house phone begins to ring, as she picks up the screen splits into two and you have a close up of a woman’s mouth saying ‘RiRi’. After this shot we then see her boyfriend sat in a busy club flirting with and looking at various other girls. We then move onto Rihanna sat in the kitchen on the worktop holding a picture of her boyfriend, which she then rips in half, and throws into the kitchen sink.

Boy, How could you lie to me

Thought you would die for me

I’m not acceptin another apology

After 3 years, I’ma let it go

I ain’t standing around crying no more

Got your bags packed sitting by the door

Imma leave your heart broken on the floor

[Chorus] : Rihanna

You’re gonna be in the emergency room

I’m standing by your bed

and so tempted to pull out your I.V

You’re gonna be in the emergency room

I’m fighting with myself

I can’t hurt you even though you hurt me

You’re gonna be in the emergency room

Tryin to call a nurse but nobody can help you now

Let me see you try to live without me

Now where’s your heartbeat

Flatline on the EKG

This scene would be less serious and have Rihanna singing and dancing around to the lyrics of the song on a coloured background through out the entire chorus. She would be wearing a short black mini dress and be very playful and cheerful.

[Akon]

I did you wrong, girl

Had a bunch of numbers in my phone, girl (I did)

But we been in this relationship too long, girl

For you to be listenin to your silly home girls

Better go on, girl

Now baby think about it (think about it)

Everything we do they gonna read about it (read about it)

Put it on a radio and TV outlet

Do you want to see your picture in that paper

You know them haters

You hear that 808

The drum, that’s my heart beat

I’m going numb, I said Rihanna, I’m feeling stressed

I’m going under cardiac arrest

Akon’s verse would be set in the same scene but this time with a white background. Him and Rihanna would both be in this scene with Akon singing the lyrics to Rihanna, whilst at the same time she is dancing around and miming to particular words of his verse.

[Chorus] : Rihanna

You’re gonna be in the emergency room

I’m standing by your bed

and so tempted to pull out your IV

You’re gonna be in the emergency room

I’m fighting with myself

I can’t hurt you even though you hurt me

You’re gonna be in the emergency room

Trying to call a nurse but nobody can help you now

Let me see you try to live without me

Now where’s your heart beat

Flat line on the EKG

The final scene will be of Rihanna sat back in the hospital like in the other scene for the chorus but this time as she goes to pull out her boyfriends IV Akon comes and taps her on the shoulder and they both walk out of the hospital together, Akon has his arm around Rihanna.

Initial thoughts

Personally I find this album cover quite fiery and feisty as the tones that are used

are red, yellow and orange. The image of the woman hanging off of a black bar 

also seems quite very oriental and as if it is based on a Japanese theme. The 

positioning of her legs can also suggest that she has discovered the ‘kick inside’

and is trying to seem as if she has a lot of power.

Internet research

Kate Bush is a British singer. This album was released on the 17th February 1978 and peaked at number three in the UK album charts. The album is classed as art rock and lasts for 43 minutes and 13 seconds. Kate Bush was only nineteen years old when her album was read and wrote some of the songs when she was thirteen. After her debut single made number one, a second single ‘The Man with the Child in His Eyes’ was released and reached number six in the

UK charts. It also reached number 85 on the American Hot 100 Billboard charts.

The front cover for this album once again does not contain any images of the band members. However, the microphones may have been placed there to symbolise their presence as music is what they are associated with and singing is what they do. Each persons name is also at the bottom of the album cover as it is the title of the album, but if you look closer the small brown lines that separate each name also pose 

as a divide for each microphone. Meaning that each microphone is associated with a particular singer.

Here are a few front covers of magazines that i tend to read:

I regularly attend my local VUE cinema to watch the latest horror or thriller films although it is very expensive! I feel that horror films are becoming less scarey and the story lines are not as good as some older films I have witnessed. When I was very young I watched a film about a man who took a drug designed for animals which turned him invisible and he went on a killing spree, being young I was traumatised and even shaking (haha). But now I wierdly enjoy horror films.

I am currently obsessed with Keri Hilson and Rihanna, so here are a few pictures of my two favourite female artists!

Top 3 Favourite Television programmes:

• The Hills
• Run’s House
• Daddy’s Girls

Another channel that I occasionaly watch is Channel AKA which used to be known as Channel U. Although most of the music on here is chav’s attempting to get their quick five minutes of fame, there is a show called The Jazzy Show. This is based on a young black man who lives in London hosting his own comedy show which often has me laughinggg!

Here is a clip of one of my favourite scenes from Run’s House: