Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran is an English singer/songwriter born in Hebden Bridge and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk. He began his music career recording in 2005, and released his first independent EP ‘The Orange Room’. He then moved into London in 2008 to peruse a musical career that he wanted, and played at different venues, whilst having interviews with other artists and having collaborations with Example and Leddra Chapman. Through 2010, he began to be noticed much more through YouTube, and was praised by other famous people such as Rio Ferdinand and Elton John. In the early stages of 2011, he released an independent extended play, No. 5 Collaborations Project. This caught the eye of other stars like Jamie Foxx. This was just the beginning of his musical career that he had dreamed of and he isn’t a part of a band, he is a single man who plays a guitar and does work with others to make his songs. Ed Sheeran has also produced a song for the successful film ‘The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug’ which was called ‘I See Fire’. This was seen as a really good song especially made to represent the film and the video worked with this because it showed parts of the film.
He had released one album prior to this and one after, ‘+’ and ‘x’. + was Ed Sheeran’s debut, also the album where he really established himself as an artist. On 26 April 2011, Sheeran appeared on the TV music show Later with Jools Holland, where he performed his debut single "The A Team". Six weeks later, "The A Team" was released as a digital download in the UK. The release served as the lead single from Sheeran's debut studio album, +. "The A Team" entered the UK Singles Chart at number three, selling over 58,000 copies in the first week. It was the best-selling debut single and the overall eighth-best selling single of 2011, selling 801,000 copies. The lead single also became a top ten hit in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway and the Netherlands. During a headline set in the BBC Introducing tent at Glastonbury Festival 2011, Sheeran announced that "You Need Me, I Don't Need You" would be released on 28 August as the second single from the album. The second single peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart. "Lego House" was released as the third single, reaching the top ten on Australian, Irish, Scottish, New Zealand Singles Charts, Flemish Ultra top 50 and the Wallonian Ultra top. "Drunk", released on 19 February 2012, became Sheeran's fourth consecutive top ten single in the UK, peaking at number nine.
Sheeran's debut studio album + was released on 12 September 2011. + received generally mixed reviews from music critics. Metacritic gave the album received an average score of 65 out of 100, which indicates "generally favourable reviews". + Debuted number one on the UK Albums Chart, selling 102,000 copies in its first week. It became the second best-selling debut album and the ninth biggest-selling album of 2011 in the UK, shifting 791,000 copies. The album has been certified platinum six times by the British Phonographic Industry, denoting shipments of 1,800,000 copies. As of March 2012, the album had sold 1,021,072 copies in the UK. The album also reached the top ten on the Australian Albums Chart, Flanders Belgian Albums Chart, Dutch Albums Chart, Irish Albums Chart, New Zealand Albums Chart and the Swiss Albums Chart.
Ed Sheeran's second studio album is titled x, and was released on 23 June 2014. It peaked at number one in both the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200. He recorded the album in Los Angeles with producer Rick Rubin, who advised Sheeran to record the album acoustically with a good mood, extra instrumentation was added later. Foy Vance has co-written a number of the songs. He debuted an album track, "Tenerife Sea", at Madison Square Garden in New York in October 2013."Sing", the lead single, was released on 7 April 2014. At the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards on 24 August, "Sing" won the MTV Award for Best Male Video. On 2 September 2014. Various songs of the album were released in quick succession, and were a mass hit in the charts, with three being in the top 10 iTunes chart at the same time. Sheeran was one of the headline acts at the Melbourne Cricket Ground prior to the 2014 AFL Grand Final. Ed Sheeran has also worked with Dutch DJ Martin Garrix on his first EDM song.
On 8 October 2014, Sheeran released the music video to the album's third single, "Thinking Out Loud", wherein he dances with his leading lady. The video achieved almost three million views within 24 hours from its release.[70] In November 2014, Sheeran announced that he will play London's Wembley Stadium on 10 July 2015 as part of his x world tour; it is his biggest solo headlining.[4] After massive pre-sales, further two dates were added on 11 and 12 July.[5] In December 2014, Sheeran was named the most-streamed artist in the world by Spotify, gaining more than 860 million streams in 2014.[71] The album also earned Sheeran the distinction of being iTunes's biggest-selling artist in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the New Zealand for the same year
Looking specifically at the music video for ‘I See Fire’, the way that he has used his music videos, as seen in ‘I See Fire’, you can see the meaning behind the song and what he is trying to show, which is very effective to sell the song. When the video is playing with this song, you can see some of the meanings behind it and what it is trying to show. The reason that this certain video is used is to mainly advertise the film as well, but also put its point across with it. Without showing the point in the song, people wouldn’t understand what it is trying to show. He has released many other songs in the past and all of them are trying to show something from him. When the music video is used, it needs to correspond with the actual song itself and it needs to make sense so that the audience understands. Sometimes the song videos are easier to understand than others such as ‘Sing’ isn’t as easy to understand when it comes to the video that is used, but it still can be understood with what is being shown. This does work with the song and the way it’s done is always for a certain purpose. They show a certain meaning to what the song is about and it is to make sure that the audience can follow what is actually going. The video shows off the star and try’s to sell them in a way that the audience or people listening/ watching can see what the star is like and what they have seen or maybe even what they have been through. The song videos sometimes show the life experiences that some of the stars have been through such as relationships or anything else. They sell themselves in such a way so that people can see what they are like and show them if they are any good as to what they are doing. Ed Sheeran does this in his videos by talking about his experiences or shows what something is like that happens in real life.
-Tommy
