A music genre is a conventional
category that identifies some
pieces of music as belonging to a
shared tradition or set of
conventions
There are a wide variety of different
music genres such as the following:
Rock/Metal, Pop, Hip Hop/R&B, Indie,
Reggae and many more.
Indie music videos tend to have different conventions
combined together, such as high key lighting, low key
lighting or even black and white depending on the lyrics
and the way in which the music video is meant to make
you feel. Indie music is tends to be focused around a
narrative and performance. The aim in these types of
music videos is to portray something symbolic or
representational rather than actually linking to the lyrics
of the song. Typically, Indie music videos have a wide
range of different conventions included which means
they are quite versatile. An audience would expect to
see these particular conventions in an Indie music video,
for example the narrative of the music video being
based on the main signer or the performance of the
whole band.An example of an Indie band would be
Arctic Monkeys.
Pop music videos usually are performance
based, having structured choreography that
the whole group/ backing dancers know, or
typically, there is usually a narrative which
relates completely to the lyrics of the song.
The band or artists tends to lip sync the song
whilst performing the choreography, and the
tone of the music video tends to be upbeat,
with high key lighting and modern day, trendy
clothing worn in order to attract an audience.
Pop music videos tend to be lively and appeal
more to a younger, teenage audience rather
than an older audience. An example of a Pop
music band would be Little Mix.
R&B music videos are usually quite similar to pop music videos
in the sense that they include a similar bright and lively tone.
The music videos usually include the main artist performing in
locations such as a club, a mansion, a beach, an exotic looking
country or a party and have props such as expensive cars or lots
of money such as dollar bills to indicate that this artist is rich,
the richness of the music and also relating back to the lyrics of
the song. The artists convey their wealth to the audience by
wearing expensive designer brands and expensive looking
jewellery. There are usually dancers whom are very attractive
women, or very attractive women to help set the narrative and
pose as the artists girlfriend or female character who is there to
please the male, which is where the Male Gaze Theory is
incorporated in most R&B music videos as the female character
is usually wearing a revealing outfit that could potentially be
seen as provocative. E.g. Chris Brown.
A final example of genre in music videos is Rock/Metal
music which is typically different from the three genres
that have previously been discussed. The mise-en-scene
elements in these types of music videos tend to have a
much more dark and solemn approach, where low key
lighting is strongly used to portray the dark tone of the
music video. The narrative usually outlines the meaning
of the dark lyrics which the artist has come up with in
order to fully emphasise how the music video is supposed
to make the audience feel. The editing of the music video
is usually fast paced in order to match the tempo of the
Rock/Metal songs. An example of a Rock/Metal band
would be Guns N' Roses.
Audiences expect different conventions to be portrayed
in different genres of music videos. The younger
generations music taste usually consists of R&B and
Pop music, therefore they would expect the music
videos to abide by typical music conventions of that
genre and expect to see upbeat, high key lit scenes and
some sort of narrative. This contrasts against
Rock/Metal music videos where maybe, there is not high
key lit scenes and not a happy, feel good, upbeat temp.
Those who are fans of the Rock/Metal genre would
expect to see low key lighting and maybe even a black
and white video to represent darkness as apose to a
coloured music video which colours could represent a
happier meaning. Audiences would be more confused if
a Rock/Metal song was more upbeat and lively than if
an R&B or Pop music video consisted of more low key
lighting as in the modern day, this is more accepted
than the other way round. However, an audience would
not expect this.