Music Genre Conventions

Music genre conventions

Rock/metal genre

·         After watching numerous rock videos I have noticed that the videos and incredibly performance based. A large range of long shots are used throughout the video to identify with the band yet the focus is mainly on the vocalist.

·         There is sometimes narrative to the video, but the story lines are usual dark which match the style of music.

·         The hue of the videos are usually quite dark, but with high contrast levels, to give the video an overall dark and edgy tone.

·         There is a variety of close ups to show the main artist singing and other band mates performing as well as wide shots of the whole band.

·         Special effects are sometimes used.

·         Editing is fast paced reflecting the hard, loud and fast music.

R&B

·         This genre of music video usually has a light tone to it; the hue is usually bright similar to pop videos.

·         There are usually dancers present, to reflect the sound of the music. The clothing is usually revealing on women, and shows the wealth of the artist, with lavish jewellery and expensive cars.

·         Typically the video will involve the artist in a narrative setting or simply performing in a setting such as a nightclub, mansion, and beach for example.

·         The narrative of the story usually reflects the lyrics of the song, and like pop videos usually the artist will lip sync throughout the video.

Pop

·         Music videos that belong to the genre of pop are usually extremely performance based, with the singer, or band lip syncing throughout the song, as well as performing via dancing or in a narrative story that reflects the meaning of the lyrics.

·         Videos are usually very upbeat, bright and fast paced which makes them appealing to a young audience. If the lyrics and the tempo of the music are sadder the whole tone of the video will be brought down but it will still be quite bright and the artist would probably be in a more sophisticated outfit than if the video is more positive.

·         The camera pans and zooms to catch the movement and emotion of the artist and close ups of the artist are used to show the happy emotions.

·         Very stylised – there are often many costume changes throughout the video.

·         Pop music videos are usually fun and light hearted to appeal to a younger audience.

Indie

·         There is often a mixture of narrative and performance and sometimes the whole band performs and other times just the main vocalist sings. When Indie music videos do have a narrative they are often quite symbolic and do not literally follow the lyrics.

·         Narrative music videos in the Indie genre are typically quite arty, and symbolic, rather than spelling out exactly what the lyrics say.