Genre

In class we worked on genre. Here is what I learnt and how I shall use it on the music video that I shall be making.

What is Genre?

The type / style / catergory / streotypes / story / conventions of a product.

Why do we feel we should place texts into genres?
This helps give an artist guidelines depending on their video / music.

Who decides what genre a text belongs to?
This would be the artist / companies (producer / manager) / creative media producers (these people would be influenced by other artists) / marketing.

Are 'genres' objective catergories that are out there in the world?
NO! They're created by people.

Who decides what genre a text belongs to?
Creators / producers - This then leads on to the question why would they want to create a 'genre' text? This would be because it makes it easier to create a product; in other words they would have guidelines to follow to attract target audience.

Crictis + analysts - This gives them a guideline of what a music genre should contain.

Audiences - They use text for different ideas which leads on to the audiences expectation. By this they know what there getting and also where to get it from.

So - why do people like them?

Some theorists say that:

Deborah Knight - Satisfaction of having expectations fulfilled.

Steve Neale - "repetition and difference", enjoyment from the subtle deviations and innovations of what is expected.

David Chandler - Interpretive comunity - using tastes to create collective identity.

Steve Neale, John Fiske, Tom Ryall (and others) - Oraganises texts and meanings (Johnathan Culler said genre is a "contract between creator and viewer to make meanings operative").

How institutions use genre?

• They use them as roles for successful films, band, magazines etc. This speeds up creative process.
• It is a good way to market new texts to audiences.
• It is a reliable structure within which innovation can 'safely occur' without risking profits.

Here is a video of different music genres.

 

For my main music video I shall take genre into great consideration as if I can notice which genre I use then I can follow the guidelines for the genre.

'Music, Money and Hip Hop Honeys'

In media we watched a documentary called 'Music, Money and Hip Hop Honeys' and it is about a woman called Nel Hedayat who investigates the questinable world of music videos and meets the girls who dream of being in them. We then made a table of what we found out. Here is what I found out and I put it into a Prezi presentation to make it more interesting.

'Music, Money and Hip Hop Honeys' on Prezi

Radical Feminism vs Post-Feminism

What is Radical Feminism and Post-Feminism ??

Radical Feminism is a current way of looking within feminism that keeps their attention on the theory of patriachy as a system of power. This means that it organises society into complicated relationships based on true-false statements that male supremacy has the exercise of authority, cruelity or unjst manner to women. They aim to challenge and overthrow patriachy by going against standard gender roles and oppression of women.

Post-Feminism is a term which is not very well explained. However, they belive that the sexism struggle has been partially resolved by men and women having more equality.

Similiarities

• They both believe that women (throughout history) have been dominated by men - thus meaning they has always been a sign of inequality.
• The Male Gaze is when the audience, or viewer, is put into the postion of a heterosexual male. In other words the audience gets a romantic or sexual attraction or behaviour between persons of opposite gender, in this case we are men looking at women in this way.

Differences
Radical Feminism

• Militant approach - This is when activists change must be forced.
• They wish to challenge and overthrow patriachy.
• Patriarchal culture exploited womens sexuality. This is when women are 'victimised' by male desires - objectified and dehumanised. Men are encouraged to see women this way.

Post-Feminism

• Not as militant - celebrate victoriesas they think we live in a more equal society.
• In a more equal society women are in control of their own sexuality (not 'victims').
• Men do not have the same desires, which were forced on women.This means mens desires have weaken men, meaning that women can exploit this.

How will this affect my descions when planning my own music video?
When doing my own music video I shall have to make sure that we look into feminism more as this shall affect the outcome of the music video.

Innovative Music Videos + Sven E Carlsson Music Theory

Innovative Music Videos is the opportunity to experiment with technology visuals, narrative and audience - artist image (i.e. videos which deliberately break with conventions). This means:

• Audiences are open to risk as they don't need to pay for it.
• It targets the 'underground audience'.
• The videos are usually short so it is easier to take risks.

Top three intelligent Music Video conventions (if for some reason the arrows in the presentation don't look right click here)

Top three intelligent music video conventions on Prezi

Here are examples for each:       
 

Commercial Exhibitionist

Nicki Minaj - Starships is an example of a Commercial Exhibitionist as she is selling herself by wearing swimwear throughout the video. (Sorry for big space but I can't seem to fix it).
   

Televised Bard

  

Green Day - Wake Me Up When September Ends is an great example of a Televised Bard as during this video we have the artist telling a love story during the video.

Electronic Shaman  

 

Katy Perry - California Gurls ft. Snoop Dogg is an Electronic Shaman because the worls is seen as magical.

All of these examples relate to Sven E Carlsson Music Theory. In his theory he also believed that binary opposites drive the narration of the video forward, for example a black and white theme. Music videos, fall into two main groups this is what Carlsson believed. The two main groups are:

• Performance Clips - This is when the music video mainly shows either the artist (or artists) either singing or/and dancing. The performance can be of three types - Song performance, Dance performance and Instrumental performance. An example of this is Rihanna - Rude Boy this is because the audience can see her dancing and singing in the music video.
• Conceptual Clips - This is when the music video shows something else during it's duration it is usually with artistic ambitions. Kids - MGMT is an example of this as there is monsters created and a lot of artistic ambitions when the child in the video watches the TV screen.

This then follows onto the three pure forms of visual tradition in music videos. These are the top three intelligent music video conventions seen at the beginning of this post.

There are many other interesting facts about music videos such as:

Voyeurism - Is pleasure from looking at other people often in state of undress or sexual activity. An example of this would be Uniting Nations - Out Of Touch because there are girls who are in a state of undress. Also, they are playing strip poker with a guy.

Archetype - Is the original copy which is then copied.



Andrew Goodwin Theory

Here is Andrew Goodwin's theory on music videos.

Andrew goodwin from Isaac Harvey

Formal Conventions of a Music Video

Here are formal conventions of a music video:

Depends on the Genre
Many conventions of a music video vary depending on genre of music. However, the majority of music videos apply to general conventions. For example in a R&B music video the men would usually be topless as they usually want to target young teenage girls. However, in a Heavy Metal they are lots of quick camera movement to give the video lots of energy.

Artists Performance
Most music videos have an artist performing in them whether acting or on stage. One of the purposes of a music video is to raise awareness of the artist. It is beneficial and also helps the artist to provide the audience with real and believable performance.

Lip Syncing
This is very important as it links the images to the sound. If there is singing it is vital in these types of music videos.

Visualizing the Lyrics
What is shown in the video should relate to the lyrics. For example Pink - So What is about her ex-husband and how she is better off without him. The lyrics in this song are related to what is happening in the video.

Pace of Editing

Depending on the tempo, the editing will be seen to be either long or short. For example Italobrothers - Stamp on the Ground has a fast and upbeat tempo. This means that shots are short and there are quick cuts.

Italo Brothers - Stamp On The Ground on MUZU.TV.

 

Mise-en-scene

This is very important as it should match the mood of the song. For example, if a song was sad and depressing, the music video would not have lots of bright colours, bright lights, smiling faces and other joyful features.

 

A example of mise-en-scene used in a sad music video would be Bone Thugs N Harmony - Crossroads. This is because during the video they are in a funeral and also there is a death.



 

A example of mise-en-scene used in a upbeat music video would be Girls' Generation (SNSD) - Gee. This is the total opposite of the video before as in this video it has bright colour backgrounds, mixture of colour clothes and happy faces.

 

How will this affect the descions when planning the music video?
When I do the music video I would need to make sure that the formal conventions are followed. This would be making sure that the music video is properly made. Also by following these conventions it makes it easier as it can be seen as a guide to be followed.