Different codes and conventions of different genres of music videos

Different codes and conventions of different genres of music videos

Rock-

Mise en scene would include the clothing to be usually black as this shows rebellious image of rock stars. Member of the band tend to wear leather jackets as this signifies rebellion as the mods wore leather jackets and youth that were associated with  wild and rebellious individual's during the early 1960s. However if the main protagonist is female they usually wear all white to signify innocence. Typical narratives- would tend to be a love story with a beginning, a middle and a end.
Editing- the speed of editing matches the pace of the music.
Cinematography- Tends to be close ups and extreme close ups
Lighting- Depends on the lyrics or mood of the music can be low or high key.

Queens video Killer Queen is a good example of how these codes and conventions are used for rock.

House-

The History of house music is short as it was born in the early 1980s in Chicago and latter became popular in the UK in the mid 1980s. The sound of house music is well known for its electronic sound and beat. It is usually played in clubs worldwide and has become popular with the age range from 18-30 years old. The key to a good house music video is that the visuals go along with the beat. repetitive arrangements and a steady bass drum beat have an affect of illustrating dancing, love, sexuality, and drugs. Which of course are all part of the club scene. Another code and convention is women doing sexual, seductive or provocative dance moves. Moreover the music video may have a DJ in the music video and the time is usually shot at night. The music video main puropose is to help the artist to make music sales, as there music videos can act as a form as advertisement by raising the profile of the artist.

-Wilkinson - Dirty Love ft. Talay Riley does closely follow the codes and conventions of house music, such as being shot at night and have females dancing.

R&B

The codes and conventions of R&B music videos represent men as having power and authority particularly over women. They convey this image by having the males topless. It also has another purpose of attracting females particularly young females by portraying the artist as a sex symbol. Females usually have very little clothing on, the purpose is to attract the male viewers. Since the lyrics are usually provocative and sexually explicit. These lyrics are illustrated on screen by having girls and guys dance in a sexually explicit nature. However some R&B music videos can break the codes and conventions were females don't dress seductively. R&B music videos are usually aimed at young people as they are usually the main target audience. Therefore social media such as YouTube is used by artist not only just R&B artists. Most young people use You Tube to watch music videos instead of just MTV. Furthermore  artist can make money from putting there videos on YouTube.

Hold you down- by Chris Brown is good example of an R&B video that follows the typical codes and conventions, such as the artist, Chris Brown being topless and this attracts females. 

Irreplaceable- by Beyoncé is an example of an R&B music video that could be argued that goes against the codes and conventions of a typical R&B music video. AS the main artist who is a female does wear a lot of clothes and even shows women as powerful and not just subordinate to the male or just a se symbol. However it is still classes as following the codes and conventions of music videos as Beyoncé is still in fashionable clothes, it also follows Dyer star theory as Beyoncé dresses as what her fans would be dressed as therefore helping her generate even more revenue.

Rap 

It is important for the artist to look intimidating and they do this by the clothing they wear such as a vest to show their muscles or big overcoats to make themselves look bigger. The themes are usually drugs/sex and violence. Baggy and causal clothing is used as this connects to the target audience, which is young males. They are the attracted to this genre and it is because of the objectification of women. Usually most rappers wear gold jewellery as this represent power and a high status. It is also what the target audiance strive for as they want to emulate the rappers lifestyle and be like the rapper. The girls featured in the rap video will usually be seductively  dressed and dance seductively. Most rap music videos will glamorize the Thug life.

A$AP ROOCKYs music video Goldie is a good example of a video that sticks to the codes and conventions, such as the jewellery shown, nude girls and glamorizing the thug life.   

Dyer Star theory

• Dyers star theory links into the idea of hegemony as the star needs to relate to his audience. Such as the case of pop stars, they relate to there audience culture by dressing like them. Therefore Dyer argues that the idea that icons and celebrities are manufactured by institutions for financial gain is true. Dyer argues that stars and the music industry make money out of audience, who respond to various elements of a star’s personality by buying records and becoming fans. 

Below is a video from You Tube explaining a background of Richard Dyers and the thinking of his star theory. 

Goodwin-Anaylis of music videos

Goodwin believed that there were six characteristics he believed to be conventions of the music video genre.

 Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. As rap music videos would usually have expensive cars and Jewellery and lots of girls. Figure bum 1 Screenshot of A$AP Rockys video Goldie which has both Expensive cars, bling and girls.

There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images, such as

There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music.
(either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).

There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

There are often intertextual reference such as "dance around the clock"

History of music videos

History of music videos

A music video is usually a short 3-4 minute long video clip that accompanies a song. There are many benefits to having a music video such as the fact that it provides a visual representation of the artist and helps raise the publicity of the song.

 It is important to understand the history of music videos as one can see how they developed and how there purpose has changed. Music videos can be traced back as far as the 1920s. Blues singer had short film of video of her singing it was shown in movie theatres until 1932. Therefore it was shown as a hit. It wasn't intended as a music video as we would know today but a dramatized performance for her hit song. In the 1950s and 1960s music videos purpose where for promotion usually for films. They weren't known as music videos but "promo videos". The music video for the single promotion of a song and one that can be recognized today is the Beatles "its been a hard days night". During the onset of the 1980s it became cheaper to make music videos and "the Jacksons" brought inn the idea of multimillion budgeted music videos which helped the sale of there music. In 1981 MTV was launched which helped increase the following to music videos. Music videos also boosted sales of they're respected artist as they usually had to be banned or edited which meant controversy therefore an increase in sales. Music videos today are even more important in catching viewers attention thus improving the artists reputation and reception.

Figure 1: Illustrating the history of MTV

Figure 2: showing the top ten critically acclaimed music videos of all time acceding to watchmojo.com giving us a scope of what was successful. At what time and if it followed the codes and conventions of they're genre.