Music Video Genres

One Clear Genre- Pop

The song I have chosen to illustrate one clear genre is Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen. We can see the genre is clearly pop as it uses some form of the male or female gaze and in this video it uses the female gaze as at 0;23 we denote her watching the male taking off his shirt to reveal a six pack connoting that he is just something to be looked at by the audience and is given no real depth. This is conventional in many pop music videos where attractive people of either gender are denoted dancing around commonly in provocative clothing.

Another common element of pop music videos is the performance aspect of it which we can see here at 0:35 where she is denoted singing the lyrics to the song to the camera or the audience. Pop music videos do this a lot as an attempt to sell more concert tickets so they can get a feel for what it's like and want the real thing, the video is more about the star than the actual music making them famous so the institution can market easier as they have a clear brand.

One Hybrid

A hybrid song is a song where it contains a mixof 2 or more different genres.  Walk This Way by Run DMC featuring Aerosmith is a hybrid of Hip Hop and Hard Rock. In the video at 2:04 we can see the in the music video the rock element of it coming through as they are on stage performing it to a crowd. The mise-en-scene is also typical of the genre as the costumes they are wearing all black and the actors have long hair which many rock artists had in their music videos.

We can see the Hip Hop in this video at 2:39 as a low angle shot of the group is used to give them an intimidating look which is common in a lot of Hip Hop videos like 50 Cent's 9 Shots. The costume of the actors here also make it clear it is a Hip Hop video due to the white trainers they are wearing which appears in a lot of Hip Hop videos as many of them contain the theme 'the currency of cool' so they attempt to show off how cool they are with what they're wearing.

One Subgenre- Grime

Grime is a genre that focuses on real life, it doesn't sugar coat anything hence the name grime. Grime in the dictionary is known as dirt ingrained on the surface of something. What grime is about is revealing the dark side of London which is seen as a place of wealth but in reality there are places in London which are in real poverty. The grime song I have chosen is That's Not Me by Skepta. Throughout the video for it we can see that there is a lot of poverty and deprived areas for example at 0:02 we denote a wall covered in graffiti connoting that the area this video is set in a harsh area.

Another common feature of Grime songs is that the music video heavily features on the artist's performance, we can see this throughout the video as they have used a greenscreen to add their performance over the montage of clips playing. The reason they do this is to sell the artist and so that they can make more money from concert tickets as the 16-23 year old active audience for this type of song are more inclined to download music illegally so they need to make their money from concert tickets instead. We can see other grime songs do this for example Stormzy's Where do you know me from, this music video features the artist walking around performing his song with some visualisation of the lyrics.

Generic Conventions

NWA- Straight Outta Compton- Hip Hop

In this video we can denote that the artists are running from the police connoting that they have committed a crime and are being chased down for it. This type of narrative style is very conventional for Hip-Hop videos as the rappers try to establish how tough they are so to show this they are being hunted down by the police. 

The Mise-en-scene is also very typical as it uses a real location connoting that the artists are 'legit' and actually came from areas like this. We can denote in this shot at 1:33 the setting has lots of graffiti and rust connoting that it is set in a run down, derelict area giving the group some reputation as if they had a tough growing up the audience will be more accepting of them. We also see a similar shot in Eminem's lose yourself as the set design has a lot of graffiti, fading paint on the walls and his costume is stained which again is something linked with poverty and anchors the fact that these artist are tough and to be respected.

Hip Hop artists try to seem as tough and strong as possible and so the actors in their videos act in certain ways to portray this. In NWA's video for Straight Outta Compton we denote at 0:44 there is a low angle shot of Ice Cube and Dr.Dre, this low angle shot signifies that the two rappers are intimidating and dominant. In R&B the singers try to look as attractive and sexy as possible to sell records, in Hip Hop the singers have to look as hard as possible to earn the record sales by the public as they have to be taken seriously to sell any. We see a similar type of shot in Eminem's video which is used for the same effect.

In Hip Hop music videos woman are seen through the male gaze and are sexualised and seen in provocative clothing, men however are seen differently in a Hip Hop video. This is because it is assumed the target audience are mainly other males so sexualising men in the videos wouldn't appeal to them. This is why the stereotypical representation of men in Hip Hop videos are that they are hard and intimidating as other men won't buy the records from men who they think of as weak for example Justine Bieber not many 16-30 year old males which would be the target audience for NWA would buy Justin Bieber.

Themes

One theme that comes across in this video is rebellion. We can connote this at 2;36 we denote them running away from the police or in other words rebelling against them and society as they have done something which goes against society's laws which has caused the police to come after them. They may also be rebelling against racism and signifying in this video that the police single out black men not for their actions but for their skin colour. This is backed up in the video as we don't actually see them commit any crimes but still see them running from the police. Fight the Power by Public Enemy also contains a video where there is a rebellion. In their video at 2:26 we denote a protest occurring with people wearing fight the power shirts, this connotes that they are protesting the government and all branches of it.

Crime is another theme that is focused on in this video as the narrative for the story involves the group being chased by police which we can see at 2;20, this could indicate that the group have committed a crime and this is the reason the police are hunting them down. Whether they have actually committee the crime is left to the audiences imagination as all we see is a group of them huddled around and instantly sprint away as soon as they see the police. The audience is lead to believe they have committed the crime as in society we are taught that if a group of young black men are together they are doing something illegal which links to the next theme in this video.

The police in the video are denoted to start perusing the group without no clear evidence of any wrong doing. The preferred reading of this might be that the police might be racially profiling them and are perusing them for no reason other than because they are black they must be doing something wrong. A negotiated reading could be that the boys have committed a crime and the police are rightfully perusing them and an opposite reading might be that even though the boys may have not committed a crime they should still be arrested due to their race. The theme of racism can be connoted when we denote that the police are chasing the group without any reason which could connote that the police are hunting them down purely on race.