Different genre conventions

Different genre conventions:

Different genres will inevitably come with different conventions. For example; a Rock video is most likely not going to feature really bright and fun colours or a party scene narrative throughout the video like a Pop-genre video most likely would.
It is therefore important to note that different artists, dependent on what genre they essentially belong to will determine the type of music videos they create and release, and also what their fans would expect from then.
I have analysed a few genres and their key conventions, examples of music videos and artists.

1. POP

Pop music is essentially a term that derives from the word "popular" and is a genre of 'popular' music, which originated in its modern form in the 1950s, deriving from rock and roll. Pop music is often very electric, and often borrowing elements from other styles including urban, dance, rock, Latin and country. There are still of course certain elements which help define pop and these include generally short to medium-length songs, written in a basic format (more often than not the verse-chorus structure), as well as the common employment of repeated choruses, melodic tunes and hooks.

There are also many sub-genres within the pop genre such as; Bubblegum-pop, Dance-pop, Synthpop, Teen-pop, Punk-pop, Indie-pop and Electro-pop.

 

Conventions of Pop music videos:

The main aim of a pop music video is essentially to sell the single to the audience. Many typical pop conventions will include; lots of bright colours, make-up and props. The pop music to go with the videos tend to be happy and involve a lot of dancing – many pop artists such as Rihanna and One Direction are sex symbols as well as a product.

Performance music videos: pop music videos are almost completely on the artist and no one else. If there is a narrative in a pop video then the artist would still play the main character. Pop artists usually perform in either a sexual or cute way so they can pull the biggest amount of fans. In indie rock music videos the artists don’t act like this that much because they are more about expressing the song through stories and emotion


Narrative music videos: Narrative in pop music videos there is not a lot of narrative because it’s mainly about performing in such a way it attracts the audience. Some artists use a theme to help represent the song but there is usually no narrative. The typical narratives used in pop music are parties, relationships/break ups

2. ROCK

Rock music is a genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the USA in the 1950s, and it developed into a range of different styles of rock in the 1960s, especially in America and The United Kingdom. The genre has its roots stuck in the 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and also country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of other genres such as blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz, classical and other musical sources. Musically, rock has centred on the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar and drums.

Similarly to the pop genre, rock features many different sub-genres such as; Alternative-rock, Hard-rock, Heavy metal, Instrumental-rock, Indie-rock, Punk-rock, Soft-rock and Symphonic-rock.

Conventions of Rock music videos:

Most rock music videos will usually feature at least the lead singer from the band in the video, if none of the other members. Most videos follow a narrative theme and it is likely to find a break in the middle of the video for dialogue, and there is often an instrumental-only section to the song which will be shown in the video with the musical instruments.
The lighting of rock music videos will more often than not, be dark coloured, as opposed to pop videos which usually feature a very bright and colourful colour scheme, this is the opposite. Dark clothing is usually worn in the music videos and the colour red may often be worn if there is some sort of narrative, which usually represents either anger or love.

3. COUNTRY

Country music is a genre of American popular music that originated in Southern USA, Atlanta, Georgia in the 1920s. It takes its roots from the southeastern genre of American folk music and Western music. Blues modes have been used extensively throughout its recorded history. Country music often consists of ballads and dance tunes with generally simple forms and harmonies accompanied by mostly string instruments such as banjos, electric and acoustic guitars, fiddles and harmonicas. The term country music gained popularity in the 1940s in preference to the earlier term 'hillbilly' music; it came to encompass Western music, which evolved parallel to hillbilly music from similar roots, in the mid-20th century.

Chosen Genre

For the main basis of the media coursework, we have to work in small groups of about 3 or 4 to create a music video. In my group of 4 people, we have chosen to replicate Passion Pit's; Constant Conversations. Therefore, once the song had been chosen, it was then important to look further into the genre of this song and artist. We found that the artist belonged to a very unusual genre called; Indietronica. The Google definition of Indietronica is: is a music genre that combines indie, electronica, rock and pop music.



A little about Passion Pit
Passion Pit is an American indietronica band from Cambridge, Massachusetts, formed in 2007. The band consists of members: Michael Angelakos (lead vocals, keyboards), Ian Hultquist (keyboards, guitar), Xander Singh (synthesizer, samples), Jeff Apruzzese (bass, synth bass) and Chris Hartz (drums, percussion).
Passion Pit's debut EP, 'Chunk Of Change', was released September 16th 2008. The first and only single which was released from this EP was called "Sleepyhead", and it received a good deal of exposure through its use in numerous media campaigns and advertisements, while the video for the song was included on Pitchfork's Top 40 Music Videos of 2008 list.
The band's first full-length studio album, 'Manners', was released 18 May 2009 in the UK and 19 May in USA and Canada.
The follow up album to 'Manners' called 'Gossamer' was to be released early 2012. "Constant Conversations" was the third track to be released from this album and was reviewed and features as "best new track" by Pitchfork.
September 24, 2013 saw the release of the Constant Conversations EP, which was originally only released through Spotify but was then later extended to be available on iTunes as well.