Country Music
Country music is one of the oldest genres of music to date. It originated in the 1920s in Southern parts of the US, and it has slowly spread to all parts of the world. Country music is the most popular genre throughout the United States and often wins Grammy awards over the majority of other genres that we would consider 'mainstream'. The defining characteristic of country music is an acoustic guitar, with just the vocals of the singer to accompany it. Country music has changed over the years, adopting a more modern style, mixing with other genres in order to attract a larger and more diverse audience.
Forms and conventions of country music videos
- Tend to have a strong narrative aspect
- Set in very stereotypical locations, such as rural areas
- Mise-en-scen tends to be very traditional or set in an elder generation, e.g. Victorian
- The artist usually features within the video
Modern day country genres, like many other genres are mixing or being influenced by other genres, 'Pop' being a popular choice. The U.S.A seems to stay true the the original country roots, but other countries, such as the UK welcome many songs influenced by pop as well, such as Taylor Swift.
Taylor Swift has taken a modern day twist on her country style in order to keep it relevant and popular in the charts.
Hip Hop Music and Rap Music
The primary focus of Hip Hop is on beatboxing and DJ scratching. Rap music is another subset of this genre, and it revolves around the artist rapping to a fixed beat. Though this genre evolved in the ghettos of the United States, today it has spread to mainstream culture all around the world, and has become a multi million dollar industry. This genre of hip hop songs started involving more and more people during the 1970s.
Forms and conventions of rock music videos
You tend to find a mixture of narrative and performance based music videos for Hip Hop and Rap. The majority of music videos for this style tend to be set in a lower class area, on the streets. You find a wide range of different settings and styles for these genres however they are predominantly set in lower class areas.
Artists tend to feature within their own videos.
Rock and Alternative Rock
Rock music came around in the 1960’s, it evolved as a subset of rock and roll, rhythm and blues, classical and folk music, these have been around since the 1940’s. Primary focus in rock music is on the electric guitar and the many solos that can be created with it. Also the bass guitar and drums are highly in focus. The popularity of Rock music had led to combination of rock with various other genres.
Rock music is something that is omnipresent in all cultural references today, and it is no secret that we associate rock musicians with a rebellious lifestyle, substance abuse and huge fan bases all around the world.
Forms and conventions of rock music videos
Usually rock music videos do not have an narrative, they are predominantly performance based, and sometimes they form around a concept.
-display the bands performing on stage
- uneasy camera movements
-hand held shots to represent a frantic/manic atmosphere
( these camera shots and movements emphasise the roughness of the music, as you do not want clean smooth cuts and movements that you would use in perhaps pop music)
-no common to use special effects, for example, green screen or CGI
- usually deep dark colours are used to compliment the style of music
Pop Music
Pop is the largest selling genre today. It signifies any music that is commercially produced, with the sole intention of selling more records and reaching as larger audience as possible. It is also widely assumed that pop music is targeted at teenagers and the youth, though many people associate pop music with the genre of rock, this can be argued. The use of various electronic devices is also widespread in this genre, but this is a very different genre, vis-a-vis trance, which also heavily utilizes electronic sounds.
Forms and conventions of rock music videos
Pop videos tend to use special effects and bright colours, to give a feel good feel, but have the widest range of music video styles with in this genre and can vary between narrative, performance and mixed. This makes it hard to set a list of forms and conventions for this genre as a whole.
Reggae
You tend to find a mixture of narrative and performance based music videos for Hip Hop and Rap. The majority of music videos for this style tend to be set in a lower class area, on the streets. You find a wide range of different settings and styles for these genres however they are predominantly set in lower class areas.
Artists tend to feature within their own videos.
Rock and Alternative Rock
Rock music came around in the 1960’s, it evolved as a subset of rock and roll, rhythm and blues, classical and folk music, these have been around since the 1940’s. Primary focus in rock music is on the electric guitar and the many solos that can be created with it. Also the bass guitar and drums are highly in focus. The popularity of Rock music had led to combination of rock with various other genres.
Rock music is something that is omnipresent in all cultural references today, and it is no secret that we associate rock musicians with a rebellious lifestyle, substance abuse and huge fan bases all around the world.
Forms and conventions of rock music videos
Usually rock music videos do not have an narrative, they are predominantly performance based, and sometimes they form around a concept.
-display the bands performing on stage
- uneasy camera movements
-hand held shots to represent a frantic/manic atmosphere
( these camera shots and movements emphasise the roughness of the music, as you do not want clean smooth cuts and movements that you would use in perhaps pop music)
-no common to use special effects, for example, green screen or CGI
- usually deep dark colours are used to compliment the style of music
Pop Music
Pop is the largest selling genre today. It signifies any music that is commercially produced, with the sole intention of selling more records and reaching as larger audience as possible. It is also widely assumed that pop music is targeted at teenagers and the youth, though many people associate pop music with the genre of rock, this can be argued. The use of various electronic devices is also widespread in this genre, but this is a very different genre, vis-a-vis trance, which also heavily utilizes electronic sounds.
Forms and conventions of rock music videos
Pop videos tend to use special effects and bright colours, to give a feel good feel, but have the widest range of music video styles with in this genre and can vary between narrative, performance and mixed. This makes it hard to set a list of forms and conventions for this genre as a whole.
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.
Reggae is based on a rhythmic style characterized by accents on the off-beat, known as the 'skank'. Reggae is normally slower than both ska and rocksteady. Reggae usually accents the second and fourth beat in each bar, with the rhythm guitar also either emphasising the third beat or holding the chord on the second beat until the fourth is played. It is mainly this "third beat", its speed and the use of complex bass lines that differentiated reggae from rocksteady, although later styles incorporated these innovations separately.
Forms and conventions of Reggae music videos
It is unusual to find a reggae genre music video with a narrative, however it is becoming more common as pop is mixing with reggae, for example, Rihanna is known to cover various genres of music from R'n'b to pop, electric dance and her song 'man down' is influenced heavily by reggae and has a narrative storyline.
- Locations tend to be set in Jamaica or very similar style places.
- The majority of the videos for this genre are very similar, will feel good lyrics enhanced by a cheerful video with bright colours and basic, laid back lifestyle very stereotypical to countries like Jamaica.
Soul
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of funky, secular testifying. Soul music has its roots in gospel music and rhythm and blues. The hard gospel vocal quartets of the 1940s and 1950s were big influences on major soul singers of the 1960s. The term "soul music" itself, to describe gospel-style music with secular lyrics.
Forms and conventions of soul music videos
- The majority have a narrative – love/family etc
- mono-tone colour scheme is frequently used
- slow cuts and editing
- no special effects
Electric Dance
Electronic dance music (EDM) is electronic music that is produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centred upon dance-based entertainment. The music is largely created for use by disc jockeys and is produced with the intention of it being heard in the context of a continuous DJ set; wherein the DJ progresses from one record to the next via a synchronized segue or "mix".
Electronic dance music is a broad set of percussive music genres that largely inherit from the electronic music of Kraftwerk and 1970s disco music. Such music was originally born of and popularized via regional nightclub scenes in the 1980s. By the early 1990s, the presence of electronic dance music in contemporary culture was noted widely and its role in society began to be explored in published historical, cultural and social science academic studies. It is constructed by means of electronic instruments such as synthesizers, drum machines and sequencers, and generally emphasizes the unique sounds of those instruments, even when mimicking traditional acoustic instrumentation. It sometimes encompasses music not primarily meant for dancing, but derived from the dance-oriented styles.
Many pop and R'n'B songs are often mixed and changed to become dance tracks when used in a club or bar. More and more genres are being used to do this, from soul and reggae, to rock and occasionally country based tracks.
Forms and conventions of dance music videos
- Tend to be set in a club environment with dancing crowds
- flashing lights and features of DJs/music equipment
- prominently performance based, rarely follows a narrative
- fast pace cuts and editing
- special effects
Forms and conventions do not apply to every video within the genre, as some videos tend to challenge the forms and conventions in order to create a fresh and unique style.
Reggae is based on a rhythmic style characterized by accents on the off-beat, known as the 'skank'. Reggae is normally slower than both ska and rocksteady. Reggae usually accents the second and fourth beat in each bar, with the rhythm guitar also either emphasising the third beat or holding the chord on the second beat until the fourth is played. It is mainly this "third beat", its speed and the use of complex bass lines that differentiated reggae from rocksteady, although later styles incorporated these innovations separately.
Forms and conventions of Reggae music videos
It is unusual to find a reggae genre music video with a narrative, however it is becoming more common as pop is mixing with reggae, for example, Rihanna is known to cover various genres of music from R'n'b to pop, electric dance and her song 'man down' is influenced heavily by reggae and has a narrative storyline.
- Locations tend to be set in Jamaica or very similar style places.
- The majority of the videos for this genre are very similar, will feel good lyrics enhanced by a cheerful video with bright colours and basic, laid back lifestyle very stereotypical to countries like Jamaica.
Soul
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of funky, secular testifying. Soul music has its roots in gospel music and rhythm and blues. The hard gospel vocal quartets of the 1940s and 1950s were big influences on major soul singers of the 1960s. The term "soul music" itself, to describe gospel-style music with secular lyrics.
Forms and conventions of soul music videos
- The majority have a narrative – love/family etc
- mono-tone colour scheme is frequently used
- slow cuts and editing
- no special effects
Electric Dance
Electronic dance music (EDM) is electronic music that is produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centred upon dance-based entertainment. The music is largely created for use by disc jockeys and is produced with the intention of it being heard in the context of a continuous DJ set; wherein the DJ progresses from one record to the next via a synchronized segue or "mix".
Electronic dance music is a broad set of percussive music genres that largely inherit from the electronic music of Kraftwerk and 1970s disco music. Such music was originally born of and popularized via regional nightclub scenes in the 1980s. By the early 1990s, the presence of electronic dance music in contemporary culture was noted widely and its role in society began to be explored in published historical, cultural and social science academic studies. It is constructed by means of electronic instruments such as synthesizers, drum machines and sequencers, and generally emphasizes the unique sounds of those instruments, even when mimicking traditional acoustic instrumentation. It sometimes encompasses music not primarily meant for dancing, but derived from the dance-oriented styles.
Many pop and R'n'B songs are often mixed and changed to become dance tracks when used in a club or bar. More and more genres are being used to do this, from soul and reggae, to rock and occasionally country based tracks.
Forms and conventions of dance music videos
- Tend to be set in a club environment with dancing crowds
- flashing lights and features of DJs/music equipment
- prominently performance based, rarely follows a narrative
- fast pace cuts and editing
- special effects
Forms and conventions do not apply to every video within the genre, as some videos tend to challenge the forms and conventions in order to create a fresh and unique style.
No comments:
Post a Comment