How my Music Video uses real conventions related to Genre

One way my music video fits into the pop genre is by featuring dance routines. Choreography is a strong convention of pop videos, as they are usually very upbeat and cheerful, so they have equally upbeat routines. I discovered this by watching existing pop music videos, like those by the boy band One Direction. I watched their video for One Thing, which is very pop music, and throughout it had silly dance routines that they audience can dance along to.

I filmed my performer bopping, bouncing around, and doing a cheery footwork dance sequence. She dances on the train, in the middle of London and on stairs. 
Rick Altman believes that texts belong to a particular genre and choreography makes my video clearly belong to the pop genre rather than any other genre. Videos that fit into the Rock genre or Rap genre wouldn’t feature such happy choreography. 

A convention of the pop genre would be the artist featuring in the video. Videos can either be narrative, performance, concept or animation based. A young target audience is more likely to be the main target audience for pop music, so most videos are performance based, which is when the artists perform their song to the camera. As the younger generation often idolise or look up to music artists, such as Cheryl Cole or Chris Brown, or girls have crushes over boy bands, by having performance based music videos, they get to watch these people more. My performer sings to the lyrics and dances when there are no lyrics. As she is a young artist, girls would look up to her and boys would have a crush on her, so by having her in the video, audiences can watch her more and copy her clothing and dance moves. The use of close up camera shots it sells the video more to the audience. This would be because the audience can feel clearly see the artists face, and therefore closer the artist. Boyband such as JLS or The Wanted would often use close ups so girls can drool over every part of their face. This influenced me to use some close-ups in the video, so the audience can connect more to the artist.

Andrew Goodwin also believes the use of close ups create a star Persona. By using close-ups, audiences are more familiar with the stars appearance, therefore becoming more recognisable and popular. The more they are seen, the more chance they have of creating an identity for themselves. Taylor Swift has created an innocent country girl identity for herself, where as Rihanna has created a ‘bad girl’ image and likes to push boundaries with her music and style, therefore allowing audiences to form opinions about these two female artists and possibly become fans. If they didn’t feature in their videos, they may not be as successful, as fans choose to watch their videos and listen to them because they like the artist. By using close-ups of my performer, I hope to associate the identity for her that she is a young girl, who is full of attitude and personality, and I think I achieved this through the dance, sultry poses and body language full of attitude such as legs against walls and hands on hips. Although she does appear to have fun through the dance routines, the seriousness of her face, also suggests that she has a secret to hide.

Dramatic styling is common in pop genre. Outrageous clothing is often featured that most people wouldn’t in public on a normal day out is featured. For women, artists such as Jessie J are seen wearing bright colours in cat suits and lots of accessories, with exaggerated make up. 

Whereas males often wear very up to date and fashionable clothing. This matches the cheerfulness of pop music. I decided that my performer needed careful styling to fit in with the video rather than casual clothing that aren’t interesting or eye catching. As my song is a 90’s song, I wanted 90’s styling. I dressed my performer is baggy trousers, a crop top, checked shirt and big denim jacket, with a high ponytail and scrunchie. Even though this was the style of the 90’s, it is quite uncommon that people would dress like this now when going out., so in modern times this would be seen as dramatic styling.

Laura Mulvey and Andrew Goodwin both believe that women are seen as objects in music videos and seen in Voyeuristic ways, and Mulvey even suggests that they are either categorised for being a ‘whore’ or a ‘virgin’. Artists such as Rihanna and Lady Gaga, who are pop artists, often produce very inappropriate videos where they play up to the camera for her male admirers in little clothing. In Lady Gaga's Telpehone video, she is seen sprawled in a prison cell wrapped in police tape, creating that 'bad girl' and 'whore' image that men seem to like. 

They are shown how men would want to see them, which is the known as the male gaze. By dressing my performer in a small crop top, it shows a lot of her stomach. By doing this, I was hoping it would appeal to males as they would watch the music video to admire her slim body. When she dances she wiggles her hips, and when standing against the fence waiting, she has one hand on her hip and one leg propped against the wall, all of this showing attitude and being fun and flirtatious, which would again appeal to males. A used a pan camera movement during this shot, which circles her. However she isn’t looking at the camera, so gives the impression that she doesn’t know we are watching her. It feels as if we are spying on her, like how a male would spy on a female and judge her, before they approach her

Rick Altman believes that genres are ideological and not specifically located in history, meaning that the pop genre and pop videos will always look the same. Videos from the 60’s boy band - The Beatles have the same conventions, such as close up camera shots, a performance based video, and fashionable clothes, as the current boy band - One Direction. My final piece does fit well into this continuous pop genre. Although it doesn’t feature the male gazes, which most pop videos featuring young woman do, it does have most of the other conventions – star persona, exaggerated styling, cheesy choreography, and an upbeat pop feel.