Genre Investigation: Pop

Pop music was originally an abbrieviation of 'popular music' and originated from rock and roll in the 1950's. In terms of it's genre, it is extremely varied and pulls many of it's characteristics from the combination of other genres such as urban, dance, rock. latin and country. 

Despite this, it still holds characteristics which are completely faithful to it's own genre:

• Short to medium length songs: two - four mins long
• Written in simple, traditional & basic style - verse-chorus form
• Repeated choruses
• Melodic tunes
• Catchy hooks
• Usually an uptempo or moderate beat
• Consistent and noticeable rhythmic element
• Mainstream style
• Chorus that contrasts melodically, rhythmically and harmonically with the verse
• Limited harmonic accompaniment 
• Often focus of simple themes such s love and relationships, although there are notable exceptions.

Pop music is generally thought of as a genre which is commercially recorded and desires to have a mass audience appeal, however this aim is usually contained to the interest of young children, teenagers and adults. 

Although pop music is often seen as oriented towards the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music which has always contained songs from a variety of sources, including classical, jazz, rock, and novelty songs, while pop music as a genre is usually seen as existing and developing separately. Thus "pop music" may be used to describe a distinct genre, often characterized as a softer alternative to rock and roll.

Examples of typical pop songs are below:

How are Females Represented in Music Videos?

I created the brainstorm below to bring together all of the points we had discussed in class surrounding the representation of females in music videos. We were exploring mostly the use of voyeurism within the convenctional world.Voyerism by definition means the practice of obtaining sexual gratification by looking at sexual objects or acts. It is a common feature  of many modern media pieces and more often than not shows females in a negative light rather than vice versa.  

This is clearly demonstrated in the music video below, where the females are explioted and over-sexualised:



Grenre Investigation: Indie

Indie music is an abbrieviated term for independant music and the name is very much self-explanatory, in that it is unique and unusual - which is often why such tracks slip into this category, as their style is outside of genres which already exist.

Indie music, like most genres has crossed over and separated into several other branches of genre. For example, you can now find indie-pop, indie-rock etc. Alongside this, the style of music has also appeared to converhe out into the fashion world, with the outfits worn by popular indie artists becoming adopted not only by the people who listen to it, but by a large part of the fashion world in general; the codes of dress reflect the codes of the song, and it seems like a natural progression for it's listeners to uptake an individual style of fashion to match their unique taste in music. What I love about this type of music is the almost total artistic freedom to create whatever they feel like, as many indie artists are under smaller, independant labels which mean they for the most part they're not under so much pressure to make a hit single. This arguably means they can push the boundaries further in that the conventions can be totally whacky and surreal, yet it won't face such harsh criticism being in a lower limelight.

Indie music is generally part performance based and predictable as they give their target audience what they expect and what they are used to seeing. A lot of indie music is about live performances e.g: festivals and acoustic sets and is very much about the music itself. When there is a storyline as part of the music video indie music videos can either stick very closely to the lyrics of the song or digress into something far fetched and spontabeous that has very little to do with the lyrics, however this concept would be stuck to throughout, and could represent a more personal venture for the artist.  Below are two examples of well known indie music videos.



Although she is not an indie artist as such, Taylor Swift's collaboratin with 'The Civil Wars' pushed her into the genre in this occasion. The music video meets many of the conventions of an indie music video; a forest setting, innocent blonde lady walking around in a white dress, abandoned house etc. It's very isolated and artsy.

Ben Howard fits the indie genre perfect, and this is personally one of my favourite songs. The visuals differ in terms of desaturatated colours, sepia tones and black/white hues which give the video a reflective, vintage feel. The bike links to journey's and simplicity; he could use a car or taxi but chooses to take it slower so that he can properly take in the city surroundings, which is highlighted in the establishing shots of the location.

Textual Analysis of Stay The Night - Zedd featuring Hayley Williams

'Stay The Night' is a song by German/Russian electronic dance music producer Zedd, featuring vocals from Hayley Williams (of Paramore) . In terms of genre, it falls under Electro House Ballad with a mix of electric/clubby beats and pop style vocal. Due to it's crossover in genre, it was positively received by a mass audience as it appealed to more than one music type. 

It features an elaborate, contemporary dance between a man and a woman which represents them battling through their relationship, alongside a vibrant close-up performance by Hayley. I absolutely love the editing within this music video; the majority of the shots include some sort of overlay with another which ives it a very dreamy feel. There is a prominent concept of contrasts too, with the red and blue setups throughout, possibly representing different emotions or people etc. The video is extremely dynamic, with constant movement from either the camera itself or the subjects in focus. 

The links between the lyrics and the visuals are not particularly statement, but still exist nonetheless, but more so through concept rather than the narrative. For example, "you kill the lights" relates quite heavily to the dark backgrounds throughout the whole video which makes the subjects stand out even more, and also relates to the concept of night time. Following on from this, in both the pianist and Hayley's setup, there are tiny stars and moons which are out of focus most of the time, but which become more prominent through some pull focuses. A link which does occur between the lyrics and visuals is the element of staying the night, as we can assume from the gestures and setting that the man is trying to convince the woman to stay; red could represent anger and blue could represent sadness or regret. In a lot of the dance moves the man tries to grab or hug the woman who just turns/moves away. 

There are strong connections between the music and the visuals. For example, when we hear the piano playing in the background, a shot of a pianist comes up. Furthermore, the pace of the cuts really match the pace of the song; at the beginning they are more flowing and faded, but throughout the song they start to build up alongside the rhythm until the end where they are extremely quick and choppy, which mirrors the build up of electronic tempo within the song. 

There are several points in the song where clever editing is used, whereby Hayley's actions will link to the dancers, and flow in as one movement, for example at 1:35 where she rolls her head back and before you know it we're thrown back into the dancing scene. As a narrative, this could connote that the dancers represent the emotions in her head; the man is blue, which could represent safety and calmness whereas the woman's section  is red, representing anger and passion. Either way, it is extremely successful as it keeps the audience on their toes and engaged within the meaning of the song. Hayley is kept recognisable to the audience due to her statement ginger hair, bright red lipstick and bold black and white clothes. Although this is her first solo track, she has not made any dramatic changes to her image which shows how she has stayed herself throughout her musical career. 

There is not a theme which closely follows the notion of looking; the music video is more artistic and genuine, although I suppose arguably there is admiration and love between the two dancers, but it's more emotional than sexual. 

This music video clevely intwines narrative, concept and perforance elements together; all three elements complement and bounce off each other creating a dynamic and exciting visual to accompany the sound. Overall, I really love this music video and wouldn't do anything to change it. The overlay effect is definitely something to consider using in our music video as it keeps the visuals moving and adds lots of energy. 

Discovery

I have just come accross this clever video about being creative, which is really inspiring. I think it speaks for itself really but it is the ultimate pick-me-up of you ever feel like giving up with your work.

I Share, Therefore I Am

I stumbled across this short film on the social media platform, 'Tumblr' whilst browsing through my Dashboard, and being a sucker for anything social media-related, decided to see what it was about.

 

The Innovation of Loneliness from Shimi Cohen on Vimeo

I found the content of the film very extremely interesting; it is about how social media can affect our psyche on a day-to-day basis. It was brilliantly constructed, so I was easily able to follow the author's points. I guess you could say that it does expose social media in a mostly negative light - the argument is approached with balance and consideration of the positives - however the conclusion (that we can potentially become lonely whilst being surrounded by people) is certainly in most people's eyes not a good value to hold. 

I also found the distinction between being lonely and being alone was particularly thought provoking, so decided to do some more research and try to distinguish them further. It lead me to discover that the key difference it seems is that being alone is a positive state of mind, where a person is content with being only with themselves; a state of mind in which they can be to calm themselves, recover and overall figure themselves out. Whereas in stark contrast, being lonely is a negative state of mind where a person feels sad/upset at being left alone; a state that arises from a certain situation in a person's life which leaves them discontent or heartbroken. 

The visuals really support the voiceover and are used to illustrate what is being said, encouraging imagery to be created within the audience. I am by no means an animation expert but it is clear to see that there is a distinctive, modern, retro-like style which is maintained throughout.  

"We're sacrificing conversation for mere connection, and so a paradoxical situation is created, in which we claim to have many friends whilst actually being lonely"

The audiences thirst for why and how is soon fulfilled, as the autor describes that advances in social media and technology are to blame for the barrier that appears to be forming between the importance of the quality of a friend and significance the quantity. You don't have to look very far for evidence either; on Twitter, the figure underneath the word 'followers' is to some people the most important aspect of their account, and many go out of their way to increase this number without actually considering who they are looking for - for some, their 'friends' are merely the figures. 

Time and control appear to be the main reason that connection is replacing conversation, and building our own personal profile/images to be as close to perfect as possible is the driving force. But why is this dangerous? The film concludes with the sentence, "If we don't know how to be alone, we are only going to be lonely". In other words, the autor's concern is that social media means we have the potential to never be alone, as we are always surrounded by our connections - which means we effectively do not have the chance to find a place of serenity and peace. He believes that this in turn, will lead to humans feeling isolated and dissatisfied, rather than being content and happy within themselves. 

Personally, I think his points are extremely tempting to agree with, as he poses such a clear argument and you only have to log on to any chosen social media platform to see it in action. However, I think he has been rather stereotypical in his points. It is certainly true that many people use social media to promote themselves and become as popular as they can be - which is part of human nature - however he does not take into account the fact that there are many people who use social media for thousands of other reasons aside building their image. For instance, people who use networks purely to reconnect with friends, or people who already have a clear sense of who they are and actually just enjoy the function of social media etc. I actually think that the character building aspect is an extremely positive outcome, as it promotes development within our society. So although I understand his points and agree with the basis of his argument, our conclusions differ, as I believe that social media has an insane way of bringing people together - what's the harm in connections?

Textual Analysis of Gold Dust - DJ Fresh

'Gold Dust' is a true-to-type dance video and closely follows the typical convenctions of the genre, which include:

• Fast pace/tempo
• Bouncy
• Lively
• Upbeat
• Raises heartrate - motivational and makes you want to get up and dance

The video focuses in on American culture and follows a 90's/retro type theme  and we actually learn a lot about the kind of world they live in. It provides a different outlook on life for the typical type of person who will access the video (mainly first world countries) and won't have necessarily experienced this culture before, or in such a positive light anyway.. In this way it is actually rather heartwarming to see how such what appears like a simple activity can bring together a whoel community. In order to emphasize the pace of the higher intensity content, teh video also contains several slow motion shots - often panning close ups - which break up the video and keep teh audience interested and following; if it was all rapid and quick, important details would be missed and the viewer could potentially get bored.

Being a heavily concept based video, the lyrics do not have a clean cut, direct link to every single visual in the song. However there are are still several moments within the music video where the lyrics and visuals do come together. For instance, at the lyrics, 'running away', the skippers are moving away and travelling from the camera, and on when teh lyric, 'hands up' is sung, the skippers out their hands up. Also in terms of costuming, there is a gold jacket worn by one of the partakers - which does have a reference to the song title and content. It could be seen that the skipping is also linked through the lyrics, 'jumping'.

The relationship between the music and visuals within Gold Dust is very positive; the visuals often match the tempo and rhythm of the song, e.g. during the chorus, the beat is fast paced and steady, but the skippers' jumping is in time with the music. Alongside this, there are parts of the video which are hold a slower, winded-down tempo, at which point the visuals slow down too. These sections include lots of close ups and slow motion shots. This is extremely effective as it provides a real contrast to the fast paced content, and actually in turn exaggarates it more - like it's in fast forward.

A wide range of close ups of the artist and image motifs are empoyed throughout the video, especially of the young children admiring and observing the older generations skipping. It appears that they are quite run-down and don't have a lot of money, so skipping has been handed down from generation to generation as a pastime. Another link with the artist within the video is the text on the tops worn by the matching girls. It reads, 'The new front ear', which could connote to frontier. Frontier, by definition means, 'an outer limit of field of endeavour, especially one in which the opportunities for research and development have not been exploited'. This subtly links to the name 'DJ Fresh' as it is a fresh, new, developing thing which has the potential to evolve into something huge.

Furthermore, within the video, there is great emphasis placed upon the women in the video. At several times, close ups and panning shhots are used to highlight the female's attributes, bringing them to the audiences' attention. This is voyerism, and in turn makes the film appear as if it is viewed with a male gaze. The females within the video are percieved as one of the main focuses, and this is empasized further as everyone crowds round to watch. Close up, slow motion shots of the men's reactions are employed, showing them looking impressed/satisfied, especially when the rather provocative, matching girls appear. The fact they match actually makes it seem as if they lose value as individuals - all females are the same and objects to be won.

The music video is wholey concept based with an essence of narrative intertwined into the concept. So the skipping is the concept, but the culture and everything related to it seems to tell a story within itself.

Overall, to improve it, I think I would intertwine some more narriative into the concept, however it does suit the genre and is very successful as it is. I think it is a really interesting music video and touches on an activity which perhaps we took for granted at the age of 6.

Textual Analysis of No Interest - Nina Nesbitt



'No Interest' is an interesting indie track with hints of pop music embedded within by the emerging Singer/Song-writer Nina Nesbitt. It does follow follow some conventions of a typical music genre, which include:

• Hippie/chilled vibe
• Simple song concept
• Lively
• Artistic
• Covers topics such as love/everyday life issues - the problem/truth of being average

However it also invents new features which really make it stand out as a music video. One of these features is the 'selfie' style of the video. After looking into this, I discovered that it was achieved by attacthing a steadycam type device to Nina (the singer) and reversing the camera to face her. This means that the shot is still clear and holds depth/focus, yet she can capture all of the action around her through movement.

Following on from this, I think that the concept of movement is a key feature in this music video. Nina is always panning the camera to and from different angles or spinning around etc. I feel like this rather fast paced action links quite heavily to the location; London. London is encompassed by this racey, rushy atmosphere by which you are pretty much discouraged to stop in any way; whether this be working, walking, thinking and especially whilst commuting on the underground. Anyway, opinions aside, this location really links into the concept of the song which is why it works so well.

In terms of the links between the lyrics and the visuals, the conept links quite strongly, in that there are barely any other shots of the person/people she has no interest in - it is all focused on her and she does not wish to give her attention out. The chorus...

No interest in you, no interest at all
There's nothing to lose, 'cause there's nothing at all
No interest in you, no interest at all
Cause there's nothing to lose, there's nothing at all
Yeah I'm livid, yeah I'm livid, oh oh oh oh
Yeah I'm livid, yeah I'm livid, oh oh oh oh

...links heavily to a lot of her facial expressions, in that she looks rather unimpressed and isn't particularly interested/involved in her surroundings either. Lyrics such as, "sit on the bus and I get on the backseat, with a hoodie and a bottle of JD" are not portrayed in the narrative style they are sung, however they do still link to the culture of city life, teenagers and London. So the lyrics do link to the visuals to an extent in terms of concept, but they actually do not relate to the song in any form of narrative despite the lyrics telling a chronological story.

The whole video is based around a head/shoulders type close up of Nina, and due to the filming set up she adjusts the camera angles herself, meaning it largely varies and is constantly changing. In terms of her image, she has her key look which is bleached blond hair swept to the side, flicked eyeliner and bright lipstick. This is recognisable to both her regular viewers and people who haven't seen her material before. Being an independent artist, this sense of autonomy and liberty in her music video links to how the style of her music sounds, as she has the freedom to be original. Also, the selfie style of the framing links to the current trends on many social media platforms, showing that she is a very current artist.

In terms of the notion of looking, the focus is placed very much so on Nina herself as she is in the foreground of every shot. However I also find it quite interesting to peel away from this and look into the background to observe her surroundings and the people within it, which turn out to be a huge variety of people from all kinds of backgrounds. I wonder if they were trying to connotate not getting too lost in the rush and lust of the city or the people in it - it is concerned with developing yourself individually.

The video is largely performance based with the concept of no interest and movement portrayed throughout. There is a hint of a narrative; why is she walking around? Is she going/leaving somewhere? Is she on her own or with other people? However these questions are not answered through this particular music video and we are left to fill in the gaps ourselves.

I love how this music video was composed and I found the alternative framing really interesting. Personally I might have liked to find out a bit more about the narrative, however I think it works equally as well without so it is not a huge issue at all. This music video will hopefully help to promote Nina as an artist as her creativity and freedom with her songs and visuals will mean even more fresh, original content to emerge. 

Textual Analysis of You Make Me (Lyric Version) - Avicii

Avicii's 'You Make Me' is an upbeat catchy pop/dance combination which hit number 1 in the UK dance charts, and depicted busy city life. It held characteristics of dance and pop genre such as:

• Rarely any static shots - the cuts are not so quick, but the action within them is very fast paced as it is sped up.
• Makes you want to dance
• Energetic
• Repeated riff
• Underlying narrative

In many senses, this music video is quite unconventional in terms of the dance genre; usually they are set in intimate nightlife scenes or streets etc, so follow quite an urban theme. 'You Make Me' does the same, but from a different perspective which I think is really interesting. 

At first glance, it doesn't appear that the lyrics have any sort of link to the visuals, so initially I classes the video as totally concept. However after observing it a few more times, I did notice somevery subtle semantics within it. For example, there is a very subtle narrative within the video in the form of a sunrise. At the beginning of the video, it is rising out of the clouds, and shots of it in the middle of the sky are embedded amongst others. We would then expect it to set on the other side of the frame at the end of the video, however it actually ends up rewinding and effectively resetting. This holds links to the lyrics on the fact that he is singing about someone whom we assume he is in love with and connotes to their relationship never falling/setting. Another link to the lyrics is the (excellently executed) time lapse, which argualy relates to lines such as, "all my life" and, "I've been waiting for someone like you" as they both hold connotations to time. A further link is that some of the city scenes are of construction work such as a new road being laid down, and a playground being build. These shots closely link to the lyrics and title, "You make me". 

In terms of how the visuals link to the music, an obvious example would be how the editor has artistically overlaid all of the lyrics onto the top of the shots. These appear on the beat as they are sung, which is possible because the song as a whole has quite a simple structure with very few lyrics which are repeated throughout. Other representations occur towards the end of the video, where a symmetry effect has been applied during the editing process. This works really well with the music as the bassline is being repeated, or mirrored. It gives the video even more energy and keeps the audience interested by using a range of shots. I particularly love the edit of the clouds at 1:37 where they have taken a time lapse of them moving as usual, but then split the screen down the middle and sped the movement up. It is an amazing shot and looks almost like a hot tub in the sky.

Like with most of Avicii's music vides, the artists themselves are not included in the visuals, so it follows the theme of their usual content so the audience are immediately able to recognise their style. There is no reference to the notion of looking at all - in fact, the only people you can see are tiny specs on the ground! I think that the video is largely concept based, surrounding the idea of time and there is a very subtle narrative underlying but no performance element. 

Overall I really love this song and always have ever since it came out, so I was hoping that the video would do the song justice, and I think it does. The major shrinking time is extremely effective and plays  on the idea of waiting and time passing by.

It also made me think as to whether we could produce a separate lyric version of our music video too, which commercially we would release about a week before the official video to build up an enigma and to also make the track more recognisable, expanding our audience.