Jenna: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media texts?
Jenna: Our finished media product includes a music video, album artwork and a promotional poster.
Shafaah: in order for our products to be successful we had to follow nick Lacey’s theory of media products being “the same but different”. The reason for this being is that audience members do not like things they don’t know. We are all creatures of habit and fear the unknown. To follow this theory we had to make sure that we did not break away from all music video conventions. However before we could distinguish which conventions could be broken, we decided to analyze some pop music videos so that we could have a further understanding of our chosen sub genre.
(Image of Justin Bieber- Somebody To Love)
Jenna: To analyse this music video we used the Goodwin six point theory. (image of the six point theory + image of Andrew Goodwin) (image of the first point) The lyrics in this certain music video establish general feeling or mood rather than a coherent meaning. Only certain key lines within somebody to love mirror the visuals such as dance actions e.g. ‘step to the beat of my heart’- usher puts his hand on his heart.
The visuals and lyrics together as one as one create a light mood for the audience with the upbeat dancing and cutesy lyrics.
(show image of the second point theory) Justin Bieber’s somebody to love can be easily categorized into the rnb genre. Justin Bieber has chosen a simple but effective video style with the video all shot in to studio with the use of lighting- high key lighting which spotlights Bieber. The use of dancers and the style of dancing also fits with the genre with the use of the hip hop/ street moves. Biebers choice of style also reflects the genre, dressed in black clothing- Leather jacket, hoodie and black skinny jeans with the coloured sneakers. This is also reflected in ushers style with the sunglasses and dark clothing. This brand image in itself crates an iconography for the RnB genre.
(show image of 3rd point) Throughout the video there are excessive amounts of close ups of Bieber and Usher. The main focus of the closeups are the eyes and the mouth to grab the audience’s attention. Closeups establish the artist as a whole, this engages them with the audience and makes the video more personal, making the audience feel like they are directly looking at them.
Shafaah: although most music videos do not break the rules of music video conventions there are a few exceptions…
(Image of Elton John’s I Want Love)
I want love has many typical conventions such as the relationship between the visuals and lyrics. (Clip from music video) the lyrics “a man like me is dead in places” link with the empty house, which like his life was once full of love and happiness. There was once some one or something that filled the void but now he has nothing to make him feel whole.
The relationship between the music and visuals follows the conventions of a music video yet at times it breaks away from them. The editing is very slow paced to match the tempo of the music, and at times it seems there are no advanced editing techniques used. The music video consists of the artist walking around an empty house; this breaks the convention of the visuals matching the music/lyrics since the artist makes no mention of a house within his song. Only three basic camera shots are used in the music video (three pictures {one of a long shot, medium shot and close up, with captions}), which makes it much harder for the audience to relate to either the artist or the music since they feel alienated from both.
Particular music genres have their own style and iconography. As a singer songwriter Elton john is expected to appear in his music videos singing his own songs, playing the his piano and wearing his iconic suits and glasses. (image of E.J performing with his piano in a mental suit and pair of glasses) The singer songwriter genre also calls for lots of close ups of the artist in order for the audience to create a link with them. How ever Elton John doesn’t appear in his music video at all. The entirety of the song is mouthed by Robert Downey Jr, a well-known Hollywood actor. Elton john doesn’t even make a cameo appearance like Ed Sheeran in his music video A Team (image of E.S and the homeless girl from the music video).
The music industry calls for plenty of close ups of the artist in the video. Although Robert Downey Jr. isn’t the artist there still plenty of close ups of him throughout the music video. Elton john’s record company can get away with this since he is already a well-established artist. The intertexutal reference in the music video is Robert Downey Jr. himself, as a big name Hollywood actor he giving the music video a more three dimensional/ realist feel. (images of RDJr. In some of his different roles)
Like many music videos, our music video follows the conventions of the typical genre which is pop/grime.
Jenna:
Though Pop is usually very clean cut, cheesy and PG we decided to give it a grimier, urban feel. Our new take on pop will be pushing the boundaries of the conventional pop genre that appeals to thirteen year old girls who are still living in their hot pink plastic bubbles.
Conventions of Pop include:
• lots of close ups of the artist.
• artist is usually a very clean cut wholesome young person e.g. Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana etc. (picture of them scrolling across)
• Almost always a Dance routine.
• conventional non-revealing clothing.
• high key lighting which gives connotations of happiness and cleanliness.
• the artists love interest is always in the music video, usually being serenaded by the artist.
• mainly performance based.
Songs are about love/ relationships
Conventions of Grime include:
· Videos are set in urban areas such as London
• the artist usually has a thick accent e.g Northern or southern accent
• The music video's aren't too flashy, they're more realistic than Grime's American counterpart Hip Hop
• lyrics usually link to partying or bettering oneself
• performance based music videos with the artist rapping whilst surrounded by others
• scantily clad girls dancing
artist wearing plenty of 'bling'
Our music video contains many elements from both of these sub genres, all of which fit together to form our final project.
Shafaah: from the pop genre we have taken elements such as;
· close ups of the artist which help to establish her as a new artist and allow the audience the time to ‘get to know her’ or so to speak.
· Secondly our music video is also performance based, how this can be taken into consideration of the grime elements that we have also used.
· A dance routine is usually present in a pop music video. Though there isn’t a set music dance routine, our artist, Aleeza, is dancing in the chorus. This aspect shows off her fun loving ‘poppy’ side, which is then contrasted during the verses.
Balance out the pop elements of our music video we then chose to add certain elements from the Grime genre. The elements we chose to include are;
· A simple studio based music video. Rather than having a flashy music video with our artist surrounded by backing dancers or other performers, we chose to have her as the main focus of the music video. The black back drop also highlights the fact that our artist is white rather than the typical black male artist.
· The lyrics like nearly all grime artist are centered round the theme of partying and getting wasted. This contrasts with the few pop elements we have included because pop is always very clean cut and girly whilst our music video is glorifying getting drunk and forgetting what happened the night before (images from music video of Hayley with her vodka bottle).
· However the lyrics may be based around the grime genre but the performance we provide in our project is much more centered around the pop music genre. In the chorus our artist dances showing her flirty/ feminine side. Along with her feminine side she also shows a lot of attitude like Miley Cyrus in her music ‘7 Things’ (show screen shot of part of music video)
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