Genre in Music Videos

Definition

Genre does not rely simply on what's in a media text but also on the way it is put together Just like establishing the genre of another media text such as a novel, magazine or film- establishing the genre of a music video is simple due to the conventions involved.

The Schatz Cycle

One main theory of the concept Genre is The Schatz Cycle: Stage 1: Innovative- Genre texts merging together to create a new genre term. At this stage, genre texts are likely to challenge audiences and to attain popularity through originality. Stage 2: Classical- Genres conventions are established and the differences between the genres are very clear/well-defined. Stage 3: Parody- Genres texts take advantage of the fact they know the typical conventions and therefore adds familiarity to the audiences. Audience pleasure is generated by the shared knowledge of the experience and especially the humorous elements of a parody. Stage 4: Deconstruction- Genre texts then begin to challenge their generic conventions by reformulating the conventions either breaking, ignoring or altering the shared understanding of genre. Audience pleasure is generated by being able to notice and recognise the typical forms which this goes against.

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin states that there are five key aspects of a music video that we as the audience look for: - Thought beats: seeing the sound in your head: Firstly you look into the music and interpret looking through the chorus and verses. Second, the voice within the song, the artist is unique and can be identified from the sound of their voice. Thirdly, the story an artist is telling within their song. The music video can be seen to aid the story. - Narrative and performance: Goodwin says we tend to make up our own idea of the messages being sent in a song from a basic understanding of what it may actually be about. Narrative and performance work together to keep the audience interested and watching throughout. - Star Image: The vital aspect of music videos- artists want to look unique and stand out from others. The star image plays a big role within the preproduction and production elements of the video. - Relation of visuals to the song: There are three ways in which visuals relate to the song: illustrate, amplify and disjuncture. - Technical aspects of the music: Hold the music video together eg, camera work, editing (post production). Lighting and mise-en-scene also play a big role in the overall look and genre of the music video.

Quote

One quote of Andrew Goodwin:

Music videos are simply an extensive of the lyrics

Styles of Music Videos

Narrative is when the music video tells a story and the lyrics and visuals support this Performance a performance based music video is simply the artists (sometimes others eg. ValerieMark Ronson ft Amy Winehouse) performing the song either live or recored Cameo If a song is within a soundtrack of a film, a cameo performance may be used and it would be another famous actor/actress Notion of Looking When the artist or an actor/actress within the music video looks out upon the action of the music video- normally creating a narrative performance.