2. Pop Music
• Most pop videos consist of party-like situations and a fun atmosphere, as a
result of wanting to match visual with audio, pop songs are for the most part
upbeat and optimistic in their lyricism, apart from its binary opposite, sad
and heartfelt ballads.
• The protagonist in the video is usually the song owner, sometimes
performing as well as simply showing their face. Pop music has capitalised
on the popularity of personality, so having the main artist feature in their
video is important.
• The mis-en-scene is often colourful and bright, and embodies the theme of
the song, i.e whether it is soft sounding or loud and uptempo, or whether the
artist’s voice is supported by heavy instrumental background or acoustic.
• These videos tend to follow trends already set rather than set them, and are
geared towards teens due to their main demographic being young adults,
explaining the demonstration of partying and dancing, typically considered
to relate to this age group the most and tend to react the most positively to
digestible, rather innocent visual. In spite of this, it is worth noting
mainstream music is becoming increasingly controversial and using more
profanity than ever before, for example the topic of sex and sexuality in
general becoming more acceptable to discuss openly.
3. Hip-Hop / Rap
• Similarly to pop videos, a lot of Hip-Hop / RnB music videos take place partying / in a club, as
a lot of the time the lyrics speak of such things i.e being appropriate to the meaning of the
song. However, it differs from pop music as it feels more adult, there are a lot more mature
signifiers, such as excessive alcohol consumption, the desire to show off flashy items and
material that would demonstrate how rich they are (which is something someone older is
more likely to take notice of), and the portrayal of women.
• The women in these videos often only serve one purpose; to be used as a prop of
sexualisation. They are often regarded as sexually promiscuous and demeans their worth as
there is no other portrayal of their personality / character, essentially not needing to be
personified. This culture of sexualisation is common in rap music as well as the videos, most
likely due to how this genre is predominantly run and represented by males. The conclusion
we may make is the need for these men to feel powerful and masculine, using women pining
after them as a tool to prove their popularity. Alternatively, women may sometimes be used in
a video in a more vulnerable, relationship type situation, however it regularly circles back to
the relationship between man and woman.
• There is a version of Rap emerging in the 21st century that is more indie and less focused on
‘money and cars and girls’, a holy trinity for 90s Rap. It takes a different approach to its visual
representation, possibly due to the previous narrative described being so over-used and tired
out. In these videos, the narrative seems to be more important, focusing on an actual storyline
to engage an audience more intensely. As well as the camera shots being more creatively put
together and well constructed, making for a aesthetically pleasing viewing. E.g Tyler, the
Creator (top left).
4. Indie / Alt
• Indie music videos are often unconventional hence being referred to as ‘alternative.
Due being a rejected form of pop, the two are comparable but still maintain many
differences. This genre is for those who feel as though they are not suited to the
mainstream, there for their videos must reflect this and be a voice for those musical
non-conformists.
• It is common for an indie music video to include a band performance - usually
because most indie artists are bands - and camera time is often distributed equally
to members as a result of ‘star power’ being less significant to those who essentially
do not care whether they are stars or not.
• Less props and gimmicks are used, the attention is usually focused on either the
intricacy of the special effects / cool editing, meaning indie videos are more
experimental and adventurous with their editing, or the narrative taking place which
is often stronger and has more depth than your regular partying pop music video.
• The mis-en-scene is dependant of the artist, however usually there are muted tones
in lighting and effects, and if bright colour is used it will be limited to a certain
region of the colour palette. This causes the videos to look less busy and more
simplistic, contrastingly to a pop video where a lot is happening all at once and the
vibrancy is imminent. As discussed, the unconventional methods of indie bands
correlates to their style in lyricism, regularly being dark and individualistic, therefore
the liveliness and smiley faces are not so much captured in shots.
