genre case study

1. GENRE CASE STUDY
(Revised)
PENNY LANE/STRAWBERRY
FIELDS FOREVER

2. RELEASE/GENRE
The original two videos for The Beatles 'Penny Lane' and 'Strawberry Fields Forever' were
both released in 1967 having both been filmed at the same location; Noal Parks in
Sevenoak, Kent. Many of The Beatles early 'music videos' have been restored and
released on DVD recently, including many of their performance videos, these two however
are hugely similar in the fact they both are early beginnings of what we call a music
video and hold many of the same aspects of the genre theory.
Strawberry Fields Forever, written by John Lennon, is a nostalgic song about his early life
in Liverpool just as Paul McCartney's Penny Lane is and the earlier album Rubber Soul
Lennon’s ‘In My Life’ also reflects this.
The genre of both pieces is ‘Psychedelic Rock’ however this is represented in both videos
differently.

3. STRAWBERRY
FIELDS FOREVER
BACKGROUND/LOCA
TION
The Strawberry Fields Forever music video was directed by Peter Goldmann, who
also directed the promotional clip for Penny Lane. The film features a range
of bright colours, various costumes and a strange set. The video features a
piano to which McCartney, Starr, Lennon and Harrison helped pour paint over in
order to create something almost kaleidoscopic to match the psychedelic rock
genre of the piece.
The location holds a fairly minimal background for the music, the effect of this
being that the focus is held on the band and the use of colour throughout.
Tony Bramwell (the producer of this video and band assistant) helped in set
design and was inspired by a comment made by a Klaus Voorman, a friend of The
Beatles, after hearing the song he remarked "The whole thing sounded like it
was played on a strange instrument". Bramwell agreed and decided to build upon
the tree a "piano and harp combined with strings" to reflect the music style.
In 2007, writing for the magazine 'Mogo', Harris thought the set design
reflected the 'collision of serenity and gothic eeriness' of the music.
The video has clips that run backwards, overlap each other, it has differing
light sources/lighting, repetition and also uses close ups of each band
member.

4. PENNY LANE
BACKGROUND/L
OCATION
Penny Lane was written as a response to Strawberry Fields Forever, the video
features a realistic representation of the location in the song at the
beginning with shots of the street signs and the green buses around the area.
It later moves on to the same location as the previous video where the subject
becomes slightly less realistic, featuring scenes of an outdoor tea party, and
focusing more on the band members.
The footage of the band on horses around the streets was not shot in Liverpool,
instead the filming took place in London, around Angel Lane. The broken shots
of Lennon walking were also previously filmed around Kings road, Chelsea. The
video is a montage sequence to begin with and moves on to a more steady
narrative. The location again is fairly minimal, however slightly different
from the Strawberry Fields Forever video as it contains montage clips of
different periods of time and locations.
John Lennon- “We really got into the groove of imagining Penny Lane — the bank
was there, and that was where the tram sheds were and people waiting and the
inspector stood there, the fire engines were down there. It was just reliving
childhood.”
The promotional video for Penny Lane was chosen by New York’s MoMa as one of the
most influential promotional music films in the late 1960s.

5. THEORY OF GENRE
COMMERCIAL CONDSIDERATIONS
Denis McQuail suggests that ‘genre may be considered as a practical device for
helping any mass medium (music) to produce productions consistently and
efficiently and to relate to the production expectations of the customers’, in
other words, Mcquail argues that the use of genre in promotional productions
such as music videos are used for commercial reasons. He argues they help to
maintain a loyal audience in terms of pushing the expected genre of the music.
Similarly, Steve Neale argues that ‘genres exist within the context of a set of
economic relations and practices. Economic factors may account for the
perpetuation of a profitable genre’. This argues that music/promotional videos
are purely for the promotion of a bands music to result in inevitably profit.
It could be argued, that because the two Beatles’ music videos were originally
‘promotional videos’ that these two theories apply. However because these were
early music videos, i.e they were not recognised as what we would call a music
video that may be seen today, many of the other genre conventions still apply.

6. THEORY OF GENRE
INTERTEXTUALITY
‘Genre is an intertextual concept' (argued by Katie Wales), directors often
use references from various pieces of art, literature, film or history.
For example, the 1967 Photo by artist Diane Arbus inspired the infamous
‘Grady twins’ from Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’.
The intertextuality in films often represents something of either the
history of the piece, the art around the time or the time period itself.
Intertextuality can also create deeper meaning to a piece, giving depth
to the genre and adding another level.
For example, Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Django Unchained’ uses intertextual
references from the film ‘Gone with the Wind’ from director Victor
Fleming. Tarantino uses locations and shots almost identical to the 1939
film however, because the genre has been twisted to create something
different the reference to the previous film gives the audience a new
way of looking at the genre of the piece.
Because each of the Beatles’ videos are fairly early representation of
music videos, the intertextuality is limited to the lyrics and
atmosphere of the songs themselves. Although it could be argued that
they each represent the history of the time period.

7. STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER
GENRE
LIGHTING/COLOUR
The lighting throughout the Strawberry Fields Forever
video is a mixture of diegetic light (the shot of Paul
in the tree with the red lights and various shots of
blue, green and white lights) and natural lighting,
which moves from day, to early evening and finishes in
darkness.
The use of the diegetic lighting at points in the video
presents the psychedelic rock genre of the piece
fairly well, the harsh lighting of the background set
lighting creates an unusual and slightly dream-like
atmosphere to the video. The lights are placed
strategically as the camera moves around each band
member, giving a spinning feeling that reflects the
nature of the piece.
The natural lighting also presents this dream-like state.
The use of the light moving from day into night gives
a sense of passing time that slows the piece down,
reflecting the psychedelic genre. There is also a
point where Paul appears to change the natural light
form day to night, this also heavily reflects the
genre of the piece giving an unusual atmosphere and
possibly leaving the audience slightly confused.
The colours used throughout this video are vibrant and
change often(with around seven costume changes) this
again reflects the chaotic genre of the piece and
mirrors works of the bands such as ‘Lucy in the Sky
with Diamonds’.

8. STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER
GENRE
CAMERAWORK/EDITING
Although the video for Strawberry
Fields Forever does not feature
the entire song, the camerawork
and editing does reflect the
piece as a whole whilst still
maintaining the genre.
The beginning of the video features
the band walking ‘backwards’ and
‘forwards’ (the clips have been
reversed), the use of clip
reversal happens again as Paul
‘jumps up’ the tree. This is
reflective of the song, later on
in the piece the track is played
backwards, reflecting the
psychedelic tone of it and
creating something unusual. This
unconventionality is also
reflected in the excessive use of
jump cuts, giving the illusion of
a broken timeline.
Close ups of Paul and John are used
overlapping the clips following
Ringo and George. This gives the
effect of something dream-like
and allows for each of the bad
members to be seen but still
keeps with the conventions of the
psychedelic genre. Here the edit
and camerawork clearly fits the
genre of the music.

9. PENNY LANE GENRE
LIGHTING/COLOUR
The lighting throughout the Penny Lane is, as
Strawberry Fields Forever contains, mostly the
natural lighting of the location used. Although
the genre of the piece is still ‘psychedelic rock’
the lighting throughout the video reveals less of
this than in the previous video.
It could be argued that the natural lighting of the
locations was used to enhance the lyrics of the
piece. The nostalgia of ‘Penny Lane’ is brought
out by the use of lighting, and the audience get a
feel for what life may have been like. The effect
of this gives the audience a place within the
song, allowing for the lyrics to be easily
relatable even though they are fairly exclusive to
the band.
This nostalgia is also reflected in the vibrancy of
the colours, the vivid nature of each shot could
reflect the memories portrayed in the lyrics.
The colours used throughout out the video also enhance
the nostalgia of the piece. Red, blue, green and
white are all used in costume and setting
highlighting not only the colours that are
prevalent within the song; with mention of ‘fire-
engines’ and the ‘blue suburban skies’, but also
could be an almost royal way of portraying the
English countryside. The Red, greens, blues and
whites all represent a something very British,
this could be a way for the audience to again
relate to the piece and to present the band’s
nostalgia of the location clearly.

10. PENNY LANE GENRE
CAMERAWORK/EDITING
The Camerawork in the Penny Lane video is fairly conventional in
terms of following the lyrics and the band.
The video begins with a shot of John, tracking him walking
through the streets of Chelsea. These shots could be
reflective of his reminiscing the streets of Liverpool (Penny
Lane). These shots also places the audience with the band and
allows for them to follow them as they follow the song
lyrics.
The next few shots present the lyrics to the song, in reference
to Goodwin ‘the lyrics and visuals’ match, the barber shop,
the Penny Lane sign and the band ‘stopping to say hello’.
These shots all create a wider narrative to the piece and
give the audience a visual of the nostalgic lyrics.
Later in the piece the band move to the same location as the
Strawberry Fields Forever video, the camera continues to
follow each with close ups and tracking shots of the band.
This again places the audience with them and gives narrative
to the lyrics. Goodwin suggests that the use of close ups of
band members in a music video is essential to the record
label’s success.
The editing of the piece is quite similar to the previous video,
however there are more jump-cuts. The jump cuts are very fast
at times (fitting with the beat of the music) however often
they are slow moving crossing to clips of either each band
member or lyrical visuals such as the roundabout or
policeman. There is also a reference to the psychedelic rock
genre, through the edit. There is three of the same shot of
John putting on his sunglasses, played consecutively creating
a similar unusual atmosphere as that in the Strawberry Fields
Forever.

11. ELEMENTS OF THE ZEITGEIST
The Beatles were hugely important in defining the zeitgeist of the 1960s, they
reflected many of the cultural changes of the period.
Beginning with the start of rock and roll they moved through the rock-pop songs
reflecting the bouncy fun and love of the decade.
Later however as the Vietnam war continued it produced a more psychedelic phase
of the Western World, the ‘hippy movement’ comprised of free will, love and
peace held this genre together. This is heavily reflected in the video of
Strawberry Fields Forever, the nostalgia of both videos also reflects the
nostalgia felt by many of the period.
Both videos reflect life in the 1960s in different ways, with reference to the
psychedelic aspects in Strawberry Fields Forever and the everyday life
presented in Penny Lane.
Paul recalled “These videos and films are spectacular reminders of the time we
lived in”.

12. INTERTEXTUALITY
PREVIOUS ALBUMS
RUBBER SOUL (1965)
Rubber Soul was The Beatle’s sixth album that
incorporated their familiarity with the
studio alongside their experimental sound.
The album has various styles of music, ranging
from soul to folk rock and early
psychedelic. The sense of early psychedelic
sound comes mostly through the use of
experimentation with instruments from the
band.
In the track ‘Norwegian Wood’ written by Lennon
and McCartney, Harrison decided to use the
sitar that they had encountered whilst
filming the 1965 film ‘Help’. The new sound
created something that would later become
an essential part of The Beatle’s music.
The use of the psychedelic sound in Penny Lane
and especially Strawberry Fields forever
after Rubber Soul was released give the
audience a sense of familiarity and
establishes the groups music.
Gunther Kress suggests that genre is a ‘kind of
text that derives its form from the
structure of a (frequently repeated) social
occasion, with its characteristic
participants and their purpose’, The fan
base held premise for their music to follow
certain conventions after this album.
“We were getting better, technically and
musically. Finally, we took over the studio.
In the early days, we had to take what we
were given; we didn't know how to get more
bass. We were still learning. We were more
precise about making this album, and we took
over the cover and everything.”
-John Lennon on Rubber Soul.

13. INTERTEXTUALITY
PREVIOUS ALBUMS
REVOLVER (1966)
Revolver was The Beatles seventh album and
features diverse sounds of tape loops (Tomorrow
Never Knows), a string octet (Eleanor Rigby) and
an Indian music style (Love You To). It was a
progression from Rubber Soul that held the same
experimentation and vast differences between each
track.
The album holds the same significance as Rubber
Soul in terms of creating the early stages of
Psychedelic rock and finding The Beatles sound
referenced in both Penny Lane and Strawberry
Fields Forever.
“ We were really starting to find ourselves in the studio. We were
finding what we could do, just being the four of us and playing our
instruments. The overdubbing got better, even though it was always
pretty tricky because of the lack of tracks. The songs got more
interesting, so with that the effects got more interesting.
I think the drugs were kicking in a little more heavily on this
album. I don't think we were on anything major yet; just the old
usual - the grass and the acid. I feel to this day that though we
did take certain substances, we never did it to a great extent at
the session. We were really hard workers. That's another thing
about The Beatles - we worked like dogs to get it right.”
- Ringo Starr