CCR 1: How do your products challenge the conventions and how do they represent social groups or issues?
1. z
How does your product use or
challenge conventions and how do
they represent social groups or
issues?
Kasim.
2. z
Video: technical
conventions.
In this section of the presentation, I will
discuss to what extent my music video
challenges or conforms to the technical
conventions of other music videos in the
pop/indie pop genre. I will be comparing
my video to Katy Perry’s ‘Roar’ and Luis
Fonsi ‘Despasito’.
3. z
First off, both ‘Roar’ and ‘Despasito’ have
loads of tracking shots that follow the
artist throughout the video, which gives
the video a feeling of storytelling. This is
characteristic of a pop music video, but
there is not a single tracking shot in my
video. What this does is it challenges the
conventional way of shooting a pop music
video by taking a different approach
which instead presents the artists as a
band member then a part of a ongoing
narrative, which helps put more emphasis
on the actual music without trying to
impress the audience with peripheral
narratives.
4. zVideo: symbolic
conventions.
There are several symbolic conventions
in pop videos. For example, many videos
such as ‘Roar’ exploit women’s sexuality
in order to attract certain types of
audiences. These videos depict women as
the subject of men’s desires and this
becomes the central theme of the video.
My video does adopt the same concept,
but only to a limited extent. This is
helpful in that it helps simplify that
narrative – if the song is about love –
and make the video more relatable
because audience are attracted to this
kind of video.
5. z
Another convention of a pop video that is present in ‘Despasito’ dancing, which plays a vital role in
the video. This aspect of it makes the video more appealing to certain audiences. This is also
present some extent in my video, except there is little dancing and it is not nearly as energetic as
the dancing in ’Despasito’.
6. z
However, it should be noted that although my video does have elements of a love story,
it does not have any shots that would highlight the sexuality of the female character.
In this, my video in a way challenges the accepted conventions of a regular pop video.
This also serves to help construct the star image of the artist in my video. The artist is
appealing to young female audiences due to the romantic love-story aspect of the video.
7. z
Digipak: structural
conventions.
Between different genres, there are structural
conventions for a digipak. In this section of the
presentation, I will compare my digipak to two other
digipaks from the same genre to see how they
represent/challenge the prevalent conventions of the
genre and how this adds to my artist’s start image.
8. z
The two digipaks that I comparing my own to are quite typical in their genre. On Rihanna’s digipak, you can
see (1) that there is very little writing, (2) that the focus is on Rihanna’s face – so her face is tool of appealing
to different audiences – and (3) that the digipak is very colourful. All of this combined, gives the digipak a
playful pop-like feel. So the design of the cover plays a vital role in following the conventions of the genre
and constructing the star image of the artist.
Ed Sheeran’s ‘No. 6’ album does not have a picture of Ed on it, which is not very typical of a pop album.
However, there are other conventions that loosely apply to this album. For one, just like Rihanna’s album,
’No, 6’ relies heavily on design and colour patterns. The black part of the digipak looks as if it was painted
with a brush, whereas the white part has what seem like black graffiti traces. Again, there is little writing.
To conclude, Ed Sheeran’s album relies more on design, editing and colour than Rihanna’s, which really only
relies on colour out of the three.
9. z
In comparison, my digipak has both design/colour and a picture of the artist in it. In pop music, it is
usually one or the other. So I think this makes my digipak stand out by combining the two
conventions. In addition, this can also have an impact on the start image of the artist in that it gives
one an impression that the music on the album will be unconventional just like the digipak.
11. z
Both of the website are quite unconventional in their own way: Rihanna’s mostly relies on the
artwork - the homepage of comprised of pictures of Rihanna; also, it is black-and-white. And Ed
Sheeran’s is colourful but it is unconventional in that it has a picture of Ed and his wife having
breakfast on the homepage. Below is a screenshot of my website. My website is, again, a combination
of both: it has creative artwork and a colour pattern.
