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1. How Does Your Music Video Use
and Challenge Conventions?

2. • Because of the ambiguity of the neo-soul genre conventions, it is
important to give some context regarding it’s history.
• It first came to light in the 1980s, largely influenced by the work of
Prince. It briefly came into popularity with artists such as D’Angelo
and Lauryn Hill during the 90s, but by the 2000s, neo-soul had
receded back into its previous position as an indie genre. These
popular neo-soul artists of the 90s were known for being unreliable
with musical output, and struggled to keep creative momentum,
leading to the decline in popularity of the genre.
• Currently, neo-soul is undergoing a quiet revival, with artists such as
John Legend and Frank Ocean channeling this genre.
• It is worth mentioning that a common feature of neo-soul is it’s
“conscious driven” approach to music that aims to address real
world issues.
• Neo-soul artists are also predominately female, contrasting with it’s
musical relatives, Hip Hop and RnB, which often marginalizes and
objectifies the presence of women.
Historical Context and Neo-Soul
Conventions

3. • Steve Neale’s “Theory of Representation and Difference” suggests that
genres are instances of repetition and difference. This means that genre is
defined by two things: how much it conforms to a genre’s conventions and
how much it subverts. It should conform enough to be identified as that
particular genre, but subvert enough to be original.
• Our music video genre is slightly more ambiguous, as the neo-soul genre
of the song we chose is still quite unexplored in terms of visual
representations.
• For this reason, music videos for neo-soul songs are uncommon, and tend
to stray away from conventional narratives. This also means there aren’t
set conventions for neo-soul music videos, apart from the fact that they
tend to stray away from traditional mainstream conventions.
• Thusly, although counter-intuitive, a neo-soul music video conforms to
conventions by challenging conventions. For the sake of answering the
question, however, I will discuss how our music video challenges
mainstream media tropes.
“Difference is absolutely essential to the economy of a genre”

4. Colour Palette
For our music video, we used a muted nude colour palette, incorporated with
rich earthy tones. Colours are powerful signifiers and are often used to
denote meaning. We conformed to the conventions of colour use to
emphasize ideas of femininity (nudes and pinks) and natural beauty (rich
earthy tones). By conforming, we can quickly indicate that the mood of our
music video is gentle and elegant, based on how audiences are influences by
colour.

5. This colour scheme is currently very on trend, and is seen
both in fashion, social media, and music videos.
Nude colours are not only aesthetically appealing, they help
attracted our target audience (teens and young adults) due
to its prevalence in the media.

6. Narrative
• Our music video challenges the traditional narrative, which shows a
storyline, for example Katy Perry’s “TGIF” music video. This is often
used to illustrate the song’s meaning, but also used to promote the
artist’s star image. In “TGIF”, Katy Perry is shown to be relatable and
accessible.
• Our song, “Beautiful Little Fools”, focuses on the wider issue of women
and the hegemonic gaze. We felt it would be more appropriate to
diverge from a traditional narrative, and focus on the visuals of our
music video to illustrate the objectification of women, and ultimately,
to promote self acceptance. By using a non-conventional and non
linear narrative, we would not be limiting ourselves to a narrow
storyline, thusly illustrating a wider purpose.
• We did, however, use the scribble effect in our video to give our music
video direction, and convey meaning. A completely non-linear video
would not be as interesting, and would not be easily understood by
our younger target audience.

7. • Bella is not lip syncing, which also challenges
traditional conventions. By doing this, we wanted to
show how women are often depersonalized, and not
given a voice. We wanted to show our message
purely through visual expression, as the song focuses
on self image and explores ideals of beauty.

8. Natural Beauty
• We wanted to challenge conventional standards of beauty,
by using a model of colour. Furthermore, we wanted to
promote the embracement of natural beauty, and had our
model (Bella Sigley) wear minimal makeup.
• In mainstream media, women are portrayed to be the best
version of themselves, and are often done up with a lot of
makeup and costume. Although there is nothing wrong
with that in itself, the media often uses this in a objectifying
manner, portraying women as simply, in the words of Scott
F. Fitzgerald, a “beautiful little fool.”
• By showing Bella naturally, we aimed to celebrate identity
and show that girls should not be ashamed of their own
skin.

9. Portrayal of Women in Mainstream Media vs.
Our Representation