The document discusses the conventions seen in music video genres including indie rock, R&B, dubstep, reggae, and electronic dance. It provides examples of well-known artists in each genre and describes what is typically seen in their music videos. For indie rock, videos often show the band playing on location or telling a story from the lyrics without band members. R&B videos usually feature the artist surrounded by others dancing, often in luxurious settings. Dubstep videos tend to have dark scenes of crime and violence but uplifting endings. Reggae videos commonly show natural elements and harmony between people. Electronic dance videos typically feature strobe lighting and dancing at concerts or festivals.

1. H A N N A H W A L T E R S
Music Genres
“an expressive style of music”

2. Indie Rock
Well known Indie Rock Artists:
Arctic Monkeys
Modest Mouse
The Strokes
MGMT
The Killers
Two Door Cinema Club
The main conventions you would see in an indie rock video are either a band playing
on location, or a story been told which is taken from the lyrics not involving any
member of the band. You wouldn’t expect bright colours or complete, solid blacks, it
would tend to be low tones of colours or pale ones. It is also seen as ‘alternative rock’
which influences their quirky videos reflecting their audience’s alternative and
different tastes in music.

3. R&B
Well known R&B artists:
Beyonce
Rihanna
Jay-z
Lil Wayne
Usher
Drake
Kanye West
In an R&B video you would expect to see the artist surrounded by either other artists
or groups of their opposite gender. In a male’s video, you would expect to see girls in
very few clothes dancing. However, in a female video, they tend to dance with
backing dancers. They are usually on location in the sun or around a pool or party
with signs of alcohol and drugs; this tends to be because their audience are similar to
them and share the same interests of a ‘party life’. Furthermore, we would expect to
see expensive items such as jewellery, clothes, cars and houses.

4. Dubstep
Well known dubstep artists:
Skrillex
Skream
Flux Pavilion
Modestep
Borgore
Datsik
Dubstep videos tend to have a scenes of crime and violence with dark lighting and
scarce locations. Skrillex – Bangarang, for example, features children robbing an
ice cream man and, after growing up, step up and rob a bank. However, they are
good-feel at the end of the videos, as they are supposed to be uplifting stories.

5. Reggae
Well known reggae artists:
Bob Marley
Buju Banton
Beenie Man
Dennis Brown
Sizzla
Sly and Robbie
Bob Marley and the Wailers
Reggae videos tend to be of a low quality and are mellow. They tend to feature a lot of
natural things such as plants or natural drugs such as marijuana. It also features a lot
of love and harmony within a group of people being close and together to show their
mutual relationship. A lot of natural light is used you wouldn’t see strobe, unnatural
lighting; it is the complete opposite as they originate from the Caribbean and therefore
don’t have advanced technology.

6. Electronic Dance
Well known electronic dance artists:
Example
Nero
The Progidy
Chase and Status
Sub Focus
David Guetta
Calvin Harris
The videos feature a lot of strobe lighting and dance scenes mainly on a live set with a
crowd at i.e. a concert or festival. It reflects the audience as it is jumpy and the audience
would dance to it therefore the video contains people dancing and raving expressing
their happiness like the song itself does. On the other hand, it can contain women in
provocative clothing around fast, expensive race cars. Conventions of electronic dance
is high paced editing which has a high contrast between light and dark.