Harry Hyett

In my coursework I had to create a music video which adapted the conventions of a specific genre of my groups own deciding. Before I came to a starting point I had to research into what a music video actually consists of, in substantial depth. Key items that stood out include from the research was the fact that each genres conventions alternated. This covered areas such as Cinematography, Editing, Mise – en – Scene and various other areas have their own specifics which needed to be catered for if a music video under a ‘genre’ identifier is said to be conventional. This transition in specifics can be seen in clear contrast of genres such as Pop and Rock due to the themes that they persist on getting across to the audience. With Pop for example there is a constant focus on the artist as they are treated like a star (related to Dyers theory), whereas in Rock the main focus is on the genre characteristics such as instruments and a clear narrative, this being one example among many others. In addition we focused on theory elements to the music industry. One example that we looked at was Goodwin’s theory which looks at the common parallels of music videos. One major point among the many others of the theory is the fact that a music video is consists of 3 main elements; Performance, Narrative and Concept. For our music video we had to decide what one we would use or all of them.

My group of Jazz, Luke and Ben decided to choose a song which is rather diverse as it is from not a rather popular genre as we knew from our experience and later target audience research. This was Tame Impalas ‘Feel like we only go backwards’. This song belongs to the Psychedelic Rock genre and has a music video which clearly reflects the genres main characteristics and roots alike. From viewing this video and others within the genre, such as bands like Animal Collective which are rather more extreme and abstract in comparison. As a group we began to build a strong idea of what needed to be included for the video to be conventional to the genre. The main ideas include a clear reference to drugs consonantly whether apparent or in the format of an interpretation that can easily be picked up upon, alongside with a use of bright colours (all bold colours of the spectrum) to engage the audience, no idol or clear engaging with the artist themselves and finally a narrative that is hard to define but unique and once again is open to the audience own thoughts. We as a group felt that all of this could be achieved and placed with our created music video due to our ability and confidence. Therefore it is clear that the music video will consist of all 3 elements of Goodwin’s Theory as I and my group have decide on the narrative that we will be portraying of a relationship and the fallout of the break-up, with its links to drugs which is the concept and finally we have opted to use a artist whom will be lip syncing with the lyrics in between the narrative.

This was until we completed our audience research, from this we concluded that the genre was not popular among the masses, therefore as a consequence we decided to make our music video more alike more mainstream genres in attempt to gain notice and attraction from wider audiences.

From this as a group we decided to create a mixture of the two genre characteristics so that it would appeal to both sets of fans, this is why our music video has elements from both of the genres at questions, Pop and Rock. Our music video therefore conforms and challenges the conventions of real media products as we have a mixture of genres and have not just follows the ideology of what one genre dictates as it platform which defines it from others. Items included from Pop, a singled out artist that is relateable for audiences, camera angles, narrative with references to the real word i.e. drugs, committing suicide. Which are current and relevant issues that bring conversation and debate as they are issues which are portrayed by the media on a regular basis. From Psychedelic Rock we see the use of slight colour tints, Kaleidoscope effects and once again the strong links to drugs which overlaps from pop and is slightly different as in Pop the use is glamorized where the other the side effects or ‘buzz’ is the point of focus. By doing this we feel that as a group we have made a product which will please both sets of our target audience as we have made a product that crosses multiple genres and catered for both genres accordingly and on an equal basis as explained, therefore as a consequence reaching out to wider audiences rather than appealing to one single and small demographic. Our target audience by definition is the already existing members of the Psychedelic Rock genre, in addition to that of the alternative genre. In addition I hope to capture the attention of more popular genres such as Pop and R&b due to the narrative that we have created which reflects the ideologies of them genres as mention around drugs and relationships /break ups.