Genre

What is Genre?

Genre is a critical tool that helps us study texts and audience responses to texts by dividing them into categories based on common elements.

Three Types of Genre

Clear Genre-

An example of a generic pop song and video would be Taylor Swift- 22

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This shot is a long shot including a group of young girls dancing about childishly. The colour pink is displayed in the majority of this shot. This type of thing is generic of a pop video. They usually include people partying- however not doing anything THAT explicit like drinking and twerking which would be conventional of a hip hop artist. I believe that this is the case because the music genre of POP is specifically aimed for younger girls who should not really be shown such degrading things.

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This shot is a close up of Taylor Swift. She is currently having girly time with her mates and in this shot is singing while attempting to eat cake. I chose this example as a generic thing to have in a pop video because it is common that in all pop videos, the singers always sing to the camera to make it look like they are singing to the viewer, which is a type of performance.

Hybrid Genre-

An example of a hybrid genre music video is- ''DJ Snake ft Lil' Jon- Turn Down For What''. This song is a hybrid of both Hip-Hop and Dance which is called 'Trap'.

Most trap beats do not really include either the DJ or the featuring artist in the video. This video itself is very weird and wacky. Trap is specifically aimed for teenage males so the videos tend to include a lot of crudity. 

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In this shot this womans breasts are 'dancing' and moving to the beat of the song. This is something so weird and nonsense. It has nothing to do with the song however it is seen as something that is comical and it is something that young teens would find funny to watch. It is generic for a Trap music video to include some sort of obscenity and this screenshot displays it.

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Another trend and convention that is generic of a Trap dance music video is to have a sort of club vibe towards the end where a group of people are dancing to the music with alcohol and girls dancing provocatively. Even this video is not a generic club scene video it still ends with a group of people dancing to the beat. The reason they include this type of thing is because Trap is a type of dance music that is played in clubs across the world.

Sub-Genre-

An example of of a sub-genre music video is "Peace- Follow Baby". The genre of music is Indie which is a sub genre of Rock.

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Most Indie band rock groups tend to have a section of their video dedicated to the band performing with their instruments. I guess this allows the viewer to feel as if they are getting a one on one performance as well as gaining knowledge on what instruments the band members can play. 

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Towards the end of an indie rock music video they tend to do this thing where the music and song has finished. However you would expect the video to stop, but in this case the band continue to move the rubble and mess they have created. In some other examples the band would be talking or celebrating that they finished shooting.

Generic Conventions

An example of a video with a clear genre is 'Juicy J- Low (Ft Nicki Minaj, Lil Bibby, Young Thug)' which is a Hip Hop song.

1)Typical Mise en scene style- 

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The clear feature in this video is the costume. A generic outfit of a rapper in a hip hip video would include a big flashy gold chain, with baggy jeans and expensive trainers or 'creps'. In this video Juicy J dresses rather generically for what a rapper would dress like conventionally. This video also includes a whole lot of flashy expensive, pimped up cars which is also generic of a hip hop video.

2)Narrative Plots-

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There are two types of Hip Hop videos. there are the good ones that have meaning and a good narrative that can be relatable, and there is another type of video which is the ones that have no meaning but just a whole lot of random people drinking, twerking, dancing and partying. This video is an example of the no meaning type of hip hop video. 

3)Typical Representations- 

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A typical representation that generally occurs in a hip hop music video would be the role of women dancing half naked. This representation is not necessarily a good one it is degrading to women and therefore does take a lot of criticism for displaying women as objects for sexual voyeurism. In this video, most shots always include half naked women.

4)Sound Design- 

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Again there are two types of lyrics. One which tells a story about the rapper or a situation that can be relatable and there can also be lyrics about dirty nonsense such as sex, drinking and partying that make no sense and have no value. This video and song is an example of one that has no value about girls. In this specific screenshot the rapper is saying "Me Juicy J I get too many Hoes" which is rather obscene to say.

5)Typical editting styles-

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This video tends to use a lot of quick abrupt cuts and transitions. I believe this is the case because he wants to portray a hard, aggressive, gangster look to make a stand and show that he has made it in the rap game.

Genre Themes

Sex-

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His lyrics are "Laid her on the mic, menage with my model and her roommate, And if I tip a bitch, we fuckin', it ain't no discussion" These lyrics are the rapper talking about his sex life. This theme of sex is generic of a hip hop video in order to display their masculinity and power over women.

Partying-

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This shot is of a group of random people dancing and drinking. In most Hip hop music videos this will occur. However if you compare this video to one like 'Ludacris- Runaway Love' there is nothing in similarity as it has a narrative about people going through problems. 

Money/Drugs-

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In this shot, the hook of the song has started where another artist 'Young Thug' has started rapping "I get a brick, you know I get it for the, low" A brick is a pound or kilogram of any drug. Young Thug Gets his bricks of drugs for the lowest prices.