Music video research

To start this course my first step has been to research and get ideas of trends and themes common and uncommon within the media today. I have begun to look at the various different genres around today and how strong their codes and conventions are.

The main genres I found from looking at download charts and services such as Itunes are...

• Commercial/chart

This genre is typically the most profitable genre and is amied at the widest target audience which means it is often changing with trends and has quite a variety of styles of music within it. However in terms of music video the common features would be that they are of high quality and fairly simple. Their narratives often stick to the same common theme of relationship and are made to be very attractive and typical with a large performance element which has a purpose of promoting the artist as much as possible. They ultimately aim to make the artist and song desireable. One example of this would be Justin Biebers 'Baby'

• Alternative/indie

Alternative/Indie is a genre has become more developed over the past decade and more often feeds in to the commercial charts. Although some may argue music videos of this genre are very varied, artistic and creative which they are that idea of subverting stereotypes within their music video has in actual fact become a convention of the genre itself. With a more niche audience and stereotypically less manifactured for purpose of profit and more focused on 'real music'. The Alternative/ Indie genre produces some more noticable and timeless videos such as MGMTS 'Kids'

• Rock

Rock seems to be on a smaller scale compared to the two main genres which are alternative/indie and commercial/chart. A lot of its content does spill over in to alternative as a lot of the alternative genre is made up of what could be considered as music from the Rock genre. Videos of the rock genre typically tend to be of a darker more aggressive nature which is stereotypically attached to Rock music however like the alternative genre there is such a thin line between rock music and alternative therefore the rock chart on itunes is made up of indie and partially commercial bands such as the script. A large amount of rock music videos are made up of performance element and the target audience tend to be of a younger demographic. This example is rope by the foo fighters.

• Hip Hop & RnB

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Hip Hop & RnB is another genre that is highly profitable and fairly commercial and the commercial chart is again often made up of songs from this genre. A genre that has grown sufficiently  and become more versatile means that the style of video has become ever changing however there are many stereotypes of videos in this genre being very flash, lots of 'bling' and attractive females. 50 cent candy shop is a prime example of this. 

Each genre clearly has its own features that highlight its genre and differentiates them. From my research i have found that the Indie/Alternative genre tends to be more creative and experimental whereas commercial and hip hop are produced to please the masses and generate success and profit.