Codes and Conventions of the Pop Genre

Camera:

·       In pop music videos the shots are constantly changing, mostly due to the fact that pop videos have a narrative performance so we need lots of shots in order to follow the storyline. Close ups are used frequently in order to show the emotions of the artist, an example of this is Miley Cyrus's Wrecking ball close ups are used to show her heartbreak and there is also a well remembered close up of a tear falling down her face and her licking a sledge hammer. A lot of wide shots and establishing shots are used to show the setting of the music video. In relation to Goodwin’s theory, Cyrus is the protagonist, and therefore is the Star Image of the music video, which is emphasised through the close up shots of her face, and also the shots of her swinging on the ‘wrecking ball’, which clearly catch the eyes of the audience. in terms of the ‘narrative’ and ‘relationship’ aspects of the music video, when the chorus for the song comes on is when the clips of Cyrus swinging on the ‘wrecking ball’ appear, which relates to the lyric ‘I came in like I wrecking ball…all I wanted was to break your walls’. Cyrus shows the audience both the strong and fragile side of herself, the strong part being her on the wrecking ball, showing her taking control over the ‘wrecking’ of the relationship (the breakup indicated in the lyrics), and the fragile side of her when she is brought to tears with the lyrics ‘I never meant to start a war’. This could possibly give the audience a more personal connection to the protagonist.

Mise En Scene:

·       The Mise En Scene of the music video relies greatly on the genre of the music. The props and costumes help to set the mood/ tone of the video. An example would be Bruno Mars’s 24K Magic official music video; he uses a lot of ‘bling’ such as gold chains and other luxury items in order to connect the video with his lyrics all about having wealth. In contrast, another example would be Adele’s music video for her single Someone Like-You, where she uses black and white colouring in order to set the tone of her reflecting on her past and her emotions.

·       As pop artists target audience are usually youthful and therefore follow and are up to date with trends, it is important that pop artists incorporate these current trends into their music videos. For example, Taylor Swifts’ Bad Blood music video included similarities to the recent film out at the time-Tron-meaning fans of the film and Swift would be drawn to the video. She-included many popular celebrities in her video, encouraging fans to video the video and listen to her music.

Editing:

·       The editing in a video can vary depending on the artist and genre of their music. Sam Smith tends to have slower paced music such as “Too Good At Goodbyes”. The editing for this video is slow in order to keep in time with the music and to make the editing fit the mood/tone of the song. In contrast, artists such as Taylor Swift require fast paced editing to fit her up-beat songs such as “Shake It Off”. If the editing were to be slow for this song, the music and the video would be out of sync with each other. The editing therefore matches the beat of the song, usually also matching up with the lyrics, normally the editing will be influenced by the main artist and follow all of their activities so that they feature in the video (centre-stage of the video, usually lip-syncing).

Narrative:

The target audience for a pop music video are Teenagers, young adults up to around mid 20's. This then alters their narrative in order to appeal to their target audience. The narrative of a pop music video usually entails story's about being young, for example Katy Perry's T.G.I.F music video is all about being young and having fun and it is a very well known music video as her target audience were drawn to it. Another popular narrative is break up's a well known artist for using this topic is Taylor Swift whose songs and music video follow the storyline of a bad break up, which suits her target audience as they are of ages where they are going through the stage of breakups allowing her target audience to relate to her.