4. The pop music genre

I have decided to research the pop genre, as it is in my best interest to understand what the genre is about and how I can make my video fit the 'pop' image.  This requires me to research other videos to understand the codes and conventions of them, so I can implement these into my own production.

Background:

The term 'pop music' refers to 'popular music'.  During the print revolution, 'broadside ballads' were sold cheaply; these were considered, in the 17th century, to be an early contribution to the genre.  These would consist of a small ballad, a rhyme, a small amount of news and possibly an illustration.

The version of pop which we know of today divided from the rock and roll genre after the 1950s.  Slightly before this in the 1930s, the rise in popularity of jazz music influenced those in the UK to create 'dance groups' which would evolve into become music groups and dominate the radio decades later.

In order to gain a sense of the codes and conventions of pop music videos, I made a Youtube Playlist consisting the videos I had watched and / or analysed:

From this, the conventions that I came across were:

• Even amount of narrative and performance
• Performance most of the time involves artist lip-syncing to the song 
• A disregard for continuity editing - this mostly applied to performance (notion of disjuncture)
• Fast paced editing - this includes cutting to the beat
• Variety of shot types

Then I took a look at some videos specifically to see how they were applied.  This taught me that on a case by case basis, the application is quite varied between videos:

DJ Khaled - No Brainer ft. Justin Bieber, Chance the Rapper, Quavo

'No Brainer' is fast-paced and dynamic video that imitates the activities of a film set.  This 'movie' seems to one that is similar to the idealistic Hollywood narrative, being highly positive and lively.  This is met with a very stylised look to the entire video, lacking natural light or any true form of an outdoor location.  As the music video progresses, the camera movement becomes more arbitrary and active, capturing more items and people in the frame at the same time with the use of arcing shots and crane shots.  This feeds into the idea of disjuncture with the varying shots with no particularly 'logical' pattern, as Vernalis theorised.  The narrative in the video involves the convergence of multiple characters, making this a linear narrative to some extent.  With this being said, the narrative and performance are intertwined , due to the fact that the artists are the 'actors' in this case.

frederic - Sukiraism

'Sukiraism' is a pop-rock song, by Japanese band frederic.  The narrative is based on a couple who explore their relationship with one another.  The disruption of this narrative is discovering that there is an ongoing trend of conflict and making up throughout their journey together.  The music video provides us with a .  The video follows through with the disjunctive properties of music videos, ignoring continuity in many respects (as do many of their songs).  An example of this would be the shots that involve the band and the characters in the same location; this creates a seamless transition between performance and narrative to the extent where they're almost interconnected.  There is also a fast pace to the song and video, with a high amount of cuts occurring within the arcing shots (the main shot used throughout the entirety of the video).  Additionally, the song is structured similarly to Western pop songs, repeating lines such as 'Pure emotional controversy hate that kind of thing' (translated) and 'I hate but I can not hate why."; these lyric lines are matched by the 'love-hate' relationship they have throughout the video.  This is an example of amplification which is a prominent convention in music videos.

Anne-Marie - Ciao Adios

Anne-Marie's 'Ciao Adios' video has a more 'concrete' narrative to the other two videos; with the lyrics and the events of the narrative elements, we can infer that her and her friends have decided to go on a trip to a foreign country, due to the problems she had in her previous relationship.  This is a trip with pleasure and self-discovery in mind, which involves meeting new people that live different lives to your own along the way.  Unlike videos like 'No Brainer', the vast majority of this video has a sense of natural light and is shot either outdoors or on location.  The video also does not acknowledge the principle of logical shot orders, often switching from a medium close-up to another from a different location, or simply cutting between close up shots and wide shots.

In conclusion, from researching the codes and conventions of music videos and the pop genre, I have learnt what it is that my video needs to conform to in order to fit in with the genre.  Now it is essential that I find a suitable track to craft my narrative around and then see how I can apply what I have learnt here in pre-production.  For my own video, I wish to play on the  conventional disjunctive elements of music videos by cutting between different settings and grading setups for performance.  I also intend to do this with my narrative section as well; I wish to experiment with grading and mise-en-scene to vary the emotions being felt at different sections of the story.