Analysis of Music Genres: Pop

Pop Genre

Commonly, in pop music videos we see a reoccurring theme throughout. Most themes follow each pop music video, but sometimes we see exceptions. The genre of pop means ‘popular music’ but has been shortened down to ‘pop’.

One aspect we often see in pop music genres is a lot of boy bands –One Direction and The Vamps are well known example of pop musicians. They are big boy bands who create pop music, and are becoming increasingly well known. Boy Bands are often categorised under the pop genre due to the idea of them being attractive, which is sometimes why they get all of their popularity, mainly from teenagers.

Most of the time in pop music videos we see a love interest.

We also see a lot of girl bands in the genre category of pop music. Again the girl band will appeal to more of an audience because of their looks and their upbeat music. Some examples of girl bands are; Girls Aloud and the Pussy Cat Dolls – both in which use specific conventions to fulfil their category of pop music.

In terms of Mise-en-scene we see the conventions of a pop music genre coming through.- Clothing - Sound - Lighting - Locations - Lyrics Clothing – Most of the time when identifying a musician as being in the pop genre we can tell by their clothing, which is most of the time the ‘in’ fashion and what people like teenagers want to see.

Sound – The sound when looking at a pop music genre is often very up beat, and fun and entertaining to listen to.

Lighting – We see a lot of high key lighting throughout the music video to suggest entertainment and enjoyment.

Locations –Locations are very important when it comes to pop music, as most of the time we see the musicians in mansions, and beaches.

Katy Perry – Teenage Dream Analysis

This print screen shows one of the key conventions Pop music videos contain; a relationship forming/or continuing. We can see that Katy is the main character in the narrative and an attractive young male – bringing in the audiences of teenagers, and mainly teenager girls. In this shot we can see the high angle shot showing the relationship of the two people. High key lighting is

another convention of a pop music video we would see often. The lighting shows and suggests the excitement and joy we should get from the artists. In this case we are sensing the happiness coming from Katy because of her relationship she is having with another boy. The lighting sets the ‘perfect’ scene for people to aspire to live up to, which brings in the fans and audiences.

This print screen again shows the high key lighting suggesting the enjoyment that the two characters in the picture. We can also see the locations they have filmed the video in.

The print screen of the ‘Teenage Dream’ music video shows the locations and settings the video has been set in. This suggests that they are on a motorway – getting away to somewhere – reflecting on the type of things teenagers do, which again brings in the audience it does. We can see that it is set in the mountains – with big hills and a lot of greenery, suggesting where in America it could have been set. We also get a sense of the characters and personalities.

One of the key conventions of the pop genre music video is the clothing that the main artist is wearing. We can normally tell if it is a pop video because of the fashion they are wearing – because if the artist is wearing fashionable clothing we know that they are interested in being main stream, and wearing popular clothing. This print screen shows Katy wearing casual, popular, normal clothing – nothing too outgoing or strange.

One Direction – Steal My Girl Analysis

After analysing this music video, I can see some key conventions involved. This print screen is showing the location – which looks like it is in a wide open space, with mountains and hills, suggesting the area it could be set in. This print screen also shows the high key lighting involved from the blue skies – this suggests how the boy band could be very keen, excitable and joyful when they perform and also tells us a little bit about their personalities and how they want to be seen as a whole for the band.

This print screen of a part of the music video suggests the importance of one of the band members, as the composition of the frame shows this – the two men on the side frame bring attention to Zayn.

This print screen shows the bold colours of the outfits – again showing and bringing out their personalities and the bands persona. They seem lively, and outgoing character.

Taylor Swift – Blank Space Analysis

This video of Taylor Swift is a popular song, which has been in the charts for a while. This print screen of the establishing shot shows the location and setting of the music video. Because we can see a mansion or big house we know that the narrative will be based around this location, because of it being the establishing shot. One of the key conventions of pop music videos is the location being in a mansion or big house. We can tell that this is a typical pop music video because of the conventions involved.

The typical love interest appears again in this music video. This print screen shows the two ‘characters’ who is Taylor Swift and another male, who are sitting either end of a long table. The long table with food in the middle suggests and connotes ides of love and relationships, as does the two sitting either end of the table. This is a typical convention of a pop music video because we know that the love interests is something that appears in most common pop music videos.

This print screen shows again one of the typical conventions of a pop music video; which is the costumes and outfits the characters wear. The Taylor Swift character is wearing a diamante dress, which is one of the more popular fashions to wear. Although the lighting in the frames throughout aren’t bright, they are dull suggesting the difference.