GENRE

A key part of our project is the focus on genre of our music video. What will be the main factor of our project is the study of the codes and conventions of existing media products from the same genre that we have chosen. What we have been asked to do is not only consider these codes and conventions but to challenge them as well.

There are several theories relating to genre which we can apply within this pre-production stage of our music video. Rick Altman explained that genre is a set type and group which any medium can be classified within, when applying this to music examples of this are reggae, jazz, drum 'n' bass etc. In each case the acknowledgement of genre depends on the acceptance of the generic conventions.  Genre can change and develop over time it's completely open to historical change. Altman also stated that viewers pre-read media texts, that they become passive viewers which ultimately restricts genre.

Richard Maltby claimed that the success of Hollywood is reliant on the combination of predictable elements with variation. This suggests that as producers we should follow the codes and conventions of our chosen genre but also add some variation within our work so that the audience does not become bored and the media text is not predictable. This will be a theory to keep in mind and apply to when planning the narrative part of our music video.

Jon Fiske said that any one type of media will bear the main characteristics of it's genre, but is likely to include some from others. Categorizing it in one genre would mean deciding which characteristics are most important.  This theory specifically applies to our project, pop is the genre of our artist, song and music video but as pop music is such a wide spread genre there are several characteristics from R&B and hip hop. Therefore when looking at existing music videos and promotional packages we will have to keep our research focused on very similar artists who are primarily pop singers but incorporate other genres of music within their work.