Evaluating Music Videos- Subgenres

Within the music video genre, there are many sub-genres. The most popular sub-genres are pop, r&b, hip hop and rock. All of these videos follow the typical conventions of a music video but more and more bands today are breaking these conventions and pushing the boundaries. However, some music videos break the typical conventions and these are mainly the indie sub-genres. We have chosen some very popular videos from each sub-genre and they show how different each sub-genre is.

Pop: Lady Gaga feat Beyonce - Telephone

This music video by Lady Gaga is a typical pop music video. Lady Gaga is known for her 'out there' outfits and her videos which turn into mini movies. Lady Gaga's video are very inspired by the male gaze. The protagonist in this video, which is Lady Gaga and Beyonce (Honey Bee) are both dressed sexually and in minimal clothing. This completes the male gaze as it shows how the camera looks at women as sex objects. This video also features the progressive theory as it shows Lady Gaga and Beyonce as strong and women who don't need saving by men. As many other pop music videos, there is excessive use of close up's and extreme close up's used to emphasise what is happening in the video and to focus on the artist and their voice. Lady Gaga knows her audience very well, she knows exactly what they want and she gives them the result they want. In the press, Lady Gaga is known as the 'mummy momster' and her fans are known as her 'little monsters', this is down to the branding of her first album 'The Fame Monster' which sold over twelve million copies worldwide. We define a target audience through the use of GRASS. The gender for Lady Gaga's audience is mainly females but she also has a very big gay audience which makes her primary audience both male and female. She doesn't appeal to any specific race, she is a role modal to everyone. The primary age range of Lady Gaga's audience is 16-25 year olds but she also appeals to younger and older audiences. Taking in to account the primary audience for Lady Gaga, according to the socio-economic status and demographic profiling, the classes are B (Middle Classes), C1 (Lower Middle Classes), C2 (Skilled Working Classes), D (Lower Working Classes) and E (Subsidence). Psychographic profiling assumes the audience to be complex and have certain needs that has to be met. There are different audiences which are based upon these aspirations of Mainstreams, Aspirers, Succeeders and Reformers.

 Lady Gaga's audience are mainstreams as they buy well known brand names and aspirers because audiences are motivated by status and they follow the high profile fashion that artists like Lady Gaga create. Telephone by Lady Gaga and other music videos offers diversion from everyday pressures and it helps us escape from the real world but from the safety of our own homes. It builds personal relationships as audiences discuss music and the artists they like with other people. They also develop personal identity as they are able to compare their own life to the one they are seeing on the music channels. This video also helps audiences develop their own identity in fashion and to not follow the crowd when deciding on what to wear. Lady Gaga likes to be different and this is what she shows her fans. Surveillance of peoples lifes are everywhere and music videos show what is happening in the world in a dramatic way or through very suttle hints. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is relevent in many media products. This music video offers Maslow's needs of love and belonging as audiences develop friendships when they discuss music videos and whether they like the artist or they don't. This video, espically offers self-esteem and self-actualization to the audience as they aspire to be like their ideal so they grow confidence and creativity to be like Lady Gaga.
There is interesting use of tracking shots and panning shots to show the audience the style of the video and it complements the movement of the performers by circling Lady Gaga and Beyonce as they perform in this video. The sound of this video is very up-tempo and this influences the editing as it has to be fast paced to have multi-views. The fast pace editing meets the style of this video as it is a very fast paced video. This works very well as it makes the video have multiple viewings as many of the images are impossible to grasp on the first viewing.

This is evidence of close ups on the protagonist, whilst the dancers are at the back to let the audience focus on the main vocalist.





This video is influenced greatly by the Thelma and Louise film 1991. The film is about these two waitresses who shoot a rapist and escape in a '66 Thunderbird which is very similar to the section of the video when Lady Gaga and Beyonce are in a cafe and they have put poison on the food which kills everyone in the cafe and they escape in the car from the film Kill Bill. They have included intertexuality into this video to grab the audiences attention as they are familiar with this nostalgia and the associations they have the texts before they are used in music videos such as this one.
Money is no object in this video, mostly shot in a high tech studio where the mise en scene has been created especially for this video.

The visuals illustrate the lyrics by the video being about a man not letting his girlfriend spend time with her friends and keeps on phoning her to see where she is but then the women reacts and kills her boyfriend by putting poison in the honey which he pours all over his food.
Just a second,
It's my favorite song they're gonna play
And I cannot text you with
A drink in my hand, eh
You should've made some plans with me,
You knew that I was free.
And now you won't stop calling me;
I'm kinda busy.

Stop callin', stop callin',
I don't wanna think anymore!
I left my head and my heart on the dance floor.
Stop callin', stop callin',
I don't wanna talk anymore!
I left my head and my heart on the dance floor.

This connects to the lyrics as they are saying "let me have time alone." The dancing in the video is very aggressive for a female lead and it fits the style/ genre of the music and lyrics.
Many music videos have story lines and this video have a complicated story line. The performance meets the linear narrative as it makes the audience desire to see it again. Lady Gaga is always in her videos, she never just sings and lets other people feature in her video instead of her. This is another part of her style image as everyone expects her to be in her videos. There are references to voyeurism by the women of this video as they look into the camera when they are dancing in the cafe and when Lady Gaga is dancing in the prison corridor. The music videos that have a linear narrative fit in to the three main narrative theories of Propp, Todorov and Levi-Strauss and they sometimes fit in to Barthes theory. This video follows these theories very well. According to Propps theory, Lady Gaga in this video can been seen as the hero, the villian and the false hero as she is in jail at the beginning of the video and poisons people at the end. Beyonce is the helper to the 'false hero' as she helps poison the people in the cafe and helps Lady Gaga get out of prision. The princess in this video is not a person or an object, it is the feeling of achievement and knowing that they have murdered the boyfriend who kept on making trouble. Not all of Propps eight main characters are featured in every video and this is noticable in this video as only four of the eight main characters are present. Todorov's theory of 'equilibrium - disruption - re-equilibrium' is shown when Lady Gaga is in jail and this is normal. The disruption is when Beyonce gets Lady Gaga out of jail and they poison the people in the cafe. The re-equilibrium is when they are on the run from the police and they go to start a new life. Todorov's theory keeps the audience interested in the narrative as they wonder what is going to happen in the rest of the video or the one that follows it. Levi-Strauss's theory of binary oppositions can be applied to almost everything and it is very helpful. The binary oppositions in this music video are Good VS Evil, Weak VS Strong, Normal VS Unnormal and many more. A theory that isn't widely used amungst music videos is Barthes theory of 'enigma codes' where there are questions in set at the beginning of the text and they are answered by the end of the text. For example, the questions that are asked in this text are; Why is Lady Gaga in jail? Will she get out? Why are they poising the cafe? All of these are answered near or at the end of the video but a question that is left unanswered is; Will they get away from the police? This secures multiply viewings by audiences and they are kept guessing by the artist whether another video will be produced to 'wrap up' the unanswered question. As we can see, Lady Gaga follows the conventions outlined by Andrew Goodwin in the book 'Dancing to Distraction' (2003) and Pete Fraser in 'Teaching Music Video' (2005). 

This music video by Rihanna is her latest video and it has just been released. This is a typical RnB video as it is shot in a very high tech and expensive studio, a lot of green screen is used and it works very well and fits the style of Rihanna. There is use of close ups, medium shots, 360 degree angles, slow motion, long shots and many jump shots in the editing.There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals and the music and the visuals. The colour's are very bright and appeal to audiences, the 'red' theme runs through everything, even Rihanna's hair. The lyrics go along with the visuals as she is singing about being 'the only girl in the world' and Rihanna is the central figure/artist in the video. The target audience for this video is between 16-25 years old, it is mainly females that Rihanna appeals to but because of the male gaze and Rihanna's 'sex symbol' reputation, the secondary audience are males. Rihanna is mixed race, this helps her target audience appeal to a wide range of people. She also appeals to every category of the socio-economic status from A to E.


Rock: Bon Jovi - Livin' On A Prayer



Bon Jovi are a typical rock band, they focus more on the live performance of their singles than the videos. This is a typical convention of rock bands, for example 'The Police', 'Queen' and 'The Beatles' all have videos which only focus on the live performance and the lead up to the gig, which is what this music video is about.  Livin' on a Prayer comes from Bon Jovi's second single from their third album 'Slippery when wet' released in August 1986.
There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, the lyrics that mainly show this are:
We've got to hold on to what we've got 
'Cause it doesn't make a difference
If we make it or not
We've got each other and that's a lot
For love - we'll give it a shot 

This is illustrating that the band are half way there to becoming an established and well known group. The video are shows this as it is showing the lead up to the gig that they are hosting and it is illustrating that they are nearly ready for the gig but they just have to practice some more. There is a relationship between the music and the visuals also with the visuals and the sound. The song is very upbeat in some places and slower in other places and the video represents this very well. There are many close ups of the main artist, John Bon Jovi and there are close ups on the rest of the band as well. Bon Jovi as a band have developed their own star iconography, they are always in their videos even if they are not signing, for example, their video for 'Always' has John Bon Jovi being the main protagonist by featuring in the video and also singing. The mise en scene of Bon Jovi also stays the same throughout their time together as a band. The long hair, rock style clothes, the many videos of gigs and the narrative videos all show the type of star image they have developed over time. 

This is a chronological video as there is a linear narrative in both sections of the video. The narrative/story line which is the main part of the video and the second narrative of Bon Jovi performing in the video too. The way the two narratives cut across each other shows how they are both telling the same story. 

In there video, Livin' On A Prayer, they have many references to voyeurism, especially when they are showing the lead up to the main performance that evening. The main artist, John Bon Jovi looks into the camera screen many times. Bon Jovi have their own style and they don't use intertextual references which is unusual for bands and their videos. This shows the differences in the sub-genres between rock and pop. 

The lyrics show a general feeling amongst the band and their early success. The video, as stated before, is associated with the song on certain parts but the visuals don't mirror the lyrics of the song which is very normal for a performance video. 

We're half way there
Livin' on a prayer
Take my hand and we'll make it - I swear
Livin' on a prayer

Tommy got his six string in hock
Now he's holding in what he used
To make it talk - so tough, it's tough
Gina dreams of running away
When she cries in the night
Tommy whispers: Baby it's okay, someday

We've got to hold on to what we've got
'Cause it doesn't make a difference
If we make it or not
We've got each other and that's a lot
For love - we'll give it a shot 

The lyrics in the chorus mirror the type of video that they are going for as it fits the visuals of the video but the versus don't mirror the video at all. You would expect a chronological video when you see these lyrics but it is a non-chronological video and focus more on the performance which is, once again, very typical for a rock band. 

The tempo of this song is quite fast but in some places it is a bit slower, this drives the editing to meet the tempo of the song which it does very well. The editing is simple but yet very effective as it meets the tempo of the song and gives the feel the band for looking for when this video was edited. 

The sub-genre rock is easily categorised. This is shown through the mise en scene, the themes, performance, cinematography and editing. The typical mise en scene of a rock band is drums, guitar, the use of low key lighting more than high key lighting and the clothes are very important. The leather jackets with tassels on, the leather trousers and the leather cowboy boots clearly show the genre of this band. 

There is typical use of cinematography in this video, just like other videos of the same sub-genre and other sub-genres. There is use of 360 degree angles which focus on the main artist. There is excessive use of tracking shots, panning shots, close ups, medium shots and high angled shots to make the band look superior to the crew that are helping the band produce this video and the audience that come to the gig. There is use of slow motion shots to emphasise the theme of the gig they are practicing for and it creates a dramatic feel for the audience. The camera movement accompanies the movement of the performers which is John Bon Jovi and his band. The up-beat music and the fast movement of the artists, for example, the flying through the air and the constant circling of the band shows the dramatic feel to the stage performance. The constant close ups and medium shots of the band creates a relationship between the artist and the audience as they feel included in the video. The editing that is most common in music videos are fast-cutting montage-rendering which makes some of the images impossible to grasp in the first viewing which ensures multiple viewing. The editing which is used most commonly in this video is fast paced to meet the tempo of the video and the performance. 

There is use of gentler cuts to establish the mood of the video and make the video performance seem more real to the audience than an actual narrative video. The narrative and performance in music videos are rarely complete and fragmented, they tend to suggest story lines and non-linear narratives. This video is an exception as it shows the lead up to the gig and then the gig itself at the end of the song.As we can see, Bon Jovi have followed the conventions outlined by Andrew Goodwin in the book 'Dancing to Distraction' (2003) and Pete Fraser in 'Teaching Music Video' (2005).  The narrative theories from Propp, Todorov and Barthes are always important when looking at a media text. According to Propp, there are eight main characters in media texts. For this music video, the hero in this case are the whole band as they have to produce a good gig and make sure nothing is lacking. The helper is the stage crew that help the band create a good gig and make sure everything goes right. The dispatcher are the audience as they help the band get to the stage of making a gig and they help Bon Jovi become one of the biggest bands the world have seen. The princess /reward for the band is the smiles on the audiences' faces and finishing the gig without anything going wrong. Todorov's theory of 'equilibrium, disruption, re-equilibrium' is not visually seen in this video as nothing to shown to go wrong on the lead up to the gig. Barthes theory of questions being asked throughout the video are finally answered at the end of the video. This is called 'enigma code', some of the questions that are asked when this video starts is; What are they practicing for? Will everything go right? Who will be seeing the gig?. These are all answered at the end of the video as we find out that they were practicing for a live gig with a live audience and everything went right. Audiences are defined by GRASS, the gender which this video and band are mainly aimed at are males. This is very typical as males are known to prefer rock music to other sub-genres, however, women are their secondary audience as a male band appeals to women as they are part of the female gaze. The rock sub-genre appeals to everyone, not a specific race. Rock music appeals to all ages, it does appeal to 16-25 year olds but mainly to the older audiences; 26-40 year olds. This rock video appeals to all the groups in the socio-economic status and demographic profiling, A (Upper class), B (middle class), C1 (Lower Middle class), C2 (Skilled Middle class), D (Lower Working class) and E (Subsidence). With psychographic profiling, the audiences for rock sub-genres are Mainstreamers as they seek comfort in buying well known brand names and the audiences are also aspirers as they are motivated by what other audiences are watching and listening to. 

Through the uses and gratifications theory, this video offers the main four categories, Diversion, Personal relationships, Personal identity, Surveillance. This sub-genre offers a form of escape from the everyday world and imagine being part of Bon Jovi. It shows how personal relationships can develop when people discuss the video and their favourite bits. It can also develop the audiences personal identity as they copy the mise en scene of their ideals and they dress the same, this was the case when Livin' On A Prayer was released as this clothing and hair style was very popular.  The surveillance category, isn't very important in this genre and this video specifically as it shows what is going on in the world of music with gigs and performances but it doesn't give an educationally view on the world. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is displayed in this video as it shows love and belonging within a group of friends and family. It also offers self-esteem and self-actualization as it shows audiences confidence, achievement, respect to others and creativity with their own mise en scene, especially clothes and hair styles. 


HipHop: Snoop Dog - Drop It Like It's Hot

By Romany