Genre Characteristics

The genre I am most interested  and planning to use as the basis for my music video is the Popular (Pop) genre.

The main characteristics include a group or solo artist usually taking in part in a dance routine. Dance is a very important part of the genre becuase the main audience and reception artists are looking for is younger generation dancing, having fun and bringing together people in the music and dance.

Here are some examples of Pop and RnB videos that have incorporated dance into their video resulting in a widely successful record. 

Another characteristic of  Pop videos is the display of materialistic goods, such as nice cars, big houses, expensive jewellery etc. This not only shows the video to be expensive and showing the ideology of living the "better" life. But it also draws audiences who aspire to be like the artist and therefore want to possess the items in the videos. 

Here are some examples of product placement in some Pop videos.

Goodwin's Conventions

•  Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).

This is a perfect example of the first convention, although not part of a girl band J-Lo does have a signature dance routine for this video. The routine is reflected in the audience and crowd in the club. The theme for the video is very characteristic of a Pop/RnB video, being in a club environment, heavy use of lighting and very glamorous clothing for all extra’s and for J-Lo and Pitbull.   

•  There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

Here are some examples of how the lyrics link to the visuals. Many are positive and amplifying  links.

The lyrics for the still above are: "Dance the night away, live your life and stay up on the floor" The still shows the club and the dance floor and at the beginning of the video we see its night so this is a direct link between the lyrics and the main lyrics of the chorus and the video/visual material. 

The lyrics shown for the above still are: "Let me introduce ya, to my party people in the club" This example and many frames before and after show wide sweeping shots of the club floor and people in the club, again showing a direct link between the lyrics and visuals. 

Similarly in the shot above, "Don't stop keeping on moving put your drinks up"  the reflection of the words and the visuals is clearly stated like the previous 2 frames already shown. 

• There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

There is an accent just after this visual in the frame above and the visuals match this with Pitbull's swinging arm.

This frame above in the video shows the music slow down and the visuals match this by the dancers and close ups of J-Lo moving in slow motion before the chorus is brought in with J-Lo's main dance routine.  

• The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).

Frequent close up's of both lead artist (J-Lo) and featuring artist (Pitbull). Typical reason for extreme close up's or body shots to highlight clothing to advertise for a company, for example at the beginning of video we see Swarovski diamonds advertised so a close up of the box made the final edit of the video. 

• There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

• There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

 Along with the clear product placement of BMW and Swarovski, there is a vivid intertextual reference of the James Bond film Goldfinger. Women painted gold, resting on a chaise lounger and a clear Pitbull in tux with golden painted girls surrounding him. Some of the photos below show the similarities in the video. 

A2 Specification

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with the following two:

•a digipak for the album’s release
• a magazine advertisement for the digipak.

This is a coursework unit. Centres must set the brief from the menu below, though they may define more precise details in negotiation with candidates.

From these brief, candidates will produce:

•a media portfolio, comprising a main and ancillary texts; •
•a presentation of their research, planning and evaluation in digital format(s).

The media portfolio will be produced through a combination of two or more of the following media:

•Video
•Print
•Web-based
•Audio
•Games software

Each candidate will evaluate and reflect upon the creative process and their experience of it. Candidates will evaluate their work digitally, this evaluation being guided by the set of key questions below. This evaluation may be done collectively for a group production or individually.

Examples of suitable formats for the evaluation are:

•A blog
•DVD extras
•A podcast
•A PowerPoint
•A Website

In the evaluation the following four questions must be addressed:

•In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
•How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
•What have you learned from your audience feedback?
•How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?