Genre and Directors

In this lesson we will be discussing different genres in music video as well as different directors relating to the different types of genres Click to edit Master subtitle style

By Haye Fattie

Okay. Lets start with some types of Click to edit Master subtitle style genre we are all familiar with..

Pop
A lot of pop music videos are linked with romantic comedy film directors. The Girls Aloud video Jump, the song we intend to create a video for, was directed by Richard Curtis who directed Romcom films such as Love Actually and The boat that rocked. He also wrote the films Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill. Katy Perrys latest music video Last Friday Night plays out as an homage to 1980s era. Mark Klasfeld the director of the video had said that John Hughes works (another Rom-com director) had really inspired him. The film sixteen candles directed by Hughes are primary influence on the video for Last Friday Night.

Rock
Rock music had developed as a genre of popular music during and after the 1960s. The sound of rock is traditionally centered around the electric guitar, which emerged in its modern form in the 1950s with the popularization of rock and roll. The Red Hot Chilli peppers in an American rock band formed in 1983. The song Californication was released in 2000 and directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris who are a recognised team of music video directors, who are also husband and wife. The music video for the song takes the form of a 3D video game from the third-person point of view of each of the band members, all on some sort of adventure; this varies with each band member. The 3D affect jumps cuts to focus on the band members playing their instruments. This is a common feature in rock videos, of mainly focusing on the instruments played and the vocalists playing them.

Hip Hop & rap

This genre consists of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping. It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by elements such as MCing/rapping, DJing, beat boxing and breakdancing. Eminem is an American rapper and is also one half of the Detroit hip hop duo Bad Meets Evil. Eminem is one of the best-selling artists in the world and is also the bestselling artist of the 2000s. Some magazines have labelled the rapper the king of Hip Hop. Richard Lee directed Eminems music video Not Afraid which sold over four million digital copies. Lee is signed to DNA in Hollywood as a director. The music video was shot on top of a rooftop in Manhattan and also in a market street in New Jersey. The music video cuts between different scenes. Like most rap music videos the focus is mainly 100% on the rapper. Stereotypes include the pimp stereotype rapper such as Snoop Dogg. They usually focus on the look at me and my hos type music video. Another example is a rapper such as Eminem who focus on finding themselves and fighting with their identity usually through alcohol and drugs.

Electronic
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. Examples of electromechanical sound producing devices include the telharmonium, Hammond organ, and the electric guitar. Pure electronic sound production can be achieved using devices such as the Theremin, sound synthesizer, and computer. In the late 1960s, pop and rock musicians, including The Beach Boys and The Beatles, began to use electronic instruments. This brought electronic music into a new genre and popularised music that was mainly just computer synchronized. The band Nero is an electronic music act from London, England consisting of Daniel Stephens and Joe Ray. Alana Watson provides vocals on many of the duo's songs, though she is not officially a band member. The song Guilt was released in 2011, the music video is focused in a strip club with heavy, coloured strobe lights being used throughout the video. The use of heavily lighting is something associated with Electronic music usually because it is a popular form of dance music commonly played in clubs. The music videos look quite low budget and so do not have any famous directors backing their videos.

Its time for a game! Get your pen and paper out and try to match the famous directors to the music videos using the information about the director.

Sanaa Hamri - Moroccan American music video and film director. She is one of the few prominent female film and music video directors of colour. Jonas kerlund - is a Swedish film and music video director, He is best known for his stylish music videos, which are often mock forms of movie trailers and short films. John Landis an American director famous for directing horror and comedy films. Matthew Cullen - The co-founder of creative studio Mirada, he has overseen the production of over 300 projects in the past decade, and has personally directed and produced over 100 commercials and music videos. Bryan Barber - has stature within the music video industry for his ability to break out of the clichs that have dogged the music video business. Barber's videos convey a classic mood often taken from previous era hits.

Thriller Michael Jackson Super Bass - Nicki Minaj Telephone Lady Gaga Hey Ya! Outkast California Gurls Katy Perry

The answers..

Jonas kerlund - is a Swedish film and music video director, He is best known for his stylish music videos, which are often mock forms of movie trailers and short films. Telephone Lady Gaga

John Landis an American director famous for directing horror and comedy films. Thriller Michael Jackson R.I.P

Matthew Cullen - The co-founder of creative studio Mirada, he has overseen the production of over 300 projects in the past decade, and has personally directed and produced over 100 commercials and music videos. California Gurls Katy Perry

Bryan Barber - has stature within the music video industry for his ability to break out of the clichs that have dogged the music video business. Barber's videos convey a classic mood often taken from previous era hits. Hey Ya! Outkast

Sanaa Hamri - Moroccan American music video and film director. She is one of the few prominent female film and music video directors of colour. Super Bass - Nicki Minaj

Moving on to some definitions.. This section is called: Thats a genre?

Jj - is a style of Nigerian popular music, derived from traditional Yoruba percussion. The name comes from a Yoruba word "juju" or "jiju" meaning "throwing" or "something being thrown. Delta blues is one of the earliest styles of blues music. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, a region of the United States that stretches from Memphis, Tennessee in the north to Vicksburg, Mississippi in the south, Helena, Arkansas in the west to the Yazoo River on the east. Christian hip hop (originally Gospel rap, also known as Christian rap, or holy hip hop) is hip hop music characterized by a Christian worldview, with the general purposes of evangelization (Christian mission work)

Okiley dokiley now you know that lets move on to directing cooperation's..
Syndrome entertainment consists of artists Micah Hancock, James Larese and Mars Sandoval, began as an LA-based art collective primarily focused on gallery shows and installations. In 2008 they were spotlighted in Shoot magazines New Director Showcase. The company now specialise in live-action directing and design for commercials, music videos and broadcast. They direct music videos for a wide range of artists such as Tinie Tempah, JLS, The Saturdays, Eminem, Kesha, Alicia Keys and many more. Their music videos are similar in the way that they are edited. For example Tik Tok - Kesha, Notorious The Saturdays and Sleeping with my eyes wide shut JLS are very fast pace edited. The music videos contain a range of different shot types (nearly everyone I can think of), a range of transitions is also used such as slow motion especially for dance scenes. These music videos are probably similar as they are from the same pop genre, and so Syndrome include a list of criteria they will want to use, such as the music videos focusing almost every shot on the artist.

Matthew Cullen
Mathew Cullen founded Los Angeles-based production company Motion Theory. Cullen has overseen the production of over 300 projects in the past decade, and has personally directed and produced over 100 commercials and music videos. Some of the artists he has directed for include Adele, Beck, Green Day, Katy Perry, Modest Mouse and REM. Most recently, he won two consecutive Grammy Awards for directing the most blogged-about YouTube video of 2008, and Black Eyed Peas Boom Boom Pow, which has exceeded 100 million internet views.

 Francis Lawrence is another well-known music video and film director, he has been directing for films and videos for 18 years. He has directed over 50 music videos to date with successful artists such as Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, Green Day, Lady Gaga, Beyonc and many more. All of his videos have different concepts and ideas even though from the same genre e.g. Lady Gagas Bad Romance and Britney Spearss Circus. His videos are overall very impressive and judging from the praising critics he has achieved his goal of being a successful director. He is also a successful film director and has directed 5 films to date. These include I Am Legend (2007) and Water for Elephants (2011).

Francis Lawrence

The Malloys
The Malloys is the name of the music video and film directors and brothers Emmett Malloy and Brendan Malloy. They are signed to HSI Productions. They have directed a large range of music videos such as Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne which is one of the most viewed videos on YouTube, Blah, Blah, Blah by 3OH!3 and Holiday by Vampire Weekend. These videos are all very similar as they contain the aspect of involving the audience in the video. The shots are filmed as if from a point of view of the audience. They include a lot of shots were the artist sings into the camera and looks straight into the camera like they are looking at the viewer. The artists body language and actions also appear to be as if they are looking at someone. Other shots include tracking shots behind the artist almost like the viewer is following them.

Moving on to. Some feminist theory

Womens oppression is the fundamental oppression at the root of other "isms" by not discriminating against women other aspects follow such as racism, ageism, and religion. Sexism is at the core of patriarchy. Especially in the family in the past women had to obey their husband or father. Women have no say in anything. male domination is the problem to create institutions for women only extreme view would call for cutting off relationships with men, i.e. end heterosexual relationships total restructuring of society violence against women (rape, sexual harassment, incest, pornography and domestic violence) are focus issues

A Radical Feminist believes:

 Some interesting points there however this view does have A LOT of flaws With this extreme and radical view being applied to music videos, feminists would see womens behaviour in music videos as totally unacceptable. By dressing in a certain way and focusing on provocative behaviour a radical feminist would believe that woman are being portrayed only for the pleasure of men and seen as a sex objects rather than an actual human being.

The AS coursework: Rom-com film opening

When applying certain characteristics to my AS coursework one of the characters in particular is portrayed as being very glamouress henceforth rich and attractive. This is the usually how the artists of the pop genre are portrayed such as the heavy make-up, provocative clothing and designer brands. The dark light being used for the males scene signifies a much less glamouress person with other aspects being a focus such as scenery rather than the actual person. The dark light is used largely in rock videos rather than the bright light in pop videos as the attractiveness of the artists is not so much a selling point, as rock focuses mainly on the instruments played.

Bright light used to highlight face

Okay lets talk Genre Theory!

There is no complete definition of theory. A genre is ultimately an abstract considerable theoretical disagreement about the definition of specific genres. Jane Feuer How we define genre depends on its purpose. If we study the way genres frames the readers interpretation od a text then we should focus on the readers identify genres rather than theoretical distinctions. Robert Hodge and Gunther Kress genre only exits in so far as a social group declares and enforces the rules that constitute them. Steve Neale pleasure is derived from repetition and difference'

 Neale talks about the economy and how the conditions of our economy can help profitable genres. Such as mainstream songs get to number one in the charts because they have the money to support them i.e. get there songs noticed in the media. Teams of stars, writers, directors, and technicians can be built up, giving economies of scale. The long-tail theory refers to the statistical property that a larger share of population rests within the tail of a probability distribution than observed under a 'normal' distribution. Economies of scale Falling unit costs due to the increase scale of production. This is more of a business term, and is applied differently within the media.

Differences the between Pop and Rock genre

The pop genre mainly focuses on the artist in the music video. Bright lights are used on the artist to highlight their attractiveness. Fast pace editing is used and a large variety of shots, unless the artist is overweight in which case they will use the most flattering type of shot. Close ups of the body are specifically used in pop videos such as Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga to draw attention to their body's, interesting the male audience. It is interesting that the pop genre targets its music towards young females ages 12-25, but seems to target its videos towards the male gaze. The sexualisation of some of the singers has a bad influence on younger females such as 12 years olds, as they wish to replicate the singer in how they are and how they dress which can be quite inappropriate for a child. The Aspirational model looks at how young children see their favourite singers as role models and aspire to look like them and be exactly like them.

Rock music videos

Rock music videos are very different to pop as they defiantly do not focus on the glamour and beauty of the artists. It is essential in pop for the artist to look attractive as that is aspect that sells the genre, however rock focuses on a less materialistic approach and mainly on the instruments played rather than the looks of the band members. This is shown through the contrast in lighting between the different music videos. Pop has very bright lights exposing the singers. Whilst rock is very much more dark and mysterious, often including smoke and bright streams of light rather than large, harsh white lights. Like in pop the artists are singled out but mainly for playing their instruments rather than dancing and posing like in pop videos. The shot types used are not as much a variety than pop, as they focus mainly on medium close ups and medium shots. The low angle is a popular angle used in rock videos. It is usually used to highlight the singer and the instruments they are playing. E.g. a low angles shot tracking up the body of a artist playing his guitar.