Hip hop is a musical genre that stylized rhythmic music that commonly includes rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is usually quite catchy for their target audience to remember. The things that make hip-hop music different from other genres such as club music is that nearly every hip-hop artist always has a specific meaning/moral in their song.
The majority of hip hop/rap artists such as Public Enemy and Eminem, write their lyrics around a subject that they feel needs to be spoken to the audience. Public Enemy for example, usually focus on areas such as racism, poverty and government issues. The music that they write is backed up by their fans reaction as they believe everything that they say in their lyrics. This builds a a sense of community in the public as they all agree on that one topic.
Camera shots
When it comes to the camera, hip hop music can use a variety such as the following:
- Close ups
- Establishing Shots
- Wide shots/Long shots
- Jump Cuts
- Shots reverse shots
- Extreme close up
- Deep shots
- Master shots
- Medium close ups
- Medium long shots
- Over the head shot
- Over the shoulder shot
Camera Angles
Camera angles are usually used to show a person status and if they they have power/weakness.
Here are two types of angles:
- High Angle
- Low Angle
Camera Movement
Overall in hip-hop music videos you can use a variety of different
camera shots, however you need to make sure all the shots are going with
the moral/meaning of the narrative in the video and also the meaning of
the song.
An example of this would be the song called 'Stan' by Eminem
At the start of the music video the camera zooms into a window, where a
woman is sleeping in her bed. It then jumps to a over head shot of the
women to show that she is pregnant.
Effects
Some hip-hop videos use a variety of effects such as placing in speech
bubbles, animated characters, robots, they eye effects and many more
Indie Rock:
The genre of Indie rock is a sub genre of alternative rock that originated in the UK and US in the 1980's, and in the turn of the 2000's is starting to become mainstream and very popular, with the likes of Arctic Monkeys leading the movement. Indie rock is extremely diverse which became a separate movement when a band name Nirvana broke into the mainstream market along with several other bands which took the 'alternative' label with them. The word 'alternative' is a concept of the music that tells the audience that it is different from the genre that it is labelled with. This caused disappointment within some musicians because it had become so conventional that it seen to be an inappropriate name for these small independent bands who has no desire to be a part of a mainstream movement. These bands slowly began to separate from the label alternative rock. Arctic monkeys is another Indie Rock band which is why my research into this genre is vital and important to my research, but I also wanted to research in the other genre's so that I know what codes and conventions not to follow.
Codes and Conventions: These are mainly focused on the genre of rock in general, not just the sub genres such as indie rock.
- Sometimes have narrative (most of the time)
- Special effects used
- Shows band performing
- Use of black and white
- Close up of artists and characters shown in video
- Usually calm setting but usually changes with the beat
- Shows artists or band throughout video
Arctic Monkeys 'Why'd you only call me when you're high?'
In the music video for 'Why'd you only call me when you're high?', it supports the theory of the codes and conventions. In the list above, most of them are done in the video. The actual track itself in the video starts at around the 1:50 mark. The camera work leading up to this involves a lot of close up shots of Alex Turner and members of the band who are stood at the bar. The shots that keep cutting towards the clock are also close-ups and the angle of the shot stays the same. This told me that if I was to use the same angled shot but slightly different, that I'd have to make sure that everything in the frame of the camera is the same as to what it was before and the angle/distance away from the clock for example is the same.
This point above can also be called synergy. Arctic Monkeys are using a very, clever method in advertising 'Do I wanna know' by involving it in this video and making the audience constantly think of the singles that they release.
Pop:
- Pop music videos mainly focus on the artist throughout the music video, dancing or role playing. This is to make sure that the audiences main attention is on the artist alone and no other aspect of the video, this is a good technique to build the popularity and star image of the artist. This is common in pop music videos and sometimes the role play represents the lyrics of the song. The lyrics tend to have no real meaning other than love-orientated.
The artist or group are always shown to be sexy, confident and fun characters. They may also be shown to be sexual which is quite common in music videos in today's world and has been highly criticised by many parents because they believe music videos are too sexual for young viewers. This can be shown through choreography, clothing and also the song lyrics.
- Pop music videos also represent a sense of fun energy and has a lot going on in the music video, making it very entertaining. Some may have a story or a theme in them throughout out the video. Themes can vary for example, In Britney Spears 'Toxic' video she is shown as a sex symbol, and is shown killing men which is continued throughout the whole song.
Mise-en-scene- Pop music are usually set in very expensive and slick places, and this is because it associates with the genre type, as Pop music videos represent good things and lives people would like to live.
- Furthermore some Pop music videos have very extravagant props, for example expensive cars and house
- Pop music video are normally filmed on sunny beaches, holidays and boats- thing that are associated with a good and rich lifestyle.
- Also in Pop music videos the artists wear very trendy clothes, that are slick and stylish. they are often bright and something you would not wear everyday.
Camera Angles and Shots- Camera shots are normally fast paced as Pop songs usually have upbeat tempos.
- Has fast cuts to keep video upbeat and exciting, to show sudden scene change.
- Has many different camera angles to represent the theme of the video. In Pop videos the camera is mainly centred and hand held, to give a more authentic feel.
Electronic Dance Music (EDM):
Electronic dance music (also known as EDM, dance music, club music, or simply dance) is a set of percussive electronic music genres produced primarily for environments centered in dance-based entertainment, such as nightclub settings. The music is largely created for use on disk and is produced with the intention of it being heard in the context of a continuous DJ set. A DJ set is when the DJ progresses from one record to the next via a synchronized "mix".
- EDM as a music genre, includes many different samples from songs that can come from various genres. Sound FX are very popular aswell such as speech and quotes from famous films.
- It is considered by the majority of people and especially me to be a music genre that is best done when it is played live. Lighting and the mammoth volume of the music makes people go a bit crazy, making a great performance! It is also very bass orientated, the bass sound tends to be tremolo, low frequency and distorted which makes everyone be able to hear it.
- The tempo goes from 130-155 bpm. This is very quick indeed if the song drops into this bpm. The camera usually follows and interprets the music in the video. For example, if a EDM track is about to 'drop' into it's chorus where everything gets louder and the melody is playing, the camera cuts to shots to when the music may change a note.
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