Genre signifiers in Music videos - Pop

80s Pop
Madonna - Lucky Star

This is a classic video from the 80s in the pop genre. There are some clear genre signifiers in the video. FOr instance the dance routine with the two girl dancers in the background. Also the use of bright and bold make-up with the red lipstick and Madonna's big hairstyle. Her outfit has obvious punk influences but is slightly revealing of her legs and naval so she has sex appeal, which is another signifier. The video also contains beauty shots, which are also used in other genres but are used in most pop videos. Long and extreme long shots are used so the dance routine can be seen. The music itself is very pop as it has a memeorable melody and hooks with lines that are easy to remeber and sing along to.

90s Pop
Britney Spears - Baby One More Time
This video contains a dance routine again with background dancers, around which much of the video is based. When the video is outside, the outifts are brightly coloured and reflect the time period the video was made in. Even when Britney is wearing a school unifrom, she has some colour in her hair as she is wearing pink, fluffy hairbands, which also makes her srand out from the other dancers and suggests innocence along with her plaits. Even when she is wearing the uniform, it is made sexy as her short is tied so her naval can be seen, which is another signifier of this genre. The video also contains beauty shots with close-ups of Britney. There are loads of long and extreme long shots used to show the dance routine. The music is a major signifier of pop with very catchy and memorable hooks that is also easy to dance to.

Music Genres

As this coursework is on the music industry I thought I would start my research with a post about the different genres of music! These are some of the major ones that then branch off into sub-genres as well.

RnB

Rhythm and Blues is the name given to a wide ranging genre of popular music created by African American artists in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Rap

African-American genre in which rhyming lyrics, wordplay and poetry are chanted to accompanied backing beats. It is a primary element in hip hop music but predates hip hop culture by centuries.

Pop

This genre of music features a noticeable rhythmic element, melodies and hooks, a mainstream style and a conventional structure that developed form the mid-1950s. It has absorbed influences from most other popular music and uses technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.

Rock

A genre of popular music employing electrical amplification that entered the mainstream in the 1960s but has it's roots in 1940s and 1950s rock n roll, rhythm and blues and country music.

Country

A simple style of folk music heard mostly in the southern United states and usually played on stringed instruments. It evolved rapidly in the 1920s.

Punk Rock

A rock music genre rooted in garage rock that consists of fast, hard-edged music. It developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Metal

A genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s largely in England and the United States. A loud, thick and massive sound with highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos and emphatic beats.