Genre Conventions Essay

Genre Conventions of My Chosen Genre British Pop/Indie In Media. Genre is the categorisation type of media text, which are shared by certain conventions and features. Music videos have their own genres which come with their own conventions. A theory from a man named Rick Attom argues genre’s allows audiences to make choices about what products they want to consume in order to fulfil a particular pleasure from watching. These pleasures could be separated into categories: - Emotional pleasures - Visceral Pleasures - Intellectual Pleasures Over the years genres have developed and changed as the wider society produce them and progress, a process known as genetic transformation. One of these changes could be the development of sub genre. A theory by Barry Keith Grant suggests that all genres have sub-genres, and this mean they are divided into more categories that allow audiences to identity them specifically, by their recognisable characteristics. Also, we know the general conventions of music videos, such as cuts with the beat of the music, the mis en scene fitting with the lyrics of the song creating a story and so on, but I will be looking at how the genre of song I have chosen is represented with these conventions, or how they might be different. We can see a similar pattern of conventions running throughout videos of the same genre. The genre of music my song has been generated from can come under a subgenre, as it isn’t one main genre of music. The song I have chosen is ‘Pumpkin Soup’ by Kate Nash. This has been dubbed ‘British/Indie Pop’, along with other artists of the same sort of musical genre, such as Lily Allen. The video itself does fit the general conventions of music videos, but in it’s own way. British Pop music is seen as quite upbeat, even if the lyrics and theme are quite negative. The videos by artists of this genre, mixing with indie represent this. The mis en scene matches the mood of the songs, and ‘Pumpkin Soup’ is quite an upbeat, tempo song about love. We associate with love, reds/pinks/flowers/love hearts, and all these sorts of connotations are represented in the video. The main colours used are reds, yellows, and pinks. This is similar to other videos of the same genre. For example, Lily Allen’s ‘Smile’ sees many different abstract colours such as red and green clashing together. These are used to create a positive outlook, even though the song is quite negative, with lyrics such as ‘at first when I see you cry, it makes me smile.’ This shows how artists of this genre don’t categories themselves and break the conventions of what is expected in a music video from listening to their songs, as typically a pop song about heartbreak or topics of depression would be matched by a much more depressing video. The lyrics are used to also effect what is on screen. A current occurrence of music videos, is the lyrics matching what decides to be shown on screen, and this is also shown in the music videos of British Pop/Indie music, but in a different way. The artists seem to go more extreme. An example of this is seen in the Kate’s video. ‘You chat to me, like we connect.’ As the shot cuts from Kate, we then see a medium long shot of her sat on a huge red telephone as she sings this lyric. This makes the mis en scene match with what she is saying, but on a bigger scale. The video is seen more as a cartoon, making it less serious and more enjoyable for the viewer, which is different to the usual Pop music videos, as they are seen as a chance for the artist to show off, whereas these artists do not care. An example of this is Kate and her friend in the video covered in red lipstick. This goes well with the lyric ‘I just want your kiss boy’ and has been done deliberately to create humour. This again matches the main convention of the lyrics influencing what is shown in the video. Another video which is seen as quite abstract is by Lily Allen, called ‘Alfie’. She goes along with the same conventions as seen in Kate Nash’s song. Abstract colours are used, such as greens and blues together, which represents how they break the conventions of what you’d typically see from female artists. This makes their videos more visually entertaining, and also shows how they may not be created for a narrative purpose as they dare to be different. The artists of this genre also break the general conventions of what would be expected from female artists if you listen to the lyrics. Kate Nash is singing about wanting the sexual sides of relationships in her song which I have chosen, with lyrics such as ‘Whoops I think I’ve got too close, co snows he telling me that im the girl that he likes most.’ and could be seen as shocking to a listener, as usually the males would be seen as wanting more physical contact then women. Another example is from lily Allen, who wrote a song named Alfie. It is based around her little brother, and has controversial lyrics such as ‘Oh deary me, my little brothers in his bedroom smoking weed.’ This shows how the artists from this genre are not scared to express whatever feelings they have through their music, good or bad, compared to pop music. Another convention I have noticed from music videos of this genre is the use of editing. At the start of ‘Pumpkin Soup’ we see a sequence that is very abstract, and like I said earlier cartoon like. Cuts are used here to match the beat of the song, as at the start an instrumental is before the artist begins to sing. This makes the video flow more visually, and gives the audience much more to look at. Another use of editing which is common, is medium shots of the artist. This is common in most videos, and gives the audience a chance to see the artist performing. After analysing various videos from my chosen genre, I can see deliberate twists on general conventions. The artists of this genre usually break the mould on what is typically meant to be seen, and create much more artistic and abstract videos to create a positive visual treat for viewers, even if the songs are depressing. Other conventions such as the lyrics influencing what is shown on screen are used, but are created more for visual pleasure than for anything and props are used on a much bigger scale. I have also realised how the pace of editing is used to keep the songs upbeat and positive throughout, which is the aim from the artists.

Video shots for Ancillary

Current Progress

Over the past few weeks, I have been re-evaluating many things and approaching my media texts differently than I had done before. I knew in myself I had not put the time and effort I had needed to into my past video, so I decided to start a fresh and came up with some new ideas. I firstly decided to recast the protagonist in my video, who is now Michaela Marson. In honesty, Michaela does seem to set the brief more as she:

- understands the lyrics meaning and song itself

- I had worked with her last year on creating my music magazine so I knew I could rely on her

- knows the song well and can be easily told what to do

- enjoys being in front of the camera and gets into her character well

- she is my best friend so we get on well and it wont be as much of a struggle to film and get on with the brief.


I have already made lots of progress when filming my video. As I didnt have much footage before, it wasnt hard for me to edit and pick up from where I left off. I began filming 2 weeks ago and by this date today I have nearly completed my video. I have a few gaps to fill, but with the approval for my idea, and from what they have already seen, Tim and John have made me feel much more positive about acheiving what I need to acheive before the deadline arises. I now have to crack on with my ancillary tasks, and begin my evaluation, but I also need to keep track of what I have been doing so I can post it up on the blog.