Sunday 27 September 2015

Research into chosen music genre - Miss Miller

Research into chosen music genre

The genre I have chosen is soul,  and the artist being Adele. Soul is a popular music genre that originated the united states in the 1950s and early 1960s. The reason for our group choosing this genre is due to all of us having an interest and listening to the genre regularly. It is important to establish a genre before choosing an artist so that we are aware of the conventional themes of the genre so that we can work out wether we would be able to construct a conventional music video to suit the music genre. We felt that the music genre soul would be fairly easy to construct a music video to. This is because soul genre music is usually slow paced and sad based themes, which wouldn't be too hard to produce as our media product.
This is because Myself and the group have a broad understanding of the connotations of colors how to portray different representations through the use of mes en scene. for example costume, black clothing to represent depression, which is regularly seen in the soul genre.


Amy Winehouse

Another artist in the soul genre is Amy Winehouse, her soul songs are songs such as: Rehab, back to black, you know I'm no good, I will be anaylising 'Tears dry on their own which was released in 2006. This song is about a man who has walked out of Amy's life and she finding hard to cope without him. Which is resulting in Amy using drugs and alcohol as a way to escape the pain. This is evident in the bedroom scenes and the iconography being used, for example the empty alcohol bottles. The audience are able to build up a relationship with the artist because they have an understanding of her lifestyle and begin to feel sympathetic towards the artist.




This music video does follows most of the codes and conventions of a soul genre music video. Firstly a typical convention of a soul genre, that it follows is having the artist on her own at some stage of the music video. Which is done right at the beginning of the music video, when Amy is sitting on the edge of the bed. Within in this shot the mes en scene is important, as the iconography is empty bottles of alcohol in the background. This suggest to the audience that the artist has locked her self away from the world and is struggling to cope and is now resulting in drinking alcohol. Which therefore lets her audience that have gone through similar circumstances to be able to relate to her, and for the audience that have not gone similar circumstances, they can still understand her circumstances. Amy Winehouse's target audience is 17-30 year olds as her music is about struggles and situations that this aged people go through or are
aware of.
Also in the music video the artist develops conventions of the soul genre, this is evident when the artist is walking down a busy high street, but walks like no one else is there. This highlights the convention of being on her own and being isolated from the rest of the world.This is developing on the isolated convention as there are other people in the shot, but they are used to highlight how isolated Amy is from the public. Due to this the audience can understand how strong Amy feels about being on her own in order to get through this break up.
 The title of song also relates to the convention of being alone, that is regularly seen in soul genre music videos. Amy's song title is 'Tears dry on their own' these portrays an image that Amy has cried all the tears she has and that no one has accompanied her in her pain. This makes the audience feel sorry and sad for her and therefore increases the meaning of the song to the audience. Overall making a more relatable music video for the audience to enjoy. The name of the song also gives the audience an understanding of what to expect in the music video. As the can guess from the title that the song is going to be about sadness and depression. This also illustrates to the audience that it is going to be in the soul genre, this is because these are typical representations of the soul genre.
The setting/location is slightly subversive of a soul genre as a busy, highly populated high street is not conventional to a soul genre music video. But because Amy displays herself to be cut off from everyone else and not even notice them being there this conveys a stereotypical convention of not being accepted by the public. Which is developing on the isolated convention, The location fits in well with lyrics as it is seen by the audience as a man has left her in a world of her own. This leads the audience to believe that because of the high street location and then the bedroom location, that these are the only two places Amy has been in a long time. Which therefore leads the audience to believe that the only reason Amy goes to the high street is to buy alcohol for herself in her bedroom. Overall the display of only two settings through out the whole music video emphasis the convention of not being accepted, and cut off from the rest of the world. Which overall portrays Amy Winehouse's image of being different, a drug user and not caring what people think. This is what the audience know her to be like, and can relate to her thoughts and feeling through the use of the locations.





There are many different camera techniques used throughout the music video. Closes ups are used to help the artist show her thought and feelings as she sings the song. This also benefits the audience as they can understand her emotions, and then start to build a relationship with her as they begin to understand the situation she is in. In some of the close ups the artist is looking directly at the camera this is to convey the message of the song to the audience, but to also make it more direct to the person she is singing about. This makes the audience feel engaged and they feel more involved with the artist because she is looking straight at them. Overall closes ups are conventional to the soul genre music videos, because they display the artists feelings and emotions in a further depth which make it easier for the artist to be relatable.
 With the closes up used in the music video it demonstrates a part of the mes en scene, the hair & make up. From the close up the artists eye shadow and her extravagant hair styles, the artist shows off her image as being different and quirky, this is stereotypical of a soul genre artist as most soul artist have something that they do differently in order to stand out. Amy's hair is a big part of her image and is completely different to any artist in any genre which leads to a lot of publicity and overall increasing the amount of viewers and fame around herself. This leads to Amy being more successful and popular in the music industry.



Another camera technique used is the long shot. In the screenshot we are positioned in front of the artist with the artist walking towards the camera. The long shot is used to portray her differences for the rest of the public surrounding her. It also conveys a mes en scene element which is body language. As you can see from the screenshot the way Amy is walking and the body language she uses she looks to be unstoppable and focused on what she wants. The way her arms swing up and down relate to marching which relates the army and war, and this is conventional as Amy is at war with the rest of the world being on her own marching through the public high street. This therefore helps the audience build up their understanding of Amy's lifestyle and can then begin the build a relationship with the artist as they understand more about her. The long shot helps to support how Amy likes to dress and how she presents herself as a different artist. As the audience a long shot helps you to interpret what is going on around the artist and how it is effecting her, which overall leads to a wider understanding of the artist.



Editing styles mainly included in soul genre music videos are jump cuts, slow editing and panning. During this music video panning is evident when the artist is laying on the bed in the hotel room. The panning shot is used to show the artists thoughts feelings and emotions, which comes across to be depression. Due to the name of the song being 'tears dry on their own' the bed is suspected to be a place where Amy has shed most of her tears. The panning shot allows the audience to understand that the artist has spent a long time in the bed on her own crying, and overall helps the audience convey an image of her being upset and down.
An element of the mes en scene is also evident in this panning shot. the mes en scene element is the positioning of the character/artist. The position of the artist shows to the audience that she is run down and had enough with life. The audience can get an understand by the way she is laying sideways on the bed, which shows the bed is not being used properly, which then leads to an understanding that the artist is not sleeping and overall conventional to soul genre as most soul artist portray as sad and emotional narrative within their music videos.
Overall I am able to get an understanding of how some editing styles are used to portray the soul genre conventions, from Amy Winehouse I have especially learnt how depression and sadness can be conveyed through a music video. For example: the dark clothing, panning shots highlighting iconography such as beer bottles and slow editing to represent the long amount of time the artist has felt depressed for.

There is not a lot of editing styles used within this music video but slow paced editing is used to piece the music video together. The slow pace allows the artist to connect with the audience and display her thoughts and emotions through the slow cuts between shots. The slow paced editing represents how her life is getting back together, and on track. Which is very slowly as she can not get herself out of this dark place she is stuck in at the moment. The slow pace emphasis the repetition of the day to day of activities Amy does and the amount of depression she is going through. The audience can get an understanding of Amy's emotions and feelings which makes the audience feel genuinely sympathetic towards the artist. The slow cuts emphasis's the and allow the audience to have a closer look on her true emotions. The mes en scene evident in the slow cuts is the lighting and colour. The lighting and colour is unconventional to the soul genre because it is quite bright and colorful around her which suggests that she is on the way out of this bad patch of her life, it allows the audience to interrupt that there may be a way out of this bad part of her life for the artist. This means the audience are hoping the best for the artist as the colours used on the other characters are bright, and the audience hope for the future of the artist to be bright colourful and full of joy.




Paloma Faith





Another successful artist in soul genre is Paloma faith. The song i will analysing is her most popular song at the moment 'only love can hurt like this' released in 2014.

Firstly the codes and convention presented in this music video, the heart break theme is a common convention of a soul genre music video. Through out this music video the narrative is displayed that the artist has gone through pain due to a relationship that had gone wrong. Their are happy and sad memories replayed throughout which makes the song easier to understand for the target audience, which are 17-30 year olds. One of goodwins theory is for the visuals the match lyrics, this does so when the chorus is sung. "Only love can hurt like this" and the visuals are her and a man cuddling then fighting and then the artist on her own in a big house, lonely. These visuals help to illustrate the heart break of the artist how the artist would love for things to be back to normal. Overall this helps to develop a relationship between the audience and the artist, because the artist can get a better understanding of what she means by the song, by watching the visuals. The convention of a narrative based love story is very stereotypical of a soul genre music video, as most of the soul genre artist construct music videos very similar to the way Paloma Faith has constructed her music video.

Another code and convention a soul genre music video is isolation. Throughout the music video the artist is constantly in shots of her own. This is done to develop and portray an image of loneliness and unhappiness which is a common theme within the soul genre. The target audience can see the pain and frustration the artist is going through by a mes en scene element, positioning of the artist. The way the artist is leaning up against the wall as she walks down the stairs, shows to the audience that she is annoyed with the situation and tired of being lonely. The audience can then build up a relationship with the artist as she is not just expressing her self through the lyrics but her body language and the way she uses the wall helps the audience to construct a better understanding of how the artist is feeling.

Another representation that is clearly shown in this music video is insecurity. The artist is shown as insecure when the artist throws off her wig on the table, the wig suggests to the audience that the artist is insecure about her look , and wears a wig to hide her identity. The audience then begin to feel sorry for the artist and feel sympathetic towards the artist, this leads to the audience wanting to build a relationship with the artist as they want to find out why she is insecure and down.Overall the artist portraying insecurity creates a sense of likability for the artist as the audience want her to be happy and comfortable in her own skin.



There are many different camera angles used throughout the music video only love can hurt like this. But a particular camera technique used is close ups. Close ups are used to show the artist facial expressions and emotions, which the audience find it easier to connect with because the feel close up and can see how the artist is feeling. A close up is used at the very beginning of the music video when the artist sings "I tell myself you mean nothing". The way the artist is looking at the camera suggests that this shot is targeted at the man she is singing about nd makes it more direct to him. The audience can understand this and relate to her hurt and anger if they have been through similar circumstances. This is a conventional shot of the genre because expression and emotions are some of the main things soul genre music videos try to express through their camera angles. This is appealing to the audience as they are more likely to understand the emotion of the artist.

Another camera angle used in the music video is medium shots which shows the artist in the rain on her own, which portrays the isolated theme and shows the artist to be upset and putting herself through the pain of being wet and cold. It makes the audience feel like they want to be able to help her, consequently making the audience feel more engaged and involved in the music video. Standing in the rain in this shot makes the audience feel even more sympathetic towards the artist as she has no hood on her coat so could easily get very cold and lead to an illness. The audience can get an understanding that the artist can't even feel the rain due to how much she is thinking about her broken relationship. This leads the audience to be able to understand how much she did love her man and now he is gone she does not know what to do. Therefore the audience that have gone through similar circumstances are able to relate to the artist and understand her feelings.


An editing technique that is used throughout a lot of the music video is jump cuts. The jump cuts are used to highlight a previous relationship she had with a man to how she is now. The jump cuts illustrate that the love she had for the man was very strong because we don't get to see what broke them up. Which leads the audience to believe the she doesn't really understand what broke them up, and that the song is showing her anger and frustration as to why she has broken up. Therefore this makes the audience able to relate to her as the target audience being 17-30 have likely gone through similar circumstances in their love life, and can therefore relate to the artist easily and build up a relationship due to the jump cuts providing information about the artist and her relationship with this man. A mes en scene that is evident throughout the jump cuts is her hair costume and make up. The hair is a wig and and when she is with the man the wig comes off which suggests she only feels comfortable to be herself around this man who she has now broken up with. Which then links in with the stereotypical isolation theme that is frequent within soul genre music videos. Also her costume is quite revealing being underwear and this leads to the scenes of her and her ex boyfriend being sexual. Which connotes to the audience that she may have being used by her boyfriend, and this is also a relatable aspect for a wide range of the target audience, if they have gone through similar circumstances.

Another editing technique used is the slow editing which makes it easier for the audience to build up a relationship with the artist. This is because the artist can show her true emotions and feelings through having slow pace editing in her music video. The slow pace editing also represents the way she feels and her recovery to getting back to a better state of mind, which is very slow and probably not going to happen. The audience can get an understand that the artist is hurt and wants to forget the troubles she had with the man, because she keeps having slow cuts of her and her ex boyfriend having fun together. This is evident in the scenes that they are in bed mucking around. Overall this makes the audience understand that she is feeling upset and consequently lonely without her man. The mes en scene that is evident in the slow cuts is the iconography of her wig and what it stands for, having a protection from the public world. This is stereotypical of a soul genre music video as the soul genre commonly display being out of the loop with the rest of the world and being isolated. Therefore being conventional to the genre and creating a sense of scared to be herself without her man, which makes the audience feel sympathetic towards her insecurity.

Overall my research on my chosen music genre, soul. Will help me to plan my own music video as it has helped me identify what should be in a soul music genre and what the codes and conventions I should follow, challenge, adapt or develop when constructing my own music video. I like the use of isolation and being dis connected with the rest of the world as a theme to use within the music video, as I think it is very effective in getting the audiences attention and making them aware of how the artist is feeling. I also think the iconography is important i liked the used of the empty alcohol in Amy Winehouse's video, as it represents being down and depressed which is a conventional to the soul genre.




1 comment:

  1. You have provided an overall very basic analysis of the two video chosen, as you have not covered all five areas of mise-en-scene, Goodwin's theory or the overall artist rep for each video.

    You need to:
    1) Analyse 3 conventions used in each video
    2) Analyse all 5 areas of MES for each
    3) Change one of you editing egs for Amy Winehouse (panning is not editing!)
    4) Explain in detail who the TA is for each and why
    5) Refer to Goodwin's theory for each (2point each) as well as the style of the video
    6) Check SPAG

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