Sven E Carlson (1999) - Media Theorist

'Music artists represent themselves as...'

1. Commercial Exhibitionist 

This is a music video in which the artist(s) present themselves as a brand in order to increase their popularity. They sell their appearance, musical talent, face and style to create a brand, which will earn them more money.

2. Televised Bard

In these music videos, the artists will represent themselves as part of a story or as a story teller. This gives the video a greater narrative which the audience can associate with the artist. 

3. Electronic Shaman

These are generally big budget productions were the artist has some sort of immortal powers or adapts an alter ego of another iconic character, personality or superhero.

4. Art Clip
These are usually abstrasct videos that have been created with a unique artistic style, often with either hidden or non existent narrative.

History of Music Video

Codes and Conventions of Music Videos

Codes and Conventions of Music Genre

Theoretical Evaluation of Genre

Genre also acts as a critical tool that helps us study texts and audience responses to those texts, by dividing them into categories based on common elements. Like most things in society, genre is often theorised in a variety of in-depth ways by social and media theorists. I have included just a handful of theorists below and briefly outlined some of the things which they have to say about genre. 

- Daniel Chandler argues that the word 'genre' comes from the French word for 'kind' or class'. Genre is widely used in literacy theory and media theory, to refer to a distinctive type of text. 

- Barry Keith Grant (1995) suggests that all genres have sub genres, which means that they are all divided up into more specific categories that allow audiences to identify them specifically by their familiar and recognisable characteristics. Steve Neale (1995) argued that this is not the case, instead genres are not 'systems', they are processes of systematisation, i.e. they are dynamic and evolve over time. 

- Jason Mitchell (2001) argues that genres are cultural categories that surpass the boundaries of media texts and operate within industry, audience and cultural practises as well. Industries use genre to sell products to audiences. Media products use familiar codes and conventions that very often make cultural references to their audiences' knowledge of society. Genre also allows audiences to make choices about what products they want to consume through acceptance in order to fulfil a particular pleasure.  

- Rick Altman (1999) argues that genre offers audiences 'a set of pleasures', which are either emotional pleasures, visceral pleasures or intellectual pleasures.

- Christian Metz argued that genres will go through a typical cycle of changes during their lifetime, which he states are the experimental stage, classic stage, parody stage and demonstration stage. 

Music Genre

Music can come under many different categories, which are known as different genres. Genre is a way of categorising media products which belong to the same media form, so that music labels and producers can differentiate between different tastes of music. This allows the audience to pick and choose between many different artists in the market, so that everyone has their own individual music taste. This is largely why the iTunes music service is as popular as it is, as it features an a la carte purchasing system, meaning that people can choose exactly which songs that they wish to buy from any artist and store them digitally, which wasn't a possibility in analogue times, as you would have to purchase a vinyl which would usually contain the full album of which you may only like a few songs, and building a collection of vinyls would clearly take up a lot of physical space. 

We as an audience can recognise the different genres and sub-genres of music and music videos due from the signs and signifiers known as codes and conventions which are included in the visuals. Codes and conventions appear in all types of media and are generally tied into one of the four key elements of media, mise-en-scene, editing, cinematography and sound. 

Below I have researched and discussed a range of different genres, when they originated, what they are about, and included images of examples of artists within those genres. 

Blur - 'Music is My Radar'

Below I have created a Prezi that goes through the song that I have chosen in order to create a music video for A2 media coursework portfolio. I have included information about the song, such as the lyrics, about the video, about the band, and all the different elements of music genres and sub genres used in the song, with examples.

Brief

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options.

• A website homepage for the band.
• A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package)
• A magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package)