GENRE THEORY

I decided to look at David Buckingham’s theory of genre: “genre is not simply given by the culture, rather it is a constant process of negotiation and change.” I take this to mean that genre is not consistent and that film, including music videos, of a particular genre changes as time progresses rather than being set in its ways. Though certain conventions continue throughout the genre, videos change due to meaning and as the sound of music flourishes, proving its abstract nature. Arguably, this is also why we’ve seen so many hybrid and sub-genres of both music and film emerge in the past. This shows us how dynamic genre can be as both the forms and functions change. To apply this to my own work, I decided that looking at music videos in my chosen genre would help me develop ideas. This allows me to see the genre in action and to view what other directors are achieving within the genre in terms of music video ideas. Whilst this was done as part of the research before the planning of my music video, I think it’s important to consistently look at existing media texts throughout construction to make sure we’re sticking – or straying, depending on the concept – to the existing conventions of our chosen genre.

In terms of a constantly changing idea, five years is quite a long time. On the other hand, looking at very recent music videos could be challenging because they’ll tend to all be similar. Another student suggested the music video of Stars by Warpaint to me after watching my rough cut. She had looked at it for her research and she thought that it was similar to the idea I had, plus the artist falls under a similar genre to my chosen artist, Halsey. Filmed and directed by Adam Harding and Burke Roberts, the video is quite dark in colour with the boldness coming in through sparklers, fireworks, and projections. Aside from the fireworks, those are the same ideas I had for part of my music video. As this is a successful product, this tells me that this will work for my own music video and also that I’m sticking to my idea of relating my product with similar existing ones.

Still Life by The Horrors (dir. Oliver Murray) too holds similar conventions to what I’m aiming to produce. Projections and distortions are a big part of this particular video, though more colourful than my idea – this is because of a difference in the song sound.. Plus there’s performance – whilst mine won’t feature actual instruments, my video uses lip sync. Tennis Court by Lorde also holds some similar conventions: the entire video is continuous, as the singer looks into the camera and lip syncs a segment of her song. The light flashes up on certain parts of the song, which is similar to my shot with the storm background.

I think in terms of looking at similar products and the conventions of them, and the genre as a whole, this has helped me to understand the changing elements of the wide indie genre. Though the videos mentioned spill out over 5 years, this doesn’t make them out-dated as genres tend to have a sort of lifecycle of repeating certain connotations. Looking at existing videos has helped me to realise that my plan for my music video fits within my chosen genre and that it should be a successful media text in full production.