Generic Conventions of Rap/RnB songs

I have chosen to tell you about these conventions, as I feel that they are ones that will come up in some of the music videos that I am going to analyse and possibly some that I may use for my music video as well. These are based off of music videos that I have seen in the past as well as with the ones which i have textually analysed.

1. Low angled shots - These shots are generic because they convey power. The power is of the main character over its audience, they are usually delivered in close-up shots giving the impression that they are looking down at the audience. This type of shot also expresses the masculinity of the man and how confidence he is.

2. Clothing - Clothing in hip hop videos is usually sports clothing, this is to show a commitment to the area where they grew up and a loyalty to a group. This aids the sporting teams prestige when it is promoted by successful artists. The rappers are always wearing what are considered to be their comfort clothes which are always very expensive as rappers enjoy showing off their most expensive things. Furthermore, they also like to wear chains and various jewellery which is expensive to further show off.

3. Jewellery and props - This signifies the wealth of the artist through the mise-en-scene of the shot (cars, money). In the profit driven capitalist society that we live in, wealth signifies status and happiness to an extent. Therefore the wealth that is portrayed in these videos (even if superficial) is a show of the artists happiness. They also do it to show how confident they are and the idea that one rapper is richer than all of the others which is driven by their materialistic gain.

4. Women are considered sexual objects - Women are objectified in hip hop videos, women are shown as disposable and interchangeable they are the object within the genre. Women are given I aim to not follow this convention and portray women as on a level with men as I believe this representation of women is not positive for the music industry. Rappers do this in order to exploit their masculinity and to show things such as money gets you everything in my opinion.

5. Given that the general audience for hip-hop videos are male, the music videos are usually shot applying the 'male gaze' theory. The videos keep its audience attracted through the objectification of women in addition to men being the dominant power. The industry has made this inequality considered 'natural'. This is always occurring and it happens due to the fact that the majority of the rappers in the modern day rap industry are in fact male, plus in music videos, they feel that this will give them a greater capability to understand their life better and to possibly give the music video more views as well.

6. Usually shot in a club - The significance of this is to portray the audience dancing to the music, by people dancing to the song brings credibility to the artist as it portrays the artists popularity. A club is normally where most rappers spend most of their time when not producing music and that is because they want to show off how much money that they have.

7. Topic- The topic of the hip hop genre is usually of gang culture from where it originated. However many artists have found out that they are far more successful in the genre when they produce music that is more relatable to the wider audience therefore some other topics include relationship and prejudice. Despite this, there is still a large amount of rappers producing songs based on the topics of sex money and drugs.

8. Within traditional music videos for this genre there isnt often many if any other characters and therefore there is direct contact with the camera. This is done to get direct appeal with the viewers and also to show the confidence the 'lyrical genius' possesses when saying the lyrics to the camera along with the idea that the rappers say the lyrics with passion and power.