Monday, 30 October 2017

Genre Analysis

A music genre refers to a certain category of music that is defined by conventions and stylistic criteria that characterise the particular type of music. The various genres within the music industry had their origins from different cultures, however in the last 20 years music genres have struggled to hold on to their and therefore music genres are becoming obsolete. I will analyse two music genres which I am considering to use for my main production task. The first being RnB and the second being Dance music. These two genres offer different styles of music video and have different conventions which I will adhere to when creating my main task.

RnB/Hip-Hop

The RnB and Hip-Hop genres offer many conventions which I believe will aid me in completing the main task to a high standard. The songs are not often that fast therefore enabling me to produce a strong narrative to the piece. The genre conventionally has elements of love and heartbreak which I will touch on if choosing this genre. In terms of clothing, conventions in the RnB genre differ for men and women. Men are typically dressed in expensive designer clothing with a lot of jewellery on at the same time in order . to emphasise their wealth and to show off and exploit their masculinity and their confidence. This is often accompanied with jewellery that is sometimes marketed within the song.
Women's attire is commonly classy, however there is little clothing that they wear, this is to be more attractive to the male audience that are the target audience for RnB and Hip-Hop music. Additionally women dress towards the sub genre of RnB/Hip-Hop that the song is about and also in conjunction with the song's lyrics.

Classic examples of songs in the RnB/Hip-Hop genre are;
R-Kelly - Ignition,
SWV - Someone,
R-Kelly -Your body's calling,
Tamia and Fabolous - Into you
Nas - I Can
The Notorious B.I.G - Big Poppa


This is an example of a traditional stereotypical rapper. This is not much more different from today as the audience can still see his confidence through the mise en scene and they way that he is looking at the camera. Also he is wearing some jewellery which is considered to be a contemporary stereotype more than a stereotype of the past however, as we can see, this is also a traditional stereotype.

 Some more contemporary examples of songs from the RnB genre are;
The Weeknd - The Hills,
Jeremih - Planes,
Chris Brown - Liquor,
Kanye West - Waves,
Logic - Black Spiderman


This is a contemporary rapper who is seen as very traditional despite his race, he is seen as traditional because he is wearing designer clothing, as you can see in the bottom right of the image and he is also wearing a lot of gold chains, he is also seen as very happy and liberated because the rappers of todays era are very rich and therefore would be comfortable in their own skin. 

While the artists within the list of 'classic' examples are strongly associated with the RnB genre, the more contemporary artists are not solely associated with the RnB genre. This is due to the fact that in order to appeal to a wider cohort of people, many of artists affliate themselves with multiple similar genres, including hip-hop and pop.

No comments:

Post a Comment