Genres

Different genres of music will often have very different videos for example Rap videos will often be composed of very similar ideas, whereas if you compare a Rap video with an Indie video you will often be left with two completely different videos, since they are both addressing very different audiences. To help me better understand music videos I have looked at music videos from various different genres to better understand how they target their audience and what conventions there are for each genre.

Rap
- Videos will generally follow a story that is true and meaningful to the artist, or presented in that way atleast
- Will generally portray a rough, lower class upbringing
- Not uncommon for the artist to be reflected in a young child. See Tinie Tempah 'Written in the Stars' for an obvious example
- Predominantly black although there are some exceptions, Eminem being one

Indie/Rock
- Probably varies the most between upbeat or downbeat videos
- Will often follow a story line that portrays some kind of message
- Can sometimes be turned into a much longer video, 30 Seconds to Mars have done this for almost all of theirs

Dance
- Can follow a loose storyline although generally it will be showing people just enjoying the music
- Alot of the time the artist will never be shown and the camera will instead be fixated on pretty girls dancing
- Very bright colours will be used as a rule
- It is almost a guarantee that it will be a very upbeat, fast moving video

Drum and Bass
- Follows similar conventions to dance music videos in the way the artist will rarely be shown and the way that people will be shown enjoying themselves
- The videos I have seen have never followed a storyline and instead focuses on the music itself.

R'n'B/Hip Hop
- Will often be very fixated on the artist
- Will have a very downbeat, negative feel to it
- Presents the artist as being very vulnerable