Essay on genre.

'Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to genre' 




Genre is very important in any media production, and in my music video, getting the genre of the artist was very important. Both myself and my partner considered different aspects of genre and how we could represent it.


The genre of the music we chose is punk/rock, which myself and my partner chose down to personal taste and also creative ideas for the sound of it. The first thing we did was find influences that best suited our music, we chose bands such as You Me At Six, City Stereo, Major League and Fall Out Boy, this was not just for the sound, we also looked at the narrative they had in their video, the set up of their equipment, image and location. The one we got the most influence from was You Me At Six's music video for Underdog, their narrative features a failing boy/girl relationship, they had the lights behind the band, and the location was a stage and their style was relatively casual, but fitted in with the genre of their culture. We used some of these aspects in our music video, except for style, as we wanted to represent our themes through costume. Chandler's theory applies here as it shows that through our influences that genre is a 'type' and our music video is very typical of a punk/rock band as it in involves alcohol, love and heartbreak. 


The members of the band that we used were all male, and there was only one female represented in the video, but when planning it, we didn't want to represent her as feisty or wild, we wanted to portray her as innocent, to put the emphasis on the theme of heartbreak, this is even noticeable when she has gone out and turned to alcohol. We also wanted to represent the members of the band through the genre of typical 'heartbreaking' band members, you can see this through the costume as well, as one of them was wearing all black to represent his guilt. This challenges Neale's theory of 'genre evolving over time' because if you compare my music video to an 80's punk band, you will see many similarities. 


Many aspects of our music video are different compared to pre-made music videos, as many of them are not associated with an innocent type of love, where they get engaged etc, it is more about breaking their hearts and the typical 'what happens on tour , stays on tour' which is also a very generic of punk/rock bands, and it has given them an reputation, this makes Buckingham's theory apply to our music video as he said that genre is a 'constant process of negotiation and change' this proves that the conventions and boundaries of genre have changed, as what is seen in my music video, would not have been seen in the 80's. Band's images change over time to make something new, so my music video reinforces Buckingham's ideas. 


I think my music video shows every aspect of genre that you would find within a punk/rock music video. I think it helps sell the band very well as the genre of their fans would be open to the concept of having a bad image on their favourite band, as it is accepted in their fanbase's culture.