Codes and Conventions of the Genre of a Music Video

The song that we have chosen for our media video is ‘Frick Park Market’ by Mac Miller. This comes up the music genre of ‘Hip-Hop’.

The definition of Hip-Hop is;

‘Hip-Hop is an artistic culture that originated in the 1970s in New York City. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of Hip-Hop Culture: MCing, DJing, b-boying, and graffiti writing. Other elements include beatboxing.’

Lyrics

The lyrics that are used in this genre of music have the use of swearing and slang. Many people then believe that this affects the younger generation in the way that they talk and act. This results in a lot of the music having a ‘parental advisory explicit context’ which means that music will not be shown to a lot of people under the age of 18. The lyrics usually come across as having an aggressive tone and the majority of the time they talk about the opposite sex in a derogatory way. Also the lyrics are usually based around relationships or past events that have happened in the artists’ life.

This is the opening lyric to the Jay-Z song ’99 problems’ which is a very good example of the chosen tone in the hip-hop genre.

This is a lyric in the Eminem song ‘Toy Soldiers’ which shows the other style that the lyrics use which is a past event that has happened in the artists life.

Music

As well as most music videos, Hip-Hop makes use of a fast tempo in there videos. This is done by beats in the back ground using all sorts of variety such as the use of the drums, guitars and keyboards. This is partnered with usually a solo singer or a group singing or wrapping over the music keeping to the fast tempo. The tempo used goes hand in hand with the aggressive lyrics used in this genre of music which adds to the intensity. A very good example of this Eminem’s song ‘Lose Yourself’

Mise en Sene

The mise en scene that is used in Hip-Hop videos follows the same idea with the majority of the video which consists of the main artist or artists being at the centre of the video. They would be singing directly at the camera with continuously changing backgrounds. The backgrounds used are usually at parties, pent houses, beaches, cars, streets or at gigs of the artists. The male Hip-Hops stars stereotypically have female dancers around them throughout usually in underwear. There is usually expensive cars, nice houses and a lot of ‘bling’, coming with the connotations of the artist having a lot of money, sometimes there are flash backs to the artists past and they show how far they have come in their career. A very good example of this the R.Kelly song 'Ignition'



Sometimes videos are very different and just have the artist singing in a plain room, singing into the camera but this then partnered with a lot of rapid editing with other clips. This creates the fast tempo. For example in Tinie Tempahs song ‘Miami to Ibiza’

Narrative/Performance

Narrative and performance is fragmentary which means that all of the images throughout the video show no real story line, usually fitting in with the desires shown by the fans. Music videos are made souly for the fans and narrative/performance sums up why. On the rare occasion in Hip-Hop there is a storyline, they follow the lyrics really well and it follows the life of someone else and cuts back to the artist singing.

‘But it is the lip sync close up and the miming of playing instruments that remains at the heart of the music videos, as if it to assure us that the band/singer really can kick it’  - Rap Artist



Start Image/The Brand

The image of Hip-Hop would be urban, contemporary and ‘street’. This is the image that is trying to get across to the public, with the style of video they use. This is always shown very well in their videos with the idea of all of the parties and all the expensive lifestyle. Branding is how they market there music uniquely. For example the way Eminem writes his name.

Voyeurism/Looking

This is the idea that humans gain erotic pleasure by looking at a sexual object, especially when the object is unaware that they are being watched. This is the reason that music videos, particularly the Hip-Hop genre use either half naked women or women. The music industry uses this technique in order to get their music heard by the world, showing how powerful music videos have now become in the music industry.

Camerawork

A good level of camera work is key in a Hip-Hop music video. Firstly this is due to the tempo of the music. As the tempo is quick, quick camera shots and movements need to accompany this. Also the use of close ups work very well with this style of music. A Hip-Hop video would look very strange if there were loads of long slow shots therefore the use of close camera work with a lot of quick movements usually following the artist is very important.

Where you use the close ups is very key, record companies that are selling Hip-Hop music know that they are selling a brand and an image as well as a song. This means that they need to make the artist look as attractive as possible with the use of close ups on the face and a lot of their body being on show. Record companies know that people who listen to the music also want to look and dress like the artists so the use of camera work is very important. This would be more important in female Hip-Hop than male for example in the Rhianna song ‘Te Amo’

Editing

Hip-Hop music videos use very fast editing which goes along with the beat of the music. They also edit in a different effects such as adhesive dissolves. This makes the videos stand out in order to fit in with the brand they are trying to portray. The lighting in the video is also usually very bright to go with the luxury life style that the artist is portraying. There is also a lot of cross cutting through the video which goes with the fast beat and makes the video fit.

Hip-Hop songs are usually about relationships so parallel editing is another technique they use, too show either side of the relationship. The use of slip screens is also used quite often.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality in music video means that the videos use ‘post-modern’ trends so that the public can relate to the video. It allows the viewing public to become more involved with the music and relate it to their lives. The stereotypical view that is shown in Hip-Hop songs which relates to this idea about ‘post-modern’ trends is the idea that the artist start of being poor and then they become these mega rich stars. They also come with the idea that these artists have these amazing life styles that the viewing public want. In Hip-Hop the artists relate their videos to others by either mocking them or showing their inspiration from them. This is an example of Eminem involving Michael Jackson in his video