{Pop Genre

By Charlotte Bell

Out of the many different genres of music the Pop Genre stands out from the rest. This is because it has so many different sub categories, E.G Pop Rock, Pop Indi etc. As a group we believed that Taylor Swift stood out from the stereotypical Pop starts but still fitted into the genre. This is because throughout her career she has realised both Pop and Country songs. In addition to this, her videos have a good balance of narrative and performance within them. Making her an ideal person to take inspiration from for our own music video, because she includes a mix of stereotypical pop conventions like dance routines, special effects etc..

What do you like and why?

In many Pop music videos, special effects tend to be used to make the video seem flashy and glamorous. However if not careful it can have the opposite effect and make a music video seem cheap, tacky and cringy. This is because the conventions have been overused. When we come to make our own music video we must make sure that although the pop conventions are used that they then don’t make the video seem tacky as this means some members of our target audience might dislike the video and be put off the genre. Our inspiration, Taylor Swift, tends to use very minimal special effects. However, in one of her latest music videos ‘Bad Blood’ special effects are used through out the video. Unlike most Pop videos they aren’t overused as Taylor still remains the star as the audience attention is still focused on her. This will be taken into account when creating our own video.

What don’t you like and why?

As already mentioned, Taylor Swift is our main inspiration for the Pop genre. So after researching into her and what our target audience is interested in we decided that the song we will use to turn into our own music video is ‘Out of the Woods’. This seemed an ideal song because unlike most of her popular songs it doesn’t have a pre-existing music video. Giving us complete control over how the final product will look as the audience has nothing to compare it to. In addition to this, by listening to the lyrics a few times we were able to easily imagine what could become narrative and what could become performance. Meaning that the video aloud for a good mixture of the two without us having to over thing or complicate it.

What might you choose?

In many Pop videos females tend to play the typical ‘girl next door ‘ look. We took this into account when thinking about how we wanted our final product to look. By looking at artist like Taylor Swift and Katy Perry we saw that this look seemed to fit into the style we were aiming for. So when it comes to thinking about what costumes our characters will wear we are going to incorporate a mundane look so that the audience feels that a similar thing could happen to them like what they are seeing in the music video.

Are there common costumes?

Like the costumes, most Pop music videos tend to have generic locations. Meaning that again they tend to be set in mundane settings so that the audiences finds them relatable. However, they also breakaway from the narrative by including dance routines. These tend to be set in dance studios, like in Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake it Off’. When creating our own music video we plan on sticking to a mundane theme by using houses, cars but also use a studio and wood to make the performance stand out and help meet the pop conventions.

Are there common locations?