Iron Maiden - Can I Play With Madness:
Genre: Metal
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Explanation:
Genre characteristics is one of Andrew Goodwin 6 conventions of music videos. This is that a majority of music videos from the same genre share many of the same characteristics in how they are filmed, the narrative, the shots, location etc. For example stage performances are usually featured in metal videos and dance routines in boy/girl bands, night clubs for techno or EDM and expensive luxury items in hip-hop/rap. There is multiple examples of this in my General Music Vid Analysis links list.Mise-en-scene:
Clothing: The clothing varies for the type of characters seen, whilst the characters seen in the narrative don't appear to be genre signifiers by their clothing, the band, when seen performing are:Priest(?): Completely black robes
Art teacher: Suit
Students: School uniforms
Band: Cut/torn off jackets
Band t-shirts
Long hair
Leather jackets
Torn jeans/trousers
The clothing of the band acts as a very strong signifier towards the genre, the outfits seen are strong stereotypes of what a metal band would look like
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| Band member can be seen with cut off sleeves, long hair and a band shirt |
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| Band member can be seen with a sleeveless leather jacket, long hair and ripped jeans |
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Lighting: The lighting throughout the video can be very different, at the beginning, when the priest can be seen he is in a dimly, candle lit room, his body is not visible because of the low light, only his face, the Quill, a cross and the glass ball can be seen, this gives a eerie feeling too the video like its a horror movie which is a characteristic of metal videos.
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The video progresses and enters the courtyard of a church, the lighting here is all naturalistic, shadows can be seen around the building but other then that, all characters are lit and visible.
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Inside the halls underneath the cathedral where the teacher falls the lighting is very dim, there is little bits of light from the torches and light creeping in from outside, this again creates the feeling of the first shot of the priest of it being like a horror movie.
Lastly is the lighting of the band on stage, because its a live performance, they have extremely heavy concert lighting with multiple colours and flashing, this is again another characteristic of a metal video.
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Location/Setting: The location of the video is in a cathedral in the UK, the setting is extremely fitting for the genre and as mentioned multiple times previously is used to create a eerie, spooky feeling similar to a horror movie, this is a really good example of this characteristic of metal videos.
Performance:
The amount of performance footage shown in this video is less then normal, the amount shown is extremely limited and that that is shown because it is a close-up of the TV screen, the quality is very poor so band members cannot be made out and facial expressions can't be seen.....
Style:
Below is 2 different examples of heavy metal videos, whilst both are quite different videos they share the main convention/ characteristic of a metal video of live performances. The first, "loner" by black sabbath is a video made up completely of footage from a concert, both on stage live performance and the behind the scenes and of the fans. The second, "Repentless" by Slayer, is different and features a narrative aswell as a performance. The Slayer narrative also follows a genre characteristic of many metal videos which is the theme of chaos, this being the prison riot....
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WARNING - video contains gory scenes that some viewers may find upsetting
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Another genre which has its own extremely strong characteristic is boy bands, the majority of boy band videos feature a dance routine with all the band. The examples have of this is NSYNC "Its gonna be me" and backstreet boys "Everybody."
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Other examples:
Possible Influences
Goodwin argues that each genre has specific characteristics in music videos. When many music videos from the same genre usually share the same conventions, like the locations, mise - en - scene, type of performance, narrative shotsetc. The track I have chosen is Boom Boom Boom by Vengaboys.
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This convention uses Goodwin's 2nd theory i.e. Genre signified, however this is usually overlapped with his 4th and 5th convention which have been covered in my General Conventions 4 which you can find here.
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Here we see 2 genres mixed together in one song. You get the hard metal instrumental of Anthrax and the the sweet bars of Public Enemy. An unlikely duo but it works.
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- Timbaland ft One republic - Apologize
- Circa Waves - T-Shirt Weathers
- The Killers - Mr Brightside
- Dimitri Vegas & Like mike - Arcade Mammoth
Christian - Venga Boys - Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!!
Possible Influences
- Have a limited amount of male/female gaze
- Appropriate costumes that are genre specific to Indie/Alternative Rock
- Mainly low key lighting
- Have locations suitable to narrative/performance
- Genre specific makeup
- Performance needs to be genre specific to Indie/Alternative
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Genre: Dance/Pop
You can break down genre characteristics into these category's:
Mise-en-scene:
Clothing: The clothing is quiet revealing at times but in general "sporty". The females performers having crop tops/sport bras which show off their stomachs. Many other females also have very low cut tops to show cleavage. This can also link into the male gaze theory, which again is common convention dance videos. The performers also have a large mix of high skirts to show off their legs and will be objectified.Some of the clothing are also very odd and have bizarre shapes and glittery attributes. The males also have quite open shirts showing off their chest and are being sexaulised as well. This can be argued to be female gaze.
Lighting: The lighting can be seen as a very club like setting, with it being high key lighting to glamorises the faces but the back lighting is quite dark or low key lighting with many flashes.
Location/Setting: The location is at a night club where this genre of music is very popular. Therefore it is only fitting that the performance and music video takes place in these types of party locations, either in a city or an exotic location such as a beach or festival.
Props: The main props seem to be drinks and glasses with drinks used in this music video, again this often happens in night clubs and the music video is reflecting these conventions of a party life.
Makeup: The females are heavily made up with colorful eye shadow and eyebrows that have been filled in, they have an extensive amount of highlight which also allows their face to "glow" and this is seen as very glamorous. The eyes are also filled in with eyeliner and they have an extensive amount of lipstick. All this makeup is to glamorises the females and is a common convention in dance music videos.
Makeup: The females are heavily made up with colorful eye shadow and eyebrows that have been filled in, they have an extensive amount of highlight which also allows their face to "glow" and this is seen as very glamorous. The eyes are also filled in with eyeliner and they have an extensive amount of lipstick. All this makeup is to glamorises the females and is a common convention in dance music videos.
Performance:
Dancing: The dance style is either jazz or hip hop which is again a common convention in the dance genre. The main performance is both dancing and lip syncing. The shots are also fast paced as well as the editing. There is also a large shot variety with special effects and a fair amount of panning to make the dance choreography more interesting to the audience.
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Cinematography + Editing:
The editing is generally a varied pace. When the "drop" comes the editing pace increases to make it more visually striking along side making the drop more powerful. There are also slo - mo shots to emphasise male gaze and female gaze in the music video. All of these are common characteristics of the dance genre.
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Simon - Anthrax & Public Enemy - Bring the noise
This convention uses Goodwin's 2nd theory i.e. Genre signified, however this is usually overlapped with his 4th and 5th convention which have been covered in my General Conventions 4 which you can find here.
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Here we see 2 genres mixed together in one song. You get the hard metal instrumental of Anthrax and the the sweet bars of Public Enemy. An unlikely duo but it works.
- The video itself has a lot of performance which is standard in a rock/metal video however the rap elements are still there. The low angles on the rappers to make them look more powerful is present, however not only to the rappers the people in the rock band get low angles too. Also the comedic elements of the rappers is also present as this is pretty common for 90's rap.
- The costumes for each group are very distinct and different. Anthrax look like the typical metal band; (mostly) tight black clothes, big boots and long hair. Whereas Public enemy are wearing baggy clothes which is very common in rap in that era, hats, one of the members (Flava Flav) even wears a clock chain.
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| Flava flav and his clock chain. |
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- The body language of each group is also very prominent, both aggressive however very different. Anthrax are all head-banging which is very common for a metal band, whereas the rappers are in your face which is also very common for rap videos
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Additional Examples:
Muse - Uprising
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Aside from male gaze (Mulvey not named though), + Goodwin’s simple point, there’s a lack of theory. Dip into the MANGeR pack genre section!!! Subculture (Hebdige) linked to costume + body language could be interesting, for example, but so too any of the quotes on how loose the concept of genre actually is!
ReplyDeleteMuse is listed as another eg without any text.
SS’ Anthrax vid is now removed, needs replacing.
Particularly thorough work from CS, though you’ve illustrated quite well.
Vodcast is well illustrated, but its only on JC’s post so far. It could say more on costume/body language. It’d be a good idea to combine the vid with a text list, maybe based around CS’ summary.